Recording as You Watch

With all due respect to the VCR, recording the TV program you are currently watching is no simpler with a Media Center PC than it is with a videocassette recorder: Simply press the Rec button on the remote. The system will immediately start recording the show in progress. However, that's where the similarity ends.

Whereas a VCR can begin recording only from the moment you press the Rec button, Media Center makes use of its half- hour memory buffer to begin recording the show from the time it actually started ”up to 30 minutes before you got around to pressing the Rec button. (Of course, that will work only if My TV was tuned to that channel before you issued the record command.)

To stop the recording, just press Stop. However, unlike most VCRs, My TV will first ask whether you really want to stop recording (see Figure 8.1).

Figure 8.1. The Interrupt Recording message displays whenever you manually stop a recording in progress.