Chapter 8. Recording Shows You Find

In This Chapter

• Recording individual TV shows

• Recording a series

• Fine-tuning your recordings

• More recorder settings

Does a procedure something like this sound familiar?

1. Set the VCR's clock to the correct time and date.

2. If you're using a cable box or satellite receiver, turn it on and tune it to the channel you want to record before the recording is to begin.

3. Insert a videocassette tape with its safety tab in place. Be sure that it is rewound and has enough tape to record the program.

4. Press the Menu button to display the VCR Main Menu.

5. Press the 2 button to choose Timer Recordings.

6. Press the 1 button to choose Create a New Program.

7. Select how often you want the program to record.

8. Using the number buttons , enter the channel number, as well as the start and end times (including AM or PM and the date), for the program you want to record.

9. Select the tape speed.

10. Press the Menu button to save.

That's the kind of lengthy, mind-numbing procedure most people in the world have to endure simply to record a TV show they like. Now compare that with the procedure for creating a "timed recording" using your Media Center PC's interactive program guide:

1. Highlight the listing for the show you want to record.

2. Press the Rec button.

Wait a minutewhat happened to the other steps? There aren't any. This is the essence of the Media Center My TV experience: one-touch recording of any program.

In the VCR example, most consumers never get past step 1setting the blinking LED on the recorder to the correct date and time. Each of the subsequent steps is also fraught with peril. The slightest misstep will cause the procedure to go awry, and another moment of television history will be lost forever (or at least until summer reruns begin).

It is a virtual guarantee that after you become accustomed to the one-touch recording capability of your Media Center PC, the old VCR style of recording will seem at best quaint, at worst like some primitive rite performed by a backward and superstitious people out of the ancient past.

To control live TVto begin or stop recording, pause, and so onyou must select TV as the active window. You can do this by playing TV full-screen, or by highlighting the TV inset window.