I Need A DVR

I wish I had a few extra bucks so I could either a) Build My Own DVR or b) Sign up for Tivo (or for the DVR service through the local cable company). Why? Because I’m really sick of trying to record shows on tape.

Now understand, I hardly watch any TV. But there are two shows that I don’t like to miss: House and Monk. (On a side note, I really hate how Fox seems to enjoy putting four weeks between new episodes of House and instead puts up that obnoxious American Idol crap.). Friday night was a new episode of Monk, but the kids were sick and I had been up nearly all night the night before, so my wife and I decided to tape it and watch it later this weekend. So I programmed the VCR and went to bed.

So yesterday we fire up the VCR, play the tape, and get 10 minutes into the show, and the tape gets totally unreadable — no sound, and barely any video. So we clean the heads on the VCR, and it didn’t help — the tape was toast. I fast forwarded through the episode, and it came back so you could actually hear it about five minutes before the end, which didn’t do us any good.

So my next purchase when I’ve got money to blow? I’m getting a DVR, dangit. I probably will build one, as I like having that kind of customization ability (and I already have a TV tuner card I could throw in there). Meanwhile, if anybody has last Friday’s episode of Monk on tape (or digitally) that I can borrow so I can watch it, please let me know (e-mail me at utterlyboring [at] gmail [dot] com).