OT: watching a recorded game

I was working at an All Hallows Eve event scaring kids.  That turned out to be the most enjoyable part of that evening.

I recorded the 1995 Pigskin Classic against Virginia on my VCR because I couldn't watch it live. I got home a couple hours after the game ended, rewound the tape, and started watching. What a game! That is, until my dad called and said, "Wow, I can't believe Michigan came back to win that game!" 

I still enjoyed watching Dreisbach to Mercury Hayes, but not as much as I would have had I not known Michigan won the game. 

Otherwise, I'm recording games all the time these days. Like tonight, for instance. I'm staying at a hotel that has DirectTV DVR in every room (seriously, this is a first and I love it). I'm going out to dinner with a colleague tonight and planning on watching the game when I get back to my room later. 

EDIT: Protip - Xfinity automatically extends live events until they end so you don't have to manually add 30 min or an hour to the recording. I learned that DirectTV automatically asks you if you want to add 30 minutes to the end of live games, but you have to manually extend longer. My Vikings fan buddy recorded the Vikings-Saints game and his DTV extended by 30 minutes. It ended about 1 minute before the pass to Diggs to win the game. Ouch.

...I've done this a few times. But having two small kiddos makes it harder. Because obviously you need to watch as soon as you wake up or you may somehow hear the score. And small kiddos (1.5 and 4yo) are not interested in watching football when they wake up at 6am on a Sunday. They want to be fed and entertained.

And the way the night games have gone of late meant I wasn't up for the battle to watch this season. I hated not watching MSU and PSU this season, but also knew I was probably better off.

A B1G in-season basketball game shouldn't be that hard especially just a few hours later.

The PROBLEM is actually that when you are watching, you know you are not watching live. So the emotions are slightly dulled. The feeling of "when I stood up off the couch we got a first down, so now I have to stand the rest of the game" does not exist. And you also know if, say the game ended on a last-second shot, all of your friends would call each other right away. You will be late for any such moment.

But still better than simply checking the score.

and I do it all the time. None of us twit or even bookface much so it's not difficult at all.

Because everyone around me knows this, they don't speak a word to me until I've had a chance to watch the game "live".  My cellphone is turned off.  If I have to use the computer before knowing the score, I will set my homepage to a blank screen.  I don't even mess with news websites (thanks to "The Horror" for that).

In the old days, I would also turn down the volume on the answering machine.

What used to kill me were the Friday night NCAA tournament games.  I wouldn't even try to record them to watch almost 24 hours later.  I would always find out the score from somebody.

If you have multiple small children or live in a different time zone where basketball games start while you are at work, you probably do this on a regular basis.  I generally try to watch M football games live or at least the 2nd half live, but I watch basketball games DVRed all the time.  You just have to stay completely off of Facebook, Twitter & MGoBlog.   I'm pretty sure I turned off my ESPN app notifications too.

I actually get annoyed watching bball games live now because I can't skip the commercials. 

Of course, living out of state helps too.  When no one you work with or live around cares about the game but you it significantly reduces the chances of accidental exposure to the score.  If my Dad calls, I let it go to voicemail and hope he isn't having a medical emergency.  :) 

I'm pretty sure the DVR has saved my marriage.  My wife would have kicked me out if I demanded to watch every sporting event that I watch live and uninterrupted. 

I record games all the time. I am pretty much not booker of face, or a user of twit twatter. so it's relatively easy to not accidentally open a notification

Make sure the channel on your tv is on a news channel or lifetime etc. I watch all games on dvr now to reduce time spent on commercials. I’ve had a few games ruined for me when I turn on the tv and ESPN has the score scroll by or is finishing the highlights.

I used to work at the Museum of Art at State & South U on weekends around 2009-11. I would record the game and hold out hope of watching after my shift, but of course the students walking back from the game gave it away immediately with their body language every time.

Add something like two hours to the recording time. Games ALWAYS run over, and if they go into OT you will be ready.

Also it is a double-edged sword to mention you are recording the game; people will give you unconscious clues if they know the result, right on up to some asshole outright ruining it for you.

When the kids were under 2, we had a strict no TV policy, so I did this for pretty much all games.  Every once in a while it gets spoiled, but I learned to live with it.  The worst was the awful PSU game that went into multiple OTs.  That was when I learned to pad a lot of time on the end of the games.

I really like it for football, particularly for teams that go full huddle and don't work the clock.  You can do a 30 second skip between plays, and they generally line up pretty nice to the snap of the next play.

I eventually learned that my wife (who generally doesn't like sports, but especially disdains football) would look up the outcomes of sporting events I was recording so she knew whether I was going to be happy or not.

I do this a lot; I might miss the start of a football game by an hour or so, but thanks to skipping commercials and halftime, I catch up to real time at some point fairly quickly. I find I’ll occasionally have to start watching a basketball game after it’s already ended. Hoops is a quick watch; I’ll even fast-forward through FTs unless they’re critical at the end of the game. Some good advice here that I do, too. Leaving your TV on a channel that won’t ruin the score when you flip it on. Adding an hour or two to the end in case of weather/other delay. I also avoid restaurants with TVs when eating with the family. And my DVR used to give me a half-second look at the game's current feed when I hit play, so I always look away when hitting play. No idea if it still does that. Only burned one time. Was at wife’s family’s house for something around Easter. M was running FLA off the court in the tournament; one of her cousins spilled the beans. We turned it on immediately and I didn’t care because obviously.

I've got two young girls and a wide who has no interest in football. We spend or Saturdays at Cedar Point and going to do things together. I spend every fall Saturday in a bubble and watch the game when they go to bed around 9pm.

These days, I often start watching DVR'ed games 30-60 minutes after kickoff, particularly when it's a nooner (the Game being an absolute exception, of course), for the main reason being on Saturday mornings I've got shit to do, yo!

That said, I'm usually caught up to real-time by the close of the 3rd quarter since I can FFWD through commercials, halftime, delays due to injury or reviews, etc., and the TiVo has a nifty mode you can flip in and out of that speeds up playback about 50%, which is handy between plays. You can still hear the announcers, it just goes faster.

I have an iPhone, so step one is flipping the mute switch. Step two is activating low-power mode, which is a quick-and-dirty way to shunt many of the notifications (via app refresh) as well as email fetches.

The hazard of course is starting too late, and not getting caught up to real-time before the DVR reaches the set time limit, which can be an issue if say, the game goes into OT or is just advancing slowly. For that reason, I will now add 60 mins. to the end of the scheduled recording. Once or twice, even 30 mins. has not been enough. Games take a solid 3:30 mins, nevermind what the program guide says.

In the 2014 WC, I managed to record the US-Belgium knockout match without getting any hints or updates while I was at work. I was so excited to get home and watch it. Unfortunately, I made the fatal mistake of not recording the post-game show. If you recall, the game was tied at 0 at the end of regulation. The DVR recorded enough of extra time for me to see Belgium's first goal and then cut off. It was such a crushing feeling to go through all that and have to just read the final score that we lost 2-1.

Always. The only bad part is when something happens and you want to go to the Mgoblog game thread to see what everyone is saying.

...and always max out the recording time to plus 2 hours.

...also stinks when the previous game runs long and they start our game on another channel.

I do this for football all the time. I have kids all involved in things so I tape it and don’t look. I don’t tape or watch basketball at all anymore. Used to be my favorite sport growing up but now all I really like is football. Don’t have time to watch everything anymore

Damn the selfish people who get married on a football Saturday. All those other Saturdays in the year and some jerks choose one that happens to feature college football. Total dick move, mates.

Anyway, I have done the go into blackout mode and watch recorded games multiple times. It's really not too difficult. It's a matter of turning off your phone and avoiding certain people. When you set the recording and assuming you're at home while doing it (as opposed to setting it online), make sure the channel the TV is set to is not a sports channel. That way there is no chance of turning on the TV and possibly seeing the score on a ticker or a sports show talking about the outcome.

a joke on Rotvig

I can't do it. Need to be live with the score.

Is this the game thread

Have done this many times. Have only had people ruin it for me once or twice.

and my Dad had to watch it on delay.  I was in the other room on a different tv and had to not scream when Burke hit the shot.  I left the house after the game and walked a block away so I could yell emphatically for a while.  Then I got to watch him watch the end.  

Almost always start games 30 mins late. Very easy to do living in Ga. Take care of kids/wife stuff, everyone is happy and I'm live by the end of the halftime show most times.

watch of M-MSU; Harbaugh's first. We all know how that came out. I made it all day. Was happily watching my DVR version. Made it deep into the 4th quarter. Then the wife comes downstairs into my refuge after being on Facebook and says "Oh, you're watching the game still. You're not going to be very happy about it." I'm like "WTF! I told you ALL DAY I was avoiding any news of how this game came out!! Why the hell would you say that?" Her answer: "I don't understand why that makes you angry; I didn't tell you what happened..." Which is true. But then I had to watch the rest of it waiting for us to mess it up and lose. So when we get down to the kick at the end and we're still leading, I'm thinking, "Oh shit. They're going to fuck up this punt." OK, yeah, I probably didn't just think that; I probably yelled it at the TV... Anyhow, ended up being pissed all during the 4th quarter that they were GOING to fuck up somehow, then even more pissed when they actually did...that was a bad day.

It’s rare that I’m able to watch a weeknight game live. I record every game, stay off ESPN and then watch the next morning while on the treadmill. Using fast forward for timeouts, halftime and free throws, you can get through most of the game during a 40 min run. If it’s a close game at the end of 40 mins, I keep watching. If it’s a blowout either way, I don’t watch the last 6-8 mins.

Delay-watching is easy.  Honestly, I think if you can't avoid Twitter or other things like that, you have an addiction problem.  As others have said, make sure the TV is tuned to some other channel.  I can easily do an hour of yardwork, or read something, or I don't know any friggin' damn thing at all that doesn't involve being plugged in to the stupid Matrix.  I don't need my phone that badly.  Turn on the game an hour later.

My actual problem comes if the game starts to go badly.  Then I end up rage-fast-forwarding.