Stop missing the last few minutes of your favorite television shows

Digital video recorders like TiVo have totally revolutionized the way we watch television. We now can watch television whenever we want and darn near anywhere we want. But that doesn't mean the technology is flawless.

Take for instance the question I often receive in my classes when I talk about TiVo. The question is whether or not TiVo is "smart enough" to know when the President is speaking or a football game is running late which causes television shows to be off their standard programming schedule.

My answer is no, TiVo is not that smart, unless the program interruption or schedule change is known at least a day or two in advance. But I follow up that answer with a way to make TiVo a little smarter.

Pad a little extra time

When setting up a recording in TiVo you can specify how many minutes early and how many minutes late to extend the programming time. So if you like to watch a program on Sunday nights that is on the same channel as an afternoon football game, you can tell TiVo to add 30 minutes or even an hour to your show to make sure you don't miss anything if the afternoon game runs long. In the techie world, this is know as padding your recording time.

This also works well for shows that just never seem to be able to end on time. Ask my mom about her favorite Fox News show that never ends on time or me about the last American Idol show where I missed the entire performance of the last contestant of the night because the show ran way over its allotted time.

Yes, I didn't practice what I preach and did not have padding set up on my American Idol recording. But I do now.