Civilisation has progressed from live television to the video cassette recorder to the personal video recorder. However, some owners of these devices have not kept pace with change, and have a monocle in one eye and Google Glass in the other. What about you?Novice
You watch, whilst consuming a cup of tea and McVitie's digestive biscuit, whatever BBC crime drama the ABC is showing at 8.30pm on a Friday. Towards the end of the show, when the suspects are being gathered in the drawing room, the soporific effect of the warm log fire and luxuriously soft sofa encourage you to instruct your PVR to record the end before your brain enters REM sleep.If you go on a month-long overseas holiday then you miss all of your favourite programs, except perhaps the AFL Grand Final which you get a relative to record on your PVR when you're away.
Intermediate
Every morning you check the TV guide in the paper for shows you'll want to see that evening. You set one-off timers for everything of interest. You don't watch anything live. In the evening you select from the list of recordings on the PVR. You usually watch programmes within a few days of recording them.Advanced
Once a week you check the TV guide new programmes to record. You've learnt about recurring timers so you only need to look for new programmes or check whether a series has ended. You're in no hurry, so can watch programmes many months after they aired. During that time have to avoid social media and you cannot talk about those programmes with others in case they spoil any plot twists.Elite
Your PVR knows what you want to record, so it searches the EPG every day for when programmes you like are on, and automatically records them for you. Once a week you review what your PVR has chosen for you for the following week, and you add new shows the PVR didn't know you liked, such as one-off documentaries, or remove shows you no longer like, such as that new comedy that had great reviews but really annoyed you. If a show moves to a different timeslot then the PVR will detect this and move the timer accordingly.It takes substantial effort to become elite, but the rewards are great. You rarely miss desired programmes, even as they are bumped around the schedules by networks chasing ratings. You can also put in minimal effort to keep a constant flow of well-chosen recordings coming in. I have only recently become elite, after a substantial apprenticeship in the advanced category. The benefits of this change are still accruing daily, much to my delight.