The fall TV season is under way, so there are lots of good shows to watch and record on your DVR. But with so many channels now available in HD, your DVR can fill up quickly, particularly if it comes from a cable company.
Here are some tips to make sure that doesn't happen.
Check which of your favorite TV series are offered for free on demand by your cable company and watch them on demand instead of recording them. For instance, Bright House Networks offers full episodes of shows from NBC, CBS and other networks for free. Some of the shows are even offered in HD.
HD shows take up more space in your DVR, so if you are running out of space, don't record everything in HD. News programs and reality shows don't look as bad in standard definition as dramas such as FlashForward or Heroes do.
Offload movies or other programs you want to save from your DVR to recordable media such as a VHS tape, DVD or computer hard drive. You can buy devices that let you transfer programs from your DVR to a hard drive. I use a device called the Neuros OSD to do this.
When you are running out of space, watch longer shows first because they take up more space.
Be selective about the shows you record, particularly when it comes to an entire series. If you set your DVR to record all old episodes of House, use the scheduled recordings function to cancel any upcoming recordings of shows you have already seen.
One more thing: You can hook up an external hard drive to your DVR or TiVo to expand its storage capacity. Keep in mind that this will not work on all DVRs and it will not work with all hard drives. And your cable company may not be able to provide support for this.
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