Enabling Prime Time Anytime -- does anyone use it?

[Swampthing]

Great install on the Hopper and Joeys yesterday, but now I'm faced with the question of Prime Time Anytime. I see it's available as an option and will take up a tuner if I use it. Records every night from 7-11pm, but in my opinion that could end up recording alot of junk I could care less about. I thought about enabling it for a few days just to check it out. Most of what I watch isn't network TV anyway, so maybe it isn't for me. But isn't a chunk of DVR space reserved for PTA anyway, whether you use it or not?

So how many Hopper users here regularly use PTA? Have you found it useful?

 

[MikeD-C05]

For the last week or two , I have had PTAT turned off and I only set one time timers for shows that I watch on the networks that are actually new episodes. During regular season I keep it turned on for every night except Saturdays. Saturdays or nothing but reruns and sports. I find it very useful since we watch a lot of network tv. Having it only use one tuner is a big plus. As far as your hard drive , it is supposed to be on your portion of the hard drive. But when you delete a show , you don't see Ptat show in your deleted folder. So if you delete a show and find you still want to watch it again , and it has been less than 48 hours, you can do a search for the title and it will pop up again. I found this by accident and no one else seems to care that you can do it. I suggested to the dish software team that they enable a deleted folder for PTAT so we could have access to the shows we delete ,since it is on our portion of the hard drive ,but have never received a response.

 

[thomasjk]

I second Mike's comments about PTAT. We watch and record a lot of network shows. Its a big advantage for us.

 

[thechaz05]

Big advantage for our home also. The fact that it only used one ringer for all 4 networks is a life saver. It has also allowed us to check out some shows that we never would have wasted a timer for in the past.

Sent from my phone using SatelliteGuys sweet app.

 

[dwarren2]

Look at your viewing habits. If you watch a lot of Prime Time big 4, enable it. If you don't, leave it disabled. My wife and I watch very little Prime Time big 4, so we don't use it.

 

[KAB]

The only reason I enable it (minimally) is for auto-hop.

 

[Mr Tony]

Look at your viewing habits. If you watch a lot of Prime Time big 4, enable it. If you don't, leave it disabled. My wife and I watch very little Prime Time big 4, so we don't use it.

exactly. Look at your viewing habits. For me (if I had it) the only night I have more than one network primetime show is Fridays. Otherwise its minimal for me

 

[356B]

I have 2 Hoppers, 1 enable, 1 not. It's helpful if you miss something interesting.

 

[Hall]

Most of what I watch isn't network TV anyway, so maybe it isn't for me.

There you go. You answered it for yourself.

We actually do have it enabled but Gray's Anatomy is the only program that's watched from it. I've seen the "autohop" function ONE TIME, the day after we got the Hopper, just to see how it worked. I suspect we'll disable it soon... I already have it set to disable episodes after (3) days.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I thought it was a silly idea when it was announced but now I love it! I have found so many shows I would have never recorded or watched before that I now LOVE! PTAT has me watching more Prime Time Network programming then I ever have before.

Turn it on and let it run, if you dont like it you can always turn it off.

 

[Hall]

Depends on the shows and if they're each relatively standalone or if they're a sequence that it helps that you follow one episode after another.

Our other complaint about "network TV" is the damned networks cancel shows too quickly ! You can find a program that you like and it gets cancelled after a few episodes or only makes it to the first break and they decide to can it.

I also just realized, the episodes of Gray's that my wife hasn't watched ..... are gone now !! I forgot to mark them to be saved long-term.

 

[satjay]

Same here as I have watched some new shows. We do have it off on weekends (Saturday and Sunday) though

 

[JM42]

I thought it was a silly idea when it was announced but now I love it! I have found so many shows I would have never recorded or watched before that I now LOVE! PTAT has me watching more Prime Time Network programming then I ever have before.

Turn it on and let it run, if you dont like it you can always turn it off.

Exactly - turn it on and live with it for a while. You're not going to need the space to begin with and you can always turn it off if/when space becomes an issue.

Like Scott says, I find I watch more big 4 than before, and it's great after the "did you see....?" water cooler conversations when you can easily go back and catch something you may not otherwise have recorded.

 

[JM42]

Our other complaint about "network TV" is the damned networks cancel shows too quickly ! You can find a program that you like and it gets cancelled after a few episodes or only makes it to the first break and they decide to can it.

I've actually started recording some new series I think I may be interested in and not watching any episodes until their fate is determined.

 

[patmurphey]

...I also just realized, the episodes of Gray's that my wife hasn't watched ..... are gone now !! I forgot to mark them to be saved long-term.

You don't have a timer set??? Enjoy sleeping on the couch...

 

[Hall]

I don't set timers for "her" shows

I'll find them, ummm, elsewhere, and use the Home Media option for her to watch them !

 

[chuckwr4]

I don't set timers for "her" shows

I'll find them, ummm, elsewhere, and use the Home Media option for her to watch them !

One way to make sure you don't have to remember to save these shows is to set another timer for the PTAT show that you want and when the PTAT tuner records the show, it will save it automatically for you. It will not use another tuner to record that PTAT show. For example: I have PTAT enabled, of course. I have an additional timer set to record all new episodes of "Person of Interest" which is on CBS on Thursdays. In this case, the show will record from the PTAT tuner and just get copied over to "My Recordings" without using another tuner. Perhaps you already know this, but just in case.

 

[Hall]

Didn't know that, but that's pretty slick that they do it that way. I've actually disabled PTAT at this point...

 

[#1_realist]

I honestly didn't see myself using PTAT either. Since I have 2 Hoppers, I enabled it on the one in my livingroom. After a few days I did check out some of the network shows that were recorded. Auto-Hop is really nice, and PTAT is cool for discovering new things to watch.

 

[Brussam]

I watch a lot of TV, mostly delayed the next day. PTAT has eliminated one problem that used to drive me nuts. Many of the networks play the game of ending show a few minutes late. Setting timers with a 5 minute end pad represented a timer in use for the next show, hence three tuners could record three shows because run-overs from the previous hour. With PTAT, no conflict.