Re:"Time Shifters" (Score 1)

In all seriousness, as cool as the Replay and Tivo are, I already use my VCR the way they would. Any of my regular shows, I tape. This way, 1) I can't be interrupted by a phone call (I can always pause it), and 2) I can watch an hour of TV in 45 minutes. I recycle the same few tapes for my regular weekly episodes. How would my life be changed by digital VCRs?

AFAIK one thing you can benefit from these digital VCRs is you can overlap real-broadcast and viewing (you could at least with one machine ive seen an preview of)

That says you may as well watch any show at the time they broadcast it (or generally 15minutes later), skip over Commercials and hit "PAUSE" for a phone call..

Speaking of commercial breaks - the german magazine CT has shown a way to let the computer decide wether the now broadcasted program is a commercial break or not. Wether one could hack such a dedection into an digital VCR direct ? (instead of having the PC watch TV and doing remote signals...)