Is technology improving your TV viewing, or making it more complicated?

Philadelphia Daily News columnist Ellen Gray says technology has started to take over her TV viewing habits. In some ways, this is a good thing. She's a TV critic, and her Slingbox lets her keep up with TV shows while she's out of town. But she also spent an unreasonably large amount of time proving that she could record programs on her PC and then play them back on her TV set in blurrier fashion than if she'd just watched them on TV.

I know the feeling. I've spent so many hours setting up my PC-based PVR that I feel like I could never watch enough hours of television to justify it. Sometimes, when I'm not in the mood to spend 22 minutes watching a sitcom or cartoon, I'll flip through movie listings to see if there's any films I want to record in the next two weeks. It takes about the same amount of time, but I record far more shows than I ever get around to watching. It's okay, I have a large hard drive, and I keep telling myself that one weekend I'll have a movie marathon to make room for more recordings.

But honestly, I think it's the thrill of finding that movie that you've always meant to see and knowing that you don't have to miss it that's most exciting. Actually watching it feels more like a chore sometimes. And the challenge of figuring out how to stream video to every TV in the house for under $150 was a lot of fun. Much more fun than spending an hour watching Lost could ever be.

My name is Brad, and I'm addicted to video technology. More so than video content.