Question: What is Season Recording on a Digital Video Recorder?
Digital Video Recorders, like TiVo and DVRs from Satellite and Cable Providers, each offer a feature for Season Recording of television programs (TiVo calls it Season Pass). But what is it exactly?
Answer: Recording a TV Show by Season is an important feature of any Digital Video Recorder. This feature lets users record each episode of a television series for the entire season. It can be configured to record all episodes of a show, or just new episodes, eliminating any repeats. This feature is very handy because it eliminates the need to manually set a show to record on a weekly or daily basis, just set up the show to record at the start of the season, and the Digital Video Recorder will record all the episodes for you. The season recording will even carry over into future seasons of a TV show.
Recording a Full Season of 24
Now for a practical example of Season Recording: I'm a big fan of the show 24 on FOX. On my Comcast Digital Video Recorder (the Motorola DCT6412 Dual-Tuner High Definition DVR) I have 24 set-up to record all new episodes (24 doesn't have repeats, but older episodes from previous seasons are shown quite often, so I must set it up as record new only to avoid recording those older episodes). I can set up the recording to start and end a few minutes early and late to avoid missing anything (see the related FAQ: What is Padding?). Once set up properly, I can safely watch 24 without worrying about missing an episode.