“Synch-ron-ate”: recording a show, then watching it ” without commercials ” so as to finish at the same time as the live telecast.
Want to watch a major event like the Oscars, but hate commercials?
You can watch it live, then take breaks or jump to other channels whenever there’s an interruption.
Annoying (and fattening, assuming you head to the fridge each time).
Alternatively, you can always record the show to watch later ” but then you’re likely to already know the highlights.
Especially with big sports games, the “spoiler effect” is a deal breaker.
Avoiding the Spoiler Effect
Fortunately, there’s a third, hybrid alternative.
Record the show, then start watching it in progress so as to finish at the same time as the live broadcast.
All it takes is a little math and programming info.
So, the Oscars start at 7:30 p.m. CST tonight; the show typically last 3 hours; and consists of about one-third commercials (predictably, backloaded at the end).
To zip through all the ads, record it and start watching at 8:30 p.m. CST.
I call it “synchronating.”
P.S.: Once upon a time, when there were VHS tapes, the applicable verb was, “to tapesomething.”
Ironically, now that everything’s digital, we’ve regressed to an even earlier technology: records.
