When you watch TV with a PVR, you can pause or rewind what you're watching at any time. Once a program has been paused or rewound, you can then fast-forward until you reach the point where you're watching live TV again.
The PVR accomplishes this by creating a temporary recording (called a buffer) of what's playing for up to 90 minutes. How much buffer you have depends on how long it's been since you turned on your receiver or changed the channel.
To see how far back you can rewind, or how far ahead you can fast-forward, pause the show to display the progress indicator.
The progress indicator will show:
- The point where you have paused the program (shown by a vertical line)
- How far back you can rewind (shown by the highlighted area before the vertical line)
- How far ahead you can fast-forward (shown by the highlighted area after the vertical line)
In short, a PVR lets you use the same playback controls with live TV that you'd use to watch recordings:
- PAUSE: Pause the program. After 90 minutes, the program will start playing again from the point where you paused it.
- PLAY: Resume playing the program from the point where you paused it.
- REW or FF: Rewind or fast-forward in buffered portion of the program. To increase the rewind or fast-forward speed, press the button again (up to three times). Press the PLAY button to resume watching the program at a normal speed.
- SKIP or REPLAY: Skip forward in 30-second increments through the buffered portion of the program or replay the last 7 seconds.
Last Updated:07/11/2011