Unanticipated developments

My new avatar for Videofuzzy — enjoy!

Right after I posted my first blog entry, I found a third full box of VHS tapes, dozens of them. So I've been working on transferring this last set for most of the past month. Once I get them transferred I'll start the cataloging process, the basis for this blog and planned podcasting project.

In the meantime, TNT has been force-feeding me episodes of "Supernatural," of which series it has been airing four episodes a day for a while now. Shortly after I reconfigured my cable through my DVD recorder so I could record new material as well, I found that TNT was about at the point where I lost track of the show.

When I moved to Bismarck, we didn't even have television for a couple of months, and with my work schedule I wasn't really watching a lot of TV anyway. I went from a hoarder-level media archivist recording hundreds of VHS tapes — many as part of fueling my TV column at the Minot Daily News — to about five years of not recording anything.

Since I started recording stuff again, probably a bit over a month ago, I've archived another 200+ hours of TV, and a massive chunk of that has been "Supernatural." The epic adventures of Sam and Dean Winchester, another show where we needed to puzzle out the plural for "Apocalypse."

Very exciting, but some of the real-life drama has actually been trying to keep the DVR from overflowing. At four episodes a day, that's 20 episodes a week, which is a lot of episodes. My DVR has hit 100 percent full a couple of times, kicking out recordings I hadn't even had a chance to view before a new pile of episodes showed up.

I despaired of staying ahead of it, spending weekends binge-watching episodes, transferring from DVR to DVD as quickly as I could, which, when your goal is to record things to the greatest extent possible without commercials, requires a good amount of active viewing.

Normal people would rightly consider this obsessive, but as of this week, there is some reprieve in sight. TNT is starting the series over from the pilot episode, so I can cancel the series recording, and hack away at the 90 or so episodes I've got piled up.

Of course, this is all happening as BBC America is ramping up to its premiere of the new season of "Doctor Who" next month. I'm not keeping all the episodes, but there are a few I haven't seen in years, so I've got those marked for review.

Nothing is forever, but I imagine as long as there is television (in whatever form), there will be marathons. When "Battlestar Galactica" headed into its final season, they ran every episode back-to-back and I will tell you, that fills up a DVR just about instantly. So there were a few sleepless nights spent staying ahead of the "full" mark. It takes some dedication, and you've got to want it, but it's doable.

Happy viewing, everyone!