Today we want to do everything on our own schedules. We can get dinner in minutes thanks to a drive thru window and some of us can even work from home with the help of the Internet and can get away from spending forty hours a week at a warehouse or even an office. When it came to watching television, we always used to be a slave to their schedule if we wanted to see our favorite shows. By now, even that has changed.

When you're signing up for a modern cable or satellite plan you might be offered the choice of getting a DVR or a receiver that allows you to watch shows on demand. These are two different things that allow you to keep up on the latest shows while you're away on vacation or at a party with friends. On Demand services are offered through your television subscriber while a DVR is all controlled by you.

On Demand means that you are allowed to select a limited number of shows and watch them after they have already aired on your own time. If you're busy and you missed the latest episode of your favourite show you could go into the directory for the channel that you would normally find that show on and watch it there. This allows you to start the show at any time and pause if you need to during the program.

There are also many movies available with On Demand services that you can order to watch at your leisure. Some of these are free but most of them will cost you up to six dollars to view. You are given access to the movie for a 24-hour period. That means you can order it to watch with a group that's staying with you for a tournament and then watch it again the next day at no additional charge. You can also start watching it one night and finish the following afternoon. The charges for these films will be added to your next monthly bill.

If you want to go beyond the services that are offered by On Demand than you will likely want to get a DVR system. This allows you to record programs the way that you used to with a VCR to watch later. The difference is that you can record several shows that are on at the same time or can set it to record the same show week after week all with one push of the button. If you're frequently away from your home when your favorite programs are on than it might be worth investing in this extra device.