After acquiring a hand-me-down, 600 pound HDTV (thanks in-laws!), my husband and I recently made the switch to an HD satellite install at our apartment. We moved our old DVR into the office and now have a nice, shiny HD DVR in our living room.

One of the things I’ve been waiting for was the DIRECTV On Demand Beta on our receiver, which finally happened after a recent service call. But even better than that, the DIRECTV DVR Scheduler was moved into Beta and is now available for use on our DVRs.

I’ll be the first to admit that I can be forgetful sometimes. I will look forward to a show and think to myself, “Self, you should really set the DVR to record that!” Of course, then I forget and everyone at work is talking about it the next day, so I slink off to download it and try to avoid spoilers in the meantime. My husband is occasionally more on the ball than I am, and remembers to set a recording for something he knows I’m wanting to watch. But usually I either end up trying frantically to get home before a show starts, or just giving up altogether and downloading it after the fact.

Thankfully, the DIRECTV DVR Scheduler was made for people just like me. Similar to the TiVO online scheduling feature, it allows you to log in to your account on DIRECTV.com and set recordings right from their TV schedule grid. Since we have two DVRs in the house, it even allows me to select which DVR I want it to record on, as well as the recording’s priority. It can be set to record if there are no conflicting recordings, or it can be set to record before any other set recordings.

The BEST part is the mobile DVR scheduler, which can be accessed via any mobile phone with a browser and a data connection.  This has been great for me, because I always have my Windows Mobile phone with me and I have a full data plan.  When I discovered that TCM was running a Joan Crawford marathon, I was able to use my phone to schedule the office DVR to record Grand Hotel and Mildred Pierce.

If you have  DIRECTV and a DVR, be sure to log in to your DIRECTV account and try it for yourself!  It’s a lifesaver.