DVR-induced sports headache

We have thousands of iOS and Android apps that can utilize GPS to track each and every one of our movements, likes, and dislikes, but my DVR can't tell when to automatically keep recording the sporting event I have taping?

In my book, ESPN has proven itself to be the worst-offender in the scheduling department. Somewhere, I guarantee they've got a team of statisticians that know the average run-time of an NBA game is "X" minutes so they can immediately schedule the World Series of Poker or the Strong Man Competition directly after it. That team knows that something like 86% of the time the game will be out as scheduled. Then they can pre-plan their commercials or SportsCenter reruns, etc. accordingly.

But it's the dreaded OT game that throws all those database and metric-induced numbers right in the shitter.

Example case: today's Mavericks v. Spurs NBA game. Officially scheduled for two-and-a-half hours in the on-screen guide. DirecTV asked if I'd like to add an additional 30 minutes, since they knew it was a live broadcast. As a cautious type when it comes to live sports, I said sure, let's give it an extra half-hour.

The game ended up in Overtime. Five extra minutes of basketball took nearly thirty minutes to play. The game finished with just about three minutes to spare on the extended recording. If it had gone to double-OT, I'd be stuck with ESPN.com for my ultimate answers. I suppose I could also stream the archived version of the game from the ESPN3.com site, but that's not the point.

If DirecTV, or any other TV provider for that matter, can suggest that you add extra time when requesting to record a live event, why can't the provider instead receive a signal from the channel indicating that the event isn't over and that all home boxes should keep recording until a termination signal is sent?

Granted, this is a complete First World-type problem. I'm not talking clean water for African villages here. But I'm not the first one to think of this, right?