Tivo behavior question

I know, I should probably post this one on the Tivo forums, but it's always easier to just get questions answered on this forum...

I'm channel flipping and I come across some syndicated Buffy episodes. I figure... Hey, I could probably stand to watch a few of these now that I've got a Tivo. (I was never a Buffy watcher before.)

But I don't want to hit "season pass" because I'm not that into it yet. I just want to tell the Tivo that it would do well to record them for me once in a while. So I press Thumbs Up while watching the Buffy episode.

Then, later the episode ends. And on the same channel, another episode airs afterwards.

But the Tivo doesn't record it.

The Tivo has two tuners and it's not busy recording anything else at all at the moment.

I thought the point of Thumbs Up was to tell the Tivo what I liked and didn't like. Why wouldn't it record another episode of something I just thumbs-upped?

give it more thumbs up.

1) Did you leave "Recorded Tivo suggestions" turned on? (it on be default)
2) Is there free space on the drive? Tivo won't record a Suggestion if there is no space, priority goes to the stuff you recorded.

Did you leave "Recorded Tivo suggestions" turned on?

Yes, I believe so. It still records suggestions for me as far as I can tell.

Is there free space on the drive? Tivo won't record a Suggestion if there is no space, priority goes to the stuff you recorded.

Depends on your definition of free space. There are a bunch of existing recorded Tivo Suggestions still there, stuff that I haven't watched nor deleted. Stuff that I didn't specifically ask it to record nor did I thumbs-up it. I would think it'd tend to get rid of those in favor of things I specifically thumbed.

Like Derek says... give it three thumbs up. Did you only press it once?

give it more thumbs up.

I'm afraid to give any given show a whole bunch of thumbs up unless I really mean it.

I suppose if I were really serious about recording buffy episodes, I should just flat out tell it to do so. I don't know what I'm complaining about.

So what exactly does the thumbs up mean to the Tivo? Do the various levels have specific associated behaviors?

Depends on your definition of free space. There are a bunch of existing recorded Tivo Suggestions still there
That would be free space.

It takes a while for TiVo to leave what you like and don't like, it does this based on what you've recorded and what you given thumbs up or down too.
I also think that it compares your viewing habits to other peoples viewing habits, so lets say you had a season pass for Friends - it would looks at what other people with SP for Friends commonly also had SP for and Suggest that.

If you'd like to have the odd Buffy episode on had to watch when your bored do set up a season pass for it, reduce the number of episodes it hangs on to down to one or two, and make sure it is down the bottom of your Season Pass list (the most recently added SP is down the bottom by default).

Have you added a bigger HDD to it yet?

Its not an exact science! But its generally advised this way...

Three Thumbs Up: Use this for one or two of your favourite shows.

Two Thumbs Up: Use this for your top ten or fifteen favourite shows.

One Thumbs Up: Use this for all programmes you like

It will take Tivo weeks to learn your habits and likes/dislikes (at least mine did) so don't expect it to record everything if you only gave it one thumb up on one occassion.

Mabe if you gave Buffy one thumbs up every day for a week it would start to record on its own.

Okay, understood. Thanks guys!

Don't worry, we'll write you an faq

Thumbs Up appears to be a hint rather than an order to record something ... In a case like this I usually make a Season's Pass and just delete it later if I change my mind. It would be cool to have a "Time Trial" season's pass that would let you subscribe for like two weeks and at the end it would ask if you wanted to convert it to a full season's pass. Oh well. To dream.

Thumbs Up appears to be a hint rather than an order to record something

Right, I just thought, that since it didn't have anything better to do, a gentle hint should have been enough.

Why not make an auto-record wish list and put it at the bottom of the season pass manager. That way it'll grab it IF nothing else is interfering with it.

Another option would be to set up a season pass or wishlist and set it to only keep 1 or 2 episodes. I do this for quite a few shows. If they're only on rarely (like my Skiing wishlist), I set them high priority.

HTH.

-Zeke

I think that's the best way to do it, set up a season pass or a wish list and give it very few episodes to keep.

It's a shame they stopped selling Tivo's in the UK. We even had a staff discount scheme. I'm still kicking myself for not taking it up...

The advantage of lots of thumbs is you know it can never conflict with anything you have a season pass for, period.

I didn't know that - that's cool. I haven't used thumbs much, except for some real dogs that it has thrown in Suggestions.

-Zeke

You want to buy mine?

I go out of my way to give 3 Thumbs Down to any reality show. Who knows if anyone is getting my point, I have Suggestions turned off anyway..

of course 3 thumbs down doesn't override a season pass either, which unfortunately means my "railroad" wishlist item records "eskie railroad" every time.

Is it possible to set up a specific DO NOT RECORD match? Specifically to block out individual (or groups) of titles you definitely do not want the Tivo to ever record for any reason.

My DirecTV Tivo was just delivered to my brother this morning (he's making sure it works for me the little bastard). And I'll have it in my hands on Saturday. Woohoo. This All In Wonder recording was getting to be a little too manual.

Bruno

Is it possible to set up a specific DO NOT RECORD match? Specifically to block out individual (or groups) of titles you definitely do not want the Tivo to ever record for any reason.

Would you laugh if I told you I was too lazy to ever find out?

I didn't see this posted by anyone else but I could be wrong

The Tivo builds a list of shows to record as suggestions and only records them if it hasn't received any remote input within 30 minutes I believe. There is some remote codes you can do to make it rebuild this list or this thread

Yeah, I should start documenting codes in software 5.2.

and only records them if it hasn't received any remote input within 30 minutes I believe

Aha, that would explain it.

Cool lists of codes, thanks! According to one of those pages, though, most of the backdoor codes don't work on the DirecTivo.

One thing I looked for, but couldn't find, was something to control the amount of skip in the 30-second-skip feature. When I use the feature, it works as advertised, skipping exactly 30 seconds. But by the time I skip the correct number of commercials, my delay in starting the skip and my delay between skips makes it add up to greater than an even multiple of 30. So I land somewhere about 5-10 seconds into the feature when I'm done. I'd like to see if a 29 second skip works better, for example. Anyone know if this can be done?

I just hit the back 10 seconds button (the loop) if I need to.

Oh is THAT what that button is for. Darn, another one I have to program into my 15-1994...

I can't believe I never pushed that button. That will be handy.

My wife hates it when I 30 second skip forward and instant reply back to skip commercials; The sound blips between the steps are bothersome to her.

Of course, the TiVo with 5.2 software doesn't honor select-play-select-3-0-select, or didn't on my first try, so...

Can't you turn the sounds off ? I think there is a level adjustmnet anyway. Whenever they do an update I can never get it to work the first time either. Then I panic and think they took it out but eventually I get it to work.

Not the TiVo sound effects, the sound from the recording.

So push mute on the remote first

I also make sure to bring up the TiVo menu when I'm done watching TV. I think that this has the effect of telling the TiVo that you're not watching TV now, and lets it change channels if it wants without asking.

Sounds like another man with a "JP1"-connector fetish....

On my RS 15-2116, I use the "+100" button for the "Skip 30s"; what are you using on the 1994?

what are you using on the 1994?

I chose the "Stop" button on the 15-1994. Only in Tivo mode of course, where "stop" really has little meaning.

And yeah, the JP1 stuff is freaking awesome.

Bitt, why don't you just go into Stand By?

On a side OT note, the Home Media Option (HMO) is finally coming to the DirecTivos so you'll be able to stream mp3s to your Tivo on a home network and send shows from one Tivo to another. They just sent me a survey about it. I recommended having the two (or more?) Tivo's talk to eachother and work like a 4-tuner Tivo by merging the Season Passes and Wishlists. Now, I have several shows recording on both Tivos in case I feel like watching a show in another room. No need to do this anymore with the HMO. But what'd be really cool is to have conflicts resolved by using a tuner (and storage) on another Tivo if it is available.

Is there a quick way to get to standby? Maybe on a newer remote? Plus, that'd be one more step to get it back going when I do want to watch. Unless it provides something not aware of, I'll stand by my previous thoughts that standby seems useless on the TiVo.

Is there a quick way to get to standby? Maybe on a newer remote?

Yes, on my 15-1994, when I loaded the Tivo profile with the JP1 interface, the power button puts the thing instantly into standby. It's a toggle, so the power button works like a power button on any remote as you would expect. I'm sure it's got discrete codes, too, I just haven't needed to use anything like that.

If it gets you into a situation where it's guaranteed to not think you're watching, and so can record suggestions, that is a use, and thus fails to meet every definition of useless I've seen.

Annoying, I'll grant easily.

It turns off that little green light on the front of the case.

Yeah, I think standby is useful because then it has free reign of both tuners when it's in that mode.

Is it possible to set up a specific DO NOT RECORD match?

It is not.

One of the best, and most often overlooked features of the TiVo software is the "View Recording History" selection in the "To Do" list.

Not only will this tell you why TiVo didn't record programs you thought it would record, it tells you why TiVo is not going to record programs you want for two weeks into the future, allowing you to resolve conflicts.

tanstaafl.

But this wouldn't really help Tony. Since he doesn't want Buffy as a season pass, the recording "future history" won't say why future episodes won't be recorded.

*edit*
Tony, the other solution to your problem is this (which I'll just offer in case you didn't know about it): when you have a show where you aren't concerned with getting all the episodes, go ahead and add the season pass. As you add more season passes, go into the season pass manager and move the pass for that show to the bottom of the list. That will always set the show for the lowest priority. From there on, it's a simple issue of deleting episodes you don't want from the Now Playing list.

Yeah, that's what I think the best solution is.

One problem that this may get you into is the 28 day rule. Unless you tell it to record all shows with duplicates.

28 day rule.

Ummm... what is that?

The 28 day rule, if TiVo has already recorded an episode of a show within the last 28 days then it will not record it again unless you set the SP/ARWL to record all episodes or if the show only has generic guide data like South Park the past few weeks.

You should also know this: If you setup an ARWL for "The Wire" set to record FRO you have 14 days from the Original airdate to get the episode. This is nice because if you know of shows that are Shared-Window/Repurposed Network Television if can help you with conflicts.

SP = Season Pass
ARWL = Auto Recording WishList
FRO = First Run Only

Makes sense, thanks!

Re: Shared-Window/Repurposed Network Television if can help you with conflicts.

I just KNEW that soon enough, somebody would find a way to make something as intuitive and easy to use as the Tivo interface into something that takes 3 pages of reading just to know what the hell they are talking about (not to mention the process of actually doing it!)

This isn't directed at you Attack. I think it's cool you found it!

That is nothing, you should try doing extraction and burning to DVD

You aren't kidding. It's a whole lot of fun and a whole lot of no fun.

But when my mom missed ER this week and I was heading home for Thanksgiving, it was a simple process of getting the .ty file, converting the file while cutting out the ads, then importing them into a DVD creator.

Getting to that point was a pain in the ass, but it's worth it