TiVo Community Forums Archives - Tell Time with Tivo!

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Tell Time with Tivo!
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Posted by: Philosofy

You're watching a Tivo'd show, don't have a clock or watch handy, and you don't know what time it is. Just hit the right arrow button: the banner for your Tivo'd show appears with the correct time!

------------------
Phil

Posted by: Ilovetorecord2

You are right Phil and it is 9:51pm my time!!!

Posted by: Dr. Zed

quote:
Originally posted by Ilovetorecord2:
You are right Phil and it is 9:51pm my time!!!

That's funny, I have 1:51....

*checks watch*

Odd.

------------------
"It's like living in the future."

[This message has been edited by an infinite number of monkeys (edited 10-24-2000).]

Posted by: JoeTivo

A most satisfying feature, btw, beats the cable company's "DISPLAY" feature hands down. http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/smile.gif

Posted by: rasheed

While this may belong in the suggestions board, I don't see why Tivo can't keep the time on-screen on all of its user screens since there is so much desktop real estate available for use. (Maybe in the upper right corner).

Naturally, a turn-on, turn-off setting might be needed to mitigate those who oppose.

Rasheed

Posted by: allon

Why should I care what time it is? Am I going to miss my favorite shows? No way! My TiVo remembers to record my shows even if I'm late because I don't wear a watch and don't know the time of day.

8-)

Posted by: der_phoenix

I have found that pressing the right key not only makes the banner appear but cyles through three types of banner.

1) Top banner (default). Names channel and current show (+time)
2) Full screen banner. Top banner + description of show
3) Mini banner. A little rectangle in top-right corner with channel name/ number + time

If you leave any of these to dissappear on their own, TiVo uses this as the default banner when you change channels.

-Pheonix

Posted by: geoclock

Does anyone have knowledge of the reliability and accuracy of TivoTime?

The reason I ask is that two other systems I have used, VideoGuide (now
defunct) and my VCR (which gets time from the local PBS stations) had a
variety of time problems. The VCR time wanders a bit, and sometimes has a
one or two minute more or less permanent (a week or so) offset. VideoGuide
would occasionally just stop, and would take hours to reset. Both these
problems of course screwed up recording.

I don't understand why time should be hard, but then I don't understand why
a $2000 computer cannot keep time as well as a $5 watch!

Posted by: rhuttner

quote:
Originally posted by geoclock:
Does anyone have knowledge of the reliability and accuracy of TivoTime?

The reason I ask is that two other systems I have used, VideoGuide (now
defunct) and my VCR (which gets time from the local PBS stations) had a
variety of time problems. The VCR time wanders a bit, and sometimes has a
one or two minute more or less permanent (a week or so) offset. VideoGuide
would occasionally just stop, and would take hours to reset. Both these
problems of course screwed up recording.

I don't understand why time should be hard, but then I don't understand why
a $2000 computer cannot keep time as well as a $5 watch!

The Tivo will update the time when it dials in each night. I have checked the time against the official US time listed at http://www.time.gov/ and it is correct.

If you do not have service the time will drift just as it does with a VCR, but a test call can fix that.

Posted by: Worf

Just for the record, the latest copy of IEEE Spectrum (and the one before it) has an explaination into why the "auto-set" VCRs sometimes (or usually) don't get the right time.

Most auto-set VCRs get their time by scanning channels (from 2 upwards) until it comes across one transmitting a 'valid' timecode in the VBI of a frame.

Turns out that several FOX affiliates were inadvertently rebroadcasting these signals in the shows they carried (they've stopped since), as well as several other affiliated with networks. This causes the time to be off by 1/2/3 hours or more (timezone-related).

Also, the timesignal generating equipment at many PBS stations is initially set to some value, and often allowed to free-run (since there really isn't any other maintenance to it, apparently), so you'd get times off by minutes. Either that or the VCR has locked onto a local station broadcasting the time with ill-maintained (i.e., no synchronized) clocks.

Posted by: Randy Given

Worf, thanks for the explanation. A couple of months ago we had the time change by an hour (independent of Daylight Savings Time) and we thought maybe the "preview" channel had the wrong time. Your explanation of Fox screwing things up makes more sense.

Posted by: Worf

I just had the oddest thing happen to me the other day - my VCR clock was off by 3 hours (3 hours slow). Odd too, because I'm in the PST timezone (Hawaii time?).

Although, a few hours later, the clock was apparently reset to the correct time.

Just to warn ya that sometimes autoclocks reset daily or so.

Posted by: geoclock

Thanks for the VCR explanation. That is what I always expected. It makes
my question about Tivo even more relevant. How do we know that the
time the Tivo units are reset to during the daily call is not to a clock as
poorly maintained as the PBS clocks? Does anyone know the Tivo master
clock is maintained?

Posted by: Video-Idiot

Sepaking of Trivia and time... How many time Zones are there in the world... CAUTION: this is a real question, it is a trick question and the anser is NOT 24!!!! http://sam.wood.tripod.com/smilies/alien.gif

Posted by: dd9

Isn't there some silly time zone in Australia that goes on the 1/2 hour rather than the hour like all the others? So, 25?

Posted by: modnar

quote:
Originally posted by geoclock:
Thanks for the VCR explanation. That is what I always expected. It makes
my question about Tivo even more relevant. How do we know that the
time the Tivo units are reset to during the daily call is not to a clock as
poorly maintained as the PBS clocks? Does anyone know the Tivo master
clock is maintained?

TiVo's clock is synched with the standard atomic clocks. I've even checked it myself! http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/smile.gif

Posted by: KurtG

quote:
Originally posted by dd9:
Isn't there some silly time zone in Australia that goes on the 1/2 hour rather than the hour like all the others? So, 25?

I'm not sure about Australia, but there's a silly time zone in Canada (Newfoundland Standard Time) which is 1/2 hour earlier than Atlantic time (which is 1 hour earlier than EST).

Posted by: xneog37

According to: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/graphics/TimeZoneMap2000.pdf

There appear to be 36 timezones.

Posted by: jeffreyweb

quote:
Originally posted by allon:
Why should I care what time it is? Am I going to miss my favorite shows? No way! My TiVo remembers to record my shows even if I'm late because I don't wear a watch and don't know the time of day.

8-)

Uh... because I stay up to the wee hours of the morning watching too much TiVo http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/wink.gif hehe

Posted by: john_o

There's a joke in Canada about the Newfoundland time zone.

Q: How do you know if the power's been off in Newfoundland?

A: All the VCRs are blinking '12:30'.

Posted by: mishagray

I have the time display on my digital cable box, and it is always 1 to 2 minutes behind the real time.

When Tivo changes the channel after it starts recording, I see the Digital banner that tells me the time and the current show. It is almost always displays the previous show.

It may be that Tivo starts recording a minute early, but the two clocks (Tivo vs Cable box) are never the same. I trust the Tivo more than my cable provider.

Posted by: drcos

Stations from outside your time zone broadcast over satellite will also reset a VCR 'auto clock' if the station is left on while the VCR looks for the time signal.
i.e., the Denver stations on the 'big' dish would do that and offset the VCR time by 2 hours.

Posted by: dd9

quote:
Originally posted by mishagray:
I have the time display on my digital cable box, and it is always 1 to 2 minutes behind the real time.

When Tivo changes the channel after it starts recording, I see the Digital banner that tells me the time and the current show. It is almost always displays the previous show.

It may be that Tivo starts recording a minute early, but the two clocks (Tivo vs Cable box) are never the same. I trust the Tivo more than my cable provider.

I have this same banner issue with Dish network. TiVo sets it's time from a stratum server (probably 2 not 1) via NTP, and the Dish receiver gets it's time the same way, so you would think they would be identical. BUT, the Dish reciever is about 1/2 second slower than TiVo because of the distance the signal is traveling.

It's just enough that TiVo will change the Dish channel just before dish changes the time. The result is that the dish banner shows the previous show title in the recording (even though the time will change in the dish banner before it clears - it just doesn't dynamically update the program info).

Posted by: Richard Finegold

quote:
Originally posted by dd9:
It's just enough that TiVo will change the Dish channel just before dish changes the time. The result is that the dish banner shows the previous show title in the recording (even though the time will change in the dish banner before it clears - it just doesn't dynamically update the program info).[/B]

Doesn't TiVo change the channel in advance to negate receiver reaction times?