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Do you use Suggestions?
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Posted by: sync
I've owned my Tivo for one and a half years and have always had the Suggestions feature turned off. I'm curious to know what percentage of people use Suggestions. So, do you use Suggestions?
Posted by: Mars Rocket
Yes, I use them both as a free space indicator and for their intended purpose. I love them - I've found some great stuff via Suggestions.
I really don't understand why some people leave the feature turned off. Except for a few specific cases, there's really no good reason not to turn them on.
Posted by: Connie
I have two TiVos, but Suggestions are only turned on one of them -- the reason being, that I've been seriously burned by the intermittent deletion bug, so the one TiVo is for shows that I absolutely don't want unexpectedly deleted, and the other is the one that I'm willing to take a "chance" on.
Once you've accumulated enough thumbs ratings and usage records, the Suggestions can come up with some great stuff. One that I'd never have tried on my own was a special on Discover called "Mortuary School" which turned out to be a virtual documentary equivalent of _Six Feet Under_. :)
Posted by: bonscott87
I have suggestions turned off, but I use the suggestion list as a pre-sorted search of things I might like. So I check the suggestion list once a week or so and pick and choose some things to record off that list. That way it's still suggesting stuff to me, but I get to pick and choose what it actually records.
Posted by: sync
I have suggestions turned off, but I use the suggestion list as a pre-sorted search of things I might like.
Do you use Thumbs? The few times I've looked at the suggestion list I haven't seen anything of interest. But I don't use the thumbs.
Posted by: loubob57
quote:
Originally posted by Mars Rocket
Yes, I use them both as a free space indicator and for their intended purpose. I love them - I've found some great stuff via Suggestions.
I really don't understand why some people leave the feature turned off. Except for a few specific cases, there's really no good reason not to turn them on.
Ditto that on both accounts. They make a great FSI. Why do suggestions bother some people so much?
Posted by: JBW
I've only had my TiVo for a few weeks now, but I have appreciated the suggestions it records. The only reason I don't watch more suggestions is because I can't spend ALL of my time in front of the TV! But I was down with the flu last week, and quickly ran out of my SP recordings, so I was thankful that I had some suggestions to entertain me while I couldn't do anything else! Suggestions are the one reason I never have to watch live TV anymore, so I say they are extremely valuable.
However, only I do the thumbs ratings in my house. My wife, kids, and I all have different TV interests, and I imagine TiVo would get very confused if we each used thumbs. As such, although I think the suggestions TiVo picks are good, my wife isn't as impressed with them.
JBW
Posted by: jlb
I do. And the other day it suggested The Profiler for me, which I used to watch but haven't since it went OTA. It was a great episode that TiVO picked up and I was very happy with it.
Posted by: pauly666
Not lately, no. TiVo seems to have screwed itself up and is suggesting programs of only one type - Documentary, Specials!
I dunno. Record a few programs of a type and TiVo thinks thats all you want!
Posted by: Pan Chun
Well, don't forget that shows you specifically request to record (including your SPs) automatically get 1 thumb...so there IS something to work from there.
Posted by: davewill
One thing to do if you want suggestions to work well is to remove automatic thumbs that you don't agree with. For instance, if I decide to record or SP a cartoon for the kids, I carefully remove the thumb up (put it back to no thumbs). If I don't, then I start getting endless cartoons.
Posted by: NFLnut
Suggestions have found some shows that I never would've tried on my own that ended up being some of my favorite programs! It has also found stuff that I never would've known about with people/subjects that I've thumbed up.
Using a TiVo without Suggestions turned on is like driving a Ferrari without tires!
Posted by: Ilovetorecord2
Nope. Usually shows movies I have already seen.
Posted by: sync
Inspired by the high percentage of people using Suggestions, I just took a look at it. I found out that Lonely Planet, which I used to watch on the Travel Channel but doesn't show there much now, is available on another channel. That's cool.
Almost all the other suggestions were for reruns that I've seen already.
Posted by: modnar
Suggestions has found some good shows that I would not have recorded otherwise.
Posted by: Convert
Suggestions is like mold. I go through all the suggestions and thumb down all the ones I don't want. Within three days, it's bloated back up to an unreasonable amount. Thank God it doesn't automatically record. To use the old saw, Suggestions is about as worthless as tits on a boar hog.
Posted by: JBW
The whole point of auto-recording suggestions is to let TiVo pick things you might like to watch. It's not expected that you will like them all, but with a dozen or so things to pick from at any given time, hopefully there will be something on when nothing else is. If you think of suggestions as stuff you might want to watch when nothing else is on, replacing channel surfing, you might see some value in them.
Maybe my TiVo is too new to become too bloated or confused with thumbs ratings, but after I thumbs-down something, I never get that show again. I suppose if it ever gets bad, I will use that system reset option to clear my thumbs and start over, because it picks beautifully when new.
JBW
Posted by: Rainy Dave
I have them turned on. They are a great indicator of how much free space I have. And sometimes they pick up interesting shows.
Though, yesterday, it recorded Jenny Jones, Maury and Springer! What's up with that? What did I record that made it think I'd be interested in those shows? Should I feel insulted??!! :eek:
Posted by: sync
I guess I'm too particular. Getting dozens of suggestions for reruns that I've already seen isn't very interesting to me.
Posted by: ReefHobbyist
I have 2 D*TiVo's and have one with suggestions turned on and one with them off.
The only reason that one is off is because it is the one that my 3 yr old children watch. My wife got upset a couple times when she walked into the room where she expected to find our children watching "Clifford" and they were watching an R rated movie on TMC that TiVo decided to record.
Scott
Posted by: dmdeane
I have never understood the negative reaction to TiVo suggestions. The less charitable side of me thinks that the reaction is a kind of control freak thing. :)
Seriously, where are the negatives? Space you are not using gets filled up with programs you might want to watch. It's a win-win proposition, whether you use it regularly or not. Your TiVo would simply be idle anyway; suggestions puts some of that idle time to good use for you, at no extra cost or bother to you.
I think some people are fixated on the idea that a piece of consumer electronics gear must do what they tell it to do, and only what they tell it to do. Hence the "control freak" thing.
Set your TiVo free!
Posted by: stevel
I like Suggestions. Not only is there the entertainment value of wondering "Why did it pick THAT?", but my TiVo occasionally finds shows I didn't know about that I've since become very fond of.
I do wish the categories in the guide data were more accurate, though - some truly bizarre matches come up from time to time...
Posted by: bonscott87
quote:
Originally posted by sync
I have suggestions turned off, but I use the suggestion list as a pre-sorted search of things I might like.
Do you use Thumbs? The few times I've looked at the suggestion list I haven't seen anything of interest. But I don't use the thumbs.
Yes, we use thumbs a lot and the suggestions are pretty good and accurate. I actually had suggestions turned on until football season and I turned them off so that I wouldn't keep getting asked to record a suggestion during a game. Then I learned that the suggestion engine still works and you can manually browse the list of things it would record if turned on. I actually like it that way.
Posted by: thebigch
YES
Posted by: sync
I suppose if it ever gets bad, I will use that system reset option to clear my thumbs and start over
Does the system reset clear out everything including Season Passes?
Posted by: stevel
You can reset the thumbs data by itself.
Posted by: Axiom
I love the suggestions feature! I really enjoy the fact that it will auto-record things that I might be missing. I use thumbs and my suggestions usually end up being things I'd want to see.
Posted by: Rob Helmerichs
Maybe my tastes are just too esoteric for the suggestions engine, but it never seems to suggest anything I like...EXCEPT for reruns of shows that I have FRO Season Passes to!
And I don't like a To Do list cluttered with junk I will never watch.
Under the old version, it was a lot better, and I would scroll through it regularly to find interesting sci fi movies, but it doesn't give me that any more.
Posted by: panictivo
I don't use it. It generates too much clutter in the ToDo list. It records too many shows I have already seen. It gets confused and records crap so I have to do a lot of thumbing to retrain it. At one point it even started recording infomercials like the Oreck Challenge. Bad TiVo!
It just is not worth it. If I could restrict suggestion to just a few channels that I really like, I might use it again.
I monitor the list of TiVo Suggestions, and it seldom finds anything interesting that has not already been found by wishlists.
Posted by: Cornflakeguy
To answer the question, no. Suggestions are worthless.
So, could I please have that feature disabled and only pay $5.99 a month?
CFG!
Posted by: Knative
While I do use them, I would like the suggestions list to show something other than all the shows I've already thumbed. Sometimes it just three pages of thumbs-up shows. Suggest things that I don't already know exist.
Geez. Answer this thread, then when I drop back to the forum there's a whole new thread about this
Posted by: WinBear
I currently have suggestions turned off, but go manually into the Suggestions screen and pick things. I found some "Biography" type stuff that I wouldn't have found otherwise.
I have a new unit that's only been setup less than a month. I think it would be nice if Suggestions would not auto-record until a preset amount of thumbs have been accumulated.
Posted by: FlashingTwelve
I have it turned off. Whenever I look at it mostly it feels like a list of "These are the things you have watched over the last 6 months". Not much use. When I turn it on it feels like a little man in the box is saying "Im going to re-record everything you have already seenr ecently".
Posted by: Mars Rocket
I think several of you are missing one key point - TiVo frequently records stuff that doesn't appear on the Suggestions list, so you can't just go into Suggestions and think you know all about what it would record for you if you turned the feature on.
Posted by: Convert
quote:
Originally posted by Mars Rocket
I think several of you are missing one key point - TiVo frequently records stuff that doesn't appear on the Suggestions list, so you can't just go into Suggestions and think you know all about what it would record for you if you turned the feature on.
... and that's why I go through the To Do list every day and weed out the shows I don't want. Seems to me that we're talking about a dangerous short-coming. Yes, I am a control freak, but that has nothing to do with wanting a feature to work correctly or go away.
Posted by: jimborst
quote:
Though, yesterday, it recorded Jenny Jones, Maury and Springer! What's up with that? What did I record that made it think I'd be interested in those shows? Should I feel insulted??!!
I found that after I set up a season pass for Letterman TiVo thought I would like ALL talkshows, daytime, nighttime, it didn't matter, I quickly gave all the daytime talkshows thumb downs.
I do enjoy some of the suggestions, although some are shows that I have season passes for, for example, I never watched the X-Files in the early years, and now TiVo likes to pick old X-files for suggestions. Many times I will watch these.
Posted by: BadAstronaut
The very first thing my Tivo ever recorded was a Suggestion. I woke up the morning after plugging it in to find an episode of Sports Night, which ended up becoming one of my all-time favorite shows.
All this talk of "cluttering up the ToDo list" seems rather spurious to me. They're all grouped together, at the end, for crying out loud. Now that I've upgraded my system, the majority of programs on my Tivo are suggestions. 4 screens worth, in fact.
Posted by: wa2joc
I think the suggestions is one of TiVo's better features. I get a real gem every so often.
I also use it as a rough indicator of available space.
Posted by: Pan Chun
quote:
Originally posted by wa2joc
I think the suggestions is one of TiVo's better features. I get a real gem every so often.
I also use it as a rough indicator of available space.
And THOSE are the two reasons I leave them on!
Posted by: Mars Rocket
quote:
Originally posted by Convert
... and that's why I go through the To Do list every day and weed out the shows I don't want. Seems to me that we're talking about a dangerous short-coming. Yes, I am a control freak, but that has nothing to do with wanting a feature to work correctly or go away.
Do you mean Now Playing? Suggestions don't appear in the To Do list unless you explicitly enable them to be there. As far as weeding them out of Now PLaying - why bother? They're always at the bottom, so they're easy to ignore.
Posted by: NFLnut
Removing them from ToDo is a waste of time anyway because they often reappear like magic.
Really .. why the fuss? It's space you're not using anyway. I bet a lot of you are the types that if you had it turned on, you would be the ones deleting them from the bottom of Now Showing when they will be the first deleted if a show you want is recorded. :rolleyes:
Control freaks indeed ;)
Posted by: alexcue
I use the suggestions to fine tune my suggestions further. About once a week i go thru them and get rid of the funky stuff it thinks i like, by thumbs downing the programs i really don't want to have it record.
The rest i either thumbs up to further increase the chance that they record or leave alone as i can take them or leave them.
I've actually caught some pretty good independent movies that i would have otherwise ignored if it weren't for suggestions.
I like a pretty full Dtivo (126hr, about 96hr actual), as there is something good to watch.
Suggestions alone made me stay clear of a UTV. I like 'em. Even if they do sometimes clear the buffer on the second tuner!
Posted by: realitivo
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Knative
[B]While I do use them, I would like the suggestions list to show something other than all the shows I've already thumbed. Sometimes it just three pages of thumbs-up shows. Suggest things that I don't already know exist.[QUOTE]
I love the suggestions feature, but ever since the upgrade to 2.1 (err the one with wishlists), all I get on suggestions are thumbed shows - once in a great while I see one or two unthumbed shows on there. Is is true that if your shows to record list is pretty full and your current playlist is close to full as well, you just won't get any new suggestions on the list?
I used to get pages and pages of suggestions, but not anymore.
Posted by: Pan Chun
You need to RESET THUMBS AND SUGGESTIONS.
It's like starting all over again (as far as those two features go) but it's worth it.
Go into the system reset menu and select RESET THUMBS AND SUGGESTIONS. The process can take up to an hour or so...I just did it one night before going to bed.
Then you and your TiVo can get to know one another all over again (it's not as bad as it sounds) and the suggestions algorythm will get back to normal.
Posted by: bobsoron
quote:
Originally posted by Mars Rocket
I think several of you are missing one key point - TiVo frequently records stuff that doesn't appear on the Suggestions list, so you can't just go into Suggestions and think you know all about what it would record for you if you turned the feature on.
In fact, this is why I keep turning suggestions off. I actually like the feature (although I think its AI is awful), but it kept grabbing things that weren't even on its own Suggestions list. Sometimes I don't feel the need to record something but still want to watch it, and it's really annoying to hear the DING! and be surprised by a suggestion that wasn't even on the Suggestions list. (Now that I've got the backdoors showing suggestions in the To Do list, I can see those, but if I delete them, they come back, even if I've also given them three thumbs downs.)
Maybe the people who are unable to understand why some of us don't like suggestions only ever watch suggestions, but I actually do like to watch random TV shows that happen to catch my interest once in a while, without the interruption of denying a suggestion. I'd even like to see (feature request alert! :) Tivo not record a suggestion if the user has manually changed the channel since the current TV show started (or five minutes before, a la the program guide). It should be safe to assume that any time the channel's been changed by the user, it's for a reason.
(As for the AI: I can't remember ever telling Tivo to record a news show for me, but not too long ago it went berserk and tried to record Fox News at 5 AM, Fox News at 6 AM, Today, NBC Nightly News, just about every damn news show on any of the four major networks. That was a lot, a whole lot, of unnecessary thumbs-downing for me. I know Tivo uses aggregated data -- well, these people are watching this batch of shows and this other batch of shows, so let's tell the people who are watching only one of those batches about the other -- but this was really unnecessary, a complete nonsequiteur.)
Bob
Posted by: TheSimpsons
As others have mentioned earlier, many times some of your other programs with the ( ! ) -meaning it can get deleted, sometimes get deleted before the suggestions. :( I lost a few good shows I like that way-thats why I turn the suggestions off when my TiVo gets really packed.
-The Simpsons :) :D :p ;) :cool: :mad:
Posted by: sync
Shortly after starting this thread I turned on Suggestions. I also reset Suggestions. Now I am getting more than just reruns of shows that are already thumbed up.
About half of my thumbs up shows are probably sitcoms. There are a few sitcoms I haven't seen that I've thought about checking out. I'm getting lots of reruns in suggestions for thumbs up shows but it hasn't suggested even one sitcom that I haven't seen. Does Tivo think I'm watching too many sitcoms?
For the new shows it is suggesting I'm quite baffled. First it had the impression that I speak Spanish, which I don't. It was suggesting a lot of shows on Spanish channels.
Then it started suggesting a lot of shows about sports. I have no interest in sports. Currently it is big on sensationalist shows on E!, which I don't care for.
I've given up on thumbing down to it's suggestions. It's just too much hassle.
As some people pointed out, it is a good free space indicator.
Posted by: erivers
quote:
Originally posted by Mars Rocket
Except for a few specific cases, there's really no good reason not to turn them on.
Well, either I'm a specific case, or I'll keep them turned off for no good reason....
Posted by: Mark Lopez
No, I have too many other seasons passes etc. and not enough time to watch those let alone suggestions.
Posted by: mrcoaster
I've watched a few suggestions. They've been a few things I might have recorded if I had more space (and fewer chances of conflicts), but didn't. I sure do hate when it suggests stuff like Touched By An Angel. ACCCKKKK!!!! 3 thumbs down!!!! Hurry!!
If it does record something I don't like, I just delete it. Simple enough. So count me in the pro suggestion group.
Posted by: MikeCG
I use suggestions, have found some excellent shows I knew nothing about as a result, and can see no reason not to keep it activated. But I give three thumbs down for shows for which I have SPs, so they don't get "suggested."
Posted by: askewed
but
I'd use it a lot more if alternate episode times were available.
Posted by: sync
quote:
But I give three thumbs down for shows for which I have SPs, so they don't get "suggested."
Wouldn't that defeat the way Suggestions works?
Now that I think of it perhaps that will improve the quality of suggestions I'm getting. :)
Posted by: Brad Bishop
Well, I turned Suggestions off initially because it would record (seemingly) everything. This was very bothersome to my wife as when she wanted to watch live TV she always got the message that it was trying to record something. After a month or so of using it I tried to turn Suggestions on again but it was still too aggressive in it's recordings. What I finally did was to go through the suggestions list and Thumbs Up or Thumbs down things that I knew that I wanted to see or knew that I didn't want to see. This made the Suggestions a lot more managable.
My theory is ('+' for Thumbs Up; '-' for Thumbs Down):
'---' Make sure I never see this show or anything like it. (I don't think I've ever Three-Thumbs downed any show).
'--' Make sure I don't ever see this show.
'-' I don't like this show/episode.
' ' I'm indifferent and just don't care.
'+' (automatically set via just recording the show). I liked it enough to record it.
'++' Good show. Get more of it.
'+++' I don't want to miss an episode! (of course, I realize that this is what Season pass is for, but I use it to 'send the TiVo a message about my preference).
It'd be nice if you could set up Suggestions (or Season Passes, for that matter) to not record during a block of hours. For instance, I might like watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on TNT, but don't necessarily want it to record it between 6PM - 10PM while I'm watching live TV (Yes, I do watch Live TV sometimes for news or sporting events).
Enjoy!
Brad
Posted by: oosik77
quote:
Originally posted by Brad Bishop
My theory is ('+' for Thumbs Up; '-' for Thumbs Down):
'---' Make sure I never see this show or anything like it. (I don't think I've ever Three-Thumbs downed any show).
'--' Make sure I don't ever see this show.
'-' I don't like this show/episode.
' ' I'm indifferent and just don't care.
'+' (automatically set via just recording the show). I liked it enough to record it.
'++' Good show. Get more of it.
'+++' I don't want to miss an episode! (of course, I realize that this is what Season pass is for, but I use it to 'send the TiVo a message about my preference).
Brad
Similar to yours but:
--- = Infomercial (Paid Programming!)
-- = Never use
- = Don't like it don't give it to me any more
my '+'s are like yours.
Posted by: CliffHanger
I have had them turned off because I never got more than one or two shows (unhacked units) and they were seldom something I wanted to see. I'll probably turn them back on when I get more disk space.
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