TiVo Community Forums Archives - Season Passes are too Lazy!!

TiVoCommunity.com
(c)opyright 1995-2005 All rights reserved
indexcheckTC
This area is a static history of posts in the TiVo Community Forum Archive.
This archive history was made for the simple indexing of search sites like Google.

Pages:1

Season Passes are too Lazy!!
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: robertj49

I set up a season pass for the Speilberg Taken series. (That alone might be a mistake.) I had already had a season pass for a series on National Geographic.. TIVO told me that one of the TAKEN's would not record, because it conflicted with one of the other season pass entries. I checked the list future showings option, and easily found a different showing of the TAKEN that did NOT conflict with the other series. The question is, why didn't TIVO know this? If I had said, ok, record my season pass without that episode (one of my choices), would it have been recorded without that episode, even though another showing of that episode was easily available that did NOT conflict with anything else scheduled? What is the microprocessor doing in there, anyway...???

Posted by: jsmeeker

The SP conflict thing is simple. If two things are on at the same time, the one with the higher priority (higher in the SP list, the one with a lower number) gets recorded. That's it. No looking out into the future. That is the way it works. Just juggle the order of the entries in the SP Manager.

Posted by: dgh

It will. Depending on how you prioritize it, it will grab a first or second (or in the case of Taken, 3rd, 4th, 5th...) showing.

Posted by: Knative

It would have recorded the first non-conflicting episode (if any) automatically. Mine does this and grabs the 1:00 am repeat showing instead of that day's first showing.

For me this is fine, I don't watch today's episode until tomorrow anyway. But someone may want to watch the 8:00 episode that night at 10:00. If the warning didn't come up that the 8:00 episode wouldn't be recorded they'd be screaming that TiVo didn't do what it said it would, even though it will grab that day's episode. Only the first thing next morning. It only takes one extra button push on View Upcoming to see the double check marks by every episode title. Or their absence.

Also the majority of network shows don't repeat later that night. A show like Friends only comes on once on Thursday. If it conflicts you're not getting it recorded. The conflict notification seems weighted more toward a Friends (one chance) scenario than a Taken (with it's many repeats) scenario.

Posted by: brettatk

If you had waited a little while, I am sure you would have seen TAKEN show up on the TODO list at another recording time. TIVO acted correctly by letting you know that it would not record at the same time National Geographic would. But if you selected Ok, record with these choices and immediately looked at your TODO list it would not reflect that it would record the next airing of TAKEN.

Brett

Posted by: robertj49

So are you saying that if I had clicked, ok, record without this episode, it would record that episode anyway at another time? Or if I had said, ok, record all THESE episodes and don't record the OTHER conflicting episode, then another showing of the other conflicting episode would be recorded anyway? Somewhere TIVO is lying to me, in either of these cases....

Posted by: dgh

quote:
Originally posted by robertj49
Somewhere TIVO is lying to me, in either of these cases....

I haven't looked at a conflict screen in a few hours but I think it lists the actual times of the episodes that won't be recorded. Those specific showings will not be recorded but other showings of the same episode will/may be.

Posted by: kimsan

quote:
Originally posted by robertj49
So are you saying that if I had clicked, ok, record without this episode, it would record that episode anyway at another time? Or if I had said, ok, record all THESE episodes and don't record the OTHER conflicting episode, then another showing of the other conflicting episode would be recorded anyway? Somewhere TIVO is lying to me, in either of these cases....

I saw similar when setting up a "Taken" First Run Only Season Pass. The conflict screen showed me several episodes that would not be recorded due to conflict with higher priority, but EVERY episode was listed and ready to record...just not on the first airing time. I *knew* it would catch the later showings, I just wasn't expecting it to inform me about every conflict that prevented the first air recordings. Guess TiVo was just being chatty and proud of its accomplishment :)

Gotta love it.

cheers,

kim

Posted by: Knative

quote:
Originally posted by robertj49
Somewhere TIVO is lying to me, in either of these cases....

It's not lying to you. It will tell you "I won't record the 8:00 pm episode of Taken on Friday". That's a fact, it won't since it conflicts. What it's not doing is telling you "But I'll record the 1:00 am repeat of that same episode instead". For that you can use the View Upcoming Episodes button. Yes, you have to take an extra step for a series that repeats the same episode multiple times. But as I said above, most shows you only have one chance to record that episode. So TiVo errs on the side of caution.

Posted by: edrock200

It will record the next episode as long as the guide data is good. I record "Smallville." I decided to record something else in it's time slot a few weeks ago. Smallville has an encore presentation on Sundays. So I went ahead to Sunday in the guide to record the repeated showing. To my surprise, it was already selected. Sometimes it may take a few minutes to pull it, but it will automatically record it, AS LONG AS THE GUIDE DATA IS GOOD. Channels like Comedy Central or TechTV probably won't handle this very well.

Posted by: smak

Maybe they don't need to actually tell you the 2nd airing they are going to record instead of the conflicted first, but perhaps they could just add a line of text that explains that tivo will not record the 8 showing, but will look for any other showings and record those...

-smak-

Posted by: dgh

I'd love to see that in the recording history too. i.e. in addition to "This show won't be recorded because of a higher priority conflict"

add: "But don't worry because I found a later showing of this episode to record anyway."

Posted by: GregV

Yeah, TiVo should definitely distinguish between "will not record" and "will record later." It's not obvious to new users, and I wouldn't have to do the occasional manual rescheduling if they did. I think I might have suggested this to them before, since they already have the "view upcoming episodes" functionality necessary to do this.

Another thing I suggested to them is to have a more sophisticated scheduling mechanism. Basically, an episode of a higher-priority show would never be cancelled by something lower priority, but it could be bumped if it's the difference between getting and not getting the lower priority show. Then you wouldn't have to take into account whether a show has repeats during the week in the season pass manager, you could just put your favorites first. The algorithm for making a simple (not perfect, but probably adequate) version of this isn't that hard. There could also be a season pass option for "never bump this show."

But then again, if they're not willing to tackle soft padding, I doubt they'll tackle this. It's a shame that they don't seem to be pushing the core functionality of the box much anymore. But, new features are what sell, and they do seem to be working on "view upcoming episodes" in Showcases at least.

Posted by: MighTiVo

My experience is that TiVo does lie to you. It says what will not be recorded not taking into account program details. Then once it starts building the todo list it takes off the repeated programs and thus theprogram with the conflict shows up.

Posted by: robertj49

Does TIVO do this on wishlists only, or wishlists and season passes only, or on trying to record a single show or movie too, which you might have given up getting?

Posted by: Joey303

It will pick-up a later airing on a Season Pass. It will pick-up a later airing on an Auto-Record WishList. IF THE GUIDE DATA IS ACCURATE.

A one-time recording will not be picked-up at a later time.

Posted by: robertj49

How long should that take? I over-rode a recording of Taken, for which I had a season pass, to record something else. I knew there was another showing of it 4 hours later. I waited about an hour, but still did not see the new showing listed on my to be recorded list. I finally manually added it, afraid I would miss it. How fast should TIVO correct itself? At the speed of computers, it should not take that long, one would think...

Posted by: grecorj

quote:
Originally posted by robertj49
How long should that take? I over-rode a recording of Taken, for which I had a season pass, to record something else. I knew there was another showing of it 4 hours later. I waited about an hour, but still did not see the new showing listed on my to be recorded list. I finally manually added it, afraid I would miss it. How fast should TIVO correct itself? At the speed of computers, it should not take that long, one would think...

I guess the answer is "it depends".

A few days ago I cancelled 1 of 2 recordings I had scheduled for 8pm. This was at about 630pm. By 7pm the To Do List was updated. How do I know this? Because TiVo started recording a show from 7-8pm which normally would not have recorded (airs 7-8, 1 minute end pad; 2 8pm shows had higher priority, so it hadn't been in the To Do List).

It does take a bit of time to update the To Do List, depending on what TiVo is doing at the time and the number of entries in your SPM. I expect if I had cancelled at 6:59pm that the change wouldn't have been in time. But in your case, 4 hours should have been more than sufficient. Trust TiVo next time!

Posted by: Rob Helmerichs

One trick I've found under these circumstances: Go into Season Pass Manager, and move the pass for the show in question up or down one. It will then redraw the To Do list.

In my experience, this is almost always effective.

Posted by: robertj49

Hey, medieval guy, that's a great tip. You know, the wording TIVO uses is upsetting. When I chose to record the other show instead, TIVO said something such as Do you want to record the new show and cancel the recording of the old show? This kind of implies that I am voluntarily relinquishing my request to record the first show, and suggests that I shouldn't be surprised if the first show is thus not recorded... I wish TIVO would tell me, thanks, we've rescheduled the recording of the first show.....(I alwo wish I won the lottery.....)

Posted by: grecorj

It is a little confusing, but I think the conflict message is effective. It's basically telling you, "Hey, dummy, I'm recording something during that timeslot already -- what should I do?"

The show(s) it offers to cancel is the lower priority show during that timeslot if you have a combo box; it is the only recording it you have a standalone.

If you're still unsure, don't get the new SP/one time recording, check your TDL, and then go back and recreate the new recording.

I agree that TiVo could have taken it one step further - "If I get this new SP/one time recording and have to cancel a previously scheduled recording to do it, can I grab the same episode of that previously scheduled recording at a later date? Or is the newly scheduled recording available at a later date?" TiVo really does do both of those things...it just doesn't confirm that it will get a later airing of the previously scheduled program if you choose to cancel it.