Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 114

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?

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Registered: Mar 2000
Location: location, location.
Posts: 2054

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.

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Registered: Jun 2001
Location: Boston, MA, USA
Posts: 81

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_.

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location: In the wilds of West Michigan
Posts: 890

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.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 114

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.

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Fort Worth, TX USA
Posts: 1307

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.

---

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Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
Posts: 2

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

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Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Newburyport, MA
Posts: 390

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.

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Registered: Nov 2001
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 32

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!

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: USA
Posts: 149

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.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Posts: 67

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.

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Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Van Down By the River
Posts: 143

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!

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Registered: Mar 2000
Location: South San Francisco, CA
Posts: 129

Nope. Usually shows movies I have already seen.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 114

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.

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Conway, AR, USA
Posts: 263

Suggestions has found some good shows that I would not have recorded otherwise.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: ... now in Wilkes County NC
Posts: 1667

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.

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Registered: Dec 2001
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
Posts: 2

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

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Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Southeast of Disorder
Posts: 75

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??!!

Last edited by Rainy Dave on 01-30-2002 at 01:37 AM

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location:
Posts: 114

I guess I'm too particular. Getting dozens of suggestions for reruns that I've already seen isn't very interesting to me.

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Registered: Dec 2001
Location:
Posts: 4

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

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