Tivo is getting on my every nerve

[JeffN]

I still like it better than no Tivo, but some glaring deficiencies have begun to stand out in the few months I've been using it.

Perhaps I am not using it correctly, but here is what happened to me last night, and made me want to throw the tivo out the window.

I was watching the Pistions/Lakers championship final last night. I have a 1100 and 1130 show set up as season passes.

Of course at 11pm it pops up the message that it is about to change channels on me. Now, this in it self is not so annoying, but the thing is, the other tuner is recording some garbage I will never in a million years watch.

But it did pop up the warning early enough that I could switch over to the other tuner and cancel the garbage it was recording, and watch the game on the other tuner while the season pass did its thing. That time it only forced me to miss a minute or so of the game while I figured out the switch, thanks Tivo!

However at the 1130 season pass, which is on the same channel as the 1100, the tivo decided I was tired of watching the Pistions/Lakers and changed the channel for me without prompting first!
This time Tivo forced me to miss several minutes of the game, as it took me a while to figure out how to get the game back on while letting it continue its recording.

Thank god it wasnt a close game at that point or the Tivo would have gone out window for sure, and I would regret that in the morning! :)

While I only missed a few minutes of game, if that had happened to my wife who is not so remotecontrol/tech savvy, I dont think she could have gotten back to what she was watching.

What I dont understand is why it had to use the tuner I was watching the game on to do both the recordings on. It should know.. that if I am watching something on live tv.. and it is recording something I didnt ask for, it should cancel the recording I didnt ask for.. if something I did request needs to start.

And if there are 2 recordings scheduled back to back on the same channel.. why in the world would it try to put that on different tuners, again interupting what I was watching live.

Also, never ever ever never change the channel on me without asking.

And the constant 1/2 second stutters bother me to no end, maybe I am autistic or something.

And and and.. the remote control! Whoever designed that remote must have at least one double jointed finger to reach all the buttons! The number pad and the last channel button are all too deep in my hand to reach without using two hands. There should be a contest to see if there is a human being alive who can reach the channel up and guide buttons and also reach the last channel button without repositioning the remote. Ergonomics!

Phew... sorry for my rant, I feel better now.

[HappyGoLucky]

I have mine set to not record the suggestions automatically. It only records what I tell it to, nothing more. Using the Season Pass Manager and altering the priorities, I rarely get a conflict with recording times.

What is the 1/2 second stutter? I've never seen any such stuttering in my now 7 months with my Hughes HDVR2. As to the remote, it has been hailed as one of the best designed remotes in the electronics industry, winning many awards over the years. The most-used buttons are placed within easy reach. No matter what the design there are going to be some buttons that are necessarily harder, Tivo simply chose the ones that by doing extensive focus-groups tests proved to be the least used.

[missileman]

I still like it better than no Tivo, but some glaring deficiencies have begun to stand out in the few months I've been using it.

Perhaps I am not using it correctly, but here is what happened to me last night, and made me want to throw the tivo out the window.

I was watching the Pistions/Lakers championship final last night. I have a 1100 and 1130 show set up as season passes.

Of course at 11pm it pops up the message that it is about to change channels on me. Now, this in it self is not so annoying, but the thing is, the other tuner is recording some garbage I will never in a million years watch.

But it did pop up the warning early enough that I could switch over to the other tuner and cancel the garbage it was recording, and watch the game on the other tuner while the season pass did its thing. That time it only forced me to miss a minute or so of the game while I figured out the switch, thanks Tivo!

However at the 1130 season pass, which is on the same channel as the 1100, the tivo decided I was tired of watching the Pistions/Lakers and changed the channel for me without prompting first!
This time Tivo forced me to miss several minutes of the game, as it took me a while to figure out how to get the game back on while letting it continue its recording.

Thank god it wasnt a close game at that point or the Tivo would have gone out window for sure, and I would regret that in the morning! :)

While I only missed a few minutes of game, if that had happened to my wife who is not so remotecontrol/tech savvy, I dont think she could have gotten back to what she was watching.

What I dont understand is why it had to use the tuner I was watching the game on to do both the recordings on. It should know.. that if I am watching something on live tv.. and it is recording something I didnt ask for, it should cancel the recording I didnt ask for.. if something I did request needs to start.

And if there are 2 recordings scheduled back to back on the same channel.. why in the world would it try to put that on different tuners, again interupting what I was watching live.

Also, never ever ever never change the channel on me without asking.

And the constant 1/2 second stutters bother me to no end, maybe I am autistic or something.

And and and.. the remote control! Whoever designed that remote must have at least one double jointed finger to reach all the buttons! The number pad and the last channel button are all too deep in my hand to reach without using two hands. There should be a contest to see if there is a human being alive who can reach the channel up and guide buttons and also reach the last channel button without repositioning the remote. Ergonomics!

Phew... sorry for my rant, I feel better now.

Yep...Sounds like TIVO suggestions are "ON".......Turn it off....sounds like the system wanted to record two different programs while you were watching a third......

I had a similar problem until i turned off suggestions recording.

[BrettStah]

I just told it to record the Lakers/Pistons game, and then there is no chance of any channel changes. I've gotten burned a few times by watching a game live without recording it, where I or a kid or a pet accidentally changes channels, or I pause and wind up being away longer than expected, or something that is scheduled to record pops up to switch channels and I'm away at the time, etc. Much simpler to just record what I'm watching.

[bonscott87]

If you don't do anything using the remote for a period of time (say 20 minutes) it thinks that you are not watching TV and will use the tuners as needed. Sounds like at 11:30 it wanted to record your program plus another suggestion, thus forcing the channel changes because it didn't think you were watching TV.

2 things to do here:
1) Turn off suggestions if you don't ever watch them or don't want them. I haven't had suggestions turned on for over 3 years.
2) Record the game! ;) If I am watching a game, even live, I setup a recording. This will prevent any and all other recording while I am watching. Including if I have 2 season passes scheduled. This will prevent me from having to cancel one on the fly. By setting up the recording I am telling it that the game is of highest priority and it will cancel any season passes as needed so the game will stay on. Plus if something unforseen happens and I need to stop watching I don't care as it's recording. And you should of course pad such sporting events that might go into overtime just in case.

Good luck!

[rrbhokies]

I don't think you have to use the last channel button on the bottom of the remote. I found that if you press the "down" arrow on the remote, the box will toggle between the two tuners. I found this to be extremely helpful. I have a Samsung 4040, so I don't know if this is unique to that box or if it's applicable to all units, but I didn't see anyone mention that yet.

Also, I know exactly what JeffN is talking about. Anytime I switch tuners, there is a momentary skip where the audio drops out for a 1/2 second or so. It will also record this, so when I go back to watch a pre-recorded event, the skip is recorded on the hard drive. Again, I have the Samsung 4040 and have been a customer for a little more than a month and it's done it since day one as best I can recall. It's annoying, but sadly (or not), I've gotten used to it, and it doesn't bother me nearly as much as it did when it first started happening.

[JeffN]

Thanks for tolerating my ranting :)

I am going to turn off suggestions I think, the negative aspects of it seem to outweigh the postive. I was just trying to live the full tivo experience before I started shutting off features!

I did not know that about the remote being idle for 20 minutes, so if I am watching a long game maybe I can remember to bump info or something (that is if I am not recording it as you guys have suggested!)

Turning off suggestions should also help with the stuttering. I had asked about this on this forum earlier.. someone had said it is the buffer unloading when a record starts on the other tuner. If I turn off suggestions, the other tuner is much less likely to be starting and stopping recording.

And also with no suggestions, the other tuner will be less busy, and more easily used as a 'last channel' button on the remote!

Thanks again for the tips!

[bonscott87]

Good luck!

I'll take you even a step further. I get NFL Sunday Ticket. Part of my Sunday morning "pre-game" is to completely clear the D'Tivo of all recordings for the whole day until 8pm (unless something that just can't be missed is scheduled). That way both tuners are mine, all mine for football. I typically have my team (Bears) on one tuner and use the other tuner to flip between all the other games. If I happen to miss something my Bears did when I flip back to it I just rewind and watch the action I missed. And so on. I usually don't record any of the games because I don't care about them that much, I prefer to watch them live so I get my money's worth. But with the schedule cleared it won't be changing channels on me to record anything so I don't need to record anything.

Lot's of ways to use that D'Tivo!

[BrettStah]

Just don't forget that just because you clear all recordings that are currently scheduled, that doesn't mean that it won't schedule other things that previously weren't able to be scheduled because of the higher-priority recordings that you just conveniently cancelled.

Also, don't forget that if you remove an item from the To Do List by deleting it (pressing the Clear button, or going into the show details and choosing the option to not record it), you're telling your Tivo that you don't want that episode of the show to be recorded for at least 28 days, so if it re-airs later that week or month, your Tivo won't re-schedule it automatically (but you can obviously manually choose another airing).

In case you can't tell, I've had both of these things happen to me. :)

[gglockner]

To recap a number of good suggestions:

1. Record the game. I have a season pass for Giants baseball, set to pad the end by 90 minutes and only keep one episode. Better yet, come to the game late, and fast forward through the commercials, time outs, etc. I can watch a baseball game in about 45 minutes -- much more fun that way!

2. Turn off the automatic recording of suggestions. Frankly, my wife thinks they're too much like Big Brother watching what we record. :icon_stup You can still go to TiVo suggestions and manually select some of its suggested programs.

3. When I want to listen to music or when I have guests coming over for a visit, I go to the To Do list and delete extraneous recordings. That way, I can "watch" Music Choice or let guests watch TV normally. (Once you get the zen of TiVo, you probably won't watch live TV again).

4. Go to Remote Central (http://www.remotecentral.com) and find yourself a better remote. I love my Home Theater Master MX-700, though there are other fine choices out there.