Sorting out recording schedules for Winter 2006 broadcast season

[dswallow]

It just took me almost 2 hours to sort out how to go about recording this season's shows with the new midseason additions I want to check out... it's getting more and more difficult! This is supposed to be what the damn TiVo does. Multi-unit scheduling needs to be seriously dealt with soon. ;)

I used to manage this in a text file; it had to become a spreadsheet to make it easier to figure out conflicts since I have to review things whenever I hear of some special schedule change.

http://www.2150.com/files/television_schedule_200601.jpg

B (red) & C (orange) represent two HR10-250's; the number is the season pass priority -- no indication of personal preferences is inteded by lower vs. higher numbers, that's just the order they were created.

[IwantmyTiVo]

Wow, that is impressive. I need to do that too. Thanks for the great idea.

You sure do record a lot of stuff. Do you watch all that stuff, or is some of that watched by other family members?


I see a couple of my favorites missing there -- Without a Trace and Monk ;)

[jeff125va]

The way I handle mine is I simply arrange my SP priorities in order of preference on one HR10-250, and arrange the list in reverse on my other one. That way, I'd have to have at least a 5-way conflict in order to actually miss something. And they'd all have to be HD shows - I have SPs for non-HD shows (That 70's Show, Survivor, Scrubs, Veronica Mars, couple others I think) only on my SD boxes.

[Scott Stevens]

That is a cool idea! Care to share the spreadsheet template?

[newsposter]

When I got my HDtivo for triple conflicts, on excel I ordered my SP by day of week(time), alpha, and by tivo assigned. It's great to have that info at a glance. It was obvious what conflicts needed to be resolved that way (day of week/time sort) and in what order. I created all the HD SP possible on the tivo entering them by day of week and time. Basically chronologically starting at Sunday. Of course there's an occasional HD program I had to shuttle to the T60. But the system worked well.

[dswallow]

The way I handle mine is I simply arrange my SP priorities in order of preference on one HR10-250, and arrange the list in reverse on my other one. That way, I'd have to have at least a 5-way conflict in order to actually miss something. And they'd all have to be HD shows - I have SPs for non-HD shows (That 70's Show, Survivor, Scrubs, Veronica Mars, couple others I think) only on my SD boxes.
I did think about doing it that way but it aggravated me enough with 3 or 4 shows I had set up on both to delete the extra copy -- and I don't always stay up to date watching things so it just gets messier with duplicates after a couple weeks.

[dswallow]

That is a cool idea! Care to share the spreadsheet template?
There's not really anything special about it except for column widths.

http://www.2150.com/files/television_schedule_200601.xls

[dswallow]

You sure do record a lot of stuff. Do you watch all that stuff, or is some of that watched by other family members?
Just me; though I did just add midseason replacements to the list making it longer than it was; we'll see how many of those stay. The only one I don't watch on there is Gilmore Girls -- I was planning to try but unsure if I want to just jump into this season or catch up from the beginning first. I'll have to decide soon; they're piling up on one of my DVR's and soon enough they'll be taking up more space than I want to dedicate to them.

[jeff125va]

I did think about doing it that way but it aggravated me enough with 3 or 4 shows I had set up on both to delete the extra copy -- and I don't always stay up to date watching things so it just gets messier with duplicates after a couple weeks.
Well, if that bothers you, then yeah, my method wouldn't work for you. Most stuff gets recorded on both - I have only a few 3-way conflicts and 4-ways are very rare. Even if the conflict is apparent on my spreadsheet (similar to yours) it's rare that they're all new episodes as well. But it doesn't bother me, especially since I'm sorta paranoid about crashes, and it serves the dual purpose of backup recordings (when there aren't conflicts, of course). We split our time pretty evenly between the two rooms, so we just delete whatever we've watched when we sit down to watch stuff. I also have to delete them from the SD unit as well - I have the non-HD shows at the top of that list, then the HD shows in the same order as the primary HD-TiVo. That actually comes in handy since I've been missing the first minute or so of a lot of shows on my HD units lately.

I guess the other disadvantage to my method is recording space. Right now I really feel the need to keep up on shows, because with only up to 70 & 77 hours of recording time, I have my SPs set to keep 3 episodes and save until space needed. I guess I could afford to get further behind if I weren't recording everything on both. But we've been keeping up a lot better this season, we actually have less than a page on the list right now.

[dswallow]

Well, if that bothers you, then yeah, my method wouldn't work for you. Most stuff gets recorded on both - I have only a few 3-way conflicts and 4-ways are very rare. Even if the conflict is apparent on my spreadsheet (similar to yours) it's rare that they're all new episodes as well. But it doesn't bother me, especially since I'm sorta paranoid about crashes, and it serves the dual purpose of backup recordings (when there aren't conflicts, of course). We split our time pretty evenly between the two rooms, so we just delete whatever we've watched when we sit down to watch stuff. I also have to delete them from the SD unit as well - I have the non-HD shows at the top of that list, then the HD shows in the same order as the primary HD-TiVo. That actually comes in handy since I've been missing the first minute or so of a lot of shows on my HD units lately.

I guess the other disadvantage to my method is recording space. Right now I really feel the need to keep up on shows, because with only up to 70 & 77 hours of recording time, I have my SPs set to keep 3 episodes and save until space needed. I guess I could afford to get further behind if I weren't recording everything on both. But we've been keeping up a lot better this season, we actually have less than a page on the list right now.

One other aspect I hadn't thought about before is that I use the EndPadPlus hack to automatically always try to have a 2 minute early start and 5 minute late end on every recording. If I were to have the same, alebit reversed, SP list on each unit, I'd be drastically reducing the times that the tuners would be free on one or both ends of a program in order to give me that extra padding.

[rockislandmike]

Monk rules, I really need to add that to my season passes.

[newsposter]

Monk rules, I really need to add that to my season passes.

I work with a monk clone. He'll put his styrofoam container on top of a napkin so it doesn't touch the table.

[gschrock]

One other aspect I hadn't thought about before is that I use the EndPadPlus hack to automatically always try to have a 2 minute early start and 5 minute late end on every recording. If I were to have the same, alebit reversed, SP list on each unit, I'd be drastically reducing the times that the tuners would be free on one or both ends of a program in order to give me that extra padding.

How does the EndPadPlus hack handle conflicts? I notice a couple days where the tuners are needed on seperate channels in the following hour block, which would cause issues with padding. (Like Wed, you have a tuner from B on at 8, then 2 tuners from B on at 9 on different channels).

I've been doing the same type of thing but just scribbling it on paper, although I have to admit, having an easily read format like yours would be handy for when I have to go through and figure out if anythings screwing something up. I pad everything, so that definitely makes figuring out the scheduling more of a pain. I do seem to spend more time planning my tv recording ever since getting a tivo than I ever did on planning what to watch before.

[dswallow]

How does the EndPadPlus hack handle conflicts? I notice a couple days where the tuners are needed on seperate channels in the following hour block, which would cause issues with padding. (Like Wed, you have a tuner from B on at 8, then 2 tuners from B on at 9 on different channels).
In those situations you just end up with no padding at the end of the 8pm show or at the beginning of one of the 9pm shows.

There should be a thread around here that goes into the details of how the script actually works, but it doesn't cause any conflicts itself; it's very passive and just creates extra recording time on everything where it can... even on suggestions.

[bdlucas]

http://www.2150.com/files/television_schedule_200601.jpg
Wow. How do you find any time left to post so much? And do you mult-task watching all these shows? :p

[dswallow]

Wow. How do you find any time left to post so much? And do you mult-task watching all these shows? :p
Think of all the time I don't watch commercials. :)

[murgatroyd]

I have a planner on MeeVee (http://www.meevee.com) which I use to keep track of what's on, and I juggle shows back and forth between our two SA TiVos.

Jan

[IwantmyTiVo]

I love making up lists like this and keeping track of my Tivo Season passes and such and looking for new shows to TiVo. But I think my husband (who is not into Tivo..could care less what he watches, or maybe just won't admit he loves it) thinks I am an obsessed lunatic. Thats not true (I don't think), is it? Does anyone else have a significant other who thinks we are nuts?

[DaveBogart]

My system is much easier, for me anyway: Tivo1 records everything on CBS. Tivo2 records everything on ABC. ReplayTV records everything of NBC. One tuner or the other on the cable box may be used to record anything I want to see in HB or on Fox, the WB, or any other channel. If more needs to be recorded (rare) there's a third TiVo elsewhere in the house, countless numbers of VCRs, and a computer that does an adequate job of acting like a DVR. Still, I somehow missed ER from last week.

[TIVO_GUY_HERE]

... ReplayTV records everything off NBC. ... Still, I somehow missed ER from last week.

hmmmmmm

[gschrock]

Does anyone else have a significant other who thinks we are nuts?

It's not my wife that thinks I'm nuts, it's the people I work with. They have a morbid fascination with just how far behind I am on my tv watching at times.

[jeff125va]

It's not my wife that thinks I'm nuts, it's the people I work with. They have a morbid fascination with just how far behind I am on my tv watching at times.
We get so far behind that sometimes I'M the one who thinks I'm nuts. At the beginning of this past summer, we had shows from February though May to get caught up on, and we barely did by the time the new season started.

But then I see people channel surf and complain that there's nothing on, or complain when everything is reruns, and I realize that I'm not nuts (well, at least not because of TiVo). We can sit down at any time of day, any day of the week or year, and there's always something on. And we never have to choose among shows that are on at the same time. Plus, we're keeping up much better this year - last week we had our Now Playing list down to less than a page. We'll probably get behind this spring, especially with the Olympics coming up and the Sopranos and Deadwood and 24 returning, but so what?

[jschuur]

Here's the format I use. Yellow for the HD DirecTiVo, green for SD. Bold are shows in HD, italics for shows that I don't watch on a weekly basis.

Damn I still watch a lot of TV :(

[tomm1079]

I have a planner on MeeVee (http://www.meevee.com) which I use to keep track of what's on, and I juggle shows back and forth between our two SA TiVos.

Jan

not a bad idea..ill have to check this thing out..

[cwoody222]

As if Thursdays couldn't get worse now we have the NBC comedies at 9-10 plus The OC moved to 9 plus the new show Crumbs.

Ugh.

[myriadian]

there actually aren't that many shows i'll be watching this season. which doesn't m ean m y sp list isn't 63 items long or something. but i have buffy, st:ds9, farscape, etc sp's that catch repeats of shows just because i like filling time up with them when i'm bored and there's nothing else on tv i want to watch.

currently what i can remember of the top of my sp list is:
sg1
sg: atlantis
bsg
charmed
ER
smallville
4400
surface
invasion

so aside from now, frontline, in the life, and some other pbs or sciencey shows (oh, and cartoons of course) that's about all that will get recorded for new eps.

[newsposter]

It's not my wife that thinks I'm nuts, it's the people I work with. They have a morbid fascination with just how far behind I am on my tv watching at times.

either get a fascination with something mundane in their lives or stop talking to them :)

or tell them you can't wait to watch the superbowl because you heard janet jackson did something cool