Dual tuner acting like single tuner?

[coldtoes]

Has anyone else been having trouble with their dual tuner lately? Mine is acting like it's scheduling the first program requested on the box tuner, and then when a second program is requested that is only available on digital, it's failing to move the first one to the analog tuner. So, for instance, I notice True Blood isn't scheduled to record at 9:00 on Sunday, so I schedule it, and TiVo says it will have to cancel Cold Case, even though Cold Case is the only thing scheduled at 9. So I cancel Cold Case, then go back into my Cold Case SP and select that episode to be recorded, and then TiVo happily records both.

It's possible there's something else going on that I've failed to notice (like a padded show at 8:00 that is in fact taking up the second 9pm slot, but I tried to check for this and that didn't seem to be the case. And if it were, then I should have gotten a conflict message when I re-scheduled the 9pm show) but I thought I'd see if anyone else is having problems, since this has happened to me 3-4 times in the last week. Has there been a minor-version software upgrade recently? Or has my TiVo just gotten wonky all on its own?

[NJ_HB]

Check your channel list and make sure that you only have either BOX or CABLE checked for each channel your receive, NOT both. This would cause a false conflict to present itself.

[pdhenry]

And to clarify, if you can receive the channel without the box, check CABLE and not BOX.

[Ben_Jamin75]

After going into the channel list and deselecting all the "box" channels that are available on your lineup without a box ("cbl"), you may have to re-setup your cold case season pass.

[coldtoes]

Thanks for the tips; unfortunately this is not the problem. I did just double-check, in case someone had accidentally messed with the channel list, but the analog channels are all correctly identified.

Anybody have any other ideas? I guess it is something on my end (TiVo gone bad or user error (PEBCAR?)) since no one else seems to be having similar problems.

This has been working fine for years (or however long DTs have been in existence) so has to be something that has changed recently rather than something that was set up incorrectly from the start. I unfortunately failed to check the recording history before I scheduled the missing shows to see why TiVo claimed to not be recording them in the first place, but I will do that if it happens again and maybe that will provide some clues.

[pdhenry]

There's always the chance that a reboot might solve it.

[coldtoes]

There's always the chance that a reboot might solve it.Heh, that's always the advice I give anyone else with mysterious problems, but of course didn't think of it when the problem was mine!

Good idea - I will give that a shot.

[coldtoes]

This is definitely a weird problem. I have tried rebooting as well as deleting and recreating the affected season passes and wishlists. Deleting and re-adding the SP seemed to work for Prison Break, which was not recording due to an alleged conflict with Heroes, and now both are correctly scheduled. It also worked for my True Blood wish list when I deleted the 5-minute padding at the end (which should not have been a factor, since only one analog program was scheduled in the subsequent hour) but did not work for the Entourage wish list, which still has a +5 padding at the end (and, again, only one analog program scheduled at the same time as the padding.)

The dual tuner has always been perfectly reliable until recently, so I'm trying to figure out what could have changed. (Too many SPs??? There are 91.)

If I get any more data towards figuring this out (or if I figure out that I am an idiot, but I have tried to triple-check everything and I'm pretty sure it's not me) I'll post in case anyone else is noticing this.

[David_NC]

Are the shows that give the problem on a station that is simultaneously broadcasting the same programming in both analog and digital?

[BullsLawDan]

I'm having the exact same problem, and it has poured over to Overlap protection as well.

Tivo tells me that a program will be "clipped" because there are already 2 shows being recorded - and there are absolutely not.

It's a bug in Tivo as far as I can tell. It's really pissing me off.

[coldtoes]

Sorry I stopped following up on this when people were offering advice - I got busy and then it wasn't a problem for a while. But it has happened again today so I am going to try and document the problem more meticulously this time.

Here's my current situation:

on Friday 1/16, only 3 shows scheduled to record, all via SPs
9:00 pm CBS - Flashpoint
10:00 pm CBS - Numb3rs
12:00 am SciFi - Battlestar Galactica. Why isn't this episode recording in its initial airing at 10:00 pm? If I schedule it manually TiVo tells me it will have to cancel Numb3rs
Overlap protection is off
first two shows not padded, BG is padded by 5 minutes at the end
CBS is avail on both Cable and Box so Cable is chosen
SciFi is a Box channel
CBS broadcasts in both analog and digital, but I only have analog checked
Recording History makes no mention of the 10pm occurrence of BG. It does not appear to acknowledge conflicts in other cases where the episode gets recorded later, so presumably this is as designed.
Season Pass priorities: Flashpoint #35, Numb3rs #37, Battlestar #48
S2 DT TiVo (649)
Total SPs: 88
Capacity: 328 hours

Now, based on my previous experience, if I tell BG to record at 10 and cancel Numb3rs, then choose to record the episode of Numb3rs that just got canceled both will record fine. I'm going to wait a few days to do this because I did notice that 1/16 is the penultimate day of guide data, so it's possible something funky's going on because it's so close to the end of the guide data. But I'm pretty sure I tried the waiting game once before and it didn't solve anything.

Also this way if anyone has any good ideas about something I should check or do for troubleshooting purposes then the problem still exists. If you have any thoughts or suggestions let me know, and I will post any additional findings I have and maybe we can get to the bottom of it.

[Ben_Jamin75]

Is the channel number is CBS on your lineup the same for box & for cbl? (For mine, box is 11 and cbl is 7).

I don't have my S2DT anymore, but I'm wondering if your season pass for Numb3rs is set to the box channel. It's the only thing that would explain why tivo thinks it can't record scifi at 10pm. I would try deleting the season pass for Numb3rs, then recreate the season pass and put it in the same slot in the season pass manager. Let it "cook" for a day and then check the to do list.

[coldtoes]

The channel number is the same on box & analog.

I can't see how the SP could be set up on a box channel when the box channel isn't selected in channels I receive. But that certainly would explain the behavior, so I have deleted and re-added the SP. That of course fixes the problem immediately (as it would have if I had just canceled that one episode and then re-scheduled it.) I guess I need to wait until Friday 1/30 makes it in to the guide data and see what it does with Battlestar Galactica then.

If the channel numbers are the same (CBS is 4 on box and cable) does TiVo actually distinguish between the two? I would have thought that technically that was the same season pass and it just uses Channels I Receive to determine how to change to that channel.

[unclemoosh]

Coldtoes,

Are your SP's set from Wishlists or from the guide?

If they are set from Wishlists, it may be trying to record them from the wrong source causing the conflict. I have seen this behavior on ST models trying to record from channels not received and recording nothing. :confused:

[dougcan]

Could your cable company be at fault? Our Cable company just required that we start to use a Digital Converter Box because our TV didn't have a Digital QAM tuner built in.
Now we can only record one station at a time on our Dual Tuner Series 2 but the TIVO doesn't realize that and does not let me know when a request is in conflict.
Is there any way for me to tell it that it can only get one station to record at a time?
Any way to learn when two programs were scheduled to be recorded at the same time? (Most were to be recorded only when first run so not all conflicts show on todo list)
Your post was the nearest to my problem that I discovered. If I need to post elsewhere, could you direct me? This is our first major problem since we started with TIVO almost 5 years ago.
Thanks, Doug & Barbara