Are EAS (emergency alerts) supposed to record?

[Newbie]

When an EAS message strike, the Tivo stops whatever it is playing and switch to displaying that alert.

In addition, EAS message also gets recorded in shows. Luckily it resumes recording the show after the message. Does the FCC mandate that DVRs record the alert, in addition to displaying it live?

Is there a way to avoid the useless test alerts? For some reason I've been getting alot of these (average one per day) in the past 2 months. Very often the Tivo remain unresponsive for half a minute even after the alert is gone.

I'm using comcast, and have 2 cable cards.

[dkenglish7]

At least you get the alert recorded. I get just a black screen and unresponsive Tivo (series 3). I wouldn't even know what was going on if not for the adjacent Comcast box, which shows "EAS" on the front panel display.

[bkdtv]

When an EAS message strike, the Tivo stops whatever it is playing and switch to displaying that alert.

In addition, EAS message also gets recorded in shows. Luckily it resumes recording the show after the message. Does the FCC mandate that DVRs record the alert, in addition to displaying it live?

Is there a way to avoid the useless test alerts? For some reason I've been getting alot of these (average one per day) in the past 2 months. Very often the Tivo remain unresponsive for half a minute even after the alert is gone.Federal law requires that the EAS messages be displayed. They cannot be bypassed or dismissed by the user when watching TV. I don't think the alerts have to be recorded, but that's what the TiVo does when video output is active.

If you set your TiVo to "standby" (disables video output), the TiVo is able to legally ignore EAS messages....because it knows you aren't watching TV. Since you're seeing EAS messages on a regular basis in your area, I would probably do that so they don't interrupt your recordings.

[twhiting9275]

In addition, EAS message also gets recorded in shows. Luckily it resumes recording the show after the message. Does the FCC mandate that DVRs record the alert, in addition to displaying it live?

Here's the deal with this:

The EAS takes over your channel, so there's no way for the Tivo to not record it. As far as Tivo is concerned, it's what is broadcast over the channel @ that specific time

As far as while watching recorded shows:
I hate this with a passion. I'll be in the show, and this will all of the sudden just come on. Tivo is mandated (as said earlier) to broadcast this interferance garbage, despite the fact that you're not watching "live TV". Why? Most likely because the channel IS on a "live tv" channel that is mandated to process those..

The second is of course a guess, but the first is pretty well known. The EAS is a major PITA espcially when just "testing" things out. They really need to regulate that more, but thankfully I rarely catch those.

[orangeboy]

A tornado warning was issued last night in my area. Only one of my tuners was viewing the channel with the EAS message. I hit "Live TV" to switch tuners, and it was tuned to Discovery HD. Should both tuners have been tuned to the channel with the EAS message?

[pl1]

When an EAS message strike, the Tivo stops whatever it is playing and switch to displaying that alert.
When the S3 first came out, any EAS would blow out the recording and go to live TV losing everything. Which I believe is what the cable company's DVRs do as well. Be grateful that TiVo fixed it so it continues to record. I know I am.

[blacknoi]

I've had 2 EAS in the last 2 days.

- 1. a EAS test
- 2. a child abduction alert, but they never actually said ANYTHING about who it was or where it happened.

I really hate EAS, regardless of the intention.

[morac]

I think the EAS implementation on the TiVo is a bit flawed. I had 2 EAS's last night. The first was an amber alert :rolleyes: and the second was a message canceling the amber alert. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Any way during the first EAS, I noticed that after the EAS ended, the TiVo stayed "locked" for about 90 more seconds and then finally returned control to me.

During the second EAS, I decided to see what my cable box did. It too "locked" the interface during the EAS (the only thing that worked was the on/off button), but the moment the EAS ended control was returned. The TiVo waited between 1 to 2 minutes to return control.

So the TiVo seems to be padding the alerts which is annoying.

[twhiting9275]

So the TiVo seems to be padding the alerts which is annoying.

My s3 does the same thing, which, as you said, is quite annoying!

[daveak]

Is this just a cable issue or can the EAS effect OTA? (Have not had the box long enough to see one and we rarely get them anyway...)

[twhiting9275]

Is this just a cable issue or can the EAS effect OTA? (Have not had the box long enough to see one and we rarely get them anyway...)

EAS affects all signal, OTA or cable AFAIK

[reneg]

When an EAS occurs, my Tivo HD with cablecard drops out of whatever it's doing and takes me to live TV. The EAS message displays as a slow, overlayed red text crawl at the top of the screen. It does not change channels and the Tivo continues to record the correct programs on both tuners. Remote is locked during the EAS. The EAS message continues to display over and over until the clear key on the remote button is pressed to exit the EAS message.

The EAS behavior changed in the last year on my Tivo HD. It used to be a lot worse. I'm not sure if it's because of the cablecard or a Tivo software update or both. Comcast changed from Motorola to SA cablecards early this year and spring/early summer is usually the busy time for weather related EAS broadcasts.

[aindik]

This happened last night at 10:02. Amber alert. You might remember that the American Idol finale was on from 8p - 10:07p.

So, at 10:02, it dumps out of my recording (I was about an hour into the show, so about an hour behind live) to show me the Amber Alert. Fine. But when it's over (last night, 10:04), it dumps back into live TV. When live TV is the last five minutes of the American Idol finale, once you see whose face is on the screen singing, you know who won. Nice of TiVo's EAS implementation to spoil the Idol finale for me. :down::down::down:

[Graymalkin]

Comcast of New Jersey had about a dozen EAS interruptions last night from 10 p.m. until 11:20 p.m. or so. While all three of my HD TiVos were recording programs. They continued long after the Amber Alert that triggered the first EAS was cancelled. Extremely annoying.

[morac]

They continued long after the Amber Alert that triggered the first EAS was cancelled. Extremely annoying.

I'd complain that Amber alerts should trigger an EAS (since unless the guy's in my house the alert is useless), but that would behttp://ui31.gamespot.com/1214/deadhorsebeat_2.gif .