Weird behavior recording in progress

[ignavia]

Did TiVo change the buffer length or behavior or something?

Here's what happened...

We wanted to record Tosh on Comedy Central tonight, but forgot. Came in to record it, and the TiVo was already tuned to CC, but the hour special had already been on for 45 minutes. We figured, ah well, we'll miss the first 15 minutes.

So we hit record, record this episode.

But we ended up with a single 90-minute recording, the 1-hour Tosh special, preceded by the last 30 minutes of the Kevin Hart special that was on before it. The crazy thing is, when you press Info, you get the info for the Kevin Hart special if you're in that part, but after the :30 mark, you get info for Tosh. In My Shows, it shows up as Tosh, and when you play it from there, it starts at the :30 point in the recording.

Is this crazy, or am I late to the game on something?

[steve614]

You are not crazy. Maybe late to the game...

Others here (including me) have experienced this before. It has to do with how live TV is saved to the hard drive which does not coincide with the live TV buffer.
Someone else could probably explain it better.

[ignavia]

Ok... anybody wanna give it a shot?

[steve614]

I found an old thread on the subject, but it doesn't really explain the why.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=398653

Some people think it is by design, some think it is a bug.
Personally, I think it is by design. I'd rather the Tivo save 'too much' rather than 'not enough'.

[orangeboy]

My guess would be that the buffer is based on a minimum file size, but still limited to 30 minutes when directly interacting with it through the UI. So if the TiVo is reserving a minimum of 1GB of space for the buffer, and a 30 minute standard definition show only uses 800MB of space, the extra 200MB would be filled in with a few (or several) minutes of the previous show. If a 30 minute high definition show takes more than 1GB, then the buffer would have to be expanded as needed. That's just my theory.

[ignavia]

As far as the "infamous" live buffer bug, I can't say that I've ever noticed that in the seven years that I've had a TiVo.

What's so confusing to me is how I ended up with an hour and fifteen minute buffer. And also how the info screen changes depending on where you are in the recording. If I pad a live show by an hour, but it ends on time, I can watch whatever came on after it, but the info is still for the original show.

[steve614]

Do you by chance have an upgraded hard drive in that Premiere?


Maybe the live buffer gets expanded along with the recording space?

[ignavia]

Nope.

[L David Matheny]

Maybe the live buffer gets expanded along with the recording space?



I wish! The live buffer should be at least an hour, and preferably settable.

[aaronwt]

I wish! The live buffer should be at least an hour, and preferably settable.

Why? Whether it's 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 60 minutes, for me it would very, very rarely make any difference.
If it's something I'm watching I always hit the record button. You never know if you will get interrupted while watching something so I always hit record.

[L David Matheny]

Why? Whether it's 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 60 minutes, for me it would very, very rarely make any difference.
If it's something I'm watching I always hit the record button. You never know if you will get interrupted while watching something so I always hit record.

And if I'm watching something, I could do that, too. But sometimes I turn on the TiVo intending to watch stuff I've recorded, and a live program catches my interest. When that happens it would be nice to have the option of going back more than a half hour since many shows are longer than that.

[steve614]

When that happens it would be nice to have the option of going back more than a half hour since many shows are longer than that.

That's the reason you would want to press record, since more than what's in the 30 minute buffer is saved.
I think TiVo designed recording the live TV buffer this way on purpose just for that reason.

Just yesterday, I caught the end of a one hour news show (5 minutes left), and pressed record. I only got 40 minutes total on the recording, so obviously YMMV on how much "extra" is saved.

[Series3Sub]

This happens all the time on my S3 648 w/OLED. I believe it is by design. It could have been different in the beginning, but a subsequent software release may have changed that some time ago. I don't like it. It should save only the program intended for saving. Other DVR's do this; TiVo should do this with ease. It makes so much sense.