Please (insert your diety here) STOP THE REPEATS!!

Mabu · 12-14-2005, 08:36 PM

I'm sure this is a tired thread but please help me... How do I stop the stupid re-rerecoding of episodes in my season pass that I've already recorded? There must be some parameter where I can increase the timeframe in which Tivo thinks I haven't already watched a show? I'm not quite completely A.D.D. yet from TV and as a result, I find it really annoying and offensive that this unit continues to re-record episodes that it has already recorded.

Who do I blow/threaten/beat-up so that this can be fixed. I'm sure this is a recurring theme but screw it... it's an important issue that still does not appear to be part of the basic setup and I'm going to sell all my TIVO stock if this sh*t cannot be fixed....

help!!

timr_42 · 12-14-2005, 08:42 PM

Well, the easiest way would be to set your season passes to record "first run only". This way you will only get new episodes.

I don't do that normally, as I'm a little anal about missing something I might have missed in the past. I will scan my To-do list every couple of days and delete things that I have already seen. It only takes a couple of minutes and I know I won't miss something. I know a lot of people don't want to do that, but I like to know if I am going to miss something.

Not real sure why this is offensive

Gregor · 12-14-2005, 08:49 PM

The problem may be in the guide data, and out of Tivo's control. Tivo won't record the same ep within 28 days, IIRC, unless there's generic guide data provided from the network.

TiVoStephen · 12-14-2005, 10:08 PM

Can you let us know which program you're having a problem with?

JimSpence · 12-15-2005, 10:17 AM

And are you using season passes or wishlists?

petew · 12-15-2005, 10:34 AM

Personally I have lots of problems with BBC America. Often shows don't have episode titles in the guide data and each new episode is repeated 4 or 5 times during the week. I relaize it's not Tivo's fault but it would be nice to know who to complain to.

As to the OP's comments I think they are complaining that retaining data on shows that have been recorded and deleted for 28 days is too short. And I'd certainly vote for an option to retain indefinetly data on all episodes recorded for a Season Pass. If/When the option to manipulate To Do List is added to HME I may try and write something myself.

ZeoTiVo · 12-15-2005, 12:47 PM

well a lot of calm replies so I will try as well.

I think the OP means that the system default of 28 days is not long enough.

I had this with Stargate SG-1. I Got my TiVo well into the 4th year of SG1 and set it to record repeats as well so I could cacth up on past shows. For a while it was great but as I got shows watched over the next 90 days, some of the repeats were shows I had watched 40 days ago adn did not want to see again.

For me I just deleted them, but as I got down to maybe 15 shows I had no seen I had to make a list to check against and do a lot more maintenance type work to make sure I got them.

in a case like that it would have been a really great feature if I could go to that Stargate SG1 season pass and set it to keep track for the last 120 days and not re-record an episode but still record repeats that had not been recorded already.

MikeMar · 12-15-2005, 12:49 PM

I forget

Does 'first run only' only record new episodes period, or just new to you?

So if i did seinfeld, first run only, would I get any?

ZeoTiVo · 12-15-2005, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeMar

I forget

Does 'first run only' only record new episodes period, or just new to you?

So if i did seinfeld, first run only, would I get any?

you would not get any. It is the first time that episode airs. (though for priority scheduling of the season pass manager - any show within a week of first air date is considered first run - so things like the apprentice that repeats during the same week can get shuffled around some)

MikeMar · 12-15-2005, 12:52 PM

Ok thats what I thought

thanks

jkalnin · 12-15-2005, 01:03 PM

Set manual recordings by time and channel - problem solved

HDTiVo · 12-15-2005, 01:11 PM

Another thing is First Run Only records Generic episode listings; like when they do a South Park Marathon without detailing the episodes, you can get 30 recordings!

TiVoStephen · 12-15-2005, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeMar

I forget

Does 'first run only' only record new episodes period, or just new to you?

So if i did seinfeld, first run only, would I get any?

I confirmed this with the TiVoDataGuy -- you would get NO shows EXCEPT for those that used the generic program record. First Run Only means the first broadcast.

For most users, I think our existing approach does cover the main scenarios:

* If you are watching a new show (such as Prison Break) and set it to First Run Only, and you watch all the shows, you'll never see any repeats, you'll see every show, and no duplicates will ever be recorded.

* If you are watching an older show that has multiple airings of repeats in the last 28 days (such as the M*A*S*H* reruns on the Hallmark channel or the Family Guy reruns on The Cartoon Network's Adult Swim) and get a regular Season Pass, you won't see any duplicate recordings in 28 days, but eventually you'll cycle through and start seeing repeats. Usually that's the case only after you've seen all the episodes, since in many cases these reruns go in order.

* For other situations, you can check your To Do list and remove the ones that you've already seen.

I can see why someone might want a longer window -- 120 days or 365 days -- for the rare situation where there are still some shows you haven't seen that are likely to air, and the network showing the reruns shows them in a random order. I don't think that scenario is too common.

Keeping the database of viewed programs for longer than 28 days does pose issues; it'll cause performance problems for the scheduler is the main issue that comes to mind.

Nonetheless, like any suggestion on the Suggestion forum, this is something that we'll consider for the future. I've forwarded this thread to the relevant parties.

petew · 12-15-2005, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiVoOpsMgr

I can see why someone might want a longer window -- 120 days or 365 days -- for the rare situation where there are still some shows you haven't seen that are likely to air, and the network showing the reruns shows them in a random order. I don't think that scenario is too common.

Another situation is an actor wishlist. Older Movies are often repeated regularly for several months at a time.

I can appreciate the performance implications of the change, but I wouldn't necessarily want history for all programs going out that far, just selected SP's and ARWL's. So the logic could be if match to SP, or WL check SP or WL history.

megazone · 12-15-2005, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiVoOpsMgr

I confirmed this with the TiVoDataGuy -- you would get NO shows EXCEPT for those that used the generic program record. First Run Only means the first broadcast.

More specifically, it means within 2 weeks of the First Aired Date. So if a show airs on 12/15/2005 but there is a conflict and it isn't recorded, and it repeats on 12/27/2005, the TiVo will still record it as 'First Run'. But if it repeats in January, it won't record even though it was never recorded before, because it is too late.

So it doesn't have to be the very first airing, period, but within the window.

mattack · 12-15-2005, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiVoOpsMgr

Keeping the database of viewed programs for longer than 28 days does pose issues; it'll cause performance problems for the scheduler is the main issue that comes to mind.

Well, this is something that I would pay a one time fee for (and a feature I and others have mentioned it many times, including on the Usenet group).

I'd absolutely LOVE it if I could tell the Tivo that I have watched a particular episode and it wouldn't re-record that episode ever. Because of missed endings or maybe a last minute schedule change, I'd have to be able to say "don't add to the list of shows I've seen" too -- none of that "if you've seen 5 minutes into the show it's marked seen" stuff.

That way I could easily keep track of which episodes I've seen. Heck, even being able to keep track of episodes that the Tivo saw in the schedule and let me look over the list (instead of going to epguides.com) and mark OTHERS as having seen, that'd be even extra.. But even just being able to tell the Tivo I have seen particular episodes, forever, would be worth $$ to me.

TiVoStephen · 12-15-2005, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by megazone

More specifically, it means within 2 weeks of the First Aired Date. So if a show airs on 12/15/2005 but there is a conflict and it isn't recorded, and it repeats on 12/27/2005, the TiVo will still record it as 'First Run'. But if it repeats in January, it won't record even though it was never recorded before, because it is too late.

So it doesn't have to be the very first airing, period, but within the window.

Since I'm the guy who proposed that particular behavior, I guess I should have mentioned that.

ZeoTiVo · 12-16-2005, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiVoOpsMgr

Since I'm the guy who proposed that particular behavior, I guess I should have mentioned that.

And a great idea that I referenced above as well. How you were physic enough to know Donald trump would be grand enough to grace us with multiple showings of the same "The Apprentice" in a two week period we may never know but it is a really good device for making the Season Pass priority list work so well.

As for the 28 days, I can see the load on that Season Pass scheduler would go up with each added day. I always assummed 28 was some number that was arrived at by tweaking things to optimize performance.

Please pass on as well that the HME app idea to do this extended dates functionality is a good way to move the load off the TiVo and opens up even better functionality possibilities. In my exception of the Stargate-SG1 where I started recording well into the 4th year of the show - If I could have just entered a list of spisodes to watch for and then record it would have been great!

plus there is the added beauty of 3rd parties can work out all the devilish details of that part of the interface. So I would vote for TiVo to concentrate on the very heavy lifting part of opening up the Season pass and to do list DVR functionality to HME and then give us the APIs to do all this "exception type" feature adds.

Thanks as always for listening and allowing us this feedback to the product

Y-ASK · 12-16-2005, 10:22 AM

Now if someone could please fix the Networks. I'm ready for a new Lost episode and a new Surface episode would be nice as well! Did I forget to mention CSI? I need a new one of those as well.

Y-ASK

DickK · 12-16-2005, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiVoOpsMgr

* For other situations, you can check your To Do list and remove the ones that you've already seen.

True if I recognize it, but that's not always the case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiVoOpsMgr

I can see why someone might want a longer window -- 120 days or 365 days -- for the rare situation where there are still some shows you haven't seen that are likely to air, and the network showing the reruns shows them in a random order. I don't think that scenario is too common.

Consider this a vote for a longer window. I don't find this to be an uncommon scenario at all.

uTivo · 12-17-2005, 09:36 PM

I have a duplicate recording issue with "Mad Money" on CNBC. Season pass for this show is set to "First run only", but both the 8pm (CST) and 11pm episodes are recorded each day the show airs. The initial 5pm show does not record due a higher priority conflict. Is the extra recording at 11pm due to the fact that I don't always watch (i.e., press play from "now showing") the show after it records at 8pm, or is something missing from the guide data that informs the Tivo that it is the same episode that aired 3hrs prior?

Clarification: The extra recording occurs even if I do not delete the 8pm show from the now showing menu prior to the 11pm show. Also, the 8pm & 11pm shows are repeats of the 5pm original showing.

ZeoTiVo · 12-18-2005, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uTivo

I have a duplicate recording issue with "Mad Money" on CNBC. Season pass for this show is set to "First run only", but both the 8pm (CST) and 11pm episodes are recorded each day the show airs. The initial 5pm show does not record due a higher priority conflict. Is the extra recording at 11pm due to the fact that I don't always watch (i.e., press play from "now showing") the show after it records at 8pm, or is something missing from the guide data that informs the Tivo that it is the same episode that aired 3hrs prior?

Clarification: The extra recording occurs even if I do not delete the 8pm show from the now showing menu prior to the 11pm show. Also, the 8pm & 11pm shows are repeats of the 5pm original showing.

the extra recording has nothing to do with how you treat a recording for that show already on the TiVo.

something is missing in the guide data, most likely it is not getting an episode number that TiVo can use to confirm if it is the same episode or not, so TiVo records it to err on the side of you not missing an episode.
To fix this make a 10 minute manual recording of something that will conflict with the one you do not want to record. set that 10 minute manual recording to keep at most 1 so just a little bit of space is taken up by it. This way you will get only one mad money per day.

NOTE: need to use 10 minutes now for these "blocking" recordings as the clipping feature just out will compensate for 5 minutes or less conflicts

uTivo · 12-22-2005, 09:42 PM

Zeo, thanks for the clarification. Your suggestion for a 10min recording sounds like it will hold me over until they update the guide data. The only issue I see long term is that sometimes I want to record the 11pm showing due to conflicts at the earlier airing. It seems that I would have to have the dummy recording at a higher priority than the desired show.

Does anyone have the link for reporting programming glitches to Tivo/Tribune? I found a link to report line up issues but nothing for this type of problem.

Thanks.

TiVoStephen · 12-23-2005, 11:40 AM

You can use this form:

https://customersupport.tivo.com/caseSubmitLineup.asp?

(which is linked from this article:
http://customersupport.tivo.com/know...ic/tv1050.htm?)

Just select "Program Descriptions are Incorrect" and describe the issue just as you did here. We'll work with Tribune to resolve the issue (assuming CNBC cooperates).

Thanks for reporting this, and sorry you are having this issue.

Best regards,
Stephen

uTivo · 12-23-2005, 01:43 PM

Stephen, thanks for the quick reply. I'll report the issue per your instructions. Hopefully the guide data can be updated.

Happy Holidays!

uTivo

hellsop · 01-03-2006, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiVoOpsMgr

I can see why someone might want a longer window -- 120 days or 365 days -- for the rare situation where there are still some shows you haven't seen that are likely to air, and the network showing the reruns shows them in a random order. I don't think that scenario is too common.

Keeping the database of viewed programs for longer than 28 days does pose issues; it'll cause performance problems for the scheduler is the main issue that comes to mind.

Nonetheless, like any suggestion on the Suggestion forum, this is something that we'll consider for the future. I've forwarded this thread to the relevant parties.

Sadly, the very field where Tivos show their real strengths (wading through masses of programming information automatically) is exactly where that situation isn't all that rare. An enjoyable series with only 20-30 episodes and releases a new episode every few months that the network chooses to run five times a week at varying times is going to get pretty repetative. Most of the FoodTV, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, Comedy Central, BBC-America, etc. episodic programming is scheduled like this. And, for at least this customer, this is the majority of the programming watched in the household. A duplicate retention period of 120 days would allow a simple season pass to catch the occasional new show and cycle through the reruns at a point where I'm not looking at the guide data and hitting delete because I remember everything about that episode for 80% of what tivo records. "First-run only" isn't an ideal solution either because I like series, like watching the episodes, but the whole thing shows up every month, and my memory's good enough that that's boring.

wilrod · 01-08-2007, 11:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hellsop

Most of the FoodTV, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, Comedy Central, BBC-America, etc. episodic programming is scheduled like this. And, for at least this customer, this is the majority of the programming watched in the household.

I too am getting frustrated by the number of duplicate recordings on Comedy Central. At the moment I have Season Passes for both "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report". All of my Season Passes are set for "First Run Only", but today I came home to find two recordings of the same re-run episode of the Daily Show. By the time I had deleted them another showing of the the exact same Daily Show episode that I had just deleted was being recorded, again!

Going to visit the link in a previous post and report the bad guide data problem.

Edit: Agh, the link (https://customersupport.tivo.com/caseSubmitLineup.asp?) is now returning an error!

ronsch · 01-09-2007, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wilrod

I too am getting frustrated by the number of duplicate recordings on Comedy Central. At the moment I have Season Passes for both "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report". All of my Season Passes are set for "First Run Only", but today I came home to find two recordings of the same re-run episode of the Daily Show. By the time I had deleted them another showing of the the exact same Daily Show episode that I had just deleted was being recorded, again!

Going to visit the link in a previous post and report the bad guide data problem.

Edit: Agh, the link (https://customersupport.tivo.com/caseSubmitLineup.asp?) is now returning an error!

This is a regular occurence with The Daily Show, especially on Monday.

kjmcdonald · 01-09-2007, 04:13 PM

For the situation described where you're trying to 'catchup' on a series by recording reruns... It would be nice to be able to sort listings based on 'original air date' or 'episode number.'

I'd like to easily watch the episodes in order, and the info is usually there, bit it's a pain to go into 'info' everytime to compare episode numbers or orig. air dates.

-Kyle

Stu_Bee · 01-09-2007, 04:16 PM

I'm pretty sure the daily show repeating recordings are the fault of comedy central not providing specific episode guide data.
You can validate this by looking at zap2it.com's guide listing for the daily show and see some are provided the guest information, but many are not (such as mondays).

Comedy central's website itself doesn't offer much info either..but at least they say the original airing date:
http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_sche...seriesId=11608

If zap2it/Tivo receives this info from Comedy central, they should be able to keep the duplicate recordings to a minimum.