Missing Season Passes after source downgrade

asfafa · 05-23-2007, 01:22 AM

Hi All

For the past few weeks, I have had problems receiving Channel 5 with lots of picture breakup or no signal at all. I then found out that the Mendip transmitter is undergoing engineering work for May and the first week of June.

Since I have a lot of programmes on Five recorded on my TiVo, I removed my freeview out of the setup and went back to Aerial Only. Fine, but now I have noticed that a number of Season Passes, particularly those on BBC 2, have disappeared from the SP list (Apprentice - You're Fired, The Daily Politics, Horizon, The Culture Show).

Is this just temporary? Will they return once I re-go my Guide setup to include Freeview?

I do have a backup of my settings thankfully, but it's still annoying to have to re-do my SPs if I have to. Anyone any ideas?

Thanks in advance

paul

Pete77 · 05-23-2007, 02:30 AM

My previous experience of Season Passes if you change from one platform to another and rerun Guided Setup (egFreeview to NTL Digital and back a couple of times) is that if the same programs exist on the same Channel IDs (eg BBC1LDN etc) on the new platform then the SPs are preserved.

But if your set up was Freeview and Aerial surely all you needed to do was deselect Freeview (cab) Channel5 in Channels I Receive and replace it with the aerial (aer) equivalent Ch5and not re-run Guided Setup at all? That again should have seen your Channel 5 SPs change over automatically.

blindlemon · 05-23-2007, 03:11 AM

Which variant of BBC2 did you have selected when you were using Freeview, and which now?

It could be that, for instance, you were using BBC2XXX on Freeview but your postcode means you have no option but BBC2YYY on analogue, and I'm not sure if Season Passes would persist across a change of channel area...

Pete77 · 05-23-2007, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blindlemon

It could be that, for instance, you were using BBC2XXX on Freeview but your postcode means you have no option but BBC2YYY on analogue, and I'm not sure if Season Passes would persist across a change of channel area...

If you select BBC1 (North) on aerial instead of BBC1 (Midlands) or whatever it was on Freeview then your SPs will indeed be obliterated an hour or two after the Guided Setup rerun finishes according to what Ozsat has previously suggested. Having said that Ch5 only has one flavour nationwide EPG wise so in CH5's case it shouldn't really be possible for this to have happened?

blindlemon · 05-23-2007, 03:47 AM

The OP's point was that SPs on BBC2 had been lost.

Pete77 · 05-23-2007, 04:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blindlemon

The OP's point was that SPs on BBC2 had been lost.

Which does make sense if he selected a different BBC2 region for aerial from the Freeview one.

asfafa · 05-23-2007, 06:12 AM

Thanks for everyone's replies.

The region aspect is probably what's done it. I can't remember the region that I chose for the Freeview and for Aerial, but if they're different, then I'm probably stuck. I've chosen the strongest BBC 2 signal which isn't that good through the TiVo anyway, but the other possibilities were unwatchable.

Pete77 - regarding your first reply: does deselecting the freeview channel for Channel 5 and selecting the aerial version really work? Surely TiVo overrides this since it thinks that the freeview version has the stronger/better signal? In my old set up, TiVo recorded a blank screen even though my STB stated that there was no signal for Five.

Thanks

paul

Pete77 · 05-23-2007, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by asfafa

Pete77 - regarding your first reply: does deselecting the freeview channel for Channel 5 and selecting the aerial version really work? Surely TiVo overrides this since it thinks that the freeview version has the stronger/better signal? In my old set up, TiVo recorded a blank screen even though my STB stated that there was no signal for Five.

If you have Freeview & Aerial then you can indeed deselect Channel 5 from Freeview (i.e. number 5 (cab)) and pick the frequency number for Aerial instead. From Tivo's point of view it only then has one Channel 5 so has to use the UHF one to record and not the Freeview one.

Only if in Channels I Receive do you tick both 5 (cab) Channel 5 on Freeview and the aerial UHF frequency too for Channel 5 do you then have a clashing situation where Freeview will go for the Freeview source because it by default considers it superior to aerial for the same program on CH5 when both are available in Channels I Receive.

The Tivo only previously recorded the Channel 5 Freeview with a blue screen because Channels I Receive was ticked to tell it the Freeview one was the only Ch5 version available. Freeview isn't clever enough to look at the actual signal strength and if it suddenly goes to zero or low change to a version of the channel that is in the Channels I Receive list but is not currently ticked as being received.

AMc · 05-23-2007, 06:48 AM

If your Freeview box can't receive a channel which Tivo thinks is available at your post code then Tivo will still schedule recordings on the duff Freeview channel in preference to a good aerial source. On a poor channel the Freeview box sends a 'good' video signal of an error screen, Tivo isn't quite clever enough to realise there is nothing showing and records that screen. (If you think about it, otherwise Tivo would never record radio from an STB).

If you have an aerial and SCART source selected for a channel with the same call sign on both then Tivo will record from the SCART source even if you set recordings on the aerial listing.

If you deselect the SCART source in 'channels I receive' and leave the aerial variant Tivo wil use the only available aerial source.

Pete77 is right your best bet would have been to deselect the duff Freeview channel from 'channels I receive' until the transmitter work was over.

asfafa · 05-23-2007, 07:01 AM

Well, fine. I'll try this when I get back home from work.

Thanks to Pete77 and AMc for their replies.

Pete77 · 05-23-2007, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AMc

Pete77 is right your best bet would have been to deselect the duff Freeview channel from 'channels I receive' until the transmitter work was over.

And select the good aerial channel for Ch5 in Channels I Receive instead of course.

asfafa · 05-23-2007, 04:50 PM

OK! So I tried it, and it works! Unfortunately, it seems that all my Freeview-only channel SPs have gone, so I had to revert to a backup.

paul