Interesting TiVo ?Bug?

[tivogurl]

My Guide Data shows this:

Heroes NBC 9-10:01
Journeyman NBC 10:00-11:00

Obviously, this guide data is wrong. Since the shows are on the same channel, there cannot be a 1 minute overlap. The ?bug? is that TiVo doesn't notice they're on the same channel; on a single-tuner box it clips (if clipping is enabled) or won't record one of the shows, on a dual-tuner box it records them on separate tuners. If I try to record today's 1-game playoff between the Padres and Rockies, TiVo will cancel whichever of these two shows has lower priority.

The wonderful end to this story is that TiVo says "we get our guide data from Bright House, call them". Bright House says "we don't support TiVo, it's not our problem".

[ZikZak]

Tivo get their data from Tribune. Tribune gets their data from the network. *shrug*

[richsadams]

Yep, not a TiVo bug. It's actually the network's fault. It's a marketing dept. concept that's aimed at keeping viewers from leaving. If you remember past seasons they even went so far as to overlap programs for five or more minutes without changing their posted schedules. That resulted in program recordings ending before the actual show and the beginning of others being clipped. Other networks have tried the same thing before. It's really irritating.

Some say this practice is aimed at other networks and some say it’s aimed directly at DVR owners.

Here's a good article:

http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2003/09/nbc_launching_a.html

We've had to set manual recordings to overcome this kind of nonsense before.

[steve614]

I saw something like this recently myself.

I was setting to record off the guide, and got an overlap prompt, but the program times showed 8:00 - 9:00 and 9:00 - 10:00.

Huh?

When I canceled the recordings and switched the order in which I selected them, the times showed correctly.

Go figure.

ETA: No software update yet.

[tivogurl]

Originally Posted by richsadams

Yep, not a TiVo bug. It's actually the network's fault. It's a marketing dept. concept that's aimed at keeping viewers from leaving.

Why give wrong guide data for Journeyman, then? I don't see how screwing PVR owners by not reporting the correct 10:01 start time for Journeyman helps viewer retention; that would already have been accomplished by running Heroes the extra minute.

It may not technically be a TiVo bug, but it's at a minimum a misfeature. TiVo can already detect overlaps. Why not go further and check if the overlapping programs are on the same channel? If they are we know we can subtract overlap from one of the programs, preferably in a way that removes a conflict with another channel. Then rerun the scheduling algorithm. You'll still record everything every minute of the shows you wanted on channel A, you'll be able to record channel B because you've eliminated the ghost conflict, and you render yourself resistant to network schedule shenanigans.

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by tivogurl

Why give wrong guide data for Journeyman, then? I don't see how screwing PVR owners by not reporting the correct 10:01 start time for Journeyman helps viewer retention; that would already have been accomplished by running Heroes the extra minute.

It may not technically be a TiVo bug, but it's at a minimum a misfeature. TiVo can already detect overlaps. Why not go further and check if the overlapping programs are on the same channel? If they are we know we can subtract overlap from one of the programs, preferably in a way that removes a conflict with another channel. Then rerun the scheduling algorithm. You'll still record everything every minute of the shows you wanted on channel A, you'll be able to record channel B because you've eliminated the ghost conflict, and you render yourself resistant to network schedule shenanigans.

Good idea...let 'em know!