New Season of Merlin on Syfy

iowacyclone · 12-31-2010, 11:09 AM

The third seaon on Merlin begins airing on Syfy Jan 7th. On my to do list its not being recorded as its marked as a rerun. Any reason why this would be? Or how to get it fixed? Be nice not having to record all of episodes aired and having to delete all the ones I've seen already.

sieglinde · 12-31-2010, 02:10 PM

I set a season pass for First Run and nothing came up so I just set episode 301 to record. I don't know why it is not working either.

Grey Griffin · 12-31-2010, 02:55 PM

The original air date on the episode is from September 2010. It's possible the season already aired in Canada which would cause it to be seen as a rerun by Tivo.

sieglinde · 01-01-2011, 09:46 AM

Crud, that means the season pass doesn't work for the more convenient First Run. I guess I will reset it for First Run and Repeats and just weed as I go.

sieglinde · 01-01-2011, 09:48 AM

Epguides shows that the entire season completed on BBC1 on December 10th 2010. The dates match what Tivo has for The Tears of Uther etc.

Rob Helmerichs · 01-01-2011, 10:27 AM

Yeah, Tribune often uses the real Original Air Date, and not the Original American Air Date. Which makes sense if you don't have a TiVo, which of course most people don't...

unitron · 01-01-2011, 07:18 PM

If only there were something similar to a computer involved that already had the info on where the viewer lived and which channels they receive so it could figure out which episodes were new from the viewer's point of view.

mattack · 01-01-2011, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unitron

If only there were something similar to a computer involved that already had the info on where the viewer lived and which channels they receive so it could figure out which episodes were new from the viewer's point of view.

You're being sarcastic, but does the guide data even HAVE country of origin info?

(Again, this would be a nice idea, but there are SO MANY things at least _I_ think would be better.. A simple one would be a per-SP choice of 'new/old' for how to treat guide-data-less episodes. i.e. that would likely fix the Daily Show problem.)

Plus, you already have a workaround -- record new & old episodes.

unitron · 01-01-2011, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattack

You're being sarcastic, but does the guide data even HAVE country of origin info?

(Again, this would be a nice idea, but there are SO MANY things at least _I_ think would be better.. A simple one would be a per-SP choice of 'new/old' for how to treat guide-data-less episodes. i.e. that would likely fix the Daily Show problem.)

Plus, you already have a workaround -- record new & old episodes.

If only that thing that's kind of like a computer and has the viewer's location info could connect on a regular basis to another computery thing that could have a database of which episodes of which shows have been aired in which locations on which channels.

sieglinde · 01-02-2011, 10:46 AM

LOL!!!!! I am always weeding SPs like Daily Show etc. At least once I weeded the old Merlin episodes, the new to the US ones only have one recording at a time so it is acting like a first run SP. Later, I will weed repeats that show up that are older than 28 days.
I shouldn't have to though.

cheesesteak · 01-02-2011, 12:13 PM

Crap. Of course, they have to run a Merlin marathon on the 7th so I can't switch my SP to first run and repeats until after the first episode - if I remember.

mattack · 01-02-2011, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unitron

If only that thing that's kind of like a computer and has the viewer's location info could connect on a regular basis to another computery thing that could have a database of which episodes of which shows have been aired in which locations on which channels.

You DIDN'T ANSWER THE QUESTION. DOES THE GUIDE DATA THAT TIVO USES EVEN HAVE COUNTRY INFO IN IT?

If it doesn't, there's no way, without completely changing how Tivos work, to make what you suggest happen.

(BTW, S2 is on netflix on 1/18/2011)

unitron · 01-02-2011, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattack

You DIDN'T ANSWER THE QUESTION. DOES THE GUIDE DATA THAT TIVO USES EVEN HAVE COUNTRY INFO IN IT?

If it doesn't, there's no way, without completely changing how Tivos work, to make what you suggest happen.

(BTW, S2 is on netflix on 1/18/2011)

Don't ask me, ask Tribune Media Services.

However, if TiVo sends my machines the info that episode "x" of television show "y" aired on cable channel "z" that I receive where I live, then if they kept that info in a databse, the next time that episode was scheduled to be aired by any of the channels that TiVo sends me guide data on, they could and would know that, from the point of view of me and my season passes, it's a re-run.

Eddief66 · 01-03-2011, 01:10 PM

According to zap2it next weeks second half is new but my tivo doesn't have it scheduled to record. It's probably because I scheduled the first half manually and tivo has both halfs with the same title.

sieglinde · 01-04-2011, 10:28 AM

That is why I ended up doing repeats and first run and just weeded anything I had already viewed. Since they don't seem to be showing last season episodes past the week of the pilot this ought to not be a hassel.

jasonander · 01-06-2011, 01:05 AM

Thanks for the heads up. Tribune has really been screwing up SyFy guide data recently... first Caprica, and now Merlin.

Rob Helmerichs · 01-06-2011, 05:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonander

Thanks for the heads up. Tribune has really been screwing up SyFy guide data recently... first Caprica, and now Merlin.

Although technically they're not screwing up...they're getting it right in a way that's not useful (we don't actually WANT the OAD; we want the OAAD).

Hopefully, as more shows go international and as more people depend on DVRs to get their programming, Tribune will realize that they need to get it wrong in useful ways.

jasonander · 01-07-2011, 02:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Helmerichs

Although technically they're not screwing up...they're getting it right in a way that's not useful (we don't actually WANT the OAD; we want the OAAD).

Hopefully, as more shows go international and as more people depend on DVRs to get their programming, Tribune will realize that they need to get it wrong in useful ways.

If I have a season pass set to record a first-run show only, and this is the first time the show has ever aired in this country, and my Tivo doesn't record it, then in my eyes as a consumer of this product it's a screw-up. If a show aired earlier in other countries, that should not affect a "first-run only" season pass; the original air date needs to be based on the country where it's airing. So either Tivo needs to fix this bug or Tribune needs to fix their guide data to be accurate for each country. I filed a lineup issue with Tribune on this but I doubt they'll do anything about it... Tivo and Tribune will probably be playing the finger-pointing game that it's the other company's problem and this issue won't get fixed, which is bad for us. Hopefully they prove me wrong.

If it makes anyone feel any better, I checked with family who have the Time Warner DVR and it has the same problem as Tivo: Merlin was not set to record even with a first-run series recording.

sieglinde · 01-07-2011, 10:37 AM

My Doc Martin on KCET and Tutors on BBCA had to be set as First Run and Repeats in order to work. Tutors was on a pay cable channel so I expected it to act like a first run on a basic cable channel and same with Doc Martin.

WhiskeyTango · 01-07-2011, 11:11 AM

I believe this airs after wrestling tonight so padding should be added.

jasonander · 01-07-2011, 08:43 PM

I just called Tivo Customer Support on this issue. Sounds like we are all out of luck getting this issue fixed. He said there's nothing he can do because it's a problem with how SyFy reports the data to Tribune. Only thing we can do is contact the SyFy channel ourselves, which I think is completely unreasonable given that we pay a monthly fee for the service and guide data. He also said there was no management chain for which he could escalate this problem. I'm just a bit annoyed with Tivo right now for this.

WhiskeyTango · 01-08-2011, 10:59 AM

What would you like Tivo to do about it if SyFy is giving them the wrong info? It's not just Tivo that has the wrong info, it's all cable providers. Just set the SP to record repeats and problem solved. Outside of the marathon leading up to the new season yesterday, they don't re-air past seasons.

I still have all of last season on my Tivo and I checked the OAD's on them. The first 5 episodes showed 2010. The last 8 all showed 2009. I don't know why they decided to change mid-season.

jasonander · 01-08-2011, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTango

What would you like Tivo to do about it if SyFy is giving them the wrong info?

As a consumer of the Tivo service, that includes paying for the guide data, therefore it should be Tivo's responsibility to contact and work with SyFy to get the guide data fixed. Expecting individuals to contact SyFy on their behalf is not likely going to go anywhere and I find it lazy on Tivo's part. Since I pay for this service from Tivo, I expect Tivo to do everything in its power to make sure that it works correctly, rather than just blame someone else and leave its customers out to dry.

sieglinde · 01-09-2011, 04:41 PM

Nothing went over for me. I recorded mine off of the SYFYHD channel which is an east coast feed so I get it three hours earlier. Thank goodness.

sinanju · 01-09-2011, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTango

What would you like Tivo to do about it if SyFy is giving them the wrong info?

Not TiVo, but Tribune:

You have a source of chronically misleading data. Do what any programmer would do -- validate your inputs... exercise some data hygiene. They know it's not a repeat because they're not labeling it with an "R", so the first air date must be incorrect, being in the past. Fix it.

jasonander · 01-09-2011, 06:45 PM

Apparently Tivo doesn't care and will not do anything to help us here. Here's a response I got from emailing their lineup "specialists":

"Unfortunately there is nothing that we can do about this. The flagging for the program is not controlled by us and therefore there is nothing that we can do to change it. We do not have the ability to change any program coding that is sent by a cable network with their programming. Since they do not separate out the original air date by country, there is also nothing that we can do to reprogram the TiVo box to recognize differing airing dates in one country versus another. I understand your frustration, but this is something that would need to be done by the SyFy network. As we have tried in the past to get this resolved, to no avail, we do recommend that you, as someone who tunes into that station often, contact them ad discuss this with them. There is nothing further in regards to this that we can do."

This is rather sad. What ever happened to customer service and actually caring about fixing problems customers have with a product? Tivo acknowledges the problem but refuses to fix it.

Rob Helmerichs · 01-09-2011, 07:06 PM

You are confusing "refuses" with "cannot." They said they've tried to get Syfy to fix it, and Syfy won't. What do you want them to do? Launch a hostile takeover?

jasonander · 01-09-2011, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Helmerichs

You are confusing "refuses" with "cannot." They said they've tried to get Syfy to fix it, and Syfy won't. What do you want them to do? Launch a hostile takeover?

I expect them to escalate the problem to management (potentially on both sides, Tivo and SyFy) rather than just give up and drop the issue as "resolved".

innocentfreak · 01-09-2011, 07:45 PM

I know SyFy on Twitter the other day was asking if people were still having issues.

morac · 01-10-2011, 04:22 PM

Well I missed the first 25 minutes of the second airing because of this. I had to catch the first 25 minutes via alternate means.

It's pretty annoying that SyFy has the wrong data.