TE4 Suggestions now recording movies

First thing I do with any Tivo I have owned is disable suggestions.

I feel there is no reason to have all that wear and tear on the drive for things you will most times not even watch but just delete.

 

I turn off suggestions too, but it doesn't prevent wear and tear on the hard drive, as the drive is always recording the buffers on whatever channels the tuners are sitting on.

 

I would think it does if the tuners are all on channels you do not receive.

If I have nothing recording like in the summertime it is all re-runs then I set the tuners to a channel I do not receive.

 

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They are still recording.

I'll be watching this- my primary reason for holding off to TE4.

 

Umm, there's no reason to delete suggestions. They are deleted automagically for your scheduled recordings.

Plus, unless you have your Tivo in power saving mode (and it has kicked in), it *is* always recording all tuners, and writing to the drive.. for the buffers. So you're not even saving wear & tear.

I essentially never watch suggestions (though this morning I caught something recording as a suggestion that I manually scheduled a LATER recording for in case the suggestion is deleted -- I didn't want to save it, so I know I'd have room).. But I still leave suggestions on *because* the Tivo space meter is inaccurate. It's only off by a bit, but as someone who records way more than they can watch, but doesn't want things deleted except by me, my Tivos are usually almost full.. As in literally showing up 99 or 100% in the Tivo UI.

But even "at 100%" according to the Tivo, it's not really full. I can still have a bunch of suggestions there. So even with the space meter, I can still use the suggestions as a bit of an extra gauge of how close I really am...

(With the adjustable quickmode found a few months ago, I am skimming through a lot more old stuff that used to almost seem like a 'chore' or wasn't what I wanted to watch at the time. But we're about to get back into the new season so I'll still be at almost 100% most of the time.)

 

I not infrequently actually watch 'em--Suggestions often catches shows I forgot to set to record, or would have, had I known about the shows. TE3.

 

Evidence that Suggestions really does work (in TE3) and can be valuable:

I was just looking in my TiVo's My Shows list to play one of the Sunday morning news shows, when I saw that my PBS "Great Performance at the Met" folder was on the top of the My Shows list, with a red dot before it--looking into it, I was delighted to see that TiVo Suggestions has caught and is recording for me PBS/The Met's live production from earlier this year of Wagner's opera "Die Walkure." Had I known that the production was on, I avidly would have recorded it (and I've since set up wishlists for the other operas in Wagner's Ring cycle, which I'd like to capture, having lost my earlier TiVo recordings from PBS/The Met's 2012 broadcast of them (which still were in SD via my Series 2 TiVo box)).

Bravo, TiVo!

 

Not only that, you could take that PBS show and transfer it off the Tivo to a safe hard drive to save room for all those broadcast and transfer it back when you want it. A lot of my PBS stuff transfers back and forth during the holidays and I always thank them at that time of year with a donation.

 

I've never used suggestions. Do the shows stay in the suggestions folder or is it also in My shows list? I would not want to clutter up my shows with stuff I might never watch. If it was in a separate folder only I might try it.

Also, one poster said it will never record over another show, but will it delete a show that's older?

 

Suggestions go into the Suggestions folder in the My Shows screen/list, but they also will appear in already-existing show folders (e.g. if you have a "Friends" folder with episodes you've had recorded, another "Friends" episode recorded as a Suggestion will appear in your "Friends" folder, but clearly showing that it is a Suggestion)--delete it from either location and it's gone from both. A well-done system, in my opinion.

And a suggestion won't delete a show that's set to be kept--I'm not sure about a show that is past it's "keep through" date.

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I'm on TE3. Does it use my recordings as a guide to what I like or do I have to thumbs up stuff?

I assume thumb up or down suggestion recordings so it learns.

My only experience with suggestions is an episode of King of Queens where Spencer gets a Tivo. Funny episode.

 

Great that you're on TE3--Suggestions currently only has limited worth under TE4 (until it gets re-thought out/fixed).

It uses what you've selected to be recorded as a guide, along with, I believe, a comparison to what other people record. I also find that thumbing shows up or down helps train it; when I go into my Suggestions folder to see what's there and to delete shows (totally optional--the TiVo box will clear suggested shows away over time, replacing them with new shows), I try to remember to go into the show pages and thumb the shows down, the result of which has been to eliminate shows of that type in the future and to increase the "accuracy" of the suggested shows for me.

I'm at a pretty good prediction rate nowadays--north of 80%.

 

Everything you record, manually or one passes, gets an automatic thumbs up.

 

Suggestions are 2nd lowest form of recording in the recorded items category with Deleted items being first, so a deleted item is the first to go, then a Suggestion, they will always be deleted before any show that you asked to record either manually or by One Pass.

 

So when you set the recording, give it a thumbs down. Sometimes a recording made from the guide doesn't display the up, but move to the next program and back which will show the up. Then cancel it. Usually changing a 1P gives it a thumbs up, but not always.

 

And so a recorded item which is past its "keep through" date still has priority over Suggestions, until it either is manually deleted or is deleted by the system for space reasons (in which case there wouldn't be space to record a Suggestions show anyway)?

Why delete the thumbs-up for a show you've set to record (of course, if you like the show at all)?

Yep--I often will add to the automatic single thumbs-up to 2 or 3 thumbs-up (where warranted by my like of a show).

 

Yes, it will delete suggestions, all suggestions before moving to something you recorded, even if that recording has passed the expiration date, the only thing lower on the list is items in the Deleted Items folder.

 

I have some strange habits.

 

I delete a thumbs up when I don't want older repeats as a suggestion.