Blocking Specific Programs

1205 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Worf, Jul 24, 2011

kennyraskin

Discussion Starter · Jul 22, 2011

I put this TIVO Suggestion Avenue, but thought I'd post it here too...

I have a 14 year old son, and he, my wife and I share our TV and Tivo. While we are certainly not prudish about what he watches (PG 13 movies, TV 14 shows, and some of the more sophisticated animated shows such as Family Guy), there are shows on our TV, mostly through HBO and Showtime, such as Real Sex, or Entourage to name two, that we don't want him to watch.

I am surprised that a system as sophisticated as Tivo doesn't simply have a way of blocking individual shows. It seems it would be easy to put a menu button within the menu of each show that allows one to lock it, and to be able to open it up with a password or PIN code...

I know that Tivo has Tivo Kids Zone, and that makes a lot of sense for kids. For early teens, however, it's a bit limiting. So I am wondering if anyone knows a way to do what I am wanting to do. If not, how can I make sure that the developers of Tivo see this recommendation? Any response will be welcome. Thank you.

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steve614

· #2 · Jul 22, 2011

There is also Parental Controls. If you're using a Premiere, you might have to switch to the SDUI to access it.
For a S3 Tivo, parental controls is found under Messages & Settings -> Settings -> Parental Controls.

This allows you to block TV shows by rating, e.g. TV-PG, TV-14, etc.
Also movie ratings, PG, R, etc.
You can also block TV shows by content.
D=Suggestive Dialog
L=Language
S=Sexual Content
V=Violence
FV=Fantasy Violence

If for some reason programming is not rated at all, you can block those, too.
This function is password protected.

Hope this helps...

ETA: If you were thinking more sophisticated as in blocking a specific show, then no, there is no way to do that.
I also doubt TiVo would implement such a feature.
If you want to make a request for this feature, go here:
http://research.tivo.com/suggestions/

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Series3Sub

· #3 · Jul 23, 2011

Yes, it seems the rating or content filtering is all you have to work with, but that should get you somewhere. On Dish DVR's, you can edit the title of the recordings in the DVR recordings list, as well as create your own custom folders with any title you create. VERY NICE to fool the kids with some really boring title like Anne of Green Gables. He, he he

.

On the other hand, your son (being a male is a bit different in this, IMHO), and he is 14, and so maybe if he surreptitiously watches this stuff, it may not be all bad for him. I would choose to NOT have my 14 year old son watch that stuff either, but considering what he is most definitely seeing on the internet, the fare on your TiVo is tame by comparison and is presented with some context (Real Sex can be educational

) instead of the crass manner of the internet porn sites. The boy is almost a man.

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Worf

· #4 · Jul 24, 2011

Surreptitiously... heh.

So that's what that "bing" sound is when I walk into the room and see he's always at the TiVo menu.

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