Record Once a Day

1614 Views 12 Replies 9 Participants Last post by brnscofrnld, Oct 10, 2007

willp2

Discussion Starter · Sep 17, 2007

Im new to Tivo and am loving it. But coming from other DVR platforms there is one thing I really miss on Tivo; I would love to see is an easy way to tell Tivo to record a show only once a day. Most of the things we record will end up getting multiple episodes recorded in one day or several copies of the same episode recorded the same day. This takes up tuner time and wastes space on the Tivo.

I understand that I can setup manual recordings for show, but then Tivo wont follow shows and I cant skip reruns. Its also several extra steps, when it could just be a check box in the recording options.

Again I love my TivoHD, but I sure would like some more control over what records and when.

Thanks

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barbeedoll

· #2 · Sep 17, 2007

willp2 said:
Im new to Tivo and am loving it. But coming from other DVR platforms there is one thing I really miss on Tivo; I would love to see is an easy way to tell Tivo to record a show only once a day. Most of the things we record will end up getting multiple episodes recorded in one day or several copies of the same episode recorded the same day. This takes up tuner time and wastes space on the Tivo.

I understand that I can setup manual recordings for show, but then Tivo wont follow shows and I cant skip reruns. Its also several extra steps, when it could just be a check box in the recording options.

Again I love my TivoHD, but I sure would like some more control over what records and when.

Thanks

When you set up a Season Pass, you can choose Repeats and First Run and it will only record the repeats once. If you choose "All episodes" you'll get every episode. First Run only will only record the new ones not recorded in the last 30 days on this particular unit.

Barbeedoll

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willp2

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 17, 2007

Hi and thanks for the info. I am aware of the settings, however it doesn't seem to work. There are several shows that I record that I say first run only and I still get the original airing and 3 or 4 times the show is repeated later in the day.

So I can limit the number of shows the Tivo keeps so it doesn't fill up, then its tough to keep a weeks worth of shows for instance.

Thanks.

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WayneCarter

· #4 · Sep 17, 2007

This is probably a problem with the guide data, not with TiVo - if the network doesn't provide complete and accurate guide data, there isn't much TiVo can do (aka "Garbage in, Garbage out"

). For shows like this, your best option is to set up a manual recording.

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jblake

· #5 · Sep 17, 2007

This is a very well known and documented problem with the Daily Show in particular. Until the programmer provides better information to Tribune, there isn't anything that can be done other than a manual recording.

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willp2

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 17, 2007

I do understand the bad guide data thing, however since I have no control over that, having the option to record once a day at whatever time would be much easier.

I also understand that I can setup manual recordings, but those actually don't have the same functionality as being able to tell Tivo to record whatever show once a day. For instance there are shows that I record for my son that are on at different times throughout the week and then usually multiple times a day, so a manual record doesnt really work. At the moment "most" of what we record is having these types of issues.

Besides the technicalities, it would just plain be easier to just check a box in the recording options that says, record once a day and be done with it.

By the way, does anyone at Tivo actually pay attention to whats happening here? Do they make changes based on what the community is saying? It seems like there is a lot of development in the TivoCast and TivoToGo areas, are they still improving the basic guide and recording options?

Thanks

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zand94

· #7 · Sep 18, 2007

@WillP

I know and understand the problem you're having as I have season passes for such things as Mythbusters, Ghost Hunters, Doctor Who (scifi and bbca) and Real World and BBC World News on PBS. These shows and others on discovery and the history channel play in prime time during times that i'm recording from the major networks. These shows will replay sometime from 11pm to 3am or during the day and get picked up then. The problem is that i actually NEED to record the repeats so "first run only" does not work.

My solution:
Every Friday evening I go through my "to do list" for the next 2 weeks and cancel the recording of any shows that i've already seen (ie previous seasons) or "duplicate" show recordings ( i get these most from Real World and BBC World News). THEN...

Every Saturday evening I go back through the "to do list" to see what else may have showed up that i dont need to record and cancel them.

In doing this once a week I essentially only have to go through the 2nd week's worth of shows. It usually only take me about 5min per night to do this. It may take you 30 min or so the first week or two that you do this, but once you do, you'll get used to knowing which is the "original" showing of your show and which are the dupes and you can cancel them quite quickly.

I know you posted this in the suggestions area but "managing" the "to do list" is something that I and my friends that have TiVo tend to do quite regularly and it makes the TiVo experiences a bit more enjoyable.

BTW - one thing that I found that also helps is to make sure your programs that record dupes are lower priority on your season pass list. This usually helps to negate a good amount of the shows that you'd need to be cancelling/deleting manually.

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Jonathan_S

· #8 · Sep 18, 2007

zand94 said:
I know and understand the problem you're having as I have season passes for such things as Mythbusters, Ghost Hunters, Doctor Who (scifi and bbca) and Real World and BBC World News on PBS. These shows and others on discovery and the history channel play in prime time during times that i'm recording from the major networks. These shows will replay sometime from 11pm to 3am or during the day and get picked up then. The problem is that i actually NEED to record the repeats so "first run only" does not work.

Actually, the TiVo considers a show to be "first run" for up to 28 days from the listed original air date (in the guide data). Of course, once a showing has been scheduled all the other showings become duplicates, so (assuming the guide data is good) you'll only get one copy.

I have Mythbusters on a First Run Only season pass, but much of the time it is really recording the post midnight repeat because the prime time airing was blocked by higher priority shows.

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willp2

Discussion Starter · #9 · Sep 18, 2007

Thanks for the advice. I'll spend more time in the todo list and try and clean things up there before they are recorded.

To reiterate though there are other DVR's out there that eliminate all these extra steps by simply giving you the option to tell the system to only record the show once a day.

Your advice is great and I will do that to address the issue. But personally I'd prefer to spend less time managing my Tivo and more time just watching what was recorded.

So it sounds like we can all agree that this is cumbersome at best, right? And the addition of this feature could save us all some time and aggravation, correct?

Thanks again for the advice.

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WayneCarter

· #10 · Sep 18, 2007

Actually, the TiVo considers a show to be "first run" for up to 28 days from the listed original air date (in the guide data). Of course, once a showing has been scheduled all the other showings become duplicates, so (assuming the guide data is good) you'll only get one copy.

That is correct -- several of my SP's on cable channels are "First run only" but get recorded on the second or third airing of the day. I take advantage of this by setting SPs on cable channels (which play several times a day) to lower priority than SPs on the "OTA" networks (ABC, CBS, ... which air only once) - if there's a conflict, the one showing of the shows on the "OTA" networks get recorded in prime time, the shows on the cable channels get recorded on their rebroadcast during the night.

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megazone

· #11 · Sep 22, 2007

I agree with the suggestion - and it isn't the first time someone has asked for this, not by a long shot.

For now I handle it by judicious ordering of my SPs and then 'pruning' the To Do List manually from time to time.

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orev

· #12 · Oct 4, 2007

zand94 said:
@WillP

I know and understand the problem you're having as I have season passes for such things as Mythbusters, Ghost Hunters, Doctor Who (scifi and bbca) and Real World and BBC World News on PBS. These shows and others on discovery and the history channel play in prime time during times that i'm recording from the major networks. These shows will replay sometime from 11pm to 3am or during the day and get picked up then. The problem is that i actually NEED to record the repeats so "first run only" does not work.

My solution:
Every Friday evening I go through my "to do list" for the next 2 weeks and cancel the recording of any shows that i've already seen (ie previous seasons) or "duplicate" show recordings ( i get these most from Real World and BBC World News). THEN...

Every Saturday evening I go back through the "to do list" to see what else may have showed up that i don't need to record and cancel them.
(...)

It sounds like you need to tune the priority settings in the Season Pass Manager. There should be no need to manually tune it the way you are doing.

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brnscofrnld

· #13 · Oct 10, 2007

Jonathan_S said:
I have Mythbusters on a First Run Only season pass, but much of the time it is really recording the post midnight repeat because the prime time airing was blocked by higher priority shows.

Thats how it should work. It consideres your season pass priority and will find the next available showing if you have something at the same time with a higher priority in your season pass list.

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