# Recordings stopping early



## miadlor (Sep 4, 2003)

Two nights in a row my Tivo stopped the recordings 7 minutes early. (8:53pm East)

One on CBS and one on ABC. I have padding turned on but nothing else was scheduled after each show.

The box's clock is correct. The show starts recording on time. When I check the recording it says "partial".

Any ideas?


----------



## TK421 (Feb 25, 2002)

Hmm, what is your source, cable box, direct cable connection, satellite?

My first guess would be either something is happening to your signal, like your cable box is turning off, or maybe your TiVo is rebooting.

Very odd that it is happened at the same time each night though.

I forget, does Recording History say anything for a partial recording?


----------



## miadlor (Sep 4, 2003)

Ok an update...........

Box stopped early on another tonight. (10:56)

I have 3 boxes so here's the run down.....

Problem started Tuesday......Monday's recordings are fine on all 3.
240 7.2.1.o Recordings ending early.
540 7.2.1.o Recordings ending early.
240 7.2.1.a Recordings are correct.

All boxes have been connecting on the same days and are up to date.
All have had overlap turned on.(sure it's not this because nothing recording after).
All boxes direct cable feed (NO cable box).
All clocks read correct time.
All start recording on time.

I rebooted one to see if there is a change.

So, I'm calling in the morning to see what's up.


----------



## miadlor (Sep 4, 2003)

Seems I'm not the only one..........forums on TiVo support posting same problem.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I had this happen on an episode of The Shield the other night. Weird thing was I got a duplicate copy on another TiVo and it worked fine, so I know it wasn't a problem with the source.

Dan


----------



## ScaryMike (Aug 23, 2002)

This happened to me last night with Veronica Mars on a 540 box. Cut out 7 minutes early, and says "Partial"


----------



## Ipaqjoe (Mar 4, 2002)

Same thing happened to me this week.

Courting Alex, Monday, 7 minutes short
NCIS, Tuesday, 7 minutes short

Series 2 540
Time Warner Digital cable, no apparent issues with my cable box


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Hmmm... Mine was only 2 minutes short. The Shield was scheduled for 1:04 (no extra padding, just what it was scheduled for) and it only recorded 1:02 and said "partial". Weird part is this program was scheduled to clip The Daily Show on this TiVo, and while The Shield stopped 2 minutes early The Daily Show was still missing 4 minutes from the beginning.

Dan


----------



## chuckimus (Jul 27, 2002)

Geesh.... I've noticed at LEAST 4 recording of mine that have been cut short by 5-6 minutes over the past few days. Including the Survivor that just ended. Good thing I was actually watching the show as it recorded or I would have missed the most important part of the show. This stinks.


----------



## TiVoPony (May 12, 2002)

This is indeed very odd behavior...we'll definitely take a look into this. 

I may need to ask for more information, I'll let you know if that will help.

The information we glean here is always useful, but I do apologize for any inconvenience while we sort these reports out. 

Thanks,
Pony


----------



## HookedOnTivo (Feb 14, 2002)

This just started happening to me today and one of my shows that got cut short was a repeating, manual, 30 minute recording (Simpsons, 6:30pm M-F). For some reason, tivo stopped recording 16 minutes into the show. Survivor (season pass) got cut short 1 minute, CSI (season pass) stopped recording 6 minutes early. Luckily I noticed the record light was out during CSI and I forced tivo to start recording again. Very strange. Nothing is conflicting. And Tivo isn't ending the shows early to record something else. I'm going to turn off clipping and restart Tivo to see if that helps.

For informational purposes:
Tivo Series 2 80 hour.
v: 7.2.1-oth-01-2-140
Provider: Dish Network. Houston, TX


----------



## cuzzinjim (Sep 18, 2004)

Clipped Lost by 4 minutes last night, smallville by 3 minutes tonight and Daily Show by 10 minutes!

Looks like it's only happening on one of my units....


----------



## supersportsfan (Sep 15, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> Hmmm... Mine was only 2 minutes short. The Shield was scheduled for 1:04 (no extra padding, just what it was scheduled for) and it only recorded 1:02 and said "partial". Weird part is this program was scheduled to clip The Daily Show on this TiVo, and while The Shield stopped 2 minutes early The Daily Show was still missing 4 minutes from the beginning.
> 
> Dan


I had a similar situation on Wednesday night. I was watching my recorded Lost, and it suddenly stopped 2 minutes early. Luckily, I went to the other TiVo that was also recording the show, and it was fine. The interesting part coming from my side was the fact that I also was recording Invasion right after Lost, no overlap protection or anything. So it basically stopped recording abc 2 minutes early, then started again at 10:02 to record Invasion...very odd indeed...


----------



## Philtho (Feb 10, 2006)

I missed the ending to Survivor and CSI lastnight because of this. 

We need a fix! Today!!

TODAY

T O D A Y


----------



## TiVoPony (May 12, 2002)

Hey everyone,

We're still investigating, appreciate the reports.

If you're seeing this issue, could you try something for us? Reboot the box. Just pull the power cord, wait ten seconds, and plug it back in. Watch tv this weekend, and then post on Monday whether any of your new recordings stop early. While you're at it, note in your post whether you have overlap protection on or not (just another data point).

Thanks,
Pony


----------



## simonalope (Jun 2, 2004)

TiVoPony said:


> Reboot the box. Just pull the power cord, wait ten seconds, and plug it back in.


Out of curiosity, would a soft reboot (via the software, three thumbs down and then Enter) not have quite the same effect as the pull-the-plug hard reboot?


----------



## jvandecar (Feb 10, 2006)

Same thing happening here. Toshiba Series 2 SD-H400 unmodded. I am in EDIT but unknown if that affects this. Latest software has been installed. Adelphia cable input RF. USB to Ethernet connection used, no phone line. Will hard reboot.


----------



## Brad_krebs (Feb 11, 2006)

Well I had Both my East Coast and West Coast Feeds of Surivor cut by 8 mins I have overlap protection on 

Cheers Brad


----------



## jvandecar (Feb 10, 2006)

Hard rebooted. No issues yet.


----------



## HookedOnTivo (Feb 14, 2002)

jvandecar said:


> Hard rebooted. No issues yet.


I did a soft reboot and turned off Overlap protection Thursday night. No issues yet either.


----------



## Ipaqjoe (Mar 4, 2002)

I did a soft reboot Thursday night after turning off clipping (overlap protection).
No issues yet (fingers crossed)


----------



## Wolfeman (Jun 4, 2002)

All of the Adult Swim cartoons tonight that are 15 min were only recorded for 10 min and had nothing overlapping. They just didn't record the last 5 min 4 shows in a row. What is going on here?


----------



## HookedOnTivo (Feb 14, 2002)

Pony,

Since turning off overlap protection and doing a soft reboot Thursday night, this problem has not returned.


----------



## griffinj (Mar 25, 2005)

I've noticed a few slight problems like this over the past two weeks. However, my wife has been missing the last 7-10 minutes of her soap opera everyday so I've been hearing a lot of complaints. Is it confirmed that just a simple reboot will resolve this problem? Or is there a software update that needs to happen?

Thanks,

Jim


----------



## johnnyappleseed4 (Feb 7, 2006)

My Season Pass of '24' has cut off after 54 minutes (out of 60) the past 2 weeks. 

I have no recordings set to start at 9 CST (When '24' ends). 

'24' is #1 in my priority list.

TiVo branded Series 2, 40-hour, 7.2.1-oth-01-2-540

Comcast Chicago, coax-in, non-digital.

The program info for '24' says it's from 8:00-9:00, the recorded portion says Duration: 0:54 (Partial).

I do have overlapping turned on.

'24' is the only program that I've noticed this happening on and it has only been last Monday and tonight. 

I will try the hard reboot and turn off overlapping. 

I will be following this thread, thankfully I was watching at the time and didn't miss the last 6 minutes, but this won't be the case all the time I'm assuming. 

Thanks!


----------



## triftraf (Jan 26, 2006)

I did a "soft" reboot also and did not adjust overlap protection (still on) - 2 shows since have been correctly recorded. Maybe the reboot fixed the issue.


----------



## Wolfeman (Jun 4, 2002)

I'll try a reboot but it sounds like there is a bug


----------



## ChileHead (Feb 10, 2002)

I just noticed the same thing on Invasion recorded last week (didn't watch till last night). It stopped 8 minutes early.


----------



## betts4 (Dec 27, 2005)

Can I ask a stupid question? since I haven't had this problem - yet....I wonder if it is only on households that have multi tivos? That is one of the few things I see as a constant thru the posts. 

I have seen that my Simpsons will start a few seconds into the show, as they are getting onto the couch....but I now know I need to do overlap - they start the show a minute early and such sometimes.


----------



## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

betts4 said:


> Can I ask a stupid question? since I haven't had this problem - yet....I wonder if it is only on households that have multi tivos? That is one of the few things I see as a constant thru the posts.
> 
> I have seen that my Simpsons will start a few seconds into the show, as they are getting onto the couch....but I now know I need to do overlap - they start the show a minute early and such sometimes.


nope - I have multi TiVos a 240, 540, SD H400 and RS TX20 and have not seen this issue yet. I have ovelap turned on and 7.2.1 on all of them.


----------



## Kid Icarus (Apr 29, 2005)

betts4 said:


> Can I ask a stupid question? since I haven't had this problem - yet....I wonder if it is only on households that have multi tivos? That is one of the few things I see as a constant thru the posts.
> 
> I have seen that my Simpsons will start a few seconds into the show, as they are getting onto the couch....but I now know I need to do overlap - they start the show a minute early and such sometimes.


I only have one unit and last nite I ran into my first problem with recordings cut short. Luckily I was near the TV & noticed so I quickly restarted the recording.

I did a soft reboot last nite, hopefully that fixes it. I didn't change the overlap protection though; does it default on or off? I'm assuming off since I've missed the last minute or so of a few shows.


----------



## Ashtangi (Sep 27, 2005)

Nothing new to add, but I've also noticed it in the past week on my 540 Series - Grey's Anatomy, 24, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report - all of them stopped recording early. 

TiVo recognizes that it was only a partial recording - so I don't think it's a Guide issue.

I'll try rebooting tonight and see if it re-occurs.


----------



## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Kid Icarus said:


> I only have one unit and last nite I ran into my first problem with recordings cut short. Luckily I was near the TV & noticed so I quickly restarted the recording.
> 
> I did a soft reboot last nite, hopefully that fixes it. I didn't change the overlap protection though; does it default on or off? I'm assuming off since I've missed the last minute or so of a few shows.


I am pretty sure overlap protection is ON by default.

now the overlap protection is soley to make sure two programs that overlap by 5 minutes or less will both get recorded according to priority in the season Pass list.

It has nothing to do with making sure you get the last few minutes of a show. If that is happening regularly then that means the network is not honoring the schedule as released to tribune for use in the guide data.

in that case you will need to go to the season pass for that show and in recording options manually tell the season pass to record an extra 1,2,3,4,5 or 10 or so minutes past the "scheduled" end time


----------



## Kid Icarus (Apr 29, 2005)

ZeoTiVo said:


> I am pretty sure overlap protection is ON by default.
> 
> now the overlap protection is soley to make sure two programs that overlap by 5 minutes or less will both get recorded according to priority in the season Pass list.
> 
> ...


I guess I could've phrased that better - I usually will miss the last minute or so if I have shows back-to-back when the TiVo is changing channels.

Like last nite I was taping the end of 7th Heaven (after the TiVo stopped 7 min. short) and then as the previews were coming up for next week it changed channels to tape 24. Other than just skipping the first few seconds of the upcoming shows there isn't a whole lot to be done I would guess. Not that it's a big deal, generally just previews and/or credits are missed.


----------



## andyf (Feb 23, 2000)

Pony has mentioned in the help forums they are looking into this but a single reboot should resolve the issue.


----------



## Wolfeman (Jun 4, 2002)

I only have 1 Tivo and this happened. I tried a soft reboot and I'll let you know if I still have problems. I still have overlap on...


----------



## SMWinnie (Aug 17, 2002)

andyf said:


> Pony has mentioned in the help forums they are looking into this but a single reboot should resolve the issue.


At least one person has reported that the bug persists despite both disabling overlap protection and a reboot.

Also, to be fair to TiVoPony, his message asked people to reboot in order to help TiVo isolate the problem, but I don't believe he was assuring everybody that a reboot would solve the problem.

_Edit to correct myself: _Looks like I was wrong. TiVo Pony did say that a reboot would cure. Sorry, andyf.


----------



## Wolfeman (Jun 4, 2002)

Was there a recent service update?


----------



## HookedOnTivo (Feb 14, 2002)

betts4 said:


> Can I ask a stupid question? since I haven't had this problem - yet....I wonder if it is only on households that have multi tivos? That is one of the few things I see as a constant thru the posts.
> 
> I have seen that my Simpsons will start a few seconds into the show, as they are getting onto the couch....but I now know I need to do overlap - they start the show a minute early and such sometimes.


No. I only have one Tivo and I have this problem.


----------



## gunnerthemad (Aug 16, 2003)

My wife has had several (10+) recordings cut short and she's pretty frustrated.

I'll try the hard reboot, hopefully that will fix things.


----------



## HookedOnTivo (Feb 14, 2002)

andyf said:


> Pony has mentioned in the help forums they are looking into this but a single reboot should resolve the issue.


A reboot can only be a temporary solution. I don't see how a reboot would be a permanent fix.


----------



## crobey (Jan 4, 2002)

I'm having the same problems.


----------



## Darth Tivo (Apr 24, 2003)

Recorded Battlestar Galactica Friday night and got a "partial" recording. Clipped 6 minutes short with nothing conflicting or starting afterwards. Re-recorded Battlestar Galactica on Monday night and it only "partially" recorded as well. Clipped 7 minutes.

What is the official word on this? It is clearly a system-wide bug. It needs rectifying immediatley.


----------



## jvandecar (Feb 10, 2006)

betts4 said:


> Can I ask a stupid question? since I haven't had this problem - yet....I wonder if it is only on households that have multi tivos? That is one of the few things I see as a constant thru the posts.


Single TiVo user here.


----------



## rdlaub (Apr 19, 2005)

betts4 said:


> Can I ask a stupid question? since I haven't had this problem - yet....I wonder if it is only on households that have multi tivos? That is one of the few things I see as a constant thru the posts.
> 
> I have seen that my Simpsons will start a few seconds into the show, as they are getting onto the couch....but I now know I need to do overlap - they start the show a minute early and such sometimes.


I have one Tivo and have the issue. I also recently received a softward update (adds Yahoo photos, weather, Fandango ticket purchases etc.) I wonder if others experiencing this also received the update.


----------



## TiVoPony (May 12, 2002)

An update - we have a pretty good idea of what is happening, as well as how to resolve it in the next software release. If you should happen to run into this issue, it does appear that a single reboot of the box will fix things in the meantime.

There was one report of a clip happening after a reboot, but upon closer inspection it appears that it was unrelated to what has been reported in this thread.

The online applications are provisioned via the service - there is no software update, none of the bits on the box change. While we appreciate the detail people are providing, they're not connected.

Overlap Protection also is a red herring from what we've learned. Although the result is a clipped program, this issue is not related to the Overlap Protection feature.

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have run into, but a single reboot (either hard or soft) should get things working for you as expected, and the next release will address this permanently.

Thanks again for all of the detailed information you've shared with us, it is appreciated.

Cheers,
Pony


----------



## walueg (Sep 9, 2002)

I'll try the reboot, but it sure does look like an overlap thing that the Tivo is not getting. This is the only thing that's getting clipped on my Tivo and it's the only show that has an odd record time (#*@* ABC!). I'm not recording anything after. 

What is odd is the fact that the next show, Invasion, starts at 3 after. When I saw that Tivo only caught an hour of Lost, I went to Live TV and hit the record button. Then I went back to Lost in Now Playing, finished that, hit Live TV and the forward to end button twice to go back to where Lost was cut off successfully. 

Then I went back to Invasion in Now Playing and it started exactly where it was supposed to program wise with the position indicator starting at the 0:02 (9:02 CST) mark. 

This has happened exactly the same way twice in a row now except I was able to catch the last few minutes by being on the ball.


----------



## ChileHead (Feb 10, 2002)

I had it happen tonight with Lost & Invasion, that are on right after one another. Lost was supposed to be 1:03, but TiVo only got 1:01. Invasion is on right afterwards, and started on time, but ended 10 minutes early (luckily I noticed that and recorded the news afterward and caught the end.)

Rebooting TiVo now.


----------



## ChileHead (Feb 10, 2002)

After a reboot, is this likely to come back in the future before the next sw update? How long will the reboot keep things at bay for?


----------



## jvandecar (Feb 10, 2006)

TiVoPony said:


> An update - we have a pretty good idea of what is happening, as well as how to resolve it in the next software release. If you should happen to run into this issue, it does appear that a single reboot of the box will fix things in the meantime.
> 
> Cheers,
> Pony


Great news! And way to get a handle on it quickly.

James


----------



## supersportsfan (Sep 15, 2005)

TiVoPony said:


> An update - we have a pretty good idea of what is happening, as well as how to resolve it in the next software release. If you should happen to run into this issue, it does appear that a single reboot of the box will fix things in the meantime.
> 
> There was one report of a clip happening after a reboot, but upon closer inspection it appears that it was unrelated to what has been reported in this thread.
> 
> ...


Good to hear Pony, but can you give us any insight into when this will be released? From what I have heard, the new software with the driver for the Linksys v2 wireless adapter was not supposed to roll out until at least March...is this still the case? Will we have to run the risk of this problem coming back until then?


----------



## cricket326 (Nov 28, 2004)

ChileHead said:


> I just noticed the same thing on Invasion recorded last week (didn't watch till last night). It stopped 8 minutes early.


Me Too, with Invasaion, I had to download it and watch the ending and It happened to greys anatomy 2nd parter. UGH. gets fustrating


----------



## jruschme (Oct 18, 2002)

Darth Tivo said:


> Recorded Battlestar Galactica Friday night and got a "partial" recording. Clipped 6 minutes short with nothing conflicting or starting afterwards. Re-recorded Battlestar Galactica on Monday night and it only "partially" recorded as well. Clipped 7 minutes.


Odd, I had the same episode of BG also clip 7 minutes early on my 140 Series 2.

An off the wall thought, but could it be something in the *program* that is causing the recording to stop early?


----------



## mattman (Jun 25, 2002)

Just for informational purposes, I have had the same thing happening every day with my Pardon 
The Interruption recordings for the past week, and here I was blaming my oldest son, who, it turns out, could NOT have done it, so I will reboot and make sure that fixes it for me as well.

Matt


----------



## KellyR66 (Sep 11, 2004)

I just wanted to report that I have the same problem. Lost was cut 10 minutes early, The olympics 10 minutes early, and Battlestar Gallactica 5 minutes. I'm going to do the power reset now. 

How often do I need to do the power reset to prevent this problem?


----------



## TiVoPony (May 12, 2002)

More info in this thread...

Pony


----------



## ChuckyBox (Oct 3, 2005)

TiVoPony said:


> More info in this thread...
> 
> Pony


Check out Pony -- working the long weekend. You guys are dedicated.

I hope this is a sign of good things brewing. Or is it just fiscal year-end madness?


----------



## havtfsh (Mar 29, 2003)

I have the same problem, but it only seems to occur on one of my 6 Tivos. All my other DVR's are aftermarket, except for the one I seem to be having the problem with. I have an R10 with DirecTV and it is the only one that it happens to. I contacted DirecTV and they shipped me a 'new' one. The original one was a Hughes model, so this was the first R10. Now it occasionally happens as well, or it doesn't even start recording. The only thing that seems to work is to continually restart the box, which defeats the purpose of auto recording. No issue with programs set to record before or after, but it does stop within a few minutes when it does occur. 

I spoke with DirecTV again and they are sending me another R10 with TiVo. They already sent me an R15 but without TiVo I wouldn't even open the box.

Anyone else find a solution to this, other than replacing the unit again and again?

As a side note, I know people at DirecTV and they say they are coming out with other TiVo units in the future and to wait..... He didn't elaborate further.


----------



## interestingstuff (Apr 23, 2005)

I probably should have taken a look at how long my tivo had been running... (I just did a reboot as suggested...) 

but for the record.. the shows that I have noticed stopping early recently.. stop a lot shorter than just 7 minutes.. 

red dwarf (local pbs station) stopped at 17 minutes into the show.. leaving 13 minutes to go! btw, it's odd.. but there are two episodes each saturday... and they both stopped at 17 minutes. 

I've had a few other shows I've caught it doing this to lately, possibly LOST as others have mentioned, and I dont know what else.. I deleted the partials.. 

however it records other shows perfectly fine.


----------



## MPSmith (Feb 15, 2003)

I've been having this problem as well. I've had numerous shows stop about 7 - 9 minutes early.

I rebooted the TiVo. Can ANYONE confirm this has fixed their problem?


----------



## jtemail (Feb 9, 2003)

I saw this problem a few days ago myself. I had my recorder to set to record 5 consecutive episodes of Battlestar Galactica 1980. It truncated the first of the 5 episodes by 8 minutes for what looks like this reason. Never saw that problem before, ever! Hope this new software release rolls around soon to fix it.


----------



## cosmos303 (Jan 14, 2004)

All of a sudden, this same phenomena happened to me tonight. 24 was on from 8:00 - 10:00 e.s.t but Tivo stopped recording for some unknown reason at 9:30 then showed "partial" on the listing! I had a Season Pass for Medium at 10:00 tonight and it recorded 57 minutes then stopped. The listing says "partial". What's up?
Ken


----------



## phox_mulder (Feb 23, 2006)

Did you bother to read any of the previous 2 pages of posts?

Or these ones
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=290114
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=283908

Edit: Sorry, I'm in a mood I guess.
Reboot fixes it, and they are working on a fix to the problem.

phox


----------



## lmdoc50 (Jun 19, 2002)

I've had shows on several different channels end anywhere from 7 to 12 minutes early. I only have one TiVo and I was using overlap protection. That should not have been a factor since nothing was scheduled to record after Conviction, The Shield, West Wing, etc. I will try soft reboot.

Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone.


----------



## cosmos303 (Jan 14, 2004)

I guess I've solved my problem . I unplugged my Series II Tivo for a half hour or so then plugged it back in. The partial recording problem seems to be gone (for now). Thanks for all the help.
Ken


----------



## HookedOnTivo (Feb 14, 2002)

TivoPony replied in the thread about the Spring 2006 update that the official fix for this problem is in that update.

The thread is located here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=290484

TivoPony's post is #30 at the bottom of page 1.


----------



## Erictaub (Mar 5, 2004)

I'm writing a piece for The New York Times about this problem, and how it's been resolved by TiVo.

I'd like to hear from anyone who had this problem and who has fixed it either by resetting the box, or receiving the new software upgrade.

Please either send me a private msg or email me with your contact info, and I'll give you a call. My email is eric at taub dot com


----------



## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

Why are people still posting to this thread? I, like many others, had this problem. I, like anyone with a brain, simply soft rebooted my TiVo, and the problem *has never reoccurred*. Not one person has said the problem still exists after rebooting. TiVoPony even said a soft reboot solved it. No need to unplug for thirty minutes. And why would a newspaper want to write about such an insignificant and easily solved problem?

Why not write about a pressing, high profile issue, like the missing FSI


----------



## lmdoc50 (Jun 19, 2002)

Erictaub said:


> I'm writing a piece for The New York Times about this problem, and how it's been resolved by TiVo.
> 
> I'd like to hear from anyone who had this problem and who has fixed it either by resetting the box, or receiving the new software upgrade.
> 
> Please either send me a private msg or email me with your contact info, and I'll give you a call. My email is eric at taub dot com


 The soft reboot eliminated the problem. I've had no trouble for four days.


----------



## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

A trivial glitch that hit a small percentage of users is worthy of a NYT article? Slow news day?


----------



## zaucha (Apr 26, 2003)

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I think three or four shows were cut short. I rebooted and everything is now working fine.


----------



## scottk52 (Jun 12, 2004)

me too! On HBO.


----------

