# Season Pass indicators on grid



## rjcarlson49 (Mar 18, 2008)

My first DVR was a M$ UltimateTV. I still think it had the best UI of any I have owned since.

One very simple thing REALLY needs to be added to the TIVO. On the program grid there should be an icon for 1) a one-time record, 2) season pass, will record, 3) season pass, won't record, and 4) is recording right now.

This would save God know how many accumulated hours of futzing around to determine whether a show is scheduled to record or not.

I am mystified that TIVO and other do not already do this. I CAN'T be the first to suggest it.


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## WayneCarter (Mar 16, 2003)

> I CAN'T be the first to suggest it.


Rest assured, you're far from it.

IMO The most efficient work-around is to simply "Select" the show in the _right-hand_panel of the Guide - if the show ISN'T already scheduled, you'll get the menu to schedule it. If it IS already scheduled, you'll get the menu to "Record as planned" or to "Cancel recording". Certainly not as useful as markers in the Guide would be, but better than innumerable trips to the "ToDo" list.


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## rjcarlson49 (Mar 18, 2008)

WayneCarter said:


> Rest assured, you're far from it.
> 
> IMO The most efficient work-around is to simply "Select" the show in the Guide - if it ISN'T already scheduled, you'll get the menu to schedule it. If it IS already scheduled, you'll get the menu to "Record as planned" or to "Cancel recording". Not as useful as markers in the Guide would be, but better than innumerable trips to the "ToDo" list.


I do that already. That's what I want to avoid. Does Tivo have an excuse for not doing this?


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## WayneCarter (Mar 16, 2003)

> Does Tivo have an excuse for not doing this?


I don't know, but I _assume_ it might have to do with the time required to determine where the "Marks" should be put. I _think_ to "ToDo" lint is generated when it is displayed, and not available for ready reference all the time, which could slow the guide down quite a bit by adding marks. If that is the case, adding a _reliable_ readily available TDL would likely not be a trivial exercise.

(My assumption is that TiVo merely maintains a record of the next recording to be made, when that recording starts, it determines the "new" next event, and so on. When a new event is added to the schedule (by whatever means), it is checked against the "Next" event record, and if it occurs before the "Next" event, it replaces the "Next" event record. In general, this is a simpler and more reliable method of scheduling than constantly maintaining a list of upcoming events.)

Again, this is MY _assumption_. As to any real rationale behind lack of "Marks", you'd have to ask someone who knows the internal workings of TiVo.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

rjcarlson49 said:


> I do that already. That's what I want to avoid. Does Tivo have an excuse for not doing this?


I'm not sure exactly why, but for whatever reason TiVo seems to try to avoid being guide centric. So the information is avalible in the ToDo list, but not in the guide. 
And they seem to encourage using search by title and season passes/wishlists over searching for shows in the guide. (If by nothing else the relatively slow performance of the classic grid style guides).

So while other parts of the TiVo user interface have gotten updates (for example wishlists got a major overhaul in the last year or so) the guide seems to be left unchanged. None of the various functional improvements I've seen requested have been added (for example: displaying upcoming recording, color coding by show type, multiple favorites lists, picture in guide, guide without going to livetv).

Now personally, none of that bothers me much, I barely use the guide, but I'm not sure why it hasn't gotten any improvements over the years. (Well, it got one change, they added the grid style option. The oldest TiVos only had the TiVo style guide)


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## rjcarlson49 (Mar 18, 2008)

WayneCarter said:


> I don't know, but I _assume_ it might have to do with the time required to determine where the "Marks" should be put. I _think_ to "ToDo" lint is generated when it is displayed, and not available for ready reference all the time, which could slow the guide down quite a bit by adding marks. If that is the case, adding a _reliable_ readily available TDL would likely not be a trivial exercise.
> 
> (My assumption is that TiVo merely maintains a record of the next recording to be made, when that recording starts, it determines the "new" next event, and so on. When a new event is added to the schedule (by whatever means), it is checked against the "Next" event record, and if it occurs before the "Next" event, it replaces the "Next" event record. In general, this is a simpler and more reliable method of scheduling than constantly maintaining a list of upcoming events.)
> 
> Again, this is MY _assumption_. As to any real rationale behind lack of "Marks", you'd have to ask someone who knows the internal workings of TiVo.


I do embedded Linux code for a living and the code for this would be quite easy compared to what is going on inside your wireless router for eample.

I worry that some dufus obtained a patent on this idea and so eliminated it from the marketplace. Software patents need to die.


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## WayneCarter (Mar 16, 2003)

> I do embedded Linux code for a living and the code for this would be quite easy compared to what is going on inside your wireless router for eample.


That may be - IF it were designed to have the capability from the outset. It could be considerably more difficult to add it to an existing design.



> I worry that some dufus obtained a patent on this idea and so eliminated it from the marketplace.


That's certainly a possibility.



> Software patents need to die.


I'm not sure a workable difference could be defined between software and other technologies. I think your wish is tantamount to saying "ANY patents need to die", or do you have a some thoughts of how the criteria could be implemented?


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## rjcarlson49 (Mar 18, 2008)

WayneCarter said:


> I'm not sure a workable difference could be defined between software and other technologies. I think your wish is tantamount to saying "ANY patents need to die", or do you have a some thoughts of how the criteria could be implemented?


Yes, it would be tricky. The real problem is obviousness. The current interpretation of "obvious" is far, far too loose. The Amazon one click patent is absurd. I also heard that the idea of a channel grid with channels on the Y axis and times on the x axis was granted a patent. My favorite definition is this: assign a problem to a class of 100 graduate students in CS. If any one of them comes up with a particular solution, it is "obvious". Recent legislation will tighten this up, but too little, I fear.

If you solve the protein folding problem, definitely you get a patent.


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