# Recording Tivo's Buffer



## redddevil (Feb 3, 2003)

There's probably an easy answer to this one but it caught me out the other night.
Turned on TV and it was just coming to the end of one of those '100 best' type shows. Had a quick whizz backwards through the buffer and decided c 30 mins worth of this would be OK but when I went into Tivo's recording menu it said the program had already finished and so wouldn't let me record it even though there was still almost 30 minutes of it in the buffer.
Was there a way I could have retrieved this?
TFYH


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

A manual recording maybe ?

Pick-programmes to record / record by time / manually record.

Then set the time back to the past.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

No. Nothing would have worked I'm afraid. This is another of the occasional bugs in the software; in that when you switch the system on it goes to the _start_ of the buffer instead of the end.

I'm assuming, in this case, that the "100 best..." programme had finished and the next programme had already started.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

cwaring said:


> No. Nothing would have worked I'm afraid. This is another of the occasional bugs in the software; in that when you switch the system on it goes to the _start_ of the buffer instead of the end.


Another similar very annoying glitch is if you watch a program 30 minutes behind in the Live Buffer and then decide while its playin in the Live Buffer (but is no longer showing live on tv) that you would like a Season Pass for it. Unfortunately although Tivo keeps EPG data available for 24 hours it won't let you set SPs on any of those programs if they are in the past. And if the program doesn't have another showing in the next 1 to 3 weeks (depending which channel we are talking about and what day of the week) then the only way round this is to create an SP for the program using a Title Wishlist. Obviously this may not work too well though if you only want new programs in a a series and series is one that also feature on the many UKTV BBC repeats channels...........

I don't if any of these obvious minor deficiencies in our Tivo software are taken care of in the latest software versions in use on US Tivo Series 2 and Series 3 machines?


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> Unfortunately although Tivo keeps EPG data available for 24 hours it won't let you set SPs on any of those programs if they are in the past.


That's not a glitch, that's just the way it was designed. Can you record something that was on yesterday by _any_ means?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

cwaring said:


> That's not a glitch, that's just the way it was designed. Can you record something that was on yesterday by _any_ means?


No you can't record the episode of the program that was on yesterday but you can record a further program from the same series using a Season Pass in the future.

Tivo's EPG currently won't let you do this when it quite cearly at that point in time still holds the relevant Metadata to allow it to do so.:down:


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

How would you navigate to a programme that was in the past in order to set the SP?


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

TCM2007 said:


> How would you navigate to a programme that was in the past in order to set the SP?


Using the listing for it that is still in the EPG for the next 24 hours! Or didn't you bother reading all of my previous post?


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

I think our point was that the programme has finished so what's the point in allowing you to set it to record? You want a SP, use _next week's/tomorrow's_ ep to set it


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

cwaring said:


> I think our point was that the programme has finished so what's the point in allowing you to set it to record? You want a SP, use _next week's/tomorrow's_ ep to set it


BBC listings only last a guaranteed one week.

Frequently BBC series skip a week due to another event taking their air time the next week. For instance Top Gear is not on this coming Sunday due to what Jeremy Clarkson called Billiards and I suspect will in fact turn out to be Snooker.

Despite there being no program next week you might still want to set an SP for when it is back on air.

Or you might catch the last episode of a series and still want to set up an SP for any future series of that program or any future repeats from the current series that has just finished.


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## redddevil (Feb 3, 2003)

Yes the '100 best' had finished in real time.
Something of a relief to know that there wasn't a way round it in some ways as it is now the Tivo's fault rather than mine!
That said it is the first time I've wanted to do something which seemed logical but have been prevented by Tivo.
Not quite perfect after all....
TFYH


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

Pete77 said:


> Or you might catch the last episode of a series and still want to set up an SP for any future series of that program or any future repeats from the current series that has just finished.


Seeing as you can already find programmes by time, channel or title, how many other ways do you need? 


redddevil said:


> That said it is the first time I've wanted to do something which seemed logical but have been prevented by Tivo.


Yeah, 'cos it's perfectly logical to want to record something that's been shown already 
There are numerous ways to find the next showing (see above)

By all means critisise where approproate, but I don't think this is one of those times


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

cwaring said:


> Seeing as you can already find programmes by time, channel or title, how many other ways do you need?


When there is no future showing in the EPG you cannot search by time, name, channel or anything else as its not in the EPG to find.

All I am asking is for any show you have recorded for Tivo to be able to set a Season Pass for it under that Tribune Series id and channel. If the program is never broadcast again under that Series id on that channel it won't be recorded again. If it is then it will be. This is obviously a handy function and within the logical capabilities of the data Tivo holds about any recorded program (which includes both the series id and the channel it was recorded on).



> Yeah, 'cos it's perfectly logical to want to record something that's been shown already
> There are numerous ways to find the next showing (see above)
> 
> By all means critisise where approproate, but I don't think this is one of those times


Carl,

Since when did you become the arbiter of what people are and are not allowed to say in this forum and when they are allowed to criticise or not.

This also seems character for you except perhaps in responding to one of my posts. This latter post was not by me.


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## redddevil (Feb 3, 2003)

Have to agree with Pete here Carl - have I accidentally stumbled into the middle of your feud?
My post was made in reply to your 1st post in this thread and was to confirm that the program had indeed finished.
I don't also see how it was illogical for me to expect to be able to record something that I knew was already on Tivo's hard disk or have you forgotten the point of my original question that started the thread?


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Oddly I find I'm agreeing with Pete77  

It's a minor irritation that you can't set a season pass directly from a recording in Now Playing or a programme in progress. E.g. You stumble in and catch the end of a show you didn't know was on, you can't SP it to get future episodes unless you can find it again in the EPG. Even if you hit record at the appropriate moment you can't set an SP from the entry in Now Playing. 

It's time consuming to search the EPG (search by name, scroll a week through the EPG or boot the laptop to use TivoWeb) and if it isn't on again in the current EPG window you can't set up an SP and forget about it like everything else you watch.

I used to record one episode of things direct from the LiveTV EPG to see if they were worth Season Passing, but the inability to set an SP from the recording means I now set an SP and cancel it if the programme isn't that good.

As I said a minor irritation, no more.

Hitting record to capture the 30 minute buffer to find that the programme you were watching timeslipped has finished and Tivo helpfully blitzes the buffer and starts recording the next programme is something that should have been worked out. At the very least you should get a warning.


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

AMc said:


> Oddly I find I'm agreeing with Pete77


But only a brave man admits to it in this forum.


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## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

Pete77 said:


> the only way round this is to create an SP for the program using a Title Wishlist.


Eh?

As someone who keeps their laptop by their side while using the TV, you can use TivoWeb to browse what's on back 24hours (e.g. using HiGuide) and set a SP from there.

So not 'the only way'.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

mikerr said:


> A manual recording maybe ?
> 
> Pick-programmes to record / record by time / manually record.
> 
> Then set the time back to the past.


At least on US TiVos this trick works.

If you set a manual recording for the channel that is buffered, starting at the beginning of the program that just ended the TiVo will grab the entire remaining buffer (usually somewhere around 35-40 minutes; it tends to be lazy about trimming it down to 30 minutes, even though it only normally displays the last 30 min).


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## steveroe (Oct 29, 2002)

AMc said:


> Oddly I find I'm agreeing with Pete77


<AOL>Me too!</AOL>

I'm now going to lie down in a dark room until I recover


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

AMc said:


> Hitting record to capture the 30 minute buffer to find that the programme you were watching timeslipped has finished and Tivo helpfully blitzes the buffer and starts recording the next programme is something that should have been worked out.
> At the very least you should get a warning.


You do get a warning - the record screen shows the title of the current program, not your timeshifted previous program. That's before it wipes out the buffer.

You might have been too trigger happy and pressed record, then pressed select quickly 
without reading the screen though - I've been guilty of that before now.

Isn't this really rare for the standard 30 minute buffer - how many programmes are less than 30 minutes?
I do come accross this more often now I have a 3 hour buffer though.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

mikerr said:


> You might have been too trigger happy and pressed record, then pressed select quickly
> without reading the screen though - I've been guilty of that before now.


I think you'll find I've learnt my lesson and don't do it often at all. But I am also to blame for the failure of the Internet, problems with anything under the TV and an assortment of other technical issues which I understand and other family members don't 

Lots of our viewing is less than 30 minutes - it could be quite a common problem if we watched a lot of Live TV - but as we don't need to...


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

AMc said:


> It's a minor irritation that you can't set a season pass directly from a recording in Now Playing or a programme in progress.


That I can agree with. It was the "why can't I set an SP for a show that was on a half-hour ago/yesterday/sometime in the past" that I had a problem with 

I also hate that "view upcoming episodes" is in a different place, depending on where you get to it from. Many a time I've 'cancel[led] this episode' instead of 'view[ing] upcoming...' ones


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Pete77 said:


> Using the listing for it that is still in the EPG for the next 24 hours! Or didn't you bother reading all of my previous post?


I didn't think you could scroll back past the present when you browse the guide?


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

AMc said:


> Oddly I find I'm agreeing with Pete77
> 
> It's a minor irritation that you can't set a season pass directly from a recording in Now Playing or a programme in progress. .


Indeed. MCE lets you do this, as (whisper it) does Sky+!


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## redddevil (Feb 3, 2003)

And at the risk of dragging this back on topic I have just tried the manual recording into the past option (which I thought I had looked at on the night) and it worked OK getting me not only all of the weakest link (eugh) which was the current program but 10 minutes or so of the snooker that preceded it and waa\s still in the buffer.
I feel a bufferhack coming on...


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Ohhh that's well worth knowing!



TCM2007 said:


> I didn't think you could scroll back past the present when you browse the guide?


Yes, you can. If you press LiveTV, right and up there is a reasonable amount of guide data to browse. Not sure about search by name etc.

FWIW I thought we were staying on topic - certainly within the context of most threads these days .


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

TCM2007 said:


> I didn't think you could scroll back past the present when you browse the guide?


You own a Tivo for 7 years and have never once pressed Live Tv and tried to use cursor up in the Tivo EPG data for any channel to see if you could go backwards before the current program?

If you had then you would have found the last 24 hours of EPG data on each channel is still available.

It just seems totally unlikely that someone with your normal curiosity about all matters Tivo would not be aware of this after *7 years!.*


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

redddevil said:


> And at the risk of dragging this back on topic I have just tried the manual recording into the past option (which I thought I had looked at on the night) and it worked OK getting me not only all of the weakest link (eugh) which was the current program but 10 minutes or so of the snooker that preceded it and waa\s still in the buffer.
> I feel a bufferhack coming on...


Very interesting info indeed. Especially as I have a 180 minute Live Buffer.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

IMHO anybody with a bufer that large who regularly finds it being used to its full extent isn't making proper use of his/her TIVo 

My two TiVos are both normally recording something 24x7 with only occasional short gaps when the red LED is off.

If you are finding stuff you'd like to record *randomly* by watching Live TV then you don't have a sufficiently comprehensive set of SPs/Wishlists IMHO!


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

blindlemon said:


> If you are finding stuff you'd like to record *randomly* by watching Live TV then you don't have a sufficiently comprehensive set of SPs/Wishlists IMHO!


Surely it depends if you have Suggestions turned on or not and also how much time you can actually normally devote per week to television viewing.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

I don't have suggestions turned on, and I don't watch all the stuff that gets recorded - but that's beside the point. At least *my* TiVos are being used to their full potential...


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

blindlemon said:


> I don't have suggestions turned on, and I don't watch all the stuff that gets recorded - but that's beside the point. At least *my* TiVos are being used to their full potential...


I suppose that's one way of looking at.


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Pete77 said:


> You own a Tivo for 7 years and have never once pressed Live Tv and tried to use cursor up in the Tivo EPG data for any channel to see if you could go backwards before the current program?
> 
> If you had then you would have found the last 24 hours of EPG data on each channel is still available.
> 
> It just seems totally unlikely that someone with your normal curiosity about all matters Tivo would not be aware of this after *7 years!.*


Did all that kind of playing seven years ago so have forgotten!

Sadly TiVo is strictly backup now to MCE and Sky+HD so it very rarely actually gets watched (as opposed to accessed over the network) and Live TV is never used - it's the lowest quality source for live TV I have.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Here's a hack to setup season passes for programmes in the past, in the tivo GUI

Requirements:

needs MWstate bug to have been fixed 
(run ./fixmwstate.tcl and reboot)

needs newtext2osd installed in /var/hack/bin

Usage:

Press SELECT on a programme in the on-screen guide, and if its in the past it will setup a season pass.
Press RECORD on a programme in the past, and it will move to straight to the manual recording page (for now).

Or press RECORD on the program description screen on any pre-recorded show in now-playing,
and it will make a season pass from there.

Just run it as:

/var/hack/recordpast.tcl

Version 1.2 (added a fix for british summertime)


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

Great further work Mike.

I expect you no doubt have version 3 of the Tivo interface for our UK Tivo S1 machines in the pipeline.:up:


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

(from another thread)


Pete77 said:


> The last time I wanted to record a program that was not the current program in my 3 hour buffer I tried to do so by setting a Manual Recording for the time period in questions (all of which was held in the Live Buffer) but my Tivo then refused to let me set this recording on the basis that it was in the past.


I can confirm manual recording does work for items in the past, just don't alter the date!

E.g. Its 6:26 now and I have a 3 hour buffer on BBC1

BBC1: 
5:00pm Newsround
5:15pm Weakest link
6:00pm BBC News & Weather

So I set a manual recording for 5:00pm to 6:30pm

It grabbed the whole of Newsround + Weakest Link + BBC News in one recording.

If I had just pressed record, tivo would have "lost" the first two.


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