# How do I STOP playback!



## Kelcett (Nov 10, 2013)

I read the posts on this subject but none solve my issue. This and the fact that I seem to be getting ads on something I pay a subscription for may result in me returning my week old Tivo.

Maybe one of you can help. I hope this is just me missing something easy. With old WMC ot TWC system if I hit stop on live or recorded TV it would stop and I would go back to guide or menu, great.

With Tivo if older kids or parents watching a channel and we finish for the night I see no way to stop that channel/show. So if young kids come in and turn on TV next morning there can be an inappropriate show on the last channel playing. It would be nice for unit to always stay in say guide mode without pip. Even if I use the slowmow button to hide the pip window and have pip wind set to off in settings the tivo starts playing in full screen. Same with going through the many steps to put unit in standby, coming out of standby TV is playing.

Is there not a status where the tuners are not doing anything. Is the only way to make this thing comply with parental controls to turn it off at the wall!


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## tatergator1 (Mar 27, 2008)

Kelcett said:


> I read the posts on this subject but none solve my issue. This and the fact that I seem to be getting ads on something I pay a subscription for may result in me returning my week old Tivo.
> 
> Maybe one of you can help. I hope this is just me missing something easy. With old WMC ot TWC system if I hit stop on live or recorded TV it would stop and I would go back to guide or menu, great.
> 
> ...


Some answers to your questions:

There is no time at which the Tivo is not actively actively recording the standard 30 minute buffers on all tuners. This is how the Tivo has always operated.

There is no "Stop" command as you are used to from WMC. The software will automatically revert from the menu to Live TV after a period of 15 minutes, whether the TV is on or off. I assume this is Tivo's method of providing a "screensaver" for TV's sensitive to static image burn-in.

I am not familiar with how parental controls function on the Tivo, but it seems like your saying that even with parental controls enabled, it is possible to turn the TV on and it will still be on the last watched TV station from the previous night, even if that is station is generally blocked by parental controls?

If so, one option to consider would be to set up a recurring Season Pass for acceptable TV channels on as many channels as you have tuners at the same time, early every morning to "reset" what will be actively displayed when the TV is turned on in the morning. The Season Pass would be set to only keep 1 episode each to prevent a build-up of unwanted shows. This is definitely a kludge, so I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to go this route.


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## AdamNJ (Aug 22, 2013)

while watching a recording:
hit pause, then live tv
or jsut hit live tv and it will stop where you were


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## andyf (Feb 23, 2000)

I think the parental lock goes back into effect after 4 hours requiring you to re-enter the PIN to see the current channel if it is locked by PCs.


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## Kelcett (Nov 10, 2013)

tatergator1, Thanks for quick and clear reply, I now understand a bit more on internal workings. As you say Season pass not really an option. Have asked TIVO how I overcome the problem.
As I will more than likely use my Harmony remote, I could see if I could set remote 'off' function to first change channel to kid friendly channel, then turn off tv, amp, etc.

*Note not sure what would happen if I set that 'channel' to be a non-existent channel in my lineup?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

To stop watching a recording, press the LEFT arrow. If you are within 5 minutes of the end, it will ask if you want to delete it. Then, it will go back to the shows/play list.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Kelcett said:


> tatergator1, Thanks for quick and clear reply, I now understand a bit more on internal workings. As you say Season pass not really an option.


Other than having 4-6 unwanted recordings in the my shows list, do you have another reason why you would not want to do this?

To me, it seems like the best option to do what you want to do, and once it is set up, you'd never have to touch it again.

Seems like trying to program a macro on the remote would be a lot more complicated. Especially if you have to worry about more than one tuner.


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## Thom (Jun 5, 2000)

Here is what I did about the problem of a TiVo remaining on a non-child channel...

Create a number of simultaneous repeat manual recordings for safe channels. The number needed should match the number of tuners your TiVo has. They need to be simultaneous so that ALL tuners are forced to change to the safe channels.

Pick a time in the early morning hours when no one will be watching, and when none of your shows record. Also pick an oddball starting and ending time. I used 4:20am to 4:25am, or 5:20am to 5:25am.

These manual recordings should be set to repeat every day, and should have Keep at Most set to 1. Put these manual recordings at the bottom of your Season Pass Manager list so they don't interfere with Season Passes or Wish Lists.

Now all your tuners will change to safe channels before your kids get up. 

Since each manual recording is only for 5 minutes with Keep at Most set to 1, your TiVo recording capacity will barely be reduced at all by 4 five minute shows being deleted and re-recorded each day.


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

Live TV....change the channel before shutting down

Recording....Back to My Shows, move the the highlight, shut down.

Personally, I/we just won't watch anything not appropriate for my kids.


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## celtic pride (Nov 8, 2005)

I keep it simple i hit live tv,then change channel to either nbc,abc,or cbs,then turn off tv.


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## Humble (Jul 21, 2010)

Thank you ThAtbO. This works perfectly and is the correct solution to a stupid design defect.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Not a design defect at all. Tivo has never had nor needed a 'STOP' button. Its not a 1980s VCR with a mechanical tape drive. Quit thinking of it as one. If you are done with a recording, just leave it. Go somewhere else. Live TV, Tivo Central or back to the My Shows list. No need to stop first. That would be a wasted step. Tivo takes care of that for you. Always has.


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## jakerock (Dec 9, 2002)

Alternatively instead of left arrow, the TiVo button always takes you to the now playing. Or hit the 'other tuner' button to go immediately to live TV.

Not a design flaw as others have said. The TiVo is always doing something and never 'stops'.


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## stonewallers (Apr 8, 2010)

Thom said:


> Here is what I did about the problem of a TiVo remaining on a non-child channel...
> 
> Create a number of simultaneous repeat manual recordings for safe channels. The number needed should match the number of tuners your TiVo has. They need to be simultaneous so that ALL tuners are forced to change to the safe channels.
> 
> ...


while this sounds complicated, it's actually really simple. In fact, I recommend the utility of it outside of parental controls. I don't have kids and I use this technique. I don't use it to hide channels but rather to have the tivo on a pre-selected set of tuners I chose when I wake up so that I can go back if I want (e.g., weather channel, local news channels, sports channel, etc.). It really is quite convenient and takes up minimal self-deleting space on the dvr.


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## bmgoodman (Dec 20, 2000)

Kelcett said:


> It would be nice for unit to always stay in say guide mode without pip. Even if I use the slowmow button to hide the pip window and have pip wind set to off in settings the tivo starts playing in full screen. Same with going through the many steps to put unit in standby, coming out of standby TV is playing.


Do you know you *can* turn off the PIP entirely? That's what I did on my Roamio. My Harmony remote also issues a "Tivo" keypress as part of coming-out-of-standby, so I always start at the main menu.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

FYI- it is never off in the guide. In the menus I turn it on/off all of the time, depending upon what I'm doing. "slow" key is the toggle.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I just wish PiP could be on all the time. I would love for it to be available on every screen in the UI. But since it looks like they will never update all the screens of the UI, I guess it will never happen. Well maybe they will by 2020?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

aaronwt said:


> I just wish PiP could be on all the time. I would love for it to be available on every screen in the UI. But since it looks like they will never update all the screens of the UI, I guess it will never happen. Well maybe they will by 2020?


By then, they will become HALs.


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## rocket777 (Sep 11, 2013)

It's funny, I recently "upgraded" to tivo having been with direct-tv's obsolete "ultimate tv" since 2001, some 10 years after they cancelled it for any new users.

But it's been a real pain for me to get around the spoilers caused by going live when you don't want to. I have to be real careful when recording sports to not do anything that might cause the tivo to go live on a game I'm watching an hour behind.

This is a non-problem on my old dvr. If DTV wasn't so ridiculously expensive, and had an HD version of the ultimate-tv, I'd have never got the tivo.

For the curious here's a "spoiler", description of that dvr and how they never have this spoiler problem.



Spoiler



The DTV ultimate tv had it's roots as a replay-tv, I believe. They don't have this spoiler problem (which is technically the same thing the OP is complaining about).

This box has what it calls its channel 1040, which is just the "my shows" channel. If you tune to this channel (it's in the guide, or you get there by playing back anything in the my shows folder) you stay on this channel for playback, and it never goes live. So, it's always either playing or paused on this channel or on a screen saying playback complete - think of it as being paused at the end of the show. If you go to the guide, or the my shows page, or to any setup page, it remembers you're on this pseduo channel, so you can always get back there in one key (like the zoom key is supposed to work on tivo).

So, unless you explicity choose another channel, you never go live by accident.

And if you pause for some amount of time, it just goes into its screen saver. The next key press on the remote just cancels the screensaver. So, again, no need to go live after 15 minutes of inactivity.


The trick I use to insure no spoilers when first turning the tivo on is to shutdown as follows:

Start a playback on something, hit pause, then hit tivo, and drill down to standby. This is quite tedious, but I've got the hang of it. It'd be nicer if there were a shortcut to standby.


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## vinsuz (Aug 13, 2007)

*Use Parental controls people!*

Let's say I'm watch HBO after the kids go to bed. In the morning, if my kids were allowed to turn on the TV without asking, which they are not, they would see a gray screen blocking whatever is on HBO because I have enabled Parental Controls.

Personally, I have it set to allow anything G or PG, so if a kids show happened to be on HBO in the morning it would appear onscreen.

As someone mentioned above, the four-digit code to override Parental Controls, which unblocks all programming, stays in effect for four hours, but I'm sure there is a way to manually revert to blocking through the Settings.


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