# "Failed when loading series" - help!!!



## Zaichik (Mar 21, 2002)

When I returned from holiday on Saturday, I found that my TiVo had very little guide data left because I had neglected to leave it connected to the phone line while I was away.

I ran a daily call which failed with the above message. I tried again with the same result. I restarted TiVo and tried again but with no joy.

Before I went to bed last night, I tried running guided setup to see if that would fix the problem. After over 12 hours, I still can't access recording options because it says it is still indexing the data. In the meantime, TiVo has again tried to make a daily call and failed with the same error message.

Is there any way of fixing this?

BTW - my TiVo is an original unmodded box and I connect via dial up.

Thanks in advance for your help.


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## Philnic (Aug 3, 2002)

This happened to me once, and I'm afraid the only cure for me was to completely clear the hard drive and re-run setup. The thread where I reported my problem and received copious advice (waaaayyyyyy back in 2003!) is here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=141715

Incidentally, it has never happened again (touch wood!), and my Tivo has worked flawlessly since.


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## Zaichik (Mar 21, 2002)

Thanks. I tried rerunning guided setup with aerial only and another postcode last night and it appears to have loaded guide data, so I'll try rerunning it again with the correct setup tonight to see if that fixes things. It's wiped all my season passes, but they needed a clearout anyway. At least it hasn't wiped my existing recordings.


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## mikerr (Jun 2, 2005)

Zaichik said:


> . It's wiped all my season passes, but they needed a clearout anyway. At least it hasn't wiped my existing recordings.


Rerunning guided setup alone will never wipe season passes (or recordings).



"Clear Program Data and To Do List" - deletes season passes, wishlists and guide data.

"Clear and Delete Everything" - Deletes, well - "everything" including season passes and recordings.

"failed to load series" error is usually corrupt guide data (change postcode and/or clear programme data) 
or the thumbs system overloaded (reset thumbs), 
or of course in many cases a dying drive.


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## Zaichik (Mar 21, 2002)

mikerr said:


> Rerunning guided setup alone will never wipe season passes (or recordings).


Well, it has in my case. Yesterday, I had almost 90 season passes. Today I have only 22.

I strongly suspect that my drive is dying (it's been in almost constant use since Feb 2002) so I'm gearing up to upgrade in the not too distant future.


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

If you reran guided set up with aerial only I believe it will zap all your season passes for digital channels - don't think this happens immediately but some time during indexing.
Not surprising really but mighty inconvenient if you aren't networked and backed up.


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## Zaichik (Mar 21, 2002)

That probably had something to do with it, but a lot of my aerial season passes went too.


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## Zaichik (Mar 21, 2002)

Well, I think it's official - my tiVo has had it. I reran guided setup for my area and cable TV and it's got stuck on organising data again.

So now I have to weigh up my options:

1. Replace the HDD in TiVo. This is my preferred option but I'm worried that the guide data service won't continue much longer, especially once the Virgin TiVo device appears.

2. Swap my cable box for a V+ box. This would be the cheapest option (I think). My reservations about this is that we don't watch much on cable (and thus may cancel our service in future) and also I've read that the software is really slow and clunky. (How do season passes work for example?)

3. Look at other PVRs - is there anything else which does what TiVo does and allows you to record from different services?

Other considerations are that, although we still have an old CRT TV in our living room while our son is very young and prone to damaging stuff, we may well get an HD TV in future and want to record HD broadcasts.

Any thoughts welcome...


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## AMc (Mar 22, 2002)

Zaichik said:


> That probably had something to do with it, but a lot of my aerial season passes went too.


You may find that you have regional variations as aerial options and national ones as digital services - although they're functionally the same channel to you or I as they have different call signs then Tivo treats them as totally different.

I would fit a new drive and wait to see what Virgin's Tivo offering is like when they launch later this year. I can't see any reason to suppose the guide data is going to stop, people have been predicting this for years but there has never been any firm reason to believe its on the cards.


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## Zaichik (Mar 21, 2002)

AMc said:


> You may find that you have regional variations as aerial options and national ones as digital services - although they're functionally the same channel to you or I as they have different call signs then Tivo treats them as totally different.
> 
> I would fit a new drive and wait to see what Virgin's Tivo offering is like when they launch later this year. I can't see any reason to suppose the guide data is going to stop, people have been predicting this for years but there has never been any firm reason to believe its on the cards.


Thanks. Another factor in my decision is that they're due to switch off analogue TV in our area in March 2011, which means that TiVo will be dependent on a set top box. It's never been terribly reliable at changing channel on the cable box because, if the box throws up an error message, TiVo can't clear it.


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## Philnic (Aug 3, 2002)

For a few years I've been running a Freeview-based PVR in parallel with TiVo (actually a succession of PVRs, because none of them has lasted more than two years - whereas my TiVo just keeps on going).

Although none of the PVRs replicates the intricacy of what TiVo does, I find myself increasingly using the PVR for recording because it can record two things at once. Invariably when I set TiVo to record something it will clash with something I'm recording on another channel.

Since upgrading my TV (from 32 inch to 42 inch), I am more conscious of picture quality. Although the picture quality on Freeview is pretty awful, my current PVR looks slightly better than the picture from Tivo (which records from an old Sky box)...so, although I adore Tivo and will persist with it until it shuffles off this mortal coil, I find my Humax Freeview PVR gets more actual use than the Tivo these days.


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## mrtickle (Aug 26, 2001)

Philnic said:


> Although none of the PVRs replicates the intricacy of what TiVo does, I find myself increasingly using the PVR for recording because it can record two things at once. Invariably when I set TiVo to record something it will clash with something I'm recording on another channel.


This is where good guide data (with unique IDs for each episode, so that duplicates can be spotted) comes in. Invariably I find that at least one of the programmes has a repeat within a few days, or on a +1 channel, or both. If you set Season Passes for everything you only need to work out the priorities once. I rarely set my TiVo to record something - that was all done years ago when I created the SPs. Now I just get a full ToDo list and Now Playing 

I don't have any pressing need to record the very first broadcast of anything or watch live (sport is a special case).


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## Philnic (Aug 3, 2002)

Unfortunately, I record a lot of non-series programmes, so SPs don't help with those. And I gave up my Sky subscription a couple of years ago, so I only get the FTA channels and consequently a limited number of +1 channels. And BBC1 and BBC2 don't have a +1 channel.

And all my favourite shows seem to to be shown only once, and always at 9pm! I exaggerate, but it happens enough for me to have found a twin-tuner Freeview PVR to be a godsend.


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## mrtickle (Aug 26, 2001)

I do see your point. UK broadcasters still indulge in petty scheduling games with each other, at the viewer's expense.


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