# How to speed up sluggish menus?



## clivegriffiths (Feb 24, 2002)

Okay, given that I'm playing about with my TiVo at the moment (changed digital platforms and repeated guided set-up last night) now is perhaps a good time to deal with a few issue thats been bothering me for a little while. 

For a year or so now, I have found the TiVo very sluggish at times, I'll select a menu option, i.e 'now playing' or chaging recording options, etc and its really sluggish, as if its half a sleep. Could this be a hard-drive issue, or do I simply need a good clear out? I've tried restarting/powering up the Tivo and it doesn't seem to make a great deal of different. I'm think its might be lots of old season passes, etc. When I was doing my guided set-up last night I was tempted to do a full system reset so that it would clear off all my recordings and also my season passes, but I didn't want to do this if it would make little or no difference. Given now that I'm on Freeview (a lot less channels in the database) would a full system reset be worth it and if I did do a full reset would I lose the software upgrade 2.5.5 and find my TiVo reverted back to the factory set software version?


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## mesaka (Sep 27, 2002)

Hi Clive

Can you give us a few more bits of info to help decide how to help you.

1/. Is this an a modified TiVo?
2/. If modified - just a bigger hard drive or network connectivity or...?
3/. How many season passes / wishlists?
4/. How full is the TiVo?
5/. Any particular menus take longer than others?


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## clivegriffiths (Feb 24, 2002)

mesaka said:


> Hi Clive
> 
> Can you give us a few more bits of info to help decide how to help you.
> 
> ...


Its an original, non modified Tivo, not sure how many season passes, probably between about 70 or 80?? maybe. How full is it? Well its pretty fulll at the moment, but even when I've cleared it all off it still was a little sluggish. I got its absolutely clear after xmas and I was so excited thinking it would whizz along and its was no better. As for which menus take the longest, we from what I recall I think stuff like clicking the now playing menu, changing recording options (sometimes I get the little TiVo man, please wait thingy), deleting stuff off the to do list, etc... or yeah, also updating/changing priority of season passes practically grinds the sucker to a halt.


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Changing the order of the SPs in the SP Manager - especially with 80SPs - will take ages on most TiVos. 10-20 minutes would not be uncommon. 

If you don't have any recordings you want to keep at the moment then I'd suggest a Clear & Delete Everything to clear out and re-initalise the TiVo database - NOTE: YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR SEASON PASSES THOUGH 

Alternatively, treat your TiVo to a cachecard with RAM


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## clivegriffiths (Feb 24, 2002)

blindlemon said:


> Changing the order of the SPs in the SP Manager - especially with 80SPs - will take ages on most TiVos. 10-20 minutes would not be uncommon.
> 
> If you don't have any recordings you want to keep at the moment then I'd suggest a Clear & Delete Everything to clear out and re-initalise the TiVo database - NOTE: YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR SEASON PASSES THOUGH
> 
> Alternatively, treat your TiVo to a cachecard with RAM


Well I don't really fancy opening up the TiVo and fiddling .. I have toyed with the idea of some mods before, like the tivoweb thingy so I could download listings instead of the phone line, etc .. but like the cachecard, I don't think I want to deal with the issues of installing it, etc. If only the TiVo fairy could wave a magic wand and install all the mods for me 

As for the suggestion of clear and delete and re-initalise. If I do this, will it revert to factory settings? I don't want to lose the 2.5.5 update. Also, can you just tell when what options I need on the menu to do the clear and delete all/re-initalise.


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## The Obo (Feb 22, 2005)

You will not lose the 2.5.5 Update - it just wipes all your recordings, your setup and the Tivo database - back to new!

I used to have the same problem - changing order of Season Passes used to take over half an hour! 
I went for the cachecard and installed TivoWeb - Now I only do it via TivoWeb using Sandertons brilliant Tivoweb module that does it in the background.
I have never tried changing order of Season Passes on the Tivo since so I'm not really sure how much speed difference the CacheCard makes to that particluar procedure, but the Now Palying, etc menus are about 3-4 times faster.


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

From my experience, I doubt that adding a cachecard will speed up a 40GB model; unless you have a very large number of very short recordings. It is really designed to stop TiVo's from slowing down too much when larger drives get filled up.

However, as stated above, the addition of a network card does allow the background resequencing of Season Passes, and that is a fundamental improvement. There is no way of speeding up a TiVo without hacking it.

There can be a problem whereby stray IR can slow down response to the remote, but that doesn't sound like your problem.


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## clivegriffiths (Feb 24, 2002)

The Obo said:


> You will not lose the 2.5.5 Update - it just wipes all your recordings, your setup and the Tivo database - back to new!


Actually, I've just been looking at the reset options and I'm considering the "clear programme data and to do list" option instead of the 'Clear and delete everything' as least until I can watch/clear my 'Now playing' (didn't realise I has so much I hadn't watched). 
If I choose the "clear programme data and to do list" option, its say it says it will "remove all programme guide data, cancel upcoming recording and season passes and remove thumb ratings for programmes". Does this mean it deletes season passes, or does it just cancel upcoming recording of season passes?
Also, is sounds as if this will retain my recording in 'now playing' is that correct?


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Unfortunately this option clears just about everything except the existing recordings - including your season passes.


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## clivegriffiths (Feb 24, 2002)

blindlemon said:


> Unfortunately this option clears just about everything except the existing recordings - including your season passes.


I know, unfortunately I thought it wouldn't clear the season passes so went ahead with it.  Oh well, thats one way to clear out things!  Just wish I'd had the sense to note down my season passes beforehand as now I can't recall what I had on there. Anyway, the good news is it certainly seems faster!


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

...and I guess re-ordering Season Passes is almost instantaneous too  

(Sorry!  Just couldn't resist that... )


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## geekspeak (Oct 1, 2002)

clivegriffiths said:


> I know, unfortunately I thought it wouldn't clear the season passes so went ahead with it.  Oh well, thats one way to clear out things!  Just wish I'd had the sense to note down my season passes beforehand as now I can't recall what I had on there. Anyway, the good news is it certainly seems faster!


Just wondering if you have any more updates on whether things are faster after a clear-down. I am planning another upgrade this weekend and am wondering whether to keep all my current settings or start again from scratch - manually readding season passes.

I guess the question is - is it the number of recordings that slows things down or all the thumbs up/down and old log files etc.

I currently find navigating Now Playing can be anything from instant to maybe 20 seconds or so, with 2 x 120 Gb.


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## johala_reewi (Oct 30, 2002)

If you had a networked Tivo, you could use the backup season passes tivoweb module to save season passes before you do a complete clearout. Then afterwards, restore your season passes from the backup. Having got around 150 season passes, the only way to keep them organised is via tivoweb. It is too time consuming to use the remote


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