# New Update Annoyance - TIVO employees read this!



## timmo (Apr 25, 2003)

Ok - maybe this has been dealt with in 7.3.1 bug reports, but the slowness (yes, I rebooted) and appearance of the progress/time bar every time I change the channel are VERY annoying. Especially so because now my wife is bugging me about it. 

Tim


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## GoHokies! (Sep 21, 2005)

this, or maybe this, or perhaps this, or finally this!!!

There's plenty more, I got tired of cutting and pasting URL's. This has been discussed over and over and over again. Stop starting threads on the same old thing and use one of the threads that already exists.

Someone needs to lock this...


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## mattman (Jun 25, 2002)

I'm sure that timmo could have used some discretion, but I wouldn't exactly call him a NEW poster. His join date is 4/2003... Just not a FREQUENT poster.

Matt


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## gastrof (Oct 31, 2003)

GoHokies! said:


> this, or maybe this, or perhaps this, or finally this!!!
> 
> There's plenty more, I got tired of cutting and pasting URL's. This has been discussed over and over and over again. Stop starting threads on the same old thing and use one of the threads that already exists.
> 
> Someone needs to lock this...


On the other hand, the squeaky wheel...


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## maki (Oct 23, 2003)

Someone at TiVo really should acknowledge the problem though since a lot of people seem to wonder whether TiVo even cares.


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## bidger (Mar 30, 2001)

I'm curious as to why KidZone wasn't a subscription option, like the video downloads. Does TiVo just assume every subscriber has kids?


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## maki (Oct 23, 2003)

bidger said:


> I'm curious as to why KidZone wasn't a subscription option, like the video downloads. Does TiVo just assume every subscriber has kids?


You don't see anything with regards to KidZone unless you turn it on in your settings.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

I am sure TiVo could care less that customers are happy with their TiVo DVR or not, its not like TiVo inc. relies on the customers continuing a monthly subscription


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## 2004raptor (Dec 31, 2005)

I've noticed it but never saw any mention of it here in the forums. Thanks for the thread timmo and the links GoHokies.


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## Rawson819 (Oct 3, 2003)

timmo said:


> Especially so because now my wife is bugging me about it.


I'm in the same boat and totally feel your pain!


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## drew2k (Jun 10, 2003)

From here ...

(However, noting ZeoTiVo's eyeroll, I think he did know what he was typing. He's acknowledging TiVo DOES care about customers somewhat, but they could indeed care LESS if they really wanted to. All with an eyeroll, of course.)


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## Fraser+Dief (Nov 18, 2005)

maki said:


> You don't see anything with regards to KidZone unless you turn it on in your settings.


Well, nothing except all the bugs and general malaise that it added into the basic system.


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## maki (Oct 23, 2003)

drew2k said:


> From here ...
> 
> (However, noting ZeoTiVo's eyeroll, I think he did know what he was typing. He's acknowledging TiVo DOES care about customers somewhat, but they could indeed care LESS if they really wanted to. All with an eyeroll, of course.)


Fantastic! I hate when people mix those up - and couldn't care less!


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## maki (Oct 23, 2003)

Fraser+Dief said:


> Well, nothing except all the bugs and general malaise that it added into the basic system.


They would still send the software. Just because you enable video downloads from your account doesn't mean your TiVo isn't capable of it already.

Besides, the update came with some other changes. Isn't the Recently Deleted folder included?


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## alansplace (Apr 30, 2006)

eric_mcgovern said:


> You are probably correct, as TiVo does care about its customers...
> 
> I believe you were attempting to say *couldn't* care less.


in my estimation ZeoTiVo was being facetious.
--
Alan


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## krypdo (Sep 13, 2001)

Seems like this summer update has made some of us long-time-lurkers post, not a good sign. 

I've been dealing with this update since 7.3 first came out and continuing with 7.3.1...signed up for the priority list and got it within 3 days...then the headaches started... 

I have two S2 140hr, one stock one upgraded with a weaknees 250gb add on drive. 

Both slowed to a halt with Kidzone turned on. Turned off Kidzone, the stock machine slowly became more responsive, and took about 4 weeks to get back to near baseline prior to software update. 

On the other hand, the upgraded machine was in deep trouble, and still is. 

Spontaneous reboots, pulling shows off the machine with tivotogo would cause a reboot and transfer interruption would stay in to do list forever until deleting the appropriate stale togo db files on the PC. Seems like my next problem has created some problem recordings which choked the transfers. 

Freezing pictures, stuttering and macroblocking of some recordings and live tv buffer has caused me to believe my hard drive might be dying. But right after the update? Too much of a coincidence. After painstakingly trying to do nothing, this situation seems to be resolving (happens less frequently). I've contributed the cause to 1) the 7.3 software and 2) the occasional crappy cable signal from Comcast to the digital box to the TiVo, as the stuttering and macroblocking seems to happen mostly at a handful of channels. 

BTW, my 4 year old son hated the kidzone, the purple theme just didn't appeal to him. 

At this point, I just want someone from TiVo (Pony?) to come out and acknowledge this again, as he did when 7.3.1 came. The Fall season is coming and if I have anymore screw-up recordings the Wife is going to make me bittorrent again. 

I'm not going to pay $20 a month so I have two boxes that I can upload torrents to watch. 

Or maybe I will....sigh....


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

I have 7.3.1, with KidZone turned OFF, and oddly enough, my TiVo actually seems FASTER than before when I had the 7.2.2 software. I have a 230 unit.


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## Bimwad (Jul 4, 2005)

maki said:


> Someone at TiVo really should acknowledge the problem though since a lot of people seem to wonder whether TiVo even cares.


The silence is deafening, isn't it? But that's ok, since only a "minority" is affected, no matter how unhappy they are, or how poorly their boxes now perform.

Even a few brief words would probably quiet the storm and reduce the number of complaints and repetitive topics.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Bimwad said:


> The silence is deafening, isn't it? But that's ok, since only a "minority" is affected, no matter how unhappy they are, or how poorly their boxes now perform.
> 
> Even a few brief words would probably quiet the storm and reduce the number of complaints and repetitive topics.


I am sure those with the problem couldn't post less if TiVo did publicly acknowledge the problem 

Why does everyone assume TiVo just turns a blind eye to this and is not working on the performance issues. 7.2.2 was a response to the same type of thing and the unlucky few were posting away like mad how 7.2.1 was the end and why did TiVo not say something


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

ZeoTiVo said:


> Why does everyone assume TiVo just turns a blind eye to this and is not working on the performance issues.


I don't think they aren't working on it. But after TiVoOpsMgr said the vast majority of their customers do not have any issues, you have to wonder if fixing these bugs are a priority anymore. I think people looking for a quick fix may be disappointed if this is the attitude TiVo is taking.


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## RoyK (Oct 22, 2004)

ZeoTiVo said:


> Why does everyone assume TiVo just turns a blind eye to this and is not working on the performance issues. 7.2.2 was a response to the same type of thing and the unlucky few were posting away like mad how 7.2.1 was the end and why did TiVo not say something


Once again you are absolutely correct. The 7.3 debacle is a repeat of the 7.2 debacle and like 7.2 it will no doubt be repaired sooner or later. All is good if you feel its OK for a product to work as it should eight or nine months of the year and cause frustration the rest of the time. I for one don't.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

RoyK said:


> Once again you are absolutely correct. The 7.3 debacle is a repeat of the 7.2 debacle and like 7.2 it will no doubt be repaired sooner or later. All is good if you feel its OK for a product to work as it should eight or nine months of the year and cause frustration the rest of the time. I for one don't.


shouldn't a debacle get more coverage at least in the blogs devoted to DVR and like technology? What is this failure rate for 7.3.1 ?


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

ZeoTiVo said:


> shouldn't a debacle get more coverage at least in the blogs devoted to DVR and like technology? What is this failure rate for 7.3.1 ?


I hear that a lot on this forum lately. It's become so that if everyone doesn't call TiVo support or if there isn't huge coverage on the internet its not a problem. It seems to me, when you have user interface issues like the ones in 7.3.1, you don't have general people causing an uproar. However, what you have is people lowering their expectations of TiVo. In years past, TiVo was known to be the best DVR available. The more TiVo stops caring about the user experience, the less the gap between the cable company DVR and TiVo.

Personally, I do not call and complain that simple features like "Watch Now" no longer work on my TiVo. But that doesn't mean people at my house don't complain to me when it doesn't. I don't have the time in the day to call and report every single issue with 7.3.1. I use to be the only one in my house that used our Moxi dvr. But since 7.3.1, everyone else has started using it to. Waiting for commands on the Moxi no longer seem like a big deal since the TiVo has become the same way.


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## Bimwad (Jul 4, 2005)

ZeoTiVo said:


> Why does everyone assume TiVo just turns a blind eye to this and is not working on the performance issues.


In lieu of any acknowledgment, what are we to assume? That it's a low priority and that people will have to suffer for another couple months? We'd all like to avoid such speculation, but there are only a couple ways to avoid it, either by making a statement, or pushing a bugfix. Until either occurs, people will continue to express their feelings.

The DVR blogosphere and the DVR press are irrelevant to me, and probably a good many of the rest of us, as is the estimated failure rate, or whatever labels are attached. Such citations and semantic debates are useless.

The only thing that is relevant is that for some of us, 7.3 has some serious issues that need to be addressed, and if TiVo wishes to maintain our good relationship, they need to step forward.

Why is it so hard for those who don't have problems to sympathize with the ones who do? Or refrain from threadcrapping on the topics devoted to these issues?

If such discussion is distasteful or upsetting, ignore it. When/if this is resolved, I'm sure many of the former lurkers will go back to lurking so the happy talk and troll-patrolling can continue unabated.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

ZeoTiVo said:


> Why does everyone assume TiVo just turns a blind eye to this and is not working on the performance issues. 7.2.2 was a response to the same type of thing and the unlucky few were posting away like mad how 7.2.1 was the end and why did TiVo not say something


One difference is last time news about the flaky 7.2 upgrade made it to the major news reporting sites. Enough so that TiVo actually made a public statement about working on a fix. And the problems with that release only affected people with certain digital cable boxes (a minority).

I think the issues with the 7.3 release affect more people but so far this time around, it hasn't made headlines.


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## juanian (Oct 2, 2002)

rainwater said:


> . . . Personally, I do not call and complain that simple features like "Watch Now" no longer work on my TiVo. . .


You have hit the nail on the head. Most people may not even know *how* to call TiVo for problems (not that they are dumb or anything, they may not have bothered to figure out how to look up the phone number). And if they do call, they will probably hang up after 10 or so minutes on hold. Now, if their TiVo stopped functioning completely, *then* they would look into how to contact TiVo.

On the other hand, the more 'sophisticated' user (like many of us here) have the experience to actually notice when the TiVo is acting 'out of sorts', and not just shrugging a minor issue off. The general public just doesn't realize that their TiVo can (and maybe used to) work better than it currently is. As long as it records the shows they want, they are 'satisfied'. (Hey, the local WB affiliate here in Phoenix has had their audio screwed up for about a month, and I have not been able to get anyone at the station to do anything about it. The public is puting up with the problem, because they just don't notice what is wrong.)


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## tallbob (Jun 6, 2006)

Hi,

I think the vast majority of Tivo employees care about this. I've worked in companies with crappy customer service and except for the handful of decision makers that stuck to a hard line most everybody else cared. Some people can't see how a simple _"I'm sorry. We are working on it. We have learned from this and we expect a fix to roll out by Sept 15 (plus or minus 2 weeks)."_ can do wonders for customer loyalty.

It's sad whoever is controlling the public statements of Tivo is being an Ostrich.

BTW: I got the 7.3.1 update on my 240 and it was awful slow, I upgraded to a Dual tuner and almost all of the slowness went away.

Tallbob


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## tallbob (Jun 6, 2006)

Minor correction....I has a 540, not a 240, single tuner machine.


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## Slikkster (Jul 30, 2006)

I'm a Tivo newbie of sorts, but certainly savvy electronics and pc's, etc. My Series-2 Tivo was offline for a bit in early summer because I switched to a VOIP system and lost my phone line connection point at the Tivo. It's now setup wirelessly with a bridge and USB adapter and all is fine there. However, they did push out the 7.3.whatever software update right after it was reconnected to the service. Here's what I notice:

I do have this "KidsZone" thing. Changing channels used to be very fast, and if I held the channel change button down, it would rapidly change the channels. Now, if I hold the button down, it only changes one channel and I get a progress bar. That's very annoying! My Tivo is connected to my cable box, and changes chanels via the IR "clamps" that sit over the cable box IR panel. 

Anyway, like I said, I used to be able to go through multiple channels by holding the channel button down on the Tivo remote, but now only one? Is KidsZone slowing me down? I have no use for it so I'll go shut it off. I didn't know it was a toggled option.
But what about the channel changing? I hate to have to manually punch in a channel number now to get to it quickly.


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## timellen (Nov 18, 2004)

This is Timmo's wife and I want to tell Hokie that "here" "this" and "this" didn't address the bleeping progress bar issue. As a VT faculty member, I am going to suggest that we start offering classes in reading comprehension and cordialilty. When you have four long pages of discussions - often with imprecise titles - it can be pretty tough to find other threads addressing your issue or question. So let me suggest that if being helpful is so onerous that you have to insult people, then don't be helpful. Just ignore them. 

We are trying desperately to avoid domestic violence in this house, because we can't get rid of the progress bar and I am throwing things at the tv and sometimes they hit Timmo instead. 

Now, does anyone know how to get rid of the progress bar? I apologize for not having been able to find an answer in four pages of threads each with multiple messages, many of them not on topic.


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## timellen (Nov 18, 2004)

Google: Annoying TiVo progress bar. 
Split second: three sites pop up with answer:

Progress Bar, Be Gone--Quicker

Annoyed with the lingering progress bar at the bottom of the screen? Make it fade out faster by entering the following button combination:

Select, Play, Select, Pause, Select 


Tried it. It worked. 

Man. All that discussion about "could/couldn't care less" and "here" and "this" and "this" and not one answer in the entire thread. Maybe, Hokie, this is why people don't read all 124 threads looking for answers before posting a question just to wear you out.


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## GoHokies! (Sep 21, 2005)

oooooohhhh wow, a FACULTY member!!! Am I supposed to be impressed? 

I was addressing your husbands innane *****ing about the Tivo slowness which has been addressed in the numerous threads linked. Sounds like you were able to solve the progress bar problem all by yourself, I'll give you a gold start for that. Maybe instead of helplessly asking for other people to help you, you had tried to solve the problem on your own.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

timellen said:


> This is Timmo's wife and I want to tell Hokie that "here" "this" and "this" didn't address the bleeping progress bar issue. As a VT faculty member, I am going to suggest that we start offering classes in reading comprehension and cordialilty. When you have four long pages of discussions - often with imprecise titles - it can be pretty tough to find other threads addressing your issue or question.


so you inlcude this thread in that I assume
"New Update Annoyance - TIVO employees read this! " inside he asks for "how to remove progress bar" after going on about the same thing in the other threads.

so he adds another thread to the clutter you complain about, and yet no one rushed in to help him.

I wonder how a thread Titled "How do you make the progress bar go away quicker " would have gone instead? BTW the answer is clearly stated in the manual that came with the DVR, a comprehensive read of that would have proved the best use of time


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## timellen (Nov 18, 2004)

You don't have to be impressed by faculty members, but you also don't have to be a rude smartass to people. Community is eroded by people who seem to think that they are obligated to tell people off instead of either helping or ignoring. The logical place to look for help with a Tivo problem is the tivo community. Logical, but erroneous, assumption, apparently.

Some people can't find the manuals. Sorry we aren't as organized as you must be, knowing where a manual for something you bought three years ago can be found. 

This is not a community. Not by a long shot.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

timellen said:


> Community is eroded by people who seem to think that they are obligated to tell people off


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## juanian (Oct 2, 2002)

. . . now if I could make that darn banner go away quicker when I start playing a program . . .


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## TiVoPony (May 12, 2002)

rainwater said:


> I don't think they aren't working on it. But after TiVoOpsMgr said the vast majority of their customers do not have any issues, you have to wonder if fixing these bugs are a priority anymore. I think people looking for a quick fix may be disappointed if this is the attitude TiVo is taking.


Sorry if Stephen's comment stirred things up, I don't believe he intended to do that at all.

We are aware that some customers are experiencing slower performance. Not all customers have seen this, and definitely not all to the same degree...as can be seen in the threads ("It's awful", "It's a little worse", "Nothing has changed").

We're investigating this, and will look to make improvements. In the meantime, if you're having a particularly difficult experience, we can only apologize for the inconvenience and let you know that we appreciate your patience.

Thanks,
Pony


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## GoHokies! (Sep 21, 2005)

Thanks, Pony, it's good to hear that you guys are working on it. While you're here, how about the inside scoop on when I can buy the S3??? 

Timellen, you ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer. Instead of posting a whiney TIVO EMPLOYEES READ THIS post, reading the manual, searching on your own, or a simple "Hey, anyone know how I can fix this?" IN THE RIGHT FORUM would have gotten you a lot more polite answers.

We are a community, just not a community of idiots.



> The logical place to look for help with a Tivo problem is the tivo community. Logical, but erroneous, assumption, apparently.


The logical place to ask for help is the Tivo Help Center, directly under this. If you want to whine and complain about how slow your Tivo is, stand by for counterbattery.

Cheers,
Ryan


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

I hope more than the speed issues get fixed. You know, critical functions like Watch Now don't even work. Let's not get into the deletions/list problems or the fact that using the left arrow on a program detail can sometimes show the wrong show.


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## steelio (Jul 12, 2002)

rainwater said:


> I hope more than the speed issues get fixed. You know, critical functions like Watch Now don't even work. Let's not get into the deletions/list problems or the fact that using the left arrow on a program detail can sometimes show the wrong show.


Yes but 1st work on the speed thing.


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## rlc1 (Sep 15, 2003)

If you think Tivo is slow, just get a cable-company DVR and use it for a while. I've been primarily using my Comcast DVR, and really neglecting my Tivo, but the other night I decided to watch a show on Tivo, and it was pure bliss....the Tivo actually responded to the remote the first time, I sped through the commercials, and best of all, I didn't have to 'skip back' 2 or 3 times because I overshot past the end of the commercial break. Man, I wish the S3 was out so I could trash that POS Comcast DVR.


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## steelio (Jul 12, 2002)

rlc1 said:


> If you think Tivo is slow, just get a cable-company DVR and use it for a while. I've been primarily using my Comcast DVR, and really neglecting my Tivo, but the other night I decided to watch a show on Tivo, and it was pure bliss....the Tivo actually responded to the remote the first time, I sped through the commercials, and best of all, I didn't have to 'skip back' 2 or 3 times because I overshot past the end of the commercial break. Man, I wish the S3 was out so I could trash that POS Comcast DVR.


Ok do you have a DRT800? with this service update on it? 
Oh and another thing. ..... I DON'T have a cable DVR I have a TiVo that WORKED FINE a few weeks ago. I didnt ask for it to be "fixed" but it is now and there is no way I can go back.
That sir is why the *****ing and moaning. If I got a cable DVR I would expect it to suck compaired with my TiVo, but I had something that worked great up until something that I didnt do happend to it.


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## thechiz (Oct 3, 2005)

I do have a cable HD DVR, the SA8300HDDVR with Adelphia, using 
the SARA update that fixed a lot of things. My recent experience
with this box has just been getting better, not worse.

On the other hand TiVo, keeps adding stuff like KidZone and
Product Watch that I do not want. The response time to the
remote is really laggy now. Perhaps TiVo is trying to gradually 
standardize code across multiple platforms and this is having
detrimental effects ?

I have a broadband router connection and use TiVo Desktop
and the Yahoo functions.

Playing the WORDGRID HME game is now so painfully unresponsive
that I have given up playing.

Maybe not all customers are experiencing slowdowns to the same 
degree. All I know is that for ME things have gotten much worse over
the last few months. 

It is good to have this community, forum, whatever to make things public
and not have TiVo say there is no real problem.

It is stuff like this that makes me less likely to get an S3.
And I actually already own a HDTV and would be a prime marketing
target for TiVo S3.


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## bicker (Nov 9, 2003)

gastrof said:


> On the other hand, the squeaky wheel...


Annoys all the other members of the board.


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## steelio (Jul 12, 2002)

I suppose all the politicaly pressure about commercials and stuff is going to kill the DVR. So TiVo could be bowing down to pressure. I guess if they make it unusable they can say see we made it like you want


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## Stylin (Dec 31, 2004)

TiVoPony said:


> Sorry if Stephen's comment stirred things up, I don't believe he intended to do that at all.
> 
> We are aware that some customers are experiencing slower performance. Not all customers have seen this, and definitely not all to the same degree...as can be seen in the threads ("It's awful", "It's a little worse", "Nothing has changed").
> 
> ...


Hi Pony,
Thanks for the reply.
I'm hoping that "slowness" is not the only issue being looked into, but all the other reported bugs- my biggest being the loss of a "stop recording" function. I reported this to Tech support, and was told it would (along with other bugs) fixed with the next (date unknown) update.
How long does it usually take for a patch/update to be developed? TY

BTW- I'm not using/activated Kidzone


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## sgruby (Sep 20, 2004)

After experiencing the same type of slowness people have been reporting, I managed to contact a TiVo engineer who indicated that my issue (slowness and blocky playback) could be a result of a failing hard drive (my TiVo is 2 years old, almost to the day). While I was a bit skeptical that it was a coincidence, he also said that during the update, TiVo switched to a different partition which meant, to me, that maybe the partition it switched to had an issue. I was willing to do almost anything to fix this and had a spare 200 GB drive on my desk, so I went through the tedious process of replacing the drive.

Low and behold, the slowness is gone and there is no more blocky playback! I'm not going on several weeks with the new drive and am extremely pleased with it. So maybe the update slowness is coincidental with a failing drive.

Just my two cents.


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## eb2412 (Oct 16, 2006)

I am new to the Tivo Community. I posted on the tivo forums about my slowness and my post was deleted. They sent me an email to a thread on there forums that post pointed here. So here I am. I too have this ungoddly slowness and have been living with for some time. I get the blocky playback on one of my Tivo's as well. I ready your post about replacing the hard drive and think I would like to try this. I work on computers for a living so I dont think it would be an issue but I was wondering were you found the infomation you needed to replace it?


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

eb2412 said:


> I ready your post about replacing the hard drive and think I would like to try this. I work on computers for a living so I dont think it would be an issue but I was wondering were you found the infomation you needed to replace it?


I just wanted more room and did not have a problem I was trying to fix but here is my post in the upgrade forum where I upgraded my hard drive. Lots to read in there and posting there with specific questions will get you good answers. :up:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4275409&&#post4275409


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## VanGoghLikesTivo (Jan 18, 2005)

TiVoPony said:


> We're investigating this, and will look to make improvements. In the meantime, if you're having a particularly difficult experience, we can only apologize for the inconvenience and let you know that we appreciate your patience.
> 
> Thanks,
> Pony


Has there been any update from TiVo on these issues? My 240 model S2 has been having this problem and it is very annoying.


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