# Four buttons



## Subversive (Nov 7, 2002)

Ok, who's bright idea was it to clutter the remote with the moronic A-B-C-D buttons that are barely used and not at all needed? Because if that person is still working at Tivo, they shouldn't be. And wtf is with displaying Tivo suggestions in the To Do list? Yes, I want suggestions to record, but no, I don't want this crap cluttering my management interface. Those stupid buttons suggest increased filtering capabilities, but there doesn't seem to be a way to filter this crap out of one's To Do list without turning off suggestions--it doesn't even mark them differently in the list, just showing double-checkmarks as if they were season passes instead of the Tivo suggestion symbol. I realize that with grade inflation and the general dumbing down of America that it can be difficult to hire people who don't turn out to be idiots, but that's why it is important to hire truly talented people in human resources and management as well. The Premier has been out how long now and you still haven't fixed this?!


----------



## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

Feel Better?


----------



## Subversive (Nov 7, 2002)

Sometimes one just needs to unburden a rant.

It looks like down the road I may be able to fix this issue of Tivo suggestions polluting the To Do list by enabling backdoor mode, which it seems hasn't been discovered yet for the Series 4.


----------



## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

Subversive said:


> Sometimes one just needs to unburden a rant.
> 
> It looks like down the road I may be able to fix this issue of Tivo suggestions polluting the To Do list by enabling backdoor mode, which it seems hasn't been discovered yet for the Series 4.


The color buttons got more uses after the last update. They may after the fall one as well. I dont use suggestions nor do i look at my to-do list often so i cant comment on that


----------



## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

When I first replaced my Series 2 machines with Premieres I recall checking out the a-b-c-d buttons, but I'll be damned at this point if I could remember what any of them did.

I turn suggestions off entirely, but that's just what works for me. I don't need them and I think they are ridiculous. Is it because I watch the Seth McFarlane and Matt Groenig shows that they think I might be interested in kids' shows? If so, they are very very wrong. I don't think there has ever been a time, in almost 9 years of having Tivos, that the suggestions have given me anything I want to see. I have over 150 season passes on two Tivos - I pretty much KNOW what I want to see. If I am missing something I don't even notice because I have move tv than I can watch already.

My biggest complaint is those stoopid preview screens at the top of the HD menu. I was so happy when I found the setting where you check your interests, so I UNchecked ALL of them, thinking that it would stop the whole thing. Nope, those little screens still clutter the top of the menu. If I could get one little change it would be to have a choice on that. If I UNcheck everything, how hard is it to 'get' that I don't want any of it? (rhetorical, of course)

Ok - rant over.


----------



## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

the lack of purpose for the 4 buttons is maddening. Especially since there are some really simple things that they could do to make life much better- maybe even obvious- for example why doesn't one of the buttons toggle closed caption on an off while watching something? Wouldn't "C" to toggle Closed Caption make sense?

I dont see why they dont toss in piles of things like that- even if they are hidden things we have to discover.


----------



## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

sharkster said:


> When I first replaced my Series 2 machines with Premieres I recall checking out the a-b-c-d buttons, but I'll be damned at this point if I could remember what any of them did.


One of them changes the group and another changes the sort order in the now playing list.

I know, because my groups and sort order seem to be randomly ****ed up on a weekly basis. Either the over-sensitive buttons on the slide remote are causing this, or the box just randomly changes the settings. I tend toward the latter, as my PyTivo settings will also get royally screwed up at the same time.


----------



## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

Seems like this was an MSO thing. It's not an uncommon feature on cable company DVRs and I believe it first appeared on the Comcast TiVo remote.

On the screens where the buttons are used their function is noted on the screen. I actually prefer that to "use zoom to sort" or other re-purposing of buttons. Part of what makes them seem less useful right now is that they're not defined in any of the screens that still use the SDUI.


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

The Yellow button pulls a bunny out of a hat. 
The green button pulls out an easter egg. 
The yellow one makes funny noises. 
But the red one makes the Tivo self-destruct. 


Hehe, couldn't resist.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I use the A and B buttons with the guide. "A" chooses the guide options and "B" changes the sort option. I guess C and D will be used in the future.

And if the ever enable multiple user "My Show" lists, the four buttons might be used with them as well to quickly switch between each list.


----------



## hillyard (Nov 1, 2011)

Now if they were mappable it would be great. Need a sleep timer button


----------



## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

nrc said:


> Seems like this was an MSO thing. It's not an uncommon feature on cable company DVRs and I believe it first appeared on the Comcast TiVo remote.


This. The colored A/B/C/D buttons are a de facto cable company standard for their STBs. TiVo wants to deal with cable companies -> they add these buttons. Making them useful seems to have been a secondary consideration.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

hillyard said:


> Now if they were mappable it would be great. Need a sleep timer button


Umm, that is a function of your *TV*, not the TiVo..


----------



## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

mattack said:


> Umm, that is a function of your *TV*, not the TiVo..


Not necessarily. Put the TiVo in Standby, and it turns off the video output. After a few minutes with no video signal, most modern TVs will then power off.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Even TVs twenty years ago they did that. My old 32" tube TV I had in 1991 turned off after a while when there was no video input.


----------



## NotNowChief (Mar 29, 2012)

Maybe they will be used for something with the TiVo Mini if it ever gets released before 2055.


----------



## jasew (Jun 12, 2012)

Subversive said:


> Ok, who's bright idea was it to clutter the remote with the moronic A-B-C-D buttons that are barely used and not at all needed?
> And wtf is with displaying Tivo suggestions in the To Do list?


I always thought the A B C D buttons were an attempt at a quasi-standard in video remotes. My TV remote has those buttons. My Blu-ray remote has those buttons. My universal remote has those buttons. I figure it's a handy way to have "universal" extra buttons for device specific purposes.

I have suggestions turned on, but I do not see suggestions in my to do list. I looked around and could find no setting that might toggle this behavior.


----------



## bryan4980 (Dec 2, 2011)

When in the to do list hit thumbs down, thumbs down, thumbs up, and then skip back and you should see the suggestions.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Subversive said:


> Ok, who's bright idea was it to clutter the remote with the moronic A-B-C-D buttons that are barely used and not at all needed?


It is required for MSOs. And is also required for TiVo to implement cable company VOD on retail Premieres.


----------



## jasew (Jun 12, 2012)

bryan4980 said:


> When in the to do list hit thumbs down, thumbs down, thumbs up, and then skip back and you should see the suggestions.


Interesting. Well, I'm with Subversive, I don't want to see suggestions in my to do list. Therefore I'll never turn that on. I wonder why I don't see them by default and yet Subversive does.


----------



## bryan4980 (Dec 2, 2011)

jasew said:


> Interesting. Well, I'm with Subversive, I don't want to see suggestions in my to do list. Therefore I'll never turn that on. I wonder why I don't see them by default and yet Subversive does.


When you turn it on then leave the to do list and go back to it they are back off, don't know how it is on all the time for subversive.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

wmcbrine said:


> Not necessarily. Put the TiVo in Standby, and it turns off the video output. After a few minutes with no video signal, most modern TVs will then power off.


Even if that is true, that doesn't mean that the TiVo controls a "sleep timer". Even if you had a "put the Tivo in Standby in X minutes" capability, not all TVs automatically power off.

Heck, I'm pretty sure my LG stays on.


----------



## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

It worked on my 2004 Samsung plasma, it works on my 2012 Vizio LED. I'll be surprised if it doesn't work on your LG. You have to give it time, though (it could take 15 minutes or more).

Basically I use this to turn off the TV from another room, by putting the TiVo into standby with my network remote.


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

sharkster said:


> When I first replaced my Series 2 machines with Premieres I recall checking out the a-b-c-d buttons, but I'll be damned at this point if I could remember what any of them did.
> 
> I turn suggestions off entirely, but that's just what works for me. I don't need them and I think they are ridiculous.


Far from it. They are one of the most powerful features of the TiVo.



sharkster said:


> Is it because I watch the Seth McFarlane and Matt Groenig shows that they think I might be interested in kids' shows? If so, they are very very wrong.


I don't know what those are, and I don't know your viewing pleasures, so I can't comment. More importantly, the TiVo can't act on your viewing pleasures, either, unless you tell it what they are.



sharkster said:


> I don't think there has ever been a time, in almost 9 years of having Tivos, that the suggestions have given me anything I want to see.


In those 9 years, how many times did you use the Thumbs-down key? The Thumbs-up key is important, as well, but unless you use the Thumbs-down key, the TiVo has no way to know what you don't like, which is far more important when filtering for shows you want than knowing what you like. The principle - and certainly most powerful - function of the TiVo is to eliminate the garbage. The primary ways Suggestions knows how to do that is via the Thumbs-down key, followed by the Thumbs-up key. I am not at all certain whether your direct recording habits have any impact at all. If so, not much.



sharkster said:


> I have over 150 season passes on two Tivos - I pretty much KNOW what I want to see.


That sounds more like you know what the network executives have told you you should want to see. The principle reason networks produce series is they hope to trick the viewer into watching commercials on their channels week after week. It's highly manipulative and high handed, perhaps even underhanded.

The biggest volume of content out there and by far the biggest volume of good content is not selectable by a Season Pass. Certainly my Tivos record more content from Suggestions than from Season Passes. Within 6 weeks of getting a TiVo, they do a remarkably good job of recording stuff I like without me looking for it.



sharkster said:


> If I am missing something I don't even notice because I have move tv than I can watch already.


With CATV, that is a given. The point of the TiVo is to weed out all but the cream of the crop, and one of the more marvellous features it has is the ability to select those autonomously without your ever searching for them or specifically telling the TiVo to record them.


----------



## Big_Craig (Oct 5, 2012)

I wish I could program one of these colored buttons to take me straight to Netflix (say the Red button). I use the SD menus since the HD menus have too much lag and it drives me nuts waiting for the cursor to move. Getting to Netflix from there takes a while. If I could program one of the color buttons for that, it would be very nice.


----------

