# Advice from a veteran to a newbie (consolidated)



## DMHinCO

If you have two shows that are on simultaneously that you want to record, try to figure out whether one of them is on a cable channel that reruns their shows multiple times during the day. If so, put that show LOWER in your season pass manager. This usually happens in the evening with Prime time shows. The prime-time episodes will conflict, so it will record the one that is on only once during the primetime hours. Then, while you are asleep, it will find a rerun of the repeated show.

For the nightly news, set your recording options as follows: Keep At Most=1 Episode. That way, each day it will delete yesterday's news and record today's. You might also try watching the news with closed captioning turned on and one fast-forward.

For shows that you don't care WHICH episode you have, but you always want one available (e.g., Jeopardy), set your recording options as follows: Keep at Most = 1 Episode and Save Until I Delete. That way, when you watch the episode and delete it, you'll get a new one the next time the show is on. I am using this more and more. Cooking shows, home improvement shows, just about any kid's show that our three-year-old likes, etc.

Experiment with auto-recording wishlists. Two things about them that I'd like to highlight. 
a) A regular season pass is channel-dependent. For shows you love that are on multiple networks, don't create a season pass, use an auto-recording wishlist. For example, if you love Law and Order and want to get not only the new episodes but also the reruns on cable, an autorecording wishlist will do it. (However, with this particular show being ubiquitous, you'll have more L&O than anyone could watch.) 
b) Create autorecording wishlists for each of the following words: Premiere, Pilot, Finale, and set it to record first run only. That way, when a new show comes out, your TiVo will often catch it. Not always, but often. You can leave it there for a few days and see if any of your friends say "hey that new show x was really good." Then you can watch it. This is particularly effective during the times of the year when new shows are being introduced. Remember if you find one you like, create a season pass for it.

The View Upcoming Episodes is really effective for cooking shows, home improvement shows, shows that have a different musical performer each episode like Sessions at West 54th, etc. For example, if you like Hot Off the Grill with Bobby Flay, you probably won't bother recording it when he is cooking calfbrains, but when he's got a vegetarian quesadilla with your favorite vegetable, you can grab it. Similarly, when Megadeth is on Sessions at West 54th, you can give them the swerve but you'll notice that [insert your favorite performer here] is coming up next week and you can set TiVo to record just that episode.

If you see an ad for a show coming up in the future but it isn't in your program guide since it is more than 12 days in the future, create an autorecording wishlist.

Shortcut keys I find the most convenient: TiVo + 2 takes you to the To Do List. TiVo + 4 takes you to Pick Programs By Title. TiVo + 8 takes you to suggestions. Northrk created a nice cheat sheet at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=523557

If TiVo keeps telling you that it needs to change the channel to record something, you're watching too much live TV.  I suggest you adopt my habit of hitting the TiVo button twice before you turn the TV on. That way, you're looking at the list of things you want to watch, not what the network happens to be (in the middle of) showing at the time. It also dramatically reduces your advertisement intake.

If you have a good, clear signal coming into the TV, you can probably record almost everything except sports on Basic quality.

Try a season pass for Sports Night on Comedy Central. They are all reruns since it was on for only two seasons. I think it is one of the best shows on TV. If you don't like the style (regardless of the politics) of West Wing, you probably won't like Sports Night, which by the way is not about sports. Or politics.

Don't feel compelled to watch everything on your TiVo before it gets deleted. For awhile, I did. It didn't really subside until I upgraded my space and now I have about 100 hours. Before that, I felt like I had to hurry to watch something before it went away. Sometimes things will get deleted without you watching them. Hey, big deal. At least when you were watching TV, it was something you wanted to see rather than whatever drivel was on at the time. Also, just because it says it CAN be deleted doesnt mean it WILL be deleted. It stays until TiVo needs the space for another show (not a suggestion).

Be careful in setting an autorecord wishlist for popular directors like Alfred Hitchcock. Those movies are on quite a bit and will overwhelm you. Make sure you set Keep At Most wisely. One shortcoming in the TiVo is that you can't include the restriction "only record if it is 3.5 or 4 stars." Same advice for actors who have a large body of work.

The Keep At Most setting is really your friend when some station decides to run a dozen episodes of the same show back to back in a marathon. Keeping this set to 3 or 4 episodes for most shows keeps these marathons from consuming too much of your precious hard drive space. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it can be infuriating.

The Channel Up / Down button is quite useful when you are in the TiVo menus. If you are looking at a list, the channel down button acts as a page down button. If you are looking at a single episode description, the channel down takes you to the next show.

The eight second rewind button is excellent for those of us with bad hearing.

Quick! Give three thumbs down to Paid Programming. Also, remove HSN and other shopping channels from your Channels You Receive list. There, I just saved you much more than the TiVo service fee. :^)

If you remember an old episode of a show that you saw once that you'd like to see again or someone tells you of a movie they liked, create an autorecord wishlist that is specific enough to catch it.

If you're halfway through watching a recorded program, hit left-arrow or TiVo before you turn off the tube. That way, TiVo will know where you left off. Otherwise it will just play to the end of the show and lose your spot.

Put your TiVo on a surge supressor or UPS. Make sure it protects the telephone line as well. Also, if you are using plain cable or antenna, put that through the surge suppressor as well. Search the forum for recommendations. They arent very expensive.

Add Wishlists for your favorite performers. Thats my excuse for having BARENAKED in my wishlists. Honestly.

Select Play Select 3 0 Select while you are watching a recording toggles on and off the 30-second skip. It replaces the normal function of the skip to end button. ->| It resets each time you reboot or the power fails.

Especially if you have subscriptions to HBO/Showtime/Stars/Encore/Cinemax or whatever, go WILD with creating wishlists by using these fabulous resources: 
http://us.imdb.com/top_250_films and http://us.imdb.com/Charts/Votes/ and http://www.afi.com/tv/lists.asp.

Don't forget the wildcard character when creating a wishlist. It is the SLOW button. Example, a wishlist for Muppet* catches the Muppet Movie and the Muppet Show since they are singular. It also catches Muppets Take Manhattan since Muppets is plural.

If space is at a premium, consider using manual recordings to catch just the portion that you like of a particular show. Some examples: 
o If you only watch the monologue (Dave, Jay, Craig, whoever), consider recording just the first 20 minutes or so.
o If you only want the weather, figure out what time your local news slots their weather into. Record a short block that includes that time. Don't forget KAM=1. Seeing yesterday's weather forecast would just reduce your faith in today's. 
o If you only want the top stories without the human-interest fluff, pick a good time each day and grab the first 10 minutes of Headline News or one of the other news programs. Again, KAM=1. 
o Some shows save the best for last, or recap the whole episode at the end. A couple examples might be America's Funniest Home Videos (with the top three repeated at the end) or some of the home improvement DIY shows where they recap the project at the end. Consider recording just the last ten minutes.
o Some home improvement shows have a segment at the end with how to use a particular tool. Other shows have specific segments like this. If you find yourself FFing to get to those spots and you never watch the other parts of the show, consider recording just the good parts.

If space is at a premium on your recorder (as it is on most unhacked standalones), consider instructing TiVo to make a 5-minute manual recording at 7:00 AM on, say, your NBC local affiliate. That way, when you awaken, TiVo will have stored in its buffer up-to 30 minutes of your favorite morning show, without having to record the entire 2 or 3 hours of the show.

Even if you live alone, you should set a parental controls password. If you don't care to prevent anything from being accessible, then set it to allow all ratings. This is important when you have a guest who picks up your remote and accidentally gets into parental controls. If that guest sets your password and forgets it, you will need to jump through some hoops with the customer service reps. So set your password yourself, or someone else may.

If you want to *keep* a particular segment on the Today show, you can watch live until the part you want comes up and then hit record. TiVo saves the 30-minute segment in the buffer. Stop recording right after your segment is over. This saves the interesting part in a 30 minute block rather than the whole length of the show.

Be careful with "padding." That is, setting your TiVo to start recording a bit early and/or end recording a bit late. This is less of a problem with the DirecTiVo with dual tuners, but it can still happen. If you ask for a 7:00 half-hour show to end 1 minute late, it will not be able to schedule another show starting at 7:30. The dual-tuner DirecTiVo runs into this same problem only if the other tuner is busy at that time also. Having said that, if you do choose to pad (NBC on Wednesdays and Thursdays is notoriously bad about starting early) because you don't want to miss any of your favorite show, two minutes padding (or for that matter, 15 minutes) is usually no more of a problem than one minute padding in the above case.

Friends dont let friends watch Live TV! Become an evangelist by running to any local retailer with a 30-day return policy. Take a brand new TiVo over to your friend's house and set it up for her. Better yet, set it up at your house and then take it over and install it. Pay the first month's service. Tell her it is your "loaner machine" and she can keep it for three weeks. Call a couple days later to see if there are any tips you can give. Then call two weeks later and announce you are going to pick it back up. In my experience, if you have set it up for your friend, she'll want to keep it because she loves it. If she doesn't want it, the retailer will still take it back until 30 days has passed. And you can get your TiVo subscription fee for the first month refunded. But again, I think she's keeping it. The times my friends have chosen NOT to keep it were times when I didn't hook it up to their TV and therefore they just let it sit in the box for two weeks.

This applies to DirecTiVos primarily since lineup changes are forced on us with DirecTiVo. Set your Channels You Receive exactly the way you want it. Then go into favorite channel setup and "Add ALL." Then in the live guide select to display favorites only. From that point on, if DTV adds channels, you will not see them in the live guide. Favorites only update when you tell them to. Of course this does not prevent TiVo from trying to use those channels to record suggestions or wishlists from or remove them from Search By Title. Nonetheless, for most of the channels that get added, like MLB, most people do not have auto-record wishlists that would find shows there.

Before you go out to buy an A/V sound system or a TV, do a search through this forum to make sure you don't buy one of the (few) receivers or TVs that can't be controlled by a TiVo remote. I believe this is less of a problem with the Sony units. I have a cheap AIWA receiver and my Philips remote won't talk to it.

If you have a standalone TiVo, there are occasionally problems with your cable company changing its lineup or Tribune thinking it did. This will result in your TiVo deleting all of your season passes. It hasn't happened to me, but if it happens to you, it will be painful. So take a spare VCR tape, start recording, and then go into your Season Pass Manager and scroll through the entire list, nice and slow. Then do the same thing for your list of WishLists (Tivo+3). You may even want to take the time to go into the recording details of some or all of your season passes and auto-record wishlists."

Use Standby to record a show and still watch live tv on another station. Put TiVo in standby, hide the remote, and use your old TV remote to watch what ever you want. You might also use this with babysitters or house sitters so they can just use the standard clicker and not mess up your TIVO recordings. This is dependent on how you have wired up your TiVo. Do a search in the forum for advice.

Two viewers in your house? My wife and I have a system so we don't delete shows that the other may still want to watch. We got this idea from someone smart on this forum, but I forgot whom. After I watch something, I start back at the beginning and FF to 5 minutes into the show (and hit Pause to avoid the autocorrect). I leave it there. When my wife scrolls through and sees the show says "resume playing," she knows if it is at the 5 minute mark, she can safely watch it and delete it (or delete it if she isn't interested). If it is anywhere else in the show, she knows I am still watching it and not to delete it. It works the same with the shows she watches first.

Tivolution Magazine and Showcases are fine, but if you want to see what movies are upcoming on YOUR channels, go to "record by title" and select the category "movies" and select a subcategory (such as action, comedy, etc.) if you want to. Then when it asks for a title enter a numeral zero to start at the beginning and you will get an alphabetical list of all movies (or all movies in that subcategory) that are scheduled on your channel lineup. It may be a lot of movies (esp. if you do have pay movie channels or you don't use a subcategory), but it's not too hard to skim the 8 or so titles per screen, and page through the list with "channel down."

Special thanks to contributions from Gfb107, Philosofy, Joey303, murgatroyd, OldDog, BrettStah, budgetcomputers, and Doh


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## friendlyghost

Nice post. Very helpful.


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## justapixel

Making this a sticky since it's valuable info that keeps dropping down, but then everybody searches for or refers to later. 

Thanks David.


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## jamesbobo

I'll add this: sometimes you will want to record all shows during a marathon. If so, set your "Keep at most" setting to "All Episodes".


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## TheSimpsons

I'm glad to see this was finally made as a note. Hunter Green had a good one about new features in 3.0 which should certainly be considered as a sticky. (in this thread or another) 

*-The Simpsons*


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## Hunter Green

I think the time for that has passed... very few inquiries about "what's new in v3.0" anymore.


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## grecorj

I would add:

If you have small children in the house (or visiting), HIDE THE REMOTE. While it is cute that my 3.5 yr old and 1.5 yr old can pause & play tv by themselves, finding that they've given some random show *3 Thumbs Down* (I guess they like the red button better than the green one) makes me wonder what other "enhancements" they've made by pressing the buttons w/o the tv even being on...


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## gleffler

Might wanna link to the broadband setup threads for people that don't have free local calls or don't have a local POP. 

/gleffler


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## mayberry roger

I'm not a newbie, but I still learned a few things from this excellent post. The only thing I would disagree with is this statement: "If you have a good, clear signal coming into the TV, you can probably record almost everything except sports on Basic quality." I have discovered that even with a good signal, most "Scifi" shows don't handle special effects very well at the basic setting.


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## tivojoego

> _Originally posted by mayberry roger _
> *I'm not a newbie, but I still learned a few things from this excellent post. The only thing I would disagree with is this statement: "If you have a good, clear signal coming into the TV, you can probably record almost everything except sports on Basic quality." I have discovered that even with a good signal, most "Scifi" shows don't handle special effects very well at the basic setting. *


Couldn't agree more mayberry - I do alot of archiving off TiVo and for those purposes I would disagree completely with the newbie post. I state that Best quality is required as even though there seems to be little visual difference off the TiVo, the end result from the capture card [S-Video] is markedly different.

Aside from that I found the post quite informative!


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## RocketGuy

Great consolidation.

A tip for recording just a portion of a show showed up in another forum and will fit right in here. 

+ Watch the show until you get to the point you want to start recording
+ Change channels (this clears the 30-minute buffer)
+ Change back to the original channel
+ Start recording

This captures just the portion you want without wasting disk space on the preceding X minutes that you don't want to record.


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## mammoth

> You might also try watching the news with closed captioning turned on and one fast-forward.


 I'm not sure I get the point of this but am interested. I use closed captioning a lot due to my bad hearing but, as I recal, the closed captioning goes off when in fast forward. Is there a trick I have missed?
By the way, one feature which TiVo has over a VCR is that the closed captioning can be toggled on/off on the recording. This is a great feature in my family since I use the closed captioning when viewing alone but turn it off otherwise since it drives my wife and kids crazy.


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## johnh123

To view CC while fast forwarding, just use one level of ff- it won't work with 2 ff or 3 ff.


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## dd9

> _Originally posted by mayberry roger _
> *The only thing I would disagree with is this statement: "If you have a good, clear signal coming into the TV, you can probably record almost everything except sports on Basic quality." I have discovered that even with a good signal, most "Scifi" shows don't handle special effects very well at the basic setting. *


I think a big factor on using basic quality is the size of the viewing TV. For example, on my RPTV, I couldn't handle anything below High most of the time - Best for anything with lots of motion.

On the other hand, on my little 13" set, I can watch virtually anything in basic.


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## jlb

on my 27, medium works fine.....

But one word of caution regarding the use of Auto-record wish lists....You may get tons of stuff you don't want. For instance, I have a Jonathan Frakes wishlist to catch shows that he appeared on (I don't have TNN, so I don't get the TNG episodes). However, I had neglected to realize that he hosted "Beyond Belief". I don't want those all the time. And 3 Thumbs down won't stop it since I had auto-record set. So now what I do is I don't autorecord and every week or so I do a search using the wishlist and see if there is anything coming up I want, then I record that particular show.....works well.


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## DancnDude

Another tip about Closed Captioning that I use...
If I can't understand what was said by someone on TV, turn on CC on your TV and then do an instant replay. Often times it will be typed out so you can read was was said  I have my TV set to CC on Mute, so I just hit the mute button and then instant replay to read what was said.


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## mschwab

> _Originally posted by DancnDude _
> Another tip about Closed Captioning that I use...
> If I can't understand what was said by someone on TV, turn on CC on your TV and then do an instant replay. Often times it will be typed out so you can read was was said  I have my TV set to CC on Mute, so I just hit the mute button and then instant replay to read what was said.


That's exactly what I do (except I usually have to IR 3-4 times to give the CC enough time to process the section I want). I also use Mute on the TV to turn CC on/off, and I was confused by the previous poster that said TiVo made it easier to turn CC on/off. How so?


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## [email protected]

Major newbie tip!
If you live in an area where the daily phone update is a long distance call..........by all means pick a number out of state. I reduced monthly long distance from $16.00+ down to $4.95 by doing so.


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## SeattleBrad

Great post. I have one more tip to add.

Do you have one favorite channel above all others? Mine is the Discovery Channel. They're great about repeating their prime time content over and over again thru the wee hours. So I setup four manual recordings, from 4am-5am, 5am-6am, 6am-7am, and 7am-8am. Make sure you set "Keep at Most" to just one episode. Then you always have four hours of your favorite channel. 

Note: you could use just one manual recording for four hours, but then you only get the first episode description. With four separate ones, you get episode info for each hour.


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## MaverickCoast

DMHinCO -

Could you please tell me where to find the cheat sheet that you put up a link for in your post? When I save the file from the link, it says it's a Brouderbund file. I have Print Shop, but, it's still says it unrecognizable when I open Print Shop.

Thanks!

Mike

(Any other places you know of to go to to find out shortcuts and cheats for using the TIVO?)


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## DMHinCO

Mike, it is much prettier in its MS Word format, which is zipped in the link above, but here it is pasted.

*TiVo Central*
TiVo - Now Playing
1 - Season Pass Manager 
2 - To Do List 
3 - Search Using WishLists 
4 - Search By Title 
5 - Browse By Channel 
6 - Browse By Time 
7 - Record Time/Channel 
8 - TiVo's Suggestions 
9 - Showcases 
0 - Play the cartoon intro sequence

*Program List Screens*
CHAN UP/DOWN - Page Up/Down. Look for up and/or down arrows with underline along the right of screen.
PLAY - Starts highlighted recording. (Now Playing only)
CLEAR - Jumps to delete confirmation panel. (Now Playing, To Do List, Season Pass, and WishLists)

*Program Information Screens*
CHAN UP/DOWN - Shows previous/next program title. Look for up and/or down arrows with underline along the right of screen.
DISPLAY - Shows more detailed program information, such as bit actors, Original Air Date. 
PLAY - Starts recording. (Now Playing only)
CLEAR - Jumps to delete confirmation panel. (Now Playing, To Do List, Season Pass, and WishLists)

*Text Input Screens*
0 - Starts at the top of the list. (Search by Title and Actor/Director WishLists only)
FWD - Inserts a space.
BACK - Backspace
CLEAR - Clear the entire field.
SLOW - Enter the wild card symbol (*), means it will match any word that starts with the previous letters. (Keyword and Title WishLists only)
PAUSE - Quotes (") to limit search results to explicit word combinations. 
Special Characters - Hyphens (-), slashes (/) and periods (.) should be replaced by spaces. Any other marks, such as apostrophes ('), asterisks (*) and ampersands (&), are ignored.

*Live TV*
LIVE TV/GUIDE - Press once to enter Live TV from Tivo menus and again to bring up Program Guide, once again to return to Live TV.
DISPLAY - Press once to display the Channel Banner in its large version. Press again to remove. RIGHT ARROW also works when no banner is visible. 
RIGHT ARROW - Pressing RIGHT arrow while the banner is visible cycles between a small, medium and large version of the banner, each with a different amount of information. This sets the size of banner displayed while changing channels.
CLEAR - hides graphics that aren't part of the program (status bar, channel banner, Tivomatic). Helpful when picture is paused to see entire screen.
FWD - Fast Forward with three speeds (3x, 20x, 60x). Acts as single frame forward when pause or slow in effect.
BACK - Rewind with three speeds (3x, 20x, 60x). Acts as single frame back when pause or slow in effect.
RECORD - To record the program you're watching. This will also include any earlier part of the program that is in the Live TV buffer. The recording will stop automatically when the program ends. You can stop it before that by pressing the RECORD button.
ENTER/JUMP - jump back to the last channel you were on, same tuner.
DOWN ARROW - Jump to alternate tuner. Also available from the large channel banner.

*Live TV Program Guide*
DISPLAY - Shows panel to change guide attributes, including guide style to DirecTV Grid or Tivo Live Guide.
BACK/FWD - DirecTV Grid Only: Page Left/Right to view past/future program schedule in 1-½ hour increments. Tivo Live Guide Only: When cursor is on the right side panel, listing programs for a specific channel, use as single channel up/down.
UP ARROW - Tivo Live Guide Only: On the right side panel, listing programs for a specific channel, use UP ARROW to view past program schedule, as much as remains in the guide database.

*Tivomatic*
This Icon appears during a commercial for upcoming programs. Also works in recorded programs.
THUMBS UP or SELECT - Will bring up Program Information Panel for upcoming program in ad.

*Music Channels*
DISPLAY or RIGHT ARROW - brings back song information after screen saver kicks in after 5 minutes of no remote activity.


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## murgatroyd

Just wanted to post about my experience on Fox last night in case no one else has posted this tip before.

I had SPs for both Firefly (Fox) at 8:00 pm and Monk (USA) at 10:00 pm. I was tight on space, so I was planning to come home and catch up to Live TV so I could also watch John Doe (following Firefly) before TiVo had to switch channels to record Monk at 10 PM.

Came home and discovered the Giants game was running over. What could I do to keep from missing some of Firefly?

I could have dumped the partial recording with the Giants game, but I didn't want to risk it in case the game ended suddenly while I was in the TiVo Menus and I missed the beginning of Firefly. So I went into the 'change recording options' and extended the time by a half-hour, but then I re-checked the time. Still not enough time since the game had run over by about 32 minutes.

So I went into the Now Playing List, dumped some stuff, and tried again. Nope, it still wanted to delete shows to make room for Monk at 10:00 pm.

So Monk had to go. Since there are tons of repeats, it was easy to find another one. Took the 10:00 pm out of the Now Playing list.

Then I was able to:

1) pad the still-recording Firefly by a full hour
2) save Firefly to VCR while watching it so I could delete it immediately afterwards
3) watch the beginning of John Doe on the recording
4) switch to the buffer to watch the end of John Doe

I may have lost a second or so in the transition from the end of the recorder to watching in the buffer, but the transition seemed pretty seamless. 

Edited to fix a sentence where I left out some words.  

Jan


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## splinter

I have just come aboard. Very pleased with the help afforded via yur insight into the inner workings of TIVO. Thank you
splinter


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## ronsch

One additional tip for the last section of the original post. When searching for upcoming movies, I have made only the premium movie channels (501 - 550 on DTV) my "favorites" so I can search for movies that haven't been hacked to death to add commercials and take out "objectionable" scenes.


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## Freyracing

We have a 35 hour Phillips and my wife has season passes for HGTV this, and HGTV that, she can use up 35 hours in less than two days! Now my daughter is starting to record "the worlds most eligible bachelor," big brother throws out little brother and girlfriends, MTV, blah, blah.

What do I do? We've got three tvs, all hooked up to the satellite; one DIRTVO, one sat receiver, and one that's ready to hook up to the sat.

Do I need 3 TIVO's or a Divorce Lawer?


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## mschwab

Well, unless you're going to divorce your daughter too, you definitely need 3 TiVos, and some expansion hard disks!


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## sean808080

what an excellent post DMHinCO! thanks!

this was printed immediately and was invaluable in my getting acquainted with my new S2 80 hour TIVO. I LOVE IT!

thanks again!

s

:up: :up: :up:


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## lloydgm

I just purchased a Tivo this past Saturday morning.  As this was the first time I had ever used a Tivo (I didn't even test drive one, I was just told about it and I was hooked) the newbie excitement alone drove me throughout the weekend. However, I wish someone had told me this one bit of information:

The first couple days are hard because you have close to nothing in your "Now Playing" list to watch.

Every now and then while watching live TV I would go to Now Playing to see if anything magically appeared - and of course it had not. The upside is that at least one night had transpired and I had some things waiting for me on Sunday morning, and even one that Tivo recorded without me asking (which is AWESOME).

So newbies, the hard lesson is: Be patient while your Tivo acquires your likes and in at least 3 days time (technically even shorter depending on your TV watching style) you'll no longer have to watch Live TV.

I hope this is useful, it was hard learning it!


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## alan

great ideas! Thanks!


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## SalBO

WOW, a great post and very informative. Thanks for taking the time to do all that work. I have had my Two DirecTiVos for 3 years now and feel like I am pretty profficient with them. I leared a a few things from reading this the first time. I am going to readi it again and I bet I find something else I didnt know......Thanks Again


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## viperfin

Two viewers in your house? My wife and I have a system so we don't delete shows that the other may still want to watch. We got this idea from someone smart on this forum, but I forgot whom. After I watch something, I start back at the beginning and FF to 5 minutes into the show (and hit Pause to avoid the autocorrect). I leave it there. When my wife scrolls through and sees the show says "resume playing," she knows if it is at the 5 minute mark, she can safely watch it and delete it (or delete it if she isn't interested). If it is anywhere else in the show, she knows I am still watching it and not to delete it. It works the same with the shows she watches first. 

>> This advice seems to be the best current way to deal with the problem. But couldn't TiVo allow users the option of "marking" a program with one of the ten digits (0 through 9) as a supplement to the green light, yellow light, yellow exclamation system. After I watch a program, I mark it with a "1" that will appear on the Now Playing screen, meaning that my wife can delete it after she watches it. My wife uses "2" for same signal to me. Households could establish their own system for using the other digits. If households feel that this would "clutter" the Now Playing screen then they would simply opt to not use the marking feature.


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## jlb

> The first couple days are hard because you have close to nothing in your "Now Playing" list to watch.


I was the same way last January 14th when I got mine.

I guess one of the first rules of TiVO owning should be, run guided set-up, create you SP list and WL, and then take a 1 week vacation.


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## Joey303

> We got this idea from someone smart on this forum, but I forgot whom.


 A Simple Plan

You know, when I posted it, it went without remark. I really thought that it went unnoticed.


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## lanikai

I am new here and wanted to thank you for the great post. Since I am having such a time getting started with my dinosaur Philips 14 hr TIVO, would you mind telling me if there is a site or board for newbies with set up problems? Thanks!


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## Hunter Green

I don't think there's a newbie-specific area, but this whole forum serves newbies. (I'd probably avoid the Underground area for a little while at first, though -- you'll know when you're ready to dig around there. )


----------



## lanikai

Thanks Hunter! I am definitely staying out of there til I earn my stripes and get this puppy to actually work on my TV. Once I accomplish that, the upgrade will be inevitable. I am thinking of getting the newer one for the big tv, too. The prices are pretty decent with these rebates out there!


----------



## Directv&TivoGuy

DM - thanks for the cool info. I set up Tivo with my Directv last night and I am completely in love with it.


----------



## flare782002

can anybody help there. I am doing research for a college class project on Tivo and I want to know if any could answer these questions for my research. 

1. How long have you had Tivo? 
2. Who in your family uses Tivo?
3. What do you most like about Tivo? What do they not like about Tivo? 
4. How many hours a day do they was TV? How much of that is with Tivo? 
5. Do you use TiVo mostly for selected type of programs? (such as sports, movies sitcomes) ? 
6. How was TiVO affected/changed their overall TV viewing habbits?
7. Has Tivo affected your commercial view habits? If so how? 

If any of you have time and could spend a few minutes, copy and paste and submit these answers would be great appreciated. Thanks for your time...


----------



## GoodN

This information is really helpful, especially when you've had a couple of days to play with you new TiVo. I bought Tivo thinking I'd use it as a "VCR" but now I see that its really more like a "smart" jukebox. And I can't wait until it figures out my preferences. (Why it recorded "Home Improvement" I'll never know!) Thanks.


----------



## mich

Hi,

Thanks for the info, but I'm still questioning whether or not I should get TiVo. I have a Sharp tv with one cable outlet in the back, and have a phone with only one 'jack' line in it as well. Is this a problem? I'm a bit confused.

I guess I'm wondering what are the downfalls to TiVo? I have basic cable through my apartments and my channels kind of suck Does TiVo allow me to get channels I previously couldn't?

And is it true that I have to watch what I'm recording on TiVo and can't watch live tv while recording something else? 

And is the lifetime membership worth it? I understand it's the life of the equipment, but what's the average lifetime? 

One last question - what do you think about the other DVR's on the market? Is TiVo the one?

I love tv and I do have problems recording everything - so it sounds like TiVo is for me? What do you think?

Thanks for your time.
Mich


----------



## MLAKE1

> _Originally posted by mich _
> *I have a Sharp tv with one cable outlet in the back, and have a phone with only one 'jack' line in it as well. Is this a problem? I'm a bit confused.*


Don't see why that should be an issue. Think of the TiVo as a VCR of sorts, so it will run in the chain, and does not *need* a secondary input on your TV to use (unless you want to watch one channel live while recording another live -- you can watch a recorded show while something else is recording).

For the phone line, you'll just need a $2 phone jack splitter that plugs into your wall jack ... one line to the phone, one line to the TiVo.



> *Does TiVo allow me to get channels I previously couldn't?*


No ... again, in this instance, you need to think of TiVo more as a VCR than as a cable box or receiver. TiVo has *much* more functionality than your average VCR, so I apologize for having to make that analogy, but it's much more accurate in comparison to a cable box or receiver.



> *And is it true that I have to watch what I'm recording on TiVo and can't watch live tv while recording something else?*


Correct. You can watch a prerecorded show from your TiVo while your TiVo records something else live ... that's how most people would be doing it since that's pretty much the point. If you wanted to be able to watch one channel live while recording another channel live, then you would either have to have the second input on your TV ... OR ... get DirecTV satellite service with a DirecTiVo.



> *And is the lifetime membership worth it? I understand it's the life of the equipment, but what's the average lifetime?*


I believe if you figure it out, lifetime membership works out to be paying 19 months on the monthly $12.95/month plan. TiVos probably average 3-5 year lifespan, though I don't have any hard numbers on that ... it can vary widely. I say get it, go with the monthly plan to start out for a couple months, and then make the decision from then, once it has truly become an integral part of your TV viewing.



> *One last question - what do you think about the other DVR's on the market? Is TiVo the one?*


Many will obviously tell you that we'll all be pretty biased in asking this question ... do a search on the forum for ReplayTV (that's the other main competitor) and you should be land several threads posted earlier that cover these issues. My own opinion ... TiVo wins out for both ease of use and functionality (conflict handling, re-scheduling, etc.)



> *I love tv and I do have problems recording everything - so it sounds like TiVo is for me? What do you think?*


I think you answered your own question.  And I think your answer is absolutely correct. TiVo definitely sounds like it's for you.

Don't forget that, to take advantage of the $50 mail-in rebate promotion on a TiVo purchase, you have to buy by December 31.


----------



## mizterd99

Hello. I posted 'Answers to my newbie questions' ( http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90558 ) in the TiVo Help Center and someone suggested that I add it to this thread. Hope you find it useful!

********************

I've had my TiVo for just under two weeks and I took a few minutes to compile the more pressing questions I've had as a newbie. Hopefully other people will find this useful. I got most (probably all) of the answers by searching the TiVo Community forums so it should be accurate. If there's something wrong please reply with the correct information to set the record straight.

*

Is the To Do List updated if an overriding conflict is removed?
Is there some kind of notification of WishList matches if the WishList is not set to auto-record?
Is there any way to tell how much space is available for recording?
If a show has multiple time slots and one time slot is pre-empted by higher priority recording, will the next time slot be recorded automatically?
Ad hoc recording always best quality (since from buffer)?
What's the deal with standby (TiVo Central -> Messages & Setup -> Standby)?
My TiVo (Series 2 40hr) lists ATT as the manufacturer but I bought it from tivo.com?
For (un)-supported internet update, series 2 <---> USB to ethernet adapter <---> cat5 cable <---> (DHCP server) is the cat5 cable a crossover or straight through?
Is it possible to organize 'Now Playing' display, maybe subfolders or something?
Are thumbs up applied automatically to anything (like a Season Pass or WishList item)?
Mapping the skip to end button to skip 30 seconds.
[/list=1]
*


*1. Is the To Do List updated if an overriding conflict is removed?*
Yes, very definitely. If you've got a big list of Season Passes you can look forward to a several minute wait after leaving the Season Pass Manager after making even the smallest change (like moving #29 down to #30) while it recalculates what it'll be recording.

*2. Is there some kind of notification of WishList matches if the WishList is not set to auto-record?*
Nothing automatic, but there is a list of upcoming WishList matches that can be browsed (TiVo Central -> Pick Programs to Record -> Search Using WishLists -> View all upcoming Wishlist programs)

*3. Is there any way to tell how much space is available for recording?*
There is no way to tell exactly how much space is available, however, theres one trick that will give a rough idea: allow suggestions to accumulate. Since suggestions are always deleted first, you can equate a shrinking number of suggestions to a decreasing amount of free space (bear in mind that this is far from accurate).

*4. If a show has multiple time slots and one time slot is pre-empted by higher priority recording, will the next time slot be recorded automatically?*
If you have multiple airings of a show (which is not that uncommon) and one of them displaces another, TiVo will try to find an alternate airing of the second one and record that (the second one in this case is the one that is lower on the list of Season Passes).
What it won't do is consider rescheduling the first show to an alternate airing, if the first has alternates and the second doesn't. That's one of the reasons it's a good idea to glance over your To Do List every so often. 
*Hint:* When setting up your season pass manager, put shows that repeat often (usually cable channels) at a lower priority. This way if it conflicts with a non-repeating (network) show TiVo will record the show that doesn't repeat and automatically set up a later recording for the repeating show.

*5. Ad hoc recording always best quality (since from buffer)?*
The buffer is always recording in Best quality (series 1 or 2). On a Series 1 machine, if you select to record during Live TV, you are prompted to choose best quality (with the buffer portion included in the recording) or default quality (without the buffer portion). On a Series 2 machine, if you hit select to record during Live TV it records in Best Quality. However, if you are browsing the Guide and press record, it records at the default setting.

*6. What's the deal with standby (TiVo Central -> Messages & Setup -> Standby)?*
Standby works like so:
Reinstates parental controls (if you have them on).
Mutes the audio/video from the TiVo, and acts as a "pass through" if you have a coax signal going IN and a coax cable coming OUT (allows you to switch to an alternate input on your TV and watch live while TiVo is recording).
The live buffer will remain on unless you have a Series 1 DirecTiVo.
Scheduled recordings still get recorded, as well as suggestions (if turned on).

*7. My TiVo (Series 2 40hr) lists ATT as the manufacturer but I bought it from tivo.com?*
All of the 40 hour units are the same now. They dont have buttons on the front, look just like all the other S2's but say ATT for manufacturer under System Information.

*8. For (un)-supported internet update, series 2 <---> USB to ethernet adapter <---> cat5 cable <---> (DHCP server) is the cat5 cable a crossover or straight through?*
Straight through. Turns out the only reason I had this question was due to a faulty cat5 cable. 

*9. Is it possible to organize 'Now Playing' display, maybe subfolders or something?*
The list can be sorted using a code on the remote:
Be in the 'Now Playing' screen.
Enter the following on the remote: (*S*)low (*0*)Zero (*R*)ecord (*T*)humbsUp.
Press enter to switch sorting options (short cut keys are 1 for normal, 2 for expiration date, and 3 for alphabetical).
[/list=1]
Notes:
It's a toggle and can be turned back off by repeating the steps.
Back doors are not required to be on.
Doesn't persist after reboot.

*10. Are thumbs up applied automatically to anything (like a Season Pass or WishList item)?*
TiVo will automatically give a Thumbs Up to anything you choose to record.
(EDIT: This does not apply to auto-recording WishLists.)

*11. Mapping the skip to end button to skip 30 seconds:*
Just hit *S-P-S-3-0-S* (where 'S' = Select, 'P' = Play) on your remote. The 'skip-to-end' button on your remote will now do a 30-skip. If you hit FF, then skip, you will skip to the next white tick (RW->Skip works same, but in reverse). You will need to reapply this code if you reboot.


----------



## DMHinCO

Cool. Thanks for the additions.


----------



## Laura H

I just hooked up my new Tivo yesterday. I was assuming I could record shows while watching live TV. I found the article from DMHinCO very helpful. You mention using the standby to record a show and watch another. I have no standby button on my remote. I hope this is not a dumb question. I just don't understand everything yet.


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## Hunter Green

You'll find Standby in the Messages and Setup menu somewhere.


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## jhimmel

> _Originally posted by DMHinCO _
> *
> This applies to DirecTiVos primarily since lineup changes are forced on us with DirecTiVo. Set your Channels You Receive exactly the way you want it. Then go into favorite channel setup and "Add ALL." Then in the live guide select to display favorites only. From that point on, if DTV adds channels, you will not see them in the live guide. Favorites only update when you tell them to. Of course this does not prevent TiVo from trying to use those channels to record suggestions or wishlists from or remove them from Search By Title. Nonetheless, for most of the channels that get added, like MLB, most people do not have auto-record wishlists that would find shows there.
> *


Did you ever check the following? -
My RCA DirecTV receiver used to do the same thing. You would delete unwanted channels, but some would pop back up again becasue DTV was doing something to push the linup. HOWEVER, I found that if I chose DESELECT ALL, and then added my wanted channels back in one at a time, new/unwanted channels never showed up again.

I'm wondering if my new DirecTiVo (HDVR2) works this way. In any case, instead of just de-selecting unwanted channels on this new machine, I went ahead and chose unselect ALL, and then added my wanted channels back in one at a time to see if it works. If you have not already tried this, I'll let you know how it goes. It's the difference between and "opt-in" format and an "opt-out" format if you know what I mean.

Jim


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## Tivo4life4me

Some very good advice indeed.

TIVO has changed the way I watch TV forever for the better!


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## murgatroyd

> _Originally posted by mich _
> *And is it true that I have to watch what I'm recording on TiVo and can't watch live tv while recording something else? *


Well, it depends on what your setup is.

The answer is YES for standalones if you want to have trick play available (pausing Live TV, FF and reverse) on the program you are watching.

If you don't care about that and are content to watch TV the ordinary way, use Standby mode. This allow the cable signal to go through to your TV, and you can then watch regular TV via your TV's tuner.

Sony TiVo users have a button on the remote to put TiVo into Standby (it's the round green button misleadingly labelled as a 'power' button). As noted elsewhere in this thread, with any TiVo you can put it into standby via the messages & setup functions off the TiVo Central Menu.

Jan


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## edrock200

Wow! Great post. I just skimmed through it so I apologize if this has been mentioned but one, the SORT code is very useful.

Two, I didn't know about this until I saw it on these forums, but when in the now playing list, open a show to see it's description then hit "Display" for even more info such as directors, more actors, etc.


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## shnozyee

great tips!

question: is it possible to lock a particular recording (i.e. with a password, so it isn't accidentally erased)?


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## jradi

can someone add all the s-p-s features to this sticky? Everytime my tivo reboots I spend forever searching this board for the commands to put my tivo back like I like it.

I know, I should write the s-p-s things down or save them somewhere (which I'll do THIS time)...

I do searches for "select play select," "S-P-S" (which turns into a search of SPS - worthless) and "backdoor" all of which end up with too many threads to search through.

Help!


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## David Platt

> _Originally posted by jradi _
> *can someone add all the s-p-s features to this sticky? I know, I should write the s-p-s things down or save them somewhere (which I'll do THIS time)...
> 
> *


No need to write them all down; it's already been done for you.  Just take a look at this thread.


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## sneakers22

when recording awards shows, such as the emmys or oscars, how can we manipulate tivo to record the whole program, when it runs over the end time? these always go past 11:00 est yet tivo stops recording....can anyone help?


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## DancnDude

sneakers22, 
The best you can do is add padding to the recording. In the recording options, you can tell it to pad the recording, say 30 mins or an hour and TiVo will treat this extra time as part of the program.


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## sneakers22

thanks for responding, does the option actually say "padding"?


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## DancnDude

I am pretty sure it does say padding or something very similar.


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## jlb

In recording options for the program, there is a field "Stop Time". Just edit that field.


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## msacks

> _Originally posted by Hunter Green _
> *You'll find Standby in the Messages and Setup menu somewhere. *


I've read the Tivo documentation but can't figure out why anybody would want to use standby mode. Comments?


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## proepke

>>>I've read the Tivo documentation but can't figure out why anybody would want to use standby mode. Comments?


I thought the same thing at first....the instructions tell you about it but don't tell you what the point is. The point is that it can be used if you want to continue to record what the Tivo is recording but watch another channel. In the standby mode the Tivo continues to do it's thing and then you use your regular TV remote to control the TV. You lose the ability to use the special Tivo features such as instant replay, pause, etc.


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## msacks

I think I see. To do this I would need to go directly from my cable box into my TV bypassing TiVo altogether, right?


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## deniseg

Hi,
You said:
Use Standby to record a show and still watch live tv on another station. Put TiVo in standby, hide the remote, and use your old TV remote to watch what ever you want. 

I tried this and when I went back to see what I had recorded, the parts where I watched regular TV were taped. (What I mean is that I had Tivo-ed channel 11, put it on standby, used my cable remote to switch to and watch channel 5 and when I went back to watch the recorded channel 11, the parts of channel 5 that I watched were recorded on Tivo.) Am I explaining this well? 

Newbie Denise


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## Turtleboy

> _Originally posted by deniseg _
> *Hi,
> You said:
> Use Standby to record a show and still watch live tv on another station. Put TiVo in standby, hide the remote, and use your old TV remote to watch what ever you want.
> 
> I tried this and when I went back to see what I had recorded, the parts where I watched regular TV were taped. (What I mean is that I had Tivo-ed channel 11, put it on standby, used my cable remote to switch to and watch channel 5 and when I went back to watch the recorded channel 11, the parts of channel 5 that I watched were recorded on Tivo.) Am I explaining this well?
> 
> Newbie Denise *


Did you use your cable box to change channels? If you did, that was your mistake. You can't change the channel on your cable box. Only on your TV.

And if you have a cable box, the standby trick won't work without a splitter.


----------



## Turtleboy

> _Originally posted by msacks _
> *I think I see. To do this I would need to go directly from my cable box into my TV bypassing TiVo altogether, right?  *


No, you have to skip the cable box too, and just watch through the TV tuner. You won't be able to watch the channels that the cable box decodes though.


----------



## MiamiRay

> _Originally posted by jlb _
> *I was the same way last January 14th when I got mine.
> 
> I guess one of the first rules of TiVO owning should be, run guided set-up, create you SP list and WL, and then take a 1 week vacation. *


But there is another answer!

Im a newbie, got Tivo a week ago. I had that same problem. Like you guys I had nothing to watch and not wanting to screw up Tivo's recording activity by watching live TV.

So I got a cable splitter and connected a separate line direct to the TV from BEFORE the cable box and Tivo. Then I was able to watch live TV on all but the premium channels, without bothering the TIVO by using my TV tuner.

There is a help on doing that in the Tivo manual and on the official Tivo site.

Of course this advice is for Tivo with cable. If you have DirectTV you dont have the problem, because you get two tuners.

... hope that helps someone.


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## deniseg

Oh! I get it now! I knew it sounded too easy!! Thanks!

Denise


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## jhimmel

> _Originally posted by mizterd99 _
> *
> 6. What's the deal with standby (TiVo Central -> Messages & Setup -> Standby)?
> 
> Standby works like so:
> 
> [*]The live buffer will remain on unless you have a Series 1 DirecTiVo.
> *


In the case of the HDVR2 (DerecTiVo series-2), the live buffer stops while in "Standby".

Jim H


----------



## GaScott

> _Originally posted by gleffler _
> *Might wanna link to the broadband setup threads for people that don't have free local calls or don't have a local POP. *


...or who simply don't want to fool with getting a phone line just for the Tivo, like myself.

Scott


----------



## GaScott

> _Originally posted by lloydgm _
> *So newbies, the hard lesson is: Be patient while your Tivo acquires your likes and in at least 3 days time (technically even shorter depending on your TV watching style) you'll no longer have to watch Live TV.
> *


ha! I didn't have that problem. I spent an hour and a half after I set up my Tivo entering programs to record. The next night after I got home from work, I had four Seinfelds, five Roseannes, two In the Heat of the Nights, and one Sabrina waiting for me. That's been two months ago and I'm still trying to catch up!

Scott


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## Blitzburgh

> _Originally posted by DMHinCO _
> *Mike, it is much prettier in its MS Word format, which is zipped in the link above, but here it is pasted.
> 
> TiVo Central
> TiVo - Now Playing
> 1 - Season Pass Manager
> 2 - To Do List
> 3 - Search Using WishLists
> 4 - Search By Title
> 5 - Browse By Channel
> 6 - Browse By Time
> 7 - Record Time/Channel
> 8 - TiVo's Suggestions
> 9 - Showcases
> 0 - Play the cartoon intro sequence
> 
> Program List Screens
> CHAN UP/DOWN - Page Up/Down. Look for up and/or down arrows with underline along the right of screen.
> PLAY - Starts highlighted recording. (Now Playing only)
> CLEAR - Jumps to delete confirmation panel. (Now Playing, To Do List, Season Pass, and WishLists)
> 
> Program Information Screens
> CHAN UP/DOWN - Shows previous/next program title. Look for up and/or down arrows with underline along the right of screen.
> DISPLAY - Shows more detailed program information, such as bit actors, Original Air Date.
> PLAY - Starts recording. (Now Playing only)
> CLEAR - Jumps to delete confirmation panel. (Now Playing, To Do List, Season Pass, and WishLists)
> 
> Text Input Screens
> 0 - Starts at the top of the list. (Search by Title and Actor/Director WishLists only)
> FWD - Inserts a space.
> BACK - Backspace
> CLEAR - Clear the entire field.
> SLOW - Enter the wild card symbol (*), means it will match any word that starts with the previous letters. (Keyword and Title WishLists only)
> PAUSE - Quotes (") to limit search results to explicit word combinations.
> Special Characters - Hyphens (-), slashes (/) and periods (.) should be replaced by spaces. Any other marks, such as apostrophes ('), asterisks (*) and ampersands (&), are ignored.
> 
> Live TV
> LIVE TV/GUIDE - Press once to enter Live TV from Tivo menus and again to bring up Program Guide, once again to return to Live TV.
> DISPLAY - Press once to display the Channel Banner in its large version. Press again to remove. RIGHT ARROW also works when no banner is visible.
> RIGHT ARROW - Pressing RIGHT arrow while the banner is visible cycles between a small, medium and large version of the banner, each with a different amount of information. This sets the size of banner displayed while changing channels.
> CLEAR - hides graphics that aren't part of the program (status bar, channel banner, Tivomatic). Helpful when picture is paused to see entire screen.
> FWD - Fast Forward with three speeds (3x, 20x, 60x). Acts as single frame forward when pause or slow in effect.
> BACK - Rewind with three speeds (3x, 20x, 60x). Acts as single frame back when pause or slow in effect.
> RECORD - To record the program you're watching. This will also include any earlier part of the program that is in the Live TV buffer. The recording will stop automatically when the program ends. You can stop it before that by pressing the RECORD button.
> ENTER/JUMP - jump back to the last channel you were on, same tuner.
> DOWN ARROW - Jump to alternate tuner. Also available from the large channel banner.
> 
> Live TV Program Guide
> DISPLAY - Shows panel to change guide attributes, including guide style to DirecTV Grid or Tivo Live Guide.
> BACK/FWD - DirecTV Grid Only: Page Left/Right to view past/future program schedule in 1-½ hour increments. Tivo Live Guide Only: When cursor is on the right side panel, listing programs for a specific channel, use as single channel up/down.
> UP ARROW - Tivo Live Guide Only: On the right side panel, listing programs for a specific channel, use UP ARROW to view past program schedule, as much as remains in the guide database.
> 
> Tivomatic
> This Icon appears during a commercial for upcoming programs. Also works in recorded programs.
> THUMBS UP or SELECT - Will bring up Program Information Panel for upcoming program in ad.
> 
> Music Channels
> DISPLAY or RIGHT ARROW - brings back song information after screen saver kicks in after 5 minutes of no remote activity. *


Do these "codes" work on the 3.2 version?


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## BrettStah

Yes.


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## 2mrchio

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread. Very useful information.


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## beetle_boy

I am newbie .. I enjoyed being able to rewind a speech on the Academy Awards for a joke I missed and waking up to a bunch of car programs.. my problem is I didn't understand the inability to watch live tv while recording .. I have no cable box cable with a splitter that sends second cable to tv in bedroom .. is there such a thing as a three way splitter or does that degrade signal too much?

My wife hates the TiVo sound (when FF'ing, chanigng channels, navigating menus) is there a way to turn the blink blink sound off?

thanks


----------



## bluemidnight

Yes you can get a three way splitter and it shouldn't decrease the signal THAT bad. To turn off volume in the Tivo just go into the menus and turn volume off. I beleive it's in the personal reference menu.


----------



## Rose4uKY

I am so new to Tivo that I have so much to learn. I just got my 80 hour box hooked up last night? I picked out a show and hit record and just got home from work and haven'[t checked it yet. Thing is I have digital cable before the actual digital cable box had to be on the exact channel you were recording TV & VCR stayed on 4. Tonight my digital cable box was on 43 when I left and I was recording something on 7. Doesn't Tivo change the digital box? Mine is still on 43 but maybe it still recorded 7 and is on 43 I haven't checked yet. I am so amazed as to what this can do.. 

My other thing is it asked me if my cable number had 2 or 3 digits I have digital 150 plus so I have 3 numbers. Well when changing the channels of the digital box cause your tv stays on 4 it would change 02 03 and so forth. Now it goes 002 003 and for some reason when I take my digital cable remote and change the channels it takes a long time now. It used to change right away. Why is that? You push up on the channel button once and it takes 10 seconds or more before it even changes. And when I do the channel button on the Tivo remote which I wish controlled the cable box also it brings up Tivos info and sometimes the digital cables info pops up. I just go it going last night late so I am going to sit down now read the book and play with it. I want to know exactally how to set it tape all my shows and to set it to delete stuff after so long. Rose


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## Rose4uKY

Ok I am replying to my own post. I am starting to really figure out Tivo. I set it to record several season passes. Haven't tried a wish list yet or anything else. This thing amazes me and is so awesome. I have just a couple more quick questions. Ok when I am watching a show and a commercial comes on I usually hit the FF button twice but then I have to hit play for it to come back on is that how its suppose to work? On my VCR I could hit this commercial skip button up to 3 times and usually 3 times did it but it stopped on its own. On Tivo when your FF throguh commercials can it not stop on it's own? I still don't understand the 

Mapping the skip to end button to skip 30 seconds: 
Just hit S-P-S-3-0-S (where 'S' = Select, 'P' = Play) on your remote. The 'skip-to-end' button on your remote will now do a 30-skip.
Exactally what does that do and what screen do I need to be at to do that? Sorry i read it but still don't understand it.

I also don't understand If you set it to tape an awards show like someone said does it go by its own guide? Like if it says 9-11 and it was to go over are you saying Tivo wouldn't catch that and pick it up? I thought like if a ballgame was on and it went over and friends for instance started 10 minutes late Tivo would catch that and you would get your whole episode of Friends.

And last question? I did set up seasons passes of several shows. My TV is an old 25 inch Maganvox TV about 12 years old. But it works. I read that the higher the quality you record in the less hours you have on your hard drive. Whats the normal quality to record? If I am just taping soaps and some nightly sitcoms that I will delete in a few days whats best for me? I want to have a decent quality show and get the most hours out of my hard drive. Thanks, Rose


----------



## DancnDude

> _Originally posted by Rose4uKY _
> *Ok I am replying to my own post. I am starting to really figure out Tivo. I set it to record several season passes. Haven't tried a wish list yet or anything else. This thing amazes me and is so awesome. I have just a couple more quick questions. Ok when I am watching a show and a commercial comes on I usually hit the FF button twice but then I have to hit play for it to come back on is that how its suppose to work? On my VCR I could hit this commercial skip button up to 3 times and usually 3 times did it but it stopped on its own. On Tivo when your FF throguh commercials can it not stop on it's own? I still don't understand the
> 
> Mapping the skip to end button to skip 30 seconds:
> Just hit S-P-S-3-0-S (where 'S' = Select, 'P' = Play) on your remote. The 'skip-to-end' button on your remote will now do a 30-skip.
> Exactally what does that do and what screen do I need to be at to do that? Sorry i read it but still don't understand it.
> *


Basically, you have 2 options:
1) Use the fast forward like normal. If you do 2 or 3 fast-forward presses, when you see the show come on you can hit play and Tivo will jump back a little bit so you don't miss the start of the show. 
2) Turn on 30-sec skip like you mentioned above. All this does is causes the skip-to-tick button automatically jump ahead 30 seconds. Because most commercial breaks are in exact minute or half-minute increments, a lot of people find that pressing the skip button a couple times will whizz through the commercials.

I personally really like the way fast forward works. There is no commercial skip on TiVo and likely won't be one for awhile due to legal reasons.


> *
> I also don't understand If you set it to tape an awards show like someone said does it go by its own guide? Like if it says 9-11 and it was to go over are you saying Tivo wouldn't catch that and pick it up? I thought like if a ballgame was on and it went over and friends for instance started 10 minutes late Tivo would catch that and you would get your whole episode of Friends.
> *


TiVo will only record what it is scheduled to in the guide.....no more and no less. If for instance the guide contains information that says Friends will be "Supersized" and runs for 40 minutes, then TiVo will correctly catch this. The thing with this is the extra 10 minutes may cause you to either miss another lower-priority season pass or cause you to miss Friends if a higher-priority season pass is overlapping that 10 minutes.

Any shows that you expect might go over their allotted time slot, like award shows, sporting events or things like that you may want to pad. Since TiVo only records whatever is in the timeslot, you might miss the end of when it really ended as opposed to when it was supposed to end. You can pad the end of a recording to record 15 minutes, 1 hour, etc longer. Keep in mind that this also could conflict with other season passes.


> *
> And last question? I did set up seasons passes of several shows. My TV is an old 25 inch Maganvox TV about 12 years old. But it works. I read that the higher the quality you record in the less hours you have on your hard drive. Whats the normal quality to record? If I am just taping soaps and some nightly sitcoms that I will delete in a few days whats best for me? I want to have a decent quality show and get the most hours out of my hard drive. Thanks, Rose *


Basically whatever size box you have is the minimum number of hours. So if you have a 60 hour TiVo, that is 60 hours in Basic (lowest) quality. It is really up to you to decided if that quality is too bad for you to watch, or if you want to put it at a higher one. I personally think that if you watch shows that you delete in a couple nights, you could record in a higher quality and just make sure you delete things as you watch. I also highly recommend that if you are technologically inclined, you look into upgrading your TiVo. Then you can record in Best quality without worrying about space.

I hope this helps!


----------



## Rose4uKY

Thanks for helping me. I do have the 80 hour Tivo the highest one best buy had. They don't make a bigger one do they? I need to read my book more and look into my season passes. Where is it that it has lowest priority and Highest for recording? One of the Tivo tech support guys that I had spoke to on the phone prior to buying had sent me some upgrade thing in my e-mail. I e-mailed him back telling him everything was working so did I need this upgrade and he said no. He also explained some more about the 30 second skip I was confused last night but now I got it to work. I love it now. It's juts like my VCR was I would hit the button 3 times and it would usually be just the right amount of time or it would be just a second or two into my show. So this 30 secind skip works great for me. I didn't know what that button did and last night I hit it and it went to back to the beginning or ended my show forget which one. So I had to start the show over and FF back to where I was thats where this FF comes in handy. And I love how when I press play at my spot it backs up a few seconds. 

Tivo is too cool!!! As for quality I recorded ( I want to still say taped hee hee) a few shows last night in Medium and Basic just to see how they came out. Mostly I tape soaps and delete them within a day or 2 so I guess I will be alright doing the high quality. I think it defaults to the one underneath the super high quality. And it says with that you still get 35 hours I think. But I do have the 80 hour Tivo. I need to send in my rebate. Thanks so much for helping me.


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## marjoriep

Nice report and suggestions. Keep em comin.


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## birdboy

I hope this is in the right section..How do I set up a SP for Sports. I want to catch all the SF Giants and 49ers games but because these teams play home and away , the PG lists change depending on venue making it difficult for Tivo to hone in on something constant. For example, [email protected] xx when visiting then xx @ Giants. Also there's pregame and dated programs that it will record that I don't watch. I hope this made sence...  thanks


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## gleffler

Set up an ARWL with title of GIANTS AT and category "Sports/Football".

That should do it, methinks.

Oh, and Welcome to the TiVolution! 

/gleffler


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## Debworks

I have a question about Comcast InDemand Pay-Per-View while using TiVo. When I used Replay TV all I had to do was hit "record" on the channel guide and it would ask me to verify that I wanted to record the Pay-Per-View movie. TiVo does not. Do I have to go back to my old TV remote to request a Pay-Per-View movie to record and then use the new TiVo remove to record it? (I just got TiVo yesterday after my 2 1/2 year old Replay bit the dust.)

Thanks,


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## buffstitch

I've had tivo for a few months now. I bought a second remote from tivo.com. It sure comes in handy. Between the wife and kids I could never find the remote and Tivo doesn't have any buttons on the unit. It was $29 well spent. I would recommend it to anyone with more than one person in the house.


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## DMHinCO

Or a dog. 
Good suggestion, buffstitch.


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## stanoman

I have one of the new Hughes SD-DVR120 and I can't find where to set the recording quality. It's a Directivo Dual tuner, supposedly Series2 Tivo. I'm not real concerned about it since I have 100 hours or recording time, but it'd be nice to know how to modify this. I'm fine watching Simpsons reruns in "cable quality" mode.


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## winders

The DirecTiVo units record the digital signal from the satellite which contains compressed data. Therefore there is no need to for recording quality settings.

There is zero difference between the recorded playback and the original show.

Scott


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## april76

Please can someone help me? i just bought TIVO and my cable box is not listed as an acceptable box. It's called a Divinci. Any ideas on what to do?


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## Rose4uKY

My suggestion is to call Tivo tech support. I bought a second Tivo for my bedroom. My dad had just bought me a new 20 inch tv for back there. The brand was an off the wall one that I had never geard of. It wasn't listed so I called and they had me enter some code then keep hitting a button and waiting 2 seconds until the tv went off and it finally did. So they should know what to do. Rose


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## toddco

I have recently moved and have been experiencing problems with tivo not recognizing channels and/or not locating certain programs when i do a search. These are shows I know exist and cannot find them when i do a search. I basically have to search by channel and then select the program for recording and then it actually does record the program it said did not exist. I'm sure there is an easy solution to this problem but unfortunately i am a newbie. Can you please help me? If you can respond via email to [email protected] it would be greatly appreciated.

thanks a ton

todd


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## smenzel

This is great information. Wish I had had this when I first bought my TiVo three (or was it four?) years ago. Thanks for posting.


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## franksf

I understand from reading all the postings that :
I cannot watch one show while tapping another one (with stand alone Tivo)
I cannot tape two shows that are showing at the same time 

the first posting suggests that Tivo will record one show and then detect the next rerun of the second one.
Has anybody set their prefernce to record Friends and Survivor?
Were the reruns running set up soon enough that they could watch both shows the next day?
Thx,
Cheers,
F.


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## dan9486

I just got the Hacking TIVO book and was quite interested in getting into the Backdoor mode for my new Tivo 4.0-1 version. I cant figure it out. Can anyone help?


----------



## Zevida

I've had my TiVo for going on four weeks now and this thread was very helpful. Thanks to all who contributed!


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## Russ Dorsey

> _Originally posted by DancnDude _
> *Another tip about Closed Captioning that I use...
> If I can't understand what was said by someone on TV, turn on CC on your TV and then do an instant replay. Often times it will be typed out so you can read was was said  I have my TV set to CC on Mute, so I just hit the mute button and then instant replay to read what was said. *


Can I have the CC on without muting the sound?

Russ


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## BrettStah

Russ, that depends entirely on your TV, but chances are you can.


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## renepaul

Yeah, what he said. Depends on TV. My TV when I hit mute the captions come up automatically. Also that SAP Audio is kinda cool but iffy. I turned it on and my "CSI" was narrarated for me. And my "Family Business" was recorded in Spanish. I now know better.


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## selwyn47

Thank you. I am about to purchase a TIVO. I have learn more about TIVO from your discussion than any place else I have looked.


----------



## kp49ers

Thanks for the great and thorough information. I just got Tivo and love it. However, I am busy and sometimes can't watch a show before it is deleted. I even had it on Save Until I Delete and it still deleted it for another show. Perhaps 40 hours is not enough for me. Do you know what the user fee is on a second unit? I am thinking of buying one for the bedroom.

Thanks so much.


----------



## bidger

> _Originally posted by kp49ers _
> * Do you know what the user fee is on a second unit? *


 For the standalone TiVo boxes, each unit requires a separate subscription fee of either $12.95mo. or $299lifetime. You could consider upgrading the capacity of your 40hr. by either doing it yourself through the "Hinsdale's How To" thread in the "Upgrade Forum" or having one of the Forum sponsors do it for you. It would ultimately be more cost effective to upgrade, but if you have your heart set on a TiVo in another room, it's up to you.

Another option would be to see if your cable co. offers a DVR. You'd still be paying another service fee, but you wouldn't have to pay for hardware. My option is DirecTV w/ TiVo. There is no additional DVR fee other than the first unit. I pay a $4.99mo. mirroring fee that any D* customer pays for extra receivers for my 2nd D-TiVo, but no extra DVR fee. I also use a S1 SA TiVo unsubbed for two local channels I couldn't get waivers for. Good luck whatever you choose.


----------



## 1man

I am a newbie. this was very helpful. Is it possible to tape a show while watching another one, if your connected to cable?


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## Brianz28

1man- I just set up my TiVo the other day. The way I set up my system. I can record one channel and view a different one. I have cable without a cable box and a tv with 3 inputs. I used a splitter on the incoming cable line. One went to the TiVo and the other went to the tv. Out put from the TiVo went via RCA cable to "Video 1" on tv. When I want to watch thru TiVo, I switch tv to "Video 1". I record what I want, and switch back to "Antenna" on tv. "Video 2" is for the VCR, "Video 3" is for PS2.


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## CraigHB

New TiVo user here. I'm highly pleased with it. 

I solved the "record one channel and view another" problem this way; My cable provider gives me two cable boxes for no charge. I hooked one up to the TiVo then to the composite input of the TV and the other up to the TV's coax input. By switching inputs on the TV, I can either use the TiVo or use the 2nd cable box (to watch something live like PPV regardless of what the TiVo is doing).


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## MacsBaine

CraigHB, do you have problems with your remote changing the channel on both boxes? How do you avoid the problem?


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## ccwf

Build an IR tent/fort to make sure IR goes only to the intended box. At the end of the Cable/Satellite Box Compatibility & Codes List are links to TiVo's instructions for building an IR tent and a thread on making a nice looking tent out of a VHS tape box and other methods.


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## CraigHB

> _Originally posted by MacsBaine _
> *CraigHB, do you have problems with your remote changing the channel on both boxes? How do you avoid the problem? *


I'm using the serial interface instead of the infared blaster (it works good). Then I blocked-off the infared sensor on the digital cable box hooked up to the TiVo.


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## big terror

Try using word do print your cheat list


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## Crash331

Thanks. I was going to set up an X-Files season pass, but it is in syndication on about 6 channels, so the wishlist tips really helped.


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## rric31

I am new to TIVO and also new to this board. I found this thread and found it very useful to help learn some of the ins and outs of TIVO.

I like to return to this thread in particular for tips, but each time I return, I have to click on the latest page because of so many comments, and then scroll down to the last reply. 

Is there any way to for me to set up my viewing of each thread, to go where I left off?

Thanks for any help.

Rich in cold cold Maine


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## David Platt

Click on the 'arrow' icon immediately to the left of the thread title. This will take you to the next post after your last visit.


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## ems7690manct

Is there one? Going to buy Tivo as a gift for someone but want to make sure of this 1st.

THANKS ERIC


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## Davyburns

Great stuff!!! Have had my Tivo for 3 weeks now, and am finding my way round the system (still have a problem with a Dvd recorder and a VCR in the chain, but I'll get there eventually)
This post has saved me a huge amount of time. Could it be linked somewhere on the Tivo home page - I am sure it will be of great help to people who arn't that good on the internet.
Davy Burns - England


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## Fletcher

When you first get your TiVo, you can save yourself a lot of near-misses and heartache (like when you set up your first Season Pass for _SpongeBob SquarePants_ and then find TiVo's suggestions filled with everything else on Nickelodeon) by going into Pick Programs to Record, Search By Name, Choosing All Programs, Entering 0 and scrolling through the entire list of everything that's available to your TiVo in the next two weeks.
As you see things you like (or more importantly, HATE!), pop into those shows and rate them with the Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down buttons. My most powerful recommendation would be to find any show that airs on more than five channels (they're easy to spot) and rate them with three Thumbs Down (see you in hell, _Guthy-Renker_ and _Body By Jake_!).
Next, look for anything you love, hate or like even a little as you scroll through and mark those things. This will give your TiVo a good idea of the kinds of things you love and hate right off the bat.
And, before you embark on this endeavor, keep in mind that crawling through this whole list will likely take you several hours! If you don't want to do it all at once (and, really, you don't have to do all of it at all), you can repeat the process to get in here, but choose to narrow down the focus (like just look at Movies), or instead of entering 0 (that's zero), pick the letter of the alphabet you left off with last time.
I've just set up a new TiVo for myself (the eighth guided set-up I've performed in my lifetime) and have taken the time to work through this process. Even at three days old, all of TiVo's recommendations are spot-on-- the only "clunkers" are movies I love, but already own on DVD.
As an adjunct to, and maintenance part of, this process, visit TiVo's Suggestions periodically to check out the things that TiVo thinks you will like-- the things that already have thumb-ratings next to them are a no-brainer, but look at the items without any thumbs next to them? If TiVo's suggestion is bad, make sure to let it know with a harsh down-thumbing (sorry, _Car 54, Where Are You?_).

Just a li'l tip to get the most out of TiVo..


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## cac111

I there a way to record every ESPN Sportscenter at 8:00PM (only 8:00PM)for the entire year ? or do I have to record the episode manually each day ?


----------



## ccwf

Yes, use a manual repeating recording (TiVo+7 is the shortcut).


----------



## losclrk

I'm a newbie, just found this forum today, and what a great post I've stumbled on! Thanks for the tips!


----------



## sunspot77

pls help! I have read the FAQ's, i just don't understand the whole "soft padding" and wish lists concepts. I just want to know how to record CSI and ER.


----------



## ccwf

There's a link on how to deal with the CSI/ER situation in the TiVo Help Center sticky thread Before you askplease check these top answers for TiVo questions! It has links to both detailed instructions for CSI/ER as well as links to how to apply the semi-soft padding technique more generally and how to get true soft padding.


----------



## sunspot77

i really liked what dan203 had to say in his "be nice" post. I know this has been posted over and over again... Unfortunately i still don't know what to do but see that i am not going to get the help i was hoping to get without being made to feel like an idiot. thanks anyway.


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## ccwf

The underlined items are links to other pages. Click on them to be taken to further info.


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## Mountain TiVo

Thanks for the list ! As a newbie to TiVo I enjoyed reading thru this and printed out the list so I can keep it handy while learing.


----------



## jerry warner

Thanks! I'm a new Tivoite and a retired engineer, and I found out right away that Tivo doesn't allow channel change while recording which is no good when two good things are on at the same time.

I was able to rig my system easily to get around it. In my case, I send the tivo output through my VCR (then to my TV), but it'd work OK if you don't have a VCR, DVD, etc.,and go direct to your TV.

What you need to do is make parallel lines from the cable input, one to tivo and one to the VCR. 

Get a splitter, and plug the cable TV (or antenna line) into it's in port. On one of the out ports, send the line to tivo in as normal. On the other out port, get a 3 foot or so new cable line and run it toward the VCR (or TV). You already had a line from Tivo out toward the VCR, so now you have two lines headed for the VCR.

The trick is to get an A-B switch. Normally, this switch takes one input and gives two outputs, so , for example, you can take one cable TV line and send it to two pieces of equipment. It works backwards, too. We can take the two lines from above and plug them into the out ports of the switch, and connect the in port of the switch to the VCR.

I got everything I needed (one new short line for splitter to Tivo, one new longer line to connect the splitter to the switch, one A-B switch, and one new short line to connect the switch to the VCR) at Radio Shack for about $36 total.

Works great. Normally, I use the switch to block off the new line from cable to VCR and just let Tivo do its thing. When two good things are on, I switch from A to B; this allows Tivo to record along its merry way, and gives me back full control of my VCR as before Tivo. I can watch the other show through the VCR, tape it separately from what Tivo's doing, change channels, etc. When you're done, change the switch back and make sure your VCR or TV is back on the dead channel ( 3 or 4).

The new cables, switch, and splitter hides nicely behind my cabinet easily.

Enjoy!


----------



## jerry warner

Thanks! I'm a new Tivoite and a retired engineer, and I found out right away that Tivo doesn't allow channel change while recording which is no good when two good things are on at the same time.

I was able to rig my system easily to get around it. In my case, I send the tivo output through my VCR (then to my TV), but it'd work OK if you don't have a VCR, DVD, etc.,and go direct to your TV.

What you need to do is make parallel lines from the cable input, one to tivo and one to the VCR. 

Get a splitter, and plug the cable TV (or antenna line) into it's in port. On one of the out ports, send the line to tivo in as normal. On the other out port, get a 3 foot or so new cable line and run it toward the VCR (or TV). You already had a line from Tivo out toward the VCR, so now you have two lines headed for the VCR.

The trick is to get an A-B switch. Normally, this switch takes one input and gives two outputs, so , for example, you can take one cable TV line and send it to two pieces of equipment. It works backwards, too. We can take the two lines from above and plug them into the out ports of the switch, and connect the in port of the switch to the VCR.

I got everything I needed (one new short line for splitter to Tivo, one new longer line to connect the splitter to the switch, one A-B switch, and one new short line to connect the switch to the VCR) at Radio Shack for about $36 total.

Works great. Normally, I use the switch to block off the new line from cable to VCR and just let Tivo do its thing. When two good things are on, I switch from A to B; this allows Tivo to record along its merry way, and gives me back full control of my VCR as before Tivo. I can watch the other show through the VCR, tape it separately from what Tivo's doing, change channels, etc. When you're done, change the switch back and make sure your VCR or TV is back on the dead channel ( 3 or 4).

The new cables, switch, and splitter hides nicely behind my cabinet easily.

Enjoy!


----------



## gotlogos

> _Originally posted by jerry warner _
> *Thanks! I'm a new Tivoite and a retired engineer, and I found out right away that Tivo doesn't allow channel change while recording which is no good when two good things are on at the same time.
> 
> I was able to rig my system easily to get around it. In my case, I send the tivo output through my VCR (then to my TV), but it'd work OK if you don't have a VCR, DVD, etc.,and go direct to your TV.
> 
> What you need to do is make parallel lines from the cable input, one to tivo and one to the VCR.
> 
> Get a splitter, and plug the cable TV (or antenna line) into it's in port. On one of the out ports, send the line to tivo in as normal. On the other out port, get a 3 foot or so new cable line and run it toward the VCR (or TV). You already had a line from Tivo out toward the VCR, so now you have two lines headed for the VCR.
> 
> The trick is to get an A-B switch. Normally, this switch takes one input and gives two outputs, so , for example, you can take one cable TV line and send it to two pieces of equipment. It works backwards, too. We can take the two lines from above and plug them into the out ports of the switch, and connect the in port of the switch to the VCR.
> 
> I got everything I needed (one new short line for splitter to Tivo, one new longer line to connect the splitter to the switch, one A-B switch, and one new short line to connect the switch to the VCR) at Radio Shack for about $36 total.
> 
> Works great. Normally, I use the switch to block off the new line from cable to VCR and just let Tivo do its thing. When two good things are on, I switch from A to B; this allows Tivo to record along its merry way, and gives me back full control of my VCR as before Tivo. I can watch the other show through the VCR, tape it separately from what Tivo's doing, change channels, etc. When you're done, change the switch back and make sure your VCR or TV is back on the dead channel ( 3 or 4).
> 
> The new cables, switch, and splitter hides nicely behind my cabinet easily.
> 
> Enjoy! *


Hi -  I am puzzled by everyone's 'puzzlement' over watching a show while Tivo recods another. On my Pioneer 810 unit I have an RF Coax Output for pass-through - this is an undoctored tivo signal. I simply hook this up to my TV's RF in (the tivo output goes to one of my RCA inputs)...

So cable goes in to Tivo's RF in and a second cable is attached to Tivo's RF out and goes to the TV...wehn i want to watch a show different than the recording I simply switch my RCA TV to the appropriate input selection 9using the Tivo's input selector! ...

Daniel


----------



## RPFist

Great job, thanks for all the info. I think the wishlist vs. season pass idea is good. If I want to record the x-files, and it is on more than one channel a season pass won't record it from both channels (although 2 seasoon passes would).

Thanks again. 

-Fist


----------



## tase2

> Hi - I am puzzled by everyone's 'puzzlement' over watching a show while Tivo recods another. On my Pioneer 810 unit I have an RF Coax Output for pass-through - this is an undoctored tivo signal. I simply hook this up to my TV's RF in (the tivo output goes to one of my RCA inputs)...


That's great but what about all the complaints about the PQ with the Pioneer 810?


----------



## karken10

Thank you ........ that was a great list of TiVo stuff. Had mine for about a year and a half but you had some really good tips that I had not thought of. That one about running the show 5 minutes ahead after you have watched it was neat ............. thanks again javascript:smilie('') Karl

P.S.
I want to buy a second TiVo (Humax with DVD burner) my question is can I use a splitter and run 1 TiVo off digital cable box and run the second TiVo directly off the digital cable feed?javascript:smilie('')
(I of course will need a second discounted subscription to TiVo)


----------



## ignavia

> _Originally posted by karken10 _
> *can I use a splitter and run 1 TiVo off digital cable box and run the second TiVo directly off the digital cable feed?*


Yes, but obviously, one TiVo would only have access to the analog channels.


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## marcoval

VEry cool thread, very helpful!


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## jfhseattle

I am new to TiVO and would appreciate help on enabling closed captioning. I am hard of hearing and noticed several references to CC in the tips section. I am very eager to use this feature if it's possible, 

My TV is an old but very wonderful 32" CRT Mitsubishi monitor, circa 1991. I've searched its manual, but there's no mention of Closed Captioning anywhere.

I've tried every set-up scenario on the Cable Box, and on TiVO. - I've searched everywhere and cannot find out how to turn on this feature. Is it resident in the TV, or in my Cable Box, or in the TiVO box?

Any help which anyone can offer would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John 
Seattle


----------



## DancnDude

> _Originally posted by jfhseattle _
> *I am new to TiVO and would appreciate help on enabling closed captioning. I am hard of hearing and noticed several references to CC in the tips section. I am very eager to use this feature if it's possible *


 This is something that is in your TV. If it isn't an option on your TV, I don't think TiVo has any way of showing it. TiVo just plays back the captioning as it was originally broadcast. If you have a menu on your TV, it should be in there to set how you want to display captions (often it is either always on, always off, or on when the TV is muted).


----------



## jfhseattle

Thanks for the help. I've been told (tonight) that there are stand-alone decoders for CC. Do you know a name or where I might find one?

John
Seattle


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## DancnDude

> _Originally posted by jfhseattle _
> *Thanks for the help. I've been told (tonight) that there are stand-alone decoders for CC. Do you know a name or where I might find one?
> 
> John
> Seattle *


 I certainly am not an expert but did a quick Google search for you and came up with: http://tvguardian.com/ There are probably others, or maybe even your cable company has a box. You might also check Radio Shack and ask them if they have anything that will do it. I hope this helps!


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## colleenm1013

I need help!! Brand new to this site. I want to get rid of my home phone and DirecTV guy suggested I join this community to find out what I would lose on Tivo if I cut off phone line. Can I get answers from the people who know all about it out there????


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## jfhseattle

thanks! I should have thought of Googling this. And I don't know why I didn't think of Radio Shack.

John


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## Jasoco

> _Originally posted by colleenm1013 _
> *I need help!! Brand new to this site. I want to get rid of my home phone and DirecTV guy suggested I join this community to find out what I would lose on Tivo if I cut off phone line. Can I get answers from the people who know all about it out there???? *


 TiVo requires either a Phone Line or a Broadband Internet connection. Without either one, you won't be able to get TV listings.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, even with Broadband, you'll still need a phone line to setup? Or am I wrong? Either way, I personally wouldn't suggest losing your phone.


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## Hunter Green

Yes, you need a phone line for that first call.


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## Jasoco

Curious as to why the first call can't use a wireless adapter? Is there some technical reason it can't use your internet connection for the first call?


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## futerfas

I think it's because when TiVo units are shipped, they may not have the latest SW version, there may have been one that updates it for realease with a certain model of a certain adapter. So if someone gets that adapter, and it doesn't work, they'll be confused and whatnot. Of course, this is also confusing. So it's kinda a lose-lose situation.


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## nicolekeating

Hi,
This is my first post, ever. I was hoping someone could elaborate on the feature used to record TV content that includes certain keywords or topics of interest. If I want to record anything that mentions "cancer" how likely, if at all, would TiVo be able to process this request? 
I don't own a TiVo and was wondering if it would work for such purposes.
Thanks very much!
NKJF


----------



## ccwf

> _Originally posted by nicolekeating _
> *I was hoping someone could elaborate on the feature used to record TV content that includes certain keywords or topics of interest. If I want to record anything that mentions "cancer" how likely, if at all, would TiVo be able to process this request?
> I don't own a TiVo and was wondering if it would work for such purposes.*


 To get a rough idea, go to Zap2It and try a search with the data TMS makes available there. Be sure to expand the search's date range from the tiny default there.

WishList searches on TiVo work similarly since TiVo also gets guide data from TMS. They are not exactly the same because TiVo gets a more verbose version of the guide data than you can see at that web site and because some of the search options are different.


----------



## nicolekeating

Thank you for your reply! What is "TMS"? I went to the web location you mentioned but couldn't find an appropriate place to search. Can you specify more advice on which Sap2It option I should try? thank you very, very much.


----------



## ccwf

> _Originally posted by nicolekeating _
> *Thank you for your reply! What is "TMS"?*


 TMS is Tribune Media Services. They and TV Guide are the two major (and pretty much only) sources of TV listings in the United States. TMS provides TV listings and other content for the Zap2It web site (which they run), TiVo, ReplayTV, many cable companies, and the _Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Detroit Free Press, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Denver Post_ and hundreds of other newspapers.


> *I went to the web location you mentioned but couldn't find an appropriate place to search. Can you specify more advice on which Sap2It option I should try? thank you very, very much. *


 On the main page, enter your ZIP code in the upper right and click for listings. On the next page, select your lineup and See Listings. On the page after that, press Search (just above the listings, next to Sports Search).


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## nicolekeating

I really appreciate how helpful you are. I found 41 listings (including some duplications) for "cancer" (partial match option) and it appears that TMS lists only summary highlights of a program/movie. This summary isn't very detailed or nuanced. In contrast, a much more thorough listing would be found if there was a way to search closed captioning for any mention of "cancer." Is there a more precise option such as this?


----------



## ccwf

> _Originally posted by nicolekeating _
> *This summary isn't very detailed or nuanced.*


 The summaries TMS makes available for anyone to see for free at that web site are indeed rather short. The summaries TMS sells TiVo are more detailed.


> *In contrast, a much more thorough listing would be found if there was a way to search closed captioning for any mention of "cancer." Is there a more precise option such as this? *


 No one searches closed captioning at this time. Google recently talk about adding such a capability (a long time from now), but there are legal issues involved.


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## nicolekeating

Charles,
I just wanted to thank you again. You know a great deal and I appreciate your willingness to share. Cheers!


----------



## TIV0addict

Just did the 30 sec skip thing and it rocks. Now I can blow through commercials in a jiffy!


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## catsinavalon

I asked for tivo for xmas and now i've got it and I think I want to give it back. It seems a bit overwhelming. I only have 3 shows I watch. I really wanted it so I could record for my kids and bypass the advertising, and so I wouldn't have to remember to change the channel and record the motorcycle races for my husband. I'd like to stay married. We don't watch a ton of tv but all my friend swear they can't live without it. Can you help me and my tivo (i named it harmony) bond.


----------



## ccwf

> _Originally posted by catsinavalon _
> *I asked for tivo for xmas and now i've got it and I think I want to give it back. It seems a bit overwhelming.*


 Well, the biggest piece of advice is "Don't Panic". (Pretend I wrote that in big friendly letters.) A thirty day money-back guarantee is standard with just about all TiVo models (doesn't apply if you bought from eBay or some such), so relax and try it out for a while.


----------



## TallGuy

> _Originally posted by catsinavalon _
> *
> 
> I asked for tivo for xmas and now i've got it and I think I want to give it back. It seems a bit overwhelming. I only have 3 shows I watch. I really wanted it so I could record for my kids and bypass the advertising, and so I wouldn't have to remember to change the channel and record the motorcycle races for my husband. I'd like to stay married. We don't watch a ton of tv but all my friend swear they can't live without it. Can you help me and my tivo (i named it harmony) bond. *


You will love it, just give it a month. There are probably a lot more interesting shows on at odd times that you would enjoy but would never try to match up your life with the show's schedule. You may want to have a friend help you set it up unless you're familiar with all the cabling. Live TV is terrible compared to TiVo!


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## JimSpence

From another thread, this should be required viewing.
http://starterupsteve.com/swf/posting.html?


----------



## Jasoco

I've always loved that video.


----------



## blogman42

I'm new here, great place to be


----------



## mikekox

DMHinCO said:


> Shortcut keys I find the most convenient: TiVo + 2 takes you to the To Do List. TiVo + 4 takes you to Pick Programs By Title. TiVo + 8 takes you to suggestions. Northrk created a nice cheat sheet at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=523557


I tried this link but it doesn't work. I tried to cut and paste it but that didn't work either. The other links do work.

BTW I tried "Select Play Select 3 0 Select" while watching a recording but can't get it to work. It's the first time I've tried a shortcut so maybe I'm doing something wrong?


----------



## Jasoco

At one point, I couldn't get the shortcut to work either. Later it worked fine again. I would try later. It was weird because I was doing it right. But it just did not want to accept the code.


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## mikekox

Jasoco said:


> At one point, I couldn't get the shortcut to work either. Later it worked fine again. I would try later. It was weird because I was doing it right. But it just did not want to accept the code.


Ok, I'll try it again but I'm not even sure I'm even doing it right; the place it says to start at just seem to be a logical starting place.


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## Jasoco

If the show is playing. It should work if you go fast enough. Select Play Select 3 0 Select. I can do it without looking now. But that one time, it just didn't want to work at all.


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## mikekox

Jasoco said:


> If the show is playing. It should work if you go fast enough. Select Play Select 3 0 Select. I can do it without looking now. But that one time, it just didn't want to work at all.


Boy! I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but it still doesn't work for me.

I am watching a recorded program, I hit Select-Play-Select but when I hit 3 I get a "thunk" sound. Sometimes when I hit Select again I get 3 high tones; but I can't figure out what steps cause that to happen.

I've tried hitting Select-Play-Select VERY fast; using both hands, but that doesn't make any difference.


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## ccwf

Please folks. This is not meant to be a Q&A thread but rather a thread with useful advice. Just start additional threads if you wish to discuss the advice here (preferably in the Help Center area if you wish to ask for help).



mikekox said:


> Boy! I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but it still doesn't work for me.
> 
> I am watching a recorded program, I hit Select-Play-Select but when I hit 3 I get a "thunk" sound. Sometimes when I hit Select again I get 3 high tones; but I can't figure out what steps cause that to happen.
> 
> I've tried hitting Select-Play-Select VERY fast; using both hands, but that doesn't make any difference.


 Ignore the thunk after the 3 and just keep going with the 0 and Select. Don't worry about keying in the sequence very fast; you don't need to do it quickly at all.


----------



## gcsheph

What are some recommendatiions for these 'lower cost ups units'? APC's and such used for computers are much more expensive than the $ values you all have cited. Thank you.


----------



## pacoymedia

I'm thinking about buying a TIVO machine off of Ebay. 
Or I could get one through Direct TV. My wife wants to switch from Satellite to Cable because of the weather disturbances that a satellite gets.

My primary question to all of you experienced TIVO users is this: why do I need to pay 5$ a month to Direct TV or the cable company? Can't I just hook up my TIVO and go?


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## TallGuy

If you use an analog TiVo (i.e. with a tuner in it), it can bring in a signal from analog cable or from a digital cable/sat box, but you lose more picture quality in the decoding/re-encoding done by your standalone TiVo box. The picture difference is noticeable on mid-size TV sets, I'd say. Plus the delay to change channels on two boxes can be longer. But if you have a box with a lifetime subscription, it would save you the $5 per month.


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## slyboogie

my rca tv just went out and won't come back on any suggestion


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## mrpantstm

Thanks for the tips!

Does anyone know who is in charge of providing a description for shows. The Daily Show often uses the tag line 'A humorous slant on news' instead of who the guest is, so my Tivo captures a lot of repeats even though I have it set for record only one per day. frustrating


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## TivoRookie92

Wow.. your my lifesaver!! *bookmarks* lol 

When I get my tivo tomorrow (really tonight (2:46am )) I'll whip this baby out and use all the info! lol thx so much!!

Joe


----------



## twash

This may already be here but I thought I would say it anyway.

I like to have my own remote. My wife likes to have one in here hands as well. We do "dueling remotes" occasionally.

Don't get rid of your old style remote because it probably will work with the newer units. The down arrow will switch from one internal receiver to the other and as far as I am concerned makes the shorter, earlier remote close to being as capable as the newer, longer remote. The only button that I want and don't have on the shorter remote is the Input button, but if you are like me this is not a big deal because you don't like anyone else being able to change inputs on the TV anyway. 

Also, with the newer remote, I don't like the position of the Power button for turning the TV on and off and it doesn't seem to work very well with my Philips TV. The old one seems to work much better with switching my Philips TV on and off.


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## Marine1

I just bought my Tivo the other day and was watching a program and I get this message that a program I never picked, wanted to record. Of course I didn't want it to interrupt what I was watching so I told it no. That happen once more. How do I shut that off so it only records what I tell it to?


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## TallGuy

Go into the Setup menus and find "TiVo suggestions" and turn them off. Suggestions are the programs that it tries to guess at what you would like, based on your thumbs up/down ratings of other shows. But your intentional recordings always take priority over suggestions.


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## Jasoco

Yet another thing that could be solved with dual tuners.


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## Marine1

TallGuy said:


> Go into the Setup menus and find "TiVo suggestions" and turn them off. Suggestions are the programs that it tries to guess at what you would like, based on your thumbs up/down ratings of other shows. But your intentional recordings always take priority over suggestions.


Thanks TallGuy, it worked. Book doesn't mention going back to setup. I remember it now when doing the setup. Thought it was only suggestions from Tivo then.


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## keneallen

Thanks for all the help I sure do find every thing usfull.


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## TIVONEWBIEDAVID

GREAT information!

just spent the last hour reading this post and i don't think i need to post any questions at all now!

thanks to all the contributors to this thread and to the whole site!

David


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## betts4

Great Info and I haven't even read it all. I am trying to learn and absorb and read and play with the tivo as the day goes on. I am glad I don't have to work for three days! Tivo tivo tivo!!!
We got this as a christmas present and have never touched one before - or seen it. I know now I want another for upstairs and definately more memory. 
This has been a great thread and I want to save and reread it. Thanks!!


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## mattack

Marine1 said:


> I just bought my Tivo the other day and was watching a program and I get this message that a program I never picked, wanted to record. Of course I didn't want it to interrupt what I was watching so I told it no. That happen once more. How do I shut that off so it only records what I tell it to?


(I realize I'm replying to an old message, and the direct answer to the above question was answered right afterwards..)

But as a suggestion for newbies -- you may want to leave Suggestions on, simply as a free space meter. (Though even with that, I think I lost a few old musical performances a few days ago that I had from a long time ago. I guess I miscalculated and more stuff recorded while I was watching DVDs!)

Counting the time or number of Suggestions gives you a rough estimate of how much disk space is left. As someone who records shows (except suggestions of course) to WATCH them, I don't want things deleted except by me. But I can't set everything to 
Save Until I Delete, because then you get tons of nag screens because it doesn't realize you'll really watch a show by the time the new show it thinks it won't have space for comes on.


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## Wi11y Ni11y

From a total n00b, I really appreciate the information!


----------



## Joshdog2

Look i know you must be sick to death of "idiots like me"asking questions in the wrong place!I am new to this forum but have had U.k. TIVO FOR3 YEAARS NOW WITHOUT A HICCUP!However everything still works on my system except that i can not change channels anymore.Tivo u.k. informed me through my so called warrenty that they no longer repair thompson tivo boxes.MyY WARANTEE COMPANY KEEPS JERKING me around and passing me from pillow to post!!!!!All i want from you is please tell me where to go!Either on your forum or with my insurance company!THANKS IN ANTICIPATION of your help.Cheers.Ray


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## just_a_canadian_

thanks!! this has helped me out soooooo much!!


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## netmd

I am new to this forum and hope someone can help me with this. I own a series 1 SONY TIVO but decided to unsubscribe last year when my cablevision company offered a HD DVR built right into their cablebox. Now I want to use the old TIVO as a DVR in another room and simply record manually. However it won't let me, and the TIVO service people state that you MUST have a subscription to even use it manually. When purchased it was sold as a unit that could be used manually without having to purchase a monthly or lifetime subscription - similar to how a VCR works. Now I have a paperweight unless I wish to resubscribe.

Is there any way to make this work manually to simply record by time and channel?

Thanks for the help.


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## merggy

I am new to this site, not sure where to post my question. sorry if I am posting it in the wrong area. Lets say there is a storm in my area and the cable goes out and I miss recording my favorite show. Is there somewhere I can get someone to send me the show from another state?


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## TallGuy

Not by Tivo, but you can always download it through a BitTorrent client app and watch it on your PC or iPod video.


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## merggy

Thanks for your help. Its a shame Tivo cant do that.


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## gustywinds

TallGuy said:


> Not by Tivo, but you can always download it through a BitTorrent client app and watch it on your PC or iPod video.


Can you point me to a PC based App that does this?


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## TallGuy

BitTorrent is a huge thing right now so you can research on Google very easily. I use the uTorrent app (www.utorrent.com) and get the torrent files from mininova (www.mininova.org).


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## zaoliyik

mschwab said:


> That's exactly what I do (except I usually have to IR 3-4 times to give the CC enough time to process the section I want). I also use Mute on the TV to turn CC on/off, and I was confused by the previous poster that said TiVo made it easier to turn CC on/off. How so?


He probably thought the mute button is the CC button, because he never use the mute button on his tv remote, and he don't even know his tv is set up to have cc turn on automatically when the mute button is pushed. (also he probably tune the volume on the tv set so low that he can't hear any voice or there is no audio input to the tv at all, instead audio goes to his aux.


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## zaoliyik

[email protected] said:


> Major newbie tip!
> If you live in an area where the daily phone update is a long distance call..........by all means pick a number out of state. I reduced monthly long distance from $16.00+ down to $4.95 by doing so.


my god, where do you live? the area i live is remote enoughm yet there is a local number for me to dail...


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## Arcady

zaoliyik said:


> He probably thought the mute button is the CC button, because he never use the mute button on his tv remote, and he don't even know his tv is set up to have cc turn on automatically when the mute button is pushed. (also he probably tune the volume on the tv set so low that he can't hear any voice or there is no audio input to the tv at all, instead audio goes to his aux.


Wow, are public schools really this bad? There are at least two dozen errors in there. English is not that hard.


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## zaoliyik

Arcady said:


> Wow, are public schools really this bad? There are at least two dozen errors in there. English is not that hard.


？I am not native English speaker


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## ASM520

Many thanks, from a new user.


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## murphy54

very helpfull..thanks


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## scotsman

help...............i am very new to tivo, i just moved my tivo from one residence to another. what do i need to do, because i hooked it up like it was but it will not work. i changed area codes, (and phone numbers).

please help, i miss it.

thanks,

scotsman


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## megazone

'Will not work' is kind of vague.

Normally when you move you should re-run Guided Setup and set all the parameters for your new location.


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## id242

DMHinCO said:


> Experiment with auto-recording wishlists. Two things about them that I'd like to highlight.
> a) A regular season pass is channel-dependent. For shows you love that are on multiple networks, don't create a season pass, use an auto-recording wishlist. For example, if you love Law and Order and want to get not only the new episodes but also the reruns on cable, an auto-recording wishlist will do it. (However, with this particular show being ubiquitous, you'll have more L&O than anyone could watch.)


TiVo software 7.3-up

Wishlists by Title does not work with show titles such as "House" - which gives all sorts Home & Garden episodes & other oddball programs such as Fullhouse. And specifying details as "Drama" or "Medical" will not pickup the episodes which did air on FOX since they did not classify it as such, but USA does.

...So before you follow the original poster's advice, check the results of adding items to your "Wish List" before removing them from your "Season Pass" list.

And you can forget about adding shows such as "Penn & Teller... Bull****!!!" (which was on several Showtime channels during the season) to your Wishlists, they must be added to Season Pass for each channel... as Whishlist entry does not accept Wildcards or Special character entry such as "&", "!" and "."

More on Season Passes, often I find that TiVo likes to change/update the title of channels from "MTVP" to just plain "MTV"... or "USAP" to "USA" and then a few weeks later, it will update back to the "P" extension ("P", meaning Pacific Time Zone), and during these few weeks where the channel was renamed, all of your Season Passes to record on the previous channel name will not be recorded. For Example, "Dr. Who" may be set in your Season Pass list, but over the past 6 months, TiVo has renamed the channel several times ("SCIFIP", SCIFI", "SCFP"...etc)... or this just could be the *tiny* local cable company named Adelphia which is causing that problem.

Either way - This post is just a head'sup to others, and is in no way meant to wrong the original poster and his nice compilation of topics found elsewhere on the site.

Cheers!


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## megazone

id242 said:


> And you can forget about adding shows such as "Penn & Teller... Bull****!!!" (which was on several Showtime channels during the season) to your Wishlists, they must be added to Season Pass for each channel... as Whishlist entry does not accept Wildcards or Special character entry such as "&", "!" and "."


This is not true. You just don't enter the special character. I used to have a ARWL for "LAW & ORDER" - the ARWL was just "LAW ORDER". IIRC, that's two spaces. You just enter it as it would be, dropping the special characters. I believe that's in the manual. I've done the same for other shows with special characters in the title.

(I switched from the ARWL to 3 SPs because USA started not providing decent guide data for L&O so the TiVo would record all the repeats. After a couple of weeks I switched my setup. I'd done it only for simplicity.)


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## id242

what is, "IIRC" and "ARWL" and "SPS"? and how many spaces would be needed for "..." and "!" and "&" in "Penn & Teller ...Bull****!" since wildcards cannot be used? And what page in the manual are you referring to - never mind, since manuals have changed several times over the past years (since the original write-up) because of the version number of TiVo that the manual relates to - and the manufacture of the box.

But none of this matters anymore since 7.3.1 has now been released, fixing these problems by enabling the "SLOW" wildcard in WishLists


----------



## phox_mulder

id242 said:


> what is, "IIRC" and "ARWL" and "SPS"?


If I Recall Correctly = IIRC

Always Record Wish List = ARWL (I think?)

Season Passes = SPS (actually was SPs, plural)

"Bull****" in a Title Wishlist should work fine for P&Ts Bull****!,
as there aren't many other shows with Bull**** in the title.
There are no P&T..B's currently airing, otherwise you could just set up a Season Pass that way, but as it just ended the last season, it might still show up in a title search.

phox


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## megazone

id242 said:


> what is, "IIRC" and "ARWL" and "SPS"?


The first is a general net acronymn, the latter two are TiVo community related:
If I Recall Correctly
Auto-Record Wish List
Season Pass (SPs was plural - SPS usually means Select Play Select, as in SPS30S)



> and how many spaces would be needed for "..." and "!" and "&" in "Penn & Teller ...Bull****!" since wildcards cannot be used?


Like I said, you enter the title just as it appears and simply skip the special characters. So if the titler were "Penn & Teller Bull****!" it'd be "Penn Teller Bull****" with two spaces between 'Penn' and 'Teller'.



> And what page in the manual are you referring to - never mind, since manuals have changed several times over the past years (since the original write-up) because of the version number of TiVo that the manual relates to - and the manufacture of the box.


I'd think the section of the manual that has to do with Wish Lists would be a good start. See page 21 here: http://customersupport.tivo.com/resources/pdf/series2dt/Series2-DT_Chapter2.pdf



> But none of this matters anymore since 7.3.1 has now been released, fixing these problems by enabling the "SLOW" wildcard in WishLists


That's been there. But it isn't the best way to do things. That's a global wildcard which matches any number of characters. The recommended dropping of the special characters will only match the specific title, but a wild card would match any title with the same pattern. Say you make a ARWL for "Law Order" - that will match "Law & Order" but it wouldn't match some thing like "Law, Justice, Order", some mythical show. But "Law * Order" would because the '*' matches any characters, any number.


----------



## BigT4187

very helpful! Thanks!


----------



## nikkoforever

DMHinCO said:


> Northrk created a nice cheat sheet at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=523557


I can't get this link to work for me. I keep getting a message that says:

*nikkoforever, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

1. Is your account awaiting activation? If you did not receive the activation e-mail after you registered, or changed your e-mail address, please CLICK HERE to request it to be resent to you. (Check your SPAM filters.)

2. Your e-mail address is not correct, or not valid, and you need to change it. Please CLICK HERE to enter into the USER CP area and update your e-mail address. (We suspend the account if so much e-mail bounces back. Spam filters? Old Address? ISP Blocking AVS Mail?)

3. Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?

4. The administrator may have disabled your account for abuse.*

I don't have any reason to believe any of those circumstances apply to me. Why can't I access that cheat sheet?


----------



## jwsd

nikkoforever said:


> I can't get this link to work for me. I keep getting a message that says:
> 
> *nikkoforever, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
> 
> 1. Is your account awaiting activation? If you did not receive the activation e-mail after you registered, or changed your e-mail address, please CLICK HERE to request it to be resent to you. (Check your SPAM filters.)
> 
> 2. Your e-mail address is not correct, or not valid, and you need to change it. Please CLICK HERE to enter into the USER CP area and update your e-mail address. (We suspend the account if so much e-mail bounces back. Spam filters? Old Address? ISP Blocking AVS Mail?)
> 
> 3. Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
> 
> 4. The administrator may have disabled your account for abuse.*
> 
> I don't have any reason to believe any of those circumstances apply to me. Why can't I access that cheat sheet?


 go to post #21 on the 1st page of this thread and you will find the list there...


----------



## DanaHill

OMG I finnaly figured out how to use a chat room! Can you please help me with my Tvio box? I currently have a Phillips Direct TV with dual tuners and I got rid of direct tv for Charter and they are telling me that my "tivo" box will no longer work. Is there a converstion that I can do so my tivo box can work with cable?


----------



## TallGuy

No, DirecTV TiVos are not designed for cable, and they don't have any MPEG encoder to convert analog channels to record to the hard drive digitally.


----------



## brandalynn

*Great post. I have the newbiest question of all! I haven't purchased a Tivo yet, as I am not sure it will work in my situation. BUT I am certain after researching tivo online, that this would be the best format to help me out..Thus far I have learned how you can use tivo, with sat dish, cable, outside roof antenna and even rabbit ears, NO laughing.. Downstairs in the living room is a sat dish receiver on that tele, my room mate has a receiver on his tele in his room on that tele, I hahaha have rabbit ears and get 3 stations. My question is what is the best approach for me, I do have a laptop and our connection is dsl and my laptop is wireless connection soooooo,,, should I set up the tivo on the tele downstairs to give me more viewing and recording options and have it sent to my laptop? Give me some suggestions I am willing to listen to anything. I am quite ill and for a while am stuck alot in my room and unfortunately it is the one with the least tele viewing capability. the three stations of cbs and nbc and abc are nice but I am dying to have more variety and that tivo could be my answer. Thanks to any who reply brandy*


----------



## STTF

murphy54 said:


> very helpfull..thanks


I agree, this really helped me too - thanks.


----------



## Silo24X

hope this is in the right section..How do I set up a SP for Sports. I want to catch all the SF Giants and 49ers games but because these teams play home and away , the PG lists change depending on venue making it difficult for Tivo to hone in on something constant. For example, [email protected] xx when visiting then xx @ Giants. Also there's pregame and dated programs that it will record that I don't watch. I hope this made sence... thanks


----------



## TallGuy

You build a Keyword Wishlist - keywords are "GIANTS AT" (because the sequence is not locked in to that order) and you can then add Sports/Baseball especially since Giants is kind of a generic word and could be used in other programming info. Then set to auto-record whatever number of episodes on the wishlist, and as always with sports, be sure to set it to record an hour longer for games that go long. You should get all the games, plus some repeats and ESPN Classic-type old games you may not want, but it works pretty well.


----------



## pav

Can you hook up an external hard drive


----------



## garym1j

I typed these 4.3 pages. When I read online I told myself this is too much good information and typed it out. Thanks very much. Invaluable information. Brighthouse has been instructed to deliver two cards on Thursday. We will see what they bring. 

Thanks again,

Garym1j


----------



## jhoward

I hope I'm not asking about something that's already explained. I tried to scan through all the posts in the thread for the answer, but didn't see it.

Is it possible to save the 30 minutes that's auto-recorded? Say I come in and turn on the tv and decided I want to save the part that's been recorded. I thought of this when I accidently hit the channel button on a show I wanted to go back and watch the first part of. If I could save it, I wouldn't have to worry about losing it when I change the channel.

Thanks,
jhoward


----------



## Joey Bagadonuts

jhoward said:


> I hope I'm not asking about something that's already explained. I tried to scan through all the posts in the thread for the answer, but didn't see it.
> 
> Is it possible to save the 30 minutes that's auto-recorded? Say I come in and turn on the tv and decided I want to save the part that's been recorded. I thought of this when I accidently hit the channel button on a show I wanted to go back and watch the first part of. If I could save it, I wouldn't have to worry about losing it when I change the channel.
> 
> Thanks,
> jhoward


Sure, just hit the "record" button on your remote and the last 30 minutes of the channel your TiVo was tuned to will be recorded. Isn't that memory function great?


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## jhoward

Wow that seems easy enough! LOL I thought I tried that once, but it didn't seem like it did anything.

Anyway, thanks for the reply. I appreciate your taking time to help this TiVo newbie.

jhoward


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## Joey Bagadonuts

jhoward said:


> Wow that seems easy enough! LOL I thought I tried that once, but it didn't seem like it did anything.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for the reply. I appreciate your taking time to help this TiVo newbie.
> 
> jhoward


Actually, I should have said "up to 30 minutes" of the channel your TiVo was tuned to. The memory restarts each time you change channels but the nice thing is, it is always memorizing, whether your TV is actually on or not.

That being said, when you hit the 'record' button on your remote you should see a pop up box providing you with the option of recording the showing at Best Quality, getting a Season Pass & other options, or choosing not to record the showing. If you choose to record the showing, TiVo will automatically record the show starting from when the memory started. The program will appear in your "now playing list" in TiVo Central.


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## Lyrical1

I had a problem doing something like this on my DTV box a few months ago.

I came in and found the end of a movie was on a classic movie channel. However, it ended at the hour and it was now 10 minutes past. When I hit the record button it began recording the current movie (that began on the hour). There was no way to record the last twenty minutes of the movie that was still there, but being deleted by the minute.

I called DTV who eventually transferred me to "second level tech" support. By this time there was less than ten minutes left. They told me that once the new program starts  even though the current 30 minute memory buffer has the last bit of the previous program  there is no way to actually record it since hitting "Record" will only record the current program.

Were they mistaken? Is there a way to do what I had wanted? If there is no way to do this, is this a TiVo fact of life or is it a DTV fact only?

Thanks for any thoughts, clarifications, or suggestions.


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## Joey Bagadonuts

Lyrical1 said:


> I had a problem doing something like this on my DTV box a few months ago.
> 
> I came in and found the end of a movie was on a classic movie channel. However, it ended at the hour and it was now 10 minutes past. When I hit the record button it began recording the current movie (that began on the hour). There was no way to record the last twenty minutes of the movie that was still there, but being deleted by the minute.
> 
> I called DTV who eventually transferred me to "second level tech" support. By this time there was less than ten minutes left. They told me that once the new program starts  even though the current 30 minute memory buffer has the last bit of the previous program  there is no way to actually record it since hitting "Record" will only record the current program.
> 
> Were they mistaken? Is there a way to do what I had wanted? If there is no way to do this, is this a TiVo fact of life or is it a DTV fact only?
> 
> Thanks for any thoughts, clarifications, or suggestions.


It must be a DTV fact only. Ironically, as I was reading your post, I had the TV on and had been watching Andy Griffith on TV Land. That program had ended and The Jeffersons started. I waited until I was 10 minutes into the Jeffersons and I hit the record button on the remote. A screen message asked if I wanted to record The Jeffersons. Uh oh. I selected 'Record this showing..." and let TiVo record for just a few seconds before I hit the record button again. A screen message asked if I wanted to continue recording or stop the current recording. I selected the ladder. I then went into my Now Playing list and sure enough, TiVo had recorded the last 20 minutes of the Andy Griffith Show and the first 10 minutes of The Jeffersons.


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## flex67

Hey guys, I am now recently thinking about purchasing a Tivo. I do not know much about how it works. When I get Tivo, I am going to have my Comcast cable going straight into the Tivo box. Can anyone tell me how many channels will I continue to get doing it this way without the Comcast digital box (the Comcast digital box will be relocated to another room). I currently subscribe to all of Comcast channels (the whole package) even the HD channels..


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## Lyrical1

When I plug my Comcast coax (RG6) cable directly into the TiVo Series 2 DT it recognizes all the channels up to 97 (probably 99, but I there's nothing on channels 98 and 99). I hope this helps you.


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## obewon86

Best Way to Copy TiVo to an External HD

I just joined the TiVo community (yep, a Noob in this community), and searched several of the forums for advice on this subject... came up empty (I have a Series 2 TiVo). I know I can use a wireless USB adapter, but I'm more interested in a wired USB connection.

Any advice would be appreciated; tnks in advance.


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## DMHinCO

DMHinCO, you are a fantastic asset to this board. Your contribution must have helped hundreds of newbies in the nearly five years since the initial post (which is a cleanup of an earlier thread with the same info). The contributions to your karma must be overwhelming.

Wait, that was me!

The three-year-old I referenced is nine now. She has a sister who is five.

They know we have two rules in our house:

a) We don't watch TV without asking to watch a single specific show from the Now Playing list (no letting one show lead into another and another), and
b) We don't watch commercials in our house. Period.

The kids have gone Christmas after Christmas without asking for garbage they see on commercials. The only time they see them is on vacation or at friends. They really have not seen much on TV that we aren't completely comfortable with. TiVo gives parents so much control.

Of course, after having TiVo for seven years or so, I also don't know much about the endless smorgasbord of products advertised on commercials. Oh well. I'm surviving.

TiVo truly has changed our lives and our kids' lives and the lives of the families we have evangelized to. 

Anyway, it was nice to take reminiscing glance at this old post and think about how life was back then.

Thanks to the many people who have thanked me in this thread and thanks to those who have answered the questions along the way without being too harsh.

No, this thread is not the best place to ask questions. But newbies start in this thread first so it's nice that the community has tolerated them.

But I'll remind newbies - use the SEARCH function at this forum for answers to your questions before you post your question. You'll see that there are other better places to post than in this thread.

I'll check in again in another few years to see how this thread is going. I sneak into other parts of the forum from time to time.


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## SKYTOP

I'm also new trying to watch dowloads from Tivo desktop using windows media player 10.
I down loaded InterVideo codec and tested it with Windows Media which stated Which stated that it is compatible with WMP10 and is set as the preferred decoder.
Still have sound but no picture.
Can anyone help.


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## AFP1

DMHinCO said:


> If you have two shows that are on simultaneously that you want to record, try to figure out whether one of them is on a cable channel that reruns their shows multiple times during the day. If so, put that show LOWER in your season pass manager. This usually happens in the evening with Prime time shows. The prime-time episodes will conflict, so it will record the one that is on only once during the primetime hours. Then, while you are asleep, it will find a rerun of the repeated show.
> 
> For the nightly news, set your recording options as follows: Keep At Most=1 Episode. That way, each day it will delete yesterday's news and record today's. You might also try watching the news with closed captioning turned on and one fast-forward.
> 
> For shows that you don't care WHICH episode you have, but you always want one available (e.g., Jeopardy), set your recording options as follows: Keep at Most = 1 Episode and Save Until I Delete. That way, when you watch the episode and delete it, you'll get a new one the next time the show is on. I am using this more and more. Cooking shows, home improvement shows, just about any kid's show that our three-year-old likes, etc.
> 
> Experiment with auto-recording wishlists. Two things about them that I'd like to highlight.
> a) A regular season pass is channel-dependent. For shows you love that are on multiple networks, don't create a season pass, use an auto-recording wishlist. For example, if you love Law and Order and want to get not only the new episodes but also the reruns on cable, an autorecording wishlist will do it. (However, with this particular show being ubiquitous, you'll have more L&O than anyone could watch.)
> b) Create autorecording wishlists for each of the following words: Premiere, Pilot, Finale, and set it to record first run only. That way, when a new show comes out, your TiVo will often catch it. Not always, but often. You can leave it there for a few days and see if any of your friends say "hey that new show x was really good." Then you can watch it. This is particularly effective during the times of the year when new shows are being introduced. Remember if you find one you like, create a season pass for it.
> 
> The View Upcoming Episodes is really effective for cooking shows, home improvement shows, shows that have a different musical performer each episode like Sessions at West 54th, etc. For example, if you like Hot Off the Grill with Bobby Flay, you probably won't bother recording it when he is cooking calfbrains, but when he's got a vegetarian quesadilla with your favorite vegetable, you can grab it. Similarly, when Megadeth is on Sessions at West 54th, you can give them the swerve but you'll notice that [insert your favorite performer here] is coming up next week and you can set TiVo to record just that episode.
> 
> If you see an ad for a show coming up in the future but it isn't in your program guide since it is more than 12 days in the future, create an autorecording wishlist.
> 
> Shortcut keys I find the most convenient: TiVo + 2 takes you to the To Do List. TiVo + 4 takes you to Pick Programs By Title. TiVo + 8 takes you to suggestions. Northrk created a nice cheat sheet at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=523557
> 
> If TiVo keeps telling you that it needs to change the channel to record something, you're watching too much live TV.  I suggest you adopt my habit of hitting the TiVo button twice before you turn the TV on. That way, you're looking at the list of things you want to watch, not what the network happens to be (in the middle of) showing at the time. It also dramatically reduces your advertisement intake.
> 
> If you have a good, clear signal coming into the TV, you can probably record almost everything except sports on Basic quality.
> 
> Try a season pass for Sports Night on Comedy Central. They are all reruns since it was on for only two seasons. I think it is one of the best shows on TV. If you don't like the style (regardless of the politics) of West Wing, you probably won't like Sports Night, which by the way is not about sports. Or politics.
> 
> Don't feel compelled to watch everything on your TiVo before it gets deleted. For awhile, I did. It didn't really subside until I upgraded my space and now I have about 100 hours. Before that, I felt like I had to hurry to watch something before it went away. Sometimes things will get deleted without you watching them. Hey, big deal. At least when you were watching TV, it was something you wanted to see rather than whatever drivel was on at the time. Also, just because it says it CAN be deleted doesnt mean it WILL be deleted. It stays until TiVo needs the space for another show (not a suggestion).
> 
> Be careful in setting an autorecord wishlist for popular directors like Alfred Hitchcock. Those movies are on quite a bit and will overwhelm you. Make sure you set Keep At Most wisely. One shortcoming in the TiVo is that you can't include the restriction "only record if it is 3.5 or 4 stars." Same advice for actors who have a large body of work.
> 
> The Keep At Most setting is really your friend when some station decides to run a dozen episodes of the same show back to back in a marathon. Keeping this set to 3 or 4 episodes for most shows keeps these marathons from consuming too much of your precious hard drive space. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it can be infuriating.
> 
> The Channel Up / Down button is quite useful when you are in the TiVo menus. If you are looking at a list, the channel down button acts as a page down button. If you are looking at a single episode description, the channel down takes you to the next show.
> 
> The eight second rewind button is excellent for those of us with bad hearing.
> 
> Quick! Give three thumbs down to Paid Programming. Also, remove HSN and other shopping channels from your Channels You Receive list. There, I just saved you much more than the TiVo service fee. :^)
> 
> If you remember an old episode of a show that you saw once that you'd like to see again or someone tells you of a movie they liked, create an autorecord wishlist that is specific enough to catch it.
> 
> If you're halfway through watching a recorded program, hit left-arrow or TiVo before you turn off the tube. That way, TiVo will know where you left off. Otherwise it will just play to the end of the show and lose your spot.
> 
> Put your TiVo on a surge supressor or UPS. Make sure it protects the telephone line as well. Also, if you are using plain cable or antenna, put that through the surge suppressor as well. Search the forum for recommendations. They arent very expensive.
> 
> Add Wishlists for your favorite performers. Thats my excuse for having BARENAKED in my wishlists. Honestly.
> 
> Select Play Select 3 0 Select while you are watching a recording toggles on and off the 30-second skip. It replaces the normal function of the skip to end button. ->| It resets each time you reboot or the power fails.
> 
> Especially if you have subscriptions to HBO/Showtime/Stars/Encore/Cinemax or whatever, go WILD with creating wishlists by using these fabulous resources:
> http://us.imdb.com/top_250_films and http://us.imdb.com/Charts/Votes/ and http://www.afi.com/tv/lists.asp.
> 
> Don't forget the wildcard character when creating a wishlist. It is the SLOW button. Example, a wishlist for Muppet* catches the Muppet Movie and the Muppet Show since they are singular. It also catches Muppets Take Manhattan since Muppets is plural.
> 
> If space is at a premium, consider using manual recordings to catch just the portion that you like of a particular show. Some examples:
> o If you only watch the monologue (Dave, Jay, Craig, whoever), consider recording just the first 20 minutes or so.
> o If you only want the weather, figure out what time your local news slots their weather into. Record a short block that includes that time. Don't forget KAM=1. Seeing yesterday's weather forecast would just reduce your faith in today's.
> o If you only want the top stories without the human-interest fluff, pick a good time each day and grab the first 10 minutes of Headline News or one of the other news programs. Again, KAM=1.
> o Some shows save the best for last, or recap the whole episode at the end. A couple examples might be America's Funniest Home Videos (with the top three repeated at the end) or some of the home improvement DIY shows where they recap the project at the end. Consider recording just the last ten minutes.
> o Some home improvement shows have a segment at the end with how to use a particular tool. Other shows have specific segments like this. If you find yourself FFing to get to those spots and you never watch the other parts of the show, consider recording just the good parts.
> 
> If space is at a premium on your recorder (as it is on most unhacked standalones), consider instructing TiVo to make a 5-minute manual recording at 7:00 AM on, say, your NBC local affiliate. That way, when you awaken, TiVo will have stored in its buffer up-to 30 minutes of your favorite morning show, without having to record the entire 2 or 3 hours of the show.
> 
> Even if you live alone, you should set a parental controls password. If you don't care to prevent anything from being accessible, then set it to allow all ratings. This is important when you have a guest who picks up your remote and accidentally gets into parental controls. If that guest sets your password and forgets it, you will need to jump through some hoops with the customer service reps. So set your password yourself, or someone else may.
> 
> If you want to *keep* a particular segment on the Today show, you can watch live until the part you want comes up and then hit record. TiVo saves the 30-minute segment in the buffer. Stop recording right after your segment is over. This saves the interesting part in a 30 minute block rather than the whole length of the show.
> 
> Be careful with "padding." That is, setting your TiVo to start recording a bit early and/or end recording a bit late. This is less of a problem with the DirecTiVo with dual tuners, but it can still happen. If you ask for a 7:00 half-hour show to end 1 minute late, it will not be able to schedule another show starting at 7:30. The dual-tuner DirecTiVo runs into this same problem only if the other tuner is busy at that time also. Having said that, if you do choose to pad (NBC on Wednesdays and Thursdays is notoriously bad about starting early) because you don't want to miss any of your favorite show, two minutes padding (or for that matter, 15 minutes) is usually no more of a problem than one minute padding in the above case.
> 
> Friends dont let friends watch Live TV! Become an evangelist by running to any local retailer with a 30-day return policy. Take a brand new TiVo over to your friend's house and set it up for her. Better yet, set it up at your house and then take it over and install it. Pay the first month's service. Tell her it is your "loaner machine" and she can keep it for three weeks. Call a couple days later to see if there are any tips you can give. Then call two weeks later and announce you are going to pick it back up. In my experience, if you have set it up for your friend, she'll want to keep it because she loves it. If she doesn't want it, the retailer will still take it back until 30 days has passed. And you can get your TiVo subscription fee for the first month refunded. But again, I think she's keeping it. The times my friends have chosen NOT to keep it were times when I didn't hook it up to their TV and therefore they just let it sit in the box for two weeks.
> 
> This applies to DirecTiVos primarily since lineup changes are forced on us with DirecTiVo. Set your Channels You Receive exactly the way you want it. Then go into favorite channel setup and "Add ALL." Then in the live guide select to display favorites only. From that point on, if DTV adds channels, you will not see them in the live guide. Favorites only update when you tell them to. Of course this does not prevent TiVo from trying to use those channels to record suggestions or wishlists from or remove them from Search By Title. Nonetheless, for most of the channels that get added, like MLB, most people do not have auto-record wishlists that would find shows there.
> 
> Before you go out to buy an A/V sound system or a TV, do a search through this forum to make sure you don't buy one of the (few) receivers or TVs that can't be controlled by a TiVo remote. I believe this is less of a problem with the Sony units. I have a cheap AIWA receiver and my Philips remote won't talk to it.
> 
> If you have a standalone TiVo, there are occasionally problems with your cable company changing its lineup or Tribune thinking it did. This will result in your TiVo deleting all of your season passes. It hasn't happened to me, but if it happens to you, it will be painful. So take a spare VCR tape, start recording, and then go into your Season Pass Manager and scroll through the entire list, nice and slow. Then do the same thing for your list of WishLists (Tivo+3). You may even want to take the time to go into the recording details of some or all of your season passes and auto-record wishlists."
> 
> Use Standby to record a show and still watch live tv on another station. Put TiVo in standby, hide the remote, and use your old TV remote to watch what ever you want. You might also use this with babysitters or house sitters so they can just use the standard clicker and not mess up your TIVO recordings. This is dependent on how you have wired up your TiVo. Do a search in the forum for advice.
> 
> Two viewers in your house? My wife and I have a system so we don't delete shows that the other may still want to watch. We got this idea from someone smart on this forum, but I forgot whom. After I watch something, I start back at the beginning and FF to 5 minutes into the show (and hit Pause to avoid the autocorrect). I leave it there. When my wife scrolls through and sees the show says "resume playing," she knows if it is at the 5 minute mark, she can safely watch it and delete it (or delete it if she isn't interested). If it is anywhere else in the show, she knows I am still watching it and not to delete it. It works the same with the shows she watches first.
> 
> Tivolution Magazine and Showcases are fine, but if you want to see what movies are upcoming on YOUR channels, go to "record by title" and select the category "movies" and select a subcategory (such as action, comedy, etc.) if you want to. Then when it asks for a title enter a numeral zero to start at the beginning and you will get an alphabetical list of all movies (or all movies in that subcategory) that are scheduled on your channel lineup. It may be a lot of movies (esp. if you do have pay movie channels or you don't use a subcategory), but it's not too hard to skim the 8 or so titles per screen, and page through the list with "channel down."
> 
> Special thanks to contributions from Gfb107, Philosofy, Joey303, murgatroyd, OldDog, BrettStah, budgetcomputers, and Doh


 Thank's for Writing the Book!
Sorry, but your Post was so long, I don't have time to read it.


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## varybarry

I'm fairly new to TiVo and this board provides a lot of great information. Thanks and keep up the great work.


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## killer77

thanks for that...just sent off for mine..


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## Xpistos2007

I am such a newbie, no more than an hour 'old'. Question: I don't have cable TV. My son does. I buy the Tivo system for him, he records what I want. Can I then download from the TiVo to my laptop those recordings; return home and watch?


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## Shanezam203

Very good post.

Thanks much,
Shane


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## cuongnet

Thanks for the great info!


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## zuddal002

Really Nice.....................


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## Havana Brown

I like the new feature on the board that when you go post a new thread a box pops up with related or similar threads that have been posted before so you're posting the same thing. :up:


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## WitsEnd

DMHinCO, that was a really helpful post you made for everyone! Thanks  

I did think of one possible improvement to one of your suggestions. 

You wrote: "For shows that you don't care WHICH episode you have, but you always want one available (e.g., Jeopardy), set your recording options as follows: Keep at Most = 1 Episode and Save Until I Delete. That way, when you watch the episode and delete it, you'll get a new one the next time the show is on. I am using this more and more. Cooking shows, home improvement shows, just about any kid's show that our three-year-old likes, etc."

In case of a sleepless night or something unexpected, I would suggest that you increase the 'Keep at Most' to 2 Episodes for a select few favorites, and leave everything else exactly the same. That way, you always have a show available to you, even if you've watched one and the next one hasn't yet recorded.


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## tritch_2000

I am a very frustrated newbie. I have been trying for a week to get my TIVO to work with Verizon FIOS. I know it's something I'm doing wrong. I know that it communicates with the network because I can get movies from Amazon Unbox and it does download the basic cable programming. I'm confused as to where I find the SSID and if it's for the adapter on the TIVO or the FIOS router and where do you find it? And is the password you use the same one you use to sign on to the computer? I have gone all thru TIVO help verizon help. I don't have a cable box or anything to hook up to the TIVO box so it keeps searching for the connection? HELP, please. If this is here somewhere, I'm sorry I missed it but I am so tired and frustrated.


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## ilh

If you have an Actiontec wireless router from Verizon, its SSID will by default be something like UG379. I believe it is printed on the back or bottom of the router. The default password is the serial number printed on the router.


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## V7Goose

The original post referenced by the first post in this thread:

"Shortcut keys I find the most convenient: TiVo + 2 takes you to the To Do List. TiVo + 4 takes you to Pick Programs By Title. TiVo + 8 takes you to suggestions. Northrk created a nice cheat sheet at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...&postid=523557"​
has been moved to the archives. I found it, but the attached MS Word document, titled "*Remote Shortcut FAQs*" is no longer available from that post. Does anyone know if this document has been kept current since 2002, and if so, where it can be found? Thanx,
Goose


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## captbobnemo

Hi,
A friend just gave me a HDR312 TiVo - never used. I currently have a DirecTV DVR with one year left on commitment. Is it practical to use the TiVo instead of the DVR?
Thanks,
Bob


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## blacklink

Enjoying my TiVo Premier 4 and cant find anything recommending to keep it on 24/7 or power off while I am gone to work or asleep. I have plugged it through a power strip which makes this easy. Recommendations please ? thanks


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## MHunter1

blacklink said:


> can't find anything recommending to keep it on 24/7 or power off while I am gone


Try this thread, titled "Is it okay to turn the TiVo off (i.e. unplug) every night?":

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=492810

To summarize that thread, the top reasons to keep a TiVo powered on 24/7 are to maintain a healthy hard disk, retain certain settings that dont survive a reboot, and to ensure your Season Passes and Suggestions get recorded.


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## lrhorer

blacklink said:


> Enjoying my TiVo Premier 4 and cant find anything recommending to keep it on 24/7 or power off while I am gone to work or asleep. I have plugged it through a power strip which makes this easy. Recommendations please ? thanks


While you are at work or asleep is when the TiVo should be doing most of its work. Even if you have a short commute to work (30 minutes or so) and never work any overtime at all, you are still going to be working about 50 hours a week or more, and presumably sleeping, eating, and taking care of other daily issues at least 65 hours a week. That is 115 hours or more out of 168, or 70% or more of the time. Most of the good stuff is going to be on during that time.

Other than a small power savings, there is nothing at all to recommend shutting off the TiVo, and quite a bit to recommend not.


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## unitron

And since you're going to be leaving it plugged in, leave it plugged into a UPS!


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