# DirecTiVo records all kinds of stuff



## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

:up: 
Even though I've been a DirecTV subscriber for over a decade, and a TiVo user for a couple of years, I've never actually owned a DirecTiVo myself. My first purchase of one was an opened box DVR-80, which I gave to my parents for Christmas. It was to replace the 1st Gen Sony that I bought for them in 1994. To say that it does a LOT of things that my Toshiba SD-H400 (on TiVo Basic) doesn't, is an understatement. Most of these things are cool, or useful, or ... something.
:down: 
There is one "Feature", however, that is maddeningly infuriating. This thing records the most off-the-wall crap - and I can't seem to find why - or make it stop. Further, you can be watching a show, pause the unit to go to the kitchen, bathroom, patio... anyway - when you get back, it's changed the #%& %&^@& channel to record MORE CRAP. And, of course, nuking the buffer on the show you were watching. This is just as likely to happen at 3PM as midnight. This stuff is not "Enhanced Content", either. These are shows, sitcoms, etc.
:down: 
WHY ? ? ?
:down: 
What is this "Feature" called ?
:down: 
How do I make it stop?
:down: 
It's pissing my parents off - as the concept of TiVo is already a big, confusing jump for them.
:down: 
It's pissing me off, because neither of my SD-H400's have ever done anything so asinine, and I have no idea of how to approach this. Oh, and it's pissing me off more b/c it's pissing off my parents...
:down: 
_help_


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## forecheck (Aug 5, 2000)

Press:

Menu
Messages & Setup
Settings
TiVo Suggestions
No, don't record TiVo Suggestions


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## Kablemodem (May 26, 2001)

It's called Suggestions and it's one of the things that makes TiVo great. TiVo will actually learn what you like and record programs that you might like based on other programs you have recorded, but it takes some time for TiVo to learn your preferences.

If you don't want to take advantage of this wonderful feature you can disable it in the Preferences menu. The manual explains how to do it if you need help.


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## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

Also sounds like your parents only have one cable going into the back of the box.

Run a second sat feed in there so they can take advantage of the dual tuners.

Teach them how to use "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down" to rate recorded (or suggested) programs.

It's pretty amazing how well suggestions work after a little time (and the more you rate, the "smarter" Tivo gets), though you do get what seem to be bizzare choices early on.

Remind your parents that suggestions will NEVER over ride any recording they have scheduled and their programs won't be deleted to make room for any suggested program.

Also sounds like you may need to instruct your parents on how to use the Tivo, since they're obviously watching live TV. If you use Tivo effectively, you'll almost never watch live TV and, as such, never see the "change channel" message. 

P.S. My parents have a regular Tivo, not DirecTivo and they too used it to simply pause live TV at the beginning. But when the light finally clicked on, they wondered what took them so long to get Tivo ...


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

*forecheck:*
Thanks. I'll start there. I had heard of "Suggestions" - but, did not understand it's process.

*Kablemodem:*
Open box. Had all of the paperwork EXCEPT the manual. Having had TiVo's for a couple of years (and never RTFM), I didn't have an objection to it's absence when I made the purchase... I knew DTV, I knew TiVo - how hard could it be. And in truth, it wasn't at all - until...

*jfh3:*
Dual LNB - two wires. ExpressVue dish, if you're interested. I ran the second cable myself (so, I should know). Was gonna use Diplexers to combine and then split - but, I still had a couple of 1000' rolls of QuadPlex left over from when I worked as a cable tech. Crimpers, F-fittings, ladder, quick-ties - what the heck.


> Remind your parents that suggestions will NEVER over ride any recording they have scheduled and their programs won't be deleted to make room for any suggested program.


 That would indicate that I've gotten basic concepts imparted the first time. That actually hasn't happened yet. They hadn't gotten past the clock thingy on the VCR yet. This is all VERY new for them. It has not helped that it started doing things that I said were "not right".

Also, my folks are in their late 60's. They want to watch what they want to watch. Having the box "help" them with that decision making is not likely to go over well - ever.

My personal use of TiVo stemmed from my work. I do a lot of travel and a lot of long hours. The only way I could watch the shows I was interested in was to have several VCRs. I replaced one of my 4 VCRs with a TiVo. I liked it. I got another TiVo and S* canned the VCRs. For this purpose, I never saw a need to go past TiVo Basic. Therefore, I'm not well versed with this "enhanced" feature set.


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## beanpoppa (Jan 7, 2004)

Hash,
Suggestions aren't unique to the DTivo. They are on SA Tivos as well.

You can't use diplexors to combine the dual feeds from a dish/multiswitch. You need a stacker/destacker combo. Stackers are very expensive, and only work for the round dish, AFAIK. Diplexors are purely for combining OTA/cable signals onto the sat line.



Hash said:


> *forecheck:*
> Thanks. I'll start there. I had heard of "Suggestions" - but, did not understand it's process.
> 
> *Kablemodem:*
> ...


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

Hash said:


> Open box. Had all of the paperwork EXCEPT the manual. Having had TiVo's for a couple of years (and never RTFM), I didn't have an objection to it's absence when I made the purchase... I knew DTV, I knew TiVo - how hard could it be. And in truth, it wasn't at all - until...


Here is a manual for a similar DTiVo unit, the HDVR-2

Or you could look on DirecTV's page of manuals, but I didn't noticed the DVR-80 offhand. (Possibly because I don't recall the official part number)


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## dgh (Jul 24, 2000)

Hash said:


> To say that it does a LOT of things that my Toshiba SD-H400 (*on TiVo Basic*) doesn't, is an understatement.





Hash said:


> Had all of the paperwork EXCEPT the manual. Having had TiVo's for a couple of years (and never RTFM), I didn't have an objection to it's absence when I made the purchase... I knew DTV, I knew TiVo - how hard could it be.


If you've only had TiVo Basic, then you didn't really know TiVo at all.


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

beanpoppa said:


> Hash,
> Suggestions aren't unique to the DTivo. They are on SA Tivos as well.
> 
> You can't use diplexors to combine the dual feeds from a dish/multiswitch. You need a stacker/destacker combo. Stackers are very expensive, and only work for the round dish, AFAIK. Stackers are purely for combining OTA/cable signals onto the sat line.


I think you meant diplexers in that last sentence. 
Actually stackers can work anywhere you need to combine the even and odd transponders onto one line. So you can use two sets of stackers/destackers to combine 101 onto one and 110/119 onto another line. Doesn't help if you only have one line. But, if you had only two lines and needed four, you can use this very expensive solution. You'll also need another 4x8 multiswitch to recombine the 101 with the 110/119.


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## dtremain (Jan 5, 2004)

Hash said:


> [ Was gonna use Diplexers to combine and then split


If you were "gonna use Diplexors" it's pretty clear that you might not have known what you were doing. Perhaps you could explain the hook-up to us in more detail. If both Tuners are being used, Suggestions should not be interrupting live broadcasts, if everything is set up properly.


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## JohnTivo (Dec 2, 2002)

Even though he's run a second run from the dish, I bet the unit itself is setup for only one tuner. Turning off suggestions though would prevent the single tuner from being changed while paused.


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

:up: *Jonathan_S:*
Thanks for those links. After giving the DirecTV manual list the once-over, I settled on the "RCA DVR 40-120". That basically seems to be it, as it looks just like a current R10. I've already printed the manual. I'll get it bound this afternoon. My Dad will read it until the print is worn off the pages. 

:up: *JohnTivo:*


JohnTivo said:


> Even though he's run a second run from the dish, I bet the unit itself is setup for only one tuner. Turning off suggestions though would prevent the single tuner from being changed while paused.


That would bear checking on further. However, as I can record one show, and have the 30 minute buffer on another channel, I think I've got it. But, if there is a setting that can be confirmed, I certainly wouldn't mind taking a look.

*beanpoppa:*


beanpoppa said:


> Suggestions aren't unique to the DTivo. They are on SA Tivos as well.


I don't know what a SA TiVo is - unless by that you mean "Stand Alone".



beanpoppa said:


> You can't use diplexors to combine the dual feeds from a dish/multiswitch. You need a stacker/destacker combo. Stackers are very expensive, and only work for the round dish, AFAIK. Diplexors [sic] are purely for combining OTA/cable signals onto the sat line.


Logically, I would tend to agree with you. I had a client (who is a DTV installer) hand me a pair of TERK Diplexors and tell me they would work. When I discovered I still had several thousand feet RG-6 in the shop, I decided to solve the problem in the simplest, most robust manner. I ran another cable. No stackers/destackers are needed.

:down: *dgh:*


dgh said:


> If you've only had TiVo Basic, then you didn't really know TiVo at all.


I work for a living.
TV is a convenience. TiVo is a convenience. Neither are a way of life for me. I watch, at most, 8 shows a week. Usually more like 5 or 6.

As far as knowing TiVo: I know how to get the shows I want to watch recorded when I'm not there, and play them back when I am. I also know how to download and burn a CD ISO, image my TiVo drive, put that image on a 250GB HD, and EXPAND. That was my sole reason for going with Toshiba at that time. It was the only readily available unit that did not have the 137GB limit. That way, I save the entire season of the shows I watch.

That being said, until my parents "new" unit started recording everything under the sun, I knew everything I NEEDED to know about TiVo.

:down:


dtremain said:


> If you were "gonna use Diplexors" it's pretty clear that you might not have known what you were doing.


As I stated earlier in this reply, I was told by a DTV installer (who's been doing this for at least three years that I know of) that it would work. It doesn't make much sense to me, as I know that Ku still polorizes the signals for odds and evens (I used to install C-band some 20 odd years ago, too) and has to have a feeback signal (AFAIK a high/low voltage scheme) to do the polorization. I don't see how the polorization signal can be combined and then seperated through two glorified splitters. But, instead of trying to prove or disprove that point, I simply ran a new line.



dtremain said:


> Perhaps you could explain the hook-up to us in more detail.


It's very simple: Dual LNB. Port one has a length of RG-6 from it to "Satellite 1 Input" on the reciever. Port two (of the LNB) has a newer length of RG-6 from it to "Satellite 2 Input" on same reciever.

I do not know WHY you fixated on this. The original post (a reply to *jfh3*) clearly stated that I ran a new line instead of using the diplexors. At that point diplexors became a non-issue. Further, this has nothing to do with the original question posed by me, anyway.


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## dgh (Jul 24, 2000)

Hash said:


> yadda yadda yadda


But irrelevant to the statement that you quoted.


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

dgh said:


> If you've only had TiVo Basic, then you didn't really know TiVo at all.





dgh said:


> But irrelevant to the statement that you quoted.


I'm glad to see that you've nearly 5,000 posts to your credit. Are they all as insulting and condescening as the 2 you've left here?

You've contributed nothing but angst to my thread. That makes you a (prolific) dead weight.

I REALLY appreciate the people who have left helpful, informative replies.
But, do YOU really think ANYONE apprecites a smart a**ed answer? 
I don't. It doesn't help me a bit.
And it's not gonna do someone who bothers to search for the same issue at a later date much good, either.

I realize all to well that I'm the newbie here. So, here's my newbie experience in numbers:

3 Replies that are on topic and helpful. * Thank You Very Much, Guys.*

2 Replies that were completely off topic.

4 Replies that served no other purpose than to try pointing out that I'm an idiot and the poster is smarter than me - while offering no relavant info to resolve the problem.

Not much of a welcome wagon, boys...


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## Sartori (Feb 5, 2005)

"Not much of a welcome wagon, boys..."

Welcome to the wonderful world of Forums


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## dtremain (Jan 5, 2004)

Hash said:


> Further, this has nothing to do with the original question posed by me, anyway.


So sorry about "fixating" (maybe you'd like to be a little less defensive?). You said that Suggestions were interrupting live television. They shouldn't. We are trying to figure out what's wrong.

Try to take it as it is intended.


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

dtremain said:


> ...You said that Suggestions were interrupting live television. They shouldn't. We are trying to figure out what's wrong.


They still do. So I've just turned it off.

I *think* I have it set for dual tuner as I can record a show on one channel and watch another. I switch between the two tuners by using the "Ent" button. Perhaps I keep leaving it on tuner #2... I dunno.

JohnTivo wrote something about it being set up for only one input. I have yet to find a menu containing that setting or status. Even in dish setup, it shows both inputs signal strength.



dtremain said:


> So sorry about "fixating" (maybe you'd like to be a little less defensive?) ... Try to take it as it is intended.


My apologies for over-reacting. It may have been "..._it's pretty clear that you might not have known what you were doing._" that set me off on that particular rant.


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## Kablemodem (May 26, 2001)

The enter button just jumps between two channels on the same tuner. The buffer is dumped each time you jump. Use the Live TV button to switch from one tuner to the other. The buffer for each tuner will be maintained and you can FF, RW or whatever on each tuner. Hit pause before switching tuners otherwise when you switch back that tuner will be caught up to live TV.


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

Kablemodem said:


> Use the Live TV button to switch from one tuner to the other. The buffer for each tuner will be maintained and you can FF, RW or whatever on each tuner.


Cool!

It actually didn't work at first - but, after I paused one channel and changed to another, it worked just as you said.

Thank You

I've actually read the manual now (thanks to *Jonathan_S*) and that info does not seem to be in there.


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## dtremain (Jan 5, 2004)

Hash said:


> JohnTivo wrote something about it being set up for only one input. I have yet to find a menu containing that setting or status. Even in dish setup, it shows both inputs signal strength.


That is done in the initial setup. You would have to repeat the setup to change it.


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

dtremain said:


> That is done in the initial setup. You would have to repeat the setup to change it.


I really can't remember my answers to those dialogs. There wasn't much effort required to answer the questions at the time, and there has been too much water under my bridge since.

The fact that it is now currently changing tuners with the "Live TV" button would indicate that it was setup correctly, wouldn't it?


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## dtremain (Jan 5, 2004)

Hash said:


> The fact that it is now currently changing tuners with the "Live TV" button would indicate that it was setup correctly, wouldn't it?


Yes. I don't understand why Suggestions would have interrupted live TV. How long did they have it paused?


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

dtremain said:


> How long did they have it paused?


It would vary. Certainly not over the 30 minute buffer, if that's where you are going. And, it didn't need to be paused. However, if they were actually watching it when it prompted for a channel change, then they got the chance to tell it "No." When they paused it, and left the room, they didn't get that opportunity.


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## dtremain (Jan 5, 2004)

Hash said:


> It would vary. Certainly not over the 30 minute buffer, if that's where you are going. And, it didn't need to be paused. However, if they were actually watching it when it prompted for a channel change, then they got the chance to tell it "No." When they paused it, and left the room, they didn't get that opportunity.


This sounds more like they scheduled recordings with a "Season Pass," a Wishlist, or otherwise. Suggestions wouldn't do this on its own. Something you scheduled to record would.


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## Billy Bob Boy (Jul 25, 2004)

Hello Hash! Welcome to the forum! Since all your questions were answered above , Just wanted to say dont take the snyde remarks to personaly. Unfortunatly there are folks here whose advice you have to take with a grain of salt. They seem to get off on putting newbies down :down: .This has been a long time years pet peeve of mine but you cant make a leopard change their spots. Any time you post you run the risk of running into the No help, snyde remark ,go search folks. Luckily there are many more here that enjoy giving out helpful advice. I hope to be of service to you in the future as I am one of the latter. (all though you gotta be quick to out type Jim Spence and Earl Aka Ebonovic)


Btw dont get too upset over off topic posts. Of the thousand or more threads here hundreds get What we call hijacked. Its really funny sometimes as all of a sudden a thread goes off in a completely different direction. Case in point my Thread about being pissed off about not having all the goodies that the Stand alone tivos have on my directivo. Thats a completely different thread now   . 




Welcome to the shooting match. And be careful about posting anything controversial. You may have to duck


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## tbb1226 (Sep 16, 2004)

dtremain said:


> This sounds more like they scheduled recordings with a "Season Pass," a Wishlist, or otherwise. Suggestions wouldn't do this on its own. Something you scheduled to record would.


When I got my first TiVo, it would do this all the time. I think it's because a) the TiVo has nothing to go on to come up with its suggestions, so it's going after pretty much anything; and 2) there aren't many (or any) Season Passes or To-Do's in the list, so suggestions might be scheduled to overlap, thus occasionally requiring the changing of the channel on the tuner you're currently "watching."

Remember that most people leave the TiVo "on" continuously, whether they are watching or not, so it has no way of knowing whether you intend for the tuner to be on the current channel or not. So, it warns you that it wants to change channels and gives you a chance to cancel the recording. If nobody responds, it assumes you're not watching and does what it wants to do.

I, for one, dislike the suggestions feature immensely, and turned it off for good within the first week I had my TiVo. I can't keep up with watching all the recordings I ask for, so I don't need more.


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

dtremain said:


> This sounds more like they scheduled recordings with a "Season Pass," a Wishlist, or otherwise. Suggestions wouldn't do this on its own. Something you scheduled to record would.


No. It was Suggestions. Since turning it off, I have not had even one single instance of the channel being changed. Now, even manually scheduled recording do not interrupt shows that are being watched.

BTW: There are no Season Passes set up at this time. All manual recordings are set up in the manner to which I am accustomed: Manual by time and date. I'll get around to explaining Season Passes later. But, I'm still waiting for my folks to catch up to where we are now.



tbb1226 said:


> When I got my first TiVo, it would do this all the time...
> I, for one, dislike the suggestions feature immensely, and turned it off for good within the first week I had my TiVo. I can't keep up with watching all the recordings I ask for, so I don't need more.


Absolutely, on all counts. As I have said several times, I don't have time to just sit around and watch TV. Niether do my parents. I usually record about 8 shows - and have time to watch about 5 of them per week. Thank God for a 250GB drive. My parents were just wanting to catch shows that they wanted to watch, but were frequently not there to watch. I told them "I've got this great solution."


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

*Billy Bob Boy:*
Thanks for the warm welcome and good advise. I'm not a new to forums by any means. I generally don't make much of splash, tho. I, for one, do use the search function first - and frequently never even register at forums that I may peruse, at least semi-frequently, for years. Given that I will probably invest in some DirecTiVo's in the very near future (They can be had for cheap on eBay), I will probably be active, at least for a while, in the upgrades and hacks section. I definately want to enable the HMO features. I assume the HD upgrades haven't changed much since I upgraded my SD-H400's, tho.

See you around!


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## Sartori (Feb 5, 2005)

Hello

You really want to be careful if you buy a used receiver off of ebay......

I would recommend getting a new one from an outfit like weaknees, yes its more but its fully warranted and their a great company.....


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

Sartori said:


> I would recommend getting a new one from an outfit like weaknees, yes its more but its fully warranted and their a great company.....


I have two points on that...

1) If I take my time (but, no more than a week), I can have a R10 for under $50 - and that's including S/H. WeaKness: $200.00

2) Why am I worried about a warranty that I am going to immediately void when I cram a 320GB drive in the thing? Or just buy it from WeaKnees for $400.00.... ummmm.... Noooooo....

Just my POV, albeit a cheap one.

Oh wait... a third point: Shouldn't a used reciever solve Dave's leasing problem, too?


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## Billy Bob Boy (Jul 25, 2004)

Hash said:


> I have two points on that...
> 
> 1) If I take my time (but, no more than a week), I can have a R10 for under $50 - and that's including S/H. WeaKness: $200.00
> 
> ...


one thing to consider with a ebay tivo, if the previous owner had a balance on the account you will have trouble activating it. It was a topic of a previous thread. I dont know if there is a way to check this. perhaps ask for the serial # and call directv and log the # if you get a machine with a different # file a complaint right away.


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## Sartori (Feb 5, 2005)

Hash said:


> I have two points on that...
> 
> 1) If I take my time (but, no more than a week), I can have a R10 for under $50 - and that's including S/H. WeaKness: $200.00
> 
> ...


Okay, well I guess I didn't realize you were going to "cram" a 320GB hard drive in it.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

If you leave a Tivo for (IIRC) half an hour without touching the remote, it assumes you're not there and changes the channels at will, without prompting. Disabling suggestions doesn't change that, but you'd see it much less often, since it would only happen for scheduled recordings.


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

wmcbrine said:


> If you leave a Tivo for (IIRC) half an hour without touching the remote, it assumes you're not there and changes the channels at will, without prompting.


In theory, that should be true. However, it doesn't seem logical to me that suggestions would change the channel of the tuner currently displayed, either. However, it both changed the displaying tuner channel - and it didn't bother with the 30 minute time-out either. I know for a fact that it tried to change within 2 minutes of me tuning to a particular channel.


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## Hash (Apr 7, 2006)

Billy Bob Boy said:


> one thing to consider with a ebay tivo, if the previous owner had a balance on the account you will have trouble activating it.


Good point - and one that I had considered. My line of reasoning goes like this:
What is the likelyhood that the balance would be in excess $150.00. 
How likely am I to actually be stuck with it?

Since I will have my own access cards from the units I currently have, I think that improves my chances.



Billy Bob Boy said:


> I dont know if there is a way to check this. perhaps ask for the serial # and call directv and log the # if you get a machine with a different # file a complaint right away.


If you get the IRD number, you can. I'm not likely to pursue that, however - as I make my buying decision in the last minute or two of an auction.

As a note for those following this thread: I've had 4 complete D10 systems in my watch list sell for less than $50 (including S/H to me) since this particular topic was breached. Two of these units were still in the origianl box.


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## dtremain (Jan 5, 2004)

tbb1226 said:


> Remember that most people leave the TiVo "on" continuously, whether they are watching or not, so it has no way of knowing whether you intend for the tuner to be on the current channel or not.


Good point. I turned it off after about a week too, but never had it interrupt live TV. I just thought it was stupid that it was recording things that I couldn't imagine watching.

Guess I was just lucky.

Sorry about the misinformation.


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## dtremain (Jan 5, 2004)

HashBTW said:


> There are no Season Passes set up at this time. All manual recordings are set up in the manner to which I am accustomed: Manual by time and date. I'll get around to explaining Season Passes later. But, I'm still waiting for my folks to catch up to where we are now.


Do it now. While you haven't experienced this either, it is Season Passes that are the whole benefit of having the DVR. Once they get all of their favorites shows set up as Season Passes, all they have to do is go to their list and watch whatever they want, whenever they want, skipping commercials.

Then they will enjoy having it.


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## gsjenkins (Jun 12, 2005)

Hash said:


> Good point - and one that I had considered. My line of reasoning goes like this:
> What is the likelyhood that the balance would be in excess $150.00.
> How likely am I to actually be stuck with it?
> 
> ...


Price from Weaknees is $45 refurbed with no drive or access card. http://www.weaknees.com/direct_tv_tivo_deals.php I have bought three like this and they look new. All cables include, but no remote. Refurb remotes are $29, I think. Better than an ebay deal, to me, especially since you are already planning a drive upgrade.


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