# Tivo putting junk channles into my Guide



## seaninde (Sep 23, 2019)

Last night all of a sudden I have all these junk channels showing up in my guide that have no channel numbers. They appear like every 10 channels or so. Like adverts for free streaming channels. I can find no way to get rid of them. Tivo has the nerve to put all this junk in my guide. One reason I bought Tivo is so I could put only the channels in my guide I watch and turn off the rest. Now they add all this junk in there (including Tivo+). Anyone know how to get rid of them?


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

Welcome to the new Bad_Rovi business model - buy a TiVo and get unwanted commercials at no extra charge. You are supposed to just shut up, bend over, and enjoy it. They do not care that you do not like it, and they do not want to hear about it.


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

You can downgrade to TE3.


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## seaninde (Sep 23, 2019)

They aren't commercials that play but channel adverts that appear every 10 or so channels, this just started.


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

seaninde said:


> They aren't commercials that play but channel adverts that appear every 10 or so channels, this just started.


We know, it's been talked about. They won't remove it.


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## Idol (Sep 23, 2010)

It's part of the new TiVo Plus roll out. Selecting any of the junk channels takes you to the TiVo Plus App. I hate it too and want it off my channel guide. If we can't remove TiVo Plus, we should at least get the option to remove the junk from the guide.


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

seaninde said:


> They aren't commercials that play but channel adverts that appear every 10 or so channels, this just started.


You call it whatever you want. In MY book, ANY unwanted advertisement that is inserted in a video device is a commercial, and they are ALL unwanted. They are also the sign if a very slimy company when they take your money first, then laugh at you while stuffing this crap in your face.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

They aren’t advertisements. They are the channels themselves. They are streaming channels with no guide data but they are channels. What you have are unwanted channels in your guide. No different than not being able to remove HBO or ESPN. They are still annoying and unwanted but they aren’t ads.


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## seaninde (Sep 23, 2019)

TonyD79 said:


> They aren't advertisements. They are the channels themselves. They are streaming channels with no guide data but they are channels. What you have are unwanted channels in your guide. No different than not being able to remove HBO or ESPN. They are still annoying and unwanted but they aren't ads.


Yes but I can turn off any other types of channels including HBO or ESPN so they don't show in the guide.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

In my humble opinion, the persistent inserted lines are ads for the TiVo+ channel.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

I just used my Mini VOX. Those in-guide ads are really bad. I checked my account. This is new:
*Privacy status * Beta 
*Limit Ad Tracking* No 
*Reset Ad ID*

I've had that Beta for a few months.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

seaninde said:


> Yes but I can turn off any other types of channels including HBO or ESPN so they don't show in the guide.


That's why I said it's like if you couldn't turn off HBO or ESPN. They are abhorrent but they aren't ads.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

TonyD79 said:


> They aren't advertisements. They are the channels themselves. They are streaming channels with no guide data but they are channels. What you have are unwanted channels in your guide. No different than not being able to remove HBO or ESPN. They are still annoying and unwanted but they aren't ads.


Their purpose is to encourage your purchase of the streaming channel because of content you see in the guide listing for the channel you do not otherwise subscribe to. That, by definition, is advertising, isn't it?

It's like trailers at movies; we may refer to them as "trailers" instead of the more general "advertising" but they are still advertising. The little interstitial about the concession stand at the movie theater, even if it's combined with a shut-up-and-turn-off-your-cell-phone-too message? Advertising. The logo for the movie theater you're in that plays before everything else? Advertising (maybe for the stupid people who may not remember which theater they're at, but still). That stupid logo on your TV screen showing the channel you're tuned to? Still advertising. That music video that gets played during the wait time at a theater? Advertising.

Sometimes we enjoy/or even want advertising. Sometimes we don't. But it's still advertising.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

These are ads far as I’m concerned
I stopped using the guide and I’m now using the left arrow / up arrow to see what’s playing.
TiVo+ looks like garbage. Roku handles this model much better with their Roku channel

I understand that TiVo wants to join the ad supported streaming model bandwagon, but this is not the way to do it (by putting it on paid subscribers TiVo, with no option to turn it off)


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

dswallow said:


> Their purpose is to encourage your purchase of the streaming channel because of content you see in the guide listing for the channel you do not otherwise subscribe to. That, by definition, is advertising, isn't it?


No. They aren't selling anything. You don't buy the channels. They are free to watch. They are channels in a guide. Period. They are streaming rather than OTA or QAM but they are no different otherwise than any other channel in your system. They are linear streams. Technically, a QAM channel or OTA channel is a linear stream. The difference here is that you cannot remove them from the guide.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

TonyD79 said:


> No. They aren't selling anything. You don't buy the channels. They are free to watch. They are channels in a guide. Period. They are streaming rather than OTA or QAM but they are no different otherwise than any other channel in your system. They are linear streams. Technically, a QAM channel or OTA channel is a linear stream. The difference here is that you cannot remove them from the guide.


Those channels are ad-supported. Advertising them to encourage viewers is how TiVo will make money on them. They're not being altruistic providing information on channels you can get; if that were the case, like every single other channel you can get, you could hide it from a view of the guide. It's advertising. You may like seeing such advertising in your guide, but not everyone will appreciate it.

Further, every TiVo subscriber pays to see that guide data. So we're being forced to see advertising within data we actually pay for, with no real option. Are we saving money by seeing it? I know it won't save me any money since I've paid for unit-lifetime access to this paid guide data, but those who pay monthly -- are they getting a discount by being able to opt-in (forced or otherwise) to seeing these advertisements?


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

TonyD79 said:


> No. They aren't selling anything. You don't buy the channels. They are free to watch. They are channels in a guide. Period. They are streaming rather than OTA or QAM but they are no different otherwise than any other channel in your system. They are linear streams. Technically, a QAM channel or OTA channel is a linear stream. The difference here is that you cannot remove them from the guide.


What is the reason that you have to agree to TiVo plus terms before you can enter TiVo plus in these channels? (I will not agree to these terms)


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## lman (Nov 14, 2006)

TonyD79 said:


> No. They aren't selling anything. You don't buy the channels. They are free to watch. They are channels in a guide. Period. They are streaming rather than OTA or QAM but they are no different otherwise than any other channel in your system. They are linear streams. Technically, a QAM channel or OTA channel is a linear stream. The difference here is that you cannot remove them from the guide.


The bigger difference is that you can't skip the commercials/advertisements on these unwanted channels. Obviously there is some financial gain for TIVO to entice the viewer to watch these advertisements. So TIVO is advertising these unwanted TIVO+ channels to force the viewer to watch advertisements


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## Narkul (Nov 7, 2004)

This is undoubtedly a test bed for advertising in the guide. TiVo is definitely getting something out of this judging by the way Tivo plus is plastered all over the UI. The guides function is to tell you what is on and at what time, not what streaming channels are available. Expect the real estate for the channel list to shrink even more down the road.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

dswallow said:


> Those channels are ad-supported. Advertising them to encourage viewers is how TiVo will make money on them. They're not being altruistic providing information on channels you can get; if that were the case, like every single other channel you can get, you could hide it from a view of the guide. It's advertising. You may like seeing such advertising in your guide, but not everyone will appreciate it.
> 
> Further, every TiVo subscriber pays to see that guide data. So we're being forced to see advertising within data we actually pay for, with no real option. Are we saving money by seeing it? I know it won't save me any money since I've paid for unit-lifetime access to this paid guide data, but those who pay monthly -- are they getting a discount by being able to opt-in (forced or otherwise) to seeing these advertisements?


It is not advertising. Jeez. Yes. They are forcing their channels into your guide but they are not advertising. Saying they are as supported does not make them advertising. Why do people not use words as they are defined?

I hate them. They are obnoxious and go against what TiVo has stood for in terms of your choices but using the wrong terms doesn't help. When you make a case against them with TiVo, they will turn you off if you call them ads.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

TonyD79 said:


> It is not advertising. Jeez. Yes. They are forcing their channels into your guide but they are not advertising. Saying they are as supported does not make them advertising. Why do people not use words as they are defined?
> 
> I hate them. They are obnoxious and go against what TiVo has stood for in terms of your choices but using the wrong terms doesn't help. When you make a case against them with TiVo, they will turn you off if you call them ads.


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

TonyD79 said:


> It is not advertising. Jeez. Yes. They are forcing their channels into your guide but they are not advertising. Saying they are as supported does not make them advertising. Why do people not use words as they are defined?


i looked up advertisement, and these two definitions seems to describe the guide entries:

oed online: A notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event
merriam-webster: a public notice


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## wbrightfl (Oct 31, 2013)

I have TE3 so not having to experience all of the recent ad and Tivo plus drama, but I am curious if you don't accept the plus terms, do you still see the channels in the guide? 

So happy to be using TE3!!!


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## seaninde (Sep 23, 2019)

wbrightfl said:


> I have TE3 so not having to experience all of the recent ad and Tivo plus drama, but I am curious if you don't accept the plus terms, do you still see the channels in the guide?
> 
> So happy to be using TE3!!!


But with TE3 don't you lose other features? I don't think I could live with the auto skip now that I am used to it. Or do you still get all those features too?


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

TonyD79 said:


> It is not advertising. Jeez. Yes. They are forcing their channels into your guide but they are not advertising. Saying they are as supported does not make them advertising. Why do people not use words as they are defined?
> 
> I hate them. They are obnoxious and go against what TiVo has stood for in terms of your choices but using the wrong terms doesn't help. When you make a case against them with TiVo, they will turn you off if you call them ads.


_
"Watch Classic Primetime Shows on Filmrise"
"Free Classic Famile Movies and TV Shows on Filemrise Family:
"Watch Crime TV for Free in Unsolved Mysteries"
"Watch People are Awesome"
"Watch the most Facinating Top videos of All Time"_​
Looks like ads to me...


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## wbrightfl (Oct 31, 2013)

seaninde said:


> But with TE3 don't you lose other features? I don't think I could live with the auto skip now that I am used to it. Or do you still get all those features too?


select shows I can click the skip button to skip all commercials. No automatic ship. This is fine with me. I have a clean guide and easy to use functions. It's enough for me I am happy the way it is.


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## mschnebly (Feb 21, 2011)

Mikeguy said:


> In my humble opinion, the persistent inserted lines are ads for the TiVo+ channel.


Additional lines? Well that's a Plus!


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Now that I’m not using the Guide, I’m liking using the the left arrow for favorites or up arrow for what I guess is sort of like the T3 live guide more than the Guide. I just hope Tito doesn’t muck that up too


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

Any thoughts on why my Bolt with latest software no longer has ads in the guide? As far as pre roll goes, never saw one. Not yet anyway. Bolt had the ads in the guide but as of yesterday I see none. Also...why is Roamio exempt from these ads? Is Roamio that far behind, hardware and software wise?


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## seaninde (Sep 23, 2019)

mattyro7878 said:


> Any thoughts on why my Bolt with latest software no longer has ads in the guide? As far as pre roll goes, never saw one. Not yet anyway. Bolt had the ads in the guide but as of yesterday I see none. Also...why is Roamio exempt from these ads? Is Roamio that far behind, hardware and software wise?


Mine are still there and customer support said there is no way to remove them. Consider yourself lucky.


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

I would prefer hitting the lottery but no guide ads will have to do!


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## Testpattern (Dec 5, 2006)

I've been with TiVo since series 1. It hasn't been easy given the continual decline of my cable company Cox. I'm forced to use a cable card which COX struggles to support. And now must endure their cable adapter which remains as a technical issue with little support. I love TiVo, Cox not so much. So I continue to pay escalating cable rates and put up with a company I loath just to hang on to TiVo. Now TiVo begins to undermine the product by forcing this baggage on their customers. I don't care if you call this advertising or guide trash, it's still a negative in my opinion and something that adds to my difficulty in hanging in with TiVo. Let's hope the TiVo gods listen to their customers and give us a option to remove this negative.


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## celtic pride (Nov 8, 2005)

So far i,ve managed to avoid clicking on tivo plus or any of the channels in the guide. I have zero interest in any of those channels.


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## Narkul (Nov 7, 2004)

User Interface litter. Whoever came up of this method of introducing a streaming channel by brute force should be terminated. The implementation of the channel itself is amateurish and desperate. They needed to really work on updating their existing outdated streaming platform so they could compete with the $25 sticks, but wasted energy on this instead. Unbelievable.


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## EWiser (Oct 2, 2008)

They just showed up in my guide yesterday will ignore them as usual. 
Never use the guide except for scheduling one pass recordings. 
Mostly live in my shows when using the TiVo.


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## ManeJon (Apr 14, 2018)

I suggest no one actually select any of those junk channels - maybe TIVO will consider it a failed experiment and get rid of them


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

ManeJon said:


> I suggest no one actually select any of those junk channels - maybe TIVO will consider it a failed experiment and get rid of them


or, double the frequency of their occurrence, just in case they're being missed?


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## nshahzad (Apr 20, 2014)

Testpattern said:


> I've been with TiVo since series 1. It hasn't been easy given the continual decline of my cable company Cox. I'm forced to use a cable card which COX struggles to support. And now must endure their cable adapter which remains as a technical issue with little support. I love TiVo, Cox not so much. So I continue to pay escalating cable rates and put up with a company I loath just to hang on to TiVo. Now TiVo begins to undermine the product by forcing this baggage on their customers. I don't care if you call this advertising or guide trash, it's still a negative in my opinion and something that adds to my difficulty in hanging in with TiVo. Let's hope the TiVo gods listen to their customers and give us a option to remove this negative.


Agreed, but I decided I'm just going to cancel over it. The interface has been getting super slow lately too, I'm just overall annoyed


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## Palumbo (Apr 14, 2017)

I'm ready to cancel too.... Even though I love my Tivo and hate the Cox DVR sitting unplugged next to it.

We need to organize our opinions and actions to keep Tivo in check. This looks like abuse to me.... Who knows a good lawyer?


...I've unchecked 'video downloads' from device preference in my tivo account. Might help?


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## Palumbo (Apr 14, 2017)

TO FACEBOOK, LAD'S!


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Palumbo said:


> ...I've unchecked 'video downloads' from device preference in my tivo account. Might help?


That box does nothing. It's left over from when you could download videos from Amazon to your hard drive. The other box, Video Sharing, is active and it controls the ability to transfer files between TiVo boxes (when the boxes support file transfer).


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## hawk521 (Aug 6, 2008)

Having lived through the ReplayTV era and then the consumer Moxi era, I purchased my Tivo Bolt Vox a few months ago - late in the evolution of Tivo products. I was excited and hopeful that the Tivo DVR product had matured in ways that I would come to appreciate. 

It is indeed sad that in only a few months Tivo's evolving user experience has me regretting my decision to buy a Tivo. They seem to think that ramming unwanted features down the throat of their customer base is a good idea. It isn't. Tivo is burning their own reputation as a progressive customer driven feature provider. They probably won't realize how bad a decision this was until it has destroyed their customer base beyond recovery. Tivo - I implore you to go back to your roots of success before you burn down your own company.


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

It is sad but I don't think anyone at TiVo cares. Best DVR in the business hands down. This is why we pay. Cable company boxes have neat features like doing all your button pushes at once...regardless of when you pushed the button. I don't look forward to going back to that. I don't think things will prove as the masses are not aware of Tivo and if they were they sure aren't gonna put up with tuning adapters it cablecards. I will enjoy my units until something better and cheaper comes along.


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## ElJay (Apr 6, 2005)

I have to say these guide ads are making the choice between TiVo and the cable company box a lot harder. If I'm going to get inundated with ads by my TiVo, then it is losing one of its most attractive features. The cable DVRs aren't as slow as they once were, and I've even seen commercial skipping features on some. When the TiVo or cable card breaks, it's onto the cable company equipment for me.


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## seaninde (Sep 23, 2019)

hawk521 said:


> Having lived through the ReplayTV era and then the consumer Moxi era, I purchased my Tivo Bolt Vox a few months ago - late in the evolution of Tivo products. I was excited and hopeful that the Tivo DVR product had matured in ways that I would come to appreciate.
> 
> It is indeed sad that in only a few months Tivo's evolving user experience has me regretting my decision to buy a Tivo. They seem to think that ramming unwanted features down the throat of their customer base is a good idea. It isn't. Tivo is burning their own reputation as a progressive customer driven feature provider. They probably won't realize how bad a decision this was until it has destroyed their customer base beyond recovery. Tivo - I implore you to go back to your roots of success before you burn down your own company.


 Same here. I got back into Tivo after a 10 year absence with a new Bolt beginning 2019. In that short time Tivo continues to insult me by charging me a fee to let them do what they want to my system. I was happy in beginning. Every update makes me more angry and frustrated with Tivo.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Before this, I never used the (sort of) “live guide” that is accessed with the up arrow, but now that I’m used to it, I like it much better than the guide
(that I never use anymore)


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

hawk521 said:


> It is indeed sad that in only a few months Tivo's evolving user experience has me regretting my decision to buy a Tivo. They seem to think that ramming unwanted features down the throat of their customer base is a good idea. It isn't. Tivo is burning their own reputation as a progressive customer driven feature provider. They probably won't realize how bad a decision this was until it has destroyed their customer base beyond recovery. Tivo - I implore you to go back to your roots of success before you burn down your own company.


Rollback to TE3, problem solved. We already knew that Rivo sucked, but it's still the best DVR you can get.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

...and lose all my recordings? No thanks.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

*shrug* so either transfer them to a PC and rollback or put up with Rivo's continued nonsense. Your choice.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

....or use the up arrow and skip the Guide altogether


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

...and continue to get pre-roll ads and whatever future crap they force on you even if you 'opt-out'.

Let's face it, this is their new ad vehicle of choice. Rolling back sends them a clear message that we ain't gonna put up with this ****e.


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

If you really feel this way then I’m sure you’ll agree that the next step that TiVo will take is to put the pre-roll ads on TE3


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## KevTech (Apr 15, 2014)

slowbiscuit said:


> We already knew that Rivo sucked





slowbiscuit said:


> *shrug* so either transfer them to a PC and rollback or put up with Rivo's continued nonsense.


I thought it was Rovi that took over Tivo.

Is Rivo another company that is involved or a mispell?


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

Typo or not, I think it is a clever way to distinguish between the original GOOD company called TiVo, and the current garbage from Rovi. 

TiVo GOOD; RIVO SUCKS!


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## johnfasc (Dec 24, 2014)

So just a warning on those new guide stations they are sticking in between. They just appeared on my Ota Roamio running TE4. For the heck of it I clicked on one of them....it played for 10 seconds then froze....went back to my guide clicked on the next one down the line and nothing...said this channel not available, so I went back and tried another...same thing box came up saying, not available but then my TiVo froze.. Solid! I could not do anything. Had to shut down re load to get my guide back. So, I will never click on those again or any for that matter. Annoying.
They also started with the ads in front of my recorded shows. I watched one it lasted only about 15 seconds, but the next one I was ready for and just skipped it. And do you believe one of the ads was for my cable company, Spectrum!! Really? They don't quit. Annoying again. Life goes on...


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## peekb (Feb 12, 2005)

Arrived on my Roamio Pro last night. It's really fun when you're scrolling through the guide, the "fake" channel insertion code "crashes", and the guide resets to the position of the channel currently being watched. I can repro constantly.

I also enjoyed the last release where movies with (YEAR) dates would often display after a line break, putting the year half way into the next grid row.

And the bug (that seems to finally be fixed) I'd hit nightly when the EBS test warnings would crash the box.

Fortunately, no pre-roll ads yet.

TiVo (well, Rovi) is a mess. It appears they've lost their quality devs and have no test team with glaring bugs like this escaping into the wild.

When this box dies, I'm gone...20 years was a good run I guess.

Sorry for the rant, just needed to vent. Carry on...


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## Charles R (Nov 9, 2000)

I just received the Guide Ads (TE4 Roamio)... luckily for me I only have seven channels in the guide so I don't have to "fight" around it. And in reality I hardly ever use the guide but still I find it rather "sleazy"... if they defaulted it to on and allowed turning it off via Manage Apps I would be fine with it.

Anyone figured out where the data is being loaded from? Via the standard connection (and stored locally) or some other method? For the heck of it I unplugged my network connection and rebooted the box... pulled up the guide and the ad(s) were gone. The moment I reconnected the network cable the ads came back.

OK this is interesting... I blocked mm1.tivoservice.com and rebooted with the network connected. So far no ads. However every 10 seconds TiVo tries to connect to mm1.tivoservice.com. Going to wait a few minutes to see if TiVo gives up or endlessly attempts to connect. Well after 20 minutes it's still trying every 10 seconds. The guide itself appears to work fine... simply minus the ads.

Last update...

I whitelisted mm1.tivoservice.com and TiVo hit it right away. However no ads in the guide (yet). Rebooted the box and the ads were back. Blacklisted the site, rebooted and the ads were gone. After a couple of minutes I whitelisted the site and again it was hit right away. After a few minutes still no ads.

My guess/conclusion. The ads come from mm1.tivoservice.com. If you blacklist the site TiVo tries every 10 seconds to connect. When you whitelist it (after it was blacklisted) TiVo connects right away however you don't get ads (or at least not right away). I'm guessing until you reboot or some flag gets reset after x period of time. I think once the ads are "loaded" they won't go away until you reboot with the blacklist. Once booted after a bit whitelist and hopefully you are good to go until TiVo reboots - we'll see. Overnight the ads haven't come back.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

KevTech said:


> I thought it was Rovi that took over Tivo.
> 
> Is Rivo another company that is involved or a mispell?


Combo of Rovi and Tivo, old news.


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## Adam C. (Jul 24, 2017)

johnfasc said:


> So just a warning on those new guide stations they are sticking in between. They just appeared on my Ota Roamio running TE4. For the heck of it I clicked on one of them....it played for 10 seconds then froze....went back to my guide clicked on the next one down the line and nothing...said this channel not available, so I went back and tried another...same thing box came up saying, not available but then my TiVo froze.. Solid! I could not do anything. Had to shut down re load to get my guide back. So, I will never click on those again or any for that matter. Annoying.
> They also started with the ads in front of my recorded shows. I watched one it lasted only about 15 seconds, but the next one I was ready for and just skipped it. And do you believe one of the ads was for my cable company, Spectrum!! Really? They don't quit. Annoying again. Life goes on...


I think you are the first person to report pre-roll ads on the Roamio OTA. I don't have them yet on mine but apparently it's just a matter of time. I was really hoping this device would be immune.


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## erikwurz (Oct 20, 2005)

These new streaming channels hit my TiVo guide yesterday. I clicked on two different streaming feeds and both of them caused my TiVo to crash. Also, both times I had programs being recorded, so I lost about 10 minutes of the programs do to this new feature. Not cool.


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## johnfasc (Dec 24, 2014)

erikwurz said:


> These new streaming channels hit my TiVo guide yesterday. I clicked on two different streaming feeds and both of them caused my TiVo to crash. Also, both times I had programs being recorded, so I lost about 10 minutes of the programs do to this new feature. Not cool.


Refer to my post #55


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

This is all still limited to the curse of the Hydra, right?

EDIT: Bueller? Bueller?

Anyone?


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## erikwurz (Oct 20, 2005)

The official response from TiVo support. Worth noting, I *did not *ask to have TiVo + turned off, I only reported that it caused my TiVo to crash and reboot twice within 24 hours.

Thank you for contacting TiVo Email support.

We apologize for the inconvenience this might have caused you. We understand that you want to turn off the TiVo+ or the feature content which shows recommended streaming on your guide list. The company announced a new ad-supported streaming service called TiVo Plus that will be exclusive to users of the company's devices. Unfortunately there is no way for us to disable or to turn it off. For more information kindly check the links below.


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

erikwurz said:


> The official response from TiVo support. Worth noting, I *did not *ask to have TiVo + turned off, I only reported that it caused my TiVo to crash and reboot twice within 24 hours.
> 
> Thank you for contacting TiVo Email support.
> 
> We apologize for the inconvenience this might have caused you. We understand that you want to turn off the TiVo+ or the feature content which shows recommended streaming on your guide list. The company announced a new ad-supported streaming service called TiVo Plus that will be exclusive to users of the company's devices. Unfortunately there is no way for us to disable or to turn it off. For more information kindly check the links below.


What a wonderful reply. In effect, they have simply said to you that they understand that their new "feature" is causing your TiVo to repeatedly crash and they neither care about it nor intend to try and fix it in any way!


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## CalvinM13 (Nov 15, 2019)

I know I am just piling on, but this is crap! Adding crap channels with no feature to turn them off? I have had my Tivo for many years and have told everyone how happy I am with the product. Well, no more. Tivo has shot themselves in the foot on this one. I will be telling everyone to stay away from Tivo until they offer a way to get rid of these.


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## Joe3 (Dec 12, 2006)

The only time Rovi isn't shooting themselves in the foot is when they're loading the gun~


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## Charles R (Nov 9, 2000)

Hate to quote myself.. the ads were still gone the next morning however tonight they are back. Funny thing is TiVo never hit mm1.tivoservice.com so it might play a part but certainly not entirely the culprit. Reviewing the log there were no domains beyond the typical



Charles R said:


> For the heck of it I unplugged my network connection and rebooted the box... pulled up the guide and the ad(s) were gone. The moment I reconnected the network cable the ads came back.
> 
> OK this is interesting... I blocked mm1.tivoservice.com and rebooted with the network connected. So far no ads. However every 10 seconds TiVo tries to connect to mm1.tivoservice.com. Going to wait a few minutes to see if TiVo gives up or endlessly attempts to connect. Well after 20 minutes it's still trying every 10 seconds. The guide itself appears to work fine... simply minus the ads.
> 
> ...


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

Charles R said:


> Hate to quote myself.. the ads were still gone the next morning however tonight they are back. Funny thing is TiVo never hit mm1.tivoservice.com so it might play a part but certainly not entirely the culprit. Reviewing the log there were no domains beyond the typical


If I were designing a service people would want to interfere with, like tossing obnoxious ads in the program guide, I would use a combination of approaches. Certainly the direct query of a URL would be one. But I'd have some fallbacks. I'd have cached info from prior queries. And I'd have another collection that comes as part of regular data collection activities, like downloading guide data, since interrupting that would interrupt something the customer wanted. Thus I'd be creating a way they couldn't interfere with the advertising I wanted to force upon my paying customers.

Just sayin.


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## Charles R (Nov 9, 2000)

dswallow said:


> If I were designing a service people would want to interfere with, like tossing obnoxious ads in the program guide, I would use a combination of approaches.


I understand your logic however at the same time what percent will they actually lose (I'm guessing rounds to zero) from using pi-hole or some such versus the additional implementation costs. Heck pi-hole stops 20-35% of my DNS lookups so it must not be too easy or that important.


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## JKR123 (Feb 11, 2019)

erikwurz said:


> The official response from TiVo support. Worth noting, I *did not *ask to have TiVo + turned off, I only reported that it caused my TiVo to crash and reboot twice within 24 hours.
> 
> Thank you for contacting TiVo Email support.
> 
> We apologize for the inconvenience this might have caused you. We understand that you want to turn off the TiVo+ or the feature content which shows recommended streaming on your guide list. The company announced a new ad-supported streaming service called TiVo Plus that will be exclusive to users of the company's devices. Unfortunately there is no way for us to disable or to turn it off. For more information kindly check the links below.


Is it just me or does anyone else call bs on TiVo's stance that they have no way of disabling or turning off these new changes they made? Forget for a moment that no one wants to see these changes, but these changes are causing what I consider to be major issues causing screen freezes, forcing people to hit a convoluted series of buttons to get the screen unfrozen or to get recordings to play, causing reboots, and even causing recordings to never be able to be played no matter what you try. What kind of QA or EU testing did they perform before rolling out all of these changes? How can they not back out these changes until they can at least be re-introduced without causing issues (not just complaints)?

I can't believe I was singing TiVo's praises to 2 different Spectrum associates just a few weeks ago. I find it ironic they were both asking me why TiVo was so great, and this was right before all these changes were introduced. I have loved TiVo for over a decade, up until now. I now feel bad for telling the one Spectrum person they should go ahead and purchase the TiVo they were looking at instead of sticking with their own company's DVR.

Sorry for the rant but I come from an IT background and this kind of implementation where I worked would have been unacceptable. If the changes could not be easily backed out once implemented, then do sufficient and proper testing before installing.


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

I agree with you, should be easy to turn off, but I guess they won't. 15+ years of using TiVo, and it's only been getting worse. New GUI many hate, ad's during playback are buggy as anything and now
were forced to see ads/extra lines/unwanted channels or whatever you want to call them on every page of the guide.

I really can't think of a way to kill a product faster. After all these years, a $25 Roku or FireTV Stick can do 100x more if you really want streaming so even with the Edge they will never catch up.


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## seaninde (Sep 23, 2019)

Rkkeller said:


> I agree with you, should be easy to turn off, but I guess they won't. 15+ years of using TiVo, and it's only been getting worse. New GUI many hate, ad's during playback are buggy as anything and now
> were forced to see ads/extra lines/unwanted channels or whatever you want to call them on every page of the guide.
> 
> I really can't think of a way to kill a product faster. After all these years, a $25 Roku or FireTV Stick can do 100x more if you really want streaming so even with the Edge they will never catch up.


Yes I agree. The thing about it is the fact that Tivo customers pay a monthly fee. If Tivo wants to drop its service fee then I would be more amenable to see the ads and Guide inserts. But when a customer pays for something an then a company tries to make even more money off them by shoving junk in their face, that is just pure greed (or possibly desperation if the company is in financial trouble).


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## Adam C. (Jul 24, 2017)

Everyone is complaining and threatening to cancel their service, but how many people will actually do so? My guess is very few. So in the end Tivo wins. The only way to "stick it" to them is to cancel. I don't pay a monthly fee (and never would) so for me it's not really that big of a deal. I've had my Roamio for 3 years now, so I'm basically freeloading at this point anyway. Once my Roamio dies I will move onto something else. I'm OTA only, so there are plenty of alternatives out there. Ever since Tivo+ and the guide ads were introduced, my Roamio now crashes and goes into a forced reboot every time I try to launch the Hulu or Prime app. Luckily that problem is solved by a $25 Fire Stick.


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## Noelmel (Nov 6, 2014)

It’s also bothering me I never accepted the TOS for TiVo +. I could see once you did the ads could show in guide. But I purposely didn’t and don’t want it. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

Adam C. said:


> Everyone is complaining and threatening to cancel their service, but how many people will actually do so? My guess is very few. So in the end Tivo wins. The only way to "stick it" to them is to cancel. I don't pay a monthly fee (and never would) so for me it's not really that big of a deal. I've had my Roamio for 3 years now, so I'm basically freeloading at this point anyway. Once my Roamio dies I will move onto something else. I'm OTA only, so there are plenty of alternatives out there. Ever since Tivo+ and the guide ads were introduced, my Roamio now crashes and goes into a forced reboot every time I try to launch the Hulu or Prime app. Luckily that problem is solved by a $25 Fire Stick.


Hard to cancel lifetime without cutting off one's nose just to spite one's face.  But I can stop buying new equipment and transition away over time. And that general approach also translates to no good word of mouth, either. Might even translate to people who I've convinced to switch to TiVo over the years also choosing the path of transitioning away.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

Adam C. said:


> Everyone is complaining and threatening to cancel their service, but how many people will actually do so? My guess is very few. So in the end Tivo wins. The only way to "stick it" to them is to cancel. I don't pay a monthly fee (and never would) so for me it's not really that big of a deal. I've had my Roamio for 3 years now, so I'm basically freeloading at this point anyway. Once my Roamio dies I will move onto something else. I'm OTA only, so there are plenty of alternatives out there. Ever since Tivo+ and the guide ads were introduced, my Roamio now crashes and goes into a forced reboot every time I try to launch the Hulu or Prime app. Luckily that problem is solved by a $25 Fire Stick.


If you roll back to TE3 you can eliminate the pre-roll ads and the TIVO+ streaming service.


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## johnfasc (Dec 24, 2014)

Adam C. said:


> Everyone is complaining and threatening to cancel their service, but how many people will actually do so? My guess is very few. So in the end Tivo wins. The only way to "stick it" to them is to cancel. I don't pay a monthly fee (and never would) so for me it's not really that big of a deal. I've had my Roamio for 3 years now, so I'm basically freeloading at this point anyway. Once my Roamio dies I will move onto something else. I'm OTA only, so there are plenty of alternatives out there. Ever since Tivo+ and the guide ads were introduced, my Roamio now crashes and goes into a forced reboot every time I try to launch the Hulu or Prime app. Luckily that problem is solved by a $25 Fire Stick.


I am in exactly the same position as you. All in Roamio, ota only, and Netflix and Prime user. My thing is we never watch live broadcast TV. Record all local TV programs and lots from pbs. So if or when TiVo goes I would only be looking for a DVR. None I have found comes close to TiVo. Best case suggestions are welcome.


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## seaninde (Sep 23, 2019)

johnfasc said:


> I am in exactly the same position as you. All in Roamio, ota only, and Netflix and Prime user. My thing is we never watch live broadcast TV. Record all local TV programs and lots from pbs. So if or when TiVo goes I would only be looking for a DVR. None I have found comes close to TiVo. Best case suggestions are welcome.


Haha, well that what they said about people canceling cable service too! No one would actually cancel cable! haha.


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## Yodlei (Feb 22, 2019)

I have a Roamio OTA & I've had Tivo+ in my guides way before anyone else with Roamio seemed to mention it. Not exactly sure of the date but at least 2-3 weeks before Halloween. Useless to me & although I don't like it in my guide as it takes up room for a favorite, I could live with it if it wouldn't bounce around & stay at the bottom or top. I hate it in the middle. Accident waiting to happen.


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## lucidrenegade (Aug 21, 2013)

I selected the Asylum banner in the guide just for the heck of it. Screen went black for 15 seconds. Tivo+ logo finally came up. 10 seconds later the time bar at the bottom came up. Screen then went black and my Roamio rebooted. What a piece of ****.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

lucidrenegade said:


> I selected the Asylum banner in the guide just for the heck of it. Screen went black for 15 seconds. Tivo+ logo finally came up. 10 seconds later the time bar at the bottom came up. Screen then went black and my Roamio rebooted. What a piece of ****.


Thanks for the (sad) report.

Are things like this just idiosyncratic to each user? Or did TiVo just not test TiVo+ in the wild, before releasing it? Or did TiVo just not care?


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## Lurker1 (Jun 4, 2004)

Mikeguy said:


> Thanks for the (sad) report.
> 
> Are things like this just idiosyncratic to each user? Or did TiVo just not test TiVo+ in the wild, before releasing it? Or did TiVo just not care?


Who knows why TiVo keeps doing this. Repeatedly they have added some new functionality and put lots of effort into marketing it as the most wonderful thing ever, but then put minimal effort into a half-assed barely-functional implementation. To make matters worse, they pick some older functionality that we loved and that worked great, and quietly remove it or break it without notice or comment.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Lurker1 said:


> To make matters worse, they pick some older functionality that we loved and that worked great, and quietly remove it or break it without notice or comment.


Remember the videocast aggregator? Was so wonderful, simply to find my Internet videos there on my TiVo box, waiting for me. (And think how wonderful it could be nowadays in the YouTube, etc. generation.) Sigh, I only discovered this functionality shortly before TiVo abandoned it.


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