# Why can't TiVo record the World Series?



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

I'm amazed. I've had two Series 1 Tivo combo units since 2001, and these sorry things still don't do basic functions correctly. 

Today I came home from work prepared to watch the World Series only to find that my Tivo, in its infinite wisdom, had decided it didn't need to record today's game because it had recorded the same program yesterday. Of course it didn't record a World Series game yesterday because there wasn't one - it had been rained out. So the game that was supposed to be played yesterday, Game 4, was played today and instead of looking at the program guide data and deducing that from the fact that it's a baseball game, Tivo belched and farted instead of doing what it was told.

Now if this were the first time that Tivo's software had every encountered a rainout, maybe it wouldn't be a big deal, because after all, new software always has bugs in it. But this machine is five years old and the software has been updated a donzen times at least. 

So why is it that after all this time Tivo still can't figure out how to record the single most important televised event in all of Western Civilization? Is Tivo's management, software engineering department, and QA composed of girly men who only test the unit's ability to record the Oprah show? Are they a bunch of hippies who hate sporting events because they're too competitive and patriarchal? Is Tivo trying to make me watch Lifetime instead of sports? Or are they all simply a bunch of incompetant morons who should be let out to pasture?

It's not just the World Series that gives this pathetic little device fits, it has a hard time with all playoff games. I have a keyword wishlist for baseball games with the word "series" in them, and even that is not reliable. If a game is originally in the schedule as "teams TBA" Tivo loses the note to self to record it after the teams are filled-in, even though the word "series" is still there. Retarded as hell.

During the regular season, if a local game is on the schedule on Channel 36 as it normally is, but also on ESPN for the national audience, the ESPN showing is blacked-out locally. Tivo knows where I live, but it still, after all these years, isn't smart enough to record the game from channel 36 instead of ESPN. Totally dimwitted. 

I've reported these problems before and the standard response is "we can't help it because we depend on Tribune for the program guide." That's a load of crap. 

There are rules to sports broadcasting, and any company that wants to be successful with a DVR should have learned them by now.

Before next year's world series, these machines will not be in my house.

Pathetic.


----------



## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

> So why is it that after all this time Tivo still can't figure out how to record the single most important televised event in all of Western Civilization?


Considering that you think this is so G.D. important - Learn to pay attention to the 'To Do List'. A TiVos recording capabilities are only as good as the guide data it receives. If the data is fubarred so are the recordings. If you are aware of this and still ranting after 5 years, it is not tiVo that is 


> Retarded as hell.





> Totally dimwitted.





> Pathetic.


----------



## GoHokies! (Sep 21, 2005)

BubbaDude said:


> I've reported these problems before and the standard response is "we can't help it because we depend on Tribune for the program guide." That's a load of crap.


Actually, that's true.

And the most important sporting event on TV last night was a football game, not baseball.

And what Mick66 said.

Nice high quality rant, though.


----------



## angra (Apr 12, 2002)

I am not 100% sure it will help, but try setting your ARWL to "all episodes with duplicates" or however it is labeled. That should at least cut out the problem you had last night.


----------



## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

The logic needed to avoid the two flaws the OP is pointing out is not hard to envision.


----------



## JohnBrowning (Jul 15, 2004)

Retarded, dimwitted, and pathetic?? You should not be so hard on yourself simply because you don't know how to properly operate your TiVo. Perhaps you should read the manual.


----------



## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

BubbaDude said:


> Before next year's world series, these machines will not be in my house.


What will you be using that will do a better job of the task?


----------



## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

This is a problem, however I wouldn't be using wish lists. I'd use Season Passes on both channels with the priority given to the local channel. Sure you have to create a new SP each year but at least you'll get what you want. You'd also have to set it to record all with duplicates and keep until I delete. That way it would record everything and the most important even of the year wouldn't be lost. BTW, that was the Battlestar Galactica Premiere this season.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

TiVo is never going to be smart enough to know when a game was rained out. The problem is the way the guide data was structured. While it was still game 4 again, they should of marked it as a different game than the previous game that got rained out.


----------



## angra (Apr 12, 2002)

HDTiVo said:


> The logic needed to avoid the two flaws the OP is pointing out is not hard to envision.


This is true, but all things considered, I think they would be better off doing a better job of educating their users how to handle these types of things than fiddling with the algorithm.

especially since the OP has S1 units that will never get another software update.


----------



## parzec (Jun 21, 2002)

Tivo does depend on tribune guide data, however it would be easy for a mere tech at Tivo headquarters to make on the fly modifications to the game description so that the Tivo would still record the next game and not assume it is an identical game - ie. modify the text to read "game 4 - redo", etc. Then assuming your Tivo dials in or IP's every night, it would receive the new data in time for the next days game to not appear as a duplicate.

To suggest that the OP needs to check his to-do list on a regular basis defeats the very notion of Tivo's "season pass - set it and forget it" concept. Web sites have Webmasters that keep track of problems with xml data, etc, and fix them immediately. There should be a full time Tivo-Master that tweaks the program information that is sent to all the Tivo boxes instead of blindly forwarding the tribune information. 

For what it is worth, I love my Tivos and don't watch baseball, but I agree with the OP that for the monthly service fee that is paid, Tivo should take steps to avoid this easily solved problem.


----------



## Atomike (Jun 12, 2005)

> So why is it that after all this time Tivo still can't figure out how to record the single most important televised event in all of Western Civilization?


I find it amusing that many people decry reality television as "worthless" and yet many believe televised baseball is something other than trivial drivel. Televised baseball is simply an obscenely repetetive reality show with low production values. Important? hahah. The most important in Western Civilization? I would imagine that every person who watched news coverage of 9/11 or of the Cuban Missile Crisis may wish to disagree with your crazy statements.

Persepective has been lost. That being said, I'd be upset too if I cared even a little about the grade-school game of baseball.


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

mick66 said:


> Considering that you think this is so G.D. important - Learn to pay attention to the 'To Do List'. A TiVos recording capabilities are only as good as the guide data it receives. If the data is fubarred so are the recordings. If you are aware of this and still ranting after 5 years, it is not tiVo that is


I check the To-Do list daily, because I know TiVo is a whimsical machine. However, the To-Do list after the rainout of Game 4 said TiVo was prepared to record Game 5 on Thursday night, and sometime Thursday - when I was work - it changed its little mind. Nice try though, Micky.

Regarding the guide data fro Tribune, I don't think that's the problem as much as what TiVo does with it. Tribune tells TiVo the WS is a live baseball game, and that should be enough of a clue to make the machine forget about tossing it off the To-Do list because it doesn't like the title. Hello, this isn't the first rainout in the history of the world, you know.

Regarding using Season Passes instead of Wish Lists so I can prioritize, I can't do that because the show title in many instances is the matchup: something like "A's @ Angels" or "Angels @ A's" and it take hundreds of Season Passes to get all the combinations. I don't care to watch the Yankees and the Red Sox play, so I Wishlist on Oakland and baseball instead. There are also 6 channels that these games may be on - the local flagship. either of the Fox Sports BA channels, the local Fox channel for Saturday games, and both ESPN and ESPN2. So the straight Season Pass doesn't work here.

Like HDTivo says, the logic to correct these problems is not hard to see, but the missing element is TiVo deciding these bugs are important enough to fix.

In all three cases, the problem isn't in the guide data, it's in the false assumptions that TiVo makes when scheduling a program for recording (or not.) Why assume that a live baseball game is a repeat when it's not marked as a repeat? Why assume that ESPN is a better choice than the local channel for a baseball game? Why assume that a last minute title change that has nothing to do with the keyword means a show has to be dropped from the To-Do list?

The only conclusion I can draw from this behavior is that TiVo hates baseball, so I'll have to see if MythTV and its buddies are equally biased against the highest expression of the human spirit.


----------



## mitkraft (Feb 21, 2003)

I'm just curious Einstein. Are you by any chance the genius who sued Mcdonalds because they didn't tell you the coffee was hot?


----------



## gastrof (Oct 31, 2003)

A simple solution to something like this is to set the recording up manually, with start time, channel, and length (which is your choice anyway, so no problems with extra innings...YOU take them into account).

I'm not sure, but even with a manual recording, I think a subbed TiVo would display the programming info once the show's in the Now Playing file.


----------



## CharlesH (Aug 29, 2002)

One of the advantages the cable company DVRs have is that they _can_ update their guide info in real time (if the cable company bothers to do the update). I wonder why TiVo hasn't put a flag in the response to TCO updates queries that networked TiVo's do every few minutes, telling it to call home for an "emergency" guide update?


----------



## gonzotek (Sep 24, 2004)

BubbaDude said:


> The only conclusion I can draw from this behavior is that TiVo hates baseball, so I'll have to see if MythTV and its buddies are equally biased against the highest expression of the human spirit.


http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html
Good luck with the experiment! You'll almost certainly still end up having to babysit the scheduler and spending extra time and effort manually adjusting for situations like this one.


----------



## Stu_Bee (Jan 15, 2002)

Atomike said:


> The most important in Western Civilization? I would imagine that every person who watched news coverage of 9/11 or of the Cuban Missile Crisis may wish to disagree with your crazy statements.


jeez. Obviously he was going over the top on purpose.


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

mitkraft said:


> I'm just curious Einstein. Are you by any chance the genius who sued Mcdonalds because they didn't tell you the coffee was hot?


No, Tex, I'm the software engineer who was developing video server software for companies like HP and Sharp Labs when you still eating Happy Meals.

Nice Kool-Aid you're drinking.


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

Stu_Bee said:


> jeez. Obviously he was going over the top on purpose.


Maybe a little. But here's the thing, I have DirecTV combo units, and the main trick that DirecTV used to make itself a real business was to appeal to the sports junkie. They have all sorts of sports programming that's only available on their system, and sports is what they're mainly all about. Yes, they run channels that carry Oprah and West Wing re-runs, but DirecTV is mainly about sports.

So given that TiVo had this partnership with them for five years or whatever, wouldn't it kind of make a little bit of sense for TiVo to fix the bugs in their system that make it a less-than-ideal solution for sports recording?

I mean, if you're dating a vegetarian you're going to learn something about the vegetarian diet, right?

This logic has never penetrated into the ranks of TiVo's engineering, presumably because they're too busy making their Burning Man costumes to fix any bugs.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

CharlesH said:


> One of the advantages the cable company DVRs have is that they _can_ update their guide info in real time (if the cable company bothers to do the update). I wonder why TiVo hasn't put a flag in the response to TCO updates queries that networked TiVo's do every few minutes, telling it to call home for an "emergency" guide update?


It still wouldn't have recorded the game. The problem was if your TiVo did update before the game it wouldn't show it because previously it was listed as game 5.


----------



## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

> So why is it that after all this time Tivo still can't figure out how to record the single most important televised event in all of Western Civilization?


I thought that was the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.........

And just what is her secret anyway????


----------



## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

jlb said:


> I thought that was the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.........
> 
> And just what is her secret anyway????


Whatever it is, its working.


----------



## timr_42 (Oct 14, 2001)

rainwater said:


> TiVo is never going to be smart enough to know when a game was rained out.


Why not??? If your tivo has yahoo weather, IT SHOULD KNOW!!!!!


----------



## shanew1289 (May 7, 2004)

I apparently had a reboot or lost power. I only got the first hour of the World Series recorded. In the history for why it DID NOT record, was "This program was not recorded bacause the power was lost or the recorder was unplugged"

OK, so it rebooted in a few minutes (logs confirm) why not restart the recording? Guess it can't....  

Learned something new....


----------



## shanew1289 (May 7, 2004)

Atomike said:


> I find it amusing that many people decry reality television as "worthless" and yet many believe televised baseball is something other than trivial drivel. Televised baseball is simply an obscenely repetetive reality show with low production values. Important? hahah. The most important in Western Civilization? I would imagine that every person who watched news coverage of 9/11 or of the Cuban Missile Crisis may wish to disagree with your crazy statements.
> 
> Persepective has been lost. That being said, I'd be upset too if I cared even a little about the grade-school game of baseball.


Hopefully there is something in life you love (beyond family) that you care about.

But you don't need to act like Fans are stupid little kids who havent grown up.

Dont worry, be happy! dooo, dooo, dooooooooooooooo


----------



## Tico (Dec 10, 2002)

How bout upgrade from a Series 1 box.....

Geez........


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

There is no upgrade from the Series 1 DirecTV combo, it's the greatest TiVo ever made.


----------



## bidger (Mar 30, 2001)

Sorry BubbaDude, but I owned 2 S1 D-TiVOs, DSR-6000 and GXCEBOT, and since going to the S2 DVR-80 I don't miss either of the S1s. S2 D-TiVos are much faster, unlike most their standalone counterparts since 7.1.x, and folders make NP screen much less cluttered.


----------



## Uncle Briggs (Sep 11, 2004)

BubbaDude said:


> I check the To-Do list daily, because I know TiVo is a whimsical machine. However, the To-Do list after the rainout of Game 4 said TiVo was prepared to record Game 5 on Thursday night, and sometime Thursday - when I was work - it changed its little mind..


I have never seen or heard of this happening to me or anyone else. The only way TiVo would not record something on the To-Do list is if another program was added that created a conflict.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Uncle Briggs said:


> I have never seen or heard of this happening to me or anyone else. The only way TiVo would not record something on the To-Do list is if another program was added that created a conflict.


Actually, its because the guide data updated the same day so if your TiVo downloaded guide data before the WS game (or during), then it realized it already had that episode (game 4) in the Now Playing list so it canceled the recording.


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

Uncle Briggs said:


> I have never seen or heard of this happening to me or anyone else. The only way TiVo would not record something on the To-Do list is if another program was added that created a conflict.


Nope, you're wrong.

A program was deleted from the program guide - Game 5 - and replaced with a new program, Game 4. Either should have been recorded, because both match the Wish List for "Series" plus Baseball. But TiVo decided not to record Game 4 because it believed, incorrectly, that it had already recorded Game 4 on Wednesday.

There was a conflict of sorts, between Game 4 on Wednesday and Game 4 on Thursday, but if that was a conflict it should have been resolved on the basis of that the newer guide data was better than the old guide data.

Silly TiVo, you see, doesn't trust the guide data and screws up.


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

bidger said:


> Sorry BubbaDude, but I owned 2 S1 D-TiVOs, DSR-6000 and GXCEBOT, and since going to the S2 DVR-80 I don't miss either of the S1s. S2 D-TiVos are much faster, unlike most their standalone counterparts since 7.1.x, and folders make NP screen much less cluttered.


Have you got a cache card, Ethernet, telnet, ftp, all that stuff?


----------



## shanew1289 (May 7, 2004)

BubbaDude said:


> Have you got a cache card, Ethernet, telnet, ftp, all that stuff?


Whats cache card?

Yup, yup, yup, USB 2.0

Too bad I cant order Game 4 from Tivo. The HD feed that is. THere is a money source that the networks havent tapped. Hmm, MLB would own it I guess.


----------



## Phialpha (Nov 27, 2005)

Sporting events and other last minute changes (for example Presidential Addresses to the Nation) always mess things up for me too. Do I blame the TIVO...NO!!! Because it's a machine and I'm the one that programmed in what I wanted.

Best suggestion I have for something like world series baseball is to Schedule by time and channel. I would suggest going as long as possible since sometimes the games go over the network scheduled time. Remember last year's playoffs? How many innings did it go in the Post Season to tie the record, or was it a new one. Anyway, point is that it's BASEBALL it could be a no hitter and be a short game or a game that goes until 3am. I'm sure we would here from you if it recorded the first 9 innings of a 13 inning game.

If that still doesn't work hire the neighbor kid that mows your lawn to babysit your TIVO. At least with him you can call his parents and get him grounded if he doesn't do it right.


----------



## ThreeSoFar (May 24, 2002)

My recommendation?

DON'T WATCH BASEBALL!!!

God-awful boring "sport", with a bunch of drugged up millionaires. Fine role models all.

MLB deserves the tiny tiny ratings they've been getting.


----------



## Traal (Jul 8, 2002)

Phialpha said:


> Sporting events and other last minute changes (for example Presidential Addresses to the Nation) always mess things up for me too. Do I blame the TIVO...NO!!! Because it's a machine and I'm the one that programmed in what I wanted.


BubbaDude programmed the TiVo to record Game 4, but Game 4 didn't get recorded. I'd blame the TiVo, too.


----------



## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

BubbaDude said:


> I check the To-Do list daily, because I know TiVo is a whimsical machine. However, the To-Do list after the rainout of Game 4 said TiVo was prepared to record Game 5 on Thursday night, and sometime Thursday - when I was work - it changed its little mind. Nice try though, Micky.


Nice try, Bubbles.
Your Tivo was set to record game 5 and you knew that game 5 wasn't going to be played yet you did nothing about it and you're still blaming the Tivo. Now that's just brilliant.

Care to play again?


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

ThreeSoFar said:


> My recommendation?
> 
> DON'T WATCH BASEBALL!!!
> 
> ...


If I lived in Baltimore, I'd probably feel the same way you do, but as I don't, I don't.


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

mick66 said:


> Nice try, Bubbles.
> Your Tivo was set to record game 5 and you knew that game 5 wasn't going to be played yet you did nothing about it and you're still blaming the Tivo. Now that's just brilliant.
> 
> Care to play again?


Actually, no, I told the TiVo to record the entire MLB playoff series, and it didn't do the job.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

BubbaDude said:


> Actually, no, I told the TiVo to record the entire MLB playoff series, and it didn't do the job.


Seriously, it was a rare event caused by the guide data due to a rain out. No matter which DVR you used (TiVo, mythtv, etc) you would of had this problem had you not manually updated the recording right before the game.


----------



## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

It's moot now, but why not just go through the guide and select each series game individually to record?


----------



## lordbah (Apr 19, 2003)

I am frankly disappointed to see people attacking the poster on this issue. The point is that the machine is supposed to serve us by making our lives more enjoyable; we aren't supposed to be here to serve it by babysitting it. I've been a software engineer for 20-odd years, and if I worked for TiVo I would long ago have worked out with Tribune a protocol for what to do (in terms of renaming shows) in case of a rainout which would allow the TiVo to do what its user told it to do. I side with the original poster on this one.

(One poster in particular has been a real jerk. Maybe they know one another and are just messing around - or maybe he really is a jerk. Others have attacked the sport, which is irrelevant.)


----------



## Inundated (Sep 10, 2003)

The OP brought it on himself, frankly, with his over-the-top message. It's about as close to trolling as you can get without actually trolling...and throwing that kind of message into a forum that has a lot of, on their own, over-the-top fans of TiVo is the proverbial gasoline-on-fire scenario.

That being said,

A) He makes a valid point.
B) Even with that, in 2006 with ANY DVR (TiVo, cable company, PC-based), you still need to watch for stuff like this.
C) And even so, it does appear TiVo (and probably all DVRs) need to handle this sort of situation better.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Inundated said:


> C) And even so, it does appear TiVo (and probably all DVRs) need to handle this sort of situation better.


A "World Series" "MLB Baseball" wishlist with a category of Sports/Sports Event set to auto-record all episodes including duplicates would of worked just fine and would of recorded every single game. TiVo works just fine in this situation if used correctly.


----------



## lordbah (Apr 19, 2003)

rainwater said:


> A "World Series" "MLB Baseball" wishlist with a category of Sports/Sports Event set to auto-record all episodes including duplicates would of worked just fine and would of recorded every single game. TiVo works just fine in this situation if used correctly.


Would that also record ESPN Classic showings of past World Series?


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

lordbah said:


> Would that also record ESPN Classic showings of past World Series?


It should but this is the case where you turn on the auto-record during the world series and cancel any episodes you don't want. Its a much better method IMHO. Also, if you added one of the teams in the World Series to the wish list, it would be more accurate.


----------



## vman41 (Jun 18, 2002)

lordbah said:


> Would that also record ESPN Classic showings of past World Series?


Probably, unless you also included "sports event" sub-category in your wish list.


----------



## JYoung (Jan 16, 2002)

rainwater said:


> A "World Series" "MLB Baseball" wishlist with a category of Sports/Sports Event set to auto-record all episodes including duplicates would of worked just fine and would of recorded every single game. TiVo works just fine in this situation if used correctly.


if I'm not mistaken, setting the SP to Record All with Duplicates would have worked as well.


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

JYoung said:


> if I'm not mistaken, setting the SP to Record All with Duplicates would have worked as well.


Yes, I believe it would have worked. That' s not the default, however.

Somebody pointed out that my original post was trollish. Maybe so, but mainly it was an expression of my being pissed-off that the TiVo didn't do what I expected it to do.

I've only become super-interested in baseball in the last few years, and that's because of the TiVo. Live baseball on TV is incredibly boring because there are so many commercials and seemingly endless strings of boring events, such as some batter fouling-off a dozen pitches before taking a walk or whatever. The ability to pick out the highlights of every game and to look at the close calls frame-by-frame enhances the whole TV viewing experience and all that. If I didn't have a TiVo, I wouldn't watch baseball on TV.

That's why the inability of the machine to record a critical game is annoying. Any sports fan will tell you that game 4 of a 7 game series is the turning point. At the outset, one team typically has a 2-1 lead, and at the end it's either 3-1 and practically insurmountable, or 2-2 and a reset to the beginning.

TiVo's flaw is to assume that its method of detecting duplicate recordings is sound and universal, when experience shows that it's clearly not.


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

JimSpence said:


> It's moot now, but why not just go through the guide and select each series game individually to record?


I've found that doesn't work in this situation, because the titles change at the last minute when there's a rainout. If I tell TiVo to record Game 5 on Thursday, and if the guide says Game 4 is played on Thursday, it doesn't record it. I had this happen during the rainout in the NLCS between the Cards and the Mets.


----------



## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

BubbaDude said:


> I've found that doesn't work in this situation, because the titles change at the last minute when there's a rainout. If I tell TiVo to record Game 5 on Thursday, and if the guide says Game 4 is played on Thursday, it doesn't record it. I had this happen during the rainout in the NLCS between the Cards and the Mets.


In other words - past experience has taught you absolutely nothing.


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

mick66 said:


> In other words - past experience has taught you absolutely nothing.


In other words, you're not only rude, you're illiterate. I said used a different method for the WS than I used for the NLCS.

Now whay don't you go drink some more Kool-Aid and go play in traffic?


----------



## mick66 (Oct 15, 2004)

BubbaDude said:


> I said used a different method for the WS than I used for the NLCS.


The point that you've missed, because you're obviously not that bright, was that you've had tivo for five years and still can't figure out how to get it to record what you want. The majority of people would figure out why something didn't record and adapt that knowledge to future recordings and no longer have problems after 5 years. 



> Now whay don't you go drink some more Kool-Aid and go play in traffic?


You're funny.


----------



## Netbudda (Mar 3, 2005)

ThreeSoFar said:


> with a bunch of drugged up millionaires. Fine role models all.


LOL......if we apply your logic...say GOD BYE to all Sports, Sitcoms, Movies.......QVC 24x7 HERE WE COME !!!!!!!!


----------



## Netbudda (Mar 3, 2005)

mick66 said:


> In other words - past experience has taught you absolutely nothing.


You sure have a GOD given skill of making things personal.


----------



## Phialpha (Nov 27, 2005)

Why is it that when Bubbadude calmed down and in a more polite way said he needed help, people still try to bash him? I for one jumped on the band wagon and tried to point things out that weren't real suggestions...who would really let the neighbor kid actually touch their Home Entertainment System?

Even after all the negative posts he's one of the few people that have actually kept a cool head and tried to keep this thread on topic.

All past posts being in the past, and the OP having a cooler head and that is listening to reason, what else can he do? Is there a manual way to tell the TIVO to update it's program guide, like when the game was rained out? Is there a way to program a recording Online for time and channel?


----------



## GoHokies! (Sep 21, 2005)

Phialpha said:


> Why is it that when Bubbadude calmed down and in a more polite way said he needed help, people still try to bash him? I for one jumped on the band wagon and tried to point things out that weren't real suggestions...who would really let the neighbor kid actually touch their Home Entertainment System?
> 
> Even after all the negative posts he's one of the few people that have actually kept a cool head and tried to keep this thread on topic.
> 
> All past posts being in the past, and the OP having a cooler head and that is listening to reason, what else can he do? Is there a manual way to tell the TIVO to update it's program guide, like when the game was rained out? Is there a way to program a recording Online for time and channel?


I thought that the OP was a great rant - too bad some of the others feel the need to go personal. Hopefully the OP can learn something and avoid the problem in the future (and some of us can learn from his mistake).

I think the best solution was to set the record all, including duplicates option so that everything would get recorded.


----------



## lordbah (Apr 19, 2003)

Good ideas, but I would call them "workarounds". The "solution" would be for TiVo (and if necessary Tribune) to make changes such that the software does what the user expects, i.e. when told to record first run it actually does it, consistent with how it does it when told to do so for any other series.


----------



## GoHokies! (Sep 21, 2005)

lordbah said:


> Good ideas, but I would call them "workarounds". The "solution" would be for TiVo (and if necessary Tribune) to make changes such that the software does what the user expects, i.e. when told to record first run it actually does it, consistent with how it does it when told to do so for any other series.


They could title it something like "World Series: Game 4 makeup" to make it a different episode, but there's a chance that the dial up folks wouldn't update their guide data fast enough to catch it.

The only way to make sure that you record every episode of something is to tell your Tivo explicitly that is what you want. (still wouldn't help if there was no game scheduled the night of the makeup and you didn't get the guide data in time, I guess - I don't think that there is anything that can help you there other than user attentiveness and a manual recording/forced connection)


----------



## BubbaDude (Dec 30, 2001)

lordbah said:


> Good ideas, but I would call them "workarounds". The "solution" would be for TiVo (and if necessary Tribune) to make changes such that the software does what the user expects, i.e. when told to record first run it actually does it, consistent with how it does it when told to do so for any other series.


Exactly. The "record all episodes including duplicates" is the best work-around, but it's still a workaround. And one that I'm hesitant to use because whenever I take that option I end up with all kinds of crap getting recorded unless I remove ESPN Classic from channels I receive.

I don't see any workarounds to the other baseball-related problems I reported.

For example, when a game is shown on ESPN for the national audience and also on Channel 36 (I'm an Oakland A's fan) or FSBA for the local audience, the ESPN program is blacked-out locally. But invariably TiVo tries to record the game on the channel where it's blacked-out instead of the one where it's actually shown. These tend to be big games against the Angels or the Yankees, so it's really annoying. The only way to prevent this is to block ESPN from channels I receive, and that's pretty harsh.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

lordbah said:


> I am frankly disappointed to see people attacking the poster on this issue.


Yeah, while the original message was somewhat "over the top" as others have said (esp the reply just quoting the various insults he used), I think he has a fairly reasonable point.

I check my To Do lists every day, because I don't want to miss a particular episode of anything. (Also, if my hard drives are close to full, I make sure to delete any random recordings caught via wishlists that I don't really want, so I don't lose recordings I want.)

But I realize I'm extreme on the other end. The OP is trying to use his Tivo the way it was advertized -- set it and forget it. Heck, Tivo has worked around issues like this in the past -- e.g. Survivor finales, so the SPs would catch them.


----------



## streich (Jan 24, 2007)

I too am bothered with how the guide data has not been properly updated for this World Series.

I have a TiVo Bolt, so not some out-of-date box. I sync'd this morning, with a known game on this evening, and the guide still shows regular shows on rather than the game. It's not a One Pass issue, as the "Find TV / Browse TV / Sports / Baseball / World Series" path shows no upcoming games either.

TiVo/Rovi should assume these major events will happen, as far as Guide Data goes.

(and before any trolls start in, I worked for TiVo, and even developed the system for guide data for the Taiwan roll-out, so I know this is a policy issue for TiVo rather than a technical one)


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

streich said:


> I too am bothered with how the guide data has not been properly updated for this World Series.
> 
> I have a TiVo Bolt, so not some out-of-date box. I sync'd this morning, with a known game on this evening, and the guide still shows regular shows on rather than the game. It's not a One Pass issue, as the "Find TV / Browse TV / Sports / Baseball / World Series" path shows no upcoming games either.
> 
> ...


All "second opinions" are the same. No updates on Fox for tv.com or tvguide.com. Screener and titantv.com were correct yesterday.


----------



## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

Same issue. Won't show game 6 on the TiVo guide


----------



## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

The simple solution is to set up a manual recording for today's game six and tomorrow's potential game seven at 8:00 PM (EST) on FOX, which is what I have done. 

Nonetheless, I find the lack of updated, reliable program guide data so close to game time extremely disappointing when the broadcast schedule has been confirmed for days.


----------



## LI-SVT (Sep 28, 2006)

DIRECTV lists it in the guide on their DVR. It is also listed tonight on my local FOX station at the DIRECTV website.


----------



## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

streich said:


> I too am bothered with how the guide data has not been properly updated for this World Series.
> 
> I have a TiVo Bolt, so not some out-of-date box. I sync'd this morning, with a known game on this evening, and the guide still shows regular shows on rather than the game. It's not a One Pass issue, as the "Find TV / Browse TV / Sports / Baseball / World Series" path shows no upcoming games either.
> 
> ...


Tivo should update their guide data every 6- 12 hours and have the boxes with a broadband connection check in every 6-12 hours. That's what everybody else is doing.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

BobCamp1 said:


> Tivo should update their guide data every 6- 12 hours and have the boxes with a broadband connection check in every 6-12 hours. That's what everybody else is doing.


I'll force a connection if I see tv.com or tvguide.com have their data corrected.


----------



## TiVoJimmy (Jan 3, 2005)

Not that this helps with TiVo, Zap2It show the game tonight. TV Listings Grid, TV Guide and TV Schedule, Where to Watch TV Shows - Screener


----------



## abovethesink (Aug 26, 2013)

I like how this is a ten year old thread bumped and no one seems to notice because guide data problems are basically every thread now anyway.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

abovethesink said:


> I like how this is a ten year old thread bumped and no one seems to notice because guide data problems are basically every thread now anyway.


Someone did the right thing in the right place: World Series Game 6 Not Listed


----------



## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

Tonight's world series game is now list in my guide. My unit just did a call in.


----------



## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Which is very sad, again considering that the broadcast schedule was known long ago.


----------



## NYHeel (Oct 7, 2003)

Anyone know of a way to set a manual recording remotely? Would rather not rely on my kids to record the game via manual recording.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

NYHeel said:


> Anyone know of a way to set a manual recording remotely? Would rather not rely on my kids to record the game via manual recording.


Start here: http://online.tivo.com/start/wtw then use the Guide after you login. However, it doesn't see the World Series on my guide. It may need to be indexed.


----------



## NYHeel (Oct 7, 2003)

JoeKustra said:


> Start here: http://online.tivo.com/start/wtw then use the Guide after you login. However, it doesn't see the World Series on my guide. It may need to be indexed.


Right, problem is that it's not in my guide, either in the app or on online.tivo.com. I meant is there a way to set a record by time and channel recording (old school VCR recording) remotely. I haven't found one yet.


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

abovethesink said:


> I like how this is a ten year old thread bumped and no one seems to notice because guide data problems are basically every thread now anyway.


Are you saying Tivo had trouble updating changing sports schedules for years now? No way, it must be Rovi (which only makes it worse).

The update cycle is a *****.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

TonyD79 said:


> Are you saying Tivo had trouble updating changing sports schedules for years now? No way, it must be Rovi (which only makes it worse).
> 
> The update cycle is a *****.


The world series issues were mostly fixed before Rovi took over. TiVo has always had issues with things like the NCAA Tournament that have quick turnarounds. Mostly this is due to the archaic way TiVo pushed updates not the guide provider. Rovi on the other hand doesn't understand sports at all. I get about 60 hours of incorrect recordings a week due to bad Rovi guide data. And TiVo has shown no interest to fix it.


----------



## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

They added the World Series but they didn't remove New Girl and Scream Queens. So if you don't add 3 hours to the end of the World Series you'll get a 30 minute recording. The end of the game will still get chopped off from the recording because the broadcast will last at least 4 hours.

I had a show on Comedy Central chopped off like this on Saturday. It said it was a one hour show and there was another show showing in the guide 25 minutes after the one hour show started. I only got the first 25 minutes of my one hour show.


----------



## cherry ghost (Sep 13, 2005)

Rovi does not have game 7 listed, but neither does zap2it


----------



## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

Tivo has messages to connect to Tivo to get world series. Pause banner "attention" and tivo central. I guess they are getting slamed on this.


----------



## wlpippin (May 16, 2015)

It's amazing that Tivo/Rovi doesn't know the World Series is on. THE WORLD SERIES. America's past time.


----------



## cherry ghost (Sep 13, 2005)

Fox.com currently shows Lethal Weapon and Empire for tomorrow night, not the World Series


----------



## kupe (Apr 10, 2003)

Same here...forced 4 successful connections in the last two hours per Tivo alert....but Fox in my Tivo Guide still showing Lethal Weapon, Empire, and local Fox News for tomorrow night rather than Game 7. Sad really.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

kupe said:


> Same here...forced 4 successful connections in the last two hours per Tivo alert....but Fox in my Tivo Guide still showing Lethal Weapon, Empire, and local Fox News for tomorrow night rather than Game 7. Sad really.


If it's updated at all it will not be until tomorrow just before game time.


----------



## kupe (Apr 10, 2003)

rainwater said:


> If it's updated at all it will not be until tomorrow just before game time.


One would hope so, but it never updated for Game 6 tonight. Discovered that as I walked in from work to find the game with 30 minutes remaining and not recording. Gahhh.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

kupe said:


> One would hope so, but it never updated for Game 6 tonight. Discovered that as I walked in from work to find the game with 30 minutes remaining and not recording. Gahhh.


Yeah. You will have to force a connection later in the day to get the update unless your box does its daily connection at the right time. If you aren't home, then unfortunately there's nothing you can do.


----------



## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

schatham said:


> Tivo has messages to connect to Tivo to get world series. Pause banner "attention" and tivo central. I guess they are getting slamed on this.


If they can do all THAT, why can't they just make the box connect to Tivo? 
And if they CAN'T do that, why not?
This morning, the Game 6 note on Tivo Central was still there. Game 7 is still hosed.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Screener and titantv have been updated. Still bad on tvguide.com and tv.com.


----------



## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

rainwater said:


> Yeah. You will have to force a connection later in the day to get the update unless your box does its daily connection at the right time. If you aren't home, then unfortunately there's nothing you can do.


You can use the tivo app to force a service connection. AFAIK that connection also updates program data.

Tivo.com has access to our to do list. Why not push updates to those boxes which have affected shows scheduled.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

lew said:


> You can use the tivo app to force a service connection. AFAIK that connection also updates program data.


That it works for the active stream device. Not other TiVo's.


----------



## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

rainwater said:


> That it works for the active stream device. Not other TiVo's.


How many units do you want to use to record WS?


----------



## machaon (Nov 20, 2012)

I gave up on the Tivo guide having an entry for the World Series Game 7; and then just entered a manual recording for a Fox recording starting at 8pm and ending at midnight, for four hours.

Then I did a network connection and update and my Tivo #1 showed the game on Fox. Since I had a One Pass for the World Series, Tivo #1 wanted to tape it twice, once for my manual recording and once for the season pass. I then did a network connection on my other Tivo #2, but it's guide did not show the World Series game 7, only regular programming.

I've gotten used to Tivo sloppiness, such as recording OLD shows that I've marked as NEW ONLY! Or... recording tons of One Pass shows that haven't been marked with a Season or Episode number, regardless of One Pass settings for specific Seasons, or NEW only. Or... not always showing the length of a recording in the Todo List.

One would think that accuracy and substance and niceties would be higher priorities. Tivo could be the best DVR service available, but the mistakes and aggravations cause customers like me to dwell on the shortcomings, rather than all of their good features.

edit: I just get a message on my Tivo #2 to connect to Tivo for an update. I have done that and am waiting for the update and to check to see if World Series game 7 is in the guide, which I am 100% confident that it will be there. So... unless you get the message saying to connect to Tivo, connecting to Tivo will not correctly update the guide? Weird!


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

lew said:


> How many units do you want to use to record WS?


Just one. However, not everyone has a stream unit (and some just have standalone units). So that method doesn't work.


----------



## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

rainwater said:


> Just one. However, not everyone has a stream unit (and some just have standalone units). So that method doesn't work.


It works, just not for everyone.

I suggested it as a workaround, for those customers who have the necessary hardware. Playoff sports have always been an issue.


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

rainwater said:


> The world series issues were mostly fixed before Rovi took over. TiVo has always had issues with things like the NCAA Tournament that have quick turnarounds. Mostly this is due to the archaic way TiVo pushed updates not the guide provider. Rovi on the other hand doesn't understand sports at all. I get about 60 hours of incorrect recordings a week due to bad Rovi guide data. And TiVo has shown no interest to fix it.


What you are not seeing is that FOX is being slow on this with the World Series. I just looked at my Fios listing (NOT Rovi) and it sill has Lethal Weapon for tonight.This is quick turnaround just like the NCAA Tournament. I don't know how anyone can have data that the network has not supplied yet. Or are they assuming, which means someone is tinkering with the data, which I sure don't want them to do.

Something is slow beyond Rovi on the WS this time around. Then Rovi itself is slow. Then the stupid 24+ hour cycle for Tivo is a mess.

Yesterday, they put a message on Tivo Central to update your guide data for the World Series. Really? They can do that and they cannot push the change to the guide?

More than Rovi at fault here, but Rovi definitely does not shine in this scenario because they add the latency.


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

series5orpremier said:


> They added the World Series but they didn't remove New Girl and Scream Queens.


How odd. Mine wiped out the Fox lineup and did it correctly. Wonder what makes it different for different markets...


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Both Roamio boxes had the Game 7 alert like yesterday. Both updated to Game 7 and extended the guide one day.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

TonyD79 said:


> What you are not seeing is that FOX is being slow on this with the World Series. I just looked at my Fios listing (NOT Rovi) and it sill has Lethal Weapon for tonight.This is quick turnaround just like the NCAA Tournament. I don't know how anyone can have data that the network has not supplied yet. Or are they assuming, which means someone is tinkering with the data, which I sure don't want them to do.
> 
> Something is slow beyond Rovi on the WS this time around. Then Rovi itself is slow. Then the stupid 24+ hour cycle for Tivo is a mess.
> 
> ...


Like I said, the biggest issue with the World Series is TiVo's archaic way of pushing updates not Rovi themselves. That doesn't excuse Rovi's poor sports data in general though.


----------



## dolph88 (Nov 25, 2006)

Agreed. There should be a quicker method to get guide updates delivered to devices.


----------



## tim1724 (Jul 3, 2007)

rainwater said:


> Like I said, the biggest issue with the World Series is TiVo's archaic way of pushing updates not Rovi themselves. That doesn't excuse Rovi's poor sports data in general though.


Yeah, TiVo needs to fix two separate issues.

They need to issue a software update so guide data is downloaded more than once per day (or have a better system for propagating last minute changes).
They need to improve the Rovi guide data.


----------



## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

BobCamp1 said:


> If they can do all THAT, why can't they just make the box connect to Tivo?
> And if they CAN'T do that, why not?
> This morning, the Game 6 note on Tivo Central was still there. Game 7 is still hosed.


I agree, but think of it this way....If they COULD send a command to have all boxes call in to get the update, I imagine that would overwhelm the servers if every single TiVo box called home about the same time.....

Point of note, I just checked my box and no updated data yet. I forced a connection about 20min ago and letting it index right now. Will check in a bit.


----------



## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

jlb said:


> I agree, but think of it this way....If they COULD send a command to have all boxes call in to get the update, I imagine that would overwhelm the servers if every single TiVo box called home about the same time.....


In this day and age of didtributed cloud servers, there's no way that what few retail units there are should be overwhelming the servers. Plus, TiVo could still stagger the updated over a short period.


----------



## fllbrent (Jul 11, 2004)

My guide is finally showing Game 7 so the data is out there at last! I don't remember ever having to force connections to get the correct guide data in the past for NBA or NHL game series.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Didn't read the full thread.. ok, I see that my issue is mentioned above.. it does seem strange that they can give the special messages in the (otherwise completely useless) bar at the top of the screen.. but can't actually force the tivos to call in/update the guide data properly..

still, this is a slight improvement (at least telling Joe Schmoe user how to work around the problem)..

but yeah, I too had the Fox prime time shows recorded.. I sure hope when they air next week, they WILL record without any special doing of mine.. (Nowadays I have enough tuners that I do _less_ manual checking of the To Do list than I used to.. but with problems like this and the To Be Announced problem, etc., I still check it.. just not always every day before I leave, like I used to..)


----------



## SugarBowl (Jan 5, 2007)

There were zero warnings on the TiVo Mini. Game 6 and Game 7 were never recorded.

I selected the World Series Guide to record all of the games, and that's what should have happened.


----------



## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

rainwater said:


> In this day and age of didtributed cloud servers, there's no way that what few retail units there are should be overwhelming the servers. Plus, TiVo could still stagger the updated over a short period.


Not only that but what they really need is just last-minute event updates, not the full download. We're only talking about a few K of changes at most each day that Tivos could get on an hourly basis (or auto-pushed if they don't want to poll), not the daily download. This is a trivial issue network and server-wise.

Should be easy to do, but nothing we assume is easy is that way for Tivo. They take forever to do what seems like obvious user-requested stuff, with little to no explanation of why they can't (like screensaver option, configurable Mini live TV timeouts etc.).


----------



## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

SugarBowl said:


> There were zero warnings on the TiVo Mini. Game 6 and Game 7 were never recorded.
> 
> I selected the World Series Guide to record all of the games, and that's what should have happened.


I managed to record both game 6 and 7 despite the last-minute updating of the TiVo/Rovi guide, which is inexcusable for a sports event of this magnitude and undoubtedly led to many users missing the recording or having to resort to awkward workarounds such as setting up a well-padded manual recording of what they knew to be incorrect program information.

Then, just to add insult to injury, I saw that TiVo Central had a button at the bottom of the menu this morning congratulating the Cubs as World Series winners (and pointing to supposedly related programming material, such as a Bill Murray movie ). Fortunately for me, I did not go to TiVo Central until I had already finished watching the game this morning or I would have been royally pissed at the spoiler. (Like any self-respecting DVR enthusiast I nearly always watch programming with a time delay; in this case I had to take extraordinary measures to quarantine myself from any news sources for 12 hours until I had had a chance to watch the recorded proceedings.)

No guide info until just before game time and then unnecessary spoilers immediately after the conclusion? Come on, TiVo, you're better than that!


----------



## OregonRider (Mar 1, 2017)

Resurrecting an old thread. 
I came home last night expecting to watch game 7 because I’d setup a one pass. BUT NO!!!
Come on Tivo. There are four major sports in America. Can’t SOMEBODY monitor the system to be sure ALL of the games are recorded?


----------



## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

Who was playing?


----------



## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

tommiet said:


> Who was playing?


The Montreal Expos


----------



## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

I am guessing your TiVo(s) did not call in for the daily guide update before the game came on. This is an apparent bug to me in their guide updates, the TiVo's scheduled connection time is not automatic when new guide updates are posted (around noon ET) and might not happen until after that day's primetime schedule completes. So every day when I get home I force a connection to get the updates before primetime starts. Yesterday if you connected, you got a big box warning on TiVo Central for a World Series Game 7. Some folks like @JoeKustra just let their TiVo connect on its own time and keep copious notes but not me, I want the guide to be up to date as possible! No exceptions.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

PSU_Sudzi said:


> Some folks like @JoeKustra just let their TiVo connect on its own time and keep copious notes but not me, I want the guide to be up to date as possible! No exceptions.


To be fair (to TiVo) there was a big red notice (it's in a different thread) that told you to make a service connection, including instructions. I saw it before the game started, but that may not be true for everyone since it may have been part of a VCM Connection which happens about every four hours on no kind of schedule.

See: World Series Game 7 - Fox


----------



## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

JoeKustra said:


> To be fair (to TiVo) there was a big red notice (it's in a different thread) that told you to make a service connection, including instructions. I saw it before the game started, but that may not be true for everyone since it may have been part of a VCM Connection which happens about every four hours on no kind of schedule.
> 
> See: World Series Game 7 - Fox


I did see that too but I don't understand why they can set our TiVo's to connect for guide updates sometime between when they make them available and before primetime on the east coast? This shouldn't be a complicated programming task for them.


----------



## Rey (Oct 6, 2015)

PSU_Sudzi said:


> I am guessing your TiVo(s) did not call in for the daily guide update before the game came on. This is an apparent bug to me in their guide updates, the TiVo's scheduled connection time is not automatic when new guide updates are posted (around noon ET) and might not happen until after that day's primetime schedule completes. So every day when I get home I force a connection to get the updates before primetime starts. Yesterday if you connected, you got a big box warning on TiVo Central for a World Series Game 7. Some folks like @JoeKustra just let their TiVo connect on its own time and keep copious notes but not me, I want the guide to be up to date as possible! No exceptions.


Is it not possible for this to work correctly without one having to manually make a service connection? Or am I asking too much here?


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

PSU_Sudzi said:


> I did see that too but I don't understand why they can set our TiVo's to connect for guide updates sometime between when they make them available and before primetime on the east coast? This shouldn't be a complicated programming task for them.


That would have made some people happy who made wish lists, but a service connection after 6pm on the east coast may not have been an easy task. Plus, in my opinion, the change should have been made after the last out of game 6. All I can say: meets expectations.


----------



## mbernste (Apr 6, 2003)

PSU_Sudzi said:


> I don't understand why they can set our TiVo's to connect for guide updates sometime between when they make them available and before primetime on the east coast?


Two words: Load balancing


----------



## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

mbernste said:


> Two words: Load balancing


Exactly.
New guide data is added everyday sometime after noon. If your tivo connects for guide data between then and the start of prime time tv, you're golden, but most of the time any given tivo is operating with yesterdays guide data update.


----------



## powrcow (Sep 27, 2010)

scandia101 said:


> Exactly.
> New guide data is added everyday sometime after noon. If your tivo connects for guide data between then and the start of prime time tv, you're golden, but most of the time any given tivo is operating with yesterdays guide data update.


My TiVo checks in at 6:30am MST each day for yesterday's guide data.

Fortunately the only thing really affected is "if necessary" sports games for championships and NCAA tournaments. Unfortunately for me, I like watching them.

I just create manual recordings for those "if necessary" games. If they don't show up in the guide the day before, they won't show up when it's time to record them.


----------



## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

No worries for me... I missed the World Series of Football too last year.


----------



## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

I did not see the World Series in the guide so I set up a manual recording but I agree there has to be a better way. BTW a great world series.


----------



## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

mbernste said:


> Two words: Load balancing


I get that but if all TiVos can somehow connect over a 24 hour period, they could shorten it to about a 10-12 hour window, considering some users are in other time zones and not all on the east coast (tho most TVs are in ET or CT, not sure about TiVo's tho). This isn't complicated.


----------



## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

JoeKustra said:


> That would have made some people happy who made wish lists, but a service connection after 6pm on the east coast may not have been an easy task. Plus, in my opinion, the change should have been made after the last out of game 6. All I can say: meets expectations.


I think you are a far more generous grader than I am lol. In this regard I think it's below expectations.


----------



## markjrenna (Mar 23, 2006)

TiVo should do a service connection between 3 pm and 5 pm daily. If they can't handle the load... get another server!


----------



## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

Rey said:


> Is it not possible for this to work correctly without one having to manually make a service connection? Or am I asking too much here?


Actually, you're not asking too much, because they have that technology, and have used it in the past. I do not know what happened to it, or why it hasn't been used (that I've seen) in years.

They have, in the past, had the ability to push last minute updates globally to all units. They used to use this for televised presidential addresses, and other truly unexpected events - which went out to all units, with less than 15 minutes notice - outside the normal daily call schedule - and not as a guide update, but as an overlay to the scheduled timeslot. (ie, you could actually page up and down in the guild, for a brief second see the original schedule, then the presidential address would replace it).

So... they have (had?) the technology... for unexpected changes.
And lets face it, this was *not* unexpected. There's no justification for units being caught 'by surprise', by Game 7 of the world series. There's no reason a human should have had to be on deck to do a manual daily call that afternoon.


----------



## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

Additionally....

I wish to yell at the clouds about the way that Manual Recordings no longer have user settable priorities, are considered the lowest priority possible, even below auto-record wishlists, and frequently just go 'poof' on scheduling changes.

Had I not been home, 3 of the games would not have recorded. I set a manual recording the night before. (Why not a one-pass, I don't know, I was just in a Manual mood I guess). I verified it in the todo list. I verified there were 6 things scheduled to record at 8pm, one of which was my manual recording.

Come game time the next day, it's not recording. Six things are recording, including two auto-record wishlist items. It clearly recomputed the todo after the next schedule, decided there were 6 things more important than the very deliberately set manual recording, and decided not to record it. 

Before the OnePass code was introduced, manual recordings got a temporary slot in the season pass list, and you could pop them up to the top. Now they appear to hold an invisible bottom slot on the list, subject to being recomputed out of existence. I lost most of the World Series of Poker this year this way as well (All my carefully set 12 hour recording blocks were 're-prioritized' out of existence).

Yet another original Tivo feature that is now just broken beyond repair...


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

mbernste said:


> Two words: Load balancing


I agree with you, though doesn't the Tivo connect with their servers any time you go into Now Playing, e.g. to get the SkipMode data?

I guess those are DIFFERENT servers.. but you'd think they could (have?) made some sort of small guide data check, maybe only for broadcast channels, be done much more than the approx once a day cadence of the 'regular' "call"..

ESPECIALLY now that things aren't actually over phone lines.


----------



## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

kdmorse said:


> Actually, you're not asking too much, because they have that technology, and have used it in the past. I do not know what happened to it, or why it hasn't been used (that I've seen) in years.
> 
> They have, in the past, had the ability to push last minute updates globally to all units. They used to use this for televised presidential addresses, and other truly unexpected events - which went out to all units, with less than 15 minutes notice - outside the normal daily call schedule - and not as a guide update, but as an overlay to the scheduled timeslot. (ie, you could actually page up and down in the guild, for a brief second see the original schedule, then the presidential address would replace it).
> 
> ...


Doesn't it just feel like TiVo has "given up" in being up-to-date and that's the sad new norm? Presumably, for financial reasons?


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Since I started tracking service connections, they have always been from 2am until 6pm Eastern. The spacing is about every 14 hours. The result is one day with no data and one day with two days of data. Those two "special" days vary between boxes. You can do restarts or even change the HDD, but that box's schedule will return in a day or two. If there is no data when expected, I post it here: Daily Guide Updates

Bad data, when part of a series, I post here: Season Pass Alerts


----------



## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

JoeKustra said:


> Since I started tracking service connections, they have always been from 2am until 6pm Eastern. The spacing is about every 14 hours. The result is one day with no data and one day with two days of data. Those two "special" days vary between boxes. You can do restarts or even change the HDD, but that box's schedule will return in a day or two. If there is no data when expected, I post it here: Daily Guide Updates
> 
> Bad data, when part of a series, I post here: Season Pass Alerts


That's all correct but again depending on when your box connects on any given day you may or may not get the updated data that day. Very troubling.


----------

