# Is It Worth It To Manage TiVo's Channel List?



## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

I am pondering how to manage my TiVo channel list. Actually, I am pondering whether I want to manage it...

I hate all of the SD channels cluttering my guide when I have perfectly good HD matching channels. I also wouldn't mind getting rid of some of the channels that I have zero interest in ever viewing (non-english channels mostly).

What do you all do? Do you mark these channels as though they were "not received"? Or do you leave them alone and just mark your favorites and filter your guide by favorites?

I really don't want to get myself into a channel management administrative nightmare... Just looking for best practices...


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## lgnad (Feb 14, 2013)

Some people leave them around to tape shows in SD to save space.
I think that most of us get rid of all the duplicate ones
...and some people only allow HD.

I am in that last category, with a couple of exceptions.

Its not a nightmare.... uncheck them in bulk, in the channel list in settings... get rid of the known dupes, the foreign channels, and everything else you know you dont like.

Then use the channel guide to pick out stragglers, identify ones you weren't sure of by channel name, etc. You can also sort it by channel name and page through for any sd/hd dupes. 

It takes me like 5 minutes to clean up 99% of it!


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## markp99 (Mar 21, 2002)

I weeded thru my channels. As you suggest, I killed all SD channels with an HD counterpart, killed all foreign language, shopping, 24hr News channels, etc.

There is a small initial investment of time to determine which channels are which, but after that "management" is simple. TiVo will alert you when a guide change has been made. Just inspect and remove as appropriate to your preferences...


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

I won't say it takes 5 minutes, but I just sit with a cup of coffee after setting up a new Tivo and do the following:
Sort by channel name in Grid Guide and remove SD dupes
Sort by channel number and get rid of known genres (FiOS groups by genre) I don't watch ala the various shopping and religious channels.
Go back into the Settings > Channel list and then bulk delete all the channels over 1000 which include the music channels.

That's it and then I have a nice guide to browse, you really only have to do it once in a Tivo's life unless you change out the drive or change providers.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

I only leave a couple SD channels selected along with most of my local sub-channels. Then I get rid of the shopping channels; any channels with a Real Housewife, Kardashian, Duggan or Honey Boo-Boo; all the foreign language channels and any sports subscription package channels to which I don't subscribe. And if a new channel is added, I love the fact that Tivo alerts me and takes me straight to the channel lineup to add or delete it.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

My pennies:
There are three option with the guide. You can select All, My Channels, and Favorites. All means all, as in you can't control what the guide displays. My Channels are those you might need for special things, like C-SPAN or an Information channel. Favorites are those you would expect to watch or record. So out 650 channels, I have about 50 in My Channels and 25 in Favorites (I watch a lot of news). So run through the list once, deleting the never watch, like Fox News , select Favorites (which can be done from the guide), and you are done.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

JoeKustra said:


> My pennies: So run through the list once, deleting the never watch, like Fox News , select Favorites (which can be done from the guide), and you are done.


Hey, I do that same thing with MSNBC!


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Reel it in, fellas...


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

krkaufman said:


> Reel it in, fellas...


He started it dad.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

JoeKustra said:


> There are three option with the guide. You can select All, My Channels, and Favorites. All means all, as in you can't control what the guide displays. My Channels are those you might need for special things, like C-SPAN or an Information channel. Favorites are those you would expect to watch or record.


To be clear, the above is JoeKustra's preferred categorization approach given the 3 total guide groupings TiVo allows us, per pg 21 of the Roamio Users Manual:

*All* -- Display all channels available in received guide data, even channels you don't receive;
*My Channels* -- Display only the channels that are checked in the Channel List;
*Favorites* -- Display only the channels you rated as your favorites in the Channel List.
*CRITICAL:* Most importantly, The TiVo DVR will only record programs from channels selected in the 'My Channels' channel list.​
You can edit the channels included in 'My Channels' or 'Favorites' either by editing the Channel List, through the Settings menu:

On TiVo DVRs prior to the BOLT:
TiVo Central
> Settings & Messages
> Settings
> Channels
> Channel List​
On a TiVo BOLT:
TiVo Central
> Settings & Messages
> Channel Settings
> Channel List​
... or via the 'Grid Guide' view of the channel guide listing, by navigating to the left until you've highlighted the channel number/name cell, and then pressing the 'Select' or 'Info' buttons. You can then choose to add/remove the channel to/from your 'My Channels' or 'Favorites' lists.

If you're just looking to tweak your 'Favorites' list, you can simply highlight the channel cell in the Grid Guide, and then use the Thumbs Up/Down buttons to add/remove the channel to/from your 'Favorites.' A "favorited" channel is indicated in the Grid Guide by a green Thumbs Up icon to the left of the channel name at the top of the screen, when the channel cell is highlighted.

*NOTES: *

You can only modify your Channel Lists from the UI of the TiVo DVR; that is, you cannot modify the Channel Lists from a TiVo Mini.

You cannot modify your channel lists when viewing the channel guide in 'TiVo Live Guide' mode.

-------
edit: 7/1/2017: Updated to reflect current BOLT UI menu path.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

I keep a spreadsheet of all my channels (that I keep selected). It makes it much easier if you get a new TiVo (or reset one). I remove all of the SD duplicates obviously and a few other channels that I do receive (like shopping channels).


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## tootal2 (Oct 14, 2005)

I removed the 200 Spanish channels. I wish they were mark as Spanish to make them easier to find.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

We're apparently the odd man out here as we don't manage the TiVo channel list. We rarely watch live TV except for my wife having Food Network on for background noise and she has that channel memorized.  Otherwise, just haven't found any reason for us where having the SD channels or ones that we don't watch show up in searches etc is causing any issues.

Scott


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I uncheck all the SD channels, all the Spanish channels, all the Music channels and any channels I don't actually get. This not only filters the guide it also filters Search. That way I never find anything via search that is on a channel I don't get or only SD and something I wont watch.


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## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

rainwater said:


> I keep a spreadsheet of all my channels (that I keep selected). It makes it much easier if you get a new TiVo (or reset one). I remove all of the SD duplicates obviously and a few other channels that I do receive (like shopping channels).


I decided to do the same... A spreadsheet allows me to replicate if anything went awry for some reason...

So far, I have the following results:

19 Favorites
129 My Channels (including music channels)
79 My Channels (excluding music channels)
11 SD Channels (without an HD equivalent)

My 79 non-music channels include all channels except:

Foreign Language Channels
Religious Programming
Shopping Channels
SD channels with HD equivalents
Community & Government Channels
About a dozen local "alternate" channels that I want to evaluate before adding to "My Channels" (so the 79 has the potential of reaching 90-something depending on my pending decisions).

I was going to be a lot more aggressive about filtering channels, but I want to be sure if I am searching for something, that I don't eliminate the chance of finding it on an odd channel that I would normally eliminate.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

HerronScott said:


> ... haven't found any reason for us where having the SD channels or ones that we don't watch show up in searches etc is causing any issues.


In my case, I use a ton of Wishlists. With a OnePass, having extraneous channels isn't a big deal. But using an ARWL you will get many extra recordings you don't want on those undesired channels.



dianebrat said:


> Sort by channel name in Grid Guide and remove SD dupes.


This is a great tip. Never thought about looking for dupes that way.:up:


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## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

astrohip said:


> In my case, I use a ton of Wishlists. With a OnePass, having extraneous channels isn't a big deal. But using an ARWL you will get many extra recordings you don't want on those undesired channels.


I also use a lot of general ARWL's, and I've started weeding out some of the things they pick up by weeding their carriers out of the channels list.

For example, I have a ARWL for 2015 Movies (Category Movies/Keyword 2015). And one for 2014, and one for 2013, in a nice little tier.

I had no idea how many Movies the Lifetime Network and UP churn out every month until those ARWLs got rolling. So I started weeding out channels like Lifetime, that I would never watch normally, and only pollute my ARWL results.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

> I also use a lot of general ARWL's,...


For my fellow newbs...
ARWL = Auto-Record Wishlist​
See pg.31 of Roamio Viewer's Guide:


> After youve created the WishList search, your TiVo box will automatically record any shows matching your search, unless you decide to turn the auto-recording feature off. Each autorecording WishList Search and its upcoming recordings are marked with in To Do List and the OnePass Manager.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

dianebrat said:


> Sort by channel name in Grid Guide and remove SD dupes





astrohip said:


> This is a great tip. Never thought about looking for dupes that way.:up:


That was a TCF FTW tip from when the Premieres and the HD Menus came out, it saved me a TON of time.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

astrohip said:


> In my case, I use a ton of Wishlists. With a OnePass, having extraneous channels isn't a big deal. But using an ARWL you will get many extra recordings you don't want on those undesired channels.
> QUOTE]
> 
> I only have a few of those searching for movies we missed at the theater and do specify HD.
> ...


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## dfreybur (Jan 27, 2006)

Now that we cut the cable the number of channels in the list is small enough that I just set the list of channels we receive. Channels I don't want or that get terrible reception I tell my Tivo I don't receive them. I display in Channels Received mode and now I use One Pass and other streams for searches.

Back when we had cable the list of channels was so long that method was cumbersome so I used a hybrid strategy. In the channel list I bulk removed a vast number of channels I had no interest in. Most of the sports, ads, religious, languages I don't want to learn and so on. That still left a hundred channels so I marked a bunch as my favorites. I displayed the grid in Favorites mode but it used the much larger list for searches and Recommendations.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

I kill them sort of on an as-needed basis. I've had issues with HD/SD before, so I killed all the duplicates right off the bat. And then I think I killed one spanish channel because stuff from it was showing up in a OnePass.


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## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

I wish the messages we get; ie "X channels are gone, Y have been added by TWC" wouldn't automatically add the new channels....should be an opt in thing.


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## clordatl (Sep 1, 2013)

If you decide to invest the time in doing this, it's smart to also keep a Word or Excel doc somewhere with the channels you have decided you want.

Comcast added a bunch of channels in my area a while back and somehow it reset all my channel selections. Because I had a spreadsheet with the numbers saved, it was much easier to restore my previous list.


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## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

I invested the time in doing this, and it was worth it to prune all the garbage and SD redundancy out of my guide...

I did end up creating a spreadsheet to keep track of the choices I've made... I am only concerned about unannounced channel changes (which I hope doesn't actually ever happen).


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

> Is It Worth It To Manage TiVo's Channel List?


Yes.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

MikeekiM said:


> I invested the time in doing this, and it was worth it to prune all the garbage and SD redundancy out of my guide...
> 
> I did end up creating a spreadsheet to keep track of the choices I've made... I am only concerned about unannounced channel changes (which I hope doesn't actually ever happen).


I don't know what your cable company is, but Time Warner lineup changes are usually announced. The unannounced changes that I remember have always been for something I wouldn't want to watch.

The kmttg program allows one to download a .csv file containing your current channel lineup, including whether you've marked it not receivable.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

When I get an email indicating a channel added I can ignore it. Since my guide is set to Favorites, and new channels are never favorites, I don't care. If you like that channel up/down to surf, well that's different.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

andyw715 said:


> I wish the messages we get; ie "X channels are gone, Y have been added by TWC" wouldn't automatically add the new channels....should be an opt in thing.


Yeah, it will auto add non-premium channels. The whole interface needs an overhaul (it isn't even using the HDUI) and should let you decide on that screen which channels to include. It can be quite a hassle when I get a big list of changes for channels I don't receive.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

JoeKustra said:


> When I get an email indicating a channel added I can ignore it. Since my guide is set to Favorites, and new channels are never favorites, I don't care. If you like that channel up/down to surf, well that's different.


It will still affect auto-record Wishlists though. This is why I manage my channels through a spreadsheet and keep them up to date.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I didn't read all of the replies, but some reasons:
1) Limit your channels in the grid or if you view by time (though [email protected][email protected]$ you can't view by time and view only favorites anymore, that REALLY sucks)
2) Your regular recordings OR suggestions won't try to record on channels you don't actually receive..

e.g. if you don't "manage" your channels, simply looking through the guide or searching for a show will find airings on channels you don't actually receive.. so you will have it ATTEMPTING to record on channels you don't actually get (or ones you don't want).. this can actually cause you to NOT get shows you DO want if the bogus recordings are higher priority. (and if a show is repeated among different channels, if it thinks it recorded on one you DON'T get, you won't ever get the real recording on the channel you DO get)

After doing your initial setup of the channels you think you get, you can do a not too tedious flipping through channels.. when you find a channel you don't want or don't receive (you get the cablecard notice that you don't receive the channel), hit GUIDE, LEFT, go down to remove from all channels.. then go back and hit channel up again and repeat...


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## cherry ghost (Sep 13, 2005)

andyw715 said:


> I wish the messages we get; ie "X channels are gone, Y have been added by TWC" wouldn't automatically add the new channels....should be an opt in thing.


I got 17 deleted and 23 added yesterday. Never seen that many at one time before.

One of the deleted was SHO2HD and now regular Showtime is the only HD Showtime.


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## Anotherpyr (May 6, 2015)

The auto addition deletion feature can be a pain, but I got tired of all the SD channels and repeat channels in the guide. So I cleaned out everything that wasn't HD from the guide. So now I can relax and use the record on any channel feature without getting SD recordings.


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## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

I only a half dozen or so SD channels in my lineup now...

There's a couple of SD channels that don't have HD equivalents that I have some interest in... plus, HBO only has 1 HD channel, and even though I hate to watch movies in SD, for some reason I simply feel better about having 5-6 HBO channels for my $19.99/month... I hate to think that I am only buying one channel for $19.99...

But I guess in truth, that's exactly what I am doing...


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

MikeekiM said:


> plus, HBO only has 1 HD channel, and even though I hate to watch movies in SD, for some reason I simply feel better about having 5-6 HBO channels for my $19.99/month... I hate to think that I am only buying one channel for $19.99...
> 
> But I guess in truth, that's exactly what I am doing...


Yeah, I wasn't thrilled at the dearth of HD channels offered by Comcast at our location, and even less so to see only one HD channel for each of our premium channels.

On the other hand, nearly all the premium channel content *is* available in HD via the Xfinity On Demand app, including the movies being aired on each channel.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

krkaufman said:


> Yeah, I wasn't thrilled at the dearth of HD channels offered by Comcast at our location, and even less so to see only one HD channel for each of our premium channels.
> 
> On the other hand, nearly all the premium channel content *is* available in HD via the Xfinity On Demand app, including the movies being aired on each channel.


Generally HBO2 is just re-runs. Rebuilt systems have at least 2 HBO's in HD, non-rebuild systems generally only have one.


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## DocNo (Oct 10, 2001)

Two things that would greatly enhance this cumbersome management experience:

1. Let me manage the channels I receive from the Tivo web site like I can with season passes (love that for bulk editing) 

2. Let me sync my selections to multiple Tivo's

I also have a third after setting up my parents directv DVRs - auto hide SD channels!


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## Chuck_IV (Jan 1, 2002)

DocNo said:


> Two things that would greatly enhance this cumbersome management experience:
> 
> 1. Let me manage the channels I receive from the Tivo web site like I can with season passes (love that for bulk editing)
> 
> ...


Yea, I miss the auto hiding of the SD channels. My wife still goes to channel 3 for one of the locals she watches, since with Directv, when you went to the normal channel 3, it was in HD. With Charter, 3 is SD and 783 is HD.

An HD autotune would be really nice, at the very least. If that's not feasible with the way things work, then at least give me a manual way to assign a redirect channel so that it I type in 3, it redirects me to channel 783. I'd take the time to set this up manually if needed.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Chuck_IV said:


> Yea, I miss the auto hiding of the SD channels. My wife still goes to channel 3 for one of the locals she watches, since with Directv, when you went to the normal channel 3, it was in HD. With Charter, 3 is SD and 783 is HD. An HD autotune would be really nice, at the very least. If that's not feasible with the way things work, then at least give me a manual way to assign a redirect channel so that it I type in 3, it redirects me to channel 783. I'd take the time to set this up manually if needed.


Time Warner is rolling this out, so yes it's possible.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Yeah HD auto mapping can be done via the CableCARD, no need for TiVo to do anything. Some cable systems have already done it.


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## Tanic (Jun 22, 2004)

I noticed after the recent update that the channel lists on my Roamio Plus differs from the Minis. Specifically on the Plus, "All" displays every channel enabled by the cable card, while My Channels displays channels that I checked in the list. However in the Mini, when selecting All, it only displays the channels that are checked on the Roamio, essentially the same list as My Channels. Is there a way to fix this?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Tanic said:


> I noticed after the recent update that the channel lists on my Roamio Plus differs from the Minis. Specifically on the Plus, "All" displays every channel enabled by the cable card, while My Channels displays channels that I checked in the list. However in the Mini, when selecting All, it only displays the channels that are checked on the Roamio, essentially the same list as My Channels. Is there a way to fix this?


No, the host computer controls the guide display. However, the "A" option still works for channel up/down. You could put in a product suggestion, but I doubt it would help.

Note that the guide on a Mini can be altered, but only "up" to the guide shown on the host. That's confusing. Try the three options on the host and see what you can change on the Mini. You'll see the pattern.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Tanic said:


> I noticed after the recent update that the channel lists on my Roamio Plus differs from the Minis. Specifically on the Plus, "All" displays every channel enabled by the cable card, while My Channels displays channels that I checked in the list. However in the Mini, when selecting All, it only displays the channels that are checked on the Roamio, essentially the same list as My Channels. Is there a way to fix this?


Similarly, if the host DVR is set to display Favorites, the guide on any connected Minis will be restricted to seeing the channels on the Favorites list only. It was discussed recently, here, and I view it as a bug -- though I haven't submitted a complaint directly, myself. It seemed such an obvious bug that I hadn't thought submitting a report would be necessary.

See this thread: http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=533195


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## Tanic (Jun 22, 2004)

Thanks for the quick answers, the pattern was not immediately obvious. Saved me from several hours with a hammer.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

krkaufman said:


> You can edit the channels included in 'My Channels' or 'Favorites' either by editing the Channel List, through the Settings menu:
> 
> On TiVo DVRs prior to the BOLT:
> TiVo Central
> ...





tlc said:


> *BUT*, I want to mention one Grid Guide feature that I hope doesn't get lost in the switch. With the GG, you can left click onto the channel (instead of a show), then select to get the option to remove the channel from your Channel List. This is super helpful when setting up a Tivo because we have a huge # of SD channels, most, but not all, of which have HD versions. The easiest way to delete the SD channels that have HD versions is to pick them off in the GG with alphabetical ordering.


Is it possible under TE4/Hydra to customize the channel lists via the Grid Guide, as you can under TE3/Encore?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

krkaufman said:


> Is it possible under TE4/Hydra to customize the channel lists via the Grid Guide, as you can under TE3/Encore?


Yes.

I have 200 channels. It's faster for me to use the channel list.


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## swerver (May 18, 2012)

no mention of kmttg? rather than write out a spreadsheet yourself let kmttg do it for you. You can backup your channels (and thumbs, and 1 passes) and restore them to any tivo. kmttg does a ton of stuff and can get complicated but these features I mentioned are very simple to do right out of the box, just a few clicks.


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## Furmaniac (Apr 3, 2018)

swerver said:


> no mention of kmttg? rather than write out a spreadsheet yourself let kmttg do it for you. You can backup your channels (and thumbs, and 1 passes) and restore them to any tivo. kmttg does a ton of stuff and can get complicated but these features I mentioned are very simple to do right out of the box, just a few clicks.


I just take screenshots of many things on my TiVo screens and store them on Android my phone in a TIVO folder in the Gallery.
1) I store shots of each Channel page from Settings showing what's checked and what's not checked.
2) Then I store the Favorites channels
3) The Hydra wishlist name screen is stored and each individual wishLists' Titles, Keywords & actors screens are stored.
So much easier than using a spreadsheet and so handy on your phone!


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Furmaniac said:


> I just take screenshots of many things on my TiVo screens and store them on Android my phone
> ...
> So much easier than using a spreadsheet and so handy on your phone!


Who was suggesting/recommending a spreadsheet? The screenshots approach sounds a whole lot more cumbersome than using KMTTG for exports/restores of the settings data.


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