# Idea for another way of determining recording priorities...



## chrispitude (Apr 23, 2005)

Hi folks,

Right now I have about 60 shows in my season pass list. I expect this number will go up when my fiancee moves in.  I have found that occasionally, I miss a show that I really wanted to see. For example, I realized after the fact that I missed the season finale of Boston Legal because it was a 2 hour show and apparently something else took priority.

The disadvantages of the current prioritization method are:


it's just one Massive Ordered List (MOL)
it's not always clear what you are giving up to get something else recorded (your "opportunity cost")

I am thinking that it would be nice to have an alternate method of specifying priority. Say you want to record a new show, C, and it conflicts with shows A and B. The user would basically make choices that show which show they prefer over the other show:

1. I prefer C over A.
2. I still prefer B over C.

Instead of keeping a MOL, we simply tell Tivo which shows we prefer over which other shows. Instead of a Season Pass manager which shows this MOL, there would be a "Season Pass Priority Manager" which would show existing or unresolved conflicts, and the user could alter their decisions. If conflicts arise in existing shows because the schedule changed, a message could appear in the inbox that newly-detected conflicts were found.

Personally, I would greatly prefer something like this over the MOL. This would especially be useful when multiple people in the household have shows in the list. She will have no idea how much I do or don't like a show in a MOL, whereas if a specific conflict comes up between her show and my show, we can decide which of us wins.

For ease of implementation, we could actually ride this idea over top a MOL, and simply alter the ordering based on these conflicts. It's just a dependency tree.

Thoughts?

- Chris


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

chrispitude said:


> I am thinking that it would be nice to have an alternate method of specifying priority. Say you want to record a new show, C, and it conflicts with shows A and B. The user would basically make choices that show which show they prefer over the other show:
> 
> 1. I prefer C over A.
> 2. I still prefer B over C.
> ...


A couple of things. 
One, wouldn't this (if fully implemented to replace the current Season Pass Manager) cause most shows to have an undefined priority with regards to each other?

If it only asks when there is a conflict, then the TiVo doesn't know which show is more important for anything that hasn't had a conflict yet. Which is a bit worrying if you head off for a weeks vacation and expect the TiVo to record shows while you are gone. What is it going to do if a pair of shows come into conflict for the first time (due to a guide data change while you are gone)? It won't know which to choose, and you won't be there to tell it.

Two, this would seem to allow you to specify circular priority lists, which the TiVo couldn't resolve.

1. I prefer C over A.
2. I still prefer B over C.
3. I now prefer A over B.

Now if this has completely replaced the Now Playing list, this isn't a problem until all three are on at the same time, since a conflict between any two is defined. But you can't map this onto the existing Now Playing List, because it requires that A be both higher and lower rated that C. (A < C < B < A).


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## petew (Jul 31, 2003)

I'd actually like the option to define an SP as "Should always Record", then when two "Should always Record" shows conflict Tivo generates a message or email. That way there's a positive alert when shows normally on different days clash due to specials. 

These "Should Always Record" shows wouyld still be prioritized at the top of the SP manager and if you don't intervene the exisiting priority will resolve the conflict. But at least you got a warning. 

Along the same theme there could be a "record if nothing conflicts" priority which places shows at the bottom of the SP Manager, below the point that new SP's are inserted. I would use this for auto record wish lists.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

petew said:


> Along the same theme there could be a "record if nothing conflicts" priority which places shows at the bottom of the SP Manager, below the point that new SP's are inserted. I would use this for auto record wish lists.


Isn't that what it does now.........New SPs go to the bottom, unless during the course of setup it sees a conflict, then it tells you what the conflicts are. If there are any, you can tell it to "record all". If you say "record as shown", or whatever the message is, it will still put it at the bottom of the list.

Am I missing something? Sorry if I did.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

jlb said:


> Isn't that what it does now.........New SPs go to the bottom, unless during the course of setup it sees a conflict, then it tells you what the conflicts are. If there are any, you can tell it to "record all". If you say "record as shown", or whatever the message is, it will still put it at the bottom of the list.
> 
> Am I missing something? Sorry if I did.


I think he was asking for a way to permanently set one or more show so they stay below the new SP insertion point.

So that every new SP has higher priority than these shows, even if there wasn't a conflict at the time you added the new SP.

And for some cable shows that might make sense. I want to see Mythbusters, but I don't particularly care which of the 14 or so showings over the next two weeks my TiVo records. Therefore I want any new SPs to have higher priority than Mythbusters so I don't accidentally block a recording that doesn't repeat with a recording of Mythbusters which does repeat.

Currently I just do that manually. After I add a SP I go bump it up the list past all the cable shows that endlessly repeat. This would simply automate the process.


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## hefe (Dec 5, 2000)

jlb said:


> Isn't that what it does now.........New SPs go to the bottom, unless during the course of setup it sees a conflict, then it tells you what the conflicts are. If there are any, you can tell it to "record all". If you say "record as shown", or whatever the message is, it will still put it at the bottom of the list.
> 
> Am I missing something? Sorry if I did.


It does, but only if there is a conflict as you are setting up the list.

But I do agree that I'd like to see a proactive warning or indicator of some kind that tells you a Season Pass item will not be recorded. Even with 2 tuners, I have missed a show here or there when that happened.


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