# Managing 450 HD hours



## bmgoodman (Dec 20, 2000)

So I've heard some stories about "user profiles", though I don't think there's been any official information on that topic. So I'm wondering if there are currently ANY tools on Roamio to help manage 450 HD hours? I'd like to replace 2 Tivos with 1 Roamio, but I'm not sure my wife will want to sift through hundreds of hours of my *junk* to find the pearls that are *her* shows!


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Currently no. There was mention of a three column My Shows coming in a future update possibly this year, but no explanation of what that would mean.


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## PoobBubes (Jun 30, 2010)

The iPad app helps (at least versus my Premiere UI).


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## JoeTaxpayer (Dec 23, 2008)

PoobBubes said:


> The iPad app helps (at least versus my Premiere UI).


I use the iPad app. How do you feel it's better than the TiVo menu for program organizing? I use iPad to see multiple TiVos, and erase while not at the TiVo. Aside from that, it's still a list of shows.


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## monkeydust (Dec 12, 2004)

I'm don't understand why we haven't gotten the ability to do folders in the last 13 years since Tivo has been around. Doesn't seem like it would be a hard thing to program. But, then again, this is the company that still has SD menus on a HD box...


This is another reason why I'm staying with a 1TB box for now. I really don't see a reason to store that much programming on a Tivo. I watch a show and delete it and am unlikely to watch again (if I do, thats why we have Amazon or Netflix). The only shows we watch over and over are Disney movies for my daughter.


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## PoobBubes (Jun 30, 2010)

JoeTaxpayer said:


> I use the iPad app. How do you feel it's better than the TiVo menu for program organizing? I use iPad to see multiple TiVos, and erase while not at the TiVo. Aside from that, it's still a list of shows.


I can scroll down the list of shows much faster than I can waiting on the Premiere UI. I know it's not the same as sorting options, but every little bit helps.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

monkeydust said:


> I'm don't understand why we haven't gotten the ability to do folders in the last 13 years since Tivo has been around.


TiVo desperately needs to add the ability to have custom folders (directories) so users can file programs where they want and set season passes to point to directories of their choice. It is not rocket science, I don't know why they haven't done it yet.

I don't know why I bought a "Pro" when a Plus would have been fine, knowing I will NEVER need that much space and organizing that much video will be a nightmare.


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## JoeTaxpayer (Dec 23, 2008)

PoobBubes said:


> I can scroll down the list of shows much faster than I can waiting on the Premiere UI. I know it's not the same as sorting options, but every little bit helps.


Got it. And I agree. When I watch a show on Bedroom TiVo and need to erase of other rooms, the iPad App is what I prefer.


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

crxssi said:


> It is not rocket science, I don't know why they haven't done it yet.


Probably the same reason TiVo hasn't added retry on tuning failures (to ameliorate T/A issues).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

innocentfreak said:


> There was mention of a three column My Shows coming in a future update possibly this year, but no explanation of what that would mean.


I think the 3 column view would allow you to see shows in a group without actually having to go "inside" the group. Should allow for quicker navigation in/out of groups.

I'm still hoping they eventually add some sort of user profile feature. With 6 tuners and 3TB of space this thing just begs for multiple users. But wading through a bunch of crap someone else recorded is no fun for anyone.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> I'm still hoping they eventually add some sort of user profile feature. With 6 tuners and 3TB of space this thing just begs for multiple users. But wading through a bunch of crap someone else recorded is no fun for anyone.


I am just one person. I would much rather see custom folders and recording destinations first. Although after THAT, having profiles would be a good addition


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## tivogurl (Dec 16, 2004)

crxssi said:


> I am just one person. I would much rather see custom folders and recording destinations first. Although after THAT, having profiles would be a good addition


What would profiles give you that custom folders wouldn't?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I don't think we'll ever see custom folders. Because the folders on TiVo are not actually folders, they're groups. The same show can appear in multiple groups. For example say you download an episode of a show from Amazon. That same episode will appear in the special Amazon folder, the shows folder and the HD folder. The same thing happens with wish list recordings. I guess they might someday add a way to setup a sepecial group with your own criteria as to what goes into it, but it'll never be like a file system where you can move recordings to custom folders.


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## swerver (May 18, 2012)

Groups are fine instead of folders, if they are already doing that then it shouldn't be too much work to add an interface for custom groups. Functionally it provides the same thing folders would, only better since like you said you can tag the same show to be in many groups. For instance, I'd like to add some groups like kids shows, or movies, or dad's stuff that no one else is interested in. Go to the groups ui, multi-select everything I want in the group, then maybe a way to order the groups or hide ones you don't want like HD shows.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Dan203 said:


> I don't think we'll ever see custom folders. Because the folders on TiVo are not actually folders, they're groups. The same show can appear in multiple groups. For example say you download an episode of a show from Amazon. That same episode will appear in the special Amazon folder, the shows folder and the HD folder. The same thing happens with wish list recordings. I guess they might someday add a way to setup a sepecial group with your own criteria as to what goes into it, but it'll never be like a file system where you can move recordings to custom folders.


That could work if they let you tag shows. This way you could create custom folders for tags such as genres, movie or tv, premiere, reruns, etc.


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## swerver (May 18, 2012)

And allow season passes to be tagged in a group too.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

See that seems way too complex and I just don't see that ever happening. I could see them allowing custom groups based on basic criteria already in the data, like genre, but allowing you to manually tag shows or add custom data to effect grouping just doesn't seem like something they would do.

User profiles are much more likely to come to fruition.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

swerver said:


> And allow season passes to be tagged in a group too.


Exactly.

It really doesn't matter if they are tags or groups or folders, it is really all the same thing.... as long as the programs will NOT appear as a single endless list.

We should be able to create custom WHATEVER and then be asked on season passes where to place the recordings (or what tag or group or whatever to use).

It is not complex. The UI already supports grouping by show and grouping by the TOTALLY USELESS "HD Recordings" "folder". They just have to, at a minimum, add some code in the SP stuff, and preferably a menu option under each recording that lets you "move" the stuff.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I'm not talking about how complex it would be to do, I'm talking about how complex it would be for an average Joe Schmoe to actually use. TiVo has never really be a fan of adding geek centric options. I remember at one point they were going to complete revamp the Wish List section to include advanced Boolean search parameters, they even beta tested it briefly, and then the whole thing got scrapped because it was deemed too complicated for the average user to use. 

I could see them maybe allowing you to create custom groups based on a few hard coded criteria (i.e. Movies or Dramas) but I doubt we'll ever see anything like you're describing.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> I'm not talking about how complex it would be to do, I'm talking about how complex it would be for an average Joe Schmoe to actually use. TiVo has never really be a fan of adding geek centric options. I remember at one point they were going to complete revamp the Wish List section to include advanced Boolean search parameters, they even beta tested it briefly, and then the whole thing got scrapped because it was deemed too complicated for the average user to use.
> 
> I could see them maybe allowing you to create custom groups based on a few hard coded criteria (i.e. Movies or Dramas) but I doubt we'll ever see anything like you're describing.


Well, all I can do is hope your expectation is incorrect 

I personally think wading through dozens and dozens of screens of programs is very user unfriendly and most people out there understand the concept of folders and grouping (although probably not boolean searching, unfortunately).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Maybe that's what the rumored 3 pane My Shows will do. Break it down by category, or type, or something so it's not such an unwieldy list.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> Maybe that's what the rumored 3 pane My Shows will do. Break it down by category, or type, or something so it's not such an unwieldy list.


Most anything would be an improvement over what we have. Although I would still much rather have control over how things are categorized (as, I suspect, most of the people on these forums would).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

edit: Found this in the cnet review...



> Another new interface feature will be a three-column view of your recordings. Currently in the TiVo interface all of the recordings are kept under My Shows, a single list that's sorted alphabetically or by date. You can group all recordings of one show into one folder, but that's where the organization ends. *The new three-column view will allow you to filter recordings by categories like Movies, Kids, and Sports.* This feature won't be available immediately for Roamio, but is expected in about six months.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

SO does that mean 1 to 1.5 years?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If we don't see it as part of the Fall update then who knows. Could be complete vaporware and never show up.


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## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

I saw HD folder mentioned above. Does the Roamio still have the HD folder?

That thing is silly.


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## monkeydust (Dec 12, 2004)

andyw715 said:


> I saw HD folder mentioned above. Does the Roamio still have the HD folder?
> 
> That thing is silly.


Yes


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> I'm not talking about how complex it would be to do, I'm talking about how complex it would be for an average Joe Schmoe to actually use.


A lot of Joe Schmoe's seem to like gmail's "labels" feature and can figure out how to use it.

The only problem would be avoiding getting sued by google for the 10,471 patents they probably have on it .


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

tomhorsley said:


> A lot of Joe Schmoe's seem to like gmail's "labels" feature and can figure out how to use it.


I'm betting the vast majority of Joe Schmoe's don't even know what gmail is. 

Don't forget TiVo sells these DVRs to MSOs to, and they have to support all the morons who have a DVR installed by their cable company and can barely figure out which side is up on the remote


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> I'm betting the vast majority of Joe Schmoe's don't even know what gmail is.
> 
> Don't forget TiVo sells these DVRs to MSOs to, and they have to support all the morons who have a DVR installed by their cable company and can barely figure out which side is up on the remote


Well, just because a feature is available, doesn't necessarily mean someone has to use it or even understand it. Don't want folders? Then don't add any! Problem solved...


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Companies don't tend to add features unless they think they will benefit a large portion of their customers and/or will entice new customers to buy. I don't think this qualifies under either category. Given their apparently limited resources I think they'd be better served adding user profiles, since that might actually entice someone to buy a 6 tuner unit for the whole family.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

I would love for it to have user profiles and would like for me and my boyfriend to each see are own shows in a separate folder then I would like a user profile that has concert videos and movies and stuff we both like and want to watch in that folder. We just moved in together and my season pass is about 20 shows his isn't as many I don't think. But were sending back our 300HD hour 2TB Premiere for a 150HD/1TB Roamio but that's still going to be a lot of shows to sort through. I was hoping when we got the Premiere it would have user profiles cause 2TB is a lot to sort through.



Dan203 said:


> Companies don't tend to add features unless they think they will benefit a large portion of their customers and/or will entice new customers to buy. I don't think this qualifies under either category. Given their apparently limited resources I think they'd be better served adding user profiles, since that might actually entice someone to buy a 6 tuner unit for the whole family.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I envision there being folders for each user with the shows they specifically requested, and then an "All" folder with everything recorded in it. If two users requested the same show then only one copy is recorded but each person sees it in their list. Each person can yhen delete it from their list, but the show is not actually deleted until it's deleted from everyone's list or from the "All" list.


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## thenightfly42 (Mar 5, 2002)

Every recorded show already has tags in the description for the show ("Sitcom", "Sports"). I wonder how folders based on those tags might work.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

That would be nice!



Dan203 said:


> I envision there being folders for each user with the shows they specifically requested, and then an "All" folder with everything recorded in it. If two users requested the same show then only one copy is recorded but each person sees it in their list. Each person can yhen delete it from their list, but the show is not actually deleted until it's deleted from everyone's list or from the "All" list.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

thenightfly42 said:


> Every recorded show already has tags in the description for the show ("Sitcom", "Sports"). I wonder how folders based on those tags might work.


I think that's what the 3 pane My Shows is going to do. Have a way to group recordings by genre.


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## JoeTaxpayer (Dec 23, 2008)

I'm someone that would like folders. I have 3 groups - My kid's shows ('nuff said), the show I watch with my bride, and the crap I've accumulated but would like set aside such as rock concerts I watch/listen to while in my workshop. When my wife and I are together it would help keep the list just showing what we'll watch and avoid discussion of my 26 episodes of "Woodsmith".


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

JoeTaxpayer said:


> I'm someone that would like folders. I have 3 groups - My kid's shows ('nuff said), the show I watch with my bride, and the crap I've accumulated but would like set aside such as rock concerts I watch/listen to while in my workshop. When my wife and I are together it would help keep the list just showing what we'll watch and avoid discussion of my 26 episodes of "Woodsmith".


You could do that via profiles. Profiles wouldn't have to be keyed to a specific person. You could setup one for the kids, one for just you and one for you and your wife and then access the one that matches your needs at that moment.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Rose4uKY said:


> That would be nice!


If you have more than one person using it, yes it would. And if you don't, then probably not (or not necessarily).

But an option to create custom folders and direct recordings to those is nice for BOTH multi-person situations AND single-person situations. Then you can do whatever you want!

[You could approximate custom folders using profiles by a single person, but it is not necessarily the same thing and could be much, much more limited]


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I think a single TiVo used by multiple people is a more likely scenario and that's why I think TiVo is more likely to implement profiles than custom folders. Then again knowing TiVo we may never see either one.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Dan203 said:


> I'm not talking about how complex it would be to do, I'm talking about how complex it would be for an average Joe Schmoe to actually use. TiVo has never really be a fan of adding geek centric options. I remember at one point they were going to complete revamp the Wish List section to include advanced Boolean search parameters, they even beta tested it briefly, and then the whole thing got scrapped because it was deemed too complicated for the average user to use.


Was it more complex than the extra include/exclude kinds of options we can put on wishlists now?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

mattack said:


> Was it more complex than the extra include/exclude kinds of options we can put on wishlists now?


There was, at one time, a much more complex version of this. It never made it to the public because it was deemed to complicated to use. Instead we got the watered down version we have now for the sake of simplicity. I suspect any features we see with regards to enhanced grouping will also be watered down for the sake of simplicity. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong.


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## GmanTiVo (Mar 9, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> I think the 3 column view would allow you to see shows in a group without actually having to go "inside" the group. Should allow for quicker navigation in/out of groups.
> 
> I'm still hoping they eventually add some sort of user profile feature. With 6 tuners and 3TB of space this thing just begs for multiple users. But wading through a bunch of crap someone else recorded is no fun for anyone.


 2TB S3 LT owner here, been awaiting the new Roamio (skipping the XL4) and we are in essence 4 different and unique users, wife, 15 yr old and 12 yrold daufgters and myself.... 129 season passes. Sometimes I find myself wadding through 4 or 5 screens of groups to get to what "I" want to watch, very annoying 

I would love to be able to have 4 or 5 "main" users folders in the Now Playing, so I can click on mine and see only my recordings and not all the teen, tween and lame stuff they records. :up:

I know the family, especially the girls, will immediately take over the nwe toy and i'll be back to square one as far as scrolling up & down through pages of crap.

G

..... of vourse I could buy multiple boxes, even used S3s with lifetime but then thw wife will moan about the pile of boxes in the entertainment unit (plz no comments, I know, entertainment center is for multiple devices, I am maxed out at 8 )

edit: I use the term group or folder without knowing how TiVo classifies or differentiates the two types, so to clear up any confusion, what I'd like to see have in the Now Playing is 4 or 5 User Labled folders/groups/whatever with each containing the recordings tagged by the user that recorded it or tagged in the Season Pass.

How hard is it to have an extra line to select in the season pass manager preferences screen something like: put recording in Gmans Folder?


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

Now that they have a box that is capable of holding 450 hours of stuff, and it is designed to be used as a central hub for the entire home, they need to implement MUCH better management tools. I liked how it was on ReplayTV where I could create folders for "Movies", "Relaity Shows", "Kids", etc ... This has always been a feature I wanted to see on TiVo as well, but it has now become essential if they want to fully realize the whole home DVR concept.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

Just to give you guys an idea of how large 3TB is, I moved 21 episodes of Justified on to my Pro last night, and it takes up only 4% of the available space. It truly is a huge amount of space, and with 6 tuners, it could easily be the only box a typical family would need.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

And to think my Sereis 3 only had 20 HD hours and I would get the message every so often that I had to delete something in order for something else to record. LOL! I know I am giving up a Premiere 2TB which is only 14% full with a ton of stuff on it and lots of suggestions for the Roamio Plus which is 1TB but that will till be plenty for just me and my boyfriend. My season pass list is only about 20 something shows once they all start back up again in the fall.

If stuff is copyrighted is there no way at all to transfer it to your computer or another Tivo? I have several Rock Concert videos I hate to lose. Also I was reading about KMTTG Tivo to go I think it is. I havbe Tivo desktop but is this different? I tried to download it and it was a zip file I googled it but it didn't completely work it said a directory wasn't found or something. I put in my media key and it never worked. I guess I can look for a thread on it on here but thought I'd ask.



gweempose said:


> Just to give you guys an idea of how large 3TB is, I moved 21 episodes of Justified on to my Pro last night, and it takes up only 4% of the available space. It truly is a huge amount of space, and with 6 tuners, it could easily be the only box a typical family would need.


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## tom22 (Nov 4, 2010)

andyw715 said:


> I saw HD folder mentioned above. Does the Roamio still have the HD folder?
> 
> That thing is silly.


The HD folder has been a very important forlder for me to have on my Series 3.

I might go 4 or 5 days without watching TV then come in and see I only had 12 tivo sugestions instead of a good selection to choose from of 30 to 40 because it recorded a number of things in HD. Or I could quickly see which of those I had purposely recorded were taking up space and could free space at a 5 to 1 ration by deleting them first so my tivo suggestions file would start being useful again.

Without it I would have no quick way to triage what was eating up memory space...very especially in TIVO selections.

As almost everything becomes HD it is not as important.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Rose4uKY said:


> If stuff is copyrighted is there no way at all to transfer it to your computer or another Tivo? I have several Rock Concert videos I hate to lose.


If the show has a red X when you look at from your other TiVo then it is protected and can not be transfered to another TiVo or to a PC. It's stuck on the original TiVo that recorded it. The only way to get it off would be to use a realtime capture device connected to the component outputs to capture it on the PC.


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## tom22 (Nov 4, 2010)

GmanTiVo said:


> 2TB S3 LT owner here, been awaiting the new Roamio (skipping the XL4) and we are in essence 4 different and unique users, wife, 15 yr old and 12 yrold daufgters and myself.... 129 season passes. Sometimes I find myself wadding through 4 or 5 screens of groups to get to what "I" want to watch, very annoying
> 
> I would love to be able to have 4 or 5 "main" users folders in the Now Playing, so I can click on mine and see only my recordings and not all the teen, tween and lame stuff they records. :up:
> 
> ...


I'm not sure about the "how hard can it be" part but the family story is funny.... I have a 16 year old boy and a 13 year old girl and have much of the same... I'm divorced (maybe my wife got tired of my focus on the competing entertainment devices - ; ) ) so that helped.

I'm one to bicker and bargain with my service providers every few years to be sure I'm getting the best pricing and also to provide some incentive for competitiors in providing - more- open highest speed interenet than the next one. I switched my internet to ATT and tried their U-verse (while mainting my cable tivo subscription for a month until I was sure) ...

... the way the package deals work and the steep discounts offered when I was (legitimately) canceling U-verse.. they were going to give me uverse on top of broadband and phone at a very low rate.

I considered making a rule that the kids would use U-verse for all their programming so I'd get 100% use of the Tivo....

... they revolted ... I'll need a bigger tivo and I'll need to sort through the files.


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## tom22 (Nov 4, 2010)

Oh.. I think there might be a technical limitation making a tagging system a bigger job than we might first guess.

They aren't set up for "Folders" within "Folders" are they ? For example.. if I go to the much maligned HD recordings folder (that I find useful to find good prospects to delete to free the most space) .. that folder no longer has shows grouped by show name.

I'm sure I would prefer to go to a list of all of my families recordings grouped together in folders by series name (as they are now) over a list of only my programs that didn't have my programs in separate groups. (having nova's mixed in with cold-case files would be more of a pain than having to pass over a folder than said The Simpsons , or Cake Boss or Toddlers and Tiarras or whatever they're watching now )


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If they added profiles then I assume the show groups would still work. If they added a custom folder option then you're right, their folders are only 1 level deep so it would just be a big list at that point.

There was a screen shot posted years ago showing profiles. Basically when the My Shows list was selected in the main menu the right side had selections for All, Mom, Dad, Jimmy, Susie, etc... I assume that when you selected a specific person My Shows would still work as it does now, with groups, but the shows listed would simply be filtered by the user that requested them.

Edit: Here's what I was referring to...
http://gizmodo.com/5056067/a-sneak-peek-at-the-new-tivo-user-interface


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> If they added profiles then I assume the show groups would still work. If they added a custom folder option then you're right, their folders are only 1 level deep so it would just be a big list at that point.
> 
> There was a screen shot posted years ago showing profiles. Basically when the My Shows list was selected in the main menu the right side had selections for All, Mom, Dad, Jimmy, Susie, etc... I assume that when you selected a specific person My Shows would still work as it does now, with groups, but the shows listed would simply be filtered by the user that requested them.
> 
> ...


Well it's been almost 3.5 years since the Premiere was launched and still no sign of profiles.

It would certainly be useful to organize my SPs by putting them in different profiles.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

It's been 3.5 years and the HDUI isn't even finished. I'm just hoping that the usage scenario for the 6 tuner box gives them incentive to prioritize profiles.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> It's been 3.5 years and the HDUI isn't even finished. I'm just hoping that the usage scenario for the 6 tuner box gives them incentive to prioritize profiles.


And/or custom folders


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