Even more reason to list the tris in one spot. There's got to be way more tris broadcast than curling. Heck, I think OLN covered the whole ITU series last year fer pete's.

You might e-mail TiVo and suggest they see if they can add triathlons as a separate listings category. The categories actually come from the company that provides the listings, Tribune Media Services, but I believe TMS has listened to TiVo's suggestions in the past. (Maybe a year and a half ago, they reorganized and added a bunch of categories, including most of the "minor" sports that are there now.)

Couldn't you just do a Wishlist with keyword "triathalon"? That's what I did for sumo wrestling, and it works a treat.

Wishlists always surprise you, though. I had one for "Bruins", hoping to get the hockey games, and ended up with several documentaries about bears. I'd completely forgotten the origin of the team name.

Also, I had one for "yoga" hoping to get a variety of workouts, but ended up with more talk shows & new segments about the surging popularlity of yoga than actual yoga sessions.

Perhaps appending that wishlist to be only in the category of sports? I do that with some of my wishlists- KINGS & Sports/Basketball, JULIA & Interests/Cooking, STRONGEST & Sports.

Quick question: can you tell the difference between a recording of best quality vs. the other quality levels?

I'm new to tivo and was unsure which one I should be recording at. TAR, of course, will be done best quality. :) I'm wondering what others do in this respect.

I record everything on medium quality. I am not a stickler for how things look, but I can tell that basic is too, well, basic.

The one thing that I can spot while using medium is that if there is a big block of a similar, but not solid image on the screen (like a lake or a bunch of trees), then it appears pixellated to me, which is a smidge annoying. But for me that made more sense than recording shows in higher qualities and having less room for shows.

I think you're onto something for TAR, if you plan on archiving the shows later to DVD or tape. In that case, best is probably a good idea.

I record everything I plan on archiving on VHS in Best. Everything else is recorded with Medium quality.



This happens for me but for only about 2 seconds and then it clears up and I don't see too much of a difference between Medium and Best. Does yours stay pixelated for the entire program?

No, it sounds like you and I see it the same -- the water on the river (or similar) looks pixelated instead of a smooth body of water. Once the next thing is on screen, it looks fine. But if the river stays on screen for 10 seconds, I think I'd see the large pixels for 10 seconds. Fortunately, empty river shots don't tend to stay onscreen for 10 seconds, so it ends up being a non-issue.

Someone told me that it has something to do with Tivo's reproduction of "repeating images", which I interpret to mean that the Tivo replicates a certain quantity of the video signal fed to it, based on the quality level chosen. The lower the level, the less data is processed by Tivo and then shown on screen. So when you have a very large portion of the screen showing water, or trees, or any sort of repeating images, Tivo is more likely to "give up" (a technical term, heh) and not reproduce as much data. The effect of this is that the viewer sees large pixels instead of small ones that blend seamlessly to the human eye.

I'm glad to hear that you sense it looks essentially the same on Best and Medium - I'm glad to read that I'm not missing out.

The only things I put on Best are basketball games and Angel (because I save it to tape). I use Basic for things like The Daily Show, That 70s Show, cooking shows, The Simpsons, Family Guy- basically anything without a lot of movement or cartoons that are fairly simple. Medium for everything else. The only problem I have with Basic is that sometimes my closed-captioning gets a bit scrambled.

Yeah, any sporting event gets the "Best" treatment (the scrambled pixel thingy can occur quite a bit with soccer games if at a lower recording quality) but "Medium" is almost always good enough for everything else. I'd even go "Basic" for news or types of programming where the people on-screen are just sitting there.

I got a DirecTiVo for Christmas (thanks Mom and Dad!), and I swear, I don't know I did without it. I went a little crazy recording all the New Year's Eve/Day marathons, and now I have something like 40 hours already recorded. Luckily, the kind parents also included a pre-hacked 160G HD.

I found myself recording Buffy eps I already had on DVD, just in case I really wanted to watch, say, "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and couldn't spare the extra 30 seconds to load the DVD.

It's an addiction. A wonderful, beautiful addiction.

Oh--I tried to find info on this on TiVocommunity.com, but that site makes my head hurt. Does anyone know how complicated it's going to be for me to extract video from the DirecTiVo HD to my computer? I have a DVD burner on my laptop, and I'd prefer to archive that way instead of VHS. I'm fairly tech-savvy, but not a hard-core hacker by any means, so if it's going to be too convoluted, I won't bother. If anyone could point me to a helpful website, I'd much appreciate it.

To the best of my knowledge, direct video stream extraction is still a pretty complex process and involves telnetting into your Tivo and installing some programs on it.

I don't think it's a permitted topic at tivocommunity anyway... You'd prolly have to look elsewhere for details.

Grats on your DirecTivo. Do you have your dual tuners set up?

Thanks, kieyra. I did get the dual tuners set up, and it's just brilliant. I love being able to record two things simultaneously and watch a third. I got incredibly frustrated last night watching "normal" TV with my family--I kept reaching for the fast-forward button. What did we do without TiVo?

According to this, TiVo has been announcing all sorts of new goodies at the Consumer Electronics show. Suddenly I need a bigger hard drive and TiVoToGo. Bastards!

I just ordered a TiVo, and I am so excited. I'm pretty sure that it will arrive in time for the new season of American Idol, which is one of the big reasons I ordered it. I know that there's Basic-Medium-High video quality--is there anything in-between? What do people recommend for taping AI? I was thinking Medium, so that the obnoxious swooping camera angles don't go all choppy on me. (Maybe High--but I only got the 40gig model, so I don't quite have enough room for that. I'll probably be upgrading it sooner than I expect.)

There's Basic, Medium, High, and Best; the recording capacities on the 40-gig models should be something like 42, 32, 22, and 12 hours, respectively, at each of those quality settings. Back when I had only a 30-gig TiVo, I recorded just about everything at Medium, and I would see a little bit of pixelization when there were fast camera movements and/or a lot of different small objects on-screen at the same time. (Other than the pixelization, though, Medium actually looks a bit better than an SP-quality VHS recording, to give you some idea.)

The good news is that you can set the recording quality individually for each Season Pass, or even each individual recording, so maybe you'll want to have TiVo always record "American Idol" on High, or even Best, and everything else on Medium...no problem there.

Considering that Fox seems intent on filling their entire prime-time schedule with American Idol, odds are good that I won't be recording it on Best, unless I never want to record anything else ever.

Here's the deal...I want to hook up my TiVo to my cable modem instead of using the phone line...but the two are in adjoining rooms, and there's nothing I can do about that. Has anyone here hooked up their TiVo to a cable modem, and if so, what did you have to buy to make it happen?

A primer about hooking up your TiVo to a home network.

SenatorTCJ: You may want to look into getting wifi - that's what I have and it works great. Both my TIVO and my computer have an "always-on" connection to the internet.

I'm really starting to hate the one-minute overlap that is happening between NBC and other network shows. It's preventing the lower-priority show from recording (i.e., if I record Tru Calling at 7 it won't let me record Will and Grace at 8 because it acutally starts at 7:59 CST.) I'd prefer to miss one minute that the entire show, but under "Change Start Time" I can only make it earlier, not later. Is there any way around this, other than a manual recording?

Eden: You could do what I did and write to NBC explaining that you are refusing to watch any of their shows until they end this ridiculous start time policy which was clearly designed just to fuck with people like us!

Or I think you're stuck with manual record - it's actually not that bad. I have one set up for the daily show, because it only airs M-T, combined with multiple airings, which just confuses my tivo terribly. I actually set a season pass to record every monday at 11 pm, tuesday at 11, etc., and then I never worry about it again. You don't need to reset it to manually record W&G each week. Your list of recorded shows will even say "W&G" rather than just "manual recording".

After getting advice and encouragement from y'all, I now have TiVo! It took three shots at Guided Setup because my local channels are set up in TiVo's listings as cable (the cable provider entry actually reads "Rainbow Satellite..." with the name of my condo) due to the custom channel numbers. Satellite and then satellite plus antenna did not work, but a call to TiVo support found the answer.

I bought a splitter so I can feed the signal directly into VCR separately from into TiVo, so I can watch/tape something different on VCR than what I am watching/recording on TiVo, and even watch a third thing on TV if recording on both devices. Just finished that reconfiguration and it looks like it is good to go. I've requested the software upgrade so TiVo can interact with my wireless network adapter and as soon as that downloads, I will connect it to my home network.

Again, thanks for your help, much appreciated! I'm sure that after I actually start using it, I'll be back here raving. Can't wait for TiVoToGo... Can you tell I'm excited? Yay!

Ooooh am I glad I found this thread! I am now a proud TIVO owner for about a week and I. Love. It! It costs a lot and I'm disappointed that you need a subscription, but those are my only real complaints here. A nameless corporation issued me some of their credit which let me buy a TIVO and pay it off rather than fork over all that dough at once. Mama like!

I never dreamed I could catch every single true crime show that ever existed! And tell me I'm not the only that records "24" and pauses on all the greatest Jack moments! [small voice]I TIVO Dr. Phil when I have to work[/sv] but I ff through most of the famewhoring.

One question though, my TIVO remote doesn't seem to respond to volume and power buttons, I'm almost sure this is because of the IR setup. My cable box has no IR hookups that I can find so basically I just set them in front of the green LED numbers on the box. This works ok for channels, but otherwise fails. Any suggestions or do I just have to upgrade my box? I thought it was fairly new, but I suppose not.

katymo - you have to program the remote to work with your TV. See chapter 4 of the installation guide.

Lofty ideas, what kind of splitter did you get? I ask because I tried the same setup when there were too many things on at the same time on Friday night when I'm not home to watch any of them. For a couple weeks I thought that the cable was out or there was something wrong with it because it wasn't working (I'd get either another channel or a 1/2 hour of "channel will be available shortly). But after consultation with the cable company I found out that some splitters will filter out the signals for certain channels - like the one I was trying to record.

Thanks sparky. I just don't want to do manual recording because I don't want to record repeats or figure out what happens when they move. I found this over at the TiVo community forums where they are calling the 1 minute early think Zuckermania. They don't have much of solution, either, except buying lots of TiVos or not watching NBC shows at all.

kellygirl - I bought the cheapest one at Radio Shack with a 2-to-1 connection.

I have DirecTV. Local channels come in on the same feed, but box is turned off to receive them. The setup I use will ony work for channels that don't need the box to be turned on - if the box is on, it will overwrite the other stuff (basically all static). Actually, the satellite box is "on" at all times, but TiVo controls whether it is used as the input source or not.

I split the feed that is coming out of the DTV box via coax cable and use only a composite video (yellow-red-white) from DTV to TiVo and TiVo to TV. Coax from splitter into VCR and VCR into TV directly for other feed. TV tuned to "video" input for TiVo, and to "TV" for other, using channel 3 to see VCR. Does that make sense?

Oh ok, thanks lofty ideas! It is in there, somehow I had glazed over it. Works now! Ahhh I'm in love.

Not that anyone cares, but here is the e-mail that I sent to NBC about their new scheduling policy:



I admit that I get a little snippy, but I couldn't help myself.

Edited to add: I'll let y'all know if I get any response.

Well sparky, you can put me in the "caring" camp. I am interested in what they say -- in particular, whatever bogus business rationale they claim as part of their response.

NBC has a partnership with TiVo. One would think they wouldn't want to alienate all of their TiVo subscribers.

Thanks for the response lofty ideas. I also just bought a splitter from Radio Shack. I'm guessing that the Direct tv feed must be different from the cable one and not have the same kinds of signals that need to be decoded. Although now it occurs to me that rather than splitting the signal as it comes from the wall I should split the feed from the cable box into the tivo and vcr. D'oh!

Very good letter Sparky. I too am very angry at NBC. I have Friends on a season's pass and it never seems to catch the last part which comes with the credits.

Last night I manually set it to catch both shows at 8:00 and 8:30 because my daughter had deleted them by accident. Wouldn't you know I didn't catch the end of either one? Also... when recording ER I always don't get the beginning because I'm watching CSI and recording it for my son.

I hate this "creative" programming ploys.

Well, it's been 10 days since I sent the letter, and I've received nothing in return. Not even an automated "thank you for your time" response...

Bump!

I just read this article on TIVO and it's gathering of data and viewing information from its subscribers and I wondered what you guys thought about it. I don't have a TIVO but have been thinking about getting one a lot lately since I'm such a TV junkie.

TiVo watchers uneasy after post-Super Bowl reports

Doesn't bother me at all. So many of the shows I like crash and burn, it'd be nice for my voice to be counted against the horde, if that made any sense. Maybe it's naive of me, or maybe I just haven't fully thought out the implications, but it doesn't faze me that TiVo or Neilson might know what I watch. If they care that I once recorded CSI Miami only to watch the Ben Browder parts, or that I'm actively not recording anything on NBC due to their stupid little timing plots, that's perfectly fine with me. I can hardly get more junk mail than I do now, can I?

My DVD doesn't record, but my computer has a DVD-R, so I've been toying with the idea of connecting TiVo to my computer to see if I could record to disc. Has anyone recorded with this method successfully? Is it possible without the home media option?

It actually hasn't really bothered me too much, becuase, as far as I recall when I signed up for service, they were pretty up front about the fact that they gather user data on an aggregate level. When I started reading those types of articles, my first reaction was, "huh. I guess they really do do that."

Doesn't really bother me, either.

How the hell is Wild Asia at all similar to Futurama? Of all the sometimes strained connections in the "Similar Programs" lists, that one I just do not understand.

Doesn't bother me either. Now I hope they tell FOX that I watch Arrested Development over and over and over....

I like the fact that they record that stuff. Like the rest of you it makes me feel that for once what I watch may actually be noticed by networks!

As I understand it, those lists are based on the number of people who have both shows on their Season Pass lists. Maybe all three TiVo subscribers with a "Wild Asia" season pass happen to also have a "Futurama" season pass?

Several of the hardcore hackers over at the tivocommunity board have actually examined the datapackets the Tivo sends back, and verify the only even slightly personal info that gets sent is your zipcode. And if even this bothers you, you can easily opt-out.

Get a Tivo--it will change your life. :-)

You know what Fox would do with this info: "Oh no! This user will never buy the DVDs! Damn TiVo!"

I'm looking for recommendations about the Time Warner "TiFaux" DVR, especially from folks in Manhattan. I've already gotten a thumbs-up from a friend, but as a cheapo (or covetous Jew, as Cartman would say) I usually wait years before getting any new gadgets. I'm good with the VCR and only have one timeslot conflict, but won't be able to resist the DVR for much longer, especially at $8 a month.

Anyway, I'm most interested in any negatives about the TWC DVR setup - I know it doesn't record tangentially related programs like TiVo does, which is a good thing. Any annoyances or other reasons not to get the new box?

I've had it since October and it is a godsend. You can even record two shows at once and watch a 3rd (although I think it might have to be one that's already been recorded; I forget) and it's got a decent amount of storage. I say grab it ASAP.

I'm in Manhattan and I'd beat even Mark Messier senseless if he laid a hand on my TW TiFaux - had it since August.

I absolutely love it, and it will change your life. I can't think of any negatives about it, though I've never had TiVo so I don't know if there's something I'm missing. I too, was happy that it doesn't record things on it's own, it also doesn't do recommendations. It also can't record based on a name, like I believe TiVo can pick up everything with like, Jennifer Aniston in it if you so desire, the TW doesn't do that.

However, it has two tuners, so it can record one thing while you watch another, or record two things at once (though you have to be watching one of those). It's done very well with managing series, it has great options like record all/record first run/record only on primary channel/etc. which keeps me from getting like 6 versions of The Apprentice every week.

It was just as easy to set up as the regular box - one wire in, one out, plug.

The only thing I don't like - and that only applies if you have a TW digital box now - is that it doesn't turn to channels for you like the digital box does, that was my favourite feature of the other box. It more than makes up for it, for me. I also just got a combo VCR/DVD-R so now I can record off the TiFaux onto a DVD (the TiFaux allows for speeding through ads, so hit the pause button and you get an edited DVD) and it all just rocks.

I'll second that and raise you a word. I absolutely loathed trying to get a VCR to tape anything but with the TWC-DVR, you can record two shows at the same time, program recordings a week in advance, and do a "season pass" of sorts by recording every broadcast of a series (repeat or only first-run). Pretty damn good for not much more money out of pocket and soooooo easy.

My only bug with it (and I don't have TiVo experience) is that I can't burn shows to a disk or offload from the DVR to my PC, so you have to purge every now and then. ETA: beezer--a DVD-R works with the DVR box? Hellacool! I had read you couldn't record the shows onto other media.

I don't know if you have DTV already or have the old analog box, but aside from the occasional irritating reset of the whole box (which won't necessarily delete your stored data), I love it. And the live TV feature? Fucking. Brilliant. I'm always missing the great catch, the mumbled dialogue, the presidential misspeak that I need to see again. (I don't know if DTV has this feature, since I went from the knuckle-dragging analog to DVR in one leap.)

I forgot to even mention the beauty of the live tv pause, which I know people know, but until you start using it, you can't understand. . Answer the phone, go to the bathroom, run out to the deli, don't miss a thing. The TW also has an 8-second replay button, which I use way more than I thought I would.

quotidian It's a television hooked DVD-R, not to my computer which is what I think you meant. I got a combo VCR/DVD-R box, sets up just like a VCR, can record from tv to either one, and can record from VHS to DVD or vice versa. If you didn't mean computer, ask away about what I've got. I dunno if it's possible to connect the TiFaux to a PC DVD-R though, sorry.