The Official AVS TiVo "Series4" Premiere topic - Page 70

I found that out last night...I figured it would use one tuner since it was same channel but alas it doesn't

Thanks for the info. Maybe tonight I'll try that one a couple series (start and end at the actual time)

One of my timers I have to set to start early and thats because they start the show early (TMZ...yeah I know)....they always start around 6:28:40 to 6:28:50 so if I have it start at 6:29 its already going

yup I'm just south of the river (down by Mistake Lake)....I got a Premiere (bundle deal thorugh Tivo) and used it less than 12 hours. Every station cut out constantly and I'm using an outdoor antenna. Returned it and to Tivo's credit they were understanding about why I returned it and they got ti back and refunded all my money (sans shipping) within 2 days

Got the Series 3 yesterday and have just been "playing" with it setting timers of shows that I sometimes watch just to see what it can do and what it can't.
I do like the fact on the front panel it shows the program that is being recorded (no need to turn TV on if you forget what program you're recording)

Series 3 tuner is way stronger and havent had any dropouts. Lowest showing signal (other than the low powered religious) is 29 which shows around 89/90

Conversely, I've *never* had a 30 minute FOX comedy *not* get chopped by a few seconds at the end ... This occasionally happens on other stations as well, but you can always count on FOX

It is interesting that they (FOX) always seem to end on time leading into the 10pm news hour ... so ... draw your own conclusion.

However you slice it, the D* DVR's are much better at handling the situation. In fact, I don't recall this being a significant issue on my now retired HR10-250 (using OTA source.)

I hear you talking about padding and I routinely have to pad Pawn Stars to hear the last joke. But what I was wondering, unlike the Sony DHG, the Premier that I have does NOT seem to have the capability of starting a recording early. Both start and end times can go later. But NEITHER can be set to earlier. At least not that I've found.

When I had my premiere operating (for 12 hours before I sent it back because the tuner sucked) I could set it to start early. Never did get to try it though

Since you are used to how the Sony's padding works, you should look at the Premier's method of doing it again (I was initally confused by this also). The Sony allowed you to start recordings early or late, and end recordings early or late. On the Sony you moved left for earlier and right for later. The Premier only lets you start early and end late. In both cases you move the setting to the right. You cannot start late, or end early with these settings on the Premier.

Mark

I bought a TiVo Premier over the holidays, and also had tuner issues (the same symptoms as you describe). I exchanged it for a different one, and it also had the tuner problems. The problem is that these tuners are easily overdriven (even with my unamplified attic antenna). I added a variable attenuator to the setup, and my bouncing signals in 60s jumped into the 90s, and were then stable. Unfortunately since I had to attenuate the signal, my weakest stations (that I never watch) could no longer be tuned. I haven't had any more problems with reception since.

Mark

^^^interesting that even a non amplified setup was strong enough to cause issues, sounds like a bad design to me. I should try your theory on my TIvo HD. Like I said in a previous post I get 98%+ on most all my stations and 99.9% of the time everythings fine but occasionally I get a bit of brief pixelazation on 1 channel(my favorite that I make the majority of my recordings, CBS). I've never been able to catch it live(I almost exclusively time shift programs) so by the time I see it the issue has been long gone. I guess I could try a simple attenuator, maybe 5db or so and see what happens. All the stations I watch are strong so I doubt I will have issues with weak stations. I'll give it a try, thanks for the tip

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=1296f&d=antennas-direct-20db-variable-attenuator-for-vhf-uhf-hd-off-air-reception-1296f&sku=853748001293

Works for me.

At 8 AM Wednesday - I had the Opposite Happen - the Comcast Signal
dropped enough to cause a problem. I had to take out my attenuator
to get the signal back.

I've got a 30db Pre-amp in my setup that is split three ways. My two tuner S4 box pulls in the same channels as my S3 boxes did. But I think the signal meters are different. My S4 boxes can be down to 30 on the meter and still have rock solid reception, while I think my S3 boxes showed a higher level on the signal strength meter when it would start having reception issues. Although it has been awhile since I messed around with S3 boxes.

Did you check the signal level or SNR? It's very odd of have a fluxuation in a cable signal level. Mine has always been 90 to 95 since day 1. I have fiber to about two miles away then old coax.

Thanks for reminding me, I have a similar variable attenuator, now just to find it...........
I think my fixed attenuators are all to high a db to use in this case(-15-20db) whereas the variable one goes down to something like 3db min.

My cable line fluctuates quite a bit.. mostly from low signal level to lower signal level.
ALL things considered Joe, I think it's YOU (and Jed) that have the ODD CableCo!!!

No argument there. I sometimes think my location belongs in a book under the "Believe it Or Not" heading. It might be the lack of sun or high sulpher level in the air.

Thanks for the correction. I was trying to start a recording later, since I had another recording running a minute late and something else on tuner 2. This obviously caused a conflict and all I wanted to do was delay one recording by a minute ( since it's all trash up front ). It sucks not having that flexability. Doesn't seem like it would be that hard of a thing to add. And yes, I'm still bitter about the sony...:-(

TiVo's conflict resolution will do that automatically. When you are in the position of both tuners actively recording and there is a couple minute overlap between two consecutive recordings, the TiVo will clip the beginning of the lower priority recording. It's just a different way of doing things that you will have to get used to.

I improved my OTA Premier signal reliability, thanks to the info on this thread...

A little background... I have two Tivo Premiers and am DXing OTA with a Digitenna DUV-XF. I'm 30-55 miles from the transmitters and have done everything I could to ensure a strong signal to my tuners including a CM7777 pre-amp at the antenna and a CM3412 distribution amp inside. The distribution amp significantly increased the signal to each of the tuners (as measured with my Digi-Air signal meter), but I was having lots of drop-out and pixelating problems. I began to question the quality of my new Premier tuners.

The attenuator suggestion on this thread gave me an idea. Although I was successful in getting a strong signal from my antenna to the tuners, I may also be inadvertently getting some strong multi-path signals to my tuners too. Solution... I removed the distribution amp and replaced it with a splitter (essentially attenuating the signal). As expected, my Digi-Air meter did verify a weaker signal at my tuners, but the drop-outs were significantly reduced! I may have also been having some clipping of the stronger signals. Ironically, it appears that I may have been too successful in increasing signal strength!

Thank you for the attenuator idea... Suddenly I'm very pleased with my Premier's OTA performance!

I do wonder, did you ever check the signal strength with your TiVo? Having some numbers as reported by the TiVo could help others in the future. Glad everything works.

Yes I have used the TiVo meter, which is not necessarily a signal strength meter but, from what I understand, more of a signal quality meter. After I reduced the signal strength (measured in decibels), the signal quality meter on the TiVo increased (measured in ?). Personally, I was fixated on improving signal strength. It never occurred to me that higher signal strength (decibels) could result in lower Tivo meter readings (quality).

TiVo meter readings per my set up AFTER attenuating my signal...
-My distance stations improved about 10 TiVo points bringing them above the signal "cliff" resulting in a more stable picture. This is where I believe I was having the multi-path problems.
-My closer stations used to be 90 TiVo points but would occasionally swing wildly causing drop-outs. This is where I believe I was having the "clipping" problem.

I hope this helps!

You can do this by substituting a manual recording for the scheduled recording that you want to change. For example, if you want to record from 8:01 to 8:30 instead of 8:00 to 8:30, just delete the scheduled recording and make a manual recording that runs from 8:05 to 8:30, and set it to start 4 minutes early.

To do this, in the HDUI go to "TiVo Central > Manage Recordings & Downloads > Set Up a Manual Recording." After you enter the recording and press select, select "Modify Recording Options" to change the start time to 4 minutes early.

Forgive a TiVo newbie for getting confused. I thought I understood the overlap thing, but maybe not.

If I have two programs that both start at 10PM on channels A & B, and also want to record a program on channel C that runs from 8-10:01PM, will the TiVo clip the last minute from that program as long as it has the lowest priority? Or will it clip the 1st minute from one of the other two that have higher priority?

The Sony DHG made this so easy because you could edit a program to end early!

I just had something like this happen, I'll translate my experience into your example. It seems the TiVo only clips the beginning. If the 8-10:01 recording was the lowest priority, the TiVo would not record it. I had to make the 8-10:01 recording the highest priority and then the TiVo informed me it would clip the beginning of one of the lower priority recordings.

Ouch! That is not what I want at all. I was hoping it would clip the last minute of the low priority. Wonder why TiVo only provides an option to extend start/end times, not shorten them.

Thanks for the response even if it wasn't what I hoped to hear.

Edit: Now that I think about it, I guess just doing a manual recording would solve the problem. It doesn't happen all that often that I'll be overly inconvienced.
Edited by Possumgirl - 1/25/13 at 3:58pm

Which would you be more ticked off at -- missing the first couple minutes or missing the last minute where you find out who the killer is or whether or not they hopped into bed together? I can figure out what happened in the first 2 min by the first commercial; I would be way more ticked off if I watched for an hour and missed the punchline. IMHO TiVo got it right.

I think TiVo is right most of the time. A lot depends on the show you are recording. There should be a list where you can look up whether the first minute is "previously" or the "crime to be solved". Same with the endings. Some are "next on...." and some go to the last second. Shows are different and nothing will make everybody happy. That ended years ago along with fixed "seasons" and the 60 minute show. I guess I watch too much television since I can usually predict when the show starts after a commercial. We are blessed with that skip or FF button.

As Joe said, it really depends on the shows involved. Guess the ones I watch don't have anything significant going on in the last minute (particularly if the show extends that darn one minute over the hour). Which is why I'd love to see TiVo add the feature to let the user end a recording early if they choose to.

It would also help if the listings indicated a show was more or less than 60 minutes. Some online guides, like titantv.com and zap2it.com, display a small offset for shows, like Castle, since it always starts at 10:01 (or later). Just a thought.

The TiVo Tribune listings do. At least they do for me and OTA out of Philly. I regularly see ABC shows listed as 9-10:02 and the next show as 10:02-11. I never pad anything except live sports and have never missed a beginning or ending.