Official AVS TiVo HD Topic! - Page 102

I think you're right, I recall reading something about that, I must have had the old HR10-250 on another address other than "0".

Just installed new Tivo HD yesterday, and I can hear a slight rythmic noise. Like the hard drive seek/click. Not very loud, but I don't know how loud is too loud and something to worry about. Sometimes it is completely silent and generally can't hear it if volume is normal. Sit about 6' away

Wonder if I should return to blockbuster for replacement

I had a Sat60 Sony years ago and kind of remember the same noise and it lasted for years


Thanks

Dan

TIVO will be "busy" for about 2 days downloading and organizing information. Expect somewhat sluggish response until that's over.

Works great after that!

jtm

thanks

How do you turn TiVo Suggestions off on a TiVo HD? I can't find anything in the menus that will do it.

Never mind, I found it, it's under the Restart menu.

Clearing suggestions is not the same as disabling suggestions. To disable, as per FAQ #105:

Messages & Settings -> Settings -> Recording -> Suggestions

Found it, thanks. What's odd is I swear I checked every menu for that "Recording" menu and it wasn't anywhere that I could see. I must have overlooked it somehow.

When following the instructions on page 1 #209 for an upgrade

Is the new drive jumpered as master when in the Tivo and slave when using WINMfs to install the software? If there are instructions for this I missed it and appologize
Or is it that if I am using a SATA connection from an external dock is jumpering unecessary.

Thanks

There are no master/slave jumpers with SATA. That's only used with IDE/ATAPI.

Thanks

Do I use HDDScan to adjust the AAM on the new drive before or after I use WinMfs to restore the info backed up from the original drive?
I see where it says WinMFS will format the drive, so will HDDScan "see" the drive before WinMfs has done its thing

I am considering using the WD EADS drive
Thanks

It doesn't matter. You can use HDDScan to set the AAM before or after you do the backup/restore.

Thanks again
I sure am keeping you busy with questions

I asked a question some time ago about a "already set for recording" indicator in the grid style of guide, but I didn't pursue it quite far enough.

In my father's unit (which I bought for him in April of last year), I found that - if a program was set to record - sometimes the grid-guide would show an indicator of this, and sometimes it wouldn't, which was really puzzling.

Now I have bought a unit for my own household (installed last week), and I have found that there is NEVER an indicator in the guide that a program is set for recording...

So I don't get it: 1) why should my unit operate differently than my father's? And 2) why WOULDN'T there be an indicator...?

This is substantially more important for MY household (than for my father's), because there are THREE of us who might set recordings, and it's quite irritating when looking at the guide that you can't see immediately whether a recording is set or not...

granted, if you don't know (which even I don't usually, since my memory isn't as good as it used to be and we have three different recording units) when you push the record button, if it's already set, the screen that comes up asks whether you want to keep the recording settings the same (or something like that), which is suggestive of a recording already having been set and FROM which screen you can just back up into the guide again...OR I guess the thumbs up can be taken as an indicator (though of course you have to actually scroll up and/or over to the program to see that)

Thankfully the other two units (a Sony and an LG) DO have an indicator for recordings that are already set...

The guide only indicates what programs are currently recording. It does not indicate future recordings.

To see a list of future recordings, you need to pull up the To Do List (as a shortcut, press '2' from the TiVo menu). I have this programmed as a sequence on my Harmony remote's LCD (picture).


Your unit doesn't operate differently from your father's.

As for why TiVo doesn't have this feature...there's some history to that. The original TiVo software was designed in 1997-1998 without an electronic program guide (EPG). The TiVo software used in public trials during 2H 1998 had guide data, but no EPG; you had to use search to find upcoming programs. We don't know whether this was due to Gemstar's unwillingness to license their EPG patents or TiVo's unwillingness to pay Gemstar's asking price for a patent license. Quote from EETimes in 02/2009:


TiVo and ReplayTV first demonstrated their DVRs to the public at CES in January, 1999. At CES, TiVo lead ReplayTV in core DVR functionality (i.e. ability watch an existing recording while recording something else), but ReplayTV had an EPG and TiVo did not. TiVo spent the next three months on a crash effort to implement an EPG that [they hoped] would not infringe on Gemstar patents.

TiVo went from having no EPG at all in January, 1999 to shipping their product with the "TiVo style" EPG in March, 1999. At the time, TiVo did not know that it would take ReplayTV another 8 months to ship their first units (late August, 1999), so design decisions were made that would allow the company to meet its goal of March release. There was also some concern that the EPG would have to be disabled if Gemstar sued.

Despite their efforts on a non-infringing EPG, TiVo was sued by Gemstar for infringement in early 2000. TiVo agreed to to license the Gemstar patents in 2003. At that point, there was nothing stopping them from adding a traditional "grid style" EPG.

As for why a better EPG hasn't been implemented since, TiVo says it would require a major re-engineering effort. Their software was originally designed for use without an EPG, so more seamlessly integrating the two is apparently no small task. TiVo evidently feels that certain EPG improvements for the existing software are/were not worth the costs involved. TiVo has made minor improvements to guide navigation, such as 90min skip (with << and >>) and day +/- (with replay/skip); they also implemented caching to improve responsiveness.

A major redesign of the TiVo software is believed to be underway for new DirecTiVo and standalone DVRs; an improved EPG interface would almost certainly be a part of that. That new software could debut with the new TiVo hardware coming to Best Buy in early 2010. It's worth noting that TiVo released software for Comcast's Motorola DVRs back in 2007 that included EPG record indicators for both individual and series recordings (screenshot), so they do have some experience with that particular feature.

For a variety of reasons, I don't expect to see any major changes on the existing boxes. If you require future record indicators in the guide, then you may want to wait for the new Tivo hardware coming in early 2010. I too would like guide record indicators, but for now, I don't think it's too troublesome to click a button on my remote for the To Do List.

Lack of recording indicators in the guide has always been an annoyance for me, especially when EVERY OTHER DVR HAS THEM. But Tivo always knows what's good for you, and finding/recording shows with the guide ain't it.

So it sounds like what you are saying is that current TiVo HD owners should not expect any major software upgrades for their hardware other than tweaking to fix bugs and to possibly add more PPV services.

I agree. Although the TiVo software is remarkably rich in features, far more so than any other DVR software on the market, its failure to identify in the guide programming that is scheduled to record is a significant weakness.

More than 85% of TiVo owners pay monthly or yearly fees, so TiVo has got to give them a reason to stay. If TiVo stops releasing updates with new features, then people will stop paying the monthly/yearly fees.

By major changes, I was referring more to the underlying code rather than specific features. I do expect to see new features. I think we could see more season pass options, improved search, streaming MRV, and possibly DLNA. I think we might see a refresh of the UI in 16:9 SD if that does not require fundamental changes to the way the software was designed.

It is always possible that work being done on the next DirecTivo will be compatible with the existing TivoHD and Series3 boxes. If that's the case, then we could see more substantial improvements. I just don't see TiVo revamping much of their underlying code only for the older TivoHD and XL hardware. And I don't see TiVo doing anything to the interface on the TivoHD or XL that would generate a lot of support calls.

I don't have any inside knowledge wrt what TiVo is doing for existing boxes, so take this all with a grain of salt.

Especially true when you consider that according to bfdtv's brief historical, they have had EPG functionality for the past 10 years. One would think that if they were ever going to do it, they would have done so by now. Having said that, although I too would like identifiers in the guide for scheduled recordings (color coding would be nice), if I had to pick between the "to-do list" and a guide identifier, I would value the to-do list more.

I'm one of those people who is happy with the UI as it is, but of course I love new features as well. Let's hope they keep coming -- along with the continued bug fixes. After weeks of trouble-free NetFlix streaming under v11d I had an Internet drop out the other night that locked it up. Unfortunately it was in the middle of recording a NASCAR race at the time for my wife so the reboot cycle cost me some honey-points.

And aside from the TiVo proper, I would like to see them continue development on TiVo Desktop. I'm sure they realize their hardware can function very well as a home network streamer for DVD's stored on a disk farm. I would love to see even the basic features of StreamBaby (subdirectory organization and video streaming) incorporated into TiVo desktop.

bfdtv, thanks for that history on the lack of recording indicator, that's something that's bothered me about TiVos for years, but until now, I had never heard a reasonable explanation as to why they don't have that feature. Anyway, mystery solved, thanks.

I subscribed to Netflix and started streaming its content to my S3 two weeks ago. Fortunately, Netflix streaming has not yet caused any system crashes, although it did fail to stream HD content a couple of times. I was able to solve the glitch by rebooting my wireless wireless, which communicates with the S3 via a TiVo wireless adapter. All in all, I give Netflix's streaming service high marks. It's the only one out there that makes economic sense, it seems to me.

thanks for the info and opinions regarding a recording-set indicator in the guide...

I have to admit, I already managed to blow it in the unit I got last week. I am CERTAIN that I set a recording for the season-opener of House last night, but there's no recording ---all I can think of is that I did something subsequently that removed it, but I don't know what! I know that later, when I was paging ahead in the guide, I set a series recording when I was looking at the House for NEXT week, but I don't see how that would have deleted a previously set recording for this week

(...my housemates, who generally watch House, are going to be mad at me...)

House doesn't premier until next week, so if it shows in your TDL you're fine, you haven't missed anything.

Same here. I ran upstairs and rebooted the Verizon wireless router and that cleared up the connection problem. But in the mean time the TiVo locked up on me. I agree the NetFlix service with streaming as part of the basic service fee is very economical. I can't see paying a stiff fee for every stream like with Amazon or Blockbuster and then be saddled with a time limit or lose it. I simply wouldn't use it.

My only other real beefs are that the guide doesn't tell you when a program is "new", and that you can't scan for "air" and "cable" channels separately.

Perhaps someone here can help.

My Tivo HD is randomly restarting, about once a day for the past week. It just goes to the 'Welcome Powering Up' screen and stays there, never actually starting up. I have to unplug and manually restart it about 3 or 4 times before it actually goes through the cycle and restarts. Otherwise, it stays frozen on that welcome screen.

Sounds like something is going screwy to me. Any ideas anyone? I have a lifetime subscription so obviously I want this one fixed - any ideas how much it could cost?

First: Some additional information: What is attached? (Expander?) Is there anything non-standard about your DVR we should know about? Do you hear anything unusual?

I do have the WD DVR expander attached. Even if I unplug that completely then attempt to restart it freezes. When it does start back up, I have not lost any recorded shows. That leads me to believe the expander is not the cause.

Everything else is standard and I have not modified anything. The only 'addition' if you want to call it that is that Netflix streaming is activated on it.

I do not hear anything unusual at all when running regularly or when it is frozen. When frozen, just the single green light on the front left is lit...nothing else.


The Tivo is almost 2 years old as it was purchased in the fall of 07. It doesn't seem like something that we could 'help' so if this continues to happen I will have to send it in.

Thanks again!