I know, I should probably post this one on the Tivo forums, but it's always easier to just get questions answered on this forum...

I'm channel flipping and I come across some syndicated Buffy episodes. I figure... Hey, I could probably stand to watch a few of these now that I've got a Tivo. (I was never a Buffy watcher before.)

But I don't want to hit "season pass" because I'm not that into it yet. I just want to tell the Tivo that it would do well to record them for me once in a while. So I press Thumbs Up while watching the Buffy episode.

Then, later the episode ends. And on the same channel, another episode airs afterwards.

But the Tivo doesn't record it.

The Tivo has two tuners and it's not busy recording anything else at all at the moment.

I thought the point of Thumbs Up was to tell the Tivo what I liked and didn't like. Why wouldn't it record another episode of something I just thumbs-upped?

give it more thumbs up.

1) Did you leave "Recorded Tivo suggestions" turned on? (it on be default)
2) Is there free space on the drive? Tivo won't record a Suggestion if there is no space, priority goes to the stuff you recorded.

Did you leave "Recorded Tivo suggestions" turned on?

Yes, I believe so. It still records suggestions for me as far as I can tell.

Is there free space on the drive? Tivo won't record a Suggestion if there is no space, priority goes to the stuff you recorded.

Depends on your definition of free space. There are a bunch of existing recorded Tivo Suggestions still there, stuff that I haven't watched nor deleted. Stuff that I didn't specifically ask it to record nor did I thumbs-up it. I would think it'd tend to get rid of those in favor of things I specifically thumbed.

Like Derek says... give it three thumbs up. Did you only press it once?

give it more thumbs up.

I'm afraid to give any given show a whole bunch of thumbs up unless I really mean it.

I suppose if I were really serious about recording buffy episodes, I should just flat out tell it to do so. I don't know what I'm complaining about.

So what exactly does the thumbs up mean to the Tivo? Do the various levels have specific associated behaviors?

Depends on your definition of free space. There are a bunch of existing recorded Tivo Suggestions still there
That would be free space.

It takes a while for TiVo to leave what you like and don't like, it does this based on what you've recorded and what you given thumbs up or down too.
I also think that it compares your viewing habits to other peoples viewing habits, so lets say you had a season pass for Friends - it would looks at what other people with SP for Friends commonly also had SP for and Suggest that.

If you'd like to have the odd Buffy episode on had to watch when your bored do set up a season pass for it, reduce the number of episodes it hangs on to down to one or two, and make sure it is down the bottom of your Season Pass list (the most recently added SP is down the bottom by default).

Have you added a bigger HDD to it yet?

Its not an exact science! But its generally advised this way...

Three Thumbs Up: Use this for one or two of your favourite shows.

Two Thumbs Up: Use this for your top ten or fifteen favourite shows.

One Thumbs Up: Use this for all programmes you like

It will take Tivo weeks to learn your habits and likes/dislikes (at least mine did) so don't expect it to record everything if you only gave it one thumb up on one occassion.

Mabe if you gave Buffy one thumbs up every day for a week it would start to record on its own.

Okay, understood. Thanks guys!

Don't worry, we'll write you an faq

Thumbs Up appears to be a hint rather than an order to record something ... In a case like this I usually make a Season's Pass and just delete it later if I change my mind. It would be cool to have a "Time Trial" season's pass that would let you subscribe for like two weeks and at the end it would ask if you wanted to convert it to a full season's pass. Oh well. To dream.

Thumbs Up appears to be a hint rather than an order to record something

Right, I just thought, that since it didn't have anything better to do, a gentle hint should have been enough.

Why not make an auto-record wish list and put it at the bottom of the season pass manager. That way it'll grab it IF nothing else is interfering with it.

Another option would be to set up a season pass or wishlist and set it to only keep 1 or 2 episodes. I do this for quite a few shows. If they're only on rarely (like my Skiing wishlist), I set them high priority.

HTH.

-Zeke

I think that's the best way to do it, set up a season pass or a wish list and give it very few episodes to keep.

It's a shame they stopped selling Tivo's in the UK. We even had a staff discount scheme. I'm still kicking myself for not taking it up...

The advantage of lots of thumbs is you know it can never conflict with anything you have a season pass for, period.

I didn't know that - that's cool. I haven't used thumbs much, except for some real dogs that it has thrown in Suggestions.

-Zeke

You want to buy mine?

I go out of my way to give 3 Thumbs Down to any reality show. Who knows if anyone is getting my point, I have Suggestions turned off anyway..

of course 3 thumbs down doesn't override a season pass either, which unfortunately means my "railroad" wishlist item records "eskie railroad" every time.

Is it possible to set up a specific DO NOT RECORD match? Specifically to block out individual (or groups) of titles you definitely do not want the Tivo to ever record for any reason.

My DirecTV Tivo was just delivered to my brother this morning (he's making sure it works for me the little bastard). And I'll have it in my hands on Saturday. Woohoo. This All In Wonder recording was getting to be a little too manual.

Bruno

Is it possible to set up a specific DO NOT RECORD match? Specifically to block out individual (or groups) of titles you definitely do not want the Tivo to ever record for any reason.

Would you laugh if I told you I was too lazy to ever find out?

I didn't see this posted by anyone else but I could be wrong

The Tivo builds a list of shows to record as suggestions and only records them if it hasn't received any remote input within 30 minutes I believe. There is some remote codes you can do to make it rebuild this list or this thread

Yeah, I should start documenting codes in software 5.2.

and only records them if it hasn't received any remote input within 30 minutes I believe

Aha, that would explain it.

Cool lists of codes, thanks! According to one of those pages, though, most of the backdoor codes don't work on the DirecTivo.

One thing I looked for, but couldn't find, was something to control the amount of skip in the 30-second-skip feature. When I use the feature, it works as advertised, skipping exactly 30 seconds. But by the time I skip the correct number of commercials, my delay in starting the skip and my delay between skips makes it add up to greater than an even multiple of 30. So I land somewhere about 5-10 seconds into the feature when I'm done. I'd like to see if a 29 second skip works better, for example. Anyone know if this can be done?

I just hit the back 10 seconds button (the loop) if I need to.

Oh is THAT what that button is for. Darn, another one I have to program into my 15-1994...