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Most of this Tips and Tricks page is reprinted with permission from
members of AVSForum. Thanks
to Michael Schwab for his hard work in putting it together and posting
this information and
for permission to reprint it.
Conflicting Season Passes?
TiVo resolves conflicts by giving priority to the first Season Pass
entered. Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down have nothing to do with resolving season
pass conflicts (that seems to be the general consensus). If you are
getting the message about season passes conflicting (often because there
are multiple showings of the show during the week), you are often told
that entering one as a manual recording is the only solution.
However,
there is a work-around (until 2.0) that let's you enter conflicting season
passes. It's a lot of work, but worth it. As JAB has pointed
out, the only conflicts that are seen are those that are in the ToDo list.
Here's the steps involved.
-
Enter
your season passes, starting with the ones at highest priority.
-
Whenever
you need to enter a new season pass (at a lower priority than the ones
already entered) that conflicts with a higher priority one, you'll
first have to go in to the to-do list and cancel all the conflicting
recordings of the higher priority show.
-
Next,
you add the lower priority show season pass.
-
Next,
you go back into the to-do list, and cancel all the conflicting
episodes of the LOWER rated show.
-
Now,
you can browse to each recording of the HIGHER rated show, and add it
back in (record this showing). Actually, you might be able to do this
and the previous step all at once (i.e. the conflict resolution may
let you cancel just the conflicting records when you try to add the
higher rated show back in).
kind of a pain, i guess. but until 2.0 comes out, it's what you have
to do."
(Posted by dinesh, who credits others in the past)
To
expand on this, you find out what's conflicting by attempting to enter the
lower-priority SP. Then, write down all the conflicting episodes
from the error screen, cancel out of the second SP setup, remove the
episodes from ToDo, add the second SP (it should work this time), then add
back all the episodes you removed (you did write them down, right?),
saying "Yes" when it asks if you want to cancel the conflicting
episodes of the secondary SP.
After
all that, you should find that both SPs exist, and you will get all
non-conflicting episodes of each recorded. Episodes that conflict
will have the first-entered SP recorded. However, if you happen to
notice in ToDo that the high-priority episode is a re-run, you can cancel
recording that episode, and, after the next successful call, the
lower-priority SP in that time slot will appear in the ToDo list (assuming
you haven't deleted the lower-priority episode too!).
Navigation Shortcuts From The Main Screen
The number buttons on the remote allow you to quickly "jump" to
some of the more common screens without navigating through the menus. Once
you are familiar with TiVo, these can save you a lot of time!
0
Show the cartoon intro sequence
1 Now Showing on TiVo
2 TiVo's To Do List
3 (does nothing)
4 Search By Name
5 Browse By Channel
6 Browse By Time
7 Record Time/Channel
8 TiVo's Suggestions
9 Showcases
Note:
As far as we know, these are not documented by TiVo, and may change or
stop working in subsequent software releases!
From The "TiVo Central" main screen (press the "TiVo"
button to get here)
Get the TiVo remote to power
your AV receiver on/off, along with (or instead of) your TV. -
"This is undocumented, but it is supported! Just hold down TiVo
button + power button (like you do to put in the TV code), but punch in
the receiver code instead. It will now power up both." Seems to
work with volume control, as well.
Add Unlisted Channels to your
Line-Up
"You can add the PPV channels manually... you won't get program
listings for them, but it works for flipping by. Try this.
-
Go
to each channel you want to add to the channel line-up by entering
their channel number.
-
Then
press record.
-
After
it starts recording, press record again, and cancel the recording.
-
After
you have done this for each channel you want to add, then go into
Setup / Channels You Watch, and place checkmarks next to each of the
channels you just added to the list.
-
Then
go clean out all the crud you just created in Now Showing.
Now, you will be able to surf through all the channels you added.
Line-in input - fake-out
with DSS input
One often-heard complaint is that TiVo does not support recording
from the AV input jacks as a "line in" input (like most
VCRs do). A work-around posted is (if you don't have satellite/cable)
to tell Guided Setup you have a satellite/cable, then delete all
but one channel from the fake satellite/cable, and use that for
"line in" recording. Here's some posts:
Easter Egg:
"So to brighten up your new year, I'm going to give you the keys
to one of TiVo's best Easter Eggs.
This
is a cool Easter Egg, because if you look closely, there are Easter
Eggs within the Easter Egg.
Happy
New Year!"
Richard Bullwinkle
IR Blaster and
"Forts" versus dropped digits:
Those of us with cable boxes or satellite receivers often have to use IR
"blasters" or emitters as the only means TiVo has for changing
the channel on the cable/satellite box. Many here have complained
that they see one or more digits dropped when TiVo tries to change the
channel, resulting in a failure to record the correct channel! Not a
good way to impress the wife/kids/neighbors about this wonderful new toy
you bought! :)
The
problem is interference with the IR signal, although what is causing the
interference is a subject of some debate. The TiVo itself blasts IR
out its front panel, which can reflect off stuff and interfere with the
blaster signal. Other remotes, other IR sources, or even ambient
light sources may have something to do with it.
Whatever
the source, most people find that building a "fort" around the
blaster and IR receiver on the box improves the reliability of channel
changes dramatically. This fort blocks out the interfering signals,
whatever the source. However, you have to make sure you completely
enclose the blaster and however much of the box is sensitive to IR input
(often a much bigger area than you realize!). One way to test how
good your fort is is to use the remote from your cable/satellite box as a
tester. Point the remote at various parts of the box with the fort,
push buttons, and if the box doesn't respond, you have a good fort.
Most use cardboard, but I found I had to use aluminum foil to completely
block the signal.
Here's
a recent post from JAB on the subject:
"Use only one of the blasters. Make sure it is positioned in front of
the receiver. Back it off about 1/2". I've used a Dish 2700 and a
Dish 4700 with 99%+ reliability at the fastest IR setting. Although, if
you are still having trouble, trying the next slower speed can't hurt.
Are you sure your fort completely encloses the blaster and IR
receiver?"
---Jim
As
Jim mentioned here, you might have different IR settings in the TiVo IR
setup, that all work, but have different ending numbers such as -0, -1,
-2, etc. The bigger the number, the slower the output.
Different speeds might make channel changes more reliable.
In
1.3, the IR speeds are labelled with things like "Fast" and
"Slow"."
---Jim
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