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Network Scheduling to Mess with Tivo
Yahoo is running a bit about Networks messing with PVRs by adding a minute to shows. If a show runs to 9:01, then you can't Tivo a show on another channel that starts at 9. I've noticed this, although it's less of a factor if you have a dual tuner tivo, but it's interesting to see a bit of mainstream coverage.
I have been using Beyond Tv for some time now, and it allows you the simple option of padding a recording by X amount of minutes before or after a program start time. I can't imagine it would take much for Tivo to implement something like that.
What you're talking about is called "soft padding", and it's a feature that TiVo owners have been asking for for years. You can already do "hard padding", but manually specifying some number to adjust the start and/or stop time of a recording. This was designed for clock skew, but it's also being used for shows that habitually start or end late or early.
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There is an application for folks who've hacked their Tivo (I think only series 1's), that can help with this issue thoough. Called endpad. Here's a link to the announcement on the tivo community forums: Forums. This is especially useful for single tuner Tivos (as mentioned above).
What model TiVo do you have? I have a couple series 2 TiVos, and it has 'start early' and 'stop late'. It does not have the ability to 'start late' or 'stop early'. (for recording a program from the guide. Manual recordings are another matter.)
Tivo has positive padding, but needs negative padding to work well with 2 shows in a row.
You are allowed to start ER 1 minute early. (example: 7:59) Except that's a comflict when you record CSI from 7 to 8:00. (You can't double record that same minute) So obviously the solution is to have CSI stop recording 1 minute early. And that's where TIVO fails.
The alternative is to set up manual recording for both shows to start/end on the hour. That sucks for shows that might move around, etc, and then it'll also record non-new shows since it's no longer a season pass. But at least now they're labeling the manual recordings with the show name.
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TBS Superstation has all programming beginning :05 after the hour, which I never understood.
My impression was that they had done it for separate listings - in TV Week (or whatever comes with the paper) you'd see the listings for everything at 9:00, and then a separate listing just for TBS, which definitely resulted in me watching a few more shows there.
These days, with TiVo and the like, it simply results in irritation.
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Tivo Can do that!
Just not out of the box.
With TivoWebPlus you can set it to start Late or early (unlike the tivo UI), and end early or late (or even.. gasp on time).
Sure it requires a bit of hacking, but the side effect it you can schedule recordings via the web (w/o using tivos HMO features).
-Jason
The new MythTV 0.16 has this feature. Note the change log on this page http://www.mythtv.info/moin.cgi/WhatsNew
New Recording Options Screen The advanced recording options screen has been given a much needed make over. The various Qt controls are gone and the dialog is now themeable. Recording options are now set using a list control. The options are grouped into categories and can be selected using the arrow keys and the SELECT button. For simple items such as the start early/end late options you can just use left/right to increment them. For list types such as the recording group selection you can scroll through the options with left/right or press SELECT to see a list of the items and select which one you want. Items that can be scrolled left or right have arrows pointing to the left and/or right.
I ran into this issue lastnight, I just told mythtv to stop recording the show 1 minute early and the problem was solved.
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It is if you were wanting to record a show immediately after on a different channel that began on time; the Tivo will not record that show. We solved the dilemma by simply canceling all season passes for all NBC shows when they did that last season. Then we CERTAINLY aren't seeing their commercials.
This is why you need to use a Cable DVR instead of TiVO.
I have been using a DVR (now a HD-DVR dual tuner) for quite a while, and I have no problems with this, and I do record shows that begin at 1 minute past the hour.