Everyone keeps telling me that I should be watching "The West Wing".

I'm told that next Monday, the Bravo channel will start running them from the beginning. I'd like to be able to program the Tivo to grab only episodes that I haven't yet seen (which right now is all of them, but which will quickly become not all of them).

The options are something like "New episodes" or "New and repeat episodes". Now, these aren't actually new episodes, they're just new-to-me. Will either of those options do what I want?

Note that the latter option is something I use for my other season passes, and it is recording a lot of stuff I've already seen.

From my own Tivo's observed behavior... New Episodes means New to YOU episodes... so that should be what you pick. Unless i'm completely misreading what my Tivo does. =]

If I understand it correctly you are going to want to use the new and repeat episodes option. Even though that option is recording shows you have already seen for other season passes, it doesn't matter what it records for "The West Wing" b/c you haven't seen any of them. Therefore, you are going to want all of the new episodes that are aired along with all of the repeat episodes.

I guess that would become a problem when you do start watching them if the same episode is repeated but the answer to that is to just wait before you start watching.

EDIT: 200th post! WooHoo!
Also, I don't own a Tivo and I was simply going off your description so my theory could be totally off base.

TiVo, by default, will not record episodes that the guide data matches to another that was recorded in the last 28 days, but you can change it to "Record All Episodes."

I've never found the "Record First Run Only" to be reliable, because it uses the guide data to find the keywords "First Run" and I've seen guide data that said BOTH First Run and Repeat in it! What's up with that?

If you set the SP to be for Bravo only and do "First Run and Repeat" you should get all episodes that have not recorded in the last 28 days. Also change the number of eps to keep in case you want more than 5.

Thanks, DaveC, that clarifies the Tivo behavior.

My only other concern is how I'm going to be able to keep the episodes straight so that I watch them in sequence. Maybe that's not a big deal and I shouldn't worry about it too much.

And based on my Tivo's behaviour, I'd have to say "Repeat and First Run" (that's what it calls it). I bleieve "First Run" is always "First Run", regardless of whether you've seen it, but I could be wrong (and probably am).

I do know that selecting "Repeat and First Run" won't hurt you. If the shows are sufficiently described to Tivo, Tivo will only grab one instance of a particular episode. So, when they start airing episodes, if they play the first one during one part of the day, then air it again say at 3AM, Tivo will only get one of those episodes, whichever one doesn't have a conflict.

In fact, I just noticed that only with Tivoweb can you choose to grab all instances of a show, every time it airs. At least that's what I'm seeing.

I just noticed that only with Tivoweb can you choose to grab all instances of a show, every time it airs.

You can do that from the normal TiVo UI.

Tivo will only grab one instance of a particular episode.

Unless it's been 28 days, as DaveC said. That's the key piece of information that I was missing. Since I've noticed it going back and recording stuff I'd already seen, I didn't understand why it was doing it. Now I know why and can work around it.

My only other concern is how I'm going to be able to keep the episodes straight so that I watch them in sequence

If there are episode titles in the show descriptions, simply print out this page and have it by the TV

You can do that from the normal TiVo UI.

Oops!

I've never found the "Record First Run Only" to be reliable, because it uses the guide data to find the keywords "First Run" and I've seen guide data that said BOTH First Run and Repeat in it! What's up with that?

Actually, based on times the TiVo has screwed up, it seems that part of the data that the TiVo is supposed to get is a first-air date. It uses this to determine if it's a new episode or not. Apparently, USA doesn't supply this data, which means that Monk and The Dead Zone never appear to be first run. This actually also got screwed up the first week NBC moved Scrubs to Tuesday.

Of course, it may be that the TiVo generates that first run label. Or it may be that it's included in the description. Regardless, I've seen shows listed as both First Run and Repeat, too. Never seems to do the wrong thing except in a couple of specific cases, though.

Regardless, Tony wants First Run plus Repeats.

When I did follow the AVS forums awhile back, I was under the impression that the Guide Data was not provided by TiVo but by a third party, and that you could hack TiVo to ethernet and get different third party data that was more complete.
I think a big problem is that TiVo relies on someone else, that relies on the broadcaster giving out enough guide data info to utilize TiVo features to their full extent. I'm still hoping that TiVo sees the new season of "The Shield" and picks it up properly.

/me off to find out when "The Shield" season 3 premieres...
/edit March 9th!! WOOHOO!

I was under the impression that the Guide Data was not provided by TiVo but by a third party

Correct. Tribune Media Services. Same folks who do www.zap2it.com. I suppose DirecTiVos get it from DirecTV, but they probably get it from TMS in turn.

The Tivo uses the Original Airdate field in the guide data to know what to record. I believe the date has to be within 10 to 14 days of the Original Airdate in-order for it to be marked as First Run Episode. This is why Stargate SG-1 and a FRO SP missed the second half of Season 5 StarGate SG-1. (The last season on Showtime) since they aired the episodes in the UK about 3 months earlier.

The 28 day rule, if TiVo has already recorded an episode of a show within the last 28 days then it will not record it again unless you set the SP/ARWL to record all episodes or if the show only has generic guide data like South Park the past few weeks.

You should also know this: If you setup an ARWL for "The Wire" set to record FRO you have 14 days from the Original airdate to get the episode. This is nice because if you know of shows that are Shared-Window/Repurposed Network Television it can help you with conflicts.

SP = Season Pass
ARWL = Auto Recording WishList
FRO = First Run Only

And when the Fark is Tivo going to allow some sort of different sorting in the "list" view?! Having a 160 hours of shows makes scrolling through that a nightmare, not to mention having no idea what episode is which since they are all named the same with no other description than a date. Very annoying.

I need TivoWeb for the Series2 HDVR2. Grrr.

IIRC, v3 software allows a different way to sort, but DirecTiVos can't get it. Yet.

IIRC, v3 software allows a different way to sort, but DirecTiVos can't get it. Yet.

Series 1s also can't do it. Has to be a Series 2.

Loren: Is the a DirecTivo or a standalone? Also what software version is on your TiVo. You can find the version in your system information area.

Edit

AHH, found the SITE

http://tivo.drosoph.com/

It's a DirecTivo... HDVR2 (it's one of the one's with the HDVR3 label that is actually an HDVR2). I think the software is 3.11 or something... 3.011??? ... i looked last night, can't recall off the top of my head though. I'll have to check tonight.

The backdoor codes are great, but not really what Loren needs or (I think) what Bitt and I are talking about. I also imagine that sorting alphabetically or by date would just make his experience worse.

I believe Bitt and I are talking about the same thing in that there's a new sorting option that will let you group shows together. At least, I'm pretty sure I read about that. I think it's only in the Series 2 boxes though.

Ok, your talking about Folder Support. Only the SA Series 2 units have it from what I know. As for Tivoweb on a series 2 unit. Check out TivoWebPlus

I would kill for folder support! =] Thanks for the link to TivoWebPlus... reading now...

edit: once again, my mind is boggling from information catchup on the Tivo boards. There is just WAY to much info spread out all over the place on that site. FAQing stuff that changes so quick is hard though.

Read and take notes if you have any questions feel free to PM me or even email me. I don't have a series 2 unit but I have been reading about the hacks for them because I am sure they will be the ones used on any HDTivo.

I am waiting for a Standalone HD unit but who knows how long that wait will be.

You're very right, Loren. They're still operating off the general FAQ they made years ago, and it's as difficult to read as it was then. The entries are so terribly categorized. Then you try to find out what you need on the boards, and there's just SO MUCH info to go through.

That's why we have the FAQ Master. It's a subtle art.

Thanks guys. I'm about half way through the thread on Monteing an HDVR2. . . now i finally get what a monte is! heh. I understand a LOT more than i did yesterday... it's just a lot to take in when you are starting from no knowledge other than already adding a second drive (the pansy way... pre-configured drives from weakknees).

Attack: i'm going to finish that thread and see how much time it will take to get it right to figure out if i want to wait for someone to make it easire for me or just hack at it myself =]. To bad someone doesn't come up with an automated CD to do the work for you as was suggested in the thread, since it's very doable. If i had the knowledge i would! heh. I'm sure i'll take you up on the help offer. Thanks.

I have been told that this book has detailed info about hacking the series 2 units.

Updating this thread...

I like my Tivo. I told it to record "Repeats and First Run". I printed out the episode guide that Dignan linked and stuck it on my coffee table.

Now, about once a week, I hit "view upcoming episodes" and uncheck any episode that isn't in sequence based on the episode guide. Tivo seems to (mostly) do what I want it to do. It's getting almost every single episode, from the beginning of the series, in sequence.

Bravo is running other episodes besides the from-the-beginning episodes. But Tivo mostly ignores those, only occasionally selecting one of them for recording. So I just have a quick glance through the list and uncheck one or two episodes.

One interesting thing happened. Comparing the printed episode guide to the upcoming episodes list, I noticed there was a hole in the episode list at one point. I didn't want to miss an episode, and I was a little worried. So I looked closely at the episodes it was getting and noticed that all the from-the-beginning episodes were being aired Mon-Thurs at 4pm PST. I went to the main DirecTV program guide and rolled up to the date/time that the "missing" episode should have appeared. There, in the spot that should have listed an episode of West Wing, was a blank spot of one hour. Clearly, the DirecTV program guide was missing its data for that date/time. So I told Tivo to record that hour, even though the program said "unknown". It recorded that spot faithfully and got the episode I wanted. By the time it got around to actually airing, the guide had been updated, so the show had the correct tag information attached to it by the time I got around to watching it.

Cool stuff.

It's too bad ReplayTV boxes don't have a DirectTV antenna input on them, I'm really curious how they'd compare to the Tivo and would love to try it out.

If you have repeats and first run set on a season pass, it should be recording every single episode that airs on that specific channel, regardless of what day or time it's on, with the exception of any specific episode that you have already recorded in the past 28 days.

Phew, that was a mouthtful. I do that for a few shows, but I don't bother to try and get them in sequence because the station airing them doesn't either. South Park is one example, however I know that new episodes are broadcast on a certain day - Thursday.

This past week I still managed to miss "Passion of the Jew" however because I was farting around with the TiVo drive in my PC. Argh.

I can think of a number (ok, many) ways of bettering the TiVo. Unfortunately I don't have the source code for their software and I don't know of anyone who has been able to produce any hack that involves customizing the app software itself to the degree necessary to accomplish my improvements.

It's good enough for what it was designed though. Small library of recorded content. Even though I have a drive big enough to go past this "small" amount.

Bruno