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November 07, 2004

LOST / WEST WING conflict

I have a problem -- one that's shared by anyone else who happens to be a fan of both LOST and THE WEST WING (which I'm guessing is a lot of people).

Now that LOST is clocking in at 1:01, it overlaps with WEST WING by one minute -- and hence poses a scheduling conflict.  TiVo says I have to pick one or the other, and can't record both.  Ack!

But since more and more shows are starting to impose this sort of weird scheduling, it seems to me that TiVo should simply give me the option to start a scheduled recording a minute late, or stop it a minute early.  However, currently it only offers the reverse -- I can start a recording early, or stop it late -- but that doesn't solve my problem.

(Furthermore, under "Record by Time or Channel", I can only schedule recordings at 5 minute increments -- which also doesn't solve my problem.)

Do you know if TiVO has any plans to address this?  I can't be the first person to have this issue.
- Paul

November 7, 2004 in TiVo, TV & HDTV

Answers

I don't know why TiVo has never allowed starting a recording late or ending it early, but until it does, there's a somewhat kludgy workaround you can use (presuming you're not willing to wait for the normal Saturday night rebroadcast of "Lost"):

Make a repeating manual recording for Lost (in my time zone, that's on my ABC affiliate from 7PM to 8PM on Wednesday nights). In your Season Pass list, put "The West Wing" just above "Lost", and put the new "Manual: Lost" season pass just below them both.

The TiVo picks "The West Wing" first, skips "Lost" because of the one-minute overlap, and picks "Manual: Lost" instead. If "The West Wing" isn't on, you get the regular "Lost" season pass and it skips the manual one due to overlap.

Of course, this doesn't follow "Lost" if ABC moves it, and you'll get non-Lost recordings if it's not on (like a week from Wednesday), but it's worked for me for a few weeks. Even works for me with a dual-tuner DirecTiVo, because I have another Season Pass on "Smallville" at 7PM (so I don't get both "Lost" and "Manual: Lost" at the same time).

Posted by: Matt at Nov 15, 2004 5:50:07 PM

This other big thing the stop/start early option would give us is the ability to only record part of a show. For example, I'd like to only record the Letterman monologue or cherry-pick the sports report from the 11pm news.

I had a similar problem with Will & Grace and E.R. a few years ago. W&G started at 9 and E.R. at 9:59 (but listed at 10). I created a manual recording for 9:55 - 10:00 to catch the first few minutes of E.R. When NBC would run the "super-size" eps of W&G, which bumped into that manual recording, it wouldn't record W&G. By placing the W&G SP above the manual recording, I always got it all.

If you think about it, the stop/start early function would not go well with the super-size eps anyway. Might be one of the reasons they don't have that option. Plus, it takes 10 minutes to get back to the menu when I rearrange the 50+ items on my SP list. If the Tivo had to take into account starting and stopping early, it might get ugly.

Posted by: Blake at Nov 15, 2004 8:04:07 PM

It would also be a good idea for TiVo and other recorder users to begin pummelling the networks to cut this crap out. No one of them owns any of us enough to think that we're gonna watch only what they put on. Maybe an organized boycott will get the attention of their REAL customers, the advertisers.

Posted by: Tenaya at Nov 16, 2004 2:44:12 PM

Talking to people at TiVo apparently the start late / end early change is ugly. The scheduling code wasn't designed with it in mind, so they say it would be a major undertaking to allow this. Not that it won't happen, it just isn't a fast change.

There are ways to get 1 minute fineness - Say you want a recording to start at 10:01. Set it to start at 10:05, then add 4 minutes of padding to the start.

You could do the same thing to stop at 9:59 - manual stop at 9:55 with 4 minutes of end padding.

Posted by: MegaZone at Nov 16, 2004 4:18:03 PM

Don't know about the rest of you, but my early/late options are 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10, 15, etc. So, the adding 4 minutes idea is a good one, just not possible...to my knowledge.

Posted by: SCott at Nov 24, 2004 6:04:41 PM

Here is my solution, I have a VCR and it can be scheduled to record from 8:00 to 9:01 and voila, no conflict with The West Wing.

Crafty eh?

But I have a deeper message to us TiVo users...

1) Simply tell any network who tries to break set scheduling times that you won't watch their shows. Like in this case I simply say I refuse to watch Lost because they are not sticking to a standard scheduled time. Even if I do watch it I won't allow their ratings to know this.

2) TiVo better watch out! Soon they will be adding popup commercials while you fast forward through a show. Hey TiVo... there are a lot of digital recorders out there, including on my PC that can do nearly everything you are doing today. I wouldn't mind changing if you start taking away the things I bought TiVo for in the first place!

3) Don't worry, it's only Television. If all else fails I can still open up a good book.

Besides... I think TiVo or their band of programmers are may not be smart enough to do what we need to get around 61 minute scheduled programs. I challenge them!!!

Posted by: David Scorca at Nov 27, 2004 8:20:29 AM

The only solution I have is the Manual:Lost season pass, the West Wing season pass and a separate VCR to record Alias. I think it is just plain wrong to schedule Alias v. West Wing. Its like a giant showdown and I dont want either one to get hurt.

Posted by: sydney vs bartlett at Jan 13, 2005 8:36:13 AM

I finally gave up and Tivoed LOST, anybody have the 10/23West Wing from earlier today on TiVO in NYC? I'll buy it!

Posted by: B at Oct 23, 2005 7:15:31 PM

New Tivo allows start late etc...

Posted by: Bill at Feb 13, 2006 11:26:17 AM

If I have a scheduling conflict I download the offending program using the bit torrent network. There are many clients for this network but my favorite is Utorrent. Of course this is only feasible if you have high speed internet. The most popular programs are offered in standard definition as well as hi def video with 5.1 surround sound. You will need to connect your computer to your TV or have a set top device capable of playing divx or xvid files. I use a DVP5960 Phillips DVD player(cost less than 65$ US) It plays divx, xvid and many other types of files as well as being an exceptional DVD player.The files can be burned to blank CD or DVD or played through the players usb connection witch accepts a usb thumb drive or a usb hard drive.
With my internet connection (1mbit) it takes less than 30 minutes to download the typical 30 min program.
It's a little more trouble than your PVR but it's very handy in some cases.

Posted by: Jamie at Jan 30, 2007 11:00:26 AM

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