djbrown

Just a heads up that Lost is now listed as 61 minutes long by ABC, so you'll miss an 8 PM CST recording of either West Wing or Jack&Bobby even with a DTivo if you record all three shows.

Looks like WB re-airs Jack & Bobby at 5 PM CST on Sunday for those stuck with just one DTivo....

Tommy Ceez

The last episode of Lost cut off on my DVR...it was like racing against the clock.

Jadzia

I have a DirecTivo (two tuners) so I am still getting Jack & Bobby, but not Kevin Hill. I'm not too bummed about it, since I only watch that show while doing other things. I'll record it on the bedroom Tivo, something to watch during those nighttime baby feedings.

Patman

TMI! TMI! TMI!

lisadoris

I missed the last few minutes of Lost last week too (and forgot it was being reshown yesterday). Even though I watch Lost & West Wing live, I guess I'll have to set the DVR for the latter so I don't miss the beginning. Where will end?

MvRojo

The best solution I devised to TiVo "Lost" and "The West Wing" was to just set them both up as manual downloads that repeat every week.

For "Lost", I set the manual recording from 8-9 and then went into the recording options and set it to end one minute later.

For "The West Wing", I set the manual recording from 9:05-10 (they only allow 5 minute increments). I then went into the recording options and set it to start 4 minutes earlier.

This way I should get the final moments of "Lost" and join "The West Wing" hopefully while it's still the recap or at the most, the first few moments of the episode.

Tracer Bullet

Does Tivo not list shows with their actual running times? On my digital cable, for example, last week's Lost was shown with an 8-9:01PM running time. Couldn't Tivo do an update or something, so if something is scheduled to record at 9PM, it would just start at 9:01 instead of not recording at all?

I don't see the point of having a DVR if you have to manually record shows. I may as well just stick with my VCR for the time being.

kramdenfan

I noticed last night while watching Desperate Housewives on my tivo that the episode was 61 minutes, so it looks like tivo is updating based on information from the networks....

Morf

TiVo DOES list the correct running times, but only if the networks give enough notice. Last week's Lost was listed as 60 minutes long, so if your digital cable picked it up as 61 minutes long, perhaps ABC changed the schedule at the last minute, which is too late for TiVo to catch it. (Most units only dial in to get guide data once a day)

Enjoy your time in the stone age.

Tracer Bullet

So wouldn't it make sense to have the Tivo unit dial in more than once a day?

And what's with the stone age crack? I've been thinking of getting a Tivo for a while, but I really don't see the point if you still have to manually set up recordings. Expressing reservations about something is not the same as disparaging it.

Bronkster

Thanks for the heads-up! I just got a DVR Friday and have already made the time adjustments for Lost

how did I ever live without my DVR??

resinrats

OK why would ABC change it to 61 minutes? Just to screw up TIVOs or DVRs? Was adding an extra minute to the show really worth it? There were scenes in the show that could have tiny bits cut to bring it back to 1 hour.

Morf

For series 2 models that have high speed access, this would be great. Check hourly, even. But for old models like mine, that use the phone line, dialing in and organizing the data takes time. I could see dialing in maybe twice a day, but it really shouldn't be necessary. Networks shouldn't be changing guide data except in extreme situations.

Sorry, I didn't mean for that to come off quite so demeaning. So many people dismiss TiVo thinking it is nothing more than an expensive VCR. TiVo is one of those products sometimes difficult to explain until you've used it yourself. Run, don't walk, to buy a TiVo now. Or at least hit tivo.com and get the free CD that explains what it is TiVo does.

Honestly, though, you don't have to manually set up recordings. You can, of course, but 99.9% of the time, you set up a Season Pass to record the program no matter the time it is on. You can then pad the entire Season Pass.

lisadoris

I'm guessing they probably just added longer commerical breaks. We might get a couple extra seconds of actual content.

DigIt

And, again, you don't even have to pad recordings if the network will report the proper length of the episode. Padding is only necessary if a) the network reports a 61-minute show as being "60" minutes or b) intangible live events, such as sporting events, run over due to overtime.

kramdenfan

That may very well be it; I just saw that for Desperate Housewives ABC doubled it's cost for a 30 second commercial from $150k to $300k! For another 60 seconds they're making $600k...

Groucho

BTW, last minute changes have their own drawbacks as well. A couple weeks ago, my network affliate changed the guide data on which "Joey" episode was supposed to play at the very last second. To my surprise, this caused my Tivo to record Joey on both tuners...same channel, different descriptions!

mphtrilogy

oh no!

NBC has defiled every network with there insidious 1 minute extra bullcrap!

Chopper

How do you set up your Tivo to check more than once a day? I've checked out their site, but I didn't see anything about it...

MvRojo

It's actually more about competition. If the show runs over time, it means that a show on another network has started already and some people might be less inclined to change to it if they know it's already started. Another reason is that since it goes into another hour, it helps the ratings of the next show by basically carrying over that audience into the next show.

mverleg1

I wish TiVo had a feature where you could specify: "Start recording up to X minutes late" that would allow it to record a show even if you may miss the first X minutes. They have a way to start early, why not start late?

djbrown

DirecTivo's get their programming data over the satellite lines, and it can be 'pushed' down whenever new info is available. It's made adjustments last year for Presidential addresses and the like once the White House announced how long the speech would last, etc...

As for standalones, you MIGHT be able to force a daily call in an attempt to get updated info, but that's just a guess.