MY dvr asks if i would like to record "first run" episodes only. I am afraid it might miss one if it is misflagged. anyone ever experience this??

all I will say on this subject is YES

The only time I ever miss a first run episode is when I have two shows with a higher priority in my season pass list.

That ain't the fault of the DVR.

All the time, especially right before it goes out, I am on my 4th from Cox Cable.

All the time. Thankfully, F/X replayed Nip/Tuck right after the first run.

Nope

I think we need to compare cable, dish, directv, and TiVo here.

I've never had my DirecTiVo miss a first-run episode unless the above situation occuried or the show guide had not been properly updated by the satellite.

I've heard missing first run can be a big problem with cable DVRs. Is that the case with those answering "yes" like Cusm?

My DVR didn't record the 2nd episode of Vanished. A few days later, it didn't record when they re-aired the episode although I specifically set it to do so. I took that as a sign.

My DirecTiVo has been pretty reliable. I think there's only been a couple of misses on first-runs, but like Chew said, they were show guide errors as opposed to the unit itself.

On the flipside, mine will occasionally record a week's worth of Simpsons reruns because the guide doesn't have them indicated as reruns.

Never had a problem w/ my Dish DVRs

Yeah - the Comcast DVRs can be unreliable at times.

Same goes for my standalone TiVo - never any problem caused by the unit itself.

My Tivo didnt record House on Tuesday although I have a season pass set for EVERY episode.

I dont know why, but it hurt me very much. No replays

A DVR is only as good as the TV schedule upon which it feeds.

If the TV calendar doesn't have an episode properly tagged--like this season's premiere of Nip/Tuck--it won't record like a new ep. It's usually the fault of the TV station or studio, actually, for not providing the info in time to the grid-makers.

Which is why Tivos are less likely to miss a show. Cable and satellite companies feed the raw guide data. Tivo has employees that tweak and correct the data before it is sent out. Part of your 12.95/month pays for decent guide data.

I had a problem just last night with first run. I had RockStar Supernova, Bones, & Fear Factor on First run for 8pm(I can record 2 shows). Well Fear Factor usually airs on Tuesdays, but last night it aired again on Wednesday. So my DVR recorded Supernova & Fear Factor, Bones got knocked off, and I didn't get any alert. Thankfully for Fox's online Streaming I got to watch Bones.

I haven't had any problems with my Cox DVR (just Cox service in general). I periodically check the scheduled recordings to make sure it has things flagged properly, if not I'll make a manual recording no big deal. I also make sure my "Series Manager" has the shows listed by my own priority so something like Mok's Fear Factor bumping Bones doesn't happen to me.

Mine missed The Shield for a couple of weeks one time, for some reason it stopped recording The Shield and I deleted the old season pass and did a new one. I asked on a The Shield thread if anyone else had the same problem then and a few said yes.

It could have been a problem with the show's data or the station's... Was that the only FX show you had on Season Pass at the time?

Another data-related problem that can bite people in the ass is when a cable provider changes the description of a channel feed. You've got a season pass on "FX" and suddenly you've got "FX-Pacific Time Zone" even if the channel itself hasn't changed--and suddenly your Season Pass is obsolete.

This is why I've been using more wishlist recordings (on TiVo). Instead of waiting for Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, etc. to show up under "CW", I already have wishlists set up and ready to go.

Well, they sure didn't seem to notice that Nip/Tuck's season premiere was only listed as a generic, with no first-run flag or episode description...

Things look fine for ep2, btw...

It's shows like Daily Show and Colbert that need a lot of guide work too. They're on a million times a day and the description doesn't always get updated with guest info resulting in a season pass recording all of them (even on a first-run only setting).

I just went manual record for that hour.

I've never had an issue with my TWC DVR

I've only had one problem with my Cox DVR. Once it cut off after only about 2 minutes of the Office.

My Comcast DVR has never missed a show... but I have 'rescue me' to first-run only and the damn machine records the same episode 4x a week.