Problems with Series Recordings

[nmilot]

Just got FiOS last week.  I had been a long time comcast customer with a comcast DVR for the past few years.

Once my FiOS was installed, I immediately went in and started setting up series recordings.  So far I've set up five of them:  Pardon the Interruption, 24, Damages, The Office, and 30 Rock.

So far I've had trouble with two of these series.  When 24 aired two new episodes on sunday and then two new on monday, my DVR only recorded 3 out of 4, missing the first episode on sunday.  Damages, The Office, and 30 Rock all appear to be working, but it's still early.

My biggest problem is with Pardon the Interruption (PTI), which airs M-F at 5:30pm.  I've set up a series recording for First Runs only on the ESPN HD channel.  However, my DVR refuses to cooperate.  It will not record this show after the initial first recording that I set up.  I've tried changing it to First run and repeats and that still does not work.  It is not conflicting with anything else on my box and it is definitely not a space issue.

I spent two different nights on the phone with support, they ended up sending me a new box which will be here in a couple days.  I'm not too confident that this will solve the problem, but we'll see.  I want to say that it is more of a problem with the guide itself.  If I scroll to the episode in the guide, it shows that it is new, but for some reason it does not set up the recording.

I'm hoping the 24 issue was a fluke, but the PTI one is aggravating.  Anyone else have any similar issues and know how to resolve this?  Unfortunately I know nobody else with a FiOS DVR, so I can't ask them to try this.  Everyone I know has a comcast box.

Thanks in advance.

Nick

[Pyao]

I didn't have a problem having series recording 24  1,2,3,4 on Sunday and Monday.

[KenAF]

---

@Pyao wrote:
I didn't have a problem having series recording 24  1,2,3,4 on Sunday and Monday.

---

Was your recording set to "new episodes only" or "new and repeats" ?

[nmilot]

I can tell you that my 24 was set for "First Run" and I've tried PTI with both settings.

[vinnyv07]

I can tell you that I had my dvr set for 24 with the first run option. I always make it a habit of checking the schedule for my recordings. I did that and noticed that the 2 episodes of 24 on sunday were not in the schedule for recording. I changed the option to first run and repeats and then the episodes showed up. That stresses me out because I really don't want to miss any first run episodes of my shows.

[nmilot]

New box arrived yesterday, I installed it this morning.

 When setting up my series recordings, I figured out why 24 didn't record.  Turns out it did record, but I have my default series options to "First run and save only three episodes."  It's very rare that a show airs four new episodes in two days!  So it turns out that the first episode probably did record and then was deleted.  My bad.

However, the PTI problem still seems to persist.  I scrolled to Tuesday and chose to record PTI and I set it up as a series.  Now, when I look at my upcoming schedule, the DVR recognizes that it is new on Monday and is set to record it.  It is also set to record on Tuesday, but I manually set that one.  The new episodes on Wed, Thur, and Friday are not showing up in the schedule.

We'll see what happens.

[nmilot]

Same old problem, still can't record PTI as a series with the new box.  It did show up in my future schedule when I looked on Saturday.  Then when I looked Sunday it was gone.  And sure enough, it did not record today.

This is going to be like having a VCR, I have to set it manually every single day.

[Keyboards]

---

@nmilot wrote:

Same old problem, still can't record PTI as a series with the new box.  It did show up in my future schedule when I looked on Saturday.  Then when I looked Sunday it was gone.  And sure enough, it did not record today.

This is going to be like having a VCR, I have to set it manually every single day.

---

There is the ability in the DVR to set a recurring manual recording.  Go to DVR -> CREATE RECORDING -> MANUAL RECORDING and set the channel, time to start and time to end and then the frequency of recording.  Hope that helps.

NOTE: The exact level names may be slightly different from what I posted as I'm not at home to acces the DVR.

[nmilot]

---

@Keyboards wrote:

---

@nmilot wrote:

Same old problem, still can't record PTI as a series with the new box.  It did show up in my future schedule when I looked on Saturday.  Then when I looked Sunday it was gone.  And sure enough, it did not record today.

This is going to be like having a VCR, I have to set it manually every single day.

---

There is the ability in the DVR to set a recurring manual recording.  Go to DVR -> CREATE RECORDING -> MANUAL RECORDING and set the channel, time to start and time to end and then the frequency of recording.  Hope that helps.

NOTE: The exact level names may be slightly different from what I posted as I'm not at home to acces the DVR.

---

Thanks for this.  I just set it up, it will have to do for now.  Hopefully I don't run into this on any other series.

[plefseaff]

I have had FIOS for several months and nothing but problems. One of the many problems is just what you described. Set up shows to record, the box will record some of the shows but not all of them as it should. Also set the box to record first run only, and it records repeats on several shows. Nothing I do will get it to not record repeats. I've tried everything. Tech support... no help. All I get it from them is "ahhh it's a known issuse  and were working on it". This is after all attemps to fix the problem  fail that tech support comes up with this canned response. It seems that everytime I call in with a problem like this, I get after 20 minutes of trying this or that the same response. Another problem is when I set the box to not delete any shows until I delete. Well when I check the box the next day, several shows have "delete when space is needed". No matter what I do, going thru all the shows I have set to record and resetting the option not to delete, I come back and of course it's set back to delete when space is needed.  I was told by tech support after they failed to come up with a solution for this problem, "oh don't worry, it won't delete any shows when it runs out of spacem. It just says that on the screen." Really, no kidding. That was the response. If it wasn't so much trouble to switch companys, I sure would in an instant. I thought this was the cutting edge of high tech, well Verizons equipment is CRAP.......

Another problem is the DVR always locking up when scrolling thru the menu. I have to press the arrow button, wait 2  seconds then press again and so on or it just stops working for up to a minute or so. Or the DVR will stop responding and will sit there for up to a minute before I can scroll again. Or if I set up a show and go to motify the series, I click save and it takes up to 45 to 60 seconds  to respond. Oh well just had to vent a bit. I did not know about this forum, so I'm glad to be here. Hopefully I can get some help from somebody.

Message Edited by plefseaff on 01-20-2009 10:08 AM

[TechGuy]

I am a new FIOS user too.  I have the 7216 DVR.  I too had several situations like yours and specifically the 24 series premier did not record.  My ongoing issue (about which FIOS tech support has no clue) is that I set a recording time and when I go to replay all I have is an 8 second recording that the player generates an error when opening.  THis happend to me for the premier of 24 and the new A&E show called Monster.  Both shows had 2 hour premiers and in both cases I got two 8 second recording that would not open.  SOOOO I had to go ont he web sites to watch the episodes.

Can anyone help me out here?

[Keyboards]

---

@TechGuy wrote:

I am a new FIOS user too.  I have the 7216 DVR.  I too had several situations like yours and specifically the 24 series premier did not record.  My ongoing issue (about which FIOS tech support has no clue) is that I set a recording time and when I go to replay all I have is an 8 second recording that the player generates an error when opening.  THis happend to me for the premier of 24 and the new A&E show called Monster.  Both shows had 2 hour premiers and in both cases I got two 8 second recording that would not open.  SOOOO I had to go ont he web sites to watch the episodes.

Can anyone help me out here?

---

The problem you are experiencing (short recordings) is part of the "Currently Not Available" problem with the 7xxx series box.  Supposedly the new IMG release (1.6.1) fixes this issue.  Don't have that series or the new version so I can't swear that it will fix the problem.

Message Edited by Keyboards on 01-20-2009 02:01 PM

[plefseaff]

I have the current 1.6.1 and it does not fix the issues. None of the so called "fixes" provided by Verizon, has ever fixed any issue I have had so far. Actually all was working fine unitl around November or December of 07, when I received a message on the screen that Verizon was going to do an  "upgrade" to the menu and the box which  downloaded. Right after that "upgrade" is when  all the problems started. The box would lock up, shows not being recorded, shows being deleted, ect ect. Tech support had no idea there was an "upgrade" and as usual, I got the, "ahh yeah, it's a known issue and we are working on a fix". That always comes after they can't fix the problem. I finally asked the tech, if it's a known issue, why didn't you just say that from the get go then instead of wasteing my time. I am starting to believe that when tech support can't fix the issue, they are instructed just to say, it's a know issue. Just to get the customer off their backs.

  Oh well, at least I know I'm not the only one out there.

[Keyboards]

Just another thing to keep in mind.  Since the guide data for many shows is "generic" the DVR software may see the description as identical to a recording on the disk and not record any more than the first airing  (at least until the recorded episode is deleted).

Not sure about that one, just a guess on my part.

[Piranha]

---

@Keyboards wrote:

Just another thing to keep in mind.  Since the guide data for many shows is "generic" the DVR software may see the description as identical to a recording on the disk and not record any more than the first airing  (at least until the recorded episode is deleted).

Not sure about that one, just a guess on my part.

---

This is what fustrates me the most. Nothing like trying to check out if there is going to be a new episode of something I want to know if I want to watch, or view later, and there is that "generic" description of what the episode is about. 

For instance, on "Legend of the Seeker", every single week has shown the FIRST EPISODE description on WGN Sat.@2, AND it's also flagged as "NEW".. so how am I to know if it's new or not? I have to go on the shows website to find out whether it's new or not.  Then I can go to my local station that airs it, MyQ2 channel 22 Sun@8, and it has LAST weeks description... ARGH! And that's also flagged as new.. but the DVR still somehow knows when to record it and when not to.

Why is it that there's plenty of other shows that get the correct descriptions, yet there are always a couple others that never seem to get done?

[fiosuser123456]

http://clanspace.com/forum/r20892836-Series-Manager-not-working-show-title-20-chars-long

is this true????????

fios dvr cannot setup a series manager for something with more than 20 characters?  

I also cannot record PTI....   oh how i miss TIVO.  

BTW i have a few other problems...

1.  the fast forward and play is no where near as good as tivo.  it doesnt back up far enough when you hit play after skipping commercials...

2.  no keyword series setup...  cannot record anything with "viginia" and "tech" or "washington" and "redskins"

3.  multiroom dvr is lame.  only one other room can access the dvr at a time.

4.  hard drive is so small!