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coppo23's avatar
coppo23
Joining in
2 years ago

Tivo box recording history completely useless. Most programs not available. Series link no longer records

We are the sort of watchers that usually record things just in case as well as series that we know we will watch. The Tivo box usually sits around 90% full.

We now find ourselves where maybe half or 2/3rds of the recorded programs are not there any more. You click the link, it asks you to enter your pin (why?) but the program is not available. You waste time picking though a list of say Vera episodes to discover 9 out of 10 aren't actually there. On the whole Tivo box I'm guessing there are 100s of programs we thought we had recorded but don't actually have any more.

If you press series link you have links (not recorded) episodes of something on the worst streaming service known to man (ITVX). It seems if you want to record a series the only way is to pick and record each episode and hope VM don;t take it back from you before you have watched it

I for one selective;y watch maybe an hour of tv per evening but now I spend more time trying to find something to watch than actually watching. Is it just me or has VirginMedia really plumbed the depths now? Are any other services any better?

3 Replies

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  • nodrogd's avatar
    nodrogd
    Very Insightful Person
    2 years ago

    The main purpose of the hard disk is for temporary time-shifting (viewing something at a more convenient time). That is all recording is licenced for on Virgin boxes. What you have fallen foul of is that channels change. For example all the BBC & ITV regions have changed over the past 2 years moving to full HD operation. Virgin will maintain the data that allows recordings to be viewed from removed channels for a maximum of 12 months (shorter periods are usually imposed by pay channels), after that they will be locked & not play.

  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    Very Insightful Person
    2 years ago

    To add, IMO you're absolutely right to use the "record record record" mantra, I'm exactly the same and have always advised this. It also sounds like you're using the "recordings & streaming videos" option on series-links.

    99% of the time there is no time limit on recordings. When a pay channel closes, there's usually a 3month shelf-life put on recordings - this is often extended to 6 or 12months with PSB broadcasters.

    Those time limits feel more than sufficient for anything other than extreme cases. You won't get many arguments about ITV-X being a poor user experience compared with viewing recordings!

  • Tavis75's avatar
    Tavis75
    Super solver
    2 years ago

    One other point that wasn't picked up on. The reason the series link no longer records is because it will be set to the now non-existent channel, you will need to go into series link manager and change it to whatever the equivalent new channel is (or "All Channels")