Virgin Media Community

[nevwg]

Series link won't work on BBC4. I have to mark each episode to record separately. Although the on-screen menu then suggests that a series has a series link (the option to change the series link appears), subsequent episodes do not have the record symbol. I don't know if there are any other channels that have the same problem, but BBC4 is the only faulty channel that I record regularly.

[Tavis75]

A lot of the content on BBC4 is repeats these days, is it possible you've got the series link set to "New Only" rather than "New and repeats"? I have quite a few BBC4 series links that work OK.

[japitts]

If the advice from tavis doesn't work, what's the programme that's not series-linking?

Date & time of broadcast would also be helpful.

[nevwg]

It is any programme on BBC4. I select the programme, mark to record the episode, mark to record the series, return to the guide, and there is no symbol by the programme, either the single record symbol, or the series record symbol. I have to re-mark the episode to record. The screen menu tells me that the series link has been made because it offers me the menu to change its options, but it hasn't been made.

[japitts]

Post up some examples, together with the SL settings.

Anything fitting tavis' hypothesis - which I agree with so far - will be listed under recording Hiccups.

[nevwg]

You'll see the record episode symbol, but not the record series symbol.

 But the screen tells me that the series link is set:

 

[Tavis75]

Hmm, odd. That series link looks OK and I just tried setting one up myself for that program and that seemed to work OK, so not sure why it isn't working for you (I used the app rather than the main box, which I wouldn't expect to make a difference, but may be worth a try).

You could also try the "Everything" option rather than "New and repeats", possibly the box thinks the show has been recorded before. Means you'll pick up the late night repeats as well, but not a big issue to delete them. 

[nevwg]

"Everything" had no effect. I just tried one or two other channels. Sky Arts HD behaves the same as BBC4. Gold HD is fine -- I can set up a Series Link. This is all using the remote and the TiVo box. I've not tried using the app.

[japitts · Accepted solution]

A manual recording will always override a series link, and that's what you seem to have done here.

Once that manual recording of a particular episode has been set, then the SL will fall in-line with that and TiVo-software doesn't allow an override.

The only way to lose that planned recording is to manually cancel it, in which case TiVo-scheduling logic is effectively told to not record that episode.

Quite happy to look at any other specific examples that you can provide.

[nevwg]

Solved! Thanks very much. Clearly, one has to set the SL options right from the start, before setting "record this episode". I guess that the reason it occurs so often with BBC4 is that (as you say above) so much of BBC4 is repeats. That's probably true for Sky Arts as well.