Calling Tivo Experts

[Huntn]

Had a Tivo Q installed today though my cable provider Suddenlink, becuase it has 4 tuners for recording and is costing me about $10 less a month than my older DVR setup.

I'm trying to figure out "favorites". The installer was surprisingly unhelpful and had no manual. I'm supposed to get one tomorrow. I'm used to having a DVR and it's favorite lists that I created. As you look at a channel, it can be designated as a favorite, then a list or a couple of lists of favorites can be viewed.

In this regard Tivo seems surprisingly primitive. I've figured out a way to make favorites which is not nearly as convenient as it was with DVR, but now that I've created favorites, I see no way to pull up a favorites list which just the channels I've designated. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[SDLshannon]

Hi Huntn- My name is Shannon and I am with Suddenlink. Please use the following link from our self- help site and it will pull up a TiVo user manual for you. I also would be happy to help if you are still experiencing trouble. You can contact me via email at shannon-AT-suddenlink-DOT-com. Thank you!
http://help.suddenlink.com/television/Documents/TiVo_Premiere_Manual.pdf

 

[Huntn]

Hi Huntn- My name is Shannon and I am with Suddenlink. Please use the following link from our self- help site and it will pull up a TiVo user manual for you. I also would be happy to help if you are still experiencing trouble. You can contact me via email at shannon-AT-suddenlink-DOT-com. Thank you!
http://help.suddenlink.com/television/Documents/TiVo_Premiere_Manual.pdf

Shannon,
Thanks for responding! Today I stopped by the local Suddenlink Office and picked up a Tivo Premiere Q Quick Guide. It has absolutely nothing in it regarding managing a channel favorites list. I'll look this .pdf manual over and see what it says.

I also spoke with Tivo Customer Service today and according to them channels can be designated as favorites (which I figured out yesterday by surfing), but to use them as favorites, you have to go through about 4 menus to tell the Guide that all you want to see is "favorites". And then you have to do the same thing to switch it back to all channels. Not convenient at all.

I like that the Tivo has 4 tuners, but I did not know until I got the Tivo unit, how spoiled I was with the Suddenlink DVR box which allowed me to create multiple favorites list and when viewing a channel, easily add it to one of the favorites list. There is nothing like that for Tivo and when a customer is dealing with several hundred channels, a favorites list is the way to go. For example, my movie favorites list is about 20 channels. If I want to see a movie, they are all there on one easily accessible list instead of trying to scroll through the entire channel list, keeping a channel list by the TV, or by just remembering what channel is what. I'm not good at the latter. Anyway I've sent the suggestion to Tivo and request that you pass it up through the Suddenlink chain.

For other customers reading this thread, if your cable box is 3 years old, in actuality, you don't know how hold it really is as you might not be the first customer to use it. The first thing we noticed when the tv came on with the new box, how much better the picture was. It was VERY noticeable. I had to ask, didn't we have 1080 before? Maybe we did not, but the new picture appears substantially sharper than what we had with the old cable box. The reason we have a new box is that we started to get faulty DVR recordings and I requested one. If you don't ask, you'll keep the old box until it breaks or you complain.

Shannon, I'll back this up to you with email. Thanks again!
-Dave

 

[MarkG21]

I have never used a cable branded TiVo (that's what your using right?)

It's quite easy to switch between favorite channels and channels you get and all channels on the premiere series and series three TiVo's. On your remote, press guide. Press the button to get to the options( don't have remote or TiVo. In front of me so don't remember what button). Scroll down and change which list you want. Easy as that. Takes two seconds.

I don't understand how your would be "spoiled" using the cable company's DVR favorite list. I have Comcast (and directv). (I also have sudden link and their DVR at my vacation house, which is the same model DVR as Comcast). You don't get a custom guide with the cable DVRs. Well you kind of do but it's not user friendly as who have to hit menu, scroll over a few, most of te time there is a lag, and hit favorites. And then repeat, repeat, repeat. With TiVo and Directv, select what you want once and you get your custom lineup. Or you just have to keep hitting the favorite button to channel surf through each channel (cable company). With TiVo, hit the guide button and you have your custom lineup. Want to see all channels, it's a few steps.


But I take it from your post, your using sudden links version of TiVo, which uses their boxes with TiVo's software. I would suggest getting a stand alone TiVo.


By the way, I'm sorry for the mini rant. I really dislike cable companies DVRs. I have nothing positive to say about them.

 

[Huntn]

I have never used a cable branded TiVo (that's what your using right?)

It's quite easy to switch between favorite channels and channels you get and all channels on the premiere series and series three TiVo's. On your remote, press guide. Press the button to get to the options( don't have remote or TiVo. In front of me so don't remember what button). Scroll down and change which list you want. Easy as that. Takes two seconds.

I don't understand how your would be "spoiled" using the cable company's DVR favorite list. I have Comcast (and directv). (I also have sudden link and their DVR at my vacation house, which is the same model DVR as Comcast). You don't get a custom guide with the cable DVRs. Well you kind of do but it's not user friendly as who have to hit menu, scroll over a few, most of te time there is a lag, and hit favorites. And then repeat, repeat, repeat. With TiVo and Directv, select what you want once and you get your custom lineup. Or you just have to keep hitting the favorite button to channel surf through each channel (cable company). With TiVo, hit the guide button and you have your custom lineup. Want to see all channels, it's a few steps.


But I take it from your post, your using sudden links version of TiVo, which uses their boxes with TiVo's software. I would suggest getting a stand alone TiVo.


By the way, I'm sorry for the mini rant. I really dislike cable companies DVRs. I have nothing positive to say about them.

No problem and no argument. I'm saying with Suddenlink DVR I could have multiple custom favorite lists, one for tv shows, one for movies. This is better for me although I acknowledge part of it could be a familiarity issue.