NBC, TiVo, and Knight Rider

TiVo is in partnership with NBC, do I have that right? Assuming that is the case, I think I have an example of a bit of nefarious underhandedness to report.

Looking through my TiVo's "To-Do" list, I came across the program "Knight Rider", that NBC has been heavily promoting for the last month or so. This was not in my To-Do list as a "spec" program, but was flagged as a Wish List program with the blue and white star logo.

While I have quite a few Wish Lists defined, none of them could have picked up Knight Rider -- not by program type, not by key word, not by actor, not by anything.

So, is NBC leaning on TiVo to force recording of select programs even though they are not requested or wanted by the user?

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

tanstaafl.

You want Knight Rider.

I dont think this is the first time tivo has done this. BUT, they could force shows on you weekly and it still would not suck as bad as the timewarner dvr that I am stuck with for hdtv.

They did this because they know that most folks that want to see Knight Rider would be embarrassed to actually schedule it.

I'm one of these folks...

hmm, I'll have to check my Tivo later. I really hope this didn't interfere with a wishlist or anything else you may have wanted to record! I can deal with the ads in the menus but recording shows that I have no interest in at the expense of others is a bit much.

Like, maybe, tanstaafl's missus?

Peter

Neither of my TiVo's had it added. I do have suggestions turned off.

I've never seen Tivo get something as a Wish List item unless it specifically matched the programming of one of my wish lists.

I *have* seen Tivo grab shows that I didn't *think* matched a wish list, until I looked much closer.

I suggest carefully re-evaluating any wish lists you've programmed and seeing if some kind of search is coming up as a match. Something subtle that you're not noticing at first.

By the way, press the details/info/whateveritscalled button when you're in a show description screen to get more details on the show, such as original air date and its genre match types.

Mystery is solved, and I am somewhat disappointed at the lack of nefariousness as I had hoped to ride a high horse of righteous indignation and vent all over NBC/TiVo. Now I'll have to find some other form of entertainment.

It turns out that the initial Knight Rider program is not the first of a one-hour drama series, but a two-hour movie, and I do have a low-priority wishlist of just "movies" so that is what triggered the recording.

I don't know what "details/info/whateveritscalled button" you mean to get more details. I don't think I have one of those. I can right-arrow over to options and see things like view upcoming showings, but nothing like you describe. Am I missing something?

tanstaafl.

First: Tony means that, when you've selected a program and are looking at its description in the Tivo menu (so that you're seeing who stars in it and a description of what happens in it), some Tivo remotes have an "Info" button on them that, when pressed, give you more info on the program. An example of when I use this: lately my Tivo has decided that it's going to record Smallville and Supernatural every week, instead of just new episodes. I can press this button, scroll down, and see the original air date of the episode, and delete it if it's an old one.

Second: You have a wishlist of just "movies?" Do you have five tuners in yours or something?

My TiVo is one of the very first Series I units, and the remote has no such button, so I guess I'm out of luck.

Yes, I do have a "Movies" wish list, but it is 'way down on the priority list, so relatively few get recorded as higher-priority season passes and wish lists pre-empt most of them. Plus, I do not have cable or satellite or anything -- all I get is what comes through the antenna on my roof: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and PBS. So, one tuner suffices pretty well! On the rare occasions that my To-Do list shows a program that I want as being "Will Not Record", I fire up the VCR and record it on tape. This only happens maybe once every couple of months.

tanstaafl.

I see, that makes sense. I do not know if there is a way to get something similar to the "info" view on the Series 1 boxes.

Yes, Press Enter on the remote in the same place you would push info.