Went away, box turned off, tivo missed 8 days of recording

[Icarus]

Well, we decided to go to Grand Cayman for 8 days, and as I was watching some tv down there, I said to myself, don't worry, tivo will record everything.

Well, wouldn't you know it, somehow the pace box was turned off when I got home, and tivo had no signal since some time on Dec 22. We left the area on Dec 21st.

It wasn't a power failure, because all my computers were still on, none of the clocks on the kitchen appliances needed to be reset. It had to be some sort of reset that occurred from BHN in Bradenton on the 22nd .. at least that's the assumption.

I wish tivo would issue periodically issue a discreet "on" signal via it's IR output, but it doesn't, and since this is the old "series 1" standalone tivo, there's no hope for a sw update to enable that idea. In my old house on Kauai (a very ancient analog cable system) I just had a small desktop UPS with connections to the cable box to deal with periodic short-term blackouts.

I don't know if anybody else is in the same boat as me, and if anybody has found some sort of workaround for the problem?

-David

[CANDY76MAN]

If it makes you feel any better, you probly wouldn't have had any better luck with BHN's DVR box.

[LonghornXP]

Well my DirecTivo with a UPS as well as maybe BHNs DVR shouldn't have this problem unless BHN resets it themselves. When I did have BHN DVR for just about a week they always reset it during the night so everynight I record a certain show that I alwasy lost the end of it every single night. Since there HD wasn't increasing and I could get the Tivo software but a good price via DirecTV and gain features over the BHN DVR I made the switch. Well I have to say that not one show on my DirecTivo has has been messed up. Hey when I got my second DirecTV for the 100 buck offer which was supposed to be the 35 hour unit I ended up getting for the same price the 100 hour Hughes box. I just last week ordered another DirecTivo that cost me 100 bucks total including S&H, tax and installation after their 25 buck waiting list credit. From what it looks like is that DirecTV currently has the Samsung 100 hour units in there warehouse that people have been getting that I'm hoping for but will be very happy with just the 35 hour unit. I'll be waiting for the DirecTivo HD box when this comes out.

So I spent 450 bucks and have 3 DirecTivos and am only paying 5 bucks extra on my bill. Granted customers now can get three DirecTV DVRs for about 150 or so less upfront cost.

So getting the same programming including all premium channels as I get and the HD package with three DVRs and on HD box for a total of 4 rooms it would cost me 128 bucks per month with DirecTV and it would cost me 155 bucks with BHN.

Those extra costs of BHN would be the 6.95/month HD package and having three boxes with their 6.95/month DVR service fee which is for each box. I remember my bill with cable internet without the HD package or any DVRs with three rooms being 155 bucks per month. You would take 42 bucks off of that which would bring you with say 110 per month. Than add the rental of now 7.95/month for the fourth room. Now add another 21 bucks to upgrade three boxes to DVR boxes. Now add the HD package at 6.95/month. That brings it that cost with tax and stuff to about 155 per month for just cable.

So my question is why wouldn't you switch to DirecTv and even more so if you don't need HDTV. So for those of you with at least 3 rooms with at least 2 DVRs why would you stay. At least for my case the extra 30 bucks per month I would be spending with BHN would make up the upfront cost for me in about 14 months and for new people it would be pretty much the year but after that year your hardware is paid for and you own it and that 30 bucks per month for that next year could buy you an HD Tivo with DirecTV. That is what I'm doing because I can't live without a DVR these days and I spent what I did from money I saved way before so now that extra money for the last 8 months and into the future will be covering the cost of my new DirecTv HD tivo which I will get for about 700 bucks. So I've got just a little over 400 bucks right now in my bank account allocated to my HD Tivo so when it does come out I think it is a steal for 300 bucks for an HD tivo IMO. So to be honest BHN is funding the money indirectly for my HD tivo by their very bad prices and lack of HD programming.

[CANDY76MAN]

When directv has all the local digital channels available and I can get a hd tivo at a reasonable price I will most likely switch back to directv from BHN....I'm really getting aggrivated by the piss poor image quality on the analog channels, aside from the fact that direc tv had a better picture than BHN's digital channels to begin with....and tivo units do considerably better looking recording than the BHN DVR...and they have all the recording options i want.

I'm holding out a little hope that the hd capable SA dvr will be greatly improved but I'm not holding my breath 8O

[Icarus]

I know the directivo would be a better option. But I really don't want to switch to that option right now. (For directivo + HD +OTA, you can do that with two STBs right now if you want to go that route. One directivo box, and a separate HD/OTA/SAT receiver, like the one's made by Sony or Samsung.)

I think the only option for me is some sort of ir emitter device (maybe a cheap palm handheld -- anybody know if there's a sw program available for it to use it as an ir remote? -- or a very programmable remote) that I can program to preiodically issue a discreet "on" command.

Too bad there isn't a way to tell the pace box to turn itself on after any sort of reset or power event. I wonder if they can add that through a software update?

The other question is, why do they issue these resets?

-David