# DIRECTV Smart Search (0x395 software)



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

DIRECTV has posted a nice video and information page regarding the new Smart Search available in the Winter 2010 update. You can view it at the URL below:

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/article.jsp?assetId=P6620014

Enjoy!


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

Looks very cool.


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

That is good, but does the general GUI work faster?
I guess I'll find out once 395 is loaded on my units. !!!


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## SledgeHammer (Dec 28, 2007)

Smart Search is horrible.

1) its slow as all heck
2) half the screen is now filled with advertisments (when the search is clear)
3) they removed the "First Run" marker...

Just brilliant .


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## Anaisa (Sep 6, 2008)

SledgeHammer said:


> Smart Search is horrible.
> 
> 1) its slow as all heck
> 2) half the screen is now filled with advertisments (when the search is clear)
> ...


My experience is the opposite. SmartSearch is great, most of the time just four letters were sufficient and it was pretty fast. The canned searches are nice (I used the one related to American Idol and found stuff I did not anticipate). I find it brilliant.

I do not remember any marker for first run before SmartSearch.


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## SledgeHammer (Dec 28, 2007)

Anaisa said:


> My experience is the opposite. SmartSearch is great, most of the time just four letters were sufficient and it was pretty fast. The canned searches are nice (I used the one related to American Idol and found stuff I did not anticipate). I find it brilliant.
> 
> I do not remember any marker for first run before SmartSearch.


When you did the "view upcoming episodes", it would tell you how many new episodes there were. They took that out now.

And I discovered one other really crappy thing...

Before, I could view ProgramX on ChannelY only. Now I have to view ProgramX on ChangeY, ChannelZ, ChannelQ and ChannelP, etc.

Just plain horrible.


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## gully_foyle (Jan 18, 2007)

SledgeHammer said:


> When you did the "view upcoming episodes", it would tell you how many new episodes there were. They took that out now.
> 
> And I discovered one other really crappy thing...
> 
> ...


It would be a nice touch if you could exclude DNS results from search like you can Porn. Those and PPV are probably the biggest offenders in search result clutter.


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## SledgeHammer (Dec 28, 2007)

gully_foyle said:


> It would be a nice touch if you could exclude DNS results from search like you can Porn. Those and PPV are probably the biggest offenders in search result clutter.


Actually, I leave in the porn. I don't watch it (well, not on DTV at least ), but I leave it in for comedic purposes.

You gotta love it when you are setting up the DVR with your GF for 90210 and "9 Oversex ******" and "9 Snowed In ******" shows up .


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## joed32 (Jul 27, 2006)

I like it it's like doing a "key word" search on the fly. The old one searched for the first word in a title with regular search. The new one will find any word in a title. It also includes cast and crew and filmography, awards, etc.


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## sailermon (Oct 17, 2007)

Can you still use boolean logic in searches, including exclusions using (-)? If so, you could likely eleiminate most search clutter.

It would be helpful if someone would post several good examples of common searches and results using Smart Search, which illustrate all of the capabilities, including those left over from the old search.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

sailermon said:


> Can you still use boolean logic in searches, including exclusions using (-)? If so, you could likely eleiminate most search clutter.
> 
> It would be helpful if someone would post several good examples of common searches and results using Smart Search, which illustrate all of the capabilities, including those left over from the old search.


It's pretty straightforward, IMO.

Type in any letters and if a show title, actors name, or channel contains them in that exact order, a matching full title/name/channel will appear in the results list. The results list changes with every new character you type, just like the "old" TITLE search.

Select any result, and a new title/name/channel search is run using the full name you selected.

You can still use "advanced" search syntax, as in the past, for keyword only searches. You can also run an "old style" keyword search on any string of characters you type by hitting the RED button, or selecting the "keyword" entry from the results list.


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## djzack67 (Sep 18, 2007)

looking forward to trying the new features


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## gizzly (May 25, 2008)

While I liked the easy access to searching for new shows, when I used this feature it spat out a listing of the next 75 episodes of Burn Notice. 

Putting these into folders would be a HUGE help. After hitting the Page Down button 6-7 times, I gave up seeing iof there.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

Since I rarely do keyword searches, I don't like it. It's too sensitive when entering information. If you misspell something, it won't show up. For example, if you are searching for the show "American Idol" and you typed "Amerib", all it will show is a keyword for that. In the old search, it would still show "American Idol" as a suggestion for what you might have been trying to type (in that respect, the old version was actually smarter). 
It also seems to be slower than the old version. Additionally, when you do find the show, the first many listings are for VOD (if applicable). I was actually doing a keyword search the other day for "Michigan State & sports". When I select it, the first SEVEN pages are for VOD items. That's a lot of scrolling to find next weeks game I want to record.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

spartanstew said:


> Since I rarely do keyword searches, I don't like it. It's too sensitive when entering information. If you misspell something, it won't show up. For example, if you are searching for the show "American Idol" and you typed "Amerib", all it will show is a keyword for that. In the old search, it would still show "American Idol" as a suggestion for what you might have been trying to type (in that respect, the old version was actually smarter).
> It also seems to be slower than the old version. Additionally, when you do find the show, the first many listings are for VOD (if applicable). I was actually doing a keyword search the other day for "Michigan State & sports". When I select it, the first SEVEN pages are for VOD items. That's a lot of scrolling to find next weeks game I want to record.


I know what you mean. If you want to search for "Michigan State & sports" in the future, here's a trick I found.

Ignore the "matches" list and use the RED button just as if you were doing an "old-style" keyword search. Type *M-I-C-H* and hit RED. (Since single words in a keyword search are "stemmed", it's like typing *mich** in Google). You can then select *& sports, etc.* on the next screen.

Of course this shortcut is only good if you can search using a single word, because multiple keywords can't be stemmed. They are treated as an "exact phrase" for matching purposes.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

Steve said:


> I know what you mean. If you want to search for "Michigan State & sports" in the future, here's a trick I found.
> 
> Ignore the "matches" list and use the RED button just as if you were doing an "old-style" keyword search. Type *M-I-C-H* and hit RED. (Since single words in a keyword search are "stemmed", it's like typing *mich** in Google). You can then select *& sports, etc.* on the next screen.
> 
> Of course this shortcut is only good if you can search using a single word, because multiple keywords can't be stemmed. They are treated as an "exact phrase" for matching purposes.


But that would still give me pages of VOD wouldn't it?


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Anaisa said:


> My experience is the opposite. SmartSearch is great, most of the time just four letters were sufficient and it was pretty fast. The canned searches are nice (I used the one related to American Idol and found stuff I did not anticipate). I find it brilliant.
> 
> I do not remember any marker for first run before SmartSearch.


I'm with you on this....much improved, and certainly not slow at all.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

spartanstew said:


> But that would still give me pages of VOD wouldn't it?


I tried it with *mich *and it didn't. I didn't try other keywords, tho.


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

The only complaint that I have is that the "back" button does not bring one back to the search home screen, only to the screen in which the search term was entered. To do another search you have to click down to clear or delete.
This is inconsistent with how the back button works for all other items.


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## iamqnow (Dec 26, 2007)

Doug Brott said:


> DIRECTV has posted a nice video and information page regarding the new Smart Search available in the Winter 2010 update. You can view it at the URL below:
> 
> http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/article.jsp?assetId=P6620014
> 
> Enjoy!


Will it keep searches that originally did not find listings? It is annoying to keep typing in the same title and hoping someday it will show up.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

iamqnow said:


> Will it keep searches that originally did not find listings? It is annoying to keep typing in the same title and hoping someday it will show up.


I believe that it will. I also think the old search did too.


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## joed32 (Jul 27, 2006)

BubblePuppy said:


> The only complaint that I have is that the "back" button does not bring one back to the search home screen, only to the screen in which the search term was entered. To do another search you have to click down to clear or delete.
> This is inconsistent with how the back button works for all other items.


That was one of the things I liked better on the HR2Xs than the Tivo. Using the Tivo you had to clear the old search and Smart Search is like that now.


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

joed32 said:


> That was one of the things I liked better on the HR2Xs than the Tivo. Using the Tivo you had to clear the old search and Smart Search is like that now.


It seems to me that having the back function on Smart Search act inconsistently with the way it does for everything else indicates to me that someone was asleep when they designed this. It needs to be changed, as it is you might have to press buttons 11 times just to get it to delete the search entry to be able to enter a new search. Poor design. :nono2:


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

BubblePuppy said:


> It seems to me that having the back function on Smart Search act inconsistently with the way it does for everything else indicates to me that someone was asleep when they designed this. It needs to be changed, as it is you might have to press buttons 11 times just to get it to delete the search entry to be able to enter a new search. Poor design. :nono2:


Hit exit, then start over. Certainly less than 11 button presses.


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## joed32 (Jul 27, 2006)

You just have to move the cursor down to clear but that would be 8 keystroke from your last search. Exit and start over is only 5 keystrokes. I'm just spoiled because it used to be just 1.


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

billsharpe said:


> *Hit exit, then start over.* Certainly less than 11 button presses.


That brings you completely out of the search menu so then it is a complete start over. 5 button pushes. That doesn't make any sense.
Why not just hit back one more time to return to the home search menu, like it does with all other menus. Again consistency. Simple.
Which is better?


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

SledgeHammer said:


> Smart Search is horrible.
> 
> 1) its slow as all heck
> 2) half the screen is now filled with advertisments (when the search is clear)
> ...


I gotta agree with Sledge, here.

My test drive crashed and burned horribly. It's not only incredibly counter-intuitive, it just doesn't work at all. First test, search for a show episode I know exists. [sound effect of fingers going tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap... tap...tap...]

It felt like a had a birthday or two waiting for it to give absolutely zero results. "Dumb Search" is more like it.

OK, brush off the cobwebs and try again, for another show. Nada.

Let's try "Julianna Marguiles". Zip. Hard to spell, but _c'mon_.

OK, "American Idol", ferchrissakes. Zilch.

Final grade = F-

Nothing can be worse than a potentially good idea implemented ham-handedly. I didn't think they had this much failure in them. Back to the drawing board. I'll seach on my Tivos instead.


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## johnid (Jan 15, 2010)

I think it is great got to figure a better after search to filter out individual movies like in a folder for same showing different day besides just tabbing to filmography


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

TomCat said:


> I gotta agree with Sledge, here...
> 
> Final grade = F-...


While I stand by my earlier statement, things have changed significantly regarding the performance. I think the problem might be that I tried Smart Search directly after the up rev downloaded, which seems like pretty natural behavior if you are there for the download. Now I suspect that there is some period of indexing required to make this feature work, because it works fine a day later, yet did not work at all at first. Of course there was no disclaimer stating that, so DTV still deserves my punch-in-the-face review for not letting us in on that little secret.

Not that I'm blown away by SS. I think it might be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I like it a lot, but there are things done less well than within the original search engine.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

TomCat said:


> While I stand by my earlier statement, things have changed significantly regarding the performance. I think the problem might be that I tried Smart Search directly after the up rev downloaded, which seems like pretty natural behavior if you are there for the download. Now I suspect that there is some period of indexing required to make this feature work, because it works fine a day later, yet did not work at all at first. Of course there was no disclaimer stating that, so DTV still deserves my punch-in-the-face review for not letting us in on that little secret.
> 
> Not that I'm blown away by SS. I think it might be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I like it a lot, but there are things done less well than within the original search engine.


Yea, I keep seeing "wait 24-48 hours" to see how this will work. We'll see.


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

Doug Brott said:


> DIRECTV has posted a nice video and information page regarding the new Smart Search available in the Winter 2010 update. You can view it at the URL below:
> 
> http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/article.jsp?assetId=P6620014
> 
> Enjoy!


If they could get my system to be as quick and responsive as the one in the video, I'd be one happy camper.
I'm going out on a limb here and saying the video is fake. :eek2:


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## joed32 (Jul 27, 2006)

TomCat said:


> While I stand by my earlier statement, things have changed significantly regarding the performance. I think the problem might be that I tried Smart Search directly after the up rev downloaded, which seems like pretty natural behavior if you are there for the download. Now I suspect that there is some period of indexing required to make this feature work, because it works fine a day later, yet did not work at all at first. Of course there was no disclaimer stating that, so DTV still deserves my punch-in-the-face review for not letting us in on that little secret.
> 
> Not that I'm blown away by SS. I think it might be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I like it a lot, but there are things done less well than within the original search engine.


I was wondering about that because after I read your post I did the same searches and they worked. Was wondering why your searches didn't. I like the fact that you can choose the most unique word in a title to search by and not just the first word to get faster reults.


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## rapjrhb (Sep 26, 2007)

TomCat said:


> While I stand by my earlier statement, things have changed significantly regarding the performance. I think the problem might be that I tried Smart Search directly after the up rev downloaded, which seems like pretty natural behavior if you are there for the download. Now I suspect that there is some period of indexing required to make this feature work, because it works fine a day later, yet did not work at all at first. Of course there was no disclaimer stating that, so DTV still deserves my punch-in-the-face review for not letting us in on that little secret.
> 
> Not that I'm blown away by SS. I think it might be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I like it a lot, but there are things done less well than within the original search engine.


That's a really good point, I should probably go back and try again as well. I tried SS right after getting the new build by searching for "LAKERS" and it returned a bunch of results but NOT the game that I knew to be on that night! I messed around with it a little more and still couldn't get it to find that game (although I was able to find and record from guide) so I sort of gave up on it at that point. Considering your comments above, I think it makes sense for me to give it another shot.


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## Tubaman-Z (Jul 31, 2007)

sailermon said:


> Can you still use boolean logic in searches, including exclusions using (-)? ...


I thought that I paid pretty close attention to what could be done with advanced searches, but I don't recall any usage of '-'. Could someone point me to a thread?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Tubaman-Z said:


> I thought that I paid pretty close attention to what could be done with advanced searches, but I don't recall any usage of '-'. Could someone point me to a thread?


See my response to that same post you quoted.


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## dcowboy7 (May 23, 2008)

There are channels after the search that arent grayed out yet i dont get them.
Whats the point of graying/not graying out channels if its going to be wrong ?


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

dcowboy7 said:


> There are channels after the search that arent grayed out yet i dont get them.
> Whats the point of graying/not graying out channels if its going to be wrong ?


"Channels I Get" has been more-or-less broken for as long as I've had my HR20, i.e. three years. Not as bad as before, but still not fixed.

That doesn't really answer your question, though, does it?


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## FarNorth (Nov 27, 2003)

Maybe it will improve but for me, it sucks. I have 2 rcvrs and one issue is true on both: Type in a keyword and it gives options but 'Show', no channel numbers. I have to click over and make sure it is the program and channel I am looking for. 

Far worse, the H22 only gives me channels that I don't get and doesn't show the channels that I do recieve, not even greyed out. For example, type in 'SUP' for Super Bowl. After I finally scroll down to find the Ind-NO game and click 'show', it points me to the game on channel 381, the SD variant I don't get - and that's the only option. No other channels are there. Type in 'How' for 'How I Met Your Mother,' same story. Goes to 380, SD. Punch in HD, nothing shows but 'How It Works'. SS works on the 22, not on the 21.

Maybe it will get better but for right now, it is marginally acceptable on my HR21 and useless on my HR22.


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## Tubaman-Z (Jul 31, 2007)

Steve said:


> See my response to that same post you quoted.


Steve, thanks. I did see your response before I posted. I've gone back and re-read it and while you stated that advanced searches will work as before, I still am unclear on the usage of the hyphen. I've done a cursory review of the advanced searching thread (having previously read it in totality) and don't see a reference there either to using a hyphen in searches. How and where is it used in searches?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Tubaman-Z said:


> Steve, thanks. I did see your response before I posted. I've gone back and re-read it and while you stated that advanced searches will work as before, I still am unclear on the usage of the hyphen. I've done a cursory review of the advanced searching thread (having previously read it in totality) and don't see a reference there either to using a hyphen in searches. How and where is it used in searches?


I thought there was a discussion in there somewhere on the "-", so my bad if there wasn't.

It's definitely NOT a replacement for *NNOT*, as suggested by the post you replied to. It would be so intuitive (and save search characters) if it was, however.

The bottom line is, like you, I haven't been able to figure out what it does. I've used it after CCHAN to try to force select the OTA verision of a channel, but *CCHAN 7-1*, e.g., finds shows on both 7 and 7-1, as does *CCHAN 7*. So a search "-" is about as useful as my pinkie toe, IMHO.


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## Guest (Feb 9, 2010)

I like the DVD and TV box art.


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## cebbigh (Feb 27, 2005)

sailermon said:


> Can you still use boolean logic in searches, including exclusions using (-)? If so, you could likely eleiminate most search clutter.
> 
> It would be helpful if someone would post several good examples of common searches and results using Smart Search, which illustrate all of the capabilities, including those left over from the old search.


I'm not familiar with exclusions (-). Could someone post an example or a link to how it works? Does it work for channels or channel ranges?


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