# Protect recorded programs from being deleted



## Angelus7310 (Aug 23, 2006)

Here is my situation. I have 2 roommates that live in my house. I have made sure that they each have an HD receiver in their rooms with the whole home DVR setup. There is also a much better home theater setup in the living room, with the understanding that I watch what I want, when I want there. (I have no receiver or TV in my room.) I have multiple recordings at the same time at least 3 nights a week. I 'm not home every night, and when I get home to watch my shows, I find that either my roommates or their stupid friends have cancelled my recordings so they can watch live TV. Is there any way to prevent people from canceling or deleting recorded programming? IT doesn't appear to be one of the parental options, and the protect option doesn't protect against manual deletions. Any way that I could use a parental code or something would be a life saver. I've had too many fights with these idiots and don't want to kick one out for such a silly reason, but daddy needs his TV. I have searched the forums, and found one answer on topic, but it was from '08, and that answer was no. Hoping something new has been found since then.


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## Go Beavs (Nov 18, 2008)

On your DVR, you can go into WHDVR setup tab in the main setup screen and turn off "allow deletion from other rooms". That may work for you unless they have direct access to the DVR.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Go Beavs said:


> That may work for you unless they have direct access to the DVR.


From the OP's description, it sounds like they do have access to the living room DVR and that is where they are deleting the shows from so they can watch live TV. So your answer would prevent them from deleting from their rooms, but not in the Living Room.

I don't think there is a way to prevent this w/o chopping off someone's fingers.

EDIT: You might be able to go to the Parental Controls and block everything. That way to watch anything, you have to have the 4 digit code. But then that locks your roommates out from watching anything unless you're there.


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## Go Beavs (Nov 18, 2008)

trh said:


> From the OP's description, it sounds like they do have access to the living room DVR and that is where they are deleting the shows from so they can watch live TV. So your answer would prevent them from deleting from their rooms, but not in the Living Room.
> 
> I don't think there is a way to prevent this w/o chopping off someone's fingers.
> 
> *EDIT: You might be able to go to the Parental Controls and block everything. That way to watch anything, you have to have the 4 digit code. But then that locks your roommates out from watching anything unless you're there.*


I think that would be the way to do it. The roomates could still watch in their own rooms. Just remember turn remote deletion off.


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

If they continue to delete your recordings or cancel them in progress I would just not Allow them to use the TV at all in the Living Room.

I would prohibit them from watching TV in the Living Room and if they continued to do so I would kick them out because obviously they do not care about you and they are acting inconsiderately.

Just hide the Remotes for the Directv DVR and the TV and then they can't use it. Put Parental Restrictions on it also.


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## krazyrs (Sep 22, 2011)

Richierich said:


> Put Parental Restrictions on it also.


:lol: parental controls for G +/Unrated programs would be win


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

Go Beavs said:


> I think that would be the way to do it [parental lockout on the main DVR]. The roomates could still watch in their own rooms. Just remember turn remote deletion off.


There are probably a lot of better ways to handle this, but only if they will listen to reason and extend the common courtesy to you of not dumping your recordings. After all, they have to make a conscious decision to dump a recording in lieu of live TV. I would be pretty unhappy with roommates who would treat me this way, so they may have left you only this course of action as a last resort. Certainly nothing for you to feel guilty about, and if it is a deal-breaker for them, so be it; there are plenty of potential roommates on Craig's List.

But maybe the problem is that they just don't know how this works, and don't know they are rudely canceling your recordings.

So my advice would be:

1) have a nice conversation about how this works and that when they do this they are thwarting your wishes to record something, which is pretty rude if you are paying the lion's share for this system

2) if that does not seem to work, invoke parental control as described. It doesn't have to be permanent, just until they get the message. But beware, if they HAVE NOT received the message and you relent and turn parental control off, they may turn it on for you with their own password.:grin:


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## F1 Fan (Aug 28, 2007)

In my experience with dealing with "users" they rarely read the words that pop up on messages and blindly click ok so may not have made a conscious decision to delete your recordings.

But although I am a techie and everyone says parental controls - I find the easiest way is to remove the remotes! If their remotes work on yours then change the code 

K.I.S.S


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