# Tivo not recording properly..."All with duplicates" problem



## Clark Kent (May 1, 2007)

Hey all,

I have an old-school Tivo and have run into probs lately recording shows for my wife. I set up the Tivo to record only new shows, but Tivo will ignore the show when it's on, and when I look in the recording history, it says, "This episode will not be recorded because the same episode appears in the now playing list or the to do list within 28 days of this broadcast. In recording options, change show type to all with duplicates if you want to recorded each time it airs." 

I don't understand this because a new show would only air once, and I do not want to fill the tivo with repeats of every episode. Can anyone shed some light for me? Thanks!


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## spanishannouncetable (Apr 23, 2002)

It would help to know what show you're trying to record, what channel it's on, and what "old school TiVo" model you have.


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## Clark Kent (May 1, 2007)

I checked the Tivo and it's a Series 2 SD DVR 40. If that's the wrong info, please let me know.

As for the shows, it happens a lot, mostly with the basic cable shows that have one original broadcast...and then repeat a dozen times. For example, on Bravo, I try to record, "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style" on Thursday nights at 10. Season Pass, every new episode. But Tivo does not register the new episodes. And when you look to see why it ignores the recording, the duplicate message appears.

This has also happened for other shows on basic cable like Design Star, What Not to Wear and 4400.


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## spanishannouncetable (Apr 23, 2002)

My SP for "The 4400" is set to record First-run only and has had no problems since the show debuted 4 years ago. I use a Samsung 80 hr. Series 2 DirecTiVo.

If you're using First-run only, the TiVo is "seeing" these shows as repeats for some reason. If these shows air reliably at the same time every day or week, a repeating Manual Recording SP (like the one I set-up for The Daily Show, with its notoriously bad guide data) may be your best bet


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## Clark Kent (May 1, 2007)

I guess that's a way to solve the problem, but it doesn't answer the question. Why does it happen?


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## spanishannouncetable (Apr 23, 2002)

There is hidden data in the guide info that TiVo software looks for when sorting and scheduling programs. If this data is incorrect (flagged as "not a new show") TiVo has no way of knowing that it's bad and indexes it accordingly. If there's no specific episode data TiVo treats it as a new show by default and schedules it to be on the safe side.

Mishandled guide data from the channel itself or Tribune is usually the culprit. TiVo can only sort what it gets : Garbage In = Garbage Out. You could try clearing all the guide data from the hard drive then having it download and rebuild your To Do list from scratch, but this would take a while and if the data is still wrong TiVo wouldn't know it. You could also let it schedule multiple recordings then manually delete all the unwanted recordings from the To Do list in advance.


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## Clark Kent (May 1, 2007)

Thanks for that. Only trouble there is that it might jam up the memory. I might have to go with your manual recording option.


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