Options To Overcome Series Manager Limits

[devman44]

I didn't hold back my contempt for the Genie after switching to DTV and unfortunately that pattern is continuing again just once I was resigning to learning to live with this downgrade. Mind you, DTV is great, picture quality is great, channels are great... but the Genie leaves a lot to be desired.

Yes, my old as dirt DC box didn't have 5 tuners but we had 4 between 2 DVRs that all shows were split between. It still did more than Genie does though (except for recommending shows I don't care about) and was not lacking the important features that are pretty standard across the board on other receivers. Nonetheless after a week I'm learning to live with this crippled receiver. Although it does suck for lack of a better word, it can record all of our shows and play them even if it makes life more difficult, so life goes on...

Or does it... because I just realized it doesn't record all of our shows. There is a 100 series limit on the series manager we just found when we couldn't setup any new shows. We have been slowly adding our list from our other boxes, which had no limit. We actually had a few hundred series setup on our oldest DVR alone but only about 120 that were probably not cancelled or we cared to continue recording.

With whole family this thing is about 100 series too little.

We don't watch every single episode of every series. Ex: We record Nova but only watch the topics we are interested in. It is probably like that for more than half of the series we record.

Plus, at any given time only 1/4 of the series are not on break. So 100 series limit is more like 25 active series. That may be enough for one person who watches one or two shows a night, but not 3 or 4.

I figure maybe we could cancel shows when they go on break but who wants to keep a journal and research what dates they start back up for 100 shows on a regular basis so you remember not to miss them next season. That is a non solution for me, but it is typical of the experience so far with Genie where you are forced to find work arounds for things that were a given on other platforms.

I would have never thought there would be a limit as we have never had a device that had a series limit and even had hundreds of series setup that never caused a problem with that antiquated hardware so it is a surprise to find it on this. I don't even think we had one when we had a Tivo way back.

So what are the options to get around it? Can I get a second Genie and leave it hooked up in the closet and get 200 but still manage it all from one receiver, or do I have to setup some on one and some on the other?

Is there a better Genie that has a higher limit?

I'd love to hear there is there some kind of diagnostic mode you can get into and edit parameters to bump this up, but this wishful thinking that any solutions to the shortcoming of this receiver would be that easy to fix.

 

[satgirl51]

You can add as many DVRs as you want but only one genie per account right now.

I believe even if you have 100 series links you can still add keyword recordings, it's not a perfect way around it but it's something.

 

[coolman302003]

So what are the options to get around it?

Boolean Auto Record Keyword searches are a workaround for the limit as you can have as many of them setup as you want. (At least I don't think anyone has reported a limit yet)
Over at the "other" satellite forum they have a nice FAQ document with details for a lot of different scenarios/uses for them. Since your relativity new to the site I will post a link to their FAQ. One other thing to remember is always use CCHANS (instead of CCHAN) when you set them up even though the document says otherwise, as it hasn't been updated to reflect that.

http://hr20.dbstalk.com/docs/Advanced Search FAQ.pdf

 

[jcrandall]

We have a summary of boolean search options and how-to here:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/posts/1532093/

 

[joed32]

You can also set up "Manual Recordings" from the Manage recordings menu. You set up a recurring recording for a time and channel, just like you would on a VCR. They don't count against your limit of 100.

 

[Jimbo]

I give up the OP. Cleary has no desire to figure things out ....
It sounds like he was Forced to use D* in the first place and would rather have his local cable company.
No clue why he went with D*.

This is about the 3rd thread he has bashing the Genie ....

Is this a DISH user in reality that just wants to slam D* ?

 

[Aridon]

He had a legit question and got the answer. Sure he is down on the genie but you also have a bit of a fanboi hat at times. Most of his complaints have been legit and things others have asked for.

 

[Broe67]

What I want to know, is who can find 100 or more shows that are active series in the system. We are lucky to have 16 regular shows that are series in our recording queue.

 

[Jimbo]

What I want to know, is who can find 100 or more shows that are active series in the system. We are lucky to have 16 regular shows that are series in our recording queue.

I would like this post 100 times if I could.

 

[Jimbo]

I didn't hold back my contempt for the Genie after switching to DTV and unfortunately that pattern is continuing again just once I was resigning to learning to live with this downgrade. Mind you, DTV is great, picture quality is great, channels are great... but the Genie leaves a lot to be desired.

Yes, my old as dirt DC box didn't have 5 tuners but we had 4 between 2 DVRs that all shows were split between. It still did more than Genie does though (except for recommending shows I don't care about) and was not lacking the important features that are pretty standard across the board on other receivers. Nonetheless after a week I'm learning to live with this crippled receiver. Although it does suck for lack of a better word, it can record all of our shows and play them even if it makes life more difficult, so life goes on...

Or does it... because I just realized it doesn't record all of our shows. There is a 100 series limit on the series manager we just found when we couldn't setup any new shows. We have been slowly adding our list from our other boxes, which had no limit. We actually had a few hundred series setup on our oldest DVR alone but only about 120 that were probably not cancelled or we cared to continue recording.

With whole family this thing is about 100 series too little.

We don't watch every single episode of every series. Ex: We record Nova but only watch the topics we are interested in. It is probably like that for more than half of the series we record.

Plus, at any given time only 1/4 of the series are not on break. So 100 series limit is more like 25 active series. That may be enough for one person who watches one or two shows a night, but not 3 or 4.

I figure maybe we could cancel shows when they go on break but who wants to keep a journal and research what dates they start back up for 100 shows on a regular basis so you remember not to miss them next season. That is a non solution for me, but it is typical of the experience so far with Genie where you are forced to find work arounds for things that were a given on other platforms.

I would have never thought there would be a limit as we have never had a device that had a series limit and even had hundreds of series setup that never caused a problem with that antiquated hardware so it is a surprise to find it on this. I don't even think we had one when we had a Tivo way back.

So what are the options to get around it? Can I get a second Genie and leave it hooked up in the closet and get 200 but still manage it all from one receiver, or do I have to setup some on one and some on the other?

Is there a better Genie that has a higher limit?

I'd love to hear there is there some kind of diagnostic mode you can get into and edit parameters to bump this up, but this wishful thinking that any solutions to the shortcoming of this receiver would be that easy to fix.

Last time I checked, if you had 4 shows each night, that would be 28 shows, not 100.
As you add shows, they go into your To Do list, once a show is off for the year, you can remove it if you like, if you leave it in the To Do list, it will find it next season or whenever it picks back up all by itself.

 

[TheRatPatrol]

You can also set up "Manual Recordings" from the Manage recordings menu. You set up a recurring recording for a time and channel, just like you would on a VCR. They don't count against your limit of 100.

Actually they do count against the limit of 100 if you set up a recurring one.

 

[joed32]

Actually they do count against the limit of 100 if you set up a recurring one.

Didn't know that, I only have a handful of series recording.

 

[DJ Lon]

What I want to know, is who can find 100 or more shows that are active series in the system. We are lucky to have 16 regular shows that are series in our recording queue.

LMAO my Mom, that's who.

When my Pop died and Mom moved in with me I got her a genie and last year I upgraded the receiver in her bedroom to another DVR. She frequently complains to me that the 150 recording slots that she has aren't enough and, yes, I have checked it out...she indeed has 100 current shows in the series manager on the genie and 50 more on the bedroom DVR.

And she isn't an invalid stuck at home, far from it. She leads a very active social life but she really loves her TV shows (and DirecTV).

 

[Jimbo]

LMAO my Mom, that's who.

When my Pop died and Mom moved in with me I got her a genie and last year I upgraded the receiver in her bedroom to another DVR. She frequently complains to me that the 150 recording slots that she has aren't enough and, yes, I have checked it out...she indeed has 100 current shows in the series manager on the genie and 50 more on the bedroom DVR.

And she isn't an invalid stuck at home, far from it. She leads a very active social life but she really loves her TV shows (and DirecTV).

a 100 series that she actually WATCHES ?

 

[DJ Lon]

a 100 series that she actually WATCHES ?

Yup; she watches everything she records. There's a few series that she does watch right away but she usually likes to binge watch after all the episodes have aired. I just looked at the genie...17% hard drive space left. But by the end of Summer it'll be back up to something like 90% because she'll have watched everything and caught up.

 

[Jimbo]

Yup; she watches everything she records. There's a few series that she does watch right away but she usually likes to binge watch after all the episodes have aired. I just looked at the genie...17% hard drive space left. But by the end of Summer it'll be back up to something like 90% because she'll have watched everything and caught up.

So, why is it she doesn't watch as the season goes ?
Does she delete as she watches ? Some don't, just curious.
Just think, the Genie has a much larger hard drive than previous DVRs.
However, your saying that the number of series is the issue, not the space on the drive.
Fwiw, you Can add a larger HD, keep in mind to get one larg enough, the origianal internal HD can't be accessed when using the External.

 

[DJ Lon]

So, why is it she doesn't watch as the season goes ?
Does she delete as she watches ? Some don't, just curious.
Just think, the Genie has a much larger hard drive than previous DVRs.
However, your saying that the number of series is the issue, not the space on the drive.
Fwiw, you Can add a larger HD, keep in mind to get one larg enough, the origianal internal HD can't be accessed when using the External.

She hates having to wait week-to-week for story continuations (like in drama series) so she has absolutely fell in love with binge watching for those types of shows. Other shows like comedies and talk shows she watches them first chance she gets.

Yes, she's very diligent regarding deletion.

I tell her that she's lucky that her son loves her enough to let her have exclusive use of the genie.

Yes, it's the series limit. She goes in a cycle now to rotate the shows since a year's worth doesn't fit on the genie at the same time. She also keeps a notebook so she remembers what to record when that particular show is in it's current season whether it's the fall, winter, spring or summer.

I've thought about that but hard drive space hasn't been an issue and she's not interested in archiving shows.

 

[Jimbo]

She hates having to wait week-to-week for story continuations (like in drama series) so she has absolutely fell in love with binge watching for those types of shows. Other shows like comedies and talk shows she watches them first chance she gets.

Yes, she's very diligent regarding deletion.

I tell her that she's lucky that her son loves her enough to let her have exclusive use of the genie.

Yes, it's the series limit. She goes in a cycle now to rotate the shows since a year's worth doesn't fit on the genie at the same time. She also keeps a notebook so she remembers what to record when that particular show is in it's current season whether it's the fall, winter, spring or summer.

I've thought about that but hard drive space hasn't been an issue and she's not interested in archiving shows.

Has she ever heard of Netflix for binge watching series, I think it's much easier seeing they are all there already except the Current year ( I too prefer to watch the current season vs reruns, but love Netflix when I find a show that is over that I want to see.

 

[DJ Lon]

Has she ever heard of Netflix for binge watching series, I think it's much easier seeing they are all there already except the Current year ( I too prefer to watch the current season vs reruns, but love Netflix when I find a show that is over that I want to see.

Yeah, I also gave her a blu-ray with Netflix access when she moved in. She won't touch it so I have Netflix all to myself.

Bottom line of all this is that this is how she likes to utilize DirecTV. I just pay the bill.

 

[Jimbo]

Yeah, I also gave her a blu-ray with Netflix access when she moved in. She won't touch it so I have Netflix all to myself.

Bottom line of all this is that this is how she likes to utilize DirecTV. I just pay the bill.

Your a Good Son