I solved a long-standing mystery yesterday, although quite by accident.
For whatever reason, Tivo had been recording a substantial number of programs from the Discovery Channel, despite the fact that I couldn’t find any evidence that it was inclined to do so — under “Tivo’s Suggestions”, my Season Passes, or Wish Lists. I wrote this off as an anomoly, something that I’d look into perhaps, well, never.
A few days ago, I noticed that my Tivo remote control wouldn’t change to any channel that contained the number “6″. “Weird”, I said to myself, “this is new.” I assessed whether or not the digit “6″ was all that important to my viewing interests, but concluded that having a remote control without a functioning “6″ was like the English language without the letter “S”.
“I want my two dollar. Me love you long time.”
The first thing I checked was if the “6″ button was actually functioning. When I pressed it, a “6″ was displayed on my Tivo menus, but the cable box never picked up the digit. Eh? Fine, we’ll do it anti-ergonomics style. I changed to channel “4″, and pressed the “+” button two times. Did I get channel “6″?
Nope. I got channel, uhh, 31.
31?!
Chicago didn’t sing about “25 or 31-2-4″, did they? Didn’t think so.
I went to review my Tivo manual, and it was less than helpful. Well, it was colorful, but didn’t offer any solutions. It was more like a Tivo pictorial, the centerfold being a Tivo Series-1 PVR resting seductively on a velvet cloth.
I turned my attention elsewhere. I headed over to Google groups, and entered the following search string:
“tivo sony remote channel 6″
… and held my breath.
Surprisingly, I found an answer — on the second hit, no less.
It was the simple matter of updating the code for my cable box, despite the fact that I’d been using the same code since I’d bought the Tivo in November of 2001! Apparently, cable providers provide frequently “firmware” updates to your cable box, and the most recent one made my Tivo incompatible with the cable box.
Okay, whatever.
So, why did Tivo take a liking to recording the Discovery channel? My guess is that it wanted to record something else that I’d requested, but instead chose channel 35. Hence, instead of all the re-runs of “Happy Days” or after dark softcore smut, Tivo ended up recording hour upon hour of heart transplants and marine biology.
