The Virgin TiVo Files, Part 3: Your Wish(List) is TiVo's command

Digital TV means more choice, and with dozens of channels available, it can be difficult to locate content to record. The previous part of the Virgin TiVo files showed off the content search system, but wouldn't it be nice if you could tell your PVR to record specific content?

Sure, you could record Game of Death from Syfy HD. But, wouldn't it be nice to locate all martial arts movies, regardless of what channel they are on? Or even all content featuring Bruce Lee?

Your wish - or, WishList, is TiVo's command.

From Virgin Media's TiVo site:

We even take searching and browsing to the next level with WishLists. All you have to do is save one of your favourite searches for a programme, genre or actor. Then, if something comes up that fits with your selection, it'll be saved for you, automatically - whether it's on tonight, next month or even next year.

Wishlists allow you to create very specific search criteria for content, regardless of what channel that content is on. You can define a keyword; programme title; Actor; Director and Category (Documentary; Movie, etc).

You could, for example, create a Wishlist which finds all football, or just all Football which features Man Utd. Want to find all content related to Stargate? OK. What about all Bruce Lee films? Sure thing. You can even define wildcards for a search cretia, so that, Road* would find Road Wars on Sky 1, along with the film Road Trip.

Once you've created and named your Wishlist, you can tell TiVo to show all content matches for that list. You can select which content to record from that Wishlist, or, you can even tell TiVo to automatically record all content it finds for a Wishlist. So, if you really wanted to record all football games featuring Man Utd, you could. If you really wanted to.

You can also change the recording priority of each Wishlist if you wish (no pun intended) to give it a higher priority then series link recordings. Once Virgin gets that pesky third tuner activated, there will be less chance of recording clashes anyway, and with 1TB of recording capacity, lack of space for Wishlist recordings shouldn't be an immediate issue.

In the next instalment of The Virgin TiVo Files, I'll take a look at how TiVo can make suggestions and recommendations based on....well, you, mainly.

The Virgin TiVo Files, Part 2: Finding everything and everyone

With normal PVRs, when you wish to find content, you usually have to think first of the channel that content is on.

Want to record Chuck? Ok, sure. What channel is it on? BBC 1? E4? Maybe Living? What day is it on again? Hell, is it even on this week? It might be available via VOD. Might. But where? In Catch-Up or On Demand? You dunno? Oh well, have fun scrolling through the EPG.

Now, to be fair to the good old V+ HD, it can actually find content via a search feature, but it only returns results from VOD. With TiVo, you can decouple channels from the content you love and wish to find, from dozens of linear channels, hours of Video-on-Demand, and even internet content sources.

 

The screenshot above shows off TiVo's Search screen. As you type in the name of the content you're looking for, TiVo will update its suggestions for content in real-time. The beauty of TiVo is that those suggestions will come from the 14-day EPG (yes, 14 Days!), Catch-Up VOD content and On Demand VOD content, and it will tell you if the content you're looking for is on right now; available from linear channel(s), or available from VOD. It will even tell you if the content is available in HD.

Once the content you love is located, you can, according to the TiVo Premiere Manual:

Schedule a recording or a create a [Series Link] from the Details screen. You can also view upcoming episodes or browse the episode guide, explore details about the cast, learn about other shows that might interest you, or view bonus features.

And the left-hand side of this screen shot from Crave's excellent photo gallery proves that those options will be available for Virgin Media's TiVo (since the software written for Virgin is branched off the TiVo software code tree):

Again, with TiVo, content is decoupled from channels. When TiVo searches for content from linear channels, it doesn't care which channel that content is on. If upcoming episodes of Chuck are on both Living and say, Channel 1, then TiVo displays upcoming Chuck episodes from those and any other channels. If you set up a Series Link, you could record all Chuck episodes from those channels, or even record new episodes only.

TiVo's Search functionality isn't just limited to content, but Actors, Actresses and even Directors. You could search for, say, Yvonne Strahovski, and then see what's content she's been in, like playing the role of Sarah Walker in Chuck for instance. You could even read about Yvonne's career to date.

This image from Crave's TiVo photo-gallery shows off TV content which features Hugh Laurie, after a previous search for House led Crave to this screen:

But wait, there's more. Remember those bonus features mentioned eariler? Well, that's where you'll find any internet content sources which Virgin have added to TiVo, including from the initial launch, YouTube. Any previously entered search keyword is passed to YouTube (and presumely, other future content sources Virgin will add) allowing you to view content related to your keyword, as this search for Friends on YouTube shows:

With TiVo, you can spend less time searching for content and more time actually watching it, and with the next instalment of The Virgin TiVo Files, you'll see that TiVo can find and record content that you like, leaving you with the mere problem of finding the free time to watch it all.

The Virgin TiVo Files, Part 1: Backward EPG

This is the first in a list of blog posts which will focus on a feature of Virgin's TiVo. Like thousands of other (drooling) Virgin Media customers, I don't have a TiVo at hand (yet), so these posts are based on what's known about the product, its feature-set, previews features from online sources and the knowledge of experienced TiVo users. As always, your comments are welcome.

Right, first up? The backward EPG. Virgin Media may currently be the only platform featuring catch-up TV services from all 4 UK terrestrial broadcasters, but that content isn't that easy to find using the current Virgin EPG.

Sure, if you want to get to BBC iPlayer then you can just press the red button on any BBC channel, but while red button functionality exists for the likes of ITV (now and then), its used more to promote X-Factor content and phone-ins then aiding the location of last week's Coronation Street.

Usually, you can drill through the Catch-Up VOD menus to find the content you previously missed, but that's not as easy as just scrolling backwards in time on the EPG provided by Virgin's TiVo box:

Its a solution so simple, you wonder why its not been done before, and yes, I'm well aware of YouView's backward EPG but that won't be in anyone's home any-time soon, will it?

Missed last week's Waterloo Road? No problem, just scroll backwards through the Virgin-TiVo EPG to last week and watch it - at which point Virgin's VOD service will automatically select the content and play it for you. To avoid confusion all catch up content in the EPG is identified by a little c within a round arrow.

Catch-Up content on Virgin Media is currently available from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five. However, as part of the deal which saw Virgin sell its TV channels to Sky, some Sky VOD content will be available at some point to Virgin customers. Hopefully, that will mean being able to scroll backwards through the EPG for say, Sky 1, and, if you really want to, being able to locate last week's episode of The Simpsons.

Of course, there's are far easier ways of locating content via TiVo, and I'll be taking a closer look at that in a future, thrilling instalment of The Virgin TiVo Files.