The trouble with TiVos David wrote to state a gripe against the DVR service TiVo: “The defining feature of their service,” he says, “is that the user can rate programs and have other suggested programs (TiVo Suggestions) automatically record.” But this feature stopped working on his Series 1 TiVo unit back in August. He called support, trolled the forums, and found no solution. “TiVo tech support was unaware of any problem,” David explains. “On the forums, some people with Series 2 and later TiVos seem to be able to fix the problem by toggling the automatic recording setting across two reboots. But nothing has helped us affected Series 1 users. TiVo’s phone support ultimately sent me to Sony’s tech support, despite the fact that Philips users and TiVo S2 users have reported the issue. Sony was also unaware of the problem.” I forwarded David’s complaint to TiVo and got a quick response. It seems he can’t find the answer — or anyone who can help — because TiVo’s engineers are flummoxed. Here is the official TiVo response: “TiVo is aware of the degradation of TiVo Suggestions on Series 1 TiVo DVRs. TiVo has not yet been able to identify what is causing this issue, but can confirm that not all Series 1 DVRs are impacted. Our engineering team continues to investigate. Should TiVo identify any fixes we will inform all S1 subscribers directly. TiVo has provided consistent service to S1 DVRs for over 8 + years and we are doing what we can to keep older platforms functioning properly.” So, I’m sorry to say the solution is, “stay tuned.” It seems to me the TiVo support department could have told David this when he called. (I’m sure someone is setting them straight on this now.) But I’m happy to be of service. Got gripes? Send them to me at christina_tynan-wood@infoworld.com. Technology Industry