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Well, some of you might have noticed the TiVo pages covering some of the very very basics of playing with the older SA (Stand Alone) TiVo's. These TiVo's rely on your cable/antenna television. DirecTV offers similar TiVo's, however these TiVo's are used for receiving DVB Satellite (ie. DirecTV). The advantages; - The DVB MPEG2 stream (coming from the satellite - full digital) is recorded directly to harddisk - The receiver actually has 2 receivers build in, so you can watch and record, or even record 2 shows at once On this page I show you some of the remote control tricks. Note that most of these are the work of other folks playing with their DirecTV TiVo's. I just found them on the Internet and collected them here. A real good place to look for more in depth information is the absolute best TiVo forum: DealDatabase. For buyers: visit the TiVo website. Don't forget to read the Disclaimer!

Overview

An overview of the remote-control tricks I tried with my Hughes SD-DVR40 (firmware 3.x). These trick most likely work on other TiVo models as well, like the Philips, Samsung and RCA models.

• 30 Second skip key
• Onscreen Clock and Playback time
• Play-bar timing
• Remote control shortcuts
• Sorting option for "Now Playing"
• What's TiVo upto?

Note: if you reboot your TiVo, or had a power failure, you might need to re-enter these trick to enable them again!

The Commercial skip - or the 30 seconds skip

OK, so you recorded a show and you want to move through the commercials a bit faster. You could us the fastforward button.
This takes some practice though. There is definitly an easier way to do it ... a little trick what ReplayTV owners have: the 30 seconds skip.

A little remote control trick allows us to "reprogram" the goto-the-end button:

Start the TiVo and either watch live TV or watch some movie you recorded (Now Playing). The press the following keys o your remote:

The button will now perform a 30 seconds skip, each time when you press it.

OnScreen Clock and Playback Time

You can have a little clock in the lower right corner of your TV screen.

During playback of a recording, it will show the playback time and the current time.
When watching live TV, it will only show the current time.
Time will not be visible in menu's.
Enter the key sequence while watching a recording.

Note: To disable the clock, just repeat the key sequence:

Making the Play-bar disappear faster

When starting a playback or after pressing the fastforward or rewind button, a green bar appears on the bottom of your TV, indicating total playback time and the current position.

Some people get bugged by this and want the green play-bar to disappear as soon as possible. Try this combination to make it disappear right away.
Enter the key sequence while watching a recording.

Again: to disable this feature, repeat the key sequence again. Succes is indicated by three TiVo-beeps:

Remote control Shortcuts

Using the Tivo (or DirecTV) button you can access some practical shortcuts, here are the onces I found on my Hughes SD-DVR40:

Key sequence	Action	Alternative
	"Now Playing"
	"Season Pass Manager"
	"To Do List"
	"Search using Wishlist"
	"Search by Title"
	"Browse by Channel"
	"Browse by Time"
	"Record Time/Channel"
	"TiVo Suggestions"
	"Showcases"
	Switch TiVo to Standby.

Sorting options for "Now Playing"

The "Now Playing" list can be sorted in different ways, after applying this key sequence.
Go to the "Now Playing" menu and press this key sequence - 3 TiVo beeps confirm the action:

A new line appears in the menu at the bottom, saying "Sort ... (press INFO to change)", where "..." is the current sorting order.
Pressing the INFO button will bring up a menu allowing you to select one of these 3 sorting orders:

• 1 - Newest (by record date)
• 2 - Expiration (by expiration date)
• 3 - Alphabetical (by program name)

I personally prefer Alphabetically, but then again, that's just me.
You do not need to go into the INFO menu.
Pressing the buttons 1 (newest), 2 (Expiration), or 3 (Alphabetical) will change sorting order instantly.

Again: repeating the key sequence will "undo" this trick.

What is my TiVo up to?

If you want to know what your TiVo is doing right now, without going to the "Now Showing" screen, then click the following combination while watching a recording or watching live TV:

A line at the bottom of your TV screen will appear showing what both inputs (0 and 1) are doing right now. For example RECORDING.

Repeat the sequence and leave playback (for example press the DirecTV button). When returning the line will be gone.