Why does TiVo cut off the last couple of minutes of a lot of my shows?

Question

How can I prevent this from happening?

Answer 1

This tends to happen a lot on certain networks that don't end shows on time (MTV is probably the most egregious offender).

It also could be due to automatic clipping of certain shows. Some networks air shows a minute long or short in order to charge more favorable advertising rates. If you have a program starting at a regular time after a show records that goes over time, the TiVo may automatically clip the lower-priority recording.

Also, FX seems to add about 3-5 minutes worth of commercials to a lot of their programs, causing strange end times (and strange start times for the subsequent reairings). This, coupled with the problems indicated in paragraph 2, may explain your problem.

Answer 2

Your TiVo might be off on time by a minute or two. Or some shows run a minute or two long.

You can tell the TiVo to record for an extra 1 or 2 minutes. When you set up your season pass, it's one of the settings.

Answer 3

Starting recording early and ending late is a good approach, but it plays havoc if you have several things recording at the same time; the recorder will not be able to record a following show until after the extended time has elapsed on the first show (whether or not the first program has ended). Thus you will miss the first few minutes of the following show. It used to be that networks observed their start times and stop times with precision; now they are very sloppy. I'm not sure, but I suspect that they do this purposely to cause problems for DVR users--they don't like people watching recorded shows and skipping or fast-forwarding through commercials (which is the only way I watch shows now).

Answer 4

According to a post on the Tivo help forums:
"Some networks do not adhere to their scheduled published times and there's no way for the TiVo to know that the program isn't actually finished at the time that the network has published it will finish."

I generally pad my ending times for shows that I care about most 'cause I hate that happening too!

Answer 5

I had this problem. You need to go into settings and select the option that says start record 2 minutes before and 2 minutes after each show. This way you won't miss anything.