Parental controls block multi-room viewing!?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

Has anyone else run into problems with TiVo multi-room viewing
when the "parental controls" feature is active?

It appears that if I enable parental controls on a TiVo, then
ALL attempts to transfer ANY programs to that TiVo (from any
other TiVo in the house) are blocked and demand the four-digit
parental control password -- regardless of the rating of the
source program material being transferred, and regardless of
the exact level of control specified on the destination TiVo.

As an experiment, I tried activating parental controls in my
living room -- but then went through all the detailed settings
and enabled ***EVERYTHING*** (all TV ratings OK, all subject
matter categories OK for all TV ratings, all movie ratings OK,
all unrated material OK, no blocked channels). As far as I
can imagine, having parental controls active with such totally
permissive settings should be exactly equivalent to parental
controls being turned off entirely.

I then tried browsing another TiVo from the living room, though,
and ALL of the other TiVo's programs showed a "lock" icon and
were blocked -- including TV-G and non-rated shows. I couldn't
transfer ANY SHOW AT ALL without giving the destination TiVo's
parental control code (or simply disabling parental controls
on the destination TiVo entirely, which of course permits all
transfers without restriction as expected).

The parental control settings on the source TiVo, BTW, made no
difference at all. The above blockage occurred even with the
parental controls disabled on the source TiVo. The ONLY thing
that made any difference was the setting on the destination --
having parental controls active on the destination, no matter
how permissive the individual detailed settings were, gets in
the way of my multi-room viewing.

I imagine not very many TiVo users are using parental controls,
but I have an 11-year-old son who really ought to be kept away
from the nastier stuff if possible.

So, again, has ANYONE else seen this problem? Or is it just me?

Rich Wales richw@richw.org http/www.richw.org

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

richw@richw.org (Rich Wales) shaped the electrons to say:
>Has anyone else run into problems with TiVo multi-room viewing
>when the "parental controls" feature is active?

What you describe is, indeed, normal.

It impacts both MRV and TTG transfers. It isn't a bug, it is how they
designed it.

Yes, it is kind of weak, and maybe it will be improved in the future,
but right now it is kind of all-or-nothing.

-MZ
--
<URL:mailto:megazoneatmegazone.org> Gweep, Discordian, Author, Engineer, me.
"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-852-2171
<URL:http/www.megazone.org/> <URL:http/www.eyrie-productions.com/> Eris

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"MegaZone" wrote:

> What you describe is, indeed, normal. [The parental
> control feature] impacts both MRV and TTG transfers.
> It isn't a bug, it is how they designed it.

Any idea why???

I mean, I suppose I can understand why this might be done with
TivoToGo, since the programs are being exported into an environ-
ment that isn't fully TiVo any more.

But I don't see why this should be the case with multi-room
viewing. As far as I can tell, the destination TiVo has full
access to the rating parameters of the selected program, so it
ought to be able to make its blocking decision based on this
info, rather than simply block all MRV transfer requests.

> Yes, it is kind of weak, and maybe it will be improved
> in the future, but right now it is kind of all-or-nothing.

Is this (mis?)behavior documented anywhere on TiVo's web site
(in a FAQ, or somewhere else)?

Rich Wales richw@richw.org http/www.richw.org