Just spent an enjoyable few minutes arguing with the wife over the phone about the Tivo/Cable Box/HD-TV/VCR-DVD combo mish mash from hell not working again. She really doesn't want to take the time (all of 30 seconds) to learn which remotes should be set to what. So whenever life intervenes (such as the 2yr old pressing a button) all hell breaks loose and I receive her irate phone call.
Today's episode involved her trying to watch a Tivo recording and all the demon system would display was "Your DVR session has timed out". I know that message is a cable box error, normally happens when Comcast seems to think we've had one channel on for too long (like an hour or more).
So I go through the whole 30 second checklist of which buttons to push on which remotes. No joy, same error message being displayed. Just for kicks I say, hit the Tivo fast forward button. Click-click, I hear the Tivo system chirp so I know its working but she's still seeing the message.
ME: "Is the fast forward bar showing up on the screen now?"
HER: "Yes, the green bar is on the screen now. But I still don't see anything!"
Eureka. The cable box timed out some time before the Tivo record session was to start and Tivo dutifully recorded the error image.
ME: "Tivos working but the cable wasn't when it recorded, your just seeing a recording of the message."
HER: "Oh.... Dammit, F#&!! Tivo, F&^(*$# Cable; BYE!!"
Yes Dear, love you too.