I was tempted to put this in the pit, but I am curious about what the hell happened here.
I was browsing the channel guide function with my DISH TV remote. As I passed the Fox News channel, I noticed The O’Reilly Factor flagged for recording. WTF, says I? I do not watch that program, and I definitely would not be recording it. So I go into my list of recordings, and apparently my machine has recorded about 15 episodes of this show or other Fox News programming, and in the schedule feature, I am shocked and dismayed to see that somehow the machine has set itself to record every new episode. I deleted all the unwanted episodes and the schedule.
How is this possible? I absolutely did not program this recording schedule myself, I live alone, and there is no evidence that my home has been burglarized or otherwise intruded upon.
Please note that this is NOT a thread for bashing Fox News, or Mr. O’Reilly. I’d be equally annoyed with any program/network that decides sua sponte to record itself on my machine, even it it was “Oak’s Favoritest TV Shows Ever, wrapped in bacon chocolate and SEC Football Highlights”.
WAG: some DVRs (like TiVo I believe) will try to “learn” what programming you like and will record new shows based on what else you record. No clue if that’s what’s happening for you.
The machine I have came from DISH, it is whatever kind they give you when they install the service. As best I can remember, I have never even watched Fox News since having DISH TV, and have never intentionally recorded anything from them. Also, the notion of a machine programing itself to record stuff it thinks I might like is more than a little annoying, but I guess it is possible.
I have watched a lot of football on my regular Fox affilate. As far as recordings, I have recorded some old AWA Wrestling, lots of That 70s Show, The Prisoner, V, Warehouse 13, Pawn Stars, LOTR: Return of the King, and a couple of things from Biography–Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix, I think. Really not seeing the connection to Fox News from that list…
Yes, TiVo does record suggestions based on recording history just like BrandonR says. Maybe yours is turned on by default. Go into the settings menu and see if it’s set to record suggestions automatically. Maybe it thinks you like redneck or reactionary stuff because of the wrestling? It seems more likely it would record sci-fi based on your recordings, though.
Another option is that you have a right-wing poltergeist.
Dammit. Just my luck to get stuck with Rush Limbaugh’s mini-me. If I’m gonna have a poltergeist, why can’t she look like Caprica Six?
Interesting article. My machine is not connected to any phone line, but maybe they don’t need that anymore. I definitely do not like it. It feels overly intrusive, and apparently doesn’t work very well, either. Other than the shows I listed above, if I my TV is on, it’s usually football or The History Channel, but I don’t record those.
Also note that the Fox News channel is in the 200-299 block, and I almost never watch anything in that block. My local channels are scattered from 4-45 or so, and my sports/history channels are in the 100-199 block. Couple times a month, I might watch something on one of the movie channels in the 300-399 block.
The article you linked to is great. I, personally, have had experiences with weird Amazon profiling. I ordered some books for an abnormal psychology class and some for a theology class and it was suggesting stuff about mysticism and religious visions and such. Not me, baby.
Things like that used to happen to me, DIRECTV deciding to TiVo the news, local, or maybe Fox News once, I’m not sure. I assume because the channel was left there all night, TiVo thought I wanted it. This also happened, at the start, to infomercials of various types. I’ve pretty much solved the problem, by voting down any infomercial and news program I find, and un-favorite-ing news channels, so the channel doesn’t rest there all night. It’s almost completely stopped, so I’m guessing it’s not a very rigid bias toward Fox News and infomercials.
My DVR is a PC running Windows Media Center, and I noticed a couple of weeks ago that it had scheduled something that I had not programmed it for. Been using it almost 4 years now, first time that had ever happened. Weirded me out a bit.
an inadvertent click or button press on some function like ‘always record this show’ could have happened by yourself of others. easy to do on icon and function filled screens.
I suppose that is possible, but I’ve had this machine since last April, and this is the first incident I’ve seen.
There are no others involved, unless they are undead, demonic, or otherwise invisible/undetectable by mortals. I guess maybe I could have inadvertantly clicked something, but I really don’t think I did. When I set the dvr to record something, I do it by highlighting the program I want in the guide screen, then hitting the dvr record button, then choosing one time, all episodes, new episodes, etc. I’ve never done that with O’Reilley or Fox News. Maybe there some other method of selecting programs I don’t know about?
In my case, recording actually happened. 15 episodes worth of programming. I’m kinda hoping for demonic possession. Could be just the thing to rocket me to fame and fortune.
I do not have any way to give it any sort of rating. I don’t think the machine is a TiVo, it’s built in to the tuner box for DISH. Also do not seem to have any area for suggestions, just a list of programs I have allegedly recroded.
Do you have a wife/SO/heterosexual lifemate who shares your TV and might have watched or recorded any program whatsoever ? Maybe a tech-savvy geek friend of the pranking persuasion ?