Even when you’re armed with a Tivo, network scheduling conflicts can be a real pain. Somehow, there’s always at least one time slot that has more than two shows I want to watch at once, and my Tivo can only record two shows at a time. Of course, it alerts you when you try to schedule a third show during a given slot. But Tivo is missing out on an important variable: whether the show gets repeated again during that week.

In short, if you have three shows that normally play at the same time, but one of those shows has an encore presentation right afterwards or even later in the week, then Tivo should be smart enough to suggest recording the additional showing. This eliminates the conflict, without requiring the user to manually look for and schedule the extra showing.

Would this be hard to do? Maybe. But all the info is already there in the program guide: show name, episode name, episode number, and so on. There ought to be a way for the Tivo to automatically record these alternate showings. Sure, you could schedule them manually or tell the system to record reruns and duplicates. But those workarounds defeat the purpose of having a Tivo in the first place. People pay for the product and accompanying service so they don’t have to worry about missing their favorite shows, which is why I’d like to see Tivo be more proactive in handling these scheduling conflicts in the first place.