Basic SageTV Operation

[cte]

I got my SageTV program installed and operational this morning. I set it to watch Live TV on my computer ... it worked.

1. I went to Schedule Recordings -> Manage Favorites and set up some programs to record. I went back to the Main Menu and went to work. Tonight, I found that nothing had recorded. How do I enable it to record items set in Favorites?

2. I find quite a number of mpg's in my recording directory from when I was watching Live TV this morning. Can I just delete these files via Windows Explorer or should this be done through the SageTV program?

3. Is there an easy way to automatically delete these mpg's that were created while I was switching through the channels?

[Menehune]

1- How many capture cards do you have?
If you only have one, the "live" show is probably still being viewed so your favorite never recorded. To solve this, you need to view the live TV and press the stop button. Your favorites should now start recording when scheduled. There was probably a error window that popped up and disappeared when the favorite was supposed to start. You may also see a yellow triangle with a exclamation point (recording conflict icon) in the upper right of the sage main menu.

2- You should delete them in Sage. You click each show and select delete.

3- You can leave them alone and Sage will delete them when it needs the space.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Menehune

1- How many capture cards do you have?
If you only have one, the "live" show is probably still being viewed so your favorite never recorded. To solve this, you need to view the live TV and press the stop button. Your favorites should now start recording when scheduled.

Favorites will still be recorded, but they will be marked watched as soon as they are finished (because they're still being "viewed" since you never told Sage you were done. If so, it's possible that Sage deleted them to clear space for more recordings.

Of course to better debug the problem, or determine if there really is a problem, we need to know more about your setup, like how much space did you give Sage to use, did the favorites have airings that should have been recorded?

2- You should delete them in Sage. You click each show and select delete.

You can delete them outside Sage, but you don't need to, Sage will delete them on it's own. There are some properties options to induce Sage to delete them "quicker", a search of the forum should find them.

[Opus4]

If live TV had been left running, SageTV would have shown a notification that a scheduled recording was starting soon. If there was no user response, the scheduled recording should start. (Page 21 in the v6.2 PDF manaul.)

Regarding Favorites not recorded, check the Recording Schedule menu to see what is listed. Or, go to the Favorite Details screen for any Favorite that was created & choose Additional Recoridngs to see which airings it thinks match that Fav's rules and to see if any of them are marked to be recorded. Also, check whether some shows were recorded by going to the SageTV Recordings menu to see if it is set to filter out any types of shows.

If IR is not enabled, there is an option in Detailed Setup -> Customize to choose whether to "Delete Live TV files when not using IR". But, as was mentioned above, live TV files would be deleted anyway when space is needed -- see Appendix C in the manual.

- Andy

[cte]

1. I have one capture card. I will try again and be certain I press the stop button. Is there a way to have the program running in the background?

2. Not sure how to delete them in Sage. I tried Media Center -> Browse Media Files -> ???? don't see a delete option.

3. Ok.

4. It seems to me that I deleted some of the mpgs this morning when I was playing around with learning. Anything I action I need to take ... or will Sage adapt?

5. I see a Standby option. What does that do?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by cte

1. I have one capture card. I will try again and be certain I press the stop button. Is there a way to have the program running in the background?

Playing Live TV won't cause the Fav's to not record, but it does have consequences, like the shows being marked as Watched, as Stanger mentioned. It is best to stop Live TV when not in use. Some of this is coverd in the Quick Start Guide section of the manual, starting on p. 18 of the v6.2 manual.

2. Not sure how to delete them in Sage. I tried Media Center -> Browse Media Files -> ???? don't see a delete option.

Complete recordings will be listed on the SageTV Recordings menu, where you can choose to delete a recording after selecting it.

4. It seems to me that I deleted some of the mpgs this morning when I was playing around with learning. Anything I action I need to take ... or will Sage adapt?

SageTV will see that the files are no longer there the next time it verifies them, so you don't need to do anything about it in SageTV.

5. I see a Standby option. What does that do?

See p. 18 of the manual.

- Andy

[cte]

1. Space? I have a 130 Gig hard disk dedicated for the recordings. The hard disk is mostly empty. The Favorite that should have recorded is the Special Report with Brit Hume Report on Fox News.

2. Deleting? SageTV Recordings is blank ... no programs are listed. However, there are a number of mpg's in the subdir.

2. Deleting part 2 ... it seems that deleting more often would help keep the disk from getting fragmented.

5. Standby? page 19 has the answer I wanted, "While sleeping, all shows scheduled to be recorded will still be recorded."

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by cte

1. Space? I have a 130 Gig hard disk dedicated for the recordings. The hard disk is mostly empty. The Favorite that should have recorded is the Special Report with Brit Hume Report on Fox News.

Did you do what I suggested above to check the favorite's details, its additional airings, and the recording schedule?

- Andy

[nielm]

Originally Posted by cte

Is there a way to have the program running in the background?

Sage needs to be running to record things.
You can put it to sleep/standby, and it will run in the taskbar.
Alternatively you can run the recording engine as a windows service (check the docs for how to do this)

2. Not sure how to delete them in Sage. I tried Media Center -> Browse Media Files -> ???? don't see a delete option.

You can delete them in explorer and Sage will update itself, but as you get more and more recordings, it can become difficult to see which is full recording and which is a partial recording, and easy to delete the wrong thing.

There is a hidden screen in Sage which can list the partial recordings (see the hidden extras thread for how to enable this)

5. I see a Standby option. What does that do?

Stops playback, minimises Sage to the taskbar. (as mentioned above)