Feature Request: HDTV Recording Priority

[rsagetv99]

Maybe this can be done in Studio, but I would like to request this change to the core application if possible.

The ability to specify which channels you receive HD programming on - similar to what malore or mlbdude have for the Upcoming Movies guide. Then when a favorite gets scheduled to record, if the HDTV flag is set in the EPG data for that show, it will attempt to record on one of the channels listed in your HD channel list. If two HD shows are recording at the same time, but you only have one HD tuner then record the higher priority HD show and then look for the other show being offered in HD at another time, if it can't find it then it records on an SD tuner/channel.

In simple logic something like:

If show is broadcast in HDTV
Schedule on HDTV capable channel
If conflict with higher priority HD recording
Re-schedule for later HD recording
If no HD version offered later
Re-schedule for SD recording
If no other offerings in HD or SD
Flag recording conflict

Additionally you could add a setting in favorites that you can turn off or on like "Don't Prefer HD". This way, if you don't care if the show is in HD, you could turn it off at the favorite level.

[stanger89]

Setting the encoder merit for your HD tuner should do most if not all of that.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Setting the encoder merit for your HD tuner should do most if not all of that.

Not really.

Case in point, if you have an encoder that receives both the SDTV and HDTV versions of the same networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) Sage seems to arbitrarily decide which channel it will schedule the show on.

Also, even if you had an encoder that only does HDTV and you give that one priority, if two HDTV shows are scheduled at the same time, one of them will get recorded on the HD tuner and the other on the SD tuner. With my suggestion SAGE would wait to record the HD version of the show at a later time, because it knows you prefer HD.

[malore]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Setting the encoder merit for your HD tuner should do most if not all of that.

Yes, with emphasis on should. However, this post shows that merit isn't working for many when combining a HDTV source with an analog source. I just ended up restricting the shows I want recorded in HDTV to the HD channels in the favorites settings.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by malore

Yes, with emphasis on should. However, this post shows that merit isn't working for many when combining a HDTV source with an analog source. I just ended up restricting the shows I want recorded in HDTV to the HD channels in the favorites settings.

Right, this is an option, but if a recording conflict occurs, I would rather have an SD recording of my show than none at all. The more available channels the better, I just want Sage to choose the HD source first, and then SD if the HD version is not offered again.

[rfutscher]

Not all stations and tuner cards are equal.

One station in town down converts 5.1 audio to stereo to make extra bandwidth for their weather sub channel. The station in the next town carries 5.1 audio.

One of my HD tuners is a newer generation and is much more reliable. The older card has occasional glitches. One of my analog tuners does stereo and one only does mono.

I want to set the priority for NBC to:
1) The station in the next town with the better HD card
2) The station in the next town with the older HD card
3) The local station with the stereo audio with the new HD card
4) The local station with the older HD card
5) The analog card with stereo
etc
You get the idea.

[dvsing]

I agree ENTIRELY with the subject matter in this post. We need to have a way to more tightly control the algorithm used for scheduling. When a show airs in both SDTV and HDTV at the same time, Sage doesn't automatically default to the HDTV version (shouldn't it??).. this means if I want a show in HDTV then I have to force the favorite to record only on the HDTV channel.. however, if two of my HD shows overlap then it ends up not recording one at all!! When I would much prefer to have an HDTV recording of my higher-ranked favorite, and an SDTV recording of the other one.

this means for now that I have to do a lot of babysitting and manual scheduling... uggh

-Dan

[mattsm]

Also, an option to record an HDTV version AND a SDTV version would be sweet as well.

-Matthew

[korben_dallas]

Throwing my voice in here for this kind of support also.

Being able to specify a tuner would be extremely helpful since my ConvertX does not have as high of an mpeg-2 capture rate as the hauppage 150. Encoder merit is way too simplistic and should only be a last-resort fallback of a much more robust scheduling system.

We should be able to setup a favorite based on anything that Sage has access to: which tuner, if show is hdtv or not, any text found in the show title or other fields, the channel, the day, the time of day, if/when other airings of this specific show are in the EPG, etc. And we should be able to specify NOT also, i.e. Star Trek Next Generation NOT Whoopi Goldberg.

[jptaz]

Originally Posted by mattsm

Also, an option to record an HDTV version AND a SDTV version would be sweet as well.

-Matthew

I second this request....having to setup a manual recording for each show is such a pain...frankly I think the current version is broken...If I have 2 favorites to set to record a show on a different channel it should record all the shows that meet the critieria of that favorite, but instead sagetv decides that the same show is already being recorded on another channel, which while it is the same episode it is not on the channel I specified.

John

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

Maybe this can be done in Studio, but I would like to request this change to the core application if possible.

The ability to specify which channels you receive HD programming on - similar to what malore or mlbdude have for the Upcoming Movies guide. Then when a favorite gets scheduled to record, if the HDTV flag is set in the EPG data for that show, it will attempt to record on one of the channels listed in your HD channel list. If two HD shows are recording at the same time, but you only have one HD tuner then record the higher priority HD show and then look for the other show being offered in HD at another time, if it can't find it then it records on an SD tuner/channel.

In simple logic something like:

If show is broadcast in HDTV
Schedule on HDTV capable channel
If conflict with higher priority HD recording
Re-schedule for later HD recording
If no HD version offered later
Re-schedule for SD recording
If no other offerings in HD or SD
Flag recording conflict

Additionally you could add a setting in favorites that you can turn off or on like "Don't Prefer HD". This way, if you don't care if the show is in HD, you could turn it off at the favorite level.

This would be a great feature. The merit system works somewhat but not when it comes to HD from what I have seen in other posts. It is random and unpredictable. I am anxiously awaiting delivery of my new HD cards and this was one of my greatest concerns. Additionally, as others have pointed out the favorite weighting system doesn't always work well.

Originally Posted by mattsm

Also, an option to record an HDTV version AND a SDTV version would be sweet as well.

-Matthew

100% agree with this option. SD is better than NO-D and sometimes HD signals have issues where I am and drop in and out. SD through cable rarely suffers from that so it would be a great fall back option.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by mattsm

Also, an option to record an HDTV version AND a SDTV version would be sweet as well.

-Matthew

If any of you are using XMLTV as your EPG source I have a script that will prepend the title of HD broadcast shows with "HD -" based on a list of HD channels that you provide. Then you can setup a favorite for "HD - CSI" and a separate favorite for "CSI", and you should get both HD and SD versions.

Let me know if anyone's interested and I will post it.

[mattsm]

I assume XMLTV is not the default source for EPG data?

[rsagetv99]

I assume XMLTV is not the default source for EPG data?

No, it is not. XMLTV is a program that can download EPG data from a Zap2it direct account that you create and export it to an XML file.

I have a couple scripts that massage this data before it is imported into Sage using an XMLTV importer, one is to fix the first-run/rerun flag and the other is the HDTV script I mentioned.

[pjaffray]

I want to add my voice to this request. I just added an Avermedia A180 to my system that already had a Hauppauge PVR-500. So far I have had to go the route of forcing certain Favorites to the HDTV channel.

I am losing WAF points here as some of the elegance of Sage is lost by having to go through this process.

[srothwell]

Originally Posted by rfutscher

Not all stations and tuner cards are equal.

One station in town down converts 5.1 audio to stereo to make extra bandwidth for their weather sub channel. The station in the next town carries 5.1 audio.

One of my HD tuners is a newer generation and is much more reliable. The older card has occasional glitches. One of my analog tuners does stereo and one only does mono.

I want to set the priority for NBC to:
1) The station in the next town with the better HD card
2) The station in the next town with the older HD card
3) The local station with the stereo audio with the new HD card
4) The local station with the older HD card
5) The analog card with stereo
etc
You get the idea.

Which card is "newer and more reliable?" I'm thinking about taking the plunge into HD..... I just wish there were drivers for QAM since most cards seem to be able to do QAM with their own software.

[rfutscher]

Originally Posted by srothwell

Which card is "newer and more reliable?" I'm thinking about taking the plunge into HD..... I just wish there were drivers for QAM since most cards seem to be able to do QAM with their own software.

I have an HDWonder (also known as the HDBlunder). The drivers are stable and it doesn't crash for me. But there is a ridge between where I live and the transmitters. At either end of the ridge are tall buildings. I have a really bad multipath problem. The ATI is not so good with multipath.

I also have a Fusion USB (also known as the Fussy USB). I have to uninstall the Fusion software before any updates to Sage. After the updates I have to reinstall the Fusion software. Other wise I get a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). But if I install the software in the magic order it works well. I get many more channels with it than I get with the HDWonder. Also a lot less freezing and blocking errors. It has a newer generation demodulator chip. If I get cable in the future I will be able to receive QAM.

[srothwell]

Originally Posted by rfutscher

I have an HDWonder (also known as the HDBlunder). The drivers are stable and it doesn't crash for me. But there is a ridge between where I live and the transmitters. At either end of the ridge are tall buildings. I have a really bad multipath problem. The ATI is not so good with multipath.

I also have a Fusion USB (also known as the Fussy USB). I have to uninstall the Fusion software before any updates to Sage. After the updates I have to reinstall the Fusion software. Other wise I get a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). But if I install the software in the magic order it works well. I get many more channels with it than I get with the HDWonder. Also a lot less freezing and blocking errors. It has a newer generation demodulator chip. If I get cable in the future I will be able to receive QAM.

How are you going to get QAM without the BDA driver? Are you going to just use Fusion's software?

Is the Internal fusion card the same as the USB? Do you happen to know if you have to reinstall drivers on the internal card when upgrading Sage?

Thanks for the info

[bbig119]

I wrote to Sage technical support requesting they build this feature in. If its something you guys are also interested in, you might consider doing the same. The more people who write to them officially asking for a feature, the greater the chance that they'll notice and implement it.

[srothwell]

Originally Posted by bbig119

I wrote to Sage technical support requesting they build this feature in. If its something you guys are also interested in, you might consider doing the same. The more people who write to them officially asking for a feature, the greater the chance that they'll notice and implement it.

In this case, it's not Sage, it's the "universal" BDA (or something like that) drivers. Basically it's drivers for Windows MCE that pretty much all the DVRs use. If QAM isn't in those drivers (either becuase Micro$oft didn't ask or said "don't put them in") then Sage or Meedio or BeyondTV can't access it.