Favorite Does Not Record

[mike1961]

I'm curious - I noticed on DirecTv Wed from 9-9:32 the Guide says American Idol is playing but it did not record even though I have it set up as a Favorite. The show is usually an hour but I'm still not sure why it didn't record.

Mike

[cruizer]

Welcome to the club!
Glad to see I am not the only one with this problem. Sometimes my favorites record, sometimes they don't. Read through this thread adn see if anything answers your questions or helps you out.
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17579

Although it seemed to have solved my multiple station back-to-back problem for Thursdays (and we'll know for sure tonight), it still didn't solve as to why none of my back-to-back shows on the same channel were recorded on Sunday.

Just keep your VCR set as a backup, seems to come in very handy with this software.

[mike1961]

Okay - this is a Really Important piece of information that may help. I'm not sure if it's a Sage bug or what. But, I noticed that there was nothing in my Recording Schedule for Columbo. I then tried to Delete the Favorite and add it back. I then went to my recording schedule and I saw two Columbos set for recording (I realize it only shows favorites 3 days out). Then out of no where without even changing the screens in Sage within 60 seconds they just vanished and disappeared right off the Sage Recordings section. My Display Filter is All so that is not the issue. Do I have a corrupted wiz.bin?

What's going on? Please help as this is not good.

Thanks,
Mike

[Opus4]

What version are you using, and is it service mode, non-service mode, or what?

Double check the reasons listed in this FAQ entry.

And, as I mentioned in that other thread, turn on debugging & either post the log or send it to SageTV.

- Andy

[mike1961]

I'm using 4.1.10.81 on a workstation and same version in service mode on the file server. I'll be running the error logs shortly for more info (been a hectic morning).

Thanks,
Mike

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by mike1961

Okay - this is a Really Important piece of information that may help. I'm not sure if it's a Sage bug or what. But, I noticed that there was nothing in my Recording Schedule for Columbo. I then tried to Delete the Favorite and add it back. I then went to my recording schedule and I saw two Columbos set for recording (I realize it only shows favorites 3 days out). Then out of no where without even changing the screens in Sage within 60 seconds they just vanished and disappeared right off the Sage Recordings section. My Display Filter is All so that is not the issue. Do I have a corrupted wiz.bin?

This sounds like a problem I saw last week. I was viewing the guide (because my recording schedule looked too lite) and noticed that two of my favorites did not have the white border. I checked to make sure they were still favorites, they were. I then moved back 7 days in the guide and saw that the previous weeks shows had the expected white border. I then went back to the problem shows still no white border. I thought it may be related to the EPG update that occured about 10 minutes earlier. After about another 10 minutes the white borders just appeared around the shows. I then went to check the recording schedule to make sure the shows were there and they were.

I would suggest you check your schedule again and see is the shows are there. If not check your guide and see if they have the white border.

I would be very interested to know if it is the same problem. I have only seen this twice in the last 4 months.

[blade]

Originally Posted by mike1961

I'm using 4.1.10.81 on a workstation and same version in service mode on the file server. I'll be running the error logs shortly for more info (been a hectic morning).

Thanks,
Mike

You might try upgrading to v5 or at least a newer beta. One of the betas did have a bug where shows weren't being recorded, but I forget which version it was. I'm sure Opus or someone else can tell you for sure which version it was.

[mike1961]

If you are correct about this then that would suggest that right after the EPG update there's a short period when the favorites are either erased and reset. If a show is about to start right after an EPG update then that would be a problem. However, I checked when my last EPG update was done and it was several hours before this problem so I don't think they are related (at least not in my situation). I'm not sure why Columbo just disappeared from the recording schedule right in front of my eyes but now everything is fine. Unfortunately it was a hectic day so I didn't have time to tend to it until now and the problem is no longer occurring. I'm going to monitor my favorites to see if and when this happens again so that I can get more detail about this problem.

Thanks for the input,
Mike

Originally Posted by carlgar

This sounds like a problem I saw last week. I was viewing the guide (because my recording schedule looked too lite) and noticed that two of my favorites did not have the white border. I checked to make sure they were still favorites, they were. I then moved back 7 days in the guide and saw that the previous weeks shows had the expected white border. I then went back to the problem shows still no white border. I thought it may be related to the EPG update that occured about 10 minutes earlier. After about another 10 minutes the white borders just appeared around the shows. I then went to check the recording schedule to make sure the shows were there and they were.

I would suggest you check your schedule again and see is the shows are there. If not check your guide and see if they have the white border.

I would be very interested to know if it is the same problem. I have only seen this twice in the last 4 months.

[mike1961]

Now I have another show that is not showing on my Recording Schedule. I have gathered some data and come to the conclusion that this is just impossible. Here's the situation (with attached jpgs). I have "American Idol Extra" set to record as a favorite. I go to look to Schedule Recordings to search for it and when it is playing. It shows me that the next 8 episodes in the future have already been watched but not those episodes after that.

I then think that maybe if I again set and reset the watch status for the one I recorded last night it might trigger more episodes in the future as already being watched. Well, it didn't but rather it cleared the problem up and now when I search for American Idol Extra, everything is fine and it shows it as a first run but not watched (lucky I captured the jpg before the problem fixed itself). However, it is still not in my View Recording Schedule and the A icon in the guide does not show up but it is outlined in white (see jpg #2).

How could I have watched a first run that is not playing until 16 hours from now? I did mark the American Idol Extra last night as watched and unwatched back and forth a few times (to test and see how it rewinds to the beginning) but that should have no effect on future airings.

I even tried moving the one American Idol Extra that I recorded last night out of my Sage folder to see if they would appear in the Recording schedule. Still, the favorite is not appearing in my recording schedule to play Twice tomorrow, twice Saturday and twice Sunday.

Any ideas on this (EDITED: please see the attached jpg in the next reply).
Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

Here are the jpg files per my last reply. (Edited: I have all my favorites to record first runs and reruns so I should see the A icon for American Idol Extra. But, I'm thinking it may not even record at all if it thinks it's watched, but for now the attached screenshot no longer shows when I search and everything is fine except that it doesn't show in my recording schedule).

(Edited: just installed version 5 for both SageClient and server and it still does not show it in favorites. I am also using the latest version of GermSage).

Thanks,
Mike

[blade]

Originally Posted by mike1961

How could I have watched a first run that is not playing until 16 hours from now? I did mark the American Idol Extra last night as watched and unwatched back and forth a few times (to test and see how it rewinds to the beginning) but that should have no effect on future airings.

Those episodes listed in the jpg are the same episodes as the one that aired Thursday night. If you set the Thursday night show as watched then the ones in the jpg should be set as watched as well.

New episodes air on Thursday nights. First runs aren't just the very first time an episode airs. Usually for the first week an episode runs every airing is considered a first run.

[blade]

Originally Posted by carlgar

I was viewing the guide (because my recording schedule looked too lite) and noticed that two of my favorites did not have the white border. I checked to make sure they were still favorites, they were. I then moved back 7 days in the guide and saw that the previous weeks shows had the expected white border. I then went back to the problem shows still no white border. I thought it may be related to the EPG update that occured about 10 minutes earlier. After about another 10 minutes the white borders just appeared around the shows. I then went to check the recording schedule to make sure the shows were there and they were.

It wouldn't suprise me if there were a delay between the EPG update and the scheduling of the shows. You need to remember that Sage has to check every show in the EPG against your favorites to determine which shows are favorites, and it has to compare the episodes to your watched history to see which of the upcoming airings need to be recorded. Once it knows what it needs to record and when all of the episodes air it has to schedule them. It takes a little time to do all of this.

[blade]

I'd also like to point out that shows are sometimes scheduled and later removed when more detailed EPG data becomes available. For instance many times South Park is scheduled to record, but there is no detailed show info, just a generic description of the show. Sage schedules it to record because it can't determine if I've watched it or not. When the EPG updates the show is removed from the recording list. If I go in and look at the detailed info it contains the show info and is correctly marked as watched.

I haven't seen any indication of that in any of these posts, but figured as closely as you two are watching your upcoming recordings you'd eventually run across it.

I've been running Sage for almost a year and a half and it has never missed a recording. I'm not saying it can't happen, but often times what people think are missed recordings aren't or there just wasn't a capture card free. If you're trying to track down possible missed recordings I suggest viewing the upcoming recording schedule in interleaved, if you aren't already. It makes it very obvious if there is a free capture card or not and you can see if one show is preventing another from being recorded due to padding or ending at an odd time like 9:32. Also be sure to view any recording conflicts that might prevent shows from being recorded.

[mike1961]

Blade - thanks as that is very helpful to understand. But, that still does not explain why it did not record the 30 min episode the other night. I'm wondering if I set a Favorite to record like Amer Idol or some other show and then let's say there is a "special 2 hour episode" with a slightly different title, will that be included in the favorite or is that considered a different show? I'm thinking that may be the reason the 30 min episode of Amer Idol did not record the other night.

Thanks,
Mike

[mike1961]

Okay - it seems like the Favorites do not include movies (unless there is a problem with my Sage). If I'm correct, I think it would be a great feature in Sage.

For example: I have Columbo has a favorite. But, when I do a search there are also some Columbo Movies coming up that are not in my Favorites like: Columbo: Murder in Malibu on 4/29 is not showing in my Favorites and I think it's because that was a special made long after the original series. It would be nice to have a Favorites All Inclusive where it just searches and records anything in the guide that starts with the letters "columbo"

Am I correct that that if I select Columbo as a Favorite then it still does not include the movies made later?

Thanks,
Mike

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by mike1961

Columbo: Murder in Malibu on 4/29

It would be nice to have a Favorites All Inclusive where it just searches and records anything in the guide that starts with the letters "columbo"

I think if you use a Keyword favorite it will pick it up and if I remember right you can specify the Keyword favorite to only match a title so you wouldn't get all movies and series that might have an actor named "Columbo" in them.

Also the reason the movie would NOT be selected would be because the name is a little different (: Murder in Malibu as part of the title)

BobP.

Edited: Removed EPGID stuff since Opus pointed out I was wrong about that below.

[Opus4]

Title-based favorites are based on titles (thus the option for "New by Title"). If the title isn't the same, the 'normal' favorite won't catch it. If you want to catch a show that has some form of that text in the title, use "New by Keyword". You can set the keyword to be title based or have it look at all fields of a show's info.

BTW: the show IDs are not used when determining if a show is a favorite.

What to know if something is a fav? Check to see if the show is outlined in white. Or, go to the fav in question, view its details (the "Favorite Details" screen), then choose "Additional Airings". Those additional airings are _only_ the airings of that show which qualify for that fav; i.e.: if you limit it to a particular channel, time slot, etc., then you will only gets shows for that channel, timeslot, etc.

- Andy

[mike1961]

Bob - thanks that worked perfectly. One last thing that has me confused is when I go into Manage Favorites and let's say I see my favorites from 1-7 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 on the screen) and I click the down arrow in the lower right corner of the screen then it is actually "panning the screen down" such that rather than seeing my Favorites 2-8 I see my favorites from top to bottom numbered 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. It's as if intuitively I would think the down arrow should behave like the up arrow and vice versa.

Any thoughts on that?
Thanks,
Mike