Howto track down why favorite didn't record?

[_matt_]

Yesterday I noticed that Boston Legal did not record. Boston Legal is number 2 on my favorites list and set to record only new airings and keep only 10 but those are the only restrictions (no timeslot, channel, or anything else). Sage did not record Boston Legal last night which was on at 9:02 pm central time it recorded Ace of Cakes (# 18 on my favorites) which was on at 9:00 pm. Both shows were a first airings. Sage shows the episode of Boston Legal 'Do Tell' as a past airing and it does not show it as a future airing. I can't think of anything else to check. What is the best way to track down why a favorite didn't record?

[Opus4]

This FAQ covers most reasons why a Favorite might not record.

You might also use the debug log to get more info. It could be possible that the recording appeared to be corrupted and was then deleted.

- Andy

[_matt_]

I read that FAQ and could not see anything in it that seemed to be true in this case.

* Is the airing outlined in white? If not, then it doesn't fit any of your Favorite's settings and will not be recorded as a Favorite.

- yes, it is outlined in white

* If it is already recorded & sitting in the list of SageTV Recordings, it won't be recorded again.

- no, it is not in the recordings list

* If the episode is marked as 'Watched' or 'Don't Like', SageTV won't record it again. (Watched shows are displayed in italics; Don't Like shows are outlined in black.)

- no, it has never been on before

* Is it a ReRun & your favorite is set for First Runs only, or vice-versa?

- no, it was a first run and I have the favorite set to first run

* Is the Favorite set for a specific channel, but the show is aired on a different channel?

- no, the favorite has no channel restrictions

* Was a specific timeslot set for the Favorite, but the airing is outside that timeslot?

- no, the favorite has no timeslot restrictions

* Is a value set for the Favorite's Keep At Most option and that limit has been reached? (New recordings will cease if this is the case and AutoDelete is set to No.)

- no, there were only 3 recordings recorded and it is set to keep 10

* It may be scheduled to record during another airing. (See above.)

- not 100% sure, but I don't think Boston Legal has any additional air times and it is not listed as a future airing when the next one on this coming Tuesday is

* There is a conflict and that favorite was deemed to be a lower priority than another favorite or manual recording, so it was skipped. (Check for recording conflicts.)

- no, it is number 2 and the recording it chose to record was number 18

Enabling debug logging won't help in this case because it is not a recurring problem. Is it ok to leave debug logging on all the time?

Finally it could not have recorded and been deleted because it recorded Ace of Cakes which was on at the same time and there is only one tuner in this machine.

[Opus4]

You've looked at the past airing to make sure it wasn't marked as Watched by accident?

Are you sure there wasn't some other conflict? The show that was recorded instead is only 30 minutes, so something else may have recorded after that. And, since you only have 1 tuner, if another show came on right after Boston Legal and its padding overlapped BL, that could create a conflict. It is a bit difficult to say what happened after the fact, though - you would need to know more about the schedule at that time. Oh, and another issue could be someone watching live TV & telling SageTV not to change the channel to record a Fav.

- Andy

[_matt_]

It was not marked as watched in the past recordings list. In the program information of the recording I missed it says it was 58 minutes long 9:02 to 10:000. Ace of Cakes was 30 minutes 9:00 to 9:30. I can not find any recordings that took place between 9:30 and 10:00 but, The Daily Show did record at 10:00. Heroes is the only program I have given a higher priority than Boston Legal and there were none recorded Tuesday. There was nobody in the house between 7:00pm and 9:45pm so I don't think anyone could have over-ridden the favorite. I guess it's possible my placeshifter account was hacked... but that doesn't seem like a probable scenario. There were things recorded prior to 9:00 and those were on the Food Network the same channel as Ace of Cakes. That was Good Eats at 7:00 and 7:30 and that was it until 9:00. Thanks for the follow up by the way Andy. I realize that in these cases its basically always user error. In the past when I have missed recordings that I wanted to see I was always able to track down the problem - you know - set to only hold 5 and not auto delete or only record at this time and there was a higher priority favorite that could only record then. With this one however, I am having a tough time figuring out where I went wrong.

I had Tivo a number of years ago and it had a great feature in this regard. When you went to recording schedule it would not just show the future but the past and you could click on anything and it would tell you why it didn't record if it didn't (user interaction, higher ranking season pass, future airing available).

[Opus4]

Be sure to watch the schedule a couple days before the next airing to see if that one gets scheduled. It might have been a one-time issue, but if it doesn't get scheduled and/or if it creates a conflict, maybe that will shed some light on it.

System Information shows when the last EPG update occurred... perhaps there was some issue of it updating right when the show was to be recorded. (It updates at about the same time every day.) You could try forcing it to update at some other time.

- Andy

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by _matt_

Is it ok to leave debug logging on all the time?

I leave mine on all the time and haven't had any problems.

[_matt_]

Thanks Bob. I think I am going to enable it then.

[Conejo]

Is it possible that his "Boston Legal" didn't record because it was scheduled in the EPG for a late start time of 10:02pm, and the other program, "Ace of Cakes" started on time at 10:00pm?

This was a one-off instance that the Favorites Priority can't really adjust for. I don't think padding BL will allow it to come in first if it starts later in the schedule.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Conejo

Is it possible that his "Boston Legal" didn't record because it was scheduled in the EPG for a late start time of 10:02pm, and the other program, "Ace of Cakes" started on time at 10:00pm?

That would still be a scheduling conflict, regardless of each show's starting time. Besides, I don't really think AOC was the show it conflicted with, because that one airs again & could probably have been recorded another time, so the conflict could have been avoided (unless all of its other airings were also conflicts). Since BL wasn't scheduled for whatever reason, AOC was free to record at that time. That's my guess regarding AOC, anyway.

- Andy

[_matt_]

Well, I checked the recording schedule a few days before Tuesday and it showed Boston Legal set to record and yesterday it recorded correctly. I am still curious as to what happened before, but I'll try not to worry about it too much.

[zoundz]

Originally Posted by _matt_

Yesterday I noticed that Boston Legal did not record. Boston Legal is number 2 on my favorites list and set to record only new airings and keep only 10 but those are the only restrictions (no timeslot, channel, or anything else).

Here in LA the local ABC affiliate broadcast a "special" edition of 20/20 instead of Boston Legal. California fires was the subject. In my case, SageTV recorded it so I was able to see the announcement at the beginning about Boston Legal returning next week, etc, etc. Apparently, my guide update didn't happen until after it had been recorded. It showed in my list of recordings as 20/20 but did not have the favorite white border.