I couple of basic settings questions

[PLUCKYHD]

Using sagemc is there a way to set default series record to only record on the channel you are setting the series on vs recording on all channels?

Also I notice sometimes when I am watching a recordtv program say one that starts at 8:00 and ends @ 9:00 If I finish the show @ 9:20 it will automatically start playing that same channel from 9:00 on (keep the buffer) but that seems to gone away I may have changed a setting and not know it?

thanks

[Clift]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Also I notice sometimes when I am watching a recordtv program say one that starts at 8:00 and ends @ 9:00 If I finish the show @ 9:20 it will automatically start playing that same channel from 9:00 on (keep the buffer) but that seems to gone away I may have changed a setting and not know it?

thanks

I, too, would like to know if there is such a setting. For me, this is what happned during the superbowl: We were watching it as LiveTV but timeshifted due to rewinding, etc. When the time slot changed, it automatically kicked us to LiveTV, not timeshifted. AND the rest of the program was missing! Luckily all we missed was the last drive and the Steelers had already made their final touchdown. My wife said she would have killed me if it happened 2 minutes earlier or if the Cardinals would have pulled off a win and we missed it.

[PLUCKYHD]

Yeah but there are times I am watching when I first set it up it would pickup right where the show ended (wouldn't even tell me the recording had stopped) and the rest would be buffered ahead. But I seem to have changed something and lost this.

[PLUCKYHD]

nobody knows???

bummer

[Brent]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

Using sagemc is there a way to set default series record to only record on the channel you are setting the series on vs recording on all channels?

Not that I know of. You could add it as a SageMC feature request though

Also I notice sometimes when I am watching a recordtv program say one that starts at 8:00 and ends @ 9:00 If I finish the show @ 9:20 it will automatically start playing that same channel from 9:00 on (keep the buffer) but that seems to gone away I may have changed a setting and not know it?

thanks

Hmm. Not sure if I totally understand. You're watching live TV (not set up as a recording) and pause or rewind it a bit. Then when it hits the next time-slot (say show is over at 7.59pm) at 8pm it skips to livetv?

If that's what you are meaning, I think that's an issue with LiveTV. Not sure if there is a real way to prevent that except to hit the record button while watching livetv. That way you'll at least have the buffer recorded if it skips forward a bit.

You know I'm not sure if I've ever experienced that behaviour - probably because I only watch sports live and then I never pause or rewind it. Might try submitting a bug report and see what they say. This would be a behaviour of SageTV - not SageMC.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Brent

Not that I know of. You could add it as a SageMC feature request though


Hmm. Not sure if I totally understand. You're watching live TV (not set up as a recording) and pause or rewind it a bit. Then when it hits the next time-slot (say show is over at 7.59pm) at 8pm it skips to livetv?

If that's what you are meaning, I think that's an issue with LiveTV. Not sure if there is a real way to prevent that except to hit the record button while watching livetv. That way you'll at least have the buffer recorded if it skips forward a bit.

You know I'm not sure if I've ever experienced that behaviour - probably because I only watch sports live and then I never pause or rewind it. Might try submitting a bug report and see what they say. This would be a behaviour of SageTV - not SageMC.

No that is not what it is. Let me try again. If I am watching a show I recorded and I start it 30 minutes late but because of commercial skip I finish my record show say 20 minutes into the next show it automatically has kept the buffer from the next show and starts playing it, but it doesn't always do this but the wife loves it when it does.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

No that is not what it is. Let me try again. If I am watching a show I recorded and I start it 30 minutes late but because of commercial skip I finish my record show say 20 minutes into the next show it automatically has kept the buffer from the next show and starts playing it, but it doesn't always do this but the wife loves it when it does.

It depends how long the next show in the guide on that channel is and how far behind you are. It also depends on whether you have it set to automatically delete partial recordings.

I got burned by this on the Superbowl a couple of years ago too. I reported it to Sage and they acknowledged it was an issue (not really a bug, but a limitation of their current design) that they would fix for a future revision. As far as I can tell they never addressed it though.

If you watch live TV in Sage (forget about timeshifting for now, just assume you are watching more or less in real time), and just leave the TV on, it will record everything you watch to the hard drive. Each show gets stored in its own file. Now if you leave the TV on like this for say 24 hours, you won't end up with 24 hours of shows on your hard drive (provided you have left the default setting where Sage deletes partial recordings). A short time after each show finishes, Sage automatically deletes it. The same is true if you are channel surfing. If you start flipping through channels, you will end up with a bunch of files that each contain only a few seconds or a few minutes of a show. Sage will automatically clean these up after a short time too.

Here is where the problem comes in. If you record a show (Manual or Favorite) and then watch the show while it is still recording, Sage will treat it sort of like watching live TV. When it finishes recording, it will automatically start recording the next show. If you finish watching your recording before the next show ends, Sage will start playing the next show. However, if the next show ends while you are still watching the first recording, the auto clean-up routine kicks in and erases it before you get a chance to see it. Then, when you reach the end of your show, it takes you back to the Sage Recordings screen.

In my Superbowl example above, I had set the game as a Manual Recording. I din't bother to add padding since I planned to watch it "Live". The next show in the guide after the Superbowl was a 15-minute post-game summary. Since I paused the game for more than 15 minutes, while watching it, my recording stopped right when the guide said the game was supposed to end (of course it went long). The real ending to the game was during the scheduled 15-minute post-game show, but that got automatically deleted before I had a chance to see it.

So here is what I learned:
1. If something is important be sure to set it as a Manual Recording and add plenty of padding (especially if it is a live event or something that is on after a live event).
2. You can pause live tv for as long as you want, but if you pause for longer than the length of the next show in the guide you will get thrown out of live tv mode when you reach the end of your show.