can i make baseball games a favorite?

[cat6man]

i'd like to be able to set up a favorite to record all 1st run Boston Red Sox baseball games. however, there are numerous rules that need to be set up. can it be done?

the games will be on one (or more) of multiple channels:
MLB extra innings channels: 1474-1488 (1474 in HD, rest SD)
MLBHD channel: 586
YESHD:576
SNYHD: 577
ESPN1/2HD: 574, 576
TBSHD: 552

here are the rules i want enforced:

rule 1:
i only want 1st run showings

rule 2:
due to blackout rules, MLB extra innings will not be shown when either YESHD or SNYHD is showing the game......so when EPG shows game on both MLBEI and either YESHD or SNYHD, the latter should be chosen

rule 3:
when game is on MLBEI channel 1474 (HD) and an SD MLBEI channel, choose 1474

any ideas on feasibility of this, or do i just continue to set recordings manually every week or so?

[gplasky]

You should be able to setup a keyword favorite and then specify those channels in the favorite of the default STV. This would not work using SageMC mod. You can't assign multiple channels for a favorite in it.

Gerry

[spacecadet]

I have the Boston Red Sox games set up as favorites and I'm not sure what area you live (sounds like New York?), but it'll be hard to get it to work *exactly* as you describe.

I've tried many things and I've pretty much come down to this:

1. Set up 1 keyword favorite for "MLB Baseball Boston Red Sox"
2. Pay attention to the upcoming recordings schedule and override when necessary

There are two problems that I often have to workaround manually:

1. If the game is on a national channel (ESPN) and the local channel (NESN) at the same time, I need Sage to record from the local channel. I've tried setting up two favorites, one for NESN with a high priority and one for all of the other channels (with a lower priority), but Sage still will always choose to record from ESPN (my hunch is that b/c ESPN has a lower channel number, Sage decides to record the lowest channel number, but that's just a guess). I've logged a support request with Sage on this months ago, but nothing has happened... if the NESN favorite has a higher priority, then it should record off of NESN... period, end of story, but it doesn't seem to work that way. So, I have to pay attention to which channel Sage wants to record the game on and manually override to NESN when appropriate.

2. NESN will run replays of the game several times throughout the next 24 hours. These replays have the same Airing ID as the original broadcast and are also marked as first runs. So, anytime there is a conflict with my HD tuner on a game night, Sage will decide to record one of the replays instead. I'd prefer that Sage just use one of the two open SD tuners to record the game since it's more important to have the game recorded in its original timeslot in a lower quality rather than 24 hours later in HD. I've logged a support request with Sage on this one, too, but nothing has happened there either (the request was to enhance favorites to indicate "always record earliest airing"). So, I have to pay attention to which timeslot Sage wants to record the game during and manually override to SD when appropriate.

At any rate, I don't think you'll have any problems with your rule #3 - assuming that channel 1474 flags the airings as HD, Sage will always choose that source if possible. You may have issues with your rule #1 - if the re-airings are also marked as first runs, then you'll run into my problem #2 above. And you'll likely also have problems with your rule #2 since you cannot create a favorite that will give priority to YES, since you could run into my problem #1 above (however, you may get lucky and find that Sage "prefers" to record on YES, but that would just be luck).

So, I'd set up the favorite - and be prepared to manually override about 20% of the time... sounds like you record everything manually today, so at least this is better than nothing.

My other advice would be to log your own support tickets with Sage regarding the above. The more of us who report this type of problem, the better chance we have of getting a fix.

Best of luck (and go Sox!)

[cat6man]

thanks spacecadet!

i'm living in enemy territory (outside of NYC) so i can't get NESN here, but
MLB-EI carries all the games.

the good news is MLB-EI doesn't repeat broadcasts so i won't get the repeats you get with nesn. on the other hand, most mlb-ei are in SD.

i'm thinking of setting up a couple of favorites, then manually overriding the dupes.

fav1: mlb-ei games on 1474-1486.........if sage will always pick 1474 when available for HD, that would be perfect
fav2: games on NY channels 576/577 (yankees/mets) that will cause mbl-ei to be blacked out [for these, i will have to manually delete the corresponding fav1 and delete repeat showings]
fav3: games on ESPN/MLBHD/TBS.........these will duplicate mlb-ei games and i will override one or the other depending on whether or not the mlb-ei game is NESN (then i'll keep NESN game even if SD) or not (then i might as well use the national broadcast in HD rather than the opponents broadcast)

i will also log those issues with sage support.

go Sox!

[spacecadet]

Based on my experience, I don't think you'll be able to use 3 separate favorites to get the behavior you want. It's always seemed to me that if a single Airing "matches" multiple favorites, that Sage doesn't necessarily give the highest priority favorite priority. That's why I've fallen back to just using a single favorite and managing the rest manually.

That said, if you do have better luck than I, let me know. It's probably been a year or so since I've tried setting it up as you described.

[cat6man]

i'll give it a shot after opening day and see what happens.........stay tuned

[cat6man]

well, i just set up a single 'keyword'='boston red sox', first run only, and selected just the channels that carry sox games.

i figured it would capture pre-season games as well but see in the epg that
none of the pre-season games on MLBHD or YESHD have the first run indication.

is that going to happen during the season as well?

[spacecadet]

Originally Posted by cat6man

well, i just set up a single 'keyword'='boston red sox', first run only, and selected just the channels that carry sox games.

i figured it would capture pre-season games as well but see in the epg that
none of the pre-season games on MLBHD or YESHD have the first run indication.

is that going to happen during the season as well?

First off, I might suggest changing your keyword to "MLB Baseball Boston Red Sox" or you'll end up picking up other stuff you probably don't want. I used to have to delete an episode of "Zack and Cody" where they went to a "Boston Red Sox" baseball game... not sure what a "Zack and Cody" is, but I know I didn't want that recording

Second, the preseason games are not marked as first runs on my system, either (both MLB network and NESN). And I just went back through the history of past airings, and it looks like the non-network games (non-FOX) are not marked as first runs, either. So, you may not be able to use that favorite setting.... Sorry

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by spacecadet

First off, I might suggest changing your keyword to "MLB Baseball Boston Red Sox" or you'll end up picking up other stuff you probably don't want. I used to have to delete an episode of "Zack and Cody" where they went to a "Boston Red Sox" baseball game... not sure what a "Zack and Cody" is, but I know I didn't want that recording

Second, the preseason games are not marked as first runs on my system, either (both MLB network and NESN). And I just went back through the history of past airings, and it looks like the non-network games (non-FOX) are not marked as first runs, either. So, you may not be able to use that favorite setting.... Sorry

hi,

zack and cody gets filtered out by channel selection, so that one is ok without mlb in the keyword.

if i can't count on 1st run indicators, i'll build one keyword on 'boston red sox' and just the MLB-EI channels because they don't do repeats and all broadcast are first runs.

since i'll have to manually delete the NY games which are blacked out anyway, i'll manually add the YES or FOX or SNY (do we play the mets this year?) games.

ESPN or TBS i'll punt on, since i'd rather see the sox on NESN in SD.

a little manual work, but the keyword will get me the MLBEI games, which covers 90% of the season............works for me!

edit:
hmmmmm............if we could logically combine keyword combinations, this could be done.

#1
'boston red sox' AND NOT 'new york' on MLBEI channels
(covers all games not blacked out)

#2
'boston red sox' AND 'new york' on YES/SNY/FOX
(covers all games blacked out, still might have repeats)

but i'm daydreaming here, aren't i?

[cat6man]

ok, well baseball season has started and i created a keyword favorite 'boston red sox' and limited it to a set of channels (all the mlb-ei channels, plus espn, espn2, mlb-hd and yes)

during games which are blacked out due to local broadcast on yes, i want to delete the mlb-ei recordings which are being blacked out but cannot figure out
how to do this.

when i look at recording options, i see an option to delete the favorite but nothing to delete just that recording.

i'm obviously missing something.............any ideas?

[Fuzzy]

I htink you can only delete it after it's done recording, not during the recording.

[cat6man]

i'm pretty sure i can kill the recording once it has started.
what i'm looking for is a way to delete an upcoming episode of a
favorite ahead of time.

will it go away if i say it has already been watched?
if i say i don't like it?

[tmiranda]

If you mark an upcoming scheduled recording as "Watched" it will not be recorded. It may take Sage several minutes to shuffle the recording schedule and actually drop it off, but it will drop off.

Do not mark it as "Don't Like"! (Unless of course you swear off baseball and really do not want Sage to record it any more.)

[cat6man]

thanks...........i did a couple as don't like today..............it won't affect my favorite will it?
i'll use 'watched' in the future

[Fuzzy]

I tihk watched might prevent the OTHER one (if it is listed as teh same showID) from being recorded as well. If Don't Like works for a specific Airing, then it should be preferred.

[cat6man]

then maybe i'll use don't like in the future.............i don't think the same games on different channels/networks will carry identical program id's so i should be ok

[cat6man]

i just found a really useful plug-in, 'anti-favorite'

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...10&postcount=1


to get rid of the blacked out games when the sox play the yankees,
i just have to define, for the 'favorite'='boston red sox' an 'anti-favorite'=yankees for the favorite that gets games on MLB EI.

three cheers for boolean logic

[cat6man]

getting closer.
a bit more detail of my current strategy:

favorite 1: keyword="boston red sox", channels="all MLB-EI + MLB-HD"
anti-favorite 1: keyword "yankees"

result 1: all boston red sox games on MLB-EI or MLB-HD channels are recorded except for games against the yankees (which are blacked out)

favorite 2: keyword="red sox", channels="NY5/9/11"
result 2: records all yankees/redsox games broadcast on NY channels 5, 9 11 plus all saturday Fox5 games involving red sox (picks up next saturday's fox5 game of the week between the red sox and phillies)

all i am missing is red sox v. yankee games carried on YES. i could try adding YES to favorite 2 channels but this would pick up rebroadcasts of this year as well as past year's games, since they don't use the 'first run' indicator on the yes channel.

note also that anti-favorite 1 does not interfere with favorite 2 since it is targeted towards favorite 1 keyword='boston red sox' and favorite 2 keyword='red sox' (without the boston)

remaining yankee games can be picked up manually for now.

still 2 open problems:
1. how to get games on YES
2. on MLB-EI, there are sometimes 2 broadcasts, one a home team broadcast and one a visiting team broadcast.............i'm not sure if any info is available to tell sage what i want to do

logic would be:
if 2 broadcasts and 'at boston red sox', want home game broadcast
if 2 broadcasts and 'boston red sox at' want visiting team broadcast
if only one broadcast, use it

the search for the perfect scheduling algorithm continues

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by cat6man

all i am missing is red sox v. yankee games carried on YES. i could try adding YES to favorite 2 channels but this would pick up rebroadcasts of this year as well as past year's games, since they don't use the 'first run' indicator on the yes channel.

still 2 open problems:
1. how to get games on YES

Narflex has promised us that, at some point in the future, Sage will be loading and providing access to Zap2It's "live" flag. This flag is used by Z2I to denote that an airing is live (as opposed to a rebroadcast). Once this flag becomes available in Sage then you're good to go (assuming YES provides this flag - and since I see it used on all the channels in my EPG, I'd assume YES provides it as well). With this flag you'd be able to restrict recordings to the live broadcast only as opposed to a reairing later in the evening, etc. This is such a valuable piece of EPG data - I can't wait to get my hands on it.

2. on MLB-EI, there are sometimes 2 broadcasts, one a home team broadcast and one a visiting team broadcast.............i'm not sure if any info is available to tell sage what i want to do

logic would be:
if 2 broadcasts and 'at boston red sox', want home game broadcast
if 2 broadcasts and 'boston red sox at' want visiting team broadcast
if only one broadcast, use it

the search for the perfect scheduling algorithm continues

MLBEI does not have any way to distinguish which feed is on which channel. The external show id is the same for both airings and there is nothing in the details/description of either to tell you which feed is on which channel so Sage would never be able to figure this out.