Question about "Favorites"

[cruizer]

I've had SageTV for abotu two months now. We have not been able to go one consecutive week with the software properly recording all our programs.
I have SageTV v4.1, in a PC with an AMD XP3000+, 1.5Gb Ram, and a 250Mb HD.

OK, first off, is there a way for the program guide to notify me if a TV program is a first run or a rerun? I am absolutely flabbergasted that is does not tell me right off hand. I mean, the software has to know if it's a first run in order to record all the first runs of a particular show! I hate having to go to TV Guide.com to see if the shows I want to watch are new because the program guide doesn't tell me.

And onto the topic question. When shows are scheduled as favorites, set on first runs only, they are supposed to automatically record those shows when they are first run, correct? Mine only does this when it wants too.

I have shows scheduled, I have priorities set, but that doesn't seem to help.
This last week, for example

Set as Favorites, First Runs only:
Monday:
King of Queens
How I met Your Mother
Three and a Half Men
CSI: Miami

Tuesday:
NCIS

Wednesday:
Alias

Thursday:
Smallville
CSI:
Supernatural (Set at a lower priority than CSI: because they are on at the same time, and would rather watch CSI:
Without a Trace

Sunday:
The Simpsons
The War At Home
The Family Guy
American Dad
Charmed (set at a lower priority than The Simpsons and The war at home, same time slot)


What was actually recorded this week:
Monday:
Nothing

Tuesday:
NCIS

Wednesday:
Alias

Thursday:
Without a Trace

Sunday:
Nothing



Almost everyhting listed were first runs this week!! We've dug the VCR back out, becuase that's become more reliable. The wife is mad at me for spending money in this system and wants to buy a TiVo, becuase we know people who have it, and it works, properly. I want to find out why this doesn't work as it should. The only way we've gotten ti to work properly, is to go and physically tell it to record each show every day. But we don;t have time to do that, I thought that's what the Favorites were for? Am I wrong? Please help.

Thanks.

[Opus4]

What version of SageTV are you using?

It will use the detailed info for an airing will tell whether it is a first run or rerun for the built-in EPG data. Are you using the built-in EPG, or XMLTV? If you scroll back to Sunday's listings in the Program Guide, those shows will say whether they are first runs.

Finally, have you purchased a SageTV license, or are you using some sort of trial mode?

- Andy

[cruizer]

I bought the SageTV and Haupauge combo from SageTV.com back in Feb, so yes, it is licensed.
I'm 90% sure it's version 1.4.
As for the EPG and XMLTV, I have no idea what you are talking about, could you please explain?

As for the program guide telling if the shows are first runs, where does it say that? I've looked all over, and can't find anyting that'll tell me if it's a first run or a rerun. Or is it only for shows that have passed (sin e you told me to scroll back to sunday)?

Thanks so far.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by cruizer

I bought the SageTV and Haupauge combo from SageTV.com back in Feb, so yes, it is licensed.
I'm 90% sure it's version 1.4.

You mean v4.1, right?

As for the EPG and XMLTV, I have no idea what you are talking about, could you please explain?

If you don't know what XMLTV is, then I''m assuming you live in the US & are using the guide data that SageTV provides.

As for the program guide telling if the shows are first runs, where does it say that? I've looked all over, and can't find anyting that'll tell me if it's a first run or a rerun. Or is it only for shows that have passed (sin e you told me to scroll back to sunday)?

I only suggested looking at Sunday's listings because they are still there & you can see they are first runs. If you highlight a show in the Program Guide, a first run will display a little "1" icon in the description area at the top of the screen. If you select the airing & then choose "View Program Information", it will say "First Run" in the description at the bottom, right after the category name.

Also, any show in the Program Guide that is set to record will have a type of round red icon on it.

Try going to the SageTV Recordings menu, then use the Options command. If the pop-up dialog, choose Display Filter and make sure it is set to All.

- Andy

[cruizer]

Yes, I ment version 4.1; and I do live in the US and am using the programming data that SageTV provides.

I will look tonight and look for the "1" so I know what you are talking about. Thank you.

As for the round red dot, I get that only if I physically tell SageTV to record a show by going into the Program Guide, selecting it, and telling it to "Record This Show". But if it's one of the shows in my "Favorites" list that is a first run, the red dot does not appear.

I will do the filter all command tonight when I get home.
What should that accomplish?

[Jackal24]

Originally Posted by cruizer

I will do the filter all command tonight when I get home.
What should that accomplish?

The filter allows you to only see certain recordings. He is asking you to set it to all, just in case your shows were recorded and are being filtered out in the recordings page. If they were recorded, setting it to all will allow them to show up.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by cruizer

I've had SageTV for abotu two months now. We have not been able to go one consecutive week with the software properly recording all our programs.

While I can't diagnose what's wrong with your setup, rest assured that if my system is any example, it does record very reliably our favorites. We don't do anything special: just declare a show a favorite, record all airings, any channel.

It is disconcerting that it sometimes waits until 48 hours prior to airing to add the favorite to the Scheduled Recordings. But it seems to get them all.

My only advice is to delete your favories, re-add with the most simple case (as above) and watch the results for a week or two.

[cruizer]

Opus4,
OK went to the Recordings, but I see no option for "Options" In fact there's nothing there. But it does say "Recording types listed: All"

Also, please explain this as well:
I backed up to Sunday nights shows to see the "1" in the corner as you had mentioned. I saw it, and I know what to look for now, thank you. Although I would likt it buch better if you could just look at the program guide and see what was new and what wasn't, instead of having to scroll over and hightlight all the shows.

Anyways, while we were there, we noticed that the shows that are selected as our favorites are outlines with a white line:
http://cruizersworld.com/misc/sun.jpg
But mind you, SageTV never recorded them. This white line neither of us have ever noticed before. And we tried to look at the differences between our Favorites and regular shows. I figured our favorites whould shop up with a red dot,. to indicate that show was going to be recorded. They did not.

Not we scrolled over to our favorites for today. I was going to, once again, manually tell SageTV to record them so that we wopuldn't miss them, as we wwouldn't be inside in time to watch them. Well we noticed that they each were outlined with white, each with a red dot, and the number 1 inside the red dot! This was new as well! We've never seen that before!
http://cruizersworld.com/misc/mon.jpg
Well we didn't want to chance missing any shows like we did on sunday, thursday, and last monday, so I told SageTV to record them, even though they were already set as favorites.

Any other ideas as to why SageTV doesn't like to record my first run favorites on a consistant basis?

stevech,
I love CSI. If I told SageTV to record any instance of CSI, it would fill up my hard drive in a matter of a couple days, due to the amount of times SpikeTV plays it. Plues, this program is supposed to be a copnvienence, having to tape every episode because it won't record the first run just turns into a hassle and inconvience. I can even get my VCR to record at the same time every week.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by cruizer

OK went to the Recordings, but I see no option for "Options" In fact there's nothing there. But it does say "Recording types listed: All"

"Options" is a command you would use to bring up an options menu on almost any menu. But, if it is showing "All", that answers my question.

I backed up to Sunday nights shows to see the "1" in the corner as you had mentioned. I saw it, and I know what to look for now, thank you. Although I would likt it buch better if you could just look at the program guide and see what was new and what wasn't, instead of having to scroll over and hightlight all the shows.

You can, with the hidden extras. Wih the extras turned on, scroll all the way down in Detailed Setup -> Customize.

BTW: a white outline doesn't mean it will record, it just means it is a favorite. The various red circles (described early in chapter 3 in the manual) mark which shows will record.

Any other ideas as to why SageTV doesn't like to record my first run favorites on a consistant basis?

You could check the reasons in this FAQ entry.

Are you using service mode? If so, try non-service mode and/or upgrade to the latest beta. (You can check your current version number on SageTV's System Information screen.)

A debug log might give some indication of what is happening. Maybe the shows do record, but there is an encoder problem & the files get deleted because the recording is corrupted.

- Andy

[cruizer]

Thanks again Opus, I will check all this stuff out this evening when I get home.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

[cruizer]

Something I really don't understand, and perhaps it'll help resolve some of my issues. I just installed V5, BTW.

I was playing with the menues and went into "Resolve Recording Conflicts."

Well it says there's conflicts between shows that shouldn't have conflicts!

Here is the lineup
Channel 9 at 7PM: Smallville
Channel 2 at 8pm: CSI:
Channel 9 at 8PM: Supernatural
Channel 2 at 9PM: Without a Trace

Now you would fugure there would be a conflict between CSI and Supernatural, right? Well not with this software!

It says there is a conflict between Smallville and CSI, and a conflict between Supernatural and Without a Trace. WHY??

I selected to record first runs iof CSI over first runs of Smallville, and first runs if Without a Trace over first runs of Supernatural.
So does this mean that even though Smallville comes ona whole hour before CSI, that it'll never record CSI as long as CSI is a first run?


Is there a way for me to know exactly what it's going to record int he next couple of days, instead of having to guess and hope it does? Or having to pick it and manually tell it to record myself?

I haven't messed with the error log yet. I'll do that later tonight. It's almsot NCIS time,a dn I can't trust this software to accurately record it yet.

[Opus4]

Do you have padding on all these favorites? If so & you don't have enough tuners to accomodate the favorites and all the overlapping padding, then you will get conflicts. You can use a Manual Recording setting because it doesn't inherit the fav's padding... if it did, then the manual recordings probably wouldn't fit either.

You can try the option to remove padding on back to back favs on the same channel in Detailed Setup -> Customize.

How many tuners do you have?

I would be interested in seeing the debug log to see what it has to say about the scheduling.

Edit: did I ask this... is anyone watching live TV using SageTV while these shows should be recording? If you are watching something else, the favs can't get recorded. And, the shows don't have a 'W' marker, showing they've been set as already watched, do they?

- Andy

[cruizer]

Yes, I do have padding on all my favorites. But I have the option set to eliminate padding on back-to-back episodes, so the padding shouldn't have caused the problem. Obviously that doesn't work. I went through and removed all the padding, and the conflicts changed to what they should have been.

No, no one watches SageTV when it is supposed to be recording something. When I am done with SageTV, I always put it on standby. We watch TV on the regular cable, because the signal is better. We are using SageTV as a recorder for our shows only. Does SageTV not give a warning and automatically switch to the proper channel when a recording is scheduled? I assumed it would, only makes sense.

I enabled the error log.

[reggie14]

The "remove padding on back to back favorites" option doesn't work like that. Its meant for back to back favorites *on the same channel*. For instance, if you have the Daily Show and the Colbert Report as favorites with padding enabled, you wouldn't be able to record them both (at least, not at 10:00 and 10:30 respectively). But, in such a situation you don't really need the padding in-between the shows, since if the Daily Show goes long, it will get picked up when you record the Colbert Report. The "remove padding on back to back favorites" option lets Sage forget about the padding that would occur between the shows, thus allowing it to record both shows using one tuner.

Its easy to see why you would think the option operates on any 2 favorites. It would be kind of nice to have that sort of option available as well. However, Sage was really designed for multiple tuners, supporting it long before BeyondTV and MCE.

And yes, Sage will put up a dialog box if a recording is about to start on another channel. *I think* if no one is there to answer yes or no it will automatically change.

So, from the sounds of it, what you're experiencing is not a bug, its a feature!

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by reggie14

However, Sage was really designed for multiple tuners, supporting it long before BeyondTV and MCE.

And that is the best solution to the problem, more tuners

If you have the abiltiy to add in 1 or 2 more tuners, it would help a lot with eliminating conflicts, and would allow you to watch more "live TV" while Sage is in the background recording more of your favorites.

I know that it can seem like you are just throwing more $$ into your PVR, but it does really help in the long run.


edit: yes, it would really be cool if Sage could have "soft-padding" where it would only padded when it did not otherwise cause a conflict.

[cruizer]

Thanks guys, we'll roll with it like it is for now. She'll kill me if I put more money into this thing at the moment. I'll be getting a divorce lawyer before I'm even married!

I still though, haven't figured out why it didn't record any shows on sunday. They were all on the same channel and back-to-back. Although I do know the thursday shows were seemingly caused by a shceduling conflict due to the padding.

[Opus4]

Did you ever set debug logging? If you let it run too long, the log file is going to be too large to post or email to SageTV, although it does zip pretty well.

- Andy

[cruizer]

OH! I turned on the debing logging, but I assumed that you had to wait and let it runs some programs and try and record some stuff first.
I assumed it would only be usefull when the program messed up. Which it hasn't in the one day I had it on. I didn't know it could look into past history.

I'll get it tonight.

[Opus4]

I suppose there are really 2 questions about what the log will show:

1) How is the scheduling working every time the schedule gets updated, and

2) What happens at the time the recordings should occur.

A current log will answer #1, while a log later on might help with #2 if the shows are in the schedule but the recordings don't work out for some reason.

Oh -- another reason that a recording may not work even though it is in the schedule would be that SageTV has run out of space to store recordings. If that happens & no shows can be automatically deleted (all manual recordings or all are favs set to manual dleete only), then SageTV can't record another show. How's your Available Video Diskspace for new recorindings, as shown on the System Information screen? If it si very low, can any of the recordings be auto-deleted?

- Andy

[cruizer]

Yeah. I have a 250Gb hard drive. The only thing on it is SageTV and Windows XP. I don't keep my recordings. Once watched, they get deleated. I do have everything set to automatically delete though, if needed.
I have 150Gb alotted to SageTV recordings. I would assume I have more than 125Gb free to record with. But I will check that tonight as well.