making a manual recording, on a special channel, for an amount of time!?

[jimbobuk]

I have some channels missing from my xmltv stream, they are minor rerun channels mostly but today i wanted to record something on them.. in the end i had to find a program near to the right time, set that to record... cover up the actisys ir transmitter and manually set the channel myself on the satellite box... finally i had to drastically alter the end time of the recording to capture the show that i wanted to...

All in all quite a muddle...

BUG
I did notice something too.. recordings only then say they are as long as the original recording was.. so even tho i recorded for 50mins.. watching the program it said i had only 30mins... it ran on past the end of it ok (thank god i worried it HAD only recorded the 30mins

It'd be nice though if there was a way where you could specify a special manual recording... for use with actisys it'd be great if you could pass it a channel number.. it could be one that exists (for when xmltv data has the programme info wrong for a programme you want doing, though you'd be lucky if you'd spot this or for a channel that hasn't been added.. as such the channel num is only really useful for those with ir transmitter possibilities..

Being able to just set

recording name: Roswell High *
channel name: sky one mix
channel number: 107**
start time: 12:50*
end time: 1:40*

* = required fields
** = required field only if you have IR transmission and you want it to change the channel to this number

I don't know if something like this is possible but it would be nice to be able to do it for those programs off from a channel.. also to manage channels and favourites and recordings etc takes some effort as such just because i want to record a show one time on a particular channel may not mean i want to add that channel properly.. although i guess i could just untick that channel in the options.. this is really just for channels and programmes that we can't add for not being in the xmltv grabbers

[jimbobuk]

dammit could some admin move this to the sagetv forum.. sorry, i didnt look where i was before posting

[Lester Jacobs]

I'll second the need for this feature. I'd like to be able to make manual recordings in SageTV as well. For instance I could use SageTV to capture some of my home movies, etc I know that SageRecorder allows manual recordings but I don't want to have to buy two pieces of software just to do the occasional manual recording.

Cheers
Lester

[olyar15]

I'll third this suggestion. Sometimes, the EPG is incorrect, especially for sports playoffs where start times may changes unpredictably. Being able to do manual time-based recordings would be useful. Maybe they can combine SageRecorder into SageTV and call it SageTV Plus. I would be willing to pay extra for that.

[jimbobuk]

EncoderHouse.. whilst you are right for stuff such as transfering off of tapes etc... although still i think its pushing it a bit to justify Sage Recorder when you already have SageTV..

SageRecorder is a subset of SageTV isn't it after all!?!?

anyways although at some point i may want to try and capture some stuff off of tape... most of all i want to just record programmes that i can't add thru the existing EPG.. it applies to ones that are incorrectly stored in the EPG too... if i used Sage Recorder how would it conflict with SageTV running at the same time... if you are saying that i now have to be at my computer to close Sage Recorder when its finished.. and also make sure (how?!?!) that SageTV doesn't try to record at the same time... its just a hassle...

Surely it'll be possible to register all the information that the EPG normally does, either by user submission or by populating with defaults.. then it can just sit in the recordings amongst all the others...

Would be interested to see what the stand point is of recording off of VHS too... do frey expect you to buy SageRecorder for this minority task.. even if you have already brought SageTV, SageTVClient, and possibly upcoming SageTV studio licenses...

Only just actually read the whole of your post EncoderHouse... I agree they are seperate programs.. i'll let manual recording of videos, dvds slide.. what about the REAL time when you need this ... how i've described above... integrated with the rest of my recording...

[jimbobuk]

EncoderHouse.. chill dude... the thing with reading these things is even with smilees you never quite know the feeling behind stuff... your response makes me wonder if you took offence at something i said, either that or perhaps you are too tired/uninterested in debating this feature request as its not something you suffer from.. anyhow if you were bothered apologies.. I agree with your original intent in justifying paying money for the work frey do.. Frey is one of the best most pro-active companies i've ever had the pleasure to buy a product from.. they are so far ahead of a lot of other businesses that its just not funny..

anyways scrapping the VHS backup recording stuff which sage recorder is suited to...

I would love to know if SageRecorder could be used simultaneously with SageTV on the same machine with just 1 PVR... I dont think its possible.. which is why i wanted the feature inside SageTV.. if its doable with SageTV + SageRecorder that's at least something... i still feel though its something that should integrate with the rest of Sage to just add that extra flexibility to this great software suite

[jimbobuk]

Could the guys that matter put some comment to this... would something like this ever be an option... I will be buying Sage Recorder shortly for my own tape mastering stuff but quite simply i need the ability to put special recordings on channels in the midst of my normal SageTv recording... there are still a lot of channels NOT included in the UK xmltv source, and as others pointed out.. sometimes the data is just wrong..

[Lester Jacobs]

I would definitely like a response on this as well. I think it would be a great enhancement in SageTV to be able to specify a manual recording to occur at a certain time and for a certain length, irrespective of EPG data. Sometimes the guide is wrong, especially when it comes to sports. Also, for us xmltv users, there may be times when we cannot obtain data (zap2it occasionally changes the site necessitating a code change in xmltv). Or I may just want to set up a manual recording because, for some reason, a channel does not have EPG info and yet there's a show I want to record from it ( our cable system has a local community channel which does not have EPG info).

So there's any number of reasons I might want to do a manual recording from SageTV. I reject the suggestion that I buy SageRecorder to accomplish this. Why? Well unless SageTV and SageRecorder can co-exist on the same PVR card then I have to shut down one in order to use the other. So to execute a manual recording I need to wait until the scheduled time for the manual recording, shut down SageTV, fire up SageRecorder for the manual recording, wait for the recording to finish, then fire up SageTV again. This is a non-starter. If SageTV had the ability to support manual recordings then none of that procedure would be necessary.

If it's a money thing, then hey, I'd pay whatever SageRecorder costs, that's not my concern. I just want the feature INTEGRATED into SageTV. So I'm comfortable if Frey releases a product that combines SageTV and SageRecorder and charges the equivalent of the sum of the cost of the individual packages.

My $0.02


Cheers
Lester

[Narflex]

This is something that is solved most easily by updating the EPG Plugin. The developer of it would simply have to add support for an import file that it parses to add extra channels to the EPG.

[Lester Jacobs]

Originally posted by Narflex
This is something that is solved most easily by updating the EPG Plugin. The developer of it would simply have to add support for an import file that it parses to add extra channels to the EPG.

That would severely reduce ease of use for a non technical user. Supposing I add the ability to parse such an import file from the plugin. How do you propose that the end user create and /or modify such an import file? I don't think the average consumer wants to be messing around with text files, etc.

It would be much easier from an end user perspective to my mind if Sage offered some sort of dialog to enter a manual recording on a particular channel, starting at a particular time, for a particular duration. The Digital VCR application that came with the Creative VCR card offers an excellent example of how this could be done.

Cheers
Lester

[justme]

This thread does read as a little heated, even if that isn't the intent of anyone's post. I almost thought of not posting but we're all here because we love Frey's products and want to make them better.

I understand about SageRecorder being a seperate product. But as has been pointed out they can't(as of my current knowledge) coexist on the same tuner at the same time. I as well, would pay to upgrade to a fully merged product if neccessary.

As for stopping SageTV to start SageRecorder for a manual recording... I don't want to do that since someone will inevitably forget to restart SageTV. Also.. What happens when I build my 2 tuner setup? Would I have to totally turn off SageTV to use SageRecorder to do a manual recording? Or can SageRecording grab an unused SageTV tuner card?

Also I don't feel this is just an XMLTV plugin user issue. Granted it is more needed if you use XMLTV as opposed to the Sage Service.
It's a PVR issue and that's what SageTV is. There are situations when using the Sage Service, that this feature would be usefull too. Sporting events being an obvious example that cause problems for both the event watcher and the poor sucker trying to watch the show right after one. My Tivo* can do a manual recording with any channel, start time and end time. I honestly feel sageTV could benefit from this functionality as well.

Submitted only with the intent of trying to improve SageTV. Your very happy user, Michael

*Yes I used the "T" word again. I don't really know if it's fair to compare SageTV to a product that costs so much more, but the comparion is inevitable. I honestly don't understand how Frey is making money at the price they offer SageTV. Especially considering that they give away the EPG data.

[jimbobuk]

This thread does read as a little heated, even if that isn't the intent of anyone's post.

I never understood why it did in the first place.. I hate it when semantics of posts are misunderstood by people, its the one time when this otherwise great form of communication just breaks down...

Other than that.. an XMLTV plugin is at least an option.. I too would rather see it integrated into Sage but can appreciate that this may involve a lot of work... I do think its a KEY feature tho.. as i mentioned earlier in the post i would love to be able to populate a lot of data on this program if i chose to so that it sits more comfortably with other recordings in Sage... but options for literally just channel and time to fit with ppl used to the VCR metaphor of timed recordigns..

I would get Sage Recorder if this could integrate in with SageTV for this purpose but feel that it would be a bit clumsy closing down one program to open another, or make one dormant whilst the other runs... if this was the only option tho, fine..

Definately Sage rocks... now that Narflex has commented on it i know that at least he's read it and perhaps he'll mull it over some more.. without his comment i wasn't sure if it had been picked up which was why i requested a reply.. if that was what was "heated" i'm sorry about that too.. u get too used to the great support Frey gives on here, we should all realise how lucky we are to be able to have such contact and support with the developers

Laters