Feature requests: Warn before channel change and onscreen like/don't like

[neilbradley]

I'll up front state that my experience as a registered user of SageTV 3.0.7 beta is rudimentary (but growing), so most of my expectations are based on the Tivo I just removed from service. There are two things that I've noticed that are present on the Tivo that don't appear to be on SageTV that would be nice to have:

1) When SageTV is about to change the channel, currently it just changes it with no explanation as to why. I can't tell if it's a scheduled recording or just a favorites type of thing, and it'd be nice to know before I get my stream interrupted.

2) I can indicate like/don't like as a toggle from my remote control, and it does work. However, there is no on screen indication that anything has changed, even when I have the programming info up for the existing recording.

Are these features there and I just haven't turned something on, or are they features that could be added? Thanks!

-->Neil

[Opus4]

1) It thought it should ask before starting to record a scheduled show while watching live TV. Is this not happening?

2) It appears that the Don't Like command doesn't do anything during playback, but the outline color is shown during playback to indicate that status for shows already marked as Don't LIke. If you use the command on other screens, the outline color will change for the show & the Don't Like icon will be displayed for it.

- Andy

[neilbradley]

Thanks for the reply, Andy.

1) This is not a schedule show that I'm aware of. For example, today we were watching something, and it decided to change the channel with no warning. It may have been a recommendation recording, as I had nothing set up to record for the favorites.

So the order of events was we changed the channel to watch a show that we hadn't set up to record - we were just watching live TV (I know, strange concept). About 10 minutes into the show, it changed channels immediately without giving any warning.

I'm wondering if a better behavior would be if I change the channel to watch a different show, if it's going to go record a recommended show, I should be given the option to cancel it before the channel changes. If the show I'm watching ends and I haven't touched the remote during the show that I switched to, then it can switch without asking. Or it can just ask a minute before with a default to "change" unless it's intercepted.

2) Yes, the don't like icon shows up during the information screen. But I'm talking about the situation where I see a show I don't like that it's recording and hit the like/don't like button on the remote. Since "like" and "don't like" aren't separate buttons on the remote (they're a toggle), I'd like to get an indication that I've set it as such. The Tivo just brings up the title of the show currently being watched and does its thumbs up/thumbs down thing to give some visual feedback. Right now I don't know if I've just turned a like into a don't like or vice versa unless I hit the info button to get the info. ;-( In other words, the "like/don't like" item doesn't give any indication that it has been pressed at all. Unless I'm missing something...

Hope My questions don't come off as irritating - SageTV is new to me, so telling me to RTFM is perfectly acceptable. It's a lot to absorb!

Great work on the product, guys. My Tivo is going to auction here shortly... ;-)

-->Neil

[Opus4]

1) I haven't watched live TV in so long, I don't remember exactly what happens when it comes time to change to a scheduled or IR show. Anyone having problems with this in v3?

2) It should be giving feedback -- the outline will change to, but the yellow currently recording outline might take precedence. But, it should be showing the Don't Like icon in the upper part of the screen where the description is shown for the currently highlighted show... if you are not seeing that, what menu are you on when this occurs?

- Andy

[Kanati]

I am pretty sure mine didn't inform me last night either... But I didn't think anything of it.

[wolfpackmars2]

I know version 2.2 notified that a recording was schedualed to start and asked if you wanted to switch channels, as reported by some of my testers who demoed a single tuner unit of mine. I haven't seen this behavior, as most of my systems have at least 2 tuners, so if I'm watching something on one, it will just record with the other tuner without notification.

But yes, I think it should be asking before switching channels.

Haven't tested v3 yet.

[Opus4]

I think I posted something like this a long time ago, but I didn't find it. (Now watch it be on some page in the manual. ) And, I wanted to try it to verify this...

When watching live TV, here is what happens:

• If a scheduled Manual or Favorite recording is coming up on a different channel, a dialog will pop up about 5 minutes before the show starts to ask: "Is it OK for SageTV to change the channel at <time> to record <the show's name>?" You can choose whether to allow the channel change. If you do nothing, the channel will change at the time stated.
  
  I believe you can adjust the lead time when this question is asked by changing the seeker/channel_change_ask_advance property, in milliseconds. I believe its default value is 300000, or 5 minutes.
  
  
• If an Intelligent Recording is coming up, the IR show is ignored and live TV continues.

Maybe I should add that as a FAQ or manual item, if it isn't already there. As far as I know, this is what should be happening in v3 & it is what happened in v3 for me.

- Andy

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by neilbradley

Thanks for the reply, Andy.

1) This is not a schedule show that I'm aware of. For example, today we were watching something, and it decided to change the channel with no warning. It may have been a recommendation recording, as I had nothing set up to record for the favorites.

So the order of events was we changed the channel to watch a show that we hadn't set up to record - we were just watching live TV (I know, strange concept). About 10 minutes into the show, it changed channels immediately without giving any warning

-->Neil

What channel did it change to? the next channel higher or lower than the channel you were watchiing. If so, it could be that Sage was picking up a signal to change the channel, instead of the scheduler requesting a channel change. I had a cheap wireless keyboard and mouse setup that would pickup stray signals and send keystrokes to Sage that caused it to change channels and do other weird stuff like bring up the options menu or even add a show as a favorite

[Opus4]

Oh yeah - my mouse's scroll wheel likes to settle back into place at unexpected times. That extra scroll wheel motion can cause a channel change too (or other undesirable events in any program I'm currently using).

- Andy

[neilbradley]

Okay, regarding the "no warning", I think I've figured out what happened. Mind you that my wife originally noticed the behavior (she's an engineer and is pretty observant when things happen that are strange), and after playing with SageTV for a full evening, here's what I think happened:

1) SageTV was out of sync with the TV tuner
2) I had "always send channel change" enabled
3) At the turn of the hour (or half hour), SageTV sent the channel change, which did change the channel, but SageTV thought it was on the same channel, so it didn't bother to tell me that it was "changing the channel"

And since that one incident, we haven't seen it happen again. We had noticed that the satellite receiver hasn't worked perfectly when changing channels, so all of this adds up.

BTW, I DID get a notification from SageTV that it was about to change a channel to record a "to be recorded" program on screen. So it appears that there isn't a bug, here, after all. Chalk it up to learning something new! I'll keep an eye on it to see how it behaves, and now that my wife and I are on alert, we'll have better data next time.

Regarding the issue of the "don't like" getting toggled, the "don't like" flag shows up if I have the info screen up. However, if I'm just watching live TV and am not using the guide or the program info, there's absolutely no visual or audible indication that the "don't like" has been set that I can see. Am I missing something, or should it work like this?

-->Neil

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by neilbradley

Regarding the issue of the "don't like" getting toggled, the "don't like" flag shows up if I have the info screen up. However, if I'm just watching live TV and am not using the guide or the program info, there's absolutely no visual or audible indication that the "don't like" has been set that I can see. Am I missing something, or should it work like this?

As I said above:

Originally Posted by Opus4

It appears that the Don't Like command doesn't do anything during playback, but the outline color is shown during playback to indicate that status for shows already marked as Don't LIke.

The 'outline' I am referring to is the border around the show info at the top of the screen when the full OSD is shown.

- Andy

[neilbradley]

Right - I understand. However, I'm talking about the situation where there is no on screen display and I press the "Don't like" toggle on the remote. That's when nothing happens.

[Opus4]

Please re-read my last reply again. You won't see anything happen during playback, since SageTV does nothing in response to the command during playback. It may or may not chage in the future, but right now the Don't Like command is completely nonfunctional during playback.

- Andy

[neilbradley]

You stated that:

"It appears that the Don't Like command doesn't do anything during playback"

That sounds like an observation, not a definitive statement, not what is supposed to happen. What I'm inferring you meant now, after your last statement, was:

"The Don't Like command isn't supposed to do anything during playback"

To which I reply "bummer". Would be useful for us first timers! Again, I'm coming at this from the perspective of a Tivo user, where the thumbs up/down work everywhere. It'd be nice if SageTV were consistent in this regard.

-->Neil

[Opus4]

Actually, I guess it was an observation of a sort... when I looked & observed that the STV code did nothing with that command at that point. Unless it was done by design that way, I'll be changing it, but I don't want to promise that it will change. (The Watched command used to do nothing during playback, but now it can be used there.)

- Andy

[neilbradley]

Aha! Yeah, I was trying to figure out if that was a "we never coded it to do that" (would be a feature request) or a "it's supposed to but does'nt" (would be a bug). Cross fingers... thanks again for the hard work, Andy. I've now spread the SageTV gospel to 12 of my closest friends who all own Tivos and I'm fielding some VERY serious questions, so hopefully there'll be a few new SageTV customers coming your way in the very near future. Thanks!