Dealing with bad EPG times or sports games

[broderp]

I hope this is the proper place for this, but have there been any improvement on how to deal with those pesky sports games that go long and throw off the entire recording schedule by sometimes 20-40 minutes?

I'm tired of selecting a video to watch, only to find out the shows only half there because a sports game went over! I've missed 3 first run programs this way.

I know I can select RECORDING ERROR to not log the show as recorded or watched, but there has to be some way of working with this.

Has anyone considered a INSTANT RECORD button that will just start recording RIGHT where its at, and stop when you manually press stop or a pre-defined time? (Think of a TV Sleep funcion, just make it a record time 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, 60 min, 90 minutes)

This wont fix the underlying issue, but I could still catch my show if I happen to turn it on at 8PM, and still see news being played.

[michelkenny]

You can press the "record" button on your remote (provided it is correctly mapped) to start a manual recording right then. I believe my dad has used this feature a couple of times. I'm not at the PVR right now but I believe that on the OSD there is a record button too... not sure though.

[dkardatzke]

This is a problem that has plagued us here in the US since the VCR was introduced. As we move towards Digital TV, information like this will most likely be imbedded in the stream so that SageTV can read the show information being broadcast and not start/end a recording until it receives the updated information. This is similar to the guide information already being broadcast in our Digital OTA streams today.

Hopefully this will come sooner than later as I'm sure your not the only frustrated viewer!

[dvd_maniac]

I usually have this problem with my wife's COLD CASE show. What I did was pad the favorite by 120 minutes after. So if a game goes longer then scheduled I won't miss anything. I have 5 tuners so it's not a big deal and doesn't cause any conflicts. I figured it's better to have more tuners than have WAF go down.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

I usually have this problem with my wife's COLD CASE show. What I did was pad the favorite by 120 minutes after. So if a game goes longer then scheduled I won't miss anything. I have 5 tuners so it's not a big deal and doesn't cause any conflicts. I figured it's better to have more tuners than have WAF go down.

"if" a game goes longer? You're kidding right? When was the last time a game ended on time?

The only chance you have is if the game is on one of the sports networks where they many times will air a wrapup show right after the game. In some of those cases they'll cut the wrapup show short so the following schedule will fall where it's advertised.

Many auto race series have gotten a lot better at this within the last few years and having a "curfew" where they'll cut the race short on laps if necessary to fit within the time constraints. It's usually an issue with the local ordinances at the site, but works well for us watching on TV also.

Most of the regular sports (football, baseball, etc) haven't gotten this yet. My "solution" is to put it on the networks heads. There are so many "network timeouts" built into all the national sports so they can fit all the adspace they sold into the broadcast. I say, if the game is going long then they start cutting down on the ads and play the game until the game gets back on pace with the timeslot.
That will force the networks to give the games a more realistic time allotment or they lose advertising $$$. How many times have you tuned into a network on a Sunday evening only to find out that the football game that was supposed to be over (according to the schedule) at 7pm is barely into the 4th quarter?

/rant mode off

[lovingHDTV]

Like DVD_Mania, this always happens with Cold Case. The sunday game always goes over, and 60 minutes never gets shortened. I just got yelled at last night because Cold Case only recorded halfway. I use end padding also to get around this, but upon upgrading to the beta I re-entered all my favorites and forgot the padding

120minutes padding is a lot of padding for an HD show! I settled for 45minutes.

[briands]

Originally Posted by dkardatzke

This is a problem that has plagued us here in the US since the VCR was introduced. As we move towards Digital TV, information like this will most likely be imbedded in the stream so that SageTV can read the show information being broadcast and not start/end a recording until it receives the updated information. This is similar to the guide information already being broadcast in our Digital OTA streams today.

Hopefully this will come sooner than later as I'm sure your not the only frustrated viewer!

Why wait for digital? I have an old Hitachi VCR that would read the show data from the analog stream. The catch with it was that the processor that fed this data was apparently receiving its input from a static program guide. Until the data is actually imbedded into the program content from the source this will still be the issue.

[Lucas]

I think this is a widespread issue and not in just the US. Here in Europe shows may or may not start late or early (at least on the OTA channels; the Sat channels are very accurate). To avoid half recordings I do what others said. Pad 5 minutes early for the start and up to 45mins late for the finish depending on what airs just before... With experience there's a 95% probability that the show will be recorded in full.

[broderp]

Yep, COLD CASE is the show I keep missing and even though I like ANDY ROONEY closing comments, I prefer to see him end by 8PM sharp. My daughter is so upset, I've missed 3 eppisodes so far, and have resorted to a 40 minute padding. (seems like 60 minutes ends around 8:34PM, so I lose 1/2 the show.)

[blade]

I have 55 minute padding on Cold Case. It's the only show that I regularly have trouble with due to sporting events.

[ToxMox]

Same here...I've always had an hour of padding on Cold Case.

[broderp]

Ok,

how hard would it be to just add a "record from here" option that runs independant from the EPG and it's time schedualing? I suppose I'd rather catch it when it comes on, and tell SAGE to stop recording for an hour, rather than have to deal with a bigger file to save and manipulate later.

[dvd_maniac]

how hard would it be to just add a "record from here" option that runs independant from the EPG and it's time schedualing

Wouldn't that mean that I'd have to be sitting in front of the TV and watching "LIVE" tv?
I can't remember the last time that happened...

[src666]

There will probably never be a completely automated solution to this problem. However, a workaround would be some way to extend the current recording.

Rather than create a new recording (unless I misunderstood the "record from here" idea), why not just have an option that will extend the schedule for the current recording by "X" minutes - preferably with several choices for "X". Seems pretty simple to me.

[blade]

Having to manually tell it to continue recording seems like a pretty poor solution. Babysitting the recording would defeat the purpose of having a PVR or at least make it very inconvienent. Just set extra padding for the shows that regularly follow sporting events.

[src666]

Originally Posted by blade

Having to manually tell it to continue recording seems like a pretty poor solution. Babysitting the recording would defeat the purpose of having a PVR or at least make it very inconvienent. Just set extra padding for the shows that regularly follow sporting events.

How much padding? 15 minutes? 1 hour? 2 hours? How much padding would have caught the complete final game of the World Series? Who would anticipate that?

Sure, I agree that it pays to be proactive, and plan for the fact that most sporting events run long. But honestly, how many people are going to correctly guess _how long_? And what's so terribly inconvenient about having the option to extend the current recording? You press a couple of buttons and it's handled. And if it runs longer than that, you press a couple of buttons and it's handled. Sounds like a strong convenience to me.

The fact remains that Sage (or any other PVR) has no way to know when a show runs long. That situation isn't going to change in the forseeable future. Having more tools available to deal with this fact would be a _good_ thing.

[dvd_maniac]

Well, I have mine set to 90 minutes. If I end up missing part of it still? Then I'll increase it accordingly for next time.
I am usually not home on Sundays and do not watch the Patriot's games until later that night or Monday morning before work. So I couldn't be there to MAKE sure to press a couple of buttons. I believe it would be similair for others as well.
What would the big deal with padding it be? If you plan to archive it then VideoReDo or something similiar would take out commercails and padding in a snap. If you just want to watch and delete then just jump foward to start...

Babysitting the recording would defeat the purpose of having a PVR or at least make it very inconvienent

I agree, but to each his own. If you are there and want to manually adjust the stop time then when the show actually starts (Say 9:15) then you know the show will end at one hour later (10:15). You could go into the recording options and adjust the end time accordingly. That would be the same as what you are asking for Sage to do.

[blade]

Originally Posted by src666

But honestly, how many people are going to correctly guess _how long_? And what's so terribly inconvenient about having the option to extend the current recording? You press a couple of buttons and it's handled. And if it runs longer than that, you press a couple of buttons and it's handled. Sounds like a strong convenience to me.

How many people are going to be sitting around monitoring their recordings? If I were going to be doing that I'd just watch it live in the first place. I never said that there shouldn't be an option, just that it seems like it would be very inconvienent to monitor recordings and manually increase the recording time as needed.

Adding padding is very simple and if you plan ahead and add plenty (especially when sporting events are involved) then you'll rarely miss anything. I think I've missed 5 minutes of 1 show in last 9 months. Of course I added a little more padding for that show and haven't missed any of it since then.

[src666]

Originally Posted by blade

How many people are going to be sitting around monitoring their recordings? If I were going to be doing that I'd just watch it live in the first place. I never said that there shouldn't be an option, just that it seems like it would be very inconvienent to monitor recordings and manually increase the recording time as needed.

Adding padding is very simple and if you plan ahead and add plenty (especially when sporting events are involved) then you'll rarely miss anything. I think I've missed 5 minutes of 1 show in last 9 months. Of course I added a little more padding for that show and haven't missed any of it since then.

There are _lots_ of people who watch sports delayed, instead of waiting until it's over. The reason is they don't want to "miss it", or hear the score from someone before they see the game. So they start watching late so they can fast-forward through the commercials. Of course, they usually end up watching it live towards the end, because they have caught up to real-time.

These are the people who would benefit from the feature I suggested.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that everyone will benefit - many won't. However, there's no reason for you to assume that _nobody_ will benefit, just because you do it differently.

Personally, I think Intelligent Recording is a waste, but many people like it. I don't begrudge them that feature. In their minds, it's a darned good idea. Heck, for that matter I think watching sports is a huge waste of time, and the only time I begrudge the sports-fans their pasttime is when my locality decides to fund their habit by building a stadium using my tax dollars. As you can see, I would get no benefit from the "extend recording" feature, but I still think it's worth a look.

Let's all keep in mind that features that we won't use ourselves can still be good ideas.

[perfessor101]

Would it be possible to add into an STV a setting to pad a show by X minutes if the prior listing is for a sports game? or would this need to be integrated into the SageTV core?

Bobby