Manual Recordings

[edmc]

I stumbled upon a case where a program guide scheduled recording will convert to a manual recording. Guess this happens when the program guide changes. Don't know - haven't seen it enough times to get a feel for the algorithm used. Can anyone explain why/when this happens?

But when this happens, the Scheduled Recordings will show that manual recording's start/end time but not it's channel. Of course, if I do an "info" on the manual recording, I can get this info, but it should probably be visible in the compressed listing.

Finally, I don't recall an obvious way the expressly request a manual recording (SageTV is "busy" right now or I'd fire it up and try to find it). Could anyone comment on how this is done?

[jmeeks]

Don't understand exactly what you mean about a recording converting. In the EPG, a manual recording is signified by a bold yellow border around the program selected for manual record. A favorite scheduled for recording is signified by a bold white border. Are you saying it switched from bold white to bold yellow by itself?

To manually record in SageTV, right click on the program and choose record or highlight the program and press the solid red circle button in the control OSD.

John

[Narflex]

Ed,

If you've selected a manual recording and the EPG data changes so that show is no longer present, it will convert it to time-based manual recording instead of just dropping it.

[edmc]

John,

Your use of the term "manual recording" seems to apply to recordings selected specifically from the Guide rather than recorded due to Favorite settings? Actually, I was referring to what Jeff calls "time-based" - exactly what I observed.

Jeff,

Very thoughtful of SageTV to go ahead and record the program which runs at the same time slot of a previously selected "manual" recording which disappears from the EPG data.

However, my comment about the "time-based" recording not indicating the channel still applies. You probably want to add that in imho... It is even more important on such time-based recordings than it is for programs which have a name...

But another question remains: how does one simply request a time-based recording directly then? I didn't see any way to do this. Note that this was a very welcome feature add to ReplayTV some time back. I suspect folks around here might like it too - nothing better/more-accurate when trying to capture those March Madness games (who's EPG data may likely change, though perhaps not at a predictable interval).

[dkardatzke]

Ed, A time based recording is essentially accomplished by selecting a program to manually record and then extending the start/stop time. For example if you wanted to record all of "Must See Thursday" on NBC you could pick Friends at 7:00 and then extend it all the way to 10:00 to capture all three hours of programming.

[edmc]

> Ed, A time based recording is essentially accomplished by selecting a program
> to manually record and then extending the start/stop time.

Unfortunately, "essentially" is not the same as "identically"... :-)

Time-based recordings have the benefit that they don't "move"... Is it not the case that, if a program "moves", SageTV has some way to track that movement and adjust the recording time/channel? Guess that's what you meant when you suggested above that such movement results in the conversion of the scheduled recording entry to time-based.

I'd suggest we need both. For instance, if I select a program on channel 2 from 8-9pm on a Tuesday on my ReplayTV, if the EPG later moves that program to 9-10pm, ReplayTV will "do the right thing" and record channel 2 from 9-10pm. I don't know what their criteria is to note that a program has "moved" rather than just gone away (with a new "similarly described but not assumed to be the same" program at another time slot). Note that this functionality is quite distinct from the Favorites behavior of SageTV which have their ReplayTV counterpart: Replay Zones.

All that said, I very much like the "side effect" that SageTV just goes ahead and records the time slot as it was regardless of whether the EPG changed or not.

I didn't hear the acknowledgement of the fact that the channel number isn't in the Scheduled Recordings display list. Not trying to be rude or stubborn here - I just didn't want the original reason for my posting to get lost. You can certainly say no :-)...

[Narflex]

The Recording Schedule cells in the SageGuide use the 'short description' format. This shows the title if it exists; otherwise it'll just show the channel number. So the way it currently works is by design. Thanks for the suggestion.

[edmc]

Hi Jeff,

> The Recording Schedule cells in the SageGuide use the 'short description'
> format. This shows the title if it exists; otherwise it'll just show the channel
> number. So the way it currently works is by design. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ah - now I see why we were talking past each other... I am referring to the Scheduled Recordings list, not the Recording Schedule cells in the SageGuide...

[Narflex]

That one does show the time from what I can see....can you post a screen shot of what you're referrring to?

[jmeeks]

Ed, you were right. The manual recording that I was referring to was manually selecting in lieu of "Favorite". I didn't even know about it switching to a time-based recording as described by Jeff.

That would be really cool if Sage could track and adjust the schedule if the show just moved to another time slot. I also agree that being able to schedule a time-based recording is desirable as well especially if you could make it recurring for various days weekly, monthly, etc. as you needed.

On a side note: Is there a way to manually cause the EPG to update?

John

[dkardatzke]

Originally posted by jmeeks
On a side note: Is there a way to manually cause the EPG to update?

Yes, just add/delete a channel from Channel Setup. That will cause an immediate EPG update.

[edmc]

> [Scheduled Recordings list] does show the time from what I can see...

Yes, you added that pre-1.0 some time ago - thanks. What I'm talking about in my post which started this thread is that the Channel Number isn't displayed in this case. It's interesting. I just upgraded to your new Beta (1.2.2) and the same thing happened to my scheduled recording of Ed on NBC this Friday (even though the program didn't actually change). Sure enough, the channel was not displayed. I then went in to check out the Modify Start/Stop Time and, lo and behold, while I'm adjusting the time, the channel suddenly appears. When I exit from the Modify Start/Stop Time, the channel disappears - very odd...

> ...can you post a screen shot of what you're referrring to?

I'll try to capture it next time. Of course, I've already converted the Time-based recording to the actual 'Ed' program entry...