Help me understand recording Priority

[Arioch5]

I've been using an HDHomerun to record HD recording for a while now and I simply can't figure out what sage is doing to determine weather to record something in SD or HD.

In my current setup I have 2 HD tuners and one SD tuner. When I schedule a favorite to record I know I can set it to only record on the HD channel, and that's what I've had to do in some cases. What I want to know is how does sage choose priority on the tuners? I don't like setting it to record only one channel because I might want to pick up a re-run that I missed on a different channel and that requires setting up a separate favorite for every channel that might carry the re-runs. I don't want to do research to figure out what channels the shows are on, I just want to tell it what shows.

My current example was the new re-make of American Gladiators. Having seen this when I was young I set it to record tonight. It's shown in both SD and HD at the exact same time. Sage scheduled to record it on the one SD tuner instead of one of the two HD tuner. Switching the favorite to record from the HD channel only worked. Why didn't it choose the HD recording be default since I have nothing else recording at that time? If nothing else I would want it using the HD tuner because I can tune 2 HD channels at a time and only one SD tuner.

Can someone give me an idea of what logic sage is using, and possibly others suggestions for how they've managed to deal with their favorites that might be broadcast in both HD and SD?

Thanks!

[Fastrack]

Originally Posted by Arioch5

I've been using an HDHomerun to record HD recording for a while now and I simply can't figure out what sage is doing to determine weather to record something in SD or HD.

In my current setup I have 2 HD tuners and one SD tuner. When I schedule a favorite to record I know I can set it to only record on the HD channel, and that's what I've had to do in some cases. What I want to know is how does sage choose priority on the tuners? I don't like setting it to record only one channel because I might want to pick up a re-run that I missed on a different channel and that requires setting up a separate favorite for every channel that might carry the re-runs. I don't want to do research to figure out what channels the shows are on, I just want to tell it what shows.

My current example was the new re-make of American Gladiators. Having seen this when I was young I set it to record tonight. It's shown in both SD and HD at the exact same time. Sage scheduled to record it on the one SD tuner instead of one of the two HD tuner. Switching the favorite to record from the HD channel only worked. Why didn't it choose the HD recording be default since I have nothing else recording at that time? If nothing else I would want it using the HD tuner because I can tune 2 HD channels at a time and only one SD tuner.

Can someone give me an idea of what logic sage is using, and possibly others suggestions for how they've managed to deal with their favorites that might be broadcast in both HD and SD?

Thanks!

I had this exact issue with recording Numb3rs. I was unable to find a solution.

[carlgar]

I think you may be confusing Digital TV with HD. All HD is Digital TV but not all Digital TV is HD. The American Gladiators show last night was not HD. The show Nature on PBS was HD, look for the HD symbol in the description to determine if HD or not. Sage will always choose HD over SD if a tuner is available. Otherwise, sage will select any station to record a SD show. It appears that you have both digital and analog tuners so you probably have two different EPGs being used. This allows you to choose which EPG has priority (using the encoder_merit in the properties file), either digital or analog. However, if you have both a stations like WABC and WABCDT enabled on the HomeRun, Sage can record using either one. but if the choice is WABC on an anolog or digital tuner then the encoder_merit will be used to decide the priority.

[Arioch5]

Ah I did overlook that. I didn't notice that it was being broadcast on the digital channel, but not broadcast in HD. So if the recording were in HD it would choose the HD first.

I'll have to look at the encoder_merit property, although I guess I'm not so concerned which encoder it uses if it's not broadcast in HD anyway.

Thanks!

[carlgar]

I just started watching American Gladiators and it is HD, but was not marked as HD in the EPG. Since I have a HD TV I disabled the 480i and analog versions of the digital channels that I get.

[Fastrack]

Originally Posted by carlgar

I think you may be confusing Digital TV with HD. All HD is Digital TV but not all Digital TV is HD. The American Gladiators show last night was not HD. The show Nature on PBS was HD, look for the HD symbol in the description to determine if HD or not. Sage will always choose HD over SD if a tuner is available. Otherwise, sage will select any station to record a SD show. It appears that you have both digital and analog tuners so you probably have two different EPGs being used. This allows you to choose which EPG has priority (using the encoder_merit in the properties file), either digital or analog. However, if you have both a stations like WABC and WABCDT enabled on the HomeRun, Sage can record using either one. but if the choice is WABC on an anolog or digital tuner then the encoder_merit will be used to decide the priority.

I had this problem as above, with Numb3rs. And Numb3rs did have the HD flag, and the HD tuners were not being used, yet it picked the analog channel.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by Fastrack

I had this problem as above, with Numb3rs. And Numb3rs did have the HD flag, and the HD tuners were not being used, yet it picked the analog channel.

Was this recently? I have not seen this occur. I do not know why it would happen or how long it was before you saw it. A pausible explanation would be that at the time of the recording the HD flag was not set, but the EPG was updated after the recording and the HD flag was set. I have seen this type of problem with the recording time for shows. Sage has a bad habit of rewriting the EPG history. I have suggested that they don't change EPG data for time that has already passed but I think they ignored the suggestion. I have also seen glitches occur that have no explanation after they occur. I check my recording schedule on a daily basis looking for stange issues but very seldom see any.

edit: I just realized that I do have much opportutity to see this type of issue since I now always record the digital channels.

[Fastrack]

Originally Posted by carlgar

Was this recently? I have not seen this occur. I do not know why it would happen or how long it was before you saw it. A pausible explanation would be that at the time of the recording the HD flag was not set, but the EPG was updated after the recording and the HD flag was set. I have seen this type of problem with the recording time for shows. Sage has a bad habit of rewriting the EPG history. I have suggested that they don't change EPG data for time that has already passed but I think they ignored the suggestion. I have also seen glitches occur that have no explanation after they occur. I check my recording schedule on a daily basis looking for stange issues but very seldom see any.

edit: I just realized that I do have much opportutity to see this type of issue since I now always record the digital channels.

Yeah I posted the topic... Dec 14.
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29096

It's strange cause every other show it records HD no problem. Numb3rs isn't on right now so I can change the favorite back to Any Channel.