Feature request: record partial shows

[mattchapin]

Hey guys,

I have a feature request.

Tonight, there are two shows that I want to record.

Hack, on Channel 2, from 9:00-10:00
Law and Order SVU, on Channel 4, from 9:59 to 11:00

Aack! 9:59! Due to this one-minute overlap, SageTV will not record both - it forces me to choose one or the other.

It would be helpful to have a global option to allow SageTV schedule overlapping recordings -- and to begin the recording of one favorite show "in progress" as soon as the previous favorite show ends... maybe with a setting for the maximum allowable overlap. (Wouldn't want SageTV to think 30 minutes of a 1-hour show is an acceptable amount to miss.)

Anyway, just a thought, for making a great piece of software even better.

Matt

[fidget]

Originally posted by mattchapin
Aack! 9:59! Due to this one-minute overlap, SageTV will not record both - it forces me to choose one or the other.

I am getting the impression that some networks (namely NBC) are trying to play some tricks with TiVo users by starting programs 1 minute (actualy about 15 seoncds) early. Being able to start a program late, or end a program early, would be a really nice feature.

[stanger89]

Can't you just add a negative padding? I know you can start early/end late but haven't tried the other.

[fidget]

Originally posted by stanger89
Can't you just add a negative padding? I know you can start early/end late but haven't tried the other.

I tried a negative pad under 1.4 and got some really odd results. Narflex told me that it wasn't supported. I don't know if it will be added to 2.0 or not.

[salsbst]

Important feature.

[Opus4]

Speaking of negative stop padding... I just remembered that I have one show set to stop 1 minute early, for just the reasons cited in this thread -- to allow another show to start 1 minute early. I hardly ever watch that show now, but I have noticed that it is the only one with several extra approx 200KB mpg files along with the main recording. I never put the 2 things together until now. I'll have to pay more attention to the main recording the next time it is on.

This certainly sounds like something that should be fixed/supported. I don't think the show has been recorded since the beta came out, so I suppose that is something to test.

- Andy

[Opus4]

Wait a minute... I looked into this show a little more. The favorite is set for first runs only, with a -1 minute stop padding. However, there are no first runs, since the series ended. The -1 stop padding must have worked OK at the time, since we always got the start of this show w/a 1 minute start padding & we got the following show w/a 1 minute start padding too, as it was set to do.

IR has been recording the repeats from earlier seasons, which explains why I haven't been watching it much lately. Those IR recordings are still getting recorded with one main recording file plus several ~200KB files, as mentioned in my previous post. I'll have to wait for it to record again to see if it is somehow using the -1 minute stop pad, as the favorite is set to use.

As I said: no other recordings produce such shorts. Strange.

- Andy

[mbrown3]

I would love to see partial show recording. Sometimes I want to watch a segment of a show that always occurs at the beginning, for example. I'd love to be able to tape just that segment and then go to another show to tape the balance of it. Even my TiVo doesn't do this (without having to set up a manual recording each time) and it's annoying...

[White94Cobra]

This sounds similar to the "soft padding" that has been requested on Tivo for years. If a conflict exists, start recording after the conflict period has passed. I have four tuners to get around this right now (I pad all of my shows 2 minutes early and 2 minutes late). This means that with four tuners many times I can only record two things at once due to conflicts.

[justme]

I would like "soft padding" as long as the recordings schedule indicated(a soft conflict icon?) where a show was going to be recorded using it. This way I could verify that I don't mind losing a little of one show to catch the other. I love the way Sage is so intelligent in managing my recordings, but I still like to see why it's doing things.

[Lester Jacobs]

Here's a me too!

"Friends" has taken to using some odd start times and show lengths (e.g. starting at 7:20 instead of 7:30). A configurable "soft padding" would allow me to record both "Friends" and a 7:00 - 7:30 show on another channel. However the configurability of the soft padding is important. In this particular case, I don't mind missing the end of the 7:00 - 7:30 show (e.g. a news broadcast) but I do not want to miss the beginning of "Friends".
Therefore in addition to the feature that would allow Sage to pick up recording a favourite a few minutes after it's started, I'd like the ability to tell Sage to drop recording the current favourite and pick up the beginning of the next if it's starting early.

Cheers
Lester

[mattchapin]

It seems like there needs to be two parts to the "soft padding" feature. SageTV would need:

1. Ability to globally set the maximum amount of a show I'm willing to miss, beyond which I'd rather SageTV not record the show at all

2. Ability to mark each Favorite as "Always record entire show" or "OK to miss some"

Those two settings would take care of 99% of my soft-padding needs.


-Matt

[ErsatzTom]

We've been doing a manual record of ER for this reason on the TiVo. It'd be great if there were a more automatic way to solve the problem. Although with 3 tuners in my Sage server, I don't anticipate many more problems in this department.

t