Recording favourites in HD

[RobWalker]

My set up has two encoders: one SD and on HD. Channel line up is the same except for the HD channels.

I have set the encoder merit higher on the SD encoder since I want the smaller recordings when it doesn't matter.

There is a favourite set up for Numb3rs with no restrictions. I just noticed that Sage has scheduled a recording for 8pm on Friday on channel 204 which is SD (... though using the HD encoder as it happens).

There is a showing at 10pm for the same episode on channel 801 which is HD.

There is another SD recording scheduled for 10pm using the SD encoder, but the HD encoder is idle at that time.

Is there a way to tell Sage to prefer HD episodes over SD ones even if the SD one occurs earlier? Or even to replace SD recordings with HD ones if they become available?

[Deacon Crusher]

Great question.

I've been looking for this also.

I'm late to the Lost game and there's 3 channels showing repeats of season 1 right now here in the bay area and 2 are HD and 1 isn't. Every once in a while the non-HD channel is showing an episode first so I need exactly the same functionality.

Anyone got a method?

thanks

[swats]

My only idea is to limit the channel the series can record on to the HD channel...

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by swats

My only idea is to limit the channel the series can record on to the HD channel...

Since you normally want SD recordings and have that tuner set to a higher importance this is probably your best bet. The only downside is that Sage will treat it as a conflict if you set up two favorites limited to the HD tuner vice just re-scheduling one to the SD tuner.

Otherwise you could reset your tuner priorities, and I think there is a new property in the file to perfer HD recordings that should be turned on.

[Serra]

My system has an HD and SD tuner on the same card, so I have no control over which one has priority.

This comes down to the same major issue I have with Sage. I'd really like to have tuner specific guides and be able to specifically assign recordings to favor specific tuners.

I'd like a setting that says, "Use tuner ___ whenever possible". Or "Use tuner ___ on shows with a higher recording priority"

[wayner]

I agree with you Serra. I have come from the MCE world where different tuners would mean that you got different channel numbers. For example channel 2 on my OTA tuner was channel 1021 (1000 for the source, channel 2, sub-channel 1). This channel was also available under a different number on my cable source - channel 527 for instance. I think this gives you much better control over what you record, particularly if you want to avoid H.264 files since they don't work so well if you want to edit them or Placeshift.

[RobWalker]

I don't really want to have to mess around with specifying which tuner/channel to record it on ... I'd prefer the magic to just happen behind the scenes.

For a start the program could occur on any of the HD channels, and I don't think I can set a favourite to record only on a range of channels (can I .. I use the web interface for managing favourites, and it just presents a single selection drop down list for channel ?)

In this case a feature to replace SD records with HD recordings would work, or a tweak to the scheduler to prefer HD recordings that occur within a small window (3 hours?)

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by RobWalker

I don't really want to have to mess around with specifying which tuner/channel to record it on ... I'd prefer the magic to just happen behind the scenes.

For a start the program could occur on any of the HD channels, and I don't think I can set a favourite to record only on a range of channels (can I .. I use the web interface for managing favourites, and it just presents a single selection drop down list for channel ?)

In this case a feature to replace SD records with HD recordings would work, or a tweak to the scheduler to prefer HD recordings that occur within a small window (3 hours?)

You could create a favorite to record on as many HD channels as you want. SO for the wife I created a favorite of Bones and specified FoxHD and TNTHD. Use Sage client and not the web app.

Gerry

[Sam]

Originally Posted by RobWalker

I don't think I can set a favourite to record only on a range of channels (can I .. ?)

Yes you can, at least in the stock STV. You can select any combination of channels (each channel is listed with a radio button; those with future airings are at the top of the list)

Originally Posted by RobWalker

In this case a feature to replace SD records with HD recordings would work, or a tweak to the scheduler to prefer HD recordings that occur within a small window (3 hours?)

A relatively recent release enhanced the scheduler to prefer HD over SD without having to use encoder merits. But I don't know the exact algorithm used and if it only applies to concurrent airings.

[Archerkit]

Originally Posted by RobWalker

In this case a feature to replace SD records with HD recordings would work, or a tweak to the scheduler to prefer HD recordings that occur within a small window (3 hours?)

I would also love to have a way to replace SD recordings with HD. I have some shows that I keep, like The Office and Everyday Italian. Since I have 190-something episodes of Everyday Italian, I'd hate to delete ALL of them just to get the HD versions.

But if it could gradually replace the existing ones... THAT would be fantastic. Is there some hidden magic button I'm missing?

[SWKerr]

Looking at it in a completely different way.

Record everything in HD when possible and compress just the shows you don't care about. You should be able to pick a compress option that will have the same file size and will still probably look better. This can be done on a per show basis.

Also: I saw a 1TB hard drive for $100 yesterday.

[Slugger]

I'm having a bit of a problem myself...

Just installed my HD-PVR and very excited as it appears to be working with little effort.

So now I have 2 PVR-150s and the HD-PVR on my server. The scheduler is deciding to record things in parallel at its first airing time instead of preferring to switch things around to get as much in HD as possible.

For example, at 20:00 the scheduler is recording two shows, one in HD and one on the 150. However, it could record both in HD by recording one at 20:00 and the other at 23:00.

Is there a way to force the scheduler to rearrange things to get as much as possible in HD? I don't want to modify the favourites to only record on the HD channels because there will undoubtedly be times when I'll need the 150 cards to address conflicts.

[Opus4]

If the Favorites are padded & on the same channel, you can set the option in Detailed Setup -> Customize to remove padding on back to back Favs on the same channel.

If they aren't on the same channel, then you would have to remove the padding yourself for them to record on the same tuner.

- Andy

[Slugger]

There's no padding on any of these favourites, it's just the scheduler (6.5.2) is choosing to use two tuners whenever possible instead of trying to schedule as much in HD as possible (even if that means leaving the PVR-150 idle).

[HelenWeathers]

I'm not sure, but this might help. I record Dexter on Showtime but sometimes it conflicted with another show I recorded on A&E. In my favorites I left it as First Run but set the time to 12:00 midnight and it now records on the Showtime West Coast feed instead of the 9:00 PM East coast feed. Maybe you could do something similar.

[Slugger]

I could, but the more restrictive you make your favourites, the more likely you are to create unnecessary conflicts.

Like I just took 5 mins and rearranged my schedule by selecting some programs to record manually on the various west coast feeds overnight. I can quickly glance at the upcoming recordings and say, "gee, why doesn't it move that show to 23:00, and this one to 0:00 and that one to 1:00 on the west coast feeds and record it all in HD?" So I set those manual recordings for tonight and voila! Now everything is recording in HD tonight instead of half in HD and half in SD from the PVR-150.

I guess my point here is if I can easily glance at my upcoming recordings and know exactly how to make it all fit in HD then why doesn't the scheduler? Tonight is fine, I'm here and can manually do it, but most nights I'm not going to be right in front of my HD100 able to manually modify the schedule. The software engineer in me says that it seems like a change in the scheduler algorithm is needed?

On a side note, got my HD-PVR at 17:00 today, had it connected and recording by 17:45 and am now about to enjoy my first Sage recordings in HD on my HD100. I am very excited!

[vividweb]

Slugger

Have you tried this setting in the sage.properties file prefer_hdtv_recordings_over_sdtv=true, I'm not sure how effective it is and I don't remember what the default setting is.

If you know you want a favorite to record only in HD, then you can limit the favorite to only record the HD channels for that favorite.

It would be nice to have a option in the favorite to only record HD.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by vividweb

Slugger

Have you tried this setting in the sage.properties file prefer_hdtv_recordings_over_sdtv=true, I'm not sure how effective it is and I don't remember what the default setting is.

If you know you want a favorite to record only in HD, then you can limit the favorite to only record the HD channels for that favorite.

It would be nice to have a option in the favorite to only record HD.

Just checked, that option is set to true (probably the default). It's not that I want all favourites to only record in HD, I want them to record in HD if they can, but if they can't because of conflicts then record it in SD. Ultimately, I'd rather have a recording in SD than not have it at all, but if it can, the scheduler should always be looking to record it in HD.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about from tonight's schedule (I have one PVR-150 and one HD-PVR active in the server):

23:00 - 00:00: Oz (HBOCAN) [Set for PVR-150]
23:35 - 00:37: Leno (WDIVDT) [Set for HD-PVR]
02:10 - 03:45: Chris Rock: Kill the... (HBOCDHD) [Set for HD-PVR]

The scheduler could have easily recorded all of this in HD by moving Oz to the 01:00-02:10 airing or the 05:00-06:00 airing on HBOCDHD. Instead it appears the scheduler always tries to schedule things at the earliest possible airing instead of looking ahead to see if an HD airing is possible.

It seems to me that the prefer_hd_recordings_over_sdtv setting is only used for airings that air at the same time. What I mean is, the scheduler first decides that it can record Oz at 23:00 so no matter what the scheduler is going to record Oz at 23:00 because this is the earliest time it sees that it can record it. Now the scheduler looks to see if there is an HD airing at 23:00. There is, but the lone HD source is being used for a higher priority favourite (Leno at 23:35). So the scheduler says, "fine, can't do HD at 23:00 so we'll do it in SD." Instead, the scheduler should be saying, "Ok, can't do it in HD at 23:00, is there another airing of this show in HD? Yes, can I do it then?" But it's not doing it that way. IMHO, that's how the scheduler should be doing it.

I've also tried increasing the encoder_merit on the HD-PVR to be higher than the PVR-150 and I get the same result. Again, seems like the encoder_merit is used only after the earliest possible airing time is found for a show.

[Slugger]

Ok, here's the perfect example showing how the scheduler always picks the first scheduled airing regardless of HD/SD status.

Here's my recording schedule for this Friday night:

23:35 - 00:37: Leno (in SD)

Nothing else is scheduled to record from Friday at 20:30 until Saturday at 17:00 except for Leno.

Seems the NBC HD station I get (WDIVDT) doesn't start Leno until 23:37 on Friday nights. So since an SD channel is starting Leno 2 mins earlier on Friday, the scheduler is choosing to use the SD source instead of waiting 2 mins later and recording it in HD. Not sure if this is as designed or a bug, but in either case the scheduler should really be choosing to record Leno in HD. As I say, there are no other recordings at all between 20:30 and 17:00 on Sat so the scheduler could have easily chosen to record the HD airing two minutes later or the HD airing on the west coast NBC HD channel at 02:35.

[gveres]

I have brought this up in the past and even filed a support ticket about this type of behaviour. The answer I got back was that it was expected behavour of the scheduler.

The scheduler prefers to record things early rather than recording things in HD. I sort of worked around the problem by forcing the system to record on particular channels. I my opinion this is not a good work around because schedules change and the whole point is that I just don't want to pay attention to when the show airs, I want the computer to pay attention. Its so much better at it than I am.

When George told me it was working as designed and wouldn't be changed, I suggested adding a flag to the favourite that forced it to record HD or forced it to record SD. There are some shows that I just don't want to record in HD because it is a waste of space. So the setting should be:

record in: HD, SD, or any.

Greg