Blackout hours for recording? (R5000 related)

[K O]

Is there a way to specify blackout hours for recording? I'd like to be able to specify a time period during which no recording is allowed by Sage - and will prevent Sage from even trying to schedule or allow channel tuning during this time.

My R5000 units require approximately 1 hour period of no recording nightly for their 'automated update process' and I can't get around it. If I have a show set to record 'all shows', it's possible it will grab something from the 3am-4am slot. Since I can't babysit my Sage setup daily, it causes the R5000 application to go into an unrecoverable state, and all recordings will be lost until the R5000 application is restarted. All of this could be avoided of course if I could setup blackout rules in Sage. I can't find any setting for it though, but it seems like it would be a good idea, especially for people with kids!

[dgschoel]

Ditto..

[davephan]

Recording blackout windows that could be tied to specific tuners would be a very good feature, if it could be added to SageTV. Additional, normally stand alone cable or satellite boxes that are connected directly to TVs (for surfing, or non-SageTV use) could also be used by the SageTV server during time periods when the TVs are never used. The only way to set top SageTV now is to use set top boxes dedicated full-time to the SageTV computer.

Dave

[aflat]

Set up a windows task to shutdown the SageTV service and start it back up after an hour.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by aflat

Set up a windows task to shutdown the SageTV service and start it back up after an hour.

The problem wiht this approach is that it prevents watching during that timeframe as well.

As to your R-5000 issues, have you upgraded to the latest software (3.1d)? Once I did that, I no longer have to restart the R-5000 software after the morning update. It handles it gracefully (though it stuff DOES try to record in that time, it fails, obviously, so the request to black-out remains).

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by davephan

Recording blackout windows that could be tied to specific tuners would be a very good feature,
Dave

I would love to see this feature added to sage.

User of 2 dish ViP 211's and their forced nightly updates.

[CollinR]

All you need to do is make custom lineups for each source, then make a timed recording for that channel from say 3-4am daily. Use SJQ to come back and delete these basically useless recordings at 4:15am. Sage will use it's own logic to find another time slot to capture from.

Then on the set top box...

Set auto update to occur at 3am and an auto tune timer to occur at 4am to change the channel.


Also as a side note I put in a feature request for the ability to pause a source manually and entirely. This would be handy during any service loss from natural disaster and the like, in the case of sat TV just a huge snowstorm can cause several days of no service due to snow on the reflector. If you too think this might be handy send this in.

-----Original Message-----
From: CollinR [mailto:CollinR@CollinR.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 11:23 PM
To: support@sagetv.com
Subject: SageTV Support Request


> >SUPPORT REQUEST
++++++++++++++++++++++++
NAME: CollinR
EMAIL: CollinR@CollinR.com

SOFTWARE: SageTV
VERSION: Version 6.6
TYPE OF USER: System Integrator

OS: WinXP Pro
OS( OTHER? ):
CAPTURE DEVICE: Hauppauge PVR-500MCE
CAPTURE DEVICE ( OTHER? ):
PROCESSOR:
MEMORY:
GRAPHICS CARD:
DVD MPEG2 ENCODER:
ADDITIONAL HARDWARE:

SERVICE PROVIDER: Dish, Cox
BROADCAST CITY (LOCATION): Tulsa, Ok
COUNTRY: US
SERVICE: SageTV Service
SERVICE TYPE: Satellite

> >+++++++++++ REQUEST ++++++++++

REQUEST DESCRIPTION: Feature requests!

Tuner Pause : Ability to temperarily disable an input due to loss of
service. This allows you to use the streaming functions without building up
a bunch of static or error message captures. Bonus the scheduling logic will
always have a chance to recover and the user need not delete their tuners or
edit their channels to use SageTV with limited or no sources.

When you have a recording conflict involving a manual recording and you
choose to record a future airing. Why not have the logic determine the best
time, like it would a favorite. As it is now you must pick a specific future
airing to capture. I can see why this is a problem as a manual recording
logically is entirely manual. Maybe a third option like recording request
which has some attributes of both manual and favorite but just on one
episode.

Anyway just some ideas.

Have a happy holidays guys,
Collin

Just shoot that to support@sagetv.com.

[APillowOfClouds]

I would like to see this too for a different reason. Right now whenever I watch live tv I almost always watch it using the tuner in the actual television so that I don't have to deal with all of the "can I switch the channel to record x" messages. It would be very nice to be able to throw another couple of tuners at Sage and tell it not to ever record on them, so I know that I always have at least two tuners available for live tv. Since there would never be more than two live tv sessions in my house (at least till my kids get much older) that would do away with the messages completely.

It's not so bad for my wife and I but try explaining to your 55 year old brother in law about what to do when a message comes up about changing channels.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by APillowOfClouds

I would like to see this too for a different reason. Right now whenever I watch live tv I almost always watch it using the tuner in the actual television so that I don't have to deal with all of the "can I switch the channel to record x" messages. It would be very nice to be able to throw another couple of tuners at Sage and tell it not to ever record on them, so I know that I always have at least two tuners available for live tv. Since there would never be more than two live tv sessions in my house (at least till my kids get much older) that would do away with the messages completely.

It's not so bad for my wife and I but try explaining to your 55 year old brother in law about what to do when a message comes up about changing channels.

Well, you have the solution there in your request.. just throw more tuners at it. You dn't have to have them 'dedicxated' to livetv. If you've got them available, it will use them instead of asking to pre-empt your livetv.

[CollinR]

Agreed, you probably just need more sources, how many do you have?

[APillowOfClouds]

Originally Posted by CollinR

Agreed, you probably just need more sources, how many do you have?

I only have two. Problem with just putting more sources in is that we have enough shows favorited that are on often enough that I think I would need at least 4 more to ensure a free tuner. The feature suggested in this thread would ensure those tuners don't try to record anything.

[CollinR]

What you are actually asking for is a liveTV only source, if it's disabled you won't be able to use it with SageTV at all. Sage doesn't see any difference between live and recorded right now, first you would need to establish some seperation.

I only have 6 sources and 4 clients and rarely do I have an issue. Right now I have 415 favorites. BUT nobody watches live TV, it's not even on the main menu. I have trained everyone in my house to only watch recorded content, it really wasn't an issue at all. Everyone here was pleased to have commercial free TV and there really is no upside to watching TV live. At least i have yet to find a bonus to watching something live vs watching it recorded. All the upsides are with recorded content.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by CollinR

At least i have yet to find a bonus to watching something live vs watching it recorded. All the upsides are with recorded content.

I agree that the solution is to not watch Live TV and the only time that can be an issue is with sports, especially when some channels have tickers that give you the results of other games. Or if you live in close quarters with other people and the hometown team is in a big game. You may hear yells/screams from other adjacent apartments when something big happens.

[CollinR]

Even still if you make the game a manual recording in advance the logic will get all your favorites as well. You can start the file from the recorded TV that is created as soon as the game starts. It's basically live but it's not channel surfing like you are forced to do when you don't have a DVR.

[tpowell]

I also would like to put my vote in for this feature request! I am a new SageTV user (first post!) and after working out most of the "challenges" in my setup this is the only one remaining.

Here is what happened to me on my first night of recording off an R5000-HD with the latest 3.1d software:

1. Dish vip211 reboots at 3am right when "House Hunters" starts recording.
2. 3.1d software gracefully recovers several minutes later BUT
3. changes channel to local news station

So I end up with a perfectly entitled "House Hunters" with content that talks about the local weather snow forecast....

This is frustrating. I suppose I will try to keep the Dish tuner occupied at this time every night by recording something I don't care about and hope what I like airs at a different time slot.

[Fuzzy]

The good thing is, nothing that is on at 3 am is exclusive to 3am... so if you DO tie it up during that time, you likely won't miss anything important