Recording Favorites in HD

[NetworkGuy]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I could not find the answer.

I use Favorites to record the majority of my shows. I recently upgraded to a lot of additional HD channels. Other the putting the specific HD channel number in Favorites, is there a way to tell SageTV to pick a HD recording over a SD?

Thanks,
John

[matt91]

sage should always prefer the HD version (if it know that the SD and HD version are the same).

[Djc208]

You also need to make sure you haven't limited Sage to the SD channels in your favorites settings.

If the show is not marked in the guide as HD then Sage will revert to tuner merits which may determine which channel it uses. (i.e. if the SD tuner is higher priority then it will record the SD channel)

[Tiki]

If Sage has a choice and an HD tuner available, it will prefer the HD version (This assumes that the guide data is correct so it can tell which channel is showing the HD version).

However, if for example, you have 1 HD tuner and 1 SD tuner and you have two favorites on at the same time, you can't really control which show will be recorded in HD and which will be recoded in SD.

In this example, you could set one of the favorites to always record from the HD channel only. The downside to this is that if you made several favorites record HD only, you might end up with conflicts (Especially if the networks move your shows around to different time-slots). So, this might mean that a show doesn't get recorded at all in some cases even though there might have been an SD tuner available.

Another approach is to force certain favorites to always record from an SD channel. The downside here is that those shows will always be in SD even if it might have been possible to record some episodes in HD without conflict.

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by Tiki

However, if for example, you have 1 HD tuner and 1 SD tuner and you have two favorites on at the same time, you can't really control which show will be recorded in HD and which will be recoded in SD.

Assuming both shows are marked as HD on their HD channels, then which one is recorded in HD should be based upon the priority of your favorites in relation to each other. The favorite higher on the favorites list should get the HD tuner and the other will get the SD tuner.

If you have a 3rd favorite on at the same time and none of the three have another showing then it will schedule the two with the highest favorite priority and post a recording conflict to ask which of the lower priority recordings you want to record.

[vividweb]

I so wish that there was a check box for favorites to record HD only.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Djc208

Assuming both shows are marked as HD on their HD channels, then which one is recorded in HD should be based upon the priority of your favorites in relation to each other. The favorite higher on the favorites list should get the HD tuner and the other will get the SD tuner.

I don't think this is correct. To my knowledge, the only purpose of favorite priority is to resolve conflicts by deciding which program gets dropped from the recording schedule. (Or at least that's the only context in which the manual talks about favorite priority.)

Originally Posted by vividweb

I so wish that there was a check box for favorites to record HD only.

You don't need a checkbox for that. You can make a Keyword favorite using the title of your show and the word HDTV, e.g. "How I Met Your Mother HDTV", and it will match HD airings of shows with that title. For shows like Lost however this doesn't work so well, since lots of unrelated shows have the word "lost" somewhere in their description.

The API actually allows Title favorites to have a keyword filter as well, so you could in principle create a favorite for Lost by title, and then add the HDTV keyword to that favorite. But unfortunately there's no way to access this existing functionality from the stock UI. (Don't know about SageMC.)

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by vividweb

I so wish that there was a check box for favorites to record HD only.

If you ONLY want to record HD, you can set a favorite to only record off of a specific channel or group of channels.

Presumably your lineup includes both SD and HD versions of the same channel, so setup your favorite to only record off the HD version of the channel.

[NetworkGuy]

I am using HDHomeRun as the tunner, so both tunner are HD.

Yesterday, I added the HD channels to SageTV and waited to see what would happen with my favorities. As people said, SageTV recorded from the HD channel instead of the SD.

Thanks for you help.
John

[vividweb]

Originally Posted by Tiki

If you ONLY want to record HD, you can set a favorite to only record off of a specific channel or group of channels.

Presumably your lineup includes both SD and HD versions of the same channel, so setup your favorite to only record off the HD version of the channel.

I do this right now, but use SageMC, so it makes this a little more difficult to do. It can be done via the web tools.

Originally Posted by GKusnick

You don't need a checkbox for that. You can make a Keyword favorite using the title of your show and the word HDTV, e.g. "How I Met Your Mother HDTV", and it will match HD airings of shows with that title. For shows like Lost however this doesn't work so well, since lots of unrelated shows have the word "lost" somewhere in their description.

The API actually allows Title favorites to have a keyword filter as well, so you could in principle create a favorite for Lost by title, and then add the HDTV keyword to that favorite. But unfortunately there's no way to access this existing functionality from the stock UI. (Don't know about SageMC.)

Never thought of that, I'll have to try it.

But still with both of these solutions, one check box to click with your remote is a much more efficient interface than having to scroll through a list of channels and select the channels that you think the show will be on. Or have to type in the keyword with your remote.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by vividweb

But still with both of these solutions, one check box to click with your remote is a much more efficient interface than having to scroll through a list of channels and select the channels that you think the show will be on. Or have to type in the keyword with your remote.

Maybe so, but the point is that you don't need any new core functionality to make that happen. All you need is an STVI to expose the existing functionality, using whatever UI paradigm you like.

And for what it's worth, I never set up favorites with the remote. I always do it from a PC client with keyboard and mouse.