SageTV 7 Choosing HD Channel for SD Recording

[Taddeusz]

I know this probably sounds a bit backward but last week I put all the SD QAM versions of the local channels on my lineup so that in the event that one is not in HD it would chose that version instead. However, it seems that it is still picking the HD channel over the SD one. There is no HD flag on it so there seems to be no reason why it should do that. Any ideas?

[Taddeusz]

I've even tried specifying it to only record on the SD channel and stubbornly continues to want to record it off the HD one.

[Taddeusz]

I even went so far as to set prefer_hdtv_recordings_over_sdtv=false in my properties file and while all my other recordings reverted to SD that one stayed on the HD channel. This is weird.

[blade]

If a show airs on multiple channels and isn't flagged in the guide as HD Sage will choose the lowest numbered channel. At least that was my experience in previous versions. For example I had NBC on 4 (SD analog) and 13 (HD). If a show wasn't flagged as HD in the guide Sage would always record it from channel 4.

Things may have changed since then, but I know it was like that in v6.

[Taddeusz]

That's how it worked for every other channel when I disbled preferring HDTV. The schedule recording I'm having issue with is on channel 711 but I want it to record from 11.

[mistergq]

No idea why that is happening for you. I have been having the problem that Sage7 has been choosing SD version of HD channels for some cable shows not marked as HD. When that happens, I turn off the SD version of the channel.

Questions: the SD QAM, is that on an HD Tuner, or an SD tuner? Where all the HD tuners recording at the time of the problem?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by mistergq

No idea why that is happening for you. I have been having the problem that Sage7 has been choosing SD version of HD channels for some cable shows not marked as HD. When that happens, I turn off the SD version of the channel.

Questions: the SD QAM, is that on an HD Tuner, or an SD tuner? Where all the HD tuners recording at the time of the problem?

The problem isn't one of the actual recording but one of scheduling. It is scheduling to record an SD program from the HD channel even though an SD channel is available. The only way I can get it to record the SD version is to manually set it to record. Even specifying the SD channel in the favorite doesn't change the schedule.

[grauchy]

Yes, I've wanted to do that too but SageTV doesn't seem to get that logic.

You should be able to set an SD show to record from an SD source and not waste resources by recording from an HD source unless it's the only option.

**I finally gave up worrying about it.**

I have a similar problem with Spanish Language channels. I want to specify that my favorites should be English language. But SageTV keeps recording Blue's Clues in Spanish from one or more of the Spanish Channels.

**Solution I came to was to remove Spanish Channels from the lineup.** (Even though I sometimes enjoy watching to keep my language skills honed)

[Taddeusz]

Actually, SageTV's logic does work that way. There's something strange going on in my case. Even when I disable the preference to record HD all the other recordings shift to their SD counterpart but this one scheduling stays even though there is an SD channel available. It even fails to schedule on the SD channel when I specify it in the favorite. The logic works in every other respect except for this particular favorite.

[bialio]

You can specify both the quality to record in (something other than default), and then set the 'enforce quality in favorites' setting and see if that fixes it - however since you are seeing only on a single favorite, I think you probably have an issue with the EPG data between 711 and 11.

I am able to record the SD version of a show for channels I get on both Cable and DishHD by using the recording quality trick. It's not exactly what you are going for in this case though.....

btl.

[Taddeusz]

I think it's something else, possibly some corruption in my WIZ.BIN file. The show on either SD or HD channel has the same Show ID. So SageTV should have no problem selecting the SD channel to record.