Sage7 Stop Time padding problem -- dropping padded portion of show

[GoAWest]

I've experienced Sage7 (7.1.9.256) having a problem with Stop Time padding. I'm running on a Win7 SP1 x32 PC with 4G of RAM. Two TB NTFS HDs with plenty of extra space.

I normally add a couple of Stop Time minutes to shows. That works fine. It's relatively rare to be watching a recording show live and even rarer to be watching it live during those extra padded minutes.

However for big sporting events, esp. something like the World Series (which has a very indefinite completion) or the SuperBowl, I'll often pad the event by a couple of hours. And it's more likely that I'll be watching the event while it's recording, including in the long padded Stop Time.

What I've seen happen frequently (e.g. during the recent 2103 World Series) is that a show will *stop* recording (or lose the padded portion of the recording) at the normal scheduled stop time instead of continuing to record for the extra full padded Stop Time.

I've been trying to quantify what I've been seeing. It seems more likely to happen when I watch the show live during the padded Stop Time. It may relate to me checking View Recording Details or the Recoding Options (e.g. to check the Stop Time pad value). I am *not* bumping anything (only using a Firefly remote, no keyboard or mouse) to stop recording. I've noticed that instead of one big *.mpg (transport stream) file, there are often multiple files (e.g. 2012WorldSeries-Game5TeamsTBA-2334709-0.mpg = 20GB, ...2334709-1.mpg = 1.9GB, etc.). I don't see this for the 2-minutes-extra-Stop Time recordings. I do think what's happening, for reasons I can't explain, is that Sage is dropping one or more of the supplemental -1, -2.mpg files and only retaining the base recoding file. This causes the show to suddenly revert to the normal scheduled recording and lose the additional Stop Time. But I haven't been able to figure out why it sometimes does that.

Has anybody else seen Sage7 lose a padded Stop Time recording, only retaining the normal recording, and have any idea of the cause?

[Fuzzy]

Look up Sage Recording Extender (SRE).

[Tiki]

I think this will happen if it is a Favorite (but not if it is a Manual Recording). If you watch the program live and get close enough to the scheduled end time, Sage will mark the show as "Watched". If you then hit stop, it may decide to stop recording (because the scheduler will see that it was already watched and remove it from the recording schedule). As long as you're still watching and don't press stop, I don't think it will stop the recording though.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I think this will happen if it is a Favorite (but not if it is a Manual Recording). If you watch the program live and get close enough to the scheduled end time, Sage will mark the show as "Watched". If you then hit stop, it may decide to stop recording (because the scheduler will see that it was already watched and remove it from the recording schedule). As long as you're still watching and don't press stop, I don't think it will stop the recording though.

Correct (for me at least). I always press record to turn it into a manual recording if I watch 75% of the show live. If I stop watching and am too close to the end on a favorite (probably 80%+ is the REAL cutoff) I loose the end of the show.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I think this will happen if it is a Favorite (but not if it is a Manual Recording). If you watch the program live and get close enough to the scheduled end time, Sage will mark the show as "Watched". If you then hit stop, it may decide to stop recording (because the scheduler will see that it was already watched and remove it from the recording schedule). As long as you're still watching and don't press stop, I don't think it will stop the recording though.

Yep, pretty much correct. I've been doing this a long time (never looked into SRE) with sporting events or network shows that air after a sporting event.
If you just let the favorite go on its own and you reach a point watching the show near or after its "scheduled" end the recording will stop.
If you set it up as a manual recording (use favorite padding=yes) is should keep recording. The only bad part is it will still mark the show as watched if you reach the end of the scheduled time and if you stop and go back to watch it later it will start at the beginning of the recording. That may depend on settings in your config, but it is what happens to me.
So, if I'm watching a favorite before it has finished it's padded allotment I make sure that I go back before the scheduled end before I hit stop. If I set it up as a manual recording I usually don't worry.
Although usually I just wait until it's all done, or that I can watch and catch up to "live" just about the time it's dong recording anyway. However this WS is pretty exciting and I keep going back until I catch up to live.

The solution to the problem is for the networks to get their heads out of their butts and figure out that it has been decades since an MLB, NFL, or many other sports have EVER ended at or before the slot they are giving it. STUPID, just STUPID!
I'm a Red Sox fan and the 3 hour allotment for the playoffs and WS is a complete joke! Even with the low scoring WS games they have easily exceeded the allotted time. Same goes for NFL games which are about the only sports I watch with the exception of F1, and Indycar. Oh, and motorcycle road racing. Those are usually pretty good about running on time though.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I'm a Red Sox fan and the 3 hour allotment for the playoffs and WS is a complete joke! Even with the low scoring WS games they have easily exceeded the allotted time. Same goes for NFL games which are about the only sports I watch with the exception of F1, and Indycar. Oh, and motorcycle road racing. Those are usually pretty good about running on time though.

At least F1 pretty much sticks to their allotted time slot (I think they have a 2 hour maximum rule, right?).

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

Correct (for me at least). I always press record to turn it into a manual recording if I watch 75% of the show live. If I stop watching and am too close to the end on a favorite (probably 80%+ is the REAL cutoff) I loose the end of the show.

The other one that I have gotten burned on is if you are watching something live (not a manual or a favorite), and you press pause. Normally, you can leave a show paused pretty much forever and pickup again whenever you are ready. Sage will keep recording your show in the background, and if it ends, it will start recording the next show too. It saves that next show as its own recording (and it will automatically delete it when you stop watching live tv).

The problem comes if the show you had paused is a sporting event that goes way past its scheduled end time. If you leave it paused for too long, you may find that it didn't record the end of your event. This is because when it got to the scheduled end of your original show, it started a new recording for the next show. Then when it got to the end of that next show, it started a 3rd recording. Then it went back to clean up and deleted that 2nd recording (the one that had the end of your sporting event).