Confused about LiveTV - What could I have done differently?

[sixdoubleo]

Help, I messed up and missed 5 back-to-back recordings.

I have a server with two tuners.

They were running an "Entourage" marathon the other night. 5 or 6 episodes were ready to be recorded. It was in the middle of recording the 1st of 5. I was sitting in the living room running my HTPC. I see that the 1st episode is halfway over. My friend was over and asked about the show. So I just selected the half-recorded show and started watching the beginning of it. Well, I guess that basically assigned my client session to that tuner. Then we needed to flip over to something else, so I did. Well, since I was using the tuner that was ear-marked to record entourage, all of five of my entourage recordings ended up being labeled "Entourage" but contained the content of all the LiveTV I watched that night.

Is this right? I mean it irritates me that I had another tuner available all night. I guess since I selected a show that was already recording it just assigned me to that tuner instead of opening another session of the show with the other tuner.

Does that make sense? What should I have done?

[m0ng00se30]

Did you get a conflict resolution box...

Saying that you can cancel the current recording and watch the new show, or DO NOTHING?

It doesn't sound right... Thats for sure. Both your tuners have the same lineups?

--Mike

[Opus4]

Something doesn't sound right. I rarely watch live TV, so I'm not sure what would happen in a case like this (whether it is supposed to switch to another tuner for the scheduled recordings or ask you/etc.), but I don't understand how the live TV got put into the Entourage recording files. How are channels changed on your system -- does SageTV handle the channel changes?

- Andy

[sixdoubleo]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Something doesn't sound right. I rarely watch live TV, so I'm not sure what would happen in a case like this (whether it is supposed to switch to another tuner for the scheduled recordings or ask you/etc.), but I don't understand how the live TV got put into the Entourage recording files. How are channels changed on your system -- does SageTV handle the channel changes?

- Andy

I have 2 PVR-250's, 2 cable boxes. A USB-UIRT with multizone IR output. Sage changes the channels. Everything is working great.

I'm thinking this is by design and I needed to press "STOP" when I was done watching.

I mean like I said. Assume you have multiple tuners. Assume you are recording your favorite Seinfeld. Assume that at a client, you choose to WATCH the episode of Seinfeld being recorded. Will Sage present you with the already-recorded version? Or will it open a new tuner?

Edit: No, I didn't get any notices or conflict resolutions or anything. FWIW, I was using MCE beta STV on the client.

[sleonard]

I have done exactly this on my Sage system and it worked as you thought it should. When I changed the channel, the live TV was moved to a spare tuner and the recordings were not affected. I'd say there is something wrong with your setup.

[sixdoubleo]

Originally Posted by sleonard

I have done exactly this on my Sage system and it worked as you thought it should. When I changed the channel, the live TV was moved to a spare tuner and the recordings were not affected. I'd say there is something wrong with your setup.

Then maybe the spare tuner was actually busy at the time. I don;'t think it was, but maybe it was. Maybe it was watching live TV somewhere else and I didn't know it.

Even if that was the case, I should have got a warning when I changed channels....I think.

I will stage a test tonight and verify.

Thanks for the info gentlemen.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by sixdoubleo

Well, since I was using the tuner that was ear-marked to record entourage, all of five of my entourage recordings ended up being labeled "Entourage" but contained the content of all the LiveTV I watched that night.

That there just shouldn't happen. Worst case senario (all tuners busy) you should have had no Entourage recordings, only the ones you watched live. If you're using the beta, you should probably send the logs to support.

[sixdoubleo]

Originally Posted by stanger89

That there just shouldn't happen. Worst case senario (all tuners busy) you should have had no Entourage recordings, only the ones you watched live. If you're using the beta, you should probably send the logs to support.

The only thing out of the ordinary that I did was....

On my client, I accidentally selected that "OriginalV2_1_1_Patch.stv" or whatever it is as my STV. Well it locked up and I could never get the client to come up after that. So I just copied a sageclient.properties file from another, nearly identical client. Not sure if this could have anything to do with what the server is doing.

I am not running a beta version of Sage. Running the current production copy.

Anyway, I have already deleted the Entourage recordings, but can definitely upload a log if you tell me where to find it.

Im going to try and see if I can duplicate this behavior tonight.

[sixdoubleo]

Originally Posted by stanger89

That there just shouldn't happen. Worst case senario (all tuners busy) you should have had no Entourage recordings, only the ones you watched live. If you're using the beta, you should probably send the logs to support.

Given that the files were labeled Entourage, but contained LiveTV, I'm almost wondering if somehow the cable boxes both changed channels at the same time. Like I said...I'm using a dual zone USBUIRT with duct tape to shield. See this picture:

http://www.akinstech.com/display.asp...=1&numfiles=14

So far I haven't had any issues with "leakage" of the IR signal, but maybe the conditions were just so....and both boxes changed channels at once?

[stanger89]

That's seems like the most likely situation, don't suppose you had the liveTV files also?

As for the log, if you aren't running the beta there won't be any.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by sixdoubleo

Given that the files were labeled Entourage, but contained LiveTV, I'm almost wondering if somehow the cable boxes both changed channels at the same time. Like I said...I'm using a dual zone USBUIRT with duct tape to shield.

That's why I was asking how the channels are changed -- a few people change them manually, so it made me wonder if somehow the cable box got changed to another channel while SageTV continued to think it was on the proper channel... but the possible signal leak between converters seems highly plausible. I would keep an eye on it to see if it happens again somehow. Other than a bug or improper channel setting on the converter, I couldn't figure out how the recordings could have the wrong content.

- Andy

[sixdoubleo]

Originally Posted by Opus4

That's why I was asking how the channels are changed -- a few people change them manually, so it made me wonder if somehow the cable box got changed to another channel while SageTV continued to think it was on the proper channel... but the possible signal leak between converters seems highly plausible. I would keep an eye on it to see if it happens again somehow. Other than a bug or improper channel setting on the converter, I couldn't figure out how the recordings could have the wrong content.

- Andy

yeah, you were two steps ahead of me and I wasn't there yet. Anyway, I bet that's it. I'm gonna go home and see if I can get those things to repeat that behavior. Maybe play with the channel test function over and over and see if it'll cause both boxes to change at the same time.

Thanks Andy.

[Opus4]

Oh -- in that picture you posted, both converters appear to be on the same channel, but maybe it was just a coincidence at that time.

And, like stanger89 asked: did you end up with separate live tv files too? (Although, they may already have been deleted, depending on settings, if they ever existed.)

- Andy