Watch a scheduled recording while its recording

[ejr]

Many people, including myself, asked if it was possible to watch "live TV" while recording a scheduled program, if you only have 1 tuner. The answer is, you can't watch any show you want on live TV, because while recording a programed show your tuner is occupied with that recording. But you can watch the show that you are recording (and pause, RW and FF upt to current time) in that show. The way to do this is to go into Recordings, then go to Pending. There you should see the program that is recording that you want to watch, and it should say its status is "Recording". Select that program, then select play, and voila, you are seeing that show live as it is recording. You can pause it, or go back to its begining, treating it as a video.
Enjoy!

[zorro]

I tried this last night and it didn't work. (I got some error but I don't remember now) So I tried to open the file using Windows media player and I got the "file in use" error.

This is what I expect:
When the timer for a scheduled program kicks in, the live TV mode should swith to the channel you are recording and then not allow channel up or down unless you have another tuner. I have Dish network DVR at home and it does this exactly. If I try to change the channel while I'm recording it says a recording is in progress and then ask me to if I want to abort.

[colin]

Quote[/b] ]I tried this last night and it didn't work. (I got some error but I don't remember now) So I tried to open the file using Windows media player and I got the "file in use" error.

But did you try watching this through GBPVR (Recordings->Pending)? Depending on how the file is created by GBPVR and how WMP attempts to open it till determine whether it can or not. GBPVR can open it as it created it and knows how to open it.

As for expected behaviour, add this to the wishlist if it is not already there,

Cheers,
Colin.

[zorro]

Quote[/b] ]did you try watching this through GBPVR (Recordings->Pending)?

Yes. Thats what I did.

[ejr]

Sorry it didn't work for you Zorro.  I have done it many times.  Then again, I can't get the new liveTV preview to work and I have to choose shortskip for FF/RW, so not everything works for everybody.  If anyone else has success with this technique, it would be nice to know.

As for your expected behavior, that when the timer for a scheduled program kicks in, the live TV mode should swith to the channel you are recording and then not allow channel up or down unless you have another tuner, I agree with you.  That was what I expected too.  I have a Creative Videoblaster DVCR, and that is exactly what it does too.  So please post this on the wish list as was suggested.

I also tried to play the file with Windows Media Player, and no luck for the same reason you mentioned.  Sorry you can't play the pending recording as I suggested.  It does work for me. You might do a restart or reboot and try it again or even just restarting the recording service. Sometimes strange things happen.

[ruddyadam]

I looked in this forum to find an answer to this exact question... becuae I am looking at buying a pvr-350 or pvr-500, but I didn't know if I needed two tuners. Has anyone had any luck doing this with a pvr-350? Is the option based on the software or the hardware?

Thanks
Adam

[spyder40]

I haven't tried it with a scheduled recording but have been doing it with manual rec. Just start the recording and then go to the video library and open it. It freaks for a few seconds if you fast forward to where it's "live" but clears up and works fine.