.9105: problems with overlapping recordings

[kevbo]

I've posted before about the problems I've had with shows that butt up against each other, and with the pre and post padding. Something in the release notes for .9105 led me to believe that this had been addressed, so I tried it out, and I'm seeing weird things.

I have 1 PVR-500, so 1 card, two tuners.

I've set it up to tape three shows, A, B, and C:

A Channel 11 3-4
B Channel 12 3-4
C Channel 13 4-5

Each one has 1 minute before, 2 minutes after padding.

What I'd like to think would happen is that C wouldn't get the pre padding, and one of either A or B wouldn't get the post padding, and everything would record.

What happened this time is really bizarre.

A recorded completely, padding and all.
At 3:59, B stopped recording. The tuner then switched to Channel 13 to record C with its pre-padding. THEN, a few seconds later, it went BACK to Channel 12 to record B. In the process, it overwrote what it had already recorded of B: blew it away.

Then, at 4:02, B stopped recording, and nothing started recording C. So, not only did C not record, I only ended up with the last minute of B.

A Channel 11 3-4 2:59-4:02
B Channel 12 3-4 2:59-3:59/truncated, then 3:59-4:02
C Channel 13 4-5 A few seconds at 3:59, then nothing

Can anyone else confirm this behavior?

[kevbo]

I'm going to reply to myself here to see if I can make something a little clearer.

With two tuners, for these requested programs:

A Channel 11 3-4
B Channel 12 3-4
C Channel 13 4-5

Assume each has 1 minute pre, 2 minutes post padding. What I'd like to see happen is this:

A Channel 11 3-4 2:59-4:02
B Channel 12 3-4 2:59-4:00
C Channel 13 4-5 4:00-5:02

I don't know if I care which show, A or B, would lose its post-padding: being able to specify that would probably be too difficult, GUI wise.

Basically, I'd like to see the real time for the show to take priority over padding, and have padding be thrown away if it can't be recorded.

This can even be shown with one tuner:

A Channel 12 3-4 2:59-4:00
B Channel 13 4-5 4:00-5:02

Does anyone else have any thoughts?

Thanks again...

[Aleax]

Sorry, this is going to be long...

I've not tried the latest release, but I'm using the previous release... and I'm having problems with padding and shows that butt up together too. Since I have two separate tuner cards, maybe I would have better luck, so maybe I should try the latest release. I'd like to have pre- and post-padding attached to ALL of my recordings, even back to back, because I have a big enough hard drive to handle this, start times aren't always perfect (even when setting time to an atomic clock) and two tuners should be able to alternate and get all the extra footage as long as it's not trying to record two things during the same time-slot... even then; adding a third (or fourth?) tuner should mitigate any problem with this idea, using them round-robin as necessary.

My other problem, and I guess maybe I'm in the wrong forum for this, is that either zap2it or the networks have got their signals mixed on what is showing when. Recordings have been completely wrong at random times, mostly on VH1, it seems. For example, I'm trying to get "The Surreal Life" so I set up a season record for it. It recorded three shows last night - and only one was it. The other two was something else entirely; I don't even care what it was, I deleted them. Maybe I need to yell at zap2it (because I doubt VH1 cares; they are probably doing this crap on purpose). Do I have to force EPG updates more often or something?

I have yet to find a program that completely makes me happy... I tried WinTV2000, Snapstream 3.3, back to WinTV2K, SageTV 2.0... now GBpvr; each one has its quirks. I'm trying to work around the quirks; I'd rather not try BeyondTV 3.5, since I've read about a lot of problems with that software, plus it's far from free. By and large, this program works for me... just a couple minor annoyances that may or may not be its fault.

[kevbo]

OK...

I just tried this again, with just two shows.

A Channel 11 4-5
B Channel 12 5-6

First comment: I have two tuners. The second should be used for B. It isn't.

Second comment: same problem as before. At 4:59, recording switches to show B, then immediately back to show A, truncating show A. Now, at 5:02, nothing is recording. Net result: neither show A nor show B is recorded.

Can anyone record two shows the run up against each other? This is bad: I lose both of them.

I hope I can go back to the old version.

[kevbo]

One more test.

This time, same channel:

A Channel 11 5:00-5:30
B Channel 11 5:30-6:00

Same thing: at 5:29, the recording file on my hard drive switched from show A to show B. A few seconds later, it went back to A, truncating it. Now, at 5:32, nothing's recording. End result: I have neither show A nor show B.

[AOSandman]

I've experienced the same results several times now.  I've posted the details, logs, and my temporary workaround in another thread.

[Aleax]

Eeek... this is retarded. Here's how things SHOULD work; if you set up a recording for 5:00-6:00, it should go from 4:59 to 6:02 (assuming 1 pre and 2 post padding...) and go to the first free tuner you have, not try to send every show to the same dang tuner... this is clearly a design flaw. I don't know if you can revert, unlesss you saved the installer. Only the latest version seems to be up for download.

Why is padding an option if it causes an overlap that isn't resolved properly? If I had three tuners (which I do; I have another 150MCE in another machine; which I will eventually migrate over to my main PVR box) would things be better or worse? Clearly, the software doesn't take into account its own padding options when calculating scheduling conflicts. I'd like to see a SageTV-like page that tells you which tuner each recording is going to. The UI is lacking, IMHO. Also, the search page is lacking... but that's another thread entirely.

I'm considering giving BeyondTV a whirl, unless this can be fixed. I'm glad I haven't updated to .9105 yet; at least I'm getting complete recordings... not with padding, but more workable than your situation. SageTV was more intelligent about its recorder pool, except that it would try to use device #2 before device #1, which prompted me to install the 250 in PCI1 and the 150MCE in PCI3 (leaving PCI2 open for ventilation purposes) since the 150MCE looks better than the (old) 250 I have. However, it did not allow padding. I haven't tried Snapstream's products since 3.3, and I'm not looking forward to it. I wish GBpvr was better in this regard, so I wouldn't have to.
Arr.