2009-01-10, 06:22 PM
I would like a capability to be notified whenever a program is discovered in the schedule. Here's what I mean:
Sometimes when I am watching a movie channel such as "Encore Avenue", a preview will announce a movie that I want to record e.g. "Dirty Harry" , "... coming this month to Encore", and sometimes "... coming Next Month to Encore."
So, I quickly access my PVR SEARCH GUIDE function, only to find that "Dirty Harry" is not yet scheduled (therefore it's beyond 15 days into the future.)
My wish is that I would be presented with some buttons "Look for this program for 30 days", "Look for this program for 60 days", "Look for this program Forever", "Do Nothing"
If I click "Look for this program for x days", it would be added to a temporary list until such date that the program is recorded, or the time-to-age expires.
If I click "Look for this program Forever", it would be added to a permanent list until such date that the program is recorded.
"Do Nothing", simply means that I want to close the window without any action.
Therefore the Wish List would be akin to the "Recurring" type, but without a first recording date/time as of yet. The PVR would continue its scan of the guide upon each update to locate the date/time of the first recording.
Subsequently, in the RECORDINGS function, I could see the usual Ready, Whats New, Pending, Recurring, Conflicts and so forth.
A New Status would appear: Wish List
When I click on the Wish List catagory, a list of all of the shows that I want to find appears. e.g. Dirty Harry would be among the list.
The status would be Wish List until <date> or Wish List Permanent
or if it was newly discovered in the schedule, it would have a Pending status with the first match.
There needs to be a capability to "Cancel from Wish List upon first recording" (if it's a movie), and "Keep last x recordings" (if it's an upcoming series), or "Keep on Wish List Until I Delete it", or "Keep first x matches" (in case it's uncertain whether the first match is indeed the program being sought -- such is the possibility if the criterion is a common word like "Space")
There also needs to be a capability to Cancel the item from the Wish List.
I want to mention that the search criteria might match on multiple programs. For example if my search criterion for the Wish List was "Space". Several programs might contain the word "Space" within their title. If this is the case, the first occurence becomes Pending for recording (even if it's the wrong program!) That way, the tuner is reserved to detect recording conflicts.
To resolve multiple matches, the PVR user can perform a "Find All" function to look for other matches, then Update the Pending recording, or can manually "Cancel" the Pending recording. Doing so will not remove the Program from the Wish List as a matching recording hasn't yet occurred. The next time that the schedule is updated, PVR will try to match program names (Whoops, I update my listing daily, even though I have a 15 day schedule. I don't want a previously excluded match from becoming Pending again. This condition will influence design.)
The reason for defaulting to record first x matches/the wrong program rather than let it pass by, is that some broadcasts only occur once in a long while. It's better to chance an easy-to-delete extraneous recording, than to miss a chance to record a rare showing.
This is all to say "It would be nice if the PVR could keep a permanent look out for desired program titles, and record them as they arrive, even if they do not yet appear within the guide."
Thoughts?
Sometimes when I am watching a movie channel such as "Encore Avenue", a preview will announce a movie that I want to record e.g. "Dirty Harry" , "... coming this month to Encore", and sometimes "... coming Next Month to Encore."
So, I quickly access my PVR SEARCH GUIDE function, only to find that "Dirty Harry" is not yet scheduled (therefore it's beyond 15 days into the future.)
My wish is that I would be presented with some buttons "Look for this program for 30 days", "Look for this program for 60 days", "Look for this program Forever", "Do Nothing"
If I click "Look for this program for x days", it would be added to a temporary list until such date that the program is recorded, or the time-to-age expires.
If I click "Look for this program Forever", it would be added to a permanent list until such date that the program is recorded.
"Do Nothing", simply means that I want to close the window without any action.
Therefore the Wish List would be akin to the "Recurring" type, but without a first recording date/time as of yet. The PVR would continue its scan of the guide upon each update to locate the date/time of the first recording.
Subsequently, in the RECORDINGS function, I could see the usual Ready, Whats New, Pending, Recurring, Conflicts and so forth.
A New Status would appear: Wish List
When I click on the Wish List catagory, a list of all of the shows that I want to find appears. e.g. Dirty Harry would be among the list.
The status would be Wish List until <date> or Wish List Permanent
or if it was newly discovered in the schedule, it would have a Pending status with the first match.
There needs to be a capability to "Cancel from Wish List upon first recording" (if it's a movie), and "Keep last x recordings" (if it's an upcoming series), or "Keep on Wish List Until I Delete it", or "Keep first x matches" (in case it's uncertain whether the first match is indeed the program being sought -- such is the possibility if the criterion is a common word like "Space")
There also needs to be a capability to Cancel the item from the Wish List.
I want to mention that the search criteria might match on multiple programs. For example if my search criterion for the Wish List was "Space". Several programs might contain the word "Space" within their title. If this is the case, the first occurence becomes Pending for recording (even if it's the wrong program!) That way, the tuner is reserved to detect recording conflicts.
To resolve multiple matches, the PVR user can perform a "Find All" function to look for other matches, then Update the Pending recording, or can manually "Cancel" the Pending recording. Doing so will not remove the Program from the Wish List as a matching recording hasn't yet occurred. The next time that the schedule is updated, PVR will try to match program names (Whoops, I update my listing daily, even though I have a 15 day schedule. I don't want a previously excluded match from becoming Pending again. This condition will influence design.)
The reason for defaulting to record first x matches/the wrong program rather than let it pass by, is that some broadcasts only occur once in a long while. It's better to chance an easy-to-delete extraneous recording, than to miss a chance to record a rare showing.
This is all to say "It would be nice if the PVR could keep a permanent look out for desired program titles, and record them as they arrive, even if they do not yet appear within the guide."
Thoughts?