Recordings with pre- and post-roll, ATSC vs. Colossus

[toricred]

I've used MP with 4 x collosae and you will have the same problem. This is the design of the collosus. Nothing you can do about it but complain to Hauppague about their drivers.

[Karyudo]

Reading between the lines, it sounds like it's not "not possible" to add padding to Colossus/HD-PVR recordings, just that the effort required would be of limited benefit. That sounds sort of encouraging....

I don't really want to bail on NPVR -- it's definitely the best PVR software I've used to date, and I've used Windows Media Center, WinTV 7, and (tried to use) MediaPortal -- but it's sort of frustrating to have a pair of Colossus cards and STILL not be able to get properly-padded recordings, when my single ATSC card does it with aplomb (under NPVR; WMC can't do it right).

sub, is there any way you could be convinced to either support multiple padded caps from a single Colossus recording back-to-back episodes (best!) or the use of two Colossae to have each capture a properly-padded recording of two B2B shows (good enough for me, but less great for people with only one Colossus)?

For me, this would be about the final tick in the Killer Homebrew HD PVR App checklist....

[mvallevand]

It is possible, just something sub doesn't want to take on, I asked before too. My preference is to stay on the same tuner because for my STB there is a 5-10 second delay on tuning, which can be avoided on the same channel. For me another solution I proposed would be better. When there are overlapping shows on the same tuner

2000-2030
2030-2100

NRecord starts polling very frequently for the 2030 tuner to become available. The problem is it isn't free until the 2030 and with startup time I can end up missing a tiny bit of the beginning show. I'd like to ba able to specify a little more flex in the start because all my broadcasts have credits and commercials at the end which I could easily miss, but the next broadcast all start right on time. If I was able to use a global offset to record all programs 10-20 seconds earlier I'd be a good shape.

Martin

[johnsonx42]

If I was able to use a global offset to record all programs 10-20 seconds earlier I'd be a good shape.

I've often wished for, and have requesteded such a feature, to no avail.

[johnsonx42]

By the way, I had always been under the impression that regular Analog tuners could also do multi-record on the same channel (i.e. watch live on the same channel that's being recorded, or watch the same channel live from multiple clients). I've seen logs recently where NRecord wouldn't do pre-padding on back-to-back recordings on the same channel, but appeared to do post-padding without issue.

[mvallevand]

By the way, I had always been under the impression that regular Analog tuners could also do multi-record on the same channel (i.e. watch live on the same channel that's being recorded, or watch the same channel live from multiple clients). I've seen logs recently where NRecord wouldn't do pre-padding on back-to-back recordings on the same channel, but appeared to do post-padding without issue.

Nope you probably were seeing multiple tuners. The logs were probably from people wishing it would change tuners to allow padding which it didn't do previously, and going by Karyudo's it still doesn't do with his two Collussi

Martin

[Karyudo]

sub, maybe you're thinkin', "Geez! What's the big deal?? One show ends, there's a commercial, and you're back to start the next one. Who cares about padding?" But in my case, I want to get archival-quality caps of two first-run episodes (of a show not available OTA) that run back-to-back, with exactly zero space between them. Like, it's one frame is the logo of the production company (and the end of the music) on one episode, and then BANG! It's frame one of the next episode. There is exactly NO CHANCE that the stock settings for recordings on NPVR are going to be able to split those episodes properly.

I found out that Windows Media Center couldn't split this sort of recording properly even as OTA ATSC, (The Daily Show and The Colbert Report run back-to-back on CTV) so I figured I'd try something else. I was psyched to find that NPVR could do this easily from ATSC, which is great! So I then figured if I got two separate HD tuners, and two separate Colossus cards, I'd be home-free: two tuners + two IR blasters + two Colossus cards = two padded HD recordings, on any channel!

But you're telling me nope: even though I've got two completely separate cards and two separate tuners, and I can make separate, simultaneous, properly-padded recordings on separate channels, I CAN'T use both to record two separate shows with padding, simply because they happen to be on the same channel? Because NPVR is instead set up for a reductive case for use on only DVB/OTA equipment? And this reductive case means having two Colossus (or HD-PVR, or analog) cards is no better than having just one?

Frankly, for North Americans, that's not a feature; that's a bug.

Can you explain how this would have to be added (e.g. could it be a plug-in? does it have to be coded at some deeper level? what language?), and what the options are to get it included if you're not willing or able to do it? Like, is there a Kickstarter page for getting this added to NPVR??

I'm not trying to be a total douche about this; I just want to learn first-hand (rather than from other posters) what the situation is, and if/when it could be resolved to work how it should.

[toricred]

With all due respect, don't present your opinion as representing all of North America. I happen to live in NA and have no problem with this configuration.

[sub]

sub, maybe you're thinkin', "Geez! What's the big deal??

Yep, that is exactly what I was thinking (though not for the reason you suggested).

But you're telling me nope: even though I've got two completely separate cards and two separate tuners, and I can make separate, simultaneous, properly-padded recordings on separate channels, I CAN'T use both to record two separate shows with padding, simply because they happen to be on the same channel? Because NPVR is instead set up for a reductive case for use on only DVB/OTA equipment? And this reductive case means having two Colossus (or HD-PVR, or analog) cards is no better than having just one?

Of course having two Colossus is better than one. ie, you can do two recordings at the same time. Remember you're only talking about a very specific edge where this back to back recordings on the one channel.

That said, it is supposed to use your second Colossus for that second recording, as long it was entirely available (ie, not provisional allocated to another recording due to start in the near future - like before the end of that second recordings padding time). If you reproduce the problem, and post the nrecord.log, I'm happy to check why it wasn't used.

[mikeh49]

If I have two collos? and two STBs, it would seem that back-to-back shows would be allocated to the two tuners, with the STBs on the same channel and padding preserved. I thought that's what the <try to honour padding> in config.xml was about, i.e., use another tuner so the padding can be preserved. Now if the second tuner was allocated to a recording starting before the second program of interest concluded, then there is a conflict and I guess the second tuner would/should be considered not available. It's not clear how this is different than two analog tuners back in the good old days.

Could NPVR write the stream from a single tuner/device to two files? That way the padding could be preserved. One file stops writing some time after the other starts.

BTW, when does NPVR assign the tuners? I thought it was at recording time. Not correct? I recently had an issue with a tuner failing to start and NPVR then looked for another tuner with the channel, found it, and made the recording.