Season Recording

[knickerblogger]

I've changed the +/- minutes to 0, but if the show runs back to back it records both. For example the Daily show runs the new show on at 11pm, and yesterday's rerun at 11:30. Since I already recorded yesterday's show yesterday, I don't need to record it again at 11:30.

Is there any way to prevent this?

[KingArgyle]

The thing with CDK Scheduler is that it gives the user a WIDE range of options to define their scheduled programs however they want. With this extra ability comes a more complicated UI. You don't have to use the UI, and can always edit the files directly. I personally think Jorm has a done an excellent job giving the user all the control of CDK Scheduler, without having to edit the files manually.

Can it still be improved? Yes. Is it ever going to be as simple as the built in Scheduler, I doubt it as that defeats why some of the enhancements were made.

The API for interfacing with CDK Scheduler is available, so anybody that wants to write their own UI interface for it is welcome to do so.

[jorm]

or if you have suggestions jrock and I would be responsive.

[jrockintuitive]

I've been a little less then responsive lately. For that, I'm sorry. That will change in the next few weeks - I hope.

Although I make it a practice to never to disagree with King, however, this time I must. I do think the CDK scheduler will be as easy (for basic functions) as the built in scheduler some day. Logging is being updated by another developer. I have a list of "process checking/fixing" that will occur if certain files are wrong or missing. Right now the UI that Jorm put together with the Basic/More is easy to use.

[KingArgyle]

Oh I don't disagree that CDK itself will be easy to use (i.e. error checking, creating the necessary files if they are missing, etc.). I was just stating that the UI in general will always be a bit more complicated than a system that only allows a few options, compared to a system that allows the user to tweak any option. More options always makes it a bit more complicated, and makes UI design more challenging. There's only so much simplification that can be done.

There will always be a slight learning curve to CDK, especially when getting into some of the more advanced features.

[scott]

I'll just add my two cents so SUB has another data point on what might help users. I too am having all sorts of problems with the +2 hours thing which is making season pass UN-USABLE for me in most cases. *SUB - I completely respect your option to program the system the way it works for you, but just wanted to add my experiences for your information.

The shows we watch seem to be repeated by the networks constantly - Into The West, for example, is repeated three times each weekend. Without "This time slot, this day", the system records six hours a week (sometimes more) instead of the one episode. A smallish hard drive this forces me to manually set up my recordings for this show. - And yes, I forget and my wife screams!

Another example is amimal planet's most extreme. I'm recording the new 2005 shows for my boy. The only show I want is same time, same day of week, *once* a week. BUT animal planet also braodcasts all the old shows. I'm not kidding when I say that within two hours padding, over the course of a week, they play about 15 old epidoses! - So again, I can't use season record

So I'm a huge advocate of having a *this day* option. I'm not too sure of the two hour bit either - networks lose huge audience shares whenever they move a schedule around, so they don't do it all that often that I've seen...

I'm glad to know *how* it works at least - I've deleted and re-set season passes dozens & dozens of times thinking I was just doing something wrong!

Thanks for your ear Sub...

* and about the plug ins comments made by other members - If the concept of season recording belongs in the core program, I just think this is a function that fits into the core program.

[Lucas_24]

I respect that people want to be able to specify the day of the recording. That's something I would use as well. But in my point of view, I don't see the current configurationas a limitation, but rather an enhancement. My girlfriend loves reality TV. Shows like big brother and the amazing race, often jave 2 hour specials, or change the day they are broadcast, especially for the finally. My old satelite PVR would only store the channel and time, it would not search by episode name, so she missed a few final episodes of the series. To me the way the system works is great. My take is I'd rather have more episodes than miss an important one. I have the same issue with the Discovery channel, 10 to 15 episodes of 1 show per week, but I find it easier to clean up recordings once a day than schecule everything manually.

[jorm]

The UI is always going to take a little learning since there is lots of options. It is expected.

Scott,

> I too am having all sorts of problems with the +2 hours thing which is making season > pass UN-USABLE for me in most cases.
You can change this in the config.xml search for 120. I changed mine to 30. That way it works the way You want it.

> The only show I want is same time, same day of week, *once* a week.
You would need to add it to the cdk for this recording only.

> and about the plug ins comments made by other members - If the concept of
> season recording belongs in the core program, I just think this is a function that fits > into the core program.
The problem is sub is very busy. He will probably get around to it eventually. That is why the plugin developers myself included constantly try to handle the wishlist with plugins/utilities. So he will have more time.

[sub]

The only show I want is same time, same day of week, *once* a week.

If you know all these details, then just schedule a manually recording, set it for "Weekly" on that channel, at that time.

[scott]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Lucas - I think most of the people mentioning this feature are suggesting it be an addition. When your GF is recording big brother that does move around alot (I had forgotten about those flex scheduals) then the existing option makes sense. And in your Discovery Channel example - your would use the "hopefully-future" option to select just the one show and save yourselve from having to remove the other 14 shows.

At some point, I'm going to become confortable enough with Plug-in, but I'm a relatively new user and am still alittle catious in that area. (I just blew away everything last might be messing with my zap-it settings!).

Thanks Sub for the Manual recording idea - I've never looked at that but it will work for me for the time being. *** But as I think about this now - I'm wondering if people really just want ta "record-same-show-once" option where the program can recognize that the program's description (or the listing number) is the same as something already recorded - and then skip the re-recording. Forget about all the day, time variables completely! That would appear to work at least for the epg's that cleanly record that sort of info and solve my "Into the West" type problem ( ame show shown all weekend). I think that's what Sage does - but I suspect that's a alot of work.