ABC getting nasty with start/stop times

[bemoore]

Last night I was playing around with GBPVR, running some test recordings to see what I could and couldn't run in parallel, and I noticed that one of my recordings didn't stop when I thought it would. When I checked the program guide, I noticed that ABC ran Desperate Housewives from 9:00 until 10:02. And the guide was pretty well correct. At 10:01, the program hadn't ended. So in order to watch the end of Desperate Housewives ABC is forcing you to sacrifice 2 minutes of the beginning of your next show. That's getting nasty. Fortunately for us, the next show we wanted to watch was on ABC. Otherwise, I'd have been ticked.

I haven't run into this yet, but what does GBPVR do when there is a 2 minute conflict?

[A_Brass]

I have seen the same thing with ER on NBC it begins at 10:59pm Forcing me to schedule it as a manual recording when I'm trying to record CSI on CBS. I generally miss one minute.

The only solution I can see is to add a second tuner. With any luck Christmas will fix the problem.

[Torque]

Yeah, ABC pisses me off too. They started LOST nearly 5 minutes early last week. I prepad that channel by 3 minutes and still missed probably 1 or 2 minutes from what I could tell.

I'm hoping Christmas fixes it for me as well

[capone]

Fox/FX does this deliberately to discourage PVR/Tivo usage. It compells you to watch or risk missing things. I suspect everyone else is playign hardball now, too.

I jusy add +5min to things where I know they will jerk me around. It's a pain when you have other things to record, I know.

[jrockintuitive]

Check at CDK Scheduler. There is an AdjustPadding section that covers this. If you set the setting, then if the show ends 5 min late, then it will finish recording the first show and start the second show 5 min late.

It works for shows that start early too.

[capone]

Won't that only work if the guide has the times, which is the problem here? The networks are deliberately altering the times in spite of their listed times.

[KingArgyle]

Capone, you are correct, it will still go by the guide information, and use the AdjustStartTime or AdjustEndTime as a window instead of adding the actual amount there.

The advantage that you get with the current setting is that if the guide is correct, you get the whole program, but if the guide is wrong...then you can run the risk of missing part of the show either at the beginning or the end, depending on the guide information. If there is a need, a Configuration option could be added to control how the AdjustStartTime and AdjustEndTime work (either adjust the time by the amount specified, or use it as a window to schedule using the times in the guide). It's easiest to make this a global behavior but more flexible if it's a show by show behavior.

[bemoore]

I haven't run into shows running later than the listings yet. What I saw w/Desprerate Housewives was that the listing showed it running 2 minutes over, and it did. Varying from the published listings is REALLY underhanded. Last night, CSI: Miami was listed as starting at 9:55. It didn't start that early, but it did start about 2 minutes early. I guess this is getting common.

[capone]

And unfortunetly, there's going to be no solution for this. Since the networks are changing the air times in an effort to mess up the published times, even having the EPG function and guide sites in constant sync wouldn't help. This is the new climate of retaliation at the moment. Saddly, it even helps the network further, as they are probably adding that time by slipping in one more commercial, and during their most popular shows.

The only thing that will chnage it is some lash back by the viewers. PVR/DVR people make up some, but live viewers are effected, too. They are finishing one show and finding the on the other channel already in progress. They should be starting to boil a little, too.

My guess is this will continue until there is some lash-back. The public has a short patience for this stuff when they realize other people are ticked off. It will take that, or some new agreement by Tivo/Replay to integrate commercials into recordings, or add more recording restrictions.

[reboot]

I know it's a PITA, but if you pre and post pad everything by 5 minutes, it get's taken care of.
You do run the risk of seeing more commercials, unless you're using a well tuned comskip or showanalyzer.