Edit recurring recording xml instead of using GUI

[PC209]

NextPVR 3.8.3
Windows 10

I couldn't find anything about this in a quick look through documentation and forum search, so please let me know if there's somewhere to go here for these answers.

Is it possible to edit scheduled recordings by editing a configuration file directly instead of using the GUI which seems to have some limitations? For example, could I edit recurring-backup.xml (or a different file) in Notepad and would NextPVR then apply those changes? If so, can I enter exact start and stop times and change start/stop padding to 0, and can I change the name to something besides Default?

Thanks,
Jim

[Graham]

You can set default padding at Settings --> Recording ... http://nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Co....Recording

Are you importing EPG data? NextPVR is designed to be used with an EPG so that you have a TV Guide that looks like ... http://nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Manual.TVGuide

A recording that is made by selecting a show in the TV Guide will have the name of the show rather than the Default name.

[sub]

There is no master text file that holds the schedule data. It's in the database, but manually editing the data there is no supported.

[PC209]

Thanks for the replies. I'm just recording a couple of late night shows that in my area start and end 6-7 minutes after the times scheduled in the EPG data. It's possible to add 7 minutes of padding at the end, but I don't want 6 minutes of ads/previous show at the beginning of the recordings. So setting up using the EPG data with default padding doesn't get me quite what I want. I found it simpler to just use man-rec to set up two weekly recurring recordings. It usually works fine, though last night the show scheduled to run 1:40 AM + 5 min pre to 2:00 AM + 7 min post ended prematurely (at 27:27 when is should have been 32 minutes) and I'm not sure why.

[sub]

I don't understand what you think you could do by manually editing the scheduler data. The app already lets you set the pre and post padding to whatever values you want. You can just schedule post padding if that's all you're interested in. If that doesn't suit, you can always schedule a manual recording for whatever specific start/end time you want.

[p37307]

I think pc209 wants the recording to start later than the epg data time to bypass the commercials. I agree with SUB. You have to do a manual with padding at the end. You are wanting to cut the first few minutes of the show out so you don't get the commercials, if I am correct. Just beware, sometimes EPG time data changes, a sports program goes to long, etc.

I would put all this effort of pre and post padding dynamic EPG data scheduling into searching the forums and setting comskip and commercial cutting so you get no commercials.

[dixxfixx]

Is your EPG set to automatically update at that time of day? Bad things can happen if you're recording while EPGing.

[BrettB]

Is it possible to edit scheduled recordings by editing a configuration file directly instead of using the GUI which seems to have some limitations?

Can you confirm that by "GUI" you mean running the NextPVR.exe image on the server (or a client in client-server mode) and not using the web interface? With the new, Modern web interface, you can't adjust most of the recording parameters including the pre- and post-padding values, recording directory, new-only, etc. when scheduling a recurring recording. But with the native NextPVR.exe GUI interface, you can set all of those.

You reference the name "Default" and in a later post you say that you used a "Man-Rec", so I'm presuming that you are indeed using the native interface. With that, you should be able to set the Start Time, End Time, Pre-Padding, and Post-Padding to any values you want. I don't think that there is a way to change the Name. (I'm not sure if sub considers this a bug or a feature.) The only setting that you can't set for a manual recording in the GUI interface is the Recording Directory. (sub considers this a feature because he didn't want to add another line to the Manual Recording pop-up.)

If your desire is just to get the recording to start 6 minutes after the EPG scheduled start time and run until 7 minutes after the EPG scheduled end time, then you should be able to just do a scheduled recurring recording from a guide entry and set the Pre-Padding to -6 minutes (that's negative 6 minutes) and the Post-Padding to 7 minutes. And then the recurring recording will have the name of the program.

[PC209]

When I did the Windows 8.1 to 10 update in July, I just wanted to set up the recurring recording I had been doing in Media Center and found a way to do that with NextPVR. I started getting error messages/program crash when I tried editing any scheduled recordings since the 3.8.3 update, and I ended up reinstalling the program which solved that problem. Resetting the manual recording times was a bit time-consuming, so I was just looking for a shortcut and made some (wrong) assumptions about how the program keeps track of scheduled recordings. It's probably obvious that I didn't really familiarize myself with how to use NextPVR as intended. I appreciate the advice on where to focus efforts to make the most of NextPVR. I've been using MCEBuddy to convert my NextPVR ts files to mp4 as I had done with my old wtv files, and that's where I'm using Comskip.

My EPG is set to update at 2:25 AM (default) and my recording terminated at 2:02 AM when it should have gone to 2:07 AM.
I have been using the native interface - didn't know there was a web interface.
I didn't know I could enter a negative value in the pre-padding.