Advanced Rules - Setting up prime time recording (Primetime Anytime from DISH)

[Kwisatz Haderach]

Hi,
I previously discontinued Dish service but was really attached to their primetime anytime recording functionality. It would record the four network channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX) from 8-11pm. I never had to setup any recording, unless it was on cable channels or outside that schedule.

It took me a while to figure out how to set it up with Advanced Rules and I learned a few things along the way. I hope this helps others with Advanced Rules and setting up similar processes.

Here is the advanced rules I setup to make it work. This rule will record NEW shows that are not in the genre of "news" in the between the hours of 8pm and 11pm PST. I couldn't get the 'localtime' option to work with the time() function, so I am using GMT in the rule below (YMMV).

time(start_time) >= time('04:00:00') AND time(start_time) < time('07:00:00') AND first_run = 'Y' AND genres NOT LIKE '%news%'

Notes:
-I set this rule up on each channel.
-Daylight savings time messes with this. I setup another rule with the time offset by an hour and disabled the rule. Then twice a year I disable and enable the correct one.

You can load Advanced Rules two ways (that I've found):

1. Type it into the GUI. This is frustrating because the GUI is limited and doesn't show you enough characters to see the whole command. I also couldn't get cut/paste to work, so I had to blindly type the second half.
   
2. You can setup an advanced rule and wait for npvr to backup the recurring schedule. It's backed up to your data folder (c:\users\Public\NPVR\). It's called recurring-backup.xml. NPVR doesn't read this file if you make changes, but you can go into setting and import this file once you've made changes and it will create new rules. I found this the easiest way to make changes.
   

Here is a sample of my recurring-backup.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<recurrings>
<recurring>
<oid>66</oid>
<name>NBC - Primetime</name>
<matchrules>
<Rules><ChannelOID>7182</ChannelOID><ChannelName>KING-HD</ChannelName><StartTime>2017-03-14T05:10:00.0000000Z</StartTime><EndTime>2017-03-14T06:10:00.0000000Z</EndTime><PrePadding>0</PrePadding><PostPadding>1</PostPadding><Quality>0</Quality><Keep>0</Keep><AdvancedRules>time(start_time) &gt;= time('03:00:00') AND time(start_time) &lt; time('06:00:00') AND first_run = 'Y' AND genres NOT LIKE '%news%'</AdvancedRules></Rules>
</matchrules>
</recurring>
</recurrings>

Hope this helps as it took me a while to get it just right. But it's been working for 6 months now and I've been very happy with it.