622 ignores added time to record other show

[kstuart]

There is a show that I record which NBC has deliberately extended over the hour mark (It's a very highly rated show and so they want to prevent viewers from changing the channel... not a new technique). I also record the immediately following show (that they are trying to promote by this ploy). For various reasons, I watch the following show first, and I have noticed the last scenes of the preceding show at the beginning of the DVR recording.

So, I extended the timer of the preceding show by two minutes, and expected that the dual tuner would record them on two different tuners, and the preceding show would end up with 1:02 and the following show still have 1:00 (in case NBC stopped doing this).

But - I forgot that I was already using the second tuner for yet another show at the time - a low priority show that I often don't even watch.

So, what should have happened is that the low priority show should have not been recorded.

But what I discovered is that - with no warning at all - the 622 will throw away up to 3 minutes of overlap in order to avoid failing to record a show (regardless of the priorities).

The preceding show was recorded only for 1:00, is missing the last scenes, and so I have to be careful to not delete the following show, because that actually has my only copy of the ending of the preceding show (which I have not watched yet).

This is all rather complex, but the point is that AFAIK it is undocumented, there is no warning, and I end up with a low priority show being recorded instead of the ending of my high priority show.

I tested this, and if you add on 5 minutes or more, then it always records the added time, and dumps the lower priority recording.

No doubt, the theory is "If it is 5 minutes or more, then it is the overtime of a sports event, and we must record that. If it is 3 minutes or less, then it probably is just a casual just-in-case extra time, and the user probably would rather that we not fail to record a whole show just for that extra time."

So, the workaround is to always add at least 5 minutes if the extra time added is important.

 

[Hall]

Just record Heroes and Journeyman back-to-back. When Heroes gets cut off, finish watching it at the beginning of Journeyman.

 

[Kaydigi]

Just record Heroes and Journeyman back-to-back. When Heroes gets cut off, finish watching it at the beginning of Journeyman.

But if you record 2 back to back shows on the same channel; it wont record the second show (Journeyman) on the other tuner even if it's unused.

Has this been fixed in the E* updates? This is on the 522/625 and 622. I haven't seen this happen on the 721 yet.

 

[garys]

There is a software glitch when recording from the same channel. I just extend Heroes to completely record Journeyman on one recording.

 

[kstuart]

Just record Heroes and Journeyman back-to-back. When Heroes gets cut off, finish watching it at the beginning of Journeyman.

Yeah, that's what I said I was going to have to do. One ought not to have to save 2 hours of recordings to watch one hour. And, one expects that if one adds 3 minutes in the Options, that 3 minutes will be added.

More importantly, there should be some sort of warning that this is going to happen.

 

[Hall]

But if you record 2 back to back shows on the same channel; it wont record the second show (Journeyman) on the other tuner even if it's unused.

Nor does it need to.

 

[garys]

Yeah, that's what I said I was going to have to do. One ought not to have to save 2 hours of recordings to watch one hour. And, one expects that if one adds 3 minutes in the Options, that 3 minutes will be added.

More importantly, there should be some sort of warning that this is going to happen.

I think the problem is that you cannot set the second recording to start 3 minutes late and it overrides the first recording to end at the scheduled time in the guide.

 

[Hall]

Yeah, that's what I said I was going to have to do. One ought not to have to save 2 hours of recordings to watch one hour. And, one expects that if one adds 3 minutes in the Options, that 3 minutes will be added.

I've got (3) episodes of Journeyman stored right now.... It sounded interesting to my wife, so she recorded it (to watch on it's own more so than to be sure to get the end of Heroes. It sounds like it's going to be canceled now though so I will likely delete them.

If you're home or around at the time that Journeyman is still recording, wait until about 10:15 and just stop it.

 

[Hall]

I think the problem is that you cannot set the second recording to start 3 minutes late and it overrides the first recording to end at the scheduled time in the guide.

Since the 522 and probably earlier, the s/w hasn't allowed the user to start a recording late nor end it early. 99% of the time that just wouldn't make sense.

 

[kokomogator]

I am having the same problem....I had extended all my timers because (not just NBC) was doing this and it totally screwed everything up on Thursday night......the best night for TV. When I extended the timers it skipped about half of the shows I normally record....totally PO'd. Had to go back, delete all the timers and reset them and live with the ending cut off. This is a dirty trick the networks are pulling to extend the times by a few minutes, all it does is screw up the viewers that are using DVR's to try to prevent you from switching to another network.

My question is, why doesn't the DVR know the actual end time of the show and like someone else said....at least warn you that there is a conflict so you can adjust?

 

[Hall]

My question is, why doesn't the DVR know the actual end time of the show and like someone else said....at least warn you that there is a conflict so you can adjust?

And how is it supposed to know ? Tribune Media Services says that ER starts at 10:01pm and ends at 11:00pm. In my experience, ER actually starts before 10pm. It says Heroes starts at 9:00pm and ends at 10:01pm and Journeyman starts at 10:01pm. This is the data that the DVRs go by... Is it wrong ? Don't know but the DVR, nor can Dish, do anything about it. Dish has tried by giving users the option to extend the ending times. Fact is, the networks are playing with the start and end times to screw up DVR users. Complain to them.

 

[dstrouth]

My 721 would use both tuners. It would record all 64 minutes... 1 before 3 after .... from one tuner, and another 64 from the second tuner for the second show....

My 622 does as the OP describes... and I don't like it!!

I'm like him, I've gotta make sure I watch the shows in order or don't delete the 2nd show...

 

[dstrouth]

Nor does it need to.

721 does it like the OP decribes... that way both single recordings would have their ENTIRE show...

 

[lapplegate]

I have a VIP622 and have had success by extending the 1st show 2 minutes and setting a manual timer for the 2nd show. You set the manual timer to start at 10:02, for example. They usually still list the correct show name in the DVR list.

 

[GregE]

Just record Heroes and Journeyman back-to-back. When Heroes gets cut off, finish watching it at the beginning of Journeyman.

I do the same thing. I tried adding 2 minutes to Heros but like the original poster, it didn't work. I am on a 722. I was just glad I could get the end on Heros at the beginning of Journeyman.

 

[Hall]

In the case of Heroes/Journeyman, people are lucky it's on the same channel. There are *easy* ways to deal with that. On Thursday, we record Grey's Anatomy on ABC (OTA) and ER on NBC (OTA) so that we see the HD versions. The 622 only has (1) OTA tuner, of course, and Grey's routinely runs over... Grey's timer is 8:59 to 10:05; manual timer from 9:55 to 10:10 on NBC (satellite-SD); 2nd manual timer from 10:10 to 11:05 on NBC (OTA-HD).

 

[GregE]

In the case of Heroes/Journeyman, people are lucky it's on the same channel. There are *easy* ways to deal with that. On Thursday, we record Grey's Anatomy on ABC (OTA) and ER on NBC (OTA) so that we see the HD versions. The 622 only has (1) OTA tuner, of course, and Grey's routinely runs over... Grey's timer is 8:59 to 10:05; manual timer from 9:55 to 10:10 on NBC (satellite-SD); 2nd manual timer from 10:10 to 11:05 on NBC (OTA-HD).

Good solution but what a pain in the butt to set up and to watch.

 

[Hall]

Heh, I don't call it good myself.... it *is* a pain in the a**.

On last week's episode, I tried to edit the timers from TV2. I was able to edit the (2) existing timers but the 3rd one, the 10:10 to 11:05 one is for an OTA channel, which are completely invisible from TV2. So, I wasn't able to and planned to fix it the next day... Well, I forgot, so now we get to watch ER from the comfort of our couch with the laptop sitting in front of us !

 

[8bitbytes]

Turn on Record Plus and set #1 to record Heroes and #2 to record Journeyman and use OTA for the unimportant show.

 

[GregE]

Turn on Record Plus and set #1 to record Heroes and #2 to record Journeyman and use OTA for the unimportant show.

That won't work for me since I get HD via OTA.

I'll just watch Heroes first and then get then end off of my Journeyman like I have been doing.

It would be nice if it would have recorded the extra 2 minutes I put on Heroes and then switched over to Journeyman but evidently it wants to ignore the extra time and start Journeyman at the correct time. I tried changing the priority but that didn't help.