Note:
This was previously posted deep within a thread about the Hopper pausing itself. Since the issue persists, I've broken it out here and made some edits, with an obvious "Bug Report" title.
Problem Description:
Anytime I'm watching something live or delayed that also happens to be recording, at the end of it I'm stuck at a paused screen. My wife is constantly complaining about it because of our specific use case of watching the 10pm news live on the local NBC or CBS affiliate. Here's what happens.
- A few minutes before 10pm she changes to the local channel, hits the pause button, and goes to do her "going-to-bed preparations."
- At 10:02pm the daily PTAT event ends.
- At 10:09pm the play button is pressed and we start watching the news.
- At 10:11pm the screen goes into pause mode (because PTAT ended at 10:02)?
- The only way to get back to the news we were watching is to change the channel to something else and then back to the channel we were watching.
- Congratulations, we missed whatever happened between 10:02 and 10:11.
This also happens on non-PTAT channels. For example, there are two shows we want to watch on the same channel back-to-back - we're recording the first one for repeated viewing later but watching live - what will happen is that a few minutes after the first program ends, the screen pauses because the recording stopped, we have to change channels and back, and miss part of the second program (or possibly all of it if the phone rang in the middle of the first and we hit pause).
It seems that the root cause is that the box decides to share out the recording tuner with anyone wanting to watch that same channel live. While the concept of users at the Hopper and several Joeys all sharing a single tuner if they are all watching the same thing is a fantastic idea, having a recording of that channel also use the same tuner is not, because the live TV experience ends when the recording stops. If you're watching something live or delayed, the buffer should still be intact.
Bottom Line: There is NO EXCUSE, when there are up to 15 other tuners available doing absolutely nothing, to share the live viewer with a tuner that is recording something, or to not buffer the channels most recently being watched. If there is an idle tuner available, USE IT.
Proposed fix:
Since the box has 16 tuners and can record 16 things at a time, let's actually use those tuners.
- Whatever is buffering on a specific tuner continues buffering. Reuse tuners on a least recently accessed basis. This would have many benefits, including the ability to use the Recall button to go back to something being watched previously and still be able to rewind in the buffer.
- Every recording gets a dedicated tuner, even if they are on the same channel. Overlapped back-to-back programs where the end of one program is clipped into the beginning of the next or vice-versa are a thing of the past.
- DO NOT USE a tuner which is recording something to serve users who think they are watching "LIVE TV" - if a user selects a channel in the guide, use a new tuner for that (unless someone else is already on that channel). It is OK to share a tuner with all the users who are watching the same channel but DO NOT use that tuner for recording something.
- If a user initiates a recording of the channel they are watching, launch that recording on a separate tuner and leave the one the user was watching alone, OR, record the stream from the same tuner if you can keep it separate from interfering with the LIVE TV buffer.
This was previously posted deep within a thread about the Hopper pausing itself. Since the issue persists, I've broken it out here and made some edits, with an obvious "Bug Report" title.
Problem Description:
Anytime I'm watching something live or delayed that also happens to be recording, at the end of it I'm stuck at a paused screen. My wife is constantly complaining about it because of our specific use case of watching the 10pm news live on the local NBC or CBS affiliate. Here's what happens.
- A few minutes before 10pm she changes to the local channel, hits the pause button, and goes to do her "going-to-bed preparations."
- At 10:02pm the daily PTAT event ends.
- At 10:09pm the play button is pressed and we start watching the news.
- At 10:11pm the screen goes into pause mode (because PTAT ended at 10:02)?
- The only way to get back to the news we were watching is to change the channel to something else and then back to the channel we were watching.
- Congratulations, we missed whatever happened between 10:02 and 10:11.
This also happens on non-PTAT channels. For example, there are two shows we want to watch on the same channel back-to-back - we're recording the first one for repeated viewing later but watching live - what will happen is that a few minutes after the first program ends, the screen pauses because the recording stopped, we have to change channels and back, and miss part of the second program (or possibly all of it if the phone rang in the middle of the first and we hit pause).
It seems that the root cause is that the box decides to share out the recording tuner with anyone wanting to watch that same channel live. While the concept of users at the Hopper and several Joeys all sharing a single tuner if they are all watching the same thing is a fantastic idea, having a recording of that channel also use the same tuner is not, because the live TV experience ends when the recording stops. If you're watching something live or delayed, the buffer should still be intact.
Bottom Line: There is NO EXCUSE, when there are up to 15 other tuners available doing absolutely nothing, to share the live viewer with a tuner that is recording something, or to not buffer the channels most recently being watched. If there is an idle tuner available, USE IT.
Proposed fix:
Since the box has 16 tuners and can record 16 things at a time, let's actually use those tuners.
- Whatever is buffering on a specific tuner continues buffering. Reuse tuners on a least recently accessed basis. This would have many benefits, including the ability to use the Recall button to go back to something being watched previously and still be able to rewind in the buffer.
- Every recording gets a dedicated tuner, even if they are on the same channel. Overlapped back-to-back programs where the end of one program is clipped into the beginning of the next or vice-versa are a thing of the past.
- DO NOT USE a tuner which is recording something to serve users who think they are watching "LIVE TV" - if a user selects a channel in the guide, use a new tuner for that (unless someone else is already on that channel). It is OK to share a tuner with all the users who are watching the same channel but DO NOT use that tuner for recording something.
- If a user initiates a recording of the channel they are watching, launch that recording on a separate tuner and leave the one the user was watching alone, OR, record the stream from the same tuner if you can keep it separate from interfering with the LIVE TV buffer.
Last edited:
