My timers are slightly off, is this just me

[harshness]

DISH appears to do some monkey business with the guide data that causes it to be rounded to the closest handy time. If you look at the data that is on TitanTV or TVGuide, you'll see that they show things starting at times other than the half hour. As an example, tonight's Bachelorette begins at 8pm and runs for 121 minutes and the following episode begins at 10:01 and runs for 59 minutes. Dish has the transition happening at exactly 10:00.

Another example is the Comedy Central schedule that starts anywhere from one to three minutes after the half hour and the end of the show is two to three minutes after the half hour. DISH rounds them all to five minutes after the half-hour.

I suspect that their data model doesn't provide for minute-by-minute breakdown and they need to figure out how to fix it without breaking everything else.

 

[harshness]

For programs that are on the same channel ... I can't see why the turner cannot start one program early and end the other late ... it is the same video stream ... yes it has to keep and manage 2 files or recordings ... but heck if Dish figured out how to do PTAT, you would think the turner could handle that?

DIRECTV does precisely what you're describing but they also felt compelled to limit the number of recordings you could do at once.

 

[Hall]

Dish may only *display* the start and end times at sensible times but internally they use the proper times.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4

 

[lparsons21]

DIRECTV does precisely what you're describing but they also felt compelled to limit the number of recordings you could do at once.

Yes, DirecTv does do that padding a bit better.

And just like Dish, they limit how many recordings you can do at once on a single box. Not sure what you were trying to say in the second part of your sentence.
?

 

[harshness]

Dish may only *display* the start and end times at sensible times but internally they use the proper times.

Not buying it.

I just did a test with National Lampoons Vegas Vacation on Comedy Central. The data from Tribune said the movie started at 11:33. The guide data on my ViP622 said be began at 11:35. The countdown bug showed up at 11:33 and recording started at 11:34 (consistent the default padding).

The movie started maybe just a little before 11:33 so the recording was missing at least the first minute even with the padding.

I'm still convinced that DISH rounds to the nearest five minutes on the ViP622 and earlier and some, if not all later models.

If this is a database limitation (12 starts per hour), it won't be easy to fix without causing major issues for a number of old receivers.

 

[harshness]

Yes, DirecTv does do that padding a bit better.

DIRECTV doesn't do the padding any differently than DISH does. What they do better is overlap programs that are back-to-back and that is a VERY good thing.

And just like Dish, they limit how many recordings you can do at once on a single box.

DIRECTV has a hard ceiling (two on HR2x and five on Genie) whether or not you have an OTA adapter. DISH allows you to record all of the available tuners so adding an OTA adapter actually adds to the number of channels you an record at once.

 

[David_Levin]

Hopper honors back to back pads with 1 tuner

Besides just trying to annoy our PVRs I think the networks are also trying to pack extra commercials into the higher rated shows.

I'm new to the Hopper, but tried an experiment last week. I have PTAT only enabled for a single network on Sat Night. During the week I set up two sets of back two back timers on two of the big 4 networks all with 5 minute pads. Additionally, I set up a timer on CNN. I watched the tuners as the timers fired....

There were times that the "TV Activity" screen seemed to be a bit confused. During the overlap, the tuners showed a status of "Multiple". But, all the timers fired and all the PADs were honored. The network shows seemed to use only the 1 tuner. It looks like Dish is starting to get the padding right. (I wonder if two minute pads would have worked too, or if they would have been zero'd out).

Here's the Two Back 2 Back NCIS recording at the same time with 1 tuner:

 

[papalittle]

all my timers start at 0 early and 5 minutes late and still getting a lot of recording cut short. hopper/2 joeys.

 

[dare2be]

Try 2 and 2. Seriously. Works for me on my ViP

 

[harshness]

all my timers start at 0 early and 5 minutes late and still getting a lot of recording cut short. hopper/2 joeys.

Five minutes suggests an overlap issue where the padding will be ignored.