[jbarr]

I spent a bit of time tonight with the Adjustable Recording Days option to see how it works and to see how it would affect recordings, and I must say that it is very interesting...


Basically, the feature allows you to select (by checking or un-checking) check boxes corresponding to recording days (each weekday). This effectivly "frees-up" a recording time slot for a show you don't want to record, but prior to this feature, you had to record it.


As a test, I set up a repeating Guaranteed show-based recording to record every night from 10:00 to 10:30. (Today is Wednesday.) A check of the Channel Guide showd the double-dot on this show for each day of the week.


Next, I set up a Guaranteed single-show recording on a different channel to record on Friday night from 10:00 to 10:30. As expected, the conflict message popped up. Intuitivly, this makes sense because a show is scheduled to record already in this time slot.


Next, I went back into the original recording and un-checked Friday from the recording days list. Checking the Channel Guide shows that for Friday only, the show had no red dots. All other days had the double-dots.


Next, I set up a Guaranteed single-show recording on a different channel to record on Friday night from 10:00 to 10:30. Lo and behold, no conflict! The channel guide showed a single-dot on the new show and no dots on the other recording slot. Cool!


Obviously, this functionality may have a limited audience, but for those who need it, it's very nice. I could see how this could be used to resolve some of those pesky "multi-airings" of some syndicated shows.





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-Jim


ReplayTV: The only way to watch Iron Chef!

 

[toots]

I was kind of hoping this feature would be available on theme channels, too.


Basically, I try not to set up show based events because the networks are so flakey anymore, you can't really count on the show staying in the same timeslot, day, or even network in the long term.


True, if we're lucky enough to have the show come on a 9:00 sometime, you could set a show based recording for it, and given the +/- 1 hour feature, it'd catch it on that channel during prime time on any day of the week. Still not good enough, though.


Here's one problem: I want to set up a channel to record "Law & Order" whenever the heck it comes on in prime time. With any luck, that'd even catch both L&O shows with one theme. But, if I make such a theme recording, my 2020 would get filled in about two days by all the reruns on A&E. I'd like to make a theme and either exclude times or networks.


Another issue, which involves making an even worse confession than admitting one owns a Yanni album: Star Trek Voyager. This one's been impossible for me.


For a while, the Boston area UPN station was showing ST:V on Wednesday at 9:, and reruns of ST:V every night at 10:00. Except when there is a game on. Of course, being a guilty pleasure, it takes a back seat to West Wing at 9:00 on Wednesday. Of course, there's the weekend repeat of the new show. The timing on this repeat seems to come out of a random number generator. What I really wanted was "Record ST:V at any time, except for 10:00 PM on weeknights," and let the guaranteed record of WW nuke the Wed 9:00 showing ('cept when WW isn't on).


Okay, I know that's about 10 times more complicated than you guys planned, promised or delivered, and I'm not particularly upset that I can't do that yet. I just wish I could, that's all.

 

[Ferguson]

If we had an "Ignore This Show" function you would not have this problem, or at least there would be a very easy solution. I have the same situation with ST:V in Dallas. If I could do a "Find Matching Shows" and nix the shows I don't want to watch, my time spent in programming the ReplayTV would be reduced to a fraction of what it is now. You would not need to understand any complicated procedure to accomplish this and its operation could be intuitively obvious.


[This message has been edited by Ferguson (edited 10-19-2000).]


[This message has been edited by Ferguson (edited 10-19-2000).]

 

[JustDoug]

All-in-all, you shouldn't touch those controls unless you're running into the mult-airing problem, becuase searching for the show every day is what allows ReplayTV to automatically find and record the show when it changes days.

 

[fubie]

I have the same ST Voyager issues.


A nice fix for this might be a don't record option.


select the show you want, then it will ask don't record all shows? I would say yes for the 10pm showings.


Then select Done. Then on the channel guide I would see Black dots on those episodes.


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If only she could be paused like my ReplayTV.


[This message has been edited by fubie (edited 10-19-2000).]

 

[Amazingly Smooth]

Here's what I really want: if I've got say ER scheduled to record and I block it off for Thursday only, Replay should look ahead and send me a message that says, "ER is not showing this Thursday in the current recording window. I see it on Wednesday night instead. If you want to record it this Wednesday only select [Single Change]. If you want to move its recording window select [Change Record Options]." The message would change if ER was not found at all on this station during the coming week and so on. Replay is supposed to help me watch the shows I want. Replay should be smarter about missing shows if they change times so that I don't have to reserve space for a show that only airs once a week.


Cheers


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ReplayTV -- The only one that had firewire...

 

[Chris Myers]

Blocking out unwanted days is really useful for subscribers to services like HBO that repeat programs often during the week. I love this feature!

 

[Ferguson]

I don't search my Replay Channels every day. I search them once a week and set up the recording schedule all at one time. I have a 2020 and must be careful about which programs I choose. I like the black dot idea. As a matter-of-fact, with that option I would not have to specify which programs to record, just those that I didn't want. The record options would be already set in the Replay Channel. The PVR would then automatically record the programs that were not nixed according to the record options for that channel.


Currently, I have to select each program that I want from the list and set up the record for each one individually. I then go back and set the Search Criterion to an option that will not result in a hit and automatic record by the PVR. For instance, if I want to record programs that involve a Keyword, I set the Show Titles and Descriptions options to YES and do the search and evaluations. When I have finished, I reset the Show Titles and Descriptions options to NO, and leave the Actors (or Director) to YES to keep the Replay Channel active. In that manner, I can keep that Replay Channel, but it is effectively disabled. The software will not allow a Replay Channel to have all options=NO. That is the only way that I can maintain control of my PVR and keep it from filling the disk with trash and overwriting the programs that I wanted to keep.

 

[Wayno]

Ferguson,


That sounds like the same way I do my setups due to limited space available. I'd suggest you set all your searches/themes/etc to gauranteed=NO. That way you make your selections from the list of shows using Find all shows and you don't have to make any changes to your searches/themes and the search criteria.


Then you have the plus of possibly getting a recording you might have missed. Say for instance an additional episode of one of your themes pops into the lineup it might get recorded if nothing else is scheduled. With your method it wouldn't get recorded because you changed your search criteria so nothing shows up in the search. By simply changing the search/theme to not gauranteed you may get something you might otherwise miss.

Sure there's the added junk that gets recorded because it matches the search, but it's non-gauranteed so space isn't a problem since anything gauranteed will erase it if it needs the space. I have that problem with a couple of my zones like "Sports Automotive" where every nascar race (seems like they have about 40 of these things a day) but I just either manually delete them from the Replay Guide, or let them get dumped by the machine when a gauranteed recording comes along.




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Wayne Dunham

[email protected]