[Mark Dubin]

Since we all know the troublesome way that the data is handled for the NFL Sunday Ticket, I decided to use padding to record the game today instead of manual record.


Data has 2 hour blocks starting on the "even" hours. Game was 1:00 - 4:30.


Started with the 2:00PM - 4:00PM block of time and added 60 minutes to the beginning to start at 1:00 PM and added 30 minutes to the end.


Simple enough? Not as it turned out.


After the initial PLAY program, (which accessed the beginning) the ONLY way I can re-access the first hour of the program is to do one of the following:

1. Continuously press REW 20x back into the "negative" display time

2. Press 60 and REPLAY from the 0:00 point to get it to -60:00. (or 30 and REPLAY to go -30:00, etc.)


Using PLAY FROM BEGINNING starts it at 2:00PM (or an hour in).

Also, I cannot use the direct access. (30 and JUMP, etc.) to go directly to anything in the first hour.


Message to ReplayTV. This is POOR designing of the padding feature.

PLAY FROM BEGINNING should go to the start of the recording.

I have lost playback flexability for a total hour of recording time.


Please take a closer look into this and adjusts what appears to be an obvious flaw in software design.


...or tell me if I am missing the proper procedure.

 

[cwoody222]

Personally I would rarely have an interest in padding such large amnts. of time (I don't watch sports ever) but I fully agree.


When ReplayMike annouced this I thought it sounded wacky.


"Play From Beginning" should mean play from beginning of recording, not scheduled time. Any other way is confusing.


Was this kind of stuff discussed with *any* of the beta testers?


ReplayMike said that the option of limiting Themes to certain days was confusing to 2.0 (yes, he said 2.0) beta testers so it was removed...something I personally disagree with. But...it seems they do consult testers on this sort of thing.


But...to my knowledge, I haven't heard a 3.0 beta tester say they were asked such opinions...anyone? anyone? Bueler?

 

[FreezeFrame]



Perhaps adding a new option to a ReplayShows menu, i.e. "Play From Start Time". This would only be displayed on a "padded" shows menu. Then modify the "Play From Beginning" to start at the beginning including the pad.


Also as you cursor around on the ReplayShows, put an indicator at the top of the bar to show the current "play" location. Perhaps a little inverted arrow. This would visually remind a person that the show was padded and they could see the amount of padding instantly.

 

[Dr. Zed]

My first thoughts, when trying to think of why the setup might make sense was this.... Padding, ideally, if a "just in case" concept. A show is not supposed to start early and it is not supposed to end late. Given that thinking, maybe this would make sense. You start playing at what should be the right time, and if you need to, you can rewind.


Well, that thought didn't last long. One flaw I realized is that, while running long is probably something that is infrequent, _starting_ early is usually something that the show does regularly, or doesn't do at all. So, with that, the "pre-episode" padding probably won't be a "just in case" pad.


The way you set it up sounds like an effort to take padding for a test drive. It's definatly, IMO, a non-typical method of recording something. However, it sounds like this _might_ be an issue for any instance where pre-episode padding is needed. It is probably only a minor issue if the first playthrough works as desired.


Having the feature at all is better than not. But, since there'a always room for improvements, I'm sure people will voice their opinion for consideration, since things can be changed in a future release.



------------------
"It's like living in the future."


[This message has been edited by an infinite number of monkeys (edited 10-24-2000).]

 

[FreezeFrame]



Just had a thought. You could bind the "Return To Live" concept to the "Pre Show Pad". Then use it in the following ways.



"1) A good way for the direct access feature to work within the padded time."


## "Return To Live" takes you to the Nth minute of the "Pre Show Pad"


"2) A convenient way to quickly start at the beginning."


Press "Return To Live" while a show is selected in the ReplayGuide, starts from the beginning of the pre-show pad.


I think these short cuts should be in addition to the new menu item, as mentioned above. After a show starts to play you could also use the "Left Cursor" key to jump to the beginning of the pad. i.e. Press Play, or select play to start the show, then within a short period of time(5 min) pressing "Left Cursor" jumps you back to the beginning of the PrePad. This should be enough time for you to determine if the commercials you are watching are before the show or after an opening teaser.



Hmm, I haven't even got a padded show recorded yet! But I have set one up just to try it!

 

[Mark Dubin]

This specific conversation wouldn't have even come up if Tribune wouldn't be so "pig headed" and put the proper start and end times on the NFL Sunday Ticket.


1:00PM - 4:00PM (we could pad at the end if we are not recording a 4:00 game.)


4:00 - 7:00PM (we could also pad at the end.)


I could (and will) be setting Manual Recordings in the future, but it is nice to have the Button say NFL Sunday Ticket instead of Manual Record.


Still, this padding feature was not well designed no matter what the "assumptions" were.


As per another tread.... does ReplayTV even realize the large scope of the "Playback Skip" problem they have? I thought I was the only one, but apparently, people are returning units because of it.

 

[Chris Myers]

Quote:

ReplayMike said: I still think it's desirable to be able to start the show by default at the scheduled time...

Why? Padding a show is an explicit user override of default operation. If the user has jumped through the hoops necessary to start the recording early, the unit should assume that the user is interested in viewing the early portion. It's extremely counter-intuitive otherwise.

 

[karog]

Quote:

Originally posted by NetBoy: I agree. Playback should begin at the start of the recorded material not when the schedule says it should.

Yet another vote for starting padded shows at the beginning of the recording. This is another case where Replay is trying to be too clever and creating more problems than it is solving.


If pre-pad is long, then the current method creates alll kinds of problems. If it is short, then a few Quick Skips can get you through it.


And the current method will also make no sense if so called "negative" padding is ever implemented. If the show is recorded starting 10 minutes after the scheduled start, what would it mean to start at the scheduled time?


And please, no goofy ideas like start at the beginning of recorded material if the pad is long but at the scheduled time if the pad is short.


Do the correct simple thing. Beginning means beginning of the recording, always.




[This message has been edited by karog (edited 10-30-2000).]

 

[cwoody222]

Mike: I apologize if I got your comments wrong...my fault for not going back and re-reading the comments. My bad!

 

[JustDoug]

What's wrong with pressing 0 JUMP to get to the beginning? Until it is changed, I think this is a pretty easy solution.


BTW, I think starting at the actual show start time is a GREAT solution for a global,across-the-board pad-when-possible feature, if that was ever to happen.







------------------

-JustDoug

 

[Mark Dubin]

Quote:

Originally posted by JustDoug: What's wrong with pressing 0 JUMP to get to the beginning? Until it is changed, I think this is a pretty easy solution.

That's the point. It DOESN'T work that way. Pressing 0 and JUMP takes you to the start of the scheduled time, not the recorded time, which is a negative number.


Bottom line, it needs changing. (my word is "fixing")

 

[JustDoug]

oh. I see I need to actually *use* the feature before talking about it http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/wink.gif




------------------

-JustDoug

 

[PRMan]

One more vote that this is completely counter-intuitive.


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PRMan

 

[dmaneyapanda]

i can't talk about the replay implementation (since I don't own a replay at this time), but my fancy would actually be for the current implementation - start at the scheduled time. of course, it would be great if there were an easy way to jump back to portions of "negative" time, too.


dinesh