Consecutive Recordings Problem

[chrisjames]

I have a Tivo V6. I set recordings to start a minute early and 4 mins longer. Up to now, no problem. On Friday I recorded the following programmes on BBC1HD:

2030: Would I Lie To You?

2100: Death in Paradise.

WILTY started a minute early and recorded until 2104 (correct)

DIP did not start to record until 2104 after WILTY had finished.

This has never happened before. Only two programmes being recorded out of the possible six. What's happening?

[japitts]

What's the total duration of your DIP recording?

[nodrogd]

Have you set any additional time "padding" at the beginning or end of your recordings ?

It's been a querk of the V6 firmware for some time. If you have consecutive programmes set from the EPG, the V6 will use the same tuner to record the both programmes. Therefore the second recording will not start until the first one finishes due to the padding you have set. I have got around this by either setting a manual recording for the whole time block or removing the "padding" where the two recordings would overlap.

[japitts]

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@nodrogd wrote:

It's been a querk of the V6 firmware for some time. If you have consecutive programmes set from the EPG, the V6 will use the same tuner to record the both programmes. Therefore the second recording will not start until the first one finishes due to the padding you have set.

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I agree with this, but... if you view "My shows" during the overlap period, the V6 only shows the "ending" recording and not the "starting one".

When the overlap ends, that buffer is added to the end of the previous recording, and the start of the second one. The end result being, that both recordings are of the expected length.

The OP mentions -1min/+4mins, so I'd expect DIP to be 1hr 5mins

[chrisjames]

My total duration of DIP was, according to the programme information, "59 mins (partial)" and the recording finished at 2205

[chrisjames]

I would also add that all Series Links are set to -1/+4 so the problem is only going to occur when two of the Series Links follow on from each other, something that would not necessarily apply at the time you set them (the series of both may not even run on the same day/same week even) so manually sorting out the problem possibly many weeks later after setting them up is not something that I should have to do.  Thanks for the interest and the replies guys, but basically the message to Virgin, is SORT IT!!!

[Graham_A · Accepted solution]

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@chrisjames wrote:
My total duration of DIP was, according to the programme information, "59 mins (partial)" and the recording finished at 2205

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This happens if you delete the first recording before the end of the padding period and the second recording is not yet showing in 'My Shows'.

[Ernie_C]

I agree with @Graham_A  that this occurs if the first recording is deleted before TiVo gets the chance to stitch the last part of the first program to the beginning of the second.

Of course, this would not have happened in the old days when TiVo used two different tuners in this circumstance. Then again, everybody complained about the ‘waste’ of a tuner and Virgin Media listened and changed it to a single tuner used for consecutive recordings.

Of course, it could be easily fixed by not allowing the first recording to be deleted until the second has finished recording. There would then be further complaints from customers. Why can’t I delete this recording?

[nodrogd]

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@chrisjames wrote:

Thanks for the interest and the replies guys, but basically the message to Virgin, is SORT IT!!!

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Sort it! Yes, and recreate the original problem. If you have 2 tuners recording the same channel and are recording other programmes consecutively on other channels these can fail or a channel you are watching live gets changed to one you are recording as  you quickly run out of available tuners.

This change was bought in due to customer complaints on the above issue. So it’s either one or the other. You can’t have both with the current 6 tuner hardware, & VM are not going to get hardware changed on a platform that is being phased out.

[chrisjames]

Aaah! Thanks Graham A, I wondered why it had never happened before to me. Most unusual for me to delete a programme so quickly which is what caused the problem. That being so, I agree that no Virgin Fix is necessary, it was purely because of my premature expunction.