Missing start/end of recordings

Filklore

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Have had my Humax Youview box for a couple of weeks, and mostly I have been happy with it. The one annoyance is the absence of any way to either automatically pad the start and end times of the recording, or even manually edit the recording time. (If there *is* a way, and I have simply missed it, please, somebody, tell me!) This would not be an issue, if the schedule was accurate, but in the case of a couple of broadcasters, it isn't - the worst offender being 5 (and 5USA). I'm not talking overuns either. 5USA is currently reshowing Shark Season 1, which I missed when it first went out. It is scheduled every weekday from 6pm to 6.55pm, followed by a short show called "Inside Hollywood". Invariably, this cuts off the last 2-4 minutes of Shark, and the only way I've found around it is to set up a schedule for "Inside Hollywood" as well. This is only one example, I've come across similar problems with NCIS and other shows. Given that 5 is one of the participants in YouView, you'd think it would be incumbent on them to either make sure the schedules are accurate, or allow for such variation in the design of the box - i.e. allow for recording padding.
 
There isn't any way to manually adjust recording settings, just one of the many omissions that you would get on a decent pvr.
 
... not helped of course by Channel5 treating its viewers with contempt by failing to deal with the issues mentioned here. It's just not sensible to rely an an EPG setting for the recording of any C5 transmission -- manually is the only real way to grab a complete programme. That said, there's so little worth watching on C5 et al (IMHO) it probably isn't worth the effort.


Clem
 
Filklore said:
Have had my Humax Youview box for a couple of weeks, and mostly I have been happy with it. The one annoyance is the absence of any way to either automatically pad the start and end times of the recording, or even manually edit the recording time. (If there *is* a way, and I have simply missed it, please, somebody, tell me!) This would not be an issue, if the schedule was accurate, but in the case of a couple of broadcasters, it isn't - the worst offender being 5 (and 5USA). I'm not talking overuns either. 5USA is currently reshowing Shark Season 1, which I missed when it first went out. It is scheduled every weekday from 6pm to 6.55pm, followed by a short show called "Inside Hollywood". Invariably, this cuts off the last 2-4 minutes of Shark, and the only way I've found around it is to set up a schedule for "Inside Hollywood" as well. This is only one example, I've come across similar problems with NCIS and other shows. Given that 5 is one of the participants in YouView, you'd think it would be incumbent on them to either make sure the schedules are accurate, or allow for such variation in the design of the box - i.e. allow for recording padding.

I my experience the lack of no padding time adjustment seems to be only a problem to programmes on the 5 network of channels. On all the other major networks ( Itv, BBC & 4) this dose not appear to be a problem in fact the I like the way it starts at beginning of the programme without having to manually forward wind to the start. This being the case as 5 is major player it should insure that it codes are inserted in to EPG correctly. There should be no need to having any padding time if broadcaster got it right, if the other broadcasters can do it why not 5? I would not like to add padding to time to all my recording just because one broadcaster can get it right. If youview were to add a facility to allow variation of start time, I hope they will do it so we can adjust on a individual channel basis and not for all, as in general I as stated above I like the present arrangement.
 
Well, if you search AVForums you'll see that this is a reoccurring thread in that recordings on the C5 network are frequently cut short, and representations to the company requesting them to address the issue goes unanswered. On that basis, a manual timer or padding would seem to be the only option. ITV used to be pretty bad, chopping off the start of recordings, but they seem to have improved, although it's not perfect. C5 et al seem to come in for so much repeat criticism. It's an easy fix by all accounts, just not one that they can be bothered to implement.


Clem
 
recordings on the C5 network are frequently cut short, and representations to the company requesting them to address the issue goes unanswered
Someone did get an answer, see DS Tread Post 686

I quote

Thank you for your recent enquiry. We were sorry to learn that you have been experiencing problems recording our Cricket coverage. We do not currently provide 'live' or real time synchronisation of our Electronic Programme Guide (EPG). This lack of real time synchronisation means that when a programme starts slightly later than scheduled, your PVR will still stop at the original scheduled time as it has obtained its timing information from the EPG. If you manually input the recording times on your PVR, allowing a few minutes extra at the beginning and end of programmes, this may enable recording in these instances. Thank you for your interest in Channel 5. Yours sincerely

So CH5 are aware of the issues that not providing live EPG data causes for recordings & when they don't run to schedule, but don't seem to care and have no intention of changing.

The only thing I can suggest to to set the programes before, during (in case of news bulletin etc showing on EPG) & after in order to ensure you get the whole program. This wouldn't be necessary if Youview allowing setting of manual timers.
 
Yes I recall this now, but I took that as being specific to the cricket, not an overall performance thing. In any event it's still I think a lame response given that we don't [generally] see these issues with other broadcasters. By extraction, having to set a Youview box up to record programmes before and after the one that you're interested in to get round this issue is also pretty lame because of the lack of padding capability and/or manual timer options. Given that C5 was/is involved in the project I don't think it unreasonable for them to come up with something better.

If the BBC, C4 et al can get this thing right, why not C5? Still, when you fit programmes round the ad breaks it's probably the best that they can come up with.


Clem
 
Is it to do with costs? C5 don't have the scale of income or staff that the BBC ITV or c4 have to include ar system s
 
Interesting comments.

Note that in the case that I quoted - i.e. Shark - it is not even a case of them over-running. The programme starts on time. It is just longer than the slot 5USA have allocated in the schedule.

There really is no excuse for this.

Regarding a padding option, I've had padding on previous hard disk recorders (I'm not going to get into defining "what is a real pvr" here), and generally, I found it annoying for the reasons the poster given - it affected all programmes, and sometimes even stopped me recording two successive programmes on different channels, if the padding caused an overlap. However, this option is better than missing the ends of programmes.

My preferred option is to be able to create manual recording schedules, as well as those created from the EPG. So I could either have "record series X, based on the EPG" or "record 5USA, every weekday from 6 to 7pm". That way, if I know a channel or programme is going to cause scheduling problems, I can fix it.

My FetchTV box managed to do this easily, and without any problems (other than that it was heap of rubbish, but that's another story).
 
There isn't any way to manually adjust recording settings, just one of the many omissions that you would get on a decent pvr.
You really don't like this machine, do you.
 
Youview relies on downloaded programme information so they should be better. Are the problem programmes available on Demand 5?
 
Youview relies on downloaded programme information so they should be better. Are the problem programmes available on Demand 5?

Are you saying an internet connection updates the Freeview epg :eek:. Frankly I doubt that very much (as the programme has not been transmitted yet if you record it live how could that work). Pretty sure the internet provides the backwards epg data, not the live content. The box will work OK as a Freeview+ pvr without a net connection getting it's epg data just like any other from the broadcast data stream on the channel you are watching. Most likely why the current box has no live epg search.
 
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Are you saying an internet connection updates the Freeview epg :eek:. Frankly I doubt that very much (as the programme has not been transmitted yet if you record it live how could that work). Pretty sure the internet provides the backwards epg data, not the live content. The box will work OK as a Freeview+ pvr without a net connection getting it's epg data just like any other from the broadcast data stream on the channel you are watching. Most likely why the current box has no live epg search.

Try it if you can. It does not use the Freeview EPG. The "i" button now gives more programme details than is sent by Freeview. There are also thumbnail pictures on some programmes from the PSBs. Whether this is downloaded in real time or loaded from the "pushed" data is not immediately apparent but my router lights did seem to change tempo when I went forward by days and the EPG populated.

You may have to update to fully appreciate the differences. Regular downloads would also explain some of the error messages when you try to use catchup.
 
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