AR on a per-recording or per-service basis

[MalcolmC]

You can tell on the schedule list (Guide >> Yellow) because, when highlighted, the information at the top of the screen does not include the clock symbol.

Thanks for that. I hadn't noticed the clock symbol before, because the autopadding has so rarely been effective. It seems that if you edit the reservation to set up weekly recording then the padding is cancelled. In fact if you select OK without changing anything the padding is cancelled. Since weekly recording is the one I use mostly, auto-padding is effectively useless to me, unless there's a way to specify "weekly" at the moment you set the reservation from the schedule -- but it seems not.

 

[grahamlthompson]

Thanks for that. I hadn't noticed the clock symbol before, because the autopadding has so rarely been effective. It seems that if you edit the reservation to set up weekly recording then the padding is cancelled. In fact if you select OK without changing anything the padding is cancelled. Since weekly recording is the one I use mostly, auto-padding is effectively useless to me, unless there's a way to specify "weekly" at the moment you set the reservation from the schedule -- but it seems not.

The point of autopadding is that it allows you to retain the series recording capability. If you edit a recording to male it a manual repeating recording you can specify your own padding by simply adjusting the start and end times. If the episode is moved then autopadding will follow the move, setting a manual repeat pattern is completely manual.

 

[Black Hole]

Thanks for that. I hadn't noticed the clock symbol before, because the autopadding has so rarely been effective. It seems that if you edit the reservation to set up weekly recording then the padding is cancelled. In fact if you select OK without changing anything the padding is cancelled. Since weekly recording is the one I use mostly, auto-padding is effectively useless to me, unless there's a way to specify "weekly" at the moment you set the reservation from the schedule -- but it seems not.

I can't help thinking you are not taking best advantage of the facilities. Surely the reason for a weekly recording is to record the same programme every week, so why not select "Record the whole series" when you click the EPG entry? The result will be a reservation which automatically updates itself after every recording to set up the next recording (presuming the next broadcast is in the EPG), or lurk until the next programme does arrive in the EPG. If you look at a series link reservation, it says "once", but there is an "S" icon next to it in the schedule list to denote "series". You do not need to change it to weekly!

If you look at the details of a reservation and don't want to change it (or risk cancelling the EPG traking and auto-padding), click "Cancel" to exit instead of "OK".

 

[MalcolmC]

I can't help thinking you are not taking best advantage of the facilities. Surely the reason for a weekly recording is to record the same programme every week, so why not select "Record the whole series" when you click the EPG entry? The result will be a reservation which automatically updates itself after every recording to set up the next recording (presuming the next broadcast is in the EPG), or lurk until the next programme does arrive in the EPG. If you look at a series link reservation, it says "once", but there is an "S" icon next to it in the schedule list to denote "series". You do not need to change it to weekly!

I have tried the series recording feature but abandonded it for three reasons. (1) Didn't work once while I was on holiday and I missed all the programmes (I did have two restarts per day programmed). (2) Records repeats as well as the programme transmissions required resulting in duplicate files that need to be sorted out and deleted and which can produce unnecessary schedule conflicts. (3) When two episodes are transmitted successively you get two files instead of one long one and the changeover point can be within one of the programmes (I think this has been discussed somewhere else on the forum). All of this is familiar from my experience with my Humax 9200T of long ago, but I'd forgotten it / assumed it would be improved for later models. So I'll continue with tedious manual padding. Thanks for all your comments, and sorry if I've cluttered up the wrong thread here.

 

[MartinLiddle]

So I'll continue with tedious manual padding.

Have you actually tried without using padding ie using active recording? For us (and I think the great majority on the forum) it works well (and significantly better than the 9200). If it doesn't work well for you then check that your box is only receiving from a single transmitter. There is a small minority for whom it doesn't work reliably for reasons that aren't clear to me.

 

[Black Hole]

I find all this very strange. I'm sure there must be some kind of misunderstanding behind the scenes, but without being on the spot it is hard to pin down. If you have followed all the advice about manual tuning, and EPG updating for when you are away, it should all work very satisfactorily (although granted with a small problem of consecutive programmes), and I have detailed exactly how padding resolves its priorities even if you can't get AR to behave (are you habitually recording "minority" channels?).

What exactly do you mean by "restarts"?

To answer specifically: 1) are you sure you are not corrupting the series reservation by editing it manually (or viewing it and exiting by "OK"? Depending what you mean by "restart" you might not have ensured EPG update.

2) The series reservation should NOT record repeats unless you have specifically scheduled another instance yourself. As long as the broadcasters do their job properly the programme CRID will be recognised as the same as an existing recording and not be set to record.

3) I grant this is true, but less likely to be a problem with AR (if it works) than padding (which is eliminated between consecutive programmes). If I want to record consecutive programmes I go for an alternative repeat or a +1 channel if I can. The WebIF allows you to join two recordings together, so actually all is not lost.

In summary I think (even with my old AR problems) the majority have had a much better user experience than you seem to be having, so if we can get to the bottom of it you might too.

You have read "Things Every HD/HDR-FOX Owner Should Know"?

 

[MalcolmC]

What exactly do you mean by "restarts"?

Sorry about the sloppy terminology. I mean I have two 20 minute reminders programmed each day (or rather night) so that the EPG is read -- two, following the advice for using the custom web interface. That's in addition to the "no automatic software update" reminder. I'll experiment with AR and SR for programmes I don't actually want to watch! I no doubt do have some unwarranted wariness left over from my 9200T experiences.

 

[Ezra Pound]

You are using the terms AR (Acurate Recording) and SR (Series Recording) as if one defeats the other, the opposite to AR (if you like) is padding, padding turns AR off, no Padding turns AR on, neither are directly related to selecting 'Record Whole Series' from the EPG which is what I would call SR

 

[antipodean]

If you edit a recording to male it a manual repeating recording you can specify your own padding by simply adjusting the start and end times.

Yes you can autopad the start time, but if you go earlier than the EPG start time for the program it gets recorded with the name of the previous program. I know this because I have set upthe BBC 6PM news this way so that I record both the national and local news as one item each weekday.

Can the CF make this method of setting up a program use padding without having to manually put it in resulting in the incorrect program name on the recording?

 

[MalcolmC]

Yes you can autopad the start time,

I think you must mean "manually pad the start time" not "autopad". But I agree, it's very annoying that doing this gives the wrong programme name in your schedule. The older Humax PVRs didn't have that problem; they chose the name from the EPG at a time somewhere in between the programmed start and finish times. I'm guessing this in a part of the firmware that the customisers don't have access to. The same kind of annoyance can occur when the HDR-FOX T2 is reporting a recording conflict: it says you're trying to record a programme you've maybe never heard of because it's the one before the one you want.

 

[antipodean]

I think you must mean "manually pad the start time" not "autopad". But I agree, it's very annoying that doing this gives the wrong programme name in your schedule. The older Humax PVRs didn't have that problem; they chose the name from the EPG at a time somewhere in between the programmed start and finish times. I'm guessing this in a part of the firmware that the customisers don't have access to. The same kind of annoyance can occur when the HDR-FOX T2 is reporting a recording conflict: it says you're trying to record a programme you've maybe never heard of because it's the one before the one you want.

Yes, you are correct, I meant manually pad ...

When you say 'customisers' do you mean that Humax don't write the core firmware handling the Freeview?

 

[Black Hole]

No, I think he means that our BYTs can't correct it in the custom firmware.

 

[Ezra Pound]

When you say 'customisers' do you mean that Humax don't write the core firmware handling the Freeview?

There is a main core program, 'humaxtv' running on the Humax (written by Humax), the Custom Firmware does not touch this program, but instead adds programs that can run alongside it. So as a general rule the Customisers don't change the main running of the Humax

 

[MikeSh]

Hi, I'm a fairly new FOX and Custom Firmware user (a few months). I've discovered a 'feature' but my searches can't confirm if it's been noted already, so I'm putting it here as it seems the most relevant spot, short of starting a new thread.

I'm running a few packages in the CF including Multimode almost from the off and just recently Renumber.
I got a little caught as when I renumbered the channels it didn't change the Multimode padded channel numbers, and I'd pretty much forgotten about them (that is good software for you). So for example Five which was on ch 5 with padding went elsewhere (and lost the padding) and ITV1 took the ch 5 spot - and thus got converted to padding. (Luckily I usually record the ITV HD channel and we didn't lose anything on the Five recordings before I noticed it wasn't padding them anymore.)

I'm not expecting a fix, but it might be worth adding a warning in the Renumber notes about it.

 

[Black Hole]

Good spot! Quirks like this happen as a result of "unintended consequences". af123 is a bright guy, don't rule out a fix.

 

[Black Hole]

Well now, resurrecting an old thread, I've hit a problem with multimode.

I decided to install it on an HD-FOX, to selectively use auto-padding on LCN70 Horror (recordings are cutting off early with AR). Yes, it installed (and I rebooted for good measure), and I could disable AR for an entry in the schedule, but the multimode options in WebIF >> Settings don't make any sense and don't behave as stated in the wiki.

I thought I would selectively make Horror default to auto-padding through the settings, but the "Leave alone" column is not populated and I can't select Horror to move to the "Convert to Padding" column.

DISCLAIMER: I first wondered whether this is a HD-FOX problem, but now I'm thinking it might be a iPadOS problem! I'll report back when I've checked with a desktop browser!

 

[MymsMan]

Using Firefox on win 10 the leave alone column is populated and I can select multiple channels to move using the arrow buttons

Tunefix and Detectads have similar channel selection lists so you could check whether they work on iOS

this is on HDR FOX T2 and dont have HD FOX - it may be package hasn't been tested on HD

 

[Black Hole]

iPadOS (iOS13) problem confirmed!

Here's what it looks like in Chrome/Win7-64:



...and in Safari/iOS (same URL):