Recording Help Needed

[BigTony]

Hi All,

First time poster. Long time lurker. I need some help from the experts as DTV's support is pretty much clueless. I hope this isn't a duplicate post.

I have been a long time DTV subscriber, and have had a DTV Tivo for the last 3 years. With the increased HD capacity, I decided to man up and finally go HD. Bought a new TV and the HR21. I asked DTV some very specific questionsabout the HR21, and I think I might have been misled. Let me be as detailed as I can.

I am really used to the Tivo season pass options, and I am trying to make my priortizer on the HR21 function the same way. Between my wife and I we are sitcom whores, so we put our DVR to the test to record our many programs. Here is an example of what a Moday might look like.

Monday:

3:30 PM - PTI ESPN HD
6:58 PM - Chuck NBC HD
6:58 PM - High Stakes Poker GSN
6:58 PM - I Love New York VH1 HD
7:58 PM - Heroes NBC HD

In my prioritzer, I have them listed as such:

1. PTI
2. Heroes
3. Chuck
4. I Love New York
5. High Stakes Poker

Since High Stakes Poker and I love New York run multiple times throghout the week, they are not as important for me to record on Mondays as Heroes and Chuck. So I have prioriized them to reflect it and it should pick them up later in the week when the DVR is free.

What keeps happening is that Chuck and I Love New York keep recording, and if I am not watching the TV it skips Heroes. With my older Tivo, it would recognize that Heroes was scheduled to start at 7:58 pm, so it would record Chuck, but skip recording the other two since I higher prioritized program (Heroes) needs a free tuner to record at 7:58pm. But the HR21 isn't working that way. DTV says it is supposed to, but I think they might be high :)

I have tried to switch High Stakes Poker and I love New York to record on other days, but the To DO List end up moving them back to Mondays automatically.

This problem mostly happens on Mondays and Thursdays when my DVR has a lot of programs to record. The problem is my wife and I travel a lot and use our SlingBox to access the DVR, so we are not here to watch it record and make sure it is doing what is supposed to.

Anyone have a suggestion or advice? It would be much appreciated.

[Stuart Sweet]

Try setting a manual record for High Stakes Poker and I Love New York on the days you want them, and take them out of the prioritizer.

[gcisko]

Try setting a manual record for High Stakes Poker and I Love New York on the days you want them, and take them out of the prioritizer.

But then he would have to go and manually record them. I think he should just go to the guide and double click on the record button to setup series recordings and not mess with the start time. I think starting at 7:58 versus 8pm is messing him up.

[veryoldschool]

I think this is the issue:
6:58 PM - Chuck NBC HD
6:58 PM - High Stakes Poker GSN
6:58 PM - I Love New York VH1 HD

Since High Stakes Poker is on at another time, I'd delete the series link and set it up on the later time. This should also drop it down the priority listing too.

[say-what]

The problem is that you have 2 programs recording from 6:58 - 8pm and you start Heroes 2 minutes early. Since both tuners are in use recording a program, Heroes is conflicted out.

The prioritizer works with the start times first and a recording that starts earlier is going to have priority over a recording that starts later, regardless of their prioritizer rankings - the prioritizer does not interrupt in progress recordings. So, based on your prioritizer and season pass settings, Heroes would not record because of the 2 earlier recordings in progress (although it should because it's on the same channel as 1 recording in progress). At least this is my understanding. I'm going to set up a similar schedule for the 12-1 and 1-2 CST hours to see if this is so.

[F1 Fan]

The problem is starting Heroes 2 minutes early. As it follows Chuck you should start it 1 minute early. The HR21 (IIRC) should allow the negative padding on the same channel (I think it only allows 1 minute negative padding).

[say-what]

Well, what I thought was happening, happened.

I set 3 SL's (and only because it was convenient for the test): Rachel Ray 12-1 (priority 14); Is it Real 12-1 (priority 16); The People's Court 12:58-1 (priority 15). Rachel Ray and The People's Court run back to back on the same channel, Is it Real was on Nat.Geo.HD.

Because there were 2 recordings in progress when The People's Court was scheduled to record, it did not record. The history entry says "This episode was not recorded because of an unexpected error. (3/0/)

I would suggest starting Heores on time or ending I Love NY 2 minutes early.

[BigTony]

thanks for all the suggestions. I will most likely have to change the start times to the exact hour as suggested instead of starting them two minutes early. Sometimes Heroes starts a minutes or two early, but I can deal with it to get all the programs to record.

I wish I could have my cake and eat it to. I like this device, but I miss my Tivo and hope to see an MPEG 4 DTV HD Tivo option soon.

thanks again for all the help.

Big Tony