Shows deleted while watching it

[BrettStah]

This is interesting and unexpected behavior... I don't think I like it that much:

HR20-100, latest software installed - I have a recurring series link (that's what they call season passes, correct?) for some of the late-night shows, and they're all set to keep 2 episodes. I was watching the oldest episode (from Tuesday night) of Leno (I'll scan through it, seeing if I want to watch any of the interviews or musical guests), when the HR20 unexpectedly went to the list of recordings. I didn't even have the remote in my hand at the moment. I then noticed that it was the start of the Tonight Show, and my HR20 was recording tonight's episode.

While I readily admit that could make technical sense (the show is set to keep 2 episodes) from a computer programming point of view, does anyone else think that it does not make good logical sense? If the user is actually in the process of watching something, it sort of stands to reason that they actually may want to not have it deleted right then.

[Xaa]

I experienced the same thing with another SL. I didn't like it too much. From a user standpoint it stinks.

I know that tivo would not delete that show if you were watching it.

Not a huge deal because I think I would experience it infrequently.

Xaa

[radamo]

I experienced the same thing with another SL. I didn't like it too much. From a user standpoint it stinks.

I know that tivo would not delete that show if you were watching it.

Not a huge deal because I think I would experience it infrequently.

Xaa

You wouldn't think it would happen much but it happened to me the other night as well. To me, this is just one more "undocumented feature" of this disturbingly poorly designed piece of hardware.

RA

[texasbrit]

You wouldn't think it would happen much but it happened to me the other night as well. To me, this is just one more "undocumented feature" of this disturbingly poorly designed piece of hardware.

RA

There has been a lot of discussion about this issue. To change it so that the system does not delete something you are "watching", you would have to produce a very specific definition of what "watching" means. For example, if you pause the playback to go to the bathroom, or to take a phone call, is that still "watching"? If you pause it for an hour, a day, a week, if it stays paused while you go on vacation, is that still "watching"? At some point, the system is going to want to delete a program that is in pause mode. Otherwise, what's the point in having the system set to keep two episodes?
Or do we just change the logic to say "two" really means "three", two episodes plus one in pause mode? That would work......

[Steve]

I had a related problem with a show I recorded Wednesday night. American Masters Paul Simon tribute on PBS. Recorded fine as OTA HD. Was in my Play List Thursday day. Went to watch it last night, and it was gone! Checked History, and it said show was deleted by user, "code 1001". I know I didn't delete it, and the disk is only 50% full. Weird.

Fortunately, it's on again this morning. Anyone else see anything like this? /s

[mhayes70]

What is happening...you got the HR20 set to keep 2 shows and you have 2 shows on your HR20. Let's say you are watching the oldest show and it is time to record the show again. So what is happening, it needs to record this show and you have it set to keep 2 shows. So, it is going to delete the oldest show. It has happened to me before.

Maybe set that show to keep 5 shows even if you won't keep that many on your receiver.

[TMullenJr]

The unit is doing what you programmed it to do. When a 3rd episode begins, it deletes the oldest. If you feel this is an issue, the fix can't be any simpler. Change the setting on how many episodes to keep.

[falken]

The unit is doing what you programmed it to do. When a 3rd episode begins, it deletes the oldest. If you feel this is an issue, the fix can't be any simpler. Change the setting on how many episodes to keep.

While this is true, from a user standpoint you have the expectation that a show you are currently watching is not going to be deleted while it is playing.
Perhaps you are fine with only keeping 2, and if you miss one, no big deal. You still don't want to be in the middle of watching it and *poof* deleted.

I say if an episodes is being watched (playing, paused, whatever), that episode should be ignored for now. If you are set at a limit of Keep 2 and you are watching the oldest one, let 3 stay on there until the next general housekeeping routine when it is no longer being played (if $epilimit=2 & $epcount=3 then if $oldestep=PlayBackMode done else dvrcommand delete $oldestep). :)

[mhayes70]

While this is true, from a user standpoint you have the expectation that a show you are currently watching is not going to be deleted while it is playing.
Perhaps you are fine with only keeping 2, and if you miss one, no big deal. You still don't want to be in the middle of watching it and *poof* deleted.

I say if an episodes is being watched (playing, paused, whatever), that episode should be ignored for now. If you are set at a limit of Keep 2 and you are watching the oldest one, let 3 stay on there until the next general housekeeping routine when it is no longer being played (if $epilimit=2 & $epcount=3 then if $oldestep=PlayBackMode done else dvrcommand delete $oldestep). :)

Yeah, I agree that is a problem. But, at least there is an easy work around until the come up with a fix for it. Hopefully soon. They are getting alot of new features added into the HR20 lately that people have been requesting.

[BrettStah]

There has been a lot of discussion about this issue. To change it so that the system does not delete something you are "watching", you would have to produce a very specific definition of what "watching" means. For example, if you pause the playback to go to the bathroom, or to take a phone call, is that still "watching"?Yes to all of the above. If the show is being played back, it should never be deleted by the HR20. Once it is no longer the active show? Feel free to delete it. (It may be nice if the prompt at the end of the recording indicated that it was going to be deleted regardless of your choice to the prompt, and even better, give them the choice of keeping the episode somehow). If you pause it for an hour, a day, a week, if it stays paused while you go on vacation, is that still "watching"?Yes. At some point, the system is going to want to delete a program that is in pause mode. Otherwise, what's the point in having the system set to keep two episodes?
Or do we just change the logic to say "two" really means "three", two episodes plus one in pause mode? That would work......Yes... exactly how it should be, in my opinion.

What is happening...you got the HR20 set to keep 2 shows and you have 2 shows on your HR20. Let's say you are watching the oldest show and it is time to record the show again. So what is happening, it needs to record this show and you have it set to keep 2 shows. So, it is going to delete the oldest show. Thanks... but I already explained what was happening in the first post, didn't I? I then went on and said that while I understand why it was deleted, I didn't think that it made sense from a typical customer's point-of-view. Why the heck would a viewer watching a show ever expect it to be deleted while they're watching it?

The unit is doing what you programmed it to do. When a 3rd episode begins, it deletes the oldest. If you feel this is an issue, the fix can't be any simpler. Change the setting on how many episodes to keep.
Once again, I explained that it was doing what it was told to do - but it should have more smarts to treat the currently playing show differently than a show not currently playing. Keep in mind... people use these things to watch TV (primarily) - what you're watching shouldn't be deleted without warning, ever, in my opinion. Here's a potential solution... right now, if you disable Parental Controls for 4 hours, you get an on-screen prompt when the 4 hours are almost up, asking if you want to extend the disabling of the Parental Controls. What about this... before the HR20 deletes the show that you're currently watching, an on-screen prompt pops up, asking if you want to keep the current episode a little longer?

[BudShark]

There has been a lot of discussion about this issue. To change it so that the system does not delete something you are "watching", you would have to produce a very specific definition of what "watching" means. For example, if you pause the playback to go to the bathroom, or to take a phone call, is that still "watching"? If you pause it for an hour, a day, a week, if it stays paused while you go on vacation, is that still "watching"? At some point, the system is going to want to delete a program that is in pause mode. Otherwise, what's the point in having the system set to keep two episodes?
Or do we just change the logic to say "two" really means "three", two episodes plus one in pause mode? That would work......

Or have the system prompt like a scheduling conflict. In the OPs issue, he was actively watching it. A prompt that says:
Your system is currently set to keep only 2 programs. A new recording is scheduled to begin that will delete the program you are watching. Do you want to:
Cancel the scheduled recording
Delete the show you are watching
Keep the show I am watching until I delete it

Thats better than ripping the program out of the users hand without any notification - whether you are doing what you are supposed to do or not. I equate it to when you tell a computer to shut down - but you are still prompted to save work in progress. Just because the "rule" says keep only 2 episodes doesn't mean the system should be so "rude" when it comes to enforcing that rule.

Chris

[Xaa]

Adding more shows to save isn't a helpful work around. You would have to set all SL's to keep all or else instead of having 2 backed up when the third started recording, Brettstah would have had 4 backed up when the fifth started etc. He still would have had his show ripped right from his screen unless he had it to keep all.

That's the issue/question. Should a show that is actively being played (paused etc) ever be just taken away and deleted. I say no. Brettstah says no. Tivo has said no. DTV says yes.

[Earl Bonovich]

The way to get around this.... until something changes in the software:


Before you watch the recording... HIT KUID (the blue button).
If it is already KUID... hit it twice to turn it off, and then re-add it.

This takes it out of the "Keep # of episode" calculation.