[Herdfan]

While there have been several mentions of the manual recording bug in the update discussion threads, this issue seems to bridge multiple releases so I thought I would start a thread dedicated to the Manual Recording Bug.

For me:

OxE3 - Manual Recordings worked fine
OxEF - This update broke my manual recordings
OeFA - This update did not fix what OxEF broke.

Since Earl hadmentioned that the way the scheduler updates over time, I put the following manual recording:

Channel X, Mon-Fri, 8:00 pm, 1 hour

Over time the recordings were added to the To Do List and at this time, this is the only recording in the Prioritizer. Then over time, the recordings were Cancelled.

I didn't pay much attention to what was being recorded last week since it was Thanksgiving and I wasn't going to watch what I had set to record anyway. Then I noticed that all my To Do List recordings were gone and History showed them cancelled.

But I wasn't worried since I think it was Earl that mentioned that the episodes were cancelled, but would be re-added to the To Do List.

This evening I decided to watch and see what happened. At 8:00 I was expecting the Record light to come on and it didn't. I looked at the To Do list and noticed that a Manual Recording had been added to the To Do List that wasn't there 10 minutes before. But nothing was recording.

What is interesting is that the Manual Recording that was added is for December 11th. Exactly 2 weeks from today. So at 8:00 pm when the Manual Recording was set to start, it added a recording to the To Do List 2 weeks into the future.

I will watch and try to pinpoint when the recording goes from the To Do List to the Cancelled List.

I hope that if others who are experiencing Manual Recording Issues can document exactly what they are seeing, the D* engineers can hopefully find a fix for this.

 

[Tom Robertson]

Good job herdfan.

I had problems with each release. I went from items appearing too many times in the todo list and then never disappearing, but did record to the current release where recurring manuals would record one time--for 24hours plus the original scheduled time. (I may pad, but never that much!)

It was clear that a data structure mismatch was happening between the part that entered the data from me and the part that actually scheduled or started the task.

So after many tests, I bit the bullet (it tasted terrible) and reset "everything" and reformatted the hard disk on several of my HR20s. So far things look much, much better. Only one entry in todo for each intended timeslot and the few recordings that were scheduled for today went as planned. Give me another day, and I hopefully will declare happiness.

What I don't know is which did the job. The reset "everything" or the reformat. I have one more unit to test with, that might give us enough information. I'm just not very interested in deleting everything off the unit with the most stuff on it.

Good luck,
Tom

 

[Herdfan]

Update: OK, sometime between this morning at around 7:00am and 6:00pm this evening, the Scheduled Manual Recording for 2 weeks out was CANCELLED. So less than 24 hours after it was added, it was removed.

Then tonight at exactly 8:00pm the TO Do list was updated with a Manual Record scheduled for December 12th. Again exactly 2 weeks in the future.

I will check this patern for another day since I won't have time tomorrow, but Thursday I plan to do a complete Reformat of the drive and see if that fixes it.

Or possibly by Thursday, we will have another update that fixes it.

 

[Tom Robertson]

By reformatting and doing a complete reset, I was able to schedule manual recurring recordings that seem to work correctly. After two days, the two daily recordings have both worked on several units.

Alas, this workaround requires one lose all their current recordings and settings.

And, I have seen another lockup on one unit today. Sigh.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Tom Robertson]

I guess I have to claim "my bad". The recurring manuals did not survive a reboot. And at least two of the units, the last item in the prioritizer list, a manual recurring for 1 hour, turned into a one time manual for 25 hours. Then as I checked another box, one of them flipped back to a recurring for 1 hour...Very strange!

They do not seem to be populating the todo list as expected. The todo list seems to be behaving just as it did before the reformat and reset. We'll see how this looks in the morning.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[spolaski]

I guess I have to claim "my bad". The recurring manuals did not survive a reboot. And at least two of the units, the last item in the prioritizer list, a manual recurring for 1 hour, turned into a one time manual for 25 hours. Then as I checked another box, one of them flipped back to a recurring for 1 hour...Very strange!

They do not seem to be populating the todo list as expected. The todo list seems to be behaving just as it did before the reformat and reset. We'll see how this looks in the morning.

Cheers,
Tom

This is really bizzarre behavior by what should be the easiest piece of software to code. I mean, if the user says to record every day at a certain hour for a specific amount of time it should just do it. Don't think about it, don't run it through any algorithm to decide if it should be "cancelled", don't do anything -- JUST DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD!

I can't fathom why this poses a technical challenge for the DirecTV engineers to figure out. It must be either much trickier than I think it should be or a it's a low priority for them to fix. If I had to bet, I'd guess the latter. They probably don't get many complaints as I imagine that a minority of users even utilize manual recordings.

At least there's a workaround of going to the guide, selecting the program, recording, hitting the green button twice to advance 24 hrs, recording, and repeating. Annoying, but easy to do. I just find it incredibly frustrating that the simplest function the device can possibly perform doesn't work.

I also think it's very interesting that your three units don't behave exactly the same. These are some strange machines, sometimes.

 

[Steve Rhodes]

This is really bizzarre behavior by what should be the easiest piece of software to code. I mean, if the user says to record every day at a certain hour for a specific amount of time it should just do it. Don't think about it, don't run it through any algorithm to decide if it should be "cancelled", don't do anything -- JUST DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD!

I can't fathom why this poses a technical challenge for the DirecTV engineers to figure out.

Sounds to me that their software release and testing techniques have big problems.

They should be going through a complete regression analysis to test all working features before they release new software. Sounds like the unit has become so buggy that they are shipping out patches before completely a full test cycle. I've been in the software business for almost 40 years. I know this stuff.

 

[spolaski]

I've been in the software business for almost 40 years. I know this stuff.

40 Years! You must wonder where you're supposed to stick the punch cards into the unit to program it:lol:

I think you're right, though - in their rush to fix one problem they inadvertently introduce new ones. By and large, the HR20 is 100% better now than when it shipped to me originally. But this bug and their inablility to master 20-year old caller ID technology that a $10 phone from Wal-Mart can handle really get under my skin for whatever reason.

 

[mnassour]

Bumping this to see if anyone knows if 104 has fixed the manual recording issue....?

 

[Tom Robertson]

Bumping this to see if anyone knows if 104 has fixed the manual recording issue....?

First round of tests look very good. Todo list is populating correctly, the scheduled events seemed to have survived a reboot, and things "appear" to be recording for the correct amount of time. I'll know more as time passes, but things look much better.

I'll also post results in the 0x108 thread.

Merry Christmas,
Tom

 

[Just J]

First round of tests look very good. Todo list is populating correctly, the scheduled events seemed to have survived a reboot, and things "appear" to be recording for the correct amount of time. I'll know more as time passes, but things look much better.

I'll also post results in the 0x108 thread.

Merry Christmas,
Tom

Confirmed - for the first time ever, a manual recurring recording seems to be OK, based on what's in the To Do list. Don't know if it still has the daylight savings time bug - that will take a little longer to test.

 

[Herdfan]

My To Do list was populated with my Manual Recordings this morning.

I will update tonight after 8:00 to see if it records.

 

[mnassour]

Well, I went ahead and rolled the dice and scheduled myself on a local DirecTV channel for 11 AM CT today. We'll see............