[Gmaxx]

Could some of the issues people are having with partial recordings and conflicts be due to the fact that recordings that are set up to start on time and end on time keep running over by a minute or 2?
My receiver just asked me if I wanted to change the channel or stay on the current channel. I was sure that only one program was scheduled to record. I check the guide and I am correct. Only one show recording at 10, but Heroes is still recording at 10:01. It should've stopped at 10. So since I didn't want to miss the recording I had let it change the channel. Now I have lost the buffer on MNF needlessly. What I am wondering is if this issue were to happen when I DID have 2 programs set up one might not record at all, might record a partial, or even worse record one of those negative timed unwatchable recordings that I keep reading that btmoore is getting. I am thinking that this could possibly be one of the triggers of bad HR20 behavior. It seems pretty simple to me that the HR20 should start and stop recording when it is supposed to. Sorry if this has been brought up already but a search for this type of thing yielded no results.

 

[btmoore]

I don't think they are releated to slight schedule variances, under the last software I had 5 unwatchables and they were all from one channel, and they were recorded in sequence. I actually watched a few of them live, when they were being made, none of the trick plays would work. Once all of the unwatchable recordings were finished, the ability to use the trick plays on the live stream returned. Most of the Partials I have experienced are recording that are exactly on the hour or half marks, and have typiclay been the only thing recordig at that time, with nothing before or after.

I have a new hypothesis on what a unwatchable and posibley partial bug recording is. I think it is an invalid file pointer or handle. I say this because of a different bug that acts just like an unwatchable, in combination with if you reboot the unwatchables disappear from your menu.

If you play a program go to the end and when the do you want to delete this message pops up, select yes, and then quickly hit the list button. You will likely still see the program you just deleted in your play list. If you select that program to play again it will come up with a black screen and have either a 0:00 or -hour:-min in the time code area. This looks just like an unwatchable bug.

I am wondering if there is something going wrong where with the file pointer or handle that gets stored with the menu item for that program. When that reference gets passed to the codec for decoding there is no valid data so it just sits there trying to play data that does not exist.

When the box is rebooted, it must go through some kind of integrity check to ensure the menu matches what is stored on the hard drive. when it checks the file references, it finds that there is no recording at that reference point so the program listing gets deleted from the playlist.

Just and hypothesis, no way to prove it without having access to the code, but I do find the similarity in behavior between an unwatchable and trying to watch a program you just deleted, is interesting circumstantial evidence.

One more note, so far I have been lucky under 0xef, so far I have had no unwatchables, I have had partials and unexplainable cancels. I have seen others report unwatchables under 0xef. I am sure at some point I an unwatchable will pop up.

 

[Gmaxx]

...One more note, so far I have been lucky under 0xef, so far I have had no unwatchables, I have had partials and unexplainable cancels. I have seen others report unwatchables under 0xef. I am sure at some point I an unwatchable will pop up.

When a program runs over by a minute or two, it could cancel the recordings that are scheduled to happen immediately after the overrun. If you follow my logic of what the recorder does it makes sense. Let's say you are recording something (A) between 8-9, and then at 9 you are recording two other programs (B and C.) If (A) runs overtime by even a minute then there is going to be a conflict with one of the other programs (B or C.) This could result in B or C being cancelled or recorded as a partial. I have not run into this myself so its just an hypothesis.

If I had been recording the MNF game tonight. My other program would not have been recorded. Or would have been started two minutes late at best. Just a theory.

JP

 

[sigma1914]

Only one show recording at 10, but Heroes is still recording at 10:01. It should've stopped at 10.

You're wrong, Heroes was listed to be on past 10, till 10:01 or 10:02 (I forget when). You're blaming the unit when noone but NBC is to blame for running their schedule purposely past 1 hour. NBC tells D*, "Heroes run time is 61 minutes." Then, D* on screen guide shows this.

 

[hasan]

One more note, so far I have been lucky under 0xef, so far I have had no unwatchables, I have had partials and unexplainable cancels. I have seen others report unwatchables under 0xef. I am sure at some point I an unwatchable will pop up.

Not that it matters much at this point (0xF6 is coming down to the West Coast as I type this), I got a "cancelled" NFL-ST recording of the Bengals game this weekend. In 8 weeks, it is only the 2nd recording I've missed (both NFL-ST). I restarted the recording at half time and it proceeded normally. It shows up as "partial" in MyPlaylist and works fine.

Now we can see what F6 fixes/breaks/ignores. No OTA in F6, major BUMMER!