TV Server 'record every day' end time (1 Viewer)

[Rustyapron]

There has been a series of documentaries on SBS in Australia, aired every day, that always starts at 7:30 but with various end times. I scheduled the recording using a prototype show that had a duration of 1 hour using the 'record every day' selection. I've found that some of the recordings have finished before the show ended. I thought that the scheduler would determine from the EPG what the end time was and run the recording until then, but this is obviously not what happened. In this situation where the show end time varies, is it possible to tell the scheduler to run until the show ends?

 

[mm1352000]

Hi

I thought that the scheduler would determine from the EPG what the end time was and run the recording until then, but this is obviously not what happened.

I think that's an assumption that needs to be checked with log files. While it's entirely possible - even probable - that TV Server stopped the recordings after 1 hour by design and as a result of your schedule parameters, there are also other reasons that a recording can stop early. Those other reasons should be eliminated. In order to do that, please provide:

1. Full (all) TV Server debug-level log files covering the period of at least one of the short recordings.
2. Program details (name, start date/time, finish date/time) for at least one of the short recordings.
3. Recording details (start date/time, finish date/time) for at least one of the short recordings.

 

[Rustyapron]

Hi, many thanks for your prompt reply. I attach tv server log files, together with screen shots of a) the daily program schedule and b) two shots of the programs that finished too early. I hope this helps.

 

[mm1352000]

From the information you've provided, I can say that the schedule you've created will cause TV Server to record from 7:28 PM to 8:42 PM every day. That's:

• 2 minutes pre-record
• 62 minutes standard
• 10 minutes post record
• => total 74 minutes (1 hour 14 minutes)

For this particular schedule type ("every day at this time"), the programme that happens to be running on the target channel at the time of the recording is considered to have no relationship to the schedule. Therefore recording timings will not be varied to match the programme.

You have said that "9/11: 102 Minutes That Changed America" and "Ultimate Tutankhamun" are short.
The screenshots show their lengths as 1h14 and 1h13 respectively.
The log files show TV Server starting and stopping the corresponding recordings at the times prescribed by the schedule configuration (7:28 PM and 8:42 PM).
Therefore if those recordings are short, it's not because TV Server deviated from the schedule.
They could only be considered short if:

1. The actual programme was longer than 74 minutes, OR...
   
2. TV Server stopped receiving the stream from the tuner at some time during the recording.

For the first explanation (programme longer than 74 minutes)...
You didn't provide the programme start and finish date/time details that I asked for, so I don't know for sure whether this explanation is relevant. However from what you said in your first post I suspect this may be the correct explanation. Given what I said about "every day at this time" schedule timing, successfully using that schedule type would require you to set the schedule length to be at least as long as the longest programme you intended the schedule to record. If that seems inconvenient, perhaps you could have used your TVWishList plugin to record the programmes.

For the second explanation...
From my perspective this explanation is plausible. Although the detailed log files don't go back far enough to determine whether TV Server stopped receiving the stream for the two recordings you mentioned, they do show a possible stream interruption for the most recent recording ("Rise And Fall Of Versailles, The"). If you consider "Rise And Fall Of Versailles, The" to be short, this explanation could be relevant too. Further investigation would be required.

 

[CyberSimian]

I scheduled the recording using a prototype show that had a duration of 1 hour using the 'record every day' selection.

If you used "Record every day at this time", that does indeed fix both the start time and the end time, based on the programme that you selected from the EPG.

If the programme is daily, but is broadcast starting at different times, or with different durations, you need to use "Record every time on this channel" (and yes, that will indeed record repeats).

If the programme is broadcast on a single day of the week, but starting at different times, or with different durations, use "Weekly on this channel" (selection 8, I think). That can be useful for excluding repeats broadcast on other days during the week. If the programme is broadcast on (say) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with repeats on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, set up three of these schedules, one for each of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Rustyapron]

Thank you both for your help with this. I guess this particular scenario i.e. daily programs with different titles and duration but all starting at the same time was unusual. I don't know if its possible but could a new schedule selection be introduced to cope with this ? On a similar topic, is it possible with the existing scheduler to extend the stop time of a currently recording program e.g. in the instance where the scheduler will stop the recording at say 8:30, but you know that the program will run until 9:00 ? Many thanks.

 

[mm1352000]

I don't know if its possible but could a new schedule selection be introduced to cope with this ?

Not in the foreseeable future.

On a similar topic, is it possible with the existing scheduler to extend the stop time of a currently recording program e.g. in the instance where the scheduler will stop the recording at say 8:30, but you know that the program will run until 9:00 ?

It seems plausible that this would already be possible. However, the only way I could answer this question would be to try it. I'm sure you're capable of doing that yourself.

 

[CyberSimian]

I guess this particular scenario i.e. daily programs with different titles and duration but all starting at the same time was unusual.

Probably the best that you can do with the current MP facilities is to create a manually-scheduled repeated recording.

Go to the "Scheduler" panel, and on the left side-bar menu select "New", and then "Advanced". Then you select the channel to record, the start time, the duration (in 30-minute increments, from 30 minutes to 24 hours), and finally the repeat type. There are various repeat types, including "every day", "weekdays", "weekends".

This will cause MP to start the recording at the scheduled start time minus pre-padding, and to continue the recording to the scheduled end time plus post-padding. The recording receives the name of the programme that was in the EPG at the scheduled start time. You need to specify a duration that is the longest of any of the programmes that you want to record in this time slot. Shorter programmes will obviously result in files that are bigger than they need be, but at least you won't miss the ending of longer programmes (and disk space is cheap these days!).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK