Force back-to-back to use 2 tuners

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DrSmith

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Force back-to-back to use 2 tuners

#1

Post by DrSmith » Thu May 18, 2017 5:07 pm

Hello,
I record Seinfeld reruns and they air 2 episodes every night here at 11:00 and 11:30 on the same channel. Is there any way to force WMC to use 2 tuners for these recordings giving me my preferred 2 minute pre-buffer/post-buffer on both recordings? My 2nd recording keeps missing the beginning of the 2nd episode by a few seconds.

Each recorded length is 32 mintes (instead of 34) which is why I assume it is only using one tuner. I have confirmed that my machine's time is correct. I have no other competing recordings between 11 and 12 that would otherwise use the 2nd tuner. Thanks in advance for your ideas...

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#2

Post by Space » Fri May 19, 2017 3:10 am

You can force WMC to use two separate tuners by setting the post-padding (Stop:) to "10 minutes after". I don't think any of the other post-padding options work to cause WMC to use two different tuners.

Also, WMC has a "feature" called "enhanced conflict resolution" that will actually cut off up to 5 minutes of the beginning of a show on another channel if two conflicting shows overlap by 5 minutes or less. This one has bit me a couple times and it is annoying, especially with these shows that end one of two minutes past the hour.

I am not 100% sure how this works, since it appears to only do this if there is not another airing of the second show that can be scheduled instead, but it does it at the time of the recording instead of it appearing in the "view scheduled" list ahead of time.

So, show#2 will be scheduled to record right after show#1, but at the time show#1 ends, it looks to see if show#2 is starting on time or not, if not, it checks to see if it can record another airing of show#2, if so, it schedules that to record instead of recording at that time. If there is no other airing of show#2 in the guide, then it just starts recording show#2 late. At least this SEEMS to be how it works.

http://blog.jasontsang.ca/2007/03/

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DrSmith

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#3

Post by DrSmith » Fri May 19, 2017 6:28 pm

Space wrote:You can force WMC to use two separate tuners by setting the post-padding (Stop:) to "10 minutes after". I don't think any of the other post-padding options work to cause WMC to use two different tuners.
That is a great trick, if it works. I will try it out tonight. Thanks much.

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DrSmith

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#4

Post by DrSmith » Sat May 20, 2017 11:51 am

stop: 10 minutes after did the job! 2 clean recordings. Thanks again Space.

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DavidinCT

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#5

Post by DavidinCT » Sat May 20, 2017 3:11 pm

DrSmith wrote:stop: 10 minutes after did the job! 2 clean recordings. Thanks again Space.
Pain the A$$ to need to do this when you have 5 or more tuners NOT in use but, as a work-around sure.
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

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#6

Post by Space » Sat May 20, 2017 4:44 pm

If I recall correctly, it used to be the "5 minutes after" setting that had this special quality (forcing a separate tuner), but they changed it to be the "10 minutes after" setting in the Win7 version of WMC for some reason.

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