Option to record series not appearing

[karve]

Often my guide is missing the option to record series. Not always but quite often . Is this due to the guide or some corruption somewhere? Eg trying to set it to record the Tour De France on ITV4 it doesn't give me the option. The title of the show is the same every day.

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers

[ZippyTheChicken]

try to see if you only have this problem with Specials

I would guess that a Series is a Registered Series (tv show) in the Guide Data

and if you are trying to record Events or Temporary Specials then its not considered a Series

[CyberSimian]

Often my guide is missing the option to record series. Not always but quite often . Is this due to the guide or some corruption somewhere? Eg trying to set it to record the Tour De France on ITV4 it doesn't give me the option. The title of the show is the same every day.

In WMC for Win7/8/8.1, the EPG has hidden series ids and episode ids that WMC uses to distinguish one series from another, and one episode from another. If the EPG lacks this information, WMC thinks that the programme is a "one off", and does not offer the series-record option. That is probably what is happening with the "Tour de France" on ITV4.

There are three workarounds available (assuming that you do not want to bash your head against a brick wall trying to get Microsoft to fix the EPG data):

(1) Record at a fixed time and for a fixed duration each day. The "Tour de France" highlights programme (which I record) seems to be 19:00-20:00 each day. If you want to record the live programmes, they may vary from day to day, so this workaround is less suitable for them.

(2) Use keyword recording. In the relevant panel, you specify a keyword (or a phrase) that WMC is to use to select programmes to record. For instance, you could specify a keyword of "Tour de France" and restrict matches to the programme title and to channel ITV4. WMC will then record all programmes that have that string in the programme title. However, this workaround may give you duplicates. For instance, if you specified "Tour de France Highlights", you would record not only each new edition, but the two repeats of it as well (three programmes for each 24 hours!). I don't think that the keyword is case sensitive, but you might want to check that by experimenting.

(3) Downgrade to Windows Vista. Vista does not use the series ids and episode ids, and so simply uses the programme titles to identify programmes to record. (Irritatingly, these are case sensitive.) So you get the advantages of keyword recording, but without having to navigate the keyword panels in order to set it up.

So, ya pays ya money and ya takes ya choice.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[karve]

CyberSimian & ZippyTheChicken - thanks for the feedback. Lots of info i didn't know there. keyword recording is a great option to look at.

[mike_ekim]

CyberSimian & ZippyTheChicken - thanks for the feedback. Lots of info i didn't know there. keyword recording is a great option to look at.

Yup, and in fact you can use it to record shows that are not on the guide i.e. if you see a commercial for a show that will begin in the fall, you can set up keyword recording -- assuming it's an unusual title. I did that for 'Vikings' and I got the first Vikings episodes even though I forgot the show was coming on, plus a bunch of other shows that had Vikings in the description (kid's shows, history channel stuff etc).

Obviously if the title has really common words it might not be worth it. I.e. "Friends", "IT" etc. (but you can set keyword recording for Pennywise and Chandler).

Edit: Yeah, I know you can search for older movies not in the current guide and set them to record the next time they are on, those were just examples that people would understand.