Every DVR I've ever had did this. If it was rebooted or lost the TV signal in the middle of a recording, it would start recording again as soon as it could. Media Center, as you know, doesn't do this and will try to reschedule that show to record again later. In some cases this is preferable, as it results in a complete recording, but a lot of times that show isn't on again later. In that case you'll miss the whole rest of the show instead of just a few minutes in the middle.
Is there a way to get Media Center to start recording again immediately after something interrupts it?
Resume interrupted recording?
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dingbat
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adam1991
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huh. Media Center most certainly does do this.
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CyberSimian
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Mine too, but not in every case. I have not yet identified the circumstances that cause WMC to resume recording, and those that do not. One obvious rule would be:adam1991 wrote:huh. Media Center most certainly does do this.
If the interrupted programme is broadcast again within the next two weeks, schedule that to record;
otherwise resume recording of the interrupted programme.
But the original poster's experience seems to be at variance with this rule.
-- from CyberSimian in the UK
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adam1991
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I've never had it *not* resume recording the show on reboot after a crash or whatever. I always end up with two recordings, with a few minutes missing in between them.
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barnabas1969
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I agree with Adam. The times I've rebooted in the middle of a recording, the recording resumed after the boot. AND it also recorded the next showing of that particular episode/program.
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deihmos
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I don't think it does it all the time. Maybe it depends on if it can schedule another airing.
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oakley516
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Your Media Center should always attempt to restart recordings every time it is started up, as long as you haven't changed or deleted the task in Task Scheduler.dingbat wrote:Every DVR I've ever had did this. If it was rebooted or lost the TV signal in the middle of a recording, it would start recording again as soon as it could. Media Center, as you know, doesn't do this and will try to reschedule that show to record again later. In some cases this is preferable, as it results in a complete recording, but a lot of times that show isn't on again later. In that case you'll miss the whole rest of the show instead of just a few minutes in the middle.
Is there a way to get Media Center to start recording again immediately after something interrupts it?
Double check that you have a scheduled task called RecordingRestart, and that it uses a trigger of At System Startup.
The action would simply be to start ehrec (in your ehome directory) with the argument of /RestartRecording.
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dingbat
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To be more specific, my main problem is when Media Center loses communication with my HDHomeRun. i.e. I have to reboot the router or something happens with the network connection. I'm going to soon get the system onto its own switch, so this will rarely happen, but it would be nice to know of a way to get MC to resume when it does.
I've done some testing with a show that had no upcoming repeats. After rebooting in the middle of it, it did indeed resume recording. It's just losing the connection to the HDHomeRun where it does not resume. You'd think when MC is supposed to be recording something, and it's not, it would keep retrying.
I'll bet manually running the RecordingRestart task after the connection is regained would make it resume. Not sure there'd be any way to do that automatically without having a script run every 30 seconds or so.
I've done some testing with a show that had no upcoming repeats. After rebooting in the middle of it, it did indeed resume recording. It's just losing the connection to the HDHomeRun where it does not resume. You'd think when MC is supposed to be recording something, and it's not, it would keep retrying.
I'll bet manually running the RecordingRestart task after the connection is regained would make it resume. Not sure there'd be any way to do that automatically without having a script run every 30 seconds or so.
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Space
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I've recently had a couple instances where for some reason WMC was reporting a "Weak Signal" during recordings (I have FiOS, so should not normally be getting a weak signal). It is probably a bit different from what you were experiencing, since you had connectivity issues between the WMC PC and the HDHR.
During the first recording, the "Weak Signal" condition would last about 10 seconds, and then a good signal would come back, then 10 seconds later another "Weak Signal", and so on for about the last 30 minutes of the recording. WMC did not stop recording the show, but on playback of the recording, any time there was a weak signal you would see a blue "Weak Signal" screen.
The second time it occurred, I happened to be in the room and saw the light on the HDHR Prime blinking while in the "Weak Signal" condition. The first time it just resulted in the blue screen like before, but the second time must have lasted too long (I think it was about a minute) because WMC stopped the recording.
So it looks like WMC can withstand this type of issue for a very short period of time, but if it lasts too long, it stops recording.
After the recording was stopped, I tried to start it again manually. Unfortunately, during this process, I inadvertently deleted the "Series" record for the show without me realizing it.
What I did is tuned in to the channel using the channel guide (went to Live TV) to make sure the signal was back, and it was, so I then pressed the record button on the remote to try to get it to start recording again, but it did not work, a second press made it start to record, making me think all was good again.
It appears that what really happened is that the first press of "record" caused the Series to be deleted, and then the second press caused it to do a one-time record for that episode (which means I got it to start recording again, but had deleted the Series so no future recordings of this series would be done).
I understand that if you are in the channel guide and press the "record" button once while highlighting a show, it will set up a one-time record for that episode (red dot appears), but if you then press "record" again, it sets up a Series record (multiple red dots appear), a third press undoes all that and deletes the "Series" record (red dots are removed). What I was not aware of is that the exact same thing happens when you are viewing the recording show in Live TV, except that there is not any visual feedback that you have deleted the Series record for that series when you press the "record" button the first time. So be careful in this situation.
I am not sure if there is any easy way to get the recording to start again manually (using the remote) without deleting the Series and recreating it. Next time I will have to see what options are available on the "Program Details" screen while in this condition. If the "stop recording" option is still available during this time (even though it is not really recording), I will select that, and then select "record". I think that should work if it is available.
During the first recording, the "Weak Signal" condition would last about 10 seconds, and then a good signal would come back, then 10 seconds later another "Weak Signal", and so on for about the last 30 minutes of the recording. WMC did not stop recording the show, but on playback of the recording, any time there was a weak signal you would see a blue "Weak Signal" screen.
The second time it occurred, I happened to be in the room and saw the light on the HDHR Prime blinking while in the "Weak Signal" condition. The first time it just resulted in the blue screen like before, but the second time must have lasted too long (I think it was about a minute) because WMC stopped the recording.
So it looks like WMC can withstand this type of issue for a very short period of time, but if it lasts too long, it stops recording.
After the recording was stopped, I tried to start it again manually. Unfortunately, during this process, I inadvertently deleted the "Series" record for the show without me realizing it.
What I did is tuned in to the channel using the channel guide (went to Live TV) to make sure the signal was back, and it was, so I then pressed the record button on the remote to try to get it to start recording again, but it did not work, a second press made it start to record, making me think all was good again.
It appears that what really happened is that the first press of "record" caused the Series to be deleted, and then the second press caused it to do a one-time record for that episode (which means I got it to start recording again, but had deleted the Series so no future recordings of this series would be done).
I understand that if you are in the channel guide and press the "record" button once while highlighting a show, it will set up a one-time record for that episode (red dot appears), but if you then press "record" again, it sets up a Series record (multiple red dots appear), a third press undoes all that and deletes the "Series" record (red dots are removed). What I was not aware of is that the exact same thing happens when you are viewing the recording show in Live TV, except that there is not any visual feedback that you have deleted the Series record for that series when you press the "record" button the first time. So be careful in this situation.
I am not sure if there is any easy way to get the recording to start again manually (using the remote) without deleting the Series and recreating it. Next time I will have to see what options are available on the "Program Details" screen while in this condition. If the "stop recording" option is still available during this time (even though it is not really recording), I will select that, and then select "record". I think that should work if it is available.