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Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 4:30 pm
by ChefJoe
I've been trying to finish out a collection of episodes from a show that runs two episodes back-to-back on the same channel. Windows Media Center (I use 7, but I suspect all have this) set to record all the episodes ends up recording each episode fine, but typically the 2nd episode gets divided between the last 1 minute captured on the first episode and then the remaining bits of the show are in the 2nd episode. This also produces a small gap, even if I Video ReDo the two segments together.

I'm not sure there's any good workaround for setting multiple tuners to record the same channel (I have a Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB) in a way that would avoid this gap. Are there any suggestions from experienced WMC folks?

I'm wondering if just setting a manual recording for a single recording that encompasses both episodes and then using Video ReDo to separate the recording is going to be the quickest way for me to handle this.

Re: Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:05 pm
by dmagerl
For the first recording, Go into Record Settings (Series Settings if a series) and set the recording to stop 10 minutes after. This forces WMC to assign a second tuner to the second recording which will start up with its usual pre-record time.

Re: Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:25 pm
by ChefJoe
dmagerl wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:05 pm For the first recording, Go into Record Settings (Series Settings if a series) and set the recording to stop 10 minutes after. This forces WMC to assign a second tuner to the second recording which will start up with its usual pre-record time.
Is 10 minutes a magic number, because when it's doing this now I have it set to start 3 minutes before and end 3 minutes after, whenever possible?

Re: Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 9:27 pm
by RyC
ChefJoe wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:25 pm
dmagerl wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 8:05 pm For the first recording, Go into Record Settings (Series Settings if a series) and set the recording to stop 10 minutes after. This forces WMC to assign a second tuner to the second recording which will start up with its usual pre-record time.
Is 10 minutes a magic number, because when it's doing this now I have it set to start 3 minutes before and end 3 minutes after, whenever possible?
Yes, 10 minutes is the magic number to get WMC to assign a second tuner to a back to back recording instead of re-using the first.

Re: Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 12:08 am
by Space
Yes, remarkably, 10 minutes is "magic". No other padding value has this property. Realize that you need to have two tuners available to record the back to back episodes because the extra 10 minutes of episode 1 will still be recording on Tuner1 while the beginning of episode 2 is recording on Tuner 2.

Re: Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 1:19 am
by ChefJoe
Thanks. I found a few half-hour shows today to test it out and confirmed it works as you folks say. "Stop recording 5 minutes after" resulted in the 2nd recording starting late and "stop recording 10 minutes after" gave a full length 2nd recording.

I guess it's a testament to the product that I've been using it for nearly a decade (I'm an ex-SnapStream/BeyondTV person) and haven't needed to dive into these quirks.

I have an InfiniTV 4 with a cablecard, so there's 4 tuners available and it always seemed odd how WMC seemed so reluctant to switch to a different tuner to record from the same channel.

Re: Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 3:17 am
by Space
There is also another "feature" called "Enhanced conflict resolution" which you may or may not have experienced and not knew why. You can read about it here.

Re: Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 5:46 am
by ChefJoe
Space wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2019 3:17 am There is also another "feature" called "Enhanced conflict resolution" which you may or may not have experienced and not knew why. You can read about it here.
I probably have experienced it, but not being able to go into the "past" with the channel guide always hindered me investigating why a show I thought had aired the day prior was instead deciding to record a 2nd-run a few days later (like This Old House episodes tend to be new on Saturday morning, but will often have episodes in odd times during the weekdays that WMC7 choses to record instead). Thanks for the lessons Space.

Re: Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2019 3:19 pm
by captain_video
I seem to recall reading about this issue when I first started using WMC many years ago. I've been setting up my recordings to always start recording 10 minutes before and ending 10 minutes after their designated time slot and I've never had any problems getting each show to be recorded by a dedicated tuner. It helps considerable if there's a small amount of overrun so I can still catch the entire recording. Sunday night shows on CBS get padded by an extra 60 minutes because of their stupid schedule and constant overruns due to sporting events. I also migrated to WMC from BeyondTV when the Ceton InfiniTV4 tuners first became available. If cablecard tuners hadn't been introduced I would probably still be using it on Windows XP.

Re: Can I record back-to-back shows on same channel with no gap

Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2019 5:27 pm
by Rickt1962
I tried this in the past and it works ......................But if you use MCEbuddy it will not delete the extra 10 minutes after the show