TV tuner selection

[jajenki]

I have set "Start when possible: 5" and "Stop when possible: 30" because overruns are common in Australia and there is occasionally an early start. I record several series. If two programs are broadcast consecutively on a channel, WMC records both from the same tuner and makes some sort of arbitrary decision as to when to close one file and open the next. Is there any way to force WMC to honour the buffers and use different tuners when there is an overlap. I have plenty of tuners.

[webminster]

Common question. Only way is to set your recording defaults to "stop 10 minutes after." Not the "when possible" settings, exactly that setting. Use whatever you want for the "start" settings for pre-padding.

[CyberSimian]

Only way is to set your recording defaults to "stop 10 minutes after." Not the "when possible" settings, exactly that setting. Use whatever you want for the "start" settings for pre-padding.

I believe it is the case that you cannot specify this setting to be a global default.

Instead, when scheduling a single programme or a series, you must select "Advanced Options" (or whatever it is called), and specify the "Stop 10 minutes after" setting on that panel.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[mceguy...]

I have set "Start when possible: 5" and "Stop when possible: 30" because overruns are common in Australia and there is occasionally an early start. I record several series. If two programs are broadcast consecutively on a channel, WMC records both from the same tuner and makes some sort of arbitrary decision as to when to close one file and open the next. Is there any way to force WMC to honour the buffers and use different tuners when there is an overlap. I have plenty of tuners.

To change "global" recorder padding settings go into Tasks> settings> TV> Recorder> Recorder defaults, here you can change the amount of before/after padding for all your recordings, but I'm sorry to say, it won't help your problem...

Instead go into your guide and "split" the TV sources by going to Tasks> Settings> TV> Guide> Edit Channels, this is where your EPG will have a check mark for channels it thinks you receive, if you actually don't have that channel in your lineup, uncheck the box and it won't show any longer in your electronic program guide.

To edit the source, use a mouse and double click on the name of the channel (not the #) or use your remote and arrow over to it and press OK. On the left side of the pane arrow to, then down to "edit sources" and press OK again. The pane should change, showing each of your tuners for that channel, arrow over to the top entry and "split", press OK and it will separate that tuners source from the other tuners you have. If you only have (2) tuners like me, you can stop, save and go to the next channel to split, but if you have (4) tuners continue to split the rest of them. I have done this for each of the channels I receive and record.

Your EPG should now show a channel listing for each of your tuners by channel #, I record several series that are back to back on the same channel, so I alternate each series to use a different tuner and this is the only way I have found to "force" WMC to utilize a open tuner and honor the padding settings.

You could also set a manual recording to start at say 6pm and end at 11:30pm using the same channel, but the Meta data will only reflect the last recordings info and you loose the shows episode name and description by do that for all the shows in between.

Hope this helps...

[CyberSimian]

this is the only way I have found to "force" WMC to utilize a open tuner and honor the padding settings.

This is not true. You can force WMC to use separate tuners for consecutive recordings (on the same channel or on different channels) by specifying the padding when you schedule the recording (via "Advanced Recording"). You cannot use the global settings to force WMC to user separate tuners.

Your technique of splitting the tuners into separate sources is interesting, but looks to be more complicated than simply using "Advanced Recording" to set the padding to "10 minutes after".

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[mceguy...]

this is the only way I have found to "force" WMC to utilize a open tuner and honor the padding settings.

This is not true. You can force WMC to use separate tuners for consecutive recordings (on the same channel or on different channels) by specifying the padding when you schedule the recording (via "Advanced Recording"). You cannot use the global settings to force WMC to user separate tuners.

Your technique of splitting the tuners into separate sources is interesting, but looks to be more complicated than simply using "Advanced Recording" to set the padding to "10 minutes after".

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

It absolutely is true, under Win7... Sorry, I forgot I was in the Win8 forum, just trying to help... I'm doing research into Win8 MCE to see if it has any improvements, I don't have an "advanced recording" setting, so there's a check for the "Plus" side...

[jajenki]

Thank you all for your help.

I should have been more specific in the first place.
Windows 8.1
Version: 6.3.9600.16384
with Windows Media Center technologies
Copyright © 2013 Microsoft Corp.
This product is licensed under the terms of the End User License Agreement.
AMD A6-6400K APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 15568 MB of RAM

webminister: The only place I can find where I can force start or stop times is when adding a single manual recording. This is not an option for me as I can no longer transcribe from a paper or online TV Guide (plus buffers) to WMC settings. The WMC broadcast EPG and "Record Series" or single programs was a godsend for me.

cybersimian: No "Advanced Options" or similar functionality anywhere that I could find.

mceguy: This looks very promising. Now I have to map 20 series, subject to change without notice, on the 16 channels that broadcast them (I have excluded 18 of the available channels) over 8 tuners plus do some smart allocations for ad hoc sports broadcasts or whimsical interests. My brain hurts when I try to figure out how to deal with broadcasters that arbitrarily switch series between their channels. Back when I was designing and writing computer systems we used to write code to do that sort of thing. It seems to me that WMC could easily add the buffer time before checking for an available tuner. It already highlights conflicts based on the scheduled times. "...when possible:" isn't looking at all the possibilities.

Microsoft Excel may be the way for me to go, but I'm going to struggle with the design.

[CyberSimian]

I don't have an "advanced recording" setting

No "Advanced Options" or similar functionality anywhere that I could find.

(1) Display the EPG.
(2) Move the focus to the programme that you want to record.
(3) Press the OK button (the "Synopsis" panel is displayed).
(4) Press the RIGHT button ("Actions" panel is displayed).
(5) Press the DOWN button ("Advanced Record" is highlighted).
(6) Press the OK button (the "Record Settings" panel is displayed).
(7) Press the RIGHT button (focus moves to the "Frequency" setting).
(8) Press the DOWN button TWICE (focus moves to the "Stop" setting).
(9) Press the OK button on the "+" or "-" symbol until 10 minutes after is displayed.
(10) Press LEFT button ONCE or TWICE (focus moves to "Record").
(11) Press OK button (programme is now scheduled to record).
(12) Press RETURN button (the EPG is redisplayed).

Notes:
(a) The "Stop" setting must be exactly "10 minutes after", no other setting will work as desired.

(b) You must perform this setting procedure each time that you schedule a programme to record; you cannot set global defaults for this.

(c) Vista WMC requires significantly fewer button presses to perform this procedure (one of the reasons that I never migrated to Win7 MC).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[JWA]

I have set "Start when possible: 5" and "Stop when possible: 30" because overruns are common in Australia and there is occasionally an early start. I record several series. If two programs are broadcast consecutively on a channel, WMC records both from the same tuner and makes some sort of arbitrary decision as to when to close one file and open the next. Is there any way to force WMC to honour the buffers and use different tuners when there is an overlap. I have plenty of tuners.

Not sure this will be helpful but its how I solved somewhat of a similar situation here in the US. Sports programs often run over and delay program starts, mostly during this time of year, our so-called "prime time, first run" broadcast TV season.

When/if I suspect a program will start at times different from an EPG or similar schedules I create a manual recording, start time being based upon your local experience with how long before that might be. Stop recording time well past published times, often as much as an hour or more.

Once recording is finished I simply open the file and crop it via Video ReDo to get just the parts I want. While a bit cumbersome it solves this problem forever. For those who rely exclusively on an EPG I'm not sure this would work at all though.

HTH

[Wolfman]

Instead go into your guide and "split" the TV sources by going to Tasks> Settings> TV> Guide> Edit Channels, this is where your EPG will have a check mark for channels it thinks you receive, if you actually don't have that channel in your lineup, uncheck the box and it won't show any longer in your electronic program guide.To edit the source, use a mouse and double click on the name of the channel (not the #) or use your remote and arrow over to it and press OK. On the left side of the pane arrow to, then down to "edit sources" and press OK again. The pane should change, showing each of your tuners for that channel, arrow over to the top entry and "split", press OK and it will separate that tuners source from the other tuners you have. If you only have (2) tuners like me, you can stop, save and go to the next channel to split, but if you have (4) tuners continue to split the rest of them. I have done this for each of the channels I receive and record.

Thanks so much for this advice. I found a shortcut! In the EPG, right-click on the left-side channel name box (before the program names), then select "Edit Channel." You're there!

I can see this coming in handy for an event where you're not sure when it will end, such as a stump speech. Set simultaneous recordings with different stop times, then keep the one that comes closest.

Stop recording time well past published times, often as much as an hour or more. Once recording is finished I simply open the file and crop it via Video ReDo to get just the parts I want.

Does Video ReDo keep files in .wtv format? You could also click the record button at the overrun event's end to cut the extended recording short and start another, then simply stop and delete the newest recording.

[jajenki]

I eventually followed up on the "Recorded TV" -> "view scheduled" -> "Series" -> (select a series) -> "Series Settings" -> "Stop:" and found and set "30 minutes after" (as you advised, not the "when possible" option).

I was immediately so relieved and happy with the outcome that I forgot all about thanking the contributors Sorry about that and, sincerely, thank you for all of your suggestions.