Media Center is Re-scheduling HD Recordings on SD Channels

[jimnms]

I have basic cable that includes both analog channels and some HD Clear QAM channels. Back in December the cable co. began to switch to full digital. I received a letter informing me of the dates the channels would be changing over. I reran the Media Center setup to have it scan for the new channels, but it didn't find anything (that is another issue). After manually adding all of the new digital channels, everything was fine for a few weeks.

Some channels have both SD and HD channels (this isn't new), so there are duplicate channel listings for these, for example CBS SD is channel 12 and CBS HD is 12.1. For some reason shows that come on these channels with both HD and SD began recording on its SD channel instead. I checked the recording schedule and every show that records on one of these channels that has both SD and HD was scheduled to record on the SD channel. I checked the series settings and they are all set to HD preferred. I discovered that if I save the settings without making any changes it re-scheduled them to record on the HD channels. I kept checking the recording schedule and every few days it would re-schedule them back to the SD channels. I then went through and set them to record on HD Only, but that didn't work. I then set it to record on the specific channel (12.1 etc.), but that didn't work either. I was about to go smash the thing with a sledge hammer, when it just started working.

Last week it began doing it again for no apparent reason. I went through each of these show's and canceled the series, then created a new series schedule for each of them. I used the same settings as before, Record New episodes only, Channel: HD preferred, Time: Anytime. That didn't help either. Every few days it re-schedules them to record on the SD channel. I can go to the series info and save without making changes and it will re-schedule them back to the HD channel, only to revert it again a day or so later.

How can I make it stop doing this? I can't keep checking the schedule every day to manually fix them. The only thing I can think to do is hide the SD channel or merge the two together, but I don't want to do this for a few reasons. I don't want to hide the SD channels because if the HD is down or has a weak signal it can fall back to the SD channel. Merging them would take care of that, but I don't want to merge them because I do still record shows on the SD channel for certain family members because they take forever to watch them and don't want to delete them, and I would run out of space recording everything in HD.

[LuckyDay]

So are you changing the specific series settings or are you changing the default recording settings within media center? I'm not sure if it would contribute to the issue, but there is a default settings for recordings that makes every series follow those rules.

I also would suggest, if it's something you may be interested in doing, disabling the SD channels you don't want to use. I remove all of my SD channels that have an HD equivalent (you can also reorder and rename the channels to move them around in the guide where you like them). If a channel is disabled, the recorder will never use that channel to record a series.

[jimnms]

So are you changing the specific series settings or are you changing the default recording settings within media center? I'm not sure if it would contribute to the issue, but there is a default settings for recordings that makes every series follow those rules.

I'm not changing anything, it's still set as it has always been, to record HD Preferred channel, but it is recording on SD channels instead. The recording defaults only apply default settings when setting up new series. It doesn't override a recording series settings.

I also would suggest, if it's something you may be interested in doing, disabling the SD channels you don't want to use. I remove all of my SD channels that have an HD equivalent (you can also reorder and rename the channels to move them around in the guide where you like them). If a channel is disabled, the recorder will never use that channel to record a series.

I covered why I don't want to do this in my OP.

[jimnms]

I just cleared the recording schedule completely and restored the recording schedule from a backup. It now has them scheduled on the HD channels again, but I think I tried this before and it didn't last.

[signcarver]

You will probably have to remove your SD channels. In many areas this is happening (both ways) with TWC (and others) as they implemented single channel tuning so the guide gets it in that 12 is HD (or sometimes lists it as SD even though cablecard tuners it would be HD), as a result, their guide is really screwed up if you wish to have both.

[jimnms]

You will probably have to remove your SD channels. In many areas this is happening (both ways) with TWC (and others) as they implemented single channel tuning so the guide gets it in that 12 is HD (or sometimes lists it as SD even though cablecard tuners it would be HD), as a result, their guide is really screwed up if you wish to have both.

There are separate channel guide listings between the HD and SD channels. For example, in the channel edit options, the SD channel 12 is using the listing titled WXYZ where 12.1 uses one titled WXYZHD. The programs in the guide for the HD channels show the little "HD" icon next to them. That's how I notice that it has re-scheduled them to the wrong channel when viewing the recording schedule, I don't see the HD icon next to the show's name.

Also, as I said previously, if I tell it to record the show on channel 12.1 only, for example, it still decides to schedule it to record on channel 12 instead.

[LuckyDay]

You will probably have to remove your SD channels. In many areas this is happening (both ways) with TWC (and others) as they implemented single channel tuning so the guide gets it in that 12 is HD (or sometimes lists it as SD even though cablecard tuners it would be HD), as a result, their guide is really screwed up if you wish to have both.

There are separate channel guide listings between the HD and SD channels. For example, in the channel edit options, the SD channel 12 is using the listing titled WXYZ where 12.1 uses one titled WXYZHD. The programs in the guide for the HD channels show the little "HD" icon next to them. That's how I notice that it has re-scheduled them to the wrong channel when viewing the recording schedule, I don't see the HD icon next to the show's name.

Also, as I said previously, if I tell it to record the show on channel 12.1 only, for example, it still decides to schedule it to record on channel 12 instead.

Yeah, what we are saying is that the best fix for the problem is the disable channel 12. You will only have an ABCHD on your guide and that's all WMC will use to record.

Just right click the channel name in the guide and press disable.

I do this with every SD channel that has an HD equivalent and I think it makes navigating and recording much easier.

[dmagerl]

I record over the air and live between 3 major cities. I get guide listings from all three cities, all carrying the same programming. But the antenna only points to one city, so two of the cities arent received.

Every once in a while, something happens to the signal, be it weather related, airplane fade, bird sitting on the antenna, etc, and the station being recorded disappears. WMC then decides to be helpful and switches to recording from one of the stations I cant receive. Fine, I've missed a recording, you'd think that be the end of it, but nooooo. WMC then continues, from there on out, to record from that other station instead of the one I've told it to record from. You cant switch it back! It keeps trying and trying to record from that alternate station. The only thing that works is deleting the series and re-entering it with the desired station. Then it works fine until something else happens and it switches again.

Thats just the way it works. Is it a bug? I think so, but it will never be fixed. It's been around for a long time.

In the mean time, look into the recording log and see if you see any entries that would indicate any kind of recording failure. That could give you a clue. And then do whats been suggested, disable the SD channel.