Personal Video Recorders (1 Viewer)

[RonGecan]

I'm not sure this is in the proper section, but I have a question about recording on these new PVRs. From what I gather, these recorders are supposed to be pretty smart: will distinguish between first runs and reruns, can record all shows with a particular actor, suggest similar shows, etc.

However, does anyone know how it deals with recording sporting events? What happens if the game goes into OT? Will it understand that it should keep recording? And how about shows that are delayed later on because of an overrun by a game, will the recording start appropriately later?

Thanks.

 

[Brian L]

However, does anyone know how it deals with recording sporting events? What happens if the game goes into OT? Will it understand that it should keep recording? And how about shows that are delayed later on because of an overrun by a game, will the recording start appropriately later?

No PVR will be able to deal with that automatically. They base all start/stop times on the downloaded guide data which does NOT get updated when things start late or run long.

FWIW, I use a Tivo, and it has a feature that allows you to extend the programmed stop time in cases where you think something will or could run long.

I record racing (such as Formula 1) which sometimes runs long so I pad all my recordings by 1 hour. I would expect that replay can do this too. FWIW, once you start using one of these puppies, you will not be able to live without it.

BGL

 

[Michael Reuben]

PVRs depend on the program information they download from a central source. If a broadcast deviates from the program information, the PVR won't know to adjust. In the two examples, you've given, the recording time would not be adjusted.

On TiVo, you can pad out a recording to start earlier and/or stop later. So if you're recording a sporting event or something that follows a sporting event, you can anticipate problems caused by overruns, but you have to think ahead and do it manually. (I assume Replay has a similar feature, but I don't know for sure.)

M.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Yes, on ReplayTV, you can pad the start and the end times of programs slated to be recorded, but be mindful of scheduling for shows following the game, the padding might cause a conflict with another show that has been slated to be recorded in the timeslot right after the time slot allotted by the channel guide.

 

[Bob Jackson]

They aren't that smart. For example I recorded the Speed Challenge races last weekend the Speed had them all delayed 20min due to a race that ran long much earlier in the day - so I missed the last 20 min.

They also don't handle those Presidential TV announcements well (though last time from the carrier the networks tried to get it right - but screwed it up royally for those of us in the Mountain Time Zone).

TiVo has the technology to read things out of the Closed Captioning, but I have not seen anyone talking about adding that data to the stream - would be nice though.

 

[Jay H]

As far as the Echostar PVR501 that comes with DishNetwork, they are only as smart as the guide are (which aren't correct all the time). It wont record anything longer than what you tell it to and the guide isn't updated if the program overruns, hence your recording wont overrun. The 501 is not as sophisticated as the TIVO units, no season pass, but you can setup timers that run Mon-Fri, a daily basis, or on a once-a-week basis, (as well as one time only times of course)

There is a multi-day guide (I think it's up to 7 days or more) and a search function on the 501 but each service differs.

Jay

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Jay is correct: the recording is only as good as the program guide.

With the DishPVR you DO have the ability to start recording 1 minute early, and to 'pad' several minutes to the end. Even the DishPlayer now has this feature.

 

[Tommy Ceez]

There is a multi-day guide (I think it's up to 7 days or more)

The newer 508 is 9 days