New to channels - Manual Recording possible?

Channels DVR Server
#1

made the upgrade to Windows 10 on my HTPC and this is a nice upgrade from windows Media Center.

I have poked around and looked and could not see if it was possible to set up a manual recording.

For instance during the Olympics, record NBC from 10 am to 2 am.
or during college football bowl season, I want to record ESPN from 1159 am all the way to 2am; that way I am not guessing when the games end and have one long smooth non-stop recording.

As you might surmise, my main focus is recording (and then later editing and burning to BD) - sporting events - since the SONY's of the world never made the next machine after the DVD-burner, i decided to build my own

WMC allowed manual recordings, just wondering where I might find that on channels (if available)

Thank you for your time and consideration

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#2

Yes, it is possible. However, you have to do it from the command line:

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#3

that looks like a lot to swallow; - not sure even where to do that, or if worth the hassle, but I appreciate you taking time to respond

#4

Using the Channel server's website, if you can find the show that starts at the time you want to start a recording, then you can extend the recording up to 5 hours after the end of the show being recorded.

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#5

I’m fascinated to hear why you’re archiving on blu-ray disks rather than hard drives.

Storage is so cheap these days, and it means all of the content is immediately accessible in Channels whenever you want, vs on hard media. Not to mention the low life span of plastic discs.

#6

If you can create and edit a .json file.
If you can copy and paste into a Windows .cmd file.

Here's what I do for my one off manual recordings.
Drag and drop the .json file on the .cmd file.
The .json file contains the payload for the scheduled recording.
The .cmd file sends the .json payload to my dvr server to schedule the manual recording.

Very easy, and using a .json file allows you to edit it or copy and edit it.

P.S. My TiVo's do manual recordings and I miss that in Channels DVR. So instead of waiting for it to come to the Channels DVR interface, I figured out the workaround with help from the developers.

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#7

But those plastic disks can be passed to others.

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#8

5 hours is a lot, thanks!!!!

#9

Low life span of disc when not properly stored….
Hard drives ALWAYS fail,

I started recording on beta in 76
VHS AROUND 80
S-vhs around 99
DVD in 05
Blue ray in 14

I have quite the collection of the sports I target, still do swaps with other traders,

I’m an old school physical copy guy

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#10

Have you considered M-discs?
https://www.mdisc.com/

#11

Not at those prices

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#12

I know it's off-topic, but how do you like the commercial marking in Channels DVR vs the AD Detect in VRD?
I struggled using AD Detect in VRD and when I found Channels DVR using comskip and now the .Vprj integration they added, I don't use the VRD AD Detect anymore.

#13

I never used the video redo ad-detector as I thought it took too damn long and was inaccurate.

As this is a dead spot in my sports archiving calendar, I have not utilized it yet but it appears to be more accurate from just playing around.

#14

Hard drive is a physical copy on a different media. I have all my plastic disks copied to hard drive for quick and easy access. The hard drive is backed up to the cloud. I still have the plastic disks if I need them, but theoretically, I should never have to touch them again. Having things in a standard format is just easier because you don't have to maintain an old machine. Kudos for having a working beta though...

#15

I no longer own a CD player, or a DVD player, or a Blue-ray player. I enjoy not having the clutter. When I buy a new plastic disk, I rip it before I can watch it. It only takes a few minutes. Some people like all that. My step son has a wall of disks and equipment that he's really proud of. It does look pretty impressive. It's just not my personal esthetic. I like things super high tech, but invisible.

#16

your set up seems to be great for you, that's awesome :slight_smile:

for me, its about getting "games" to other people, and for the past 45 or so years, physical copy is the way to go.

Then again the people I am interacting with are more my age and more in tune with physical copies..

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#17

getting back on topic, there seems to be a partial work around for what it is that i am looking to do, (set like a 12-14 hour recording on one channel)

i'll pop back on here if i run into any further issues
thanks again

#19

@billmich I just released an app to schedule manual recordings:

See if this is useful to you. :slightly_smiling_face:

#20

Thanks for that hack, but I have to say that it is mind-boggling that a feature that you take for granted in every other DVR somehow has not made it into the channels client.

It's just such an obvious, basic feature. The best case that I can use is when a sports event gets delayed / rescheduled and the guide has not been updated, but there's plenty of other examples out there.

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#21

I appreciate the work you put into this, but I'm not installing extra files or 'python' when my work around is to find start time i want on the channel I want, create a pass for that event, then set the recording to run long by 18,000 seconds - which is 5 hours
36000 seconds being a 10 hour extension...etc

I truly only need it during bowl season (and CFB championship Saturday), and now that I have 2 HDHomerun primes, (6 tuners) I may not even need it then.

But I echo GTFan in that this feature is much easier on other DVR type of programs

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