Please use signal strength for selection of channel to record

Channels DVR Server
#1

We are in the SF-Oakland-San Jose market. When a pass is created and there are multiple channels that carry the show, Channels always selects a station far away 75-100 miles instead of using our local station. I know we can deactivate the far away stations but we don’t want to because sometimes we can get the signal and a different show not in our areas. I first suggested allowing the station to be selected in all devices, not just the web GUI which my wife will not use (Badly need channel selection in tvOS for pass).

But, I have a MUCH better idea to make this wife(and everyone else) friendly: Since the new HD Homerun 4 tuner model we are using provides signal strength (we bought an app that displays it), why not have Channels DVR use the signal strength as part of the channel selection for a show pass. When Channels DVR finds the same program on multiple channels, use the signal strength to select the stronger signal. This could be stored when the channel is setup, or if it’s easy, dynamically when the pass is created. The problem is eliminated and no need for us to do anything special since the strongest signal will be used for the recordings!

This enhancement should be done in addition to the one I mentioned in 3640/2.

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#2

you can favorite your local channels on the DVR (separate from ATV favorites) and it will record on those if a show is playing at the same time on two different channels.

3 Likes
#3

Can you please tell me how to do this? I see how to set favorites channels, but a I don’t see how to set favorites for the DVR.

#4

On the DVR web UI, click the “xxx channels” link under your hdhomerun.

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#5

I don’t think you understand. We need a way to make recording easy for family. No going into GUIs. If a show is on more than one channel, anyone selecting a show should not have to worry about checking the signal quality or having to go to a GUI. Channels is very good, but not nearly user friendly as other devices when it comes to this issue. If the signal quality is available, why not let Channels decide what station to record from. This is the most serious issue we have because Channels always picks the wrong station. You should not have to be a techie to record a show. This is a major issue that must be resolved for us as there is no easy workaround. The other enhancements I suggested would really make it more like things we are used to, which make it family friendly. But this one is close to show stopper since I have to go into web gui for almost every pass.

#6

If you know a channel has poor signal why don’t you just block the channel from even showing up through the HD homerun GUI? It will clean up your guide and you don’t need to look at channel listings for channels you don’t even watch.

#7

Using signal quality to make recording decisions is a good idea, but adds a lot of technical complexity. The signal quality is only available once tuned into the channel, so the DVR would need to start recording atleast a few seconds early and try to tune into each available channel to figure out which one was the strongest. If you’re already limited on tuners and have overlapping recordings scheduled, this is not feasible since there might not even be a tuner available to try to check the signal quality.

As noted earlier, we plan to bring channel selection to the app so you can pick a channel when creating a pass. In the mean time, we strongly encourage users to either hide weak channels, or favorite preferred channels in the DVR, both of which will ensure the proper station is used for new recordings.

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#8

Ahhh, I see the problem with dynamic signal ckecking. Here are two suggestions in order of preference:

  1. Use static signal test. Save the signal strength during initial tuner setup or subsequent tuner scans only. That will be fine since most stations signals don’t change much relative to each other. It’s not dynamic but works probably for 99.5 percent of the time. This is the best option because there is no work added to the setup, and recording is a no brainer.

  2. Add a “priority” to the channel, this is not nearly as good as option 1 but would solve the problem, think of it as a super version of favorites. A single number from 0-9 that we add manually (not great but at least may be easier to implement). Let say a network is picked up in 3 stations, The priority would be used to make the primary selection when recording.

The objective here is to make Channels family friendly. We don’t want to do anything extra when a recording/pass is setup. The upcoming channel number selection is nice but still requires something extra for almost every pass setup. The options above eliminate that.

#9

This kind of defeats the point of using signal strength, because the whole point is that its dynamic. Further, this is not currently possible because the HDHR is responsible for doing the channel scan and it doesn’t record or export the strengths. We would have to write our own custom channel scanner to be able to access these details.

I don’t understand how this is any better than simply favoriting the channel. That’s exactly what it does internally… favorited channels get priority when making recordings. Assigning a numeric priority to each channel means a more complicated UI for very little benefit.

#10

Static would be better than nothing. The app I use is Signal GH. So your saying the signal is not easily available and this is really hard to do.

I have searched for shows and have seen 3 stations with the same show, some at different times. The priority would have made it much easier to handle. Yes favorites is simple, but even changing from favorite to “low medium high” makes more flexible in this cases were it’s useful.

Anyway, this is the only major issue because in the SF Bay area, Channels always pick the far away stations with the lowest signal. I was hoping to simplify setup for others to do it easily instead of relying on me.

#11

I have run into this situation as well for NBC in North Idaho. There are multiple radio towers broadcasting 6.1, but the physical channels are 18 and 27. NBC on 18 comes in weak and lots of times the signal breaks up, while 27 is really solid. Sometimes Channels (I’ve seen this on live TV on the app as well as the DVR do this) will start using 18 and when this happens, I go in and re-scan the HDHomeRun, and then it starts using 27 again. I wish there was a way in the scan section of your app to see the two stations that are broadcasting 6.1, and permanently disable the weak one.

#12

This is a different issue, caused by multiple channels using the same virtual channel number. You should contact [email protected] and tell them the tuner is randomly switching between the two.

The channel scanning logic is all built into the HDHR firmware. You can trigger a channel scan yourself via my.hdhomerun.com. During the scan, they look at the signal strengths and in the case of a virtual number conflict, the strong signal is picked.

I think what’s happening with you is that sometimes the HDHR will do a background channel scan (even though no one asked it to), and it’s switching 6.1 to the other frequency (even though its weaker?). This is something that SD would be able to fix in their firmware.

#13

Favorited Channel = High Priority
Unfavorited = Medium Priority
Disabled Channel = Low Priority

As soon as you favorite or disable one of the affected channels, things will work as you expect an no one will have to rely on your or the web UI for anything.

#14

Yes that what I have setup now. A suggestion though: When I first setup the DVR it is not obvious what the favorites are for in the DVR app, I assumed they would match what the IOS and AppleTV Favorites (used to control the favorites guide) but the DVR favorites serve a different purpose: for recordings. That’s why I suggested using other nomenclature something like “recording priority low/medium/high/disable”. That would been more clear so as not to confuse DVR favorites with the IOS/ATV favorites. Anyway, too bad about not using the signal during scan setup, that would have been great and eliminated all this.

We have favorites on IOS/ATV and some stations carry the same show. So I still need to setup the DVR favorites so I am relied upon to do that. If someone adds a channel to the IOS app and it dups a show in another favorites channel, I need to be relied upon to make sure the new channel is setup in the DVR correctly. They will never do that so I must maintain the DVR settings.

#15

Turns out, settings favorites in the DVR does not work for me. Olympics are on 11.1 and 11.3, I set 11.1 as favorites in the DVR GUI. I set a pass on the iPad for Olympics, 11.3 was selected! This is a major ease of use issue for us since it requires me to do all passes. Something is really wrong here with my setup or Channels.

#16

It doesn’t matter what the app says, when it comes time to record the favorited channel will be used.

#17

I ran some test over the last couple of days recording the news on 11.1 (also on 11.3, a different station). There are two things something Amis that is causing confusion that should be fixed/enhanced:

  1. When I looked at the the web GUI, it stated it was using 11.3, 11.1. This implied it uses 11.3, even though 11.1 is set in the GUI as favorite, and 11.3 not.

  2. I asked for this in a previous suggestion: Once recorded, there is no info to show what channel, date and time of the recoding. Without the channel, you have to watch to figure out the station. We were used to having recording channel, date/time previously and it turns out this would really be useful right now.

It appears the correct channel was used, it’s just takes a lot of work to figure it out.

#18

But, now that you have figured it out, you dont need to worry about it anymore!

#19

That’s an odd comment, easy of use prevents family programming. Should not need to remember a bunch of special rules. Be nice if it “just worked” intuitively. Channels is really nice, but needs some polishing to be "great’ to replace other DVRs. We are really liking it except for some missing features and the recording complexity with similar stations.

#20

Sorry, what I understood is that you favorited the channels you want to record on in the dvr. And, as expected, the DVR prioritizes those channels. So, it is working? If there are channels you don’t want to see in the ATV UI, it is easy to hide them.