Problems recording Hey Duggee (UK freeview)

[Robinlmp]

I have a season pass set up for ‘Hey Duggee’. There are different lengths of episodes according to the guide (short and long).

In the guide, the short ones are 5mins, the long ones 10mins.

However, they are all actually 7 minutes long.

Sometimes there are two episodes in the guide (1 short and 1 long) aired together, so the 15mins is enough to cover both episodes, however I end up with one file that is truncated and the other has half of the other episode.

The result, as you can imagine, is essentially useless.

The only solution I can think of is to add a large amount of padding to each episode and then manually edit at a later date. Unless there is a better way?

Any help gratefully received.

[Robinlmp]

One potential solution could be to allow if, else type conditions in the season pass advanced settings.

For example, be able to set a rule to add 3 mins padding to episodes that are less than 400 seconds long, but if longer, don't add any padding.

Or, be able to set multiple season passes for the same show, each with different settings (maybe easier to implement but less clear from a UI point of view)

Currently, it is possible to set conditions to only record shows of a certain length (using the advanced conditions), but it is not possible to apply settings for shows of one length and different settings for shows of a different length.

Would be great to add this one way or another.

[Robinlmp]

A temporary solution I've found is to set it up for the majority of the scheduled episodes (the shorter ones) and then manually go through the dvr schedule and edit the longer ones to remove the extra padding.

This is fine as a short term fix but really, it would be great to get this automated via the season pass settings.

[Robinlmp]

A similar but less severe issue is occurring with The Simpsons. Episodes are longer so it is actually possible to get a meaningful screenshot. I've highlighted the unusually short episode according to the guide. It is listed as 25 mins long rather than the normal 30mins.

[Robinlmp]

For example, be able to set a rule to add 3 mins padding to episodes that are less than 400 seconds long, but if longer, don't add any padding.

I've just found a case where having and / or type multiple conditions within an advanced pass would be helpful.

If I wanted to record all James Bond films, I could set up a single pass that has the necessary conditions to record them all.

I could be very specific and include all the film titles but this is prone to error if there is a typo in the title, or for some reason a screening has it written differently (eg punctuation variations). This arrangement would be specific but prone to missing recordings.

Another approach to this would be to set up multiple cast conditions for the lead actors who play James Bond. ie, Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, Roger Moore etc. This would capture all the Bond films, but it would also record numerous other things that they appear in.

Ultimately the choice would be for the user as to whether they want a catch all approach but end up with a load of additional recordings or a more specific approach.

Either way, this approach of being able to define multiple and / or conditions for a season pass would be extremely powerful and a great addition to Channels DVR.

[Robinlmp]

Has anyone any thoughts or ideas about what to do with this?

Any thoughts on the idea of having multiple conditions for advanced passes?

[chDVRuser]

Sounds like the guide provider needs to update the EPG to have correct start and end times.
Since there is no negative padding (start late/end early) available any work around would have missing or overlapped results.

On the examples you gave

I have a season pass set up for ‘Hey Duggee’. There are different lengths of episodes according to the guide (short and long).

In the guide, the short ones are 5mins, the long ones 10mins.

However, they are all actually 7 minutes long.

are they always back-back 5min showing then 10min showing?
If so, have you tried two advanced passes and prioritize so first one gets show with duration < 360
and second one would pickup anything the first didn't (i.e. duration >= 360, but you don't have to specify that as it would just pickup whatever shows the first pass didn't)

i.e.
Higher Priority pass to get short recordings

Lower Priority pass to get those the Higher Priority pass doesn't

My listings are 7 mins, 25 mins or 30 mins.

[Robinlmp]

Thanks, I tried setting up two passes but it wouldn't let me. I think because I was trying to set it up through the guide and it seemingly won't let you have two passes set up with the same SeriesID.

Your suggested set up sounds like a good solution.

I'm confused though why some episodes are showing up as 25 or 30 minutes for you. I guess it is something about how the channel it is being showed on pads it out with adverts or something?

Here in the UK, as far as the EPG provider, even the BBC themselves list the episodes as that length so I doubt anyone would be able to actually get it right.

The 5 min episodes are not always paired with a 10 min one.

Anyway, I'm going to have a go setting up the two passes as you've suggested. Hopefully that will deal with it. Would be great to have negative padding though so that the 10 min episodes that happen after a 5 min one could be made to start later.

[chDVRuser]

I'm confused though why some episodes are showing up as 25 or 30 minutes for you. I guess it is something about how the channel it is being showed on pads it out with adverts or something?

Not sure, I don't watch or record the show. It's broadcast in the U.S. on Nick Jr (Nickelodeon Jr)
U.S. http://www.nickjr.com/
U.K. http://www.nickjr.co.uk/

[Robinlmp]

Thanks, it’s free to air on BBC here though and I don’t have Nickelodeon Jr.

Anyway, I’ve found a bug that might be of interest to @tmm1

Having set up the two passes via the web interface, the passes interface shows that some episodes are being captured by one pass and some by the other.

This is then accurately reported in the web DVR schedule. I’ve added 3 min padding at the end and 10 seconds to the start of the the 5min long episodes so Channels web interface is reporting the scheduled recording length as 9 mins. The longer episodes have no padding and therefore stay as the 10 mins from the guide.

In the iOS app however, the same recordings show as 5 and 10 mins.

I’ve noticed that happening before; that this interface on iOS doesn’t show the padding. It is inconsistent but I don’t think it is a bug.

The issue is, if I then check the recording settings for the two scheduled recordings, the long one shows the same padding settings as the short one. I’ve double checked on the web interface and it is correct, so I think there is a bug here in how the iOS app is checking pass settings.