Record at most N episodes of old series?

Channels DVR Server
#1

Is there a way to have Channels record at most 3 episodes of an old series (think Brady Bunch)?

If I set the season pass to only record 'new' episodes, it does not record anything since there are no 'new' episodes for this ancient series.

If I set it to record 'all' episodes, it keeps recording and re-recording episodes for no real benefit.

I'd like Channels to record 3 episodes and then wait for me to watch and delete an old episode before it tries to record another one. Is there any way to do this?

#2

There is no way to do this at the moment, apart from something external invoking the pause/resume APIs.

This is a very valid use-case though, and it seems like we should have a way to make this easier. It's on my wish list for 2021.

#3

We're testing a new setting under advanced passes that implements this feature. Try prerelease v2021.04.29.0105

Really Realy need Record With pause Til Viewed And Manual Record
#4

Just upgraded to pre-release. In the advanced portion of the season passes I see:

  • Keep
    • All
    • Watched/ Unwatched
    • Last N only
  • Limit
    • No Limit/ N recordings

Can you clarify how all these choices interact? Specifically, it's not obvious to me how 'Last N only' and 'Limit - N recordings' interact.

Could you give an example as to how I should configure the season pass to record at most N episodes, regardless of whether they are reruns or not. No more episodes should be recorded unless I manually delete one of the already-recorded episodes.

Can you also give an example as to how I should configure the season pass to only record 'new' episodes in a series (i.e. no reruns) and keep the lastest N episodes. New episodes should automatically delete the oldest episodes, even if I haven't watched them yet.

Thanks,
James

P.S. Prior to this, I was not planning on renewing my subscription. With this feature being added, I will be renewing.

#5

We know the settings are currently confusing, and will likely be changing them in the near future. But right now we're just trying to get the backend logic working so this feature is possible.

Keep > Last N decides when an episode is deleted.

Limit N decides when new recordings are paused.

So if you set Keep Unwatched + Limit 5, it would record five episodes. Then every time you marked one watched, it would get deleted because of the keep setting, and then a new episode would be recorded to increase back up to 5 recordings.

This is the same as before I think, set the pass to New (tags == New in advanced), then Last 5. It will record every new episode, and then delete the oldest when it sees there are more than 5 recordings.

Series Pass that does not auto delete
#6

Got it! Thanks!