I use Channels for a lot of kids shows on PBS. These tend to run a lot and cycle back around quickly. My pass for Daniel Tiger isn’t recording much even though it’s set for all recordings and keep 10 (with 2-3 on the dvr at a time). The upcoming showings in the guide show as recorded, even though they are most definitely NOT on the DVR. The only thing I can figure is if it has EVER recorded, it thinks it has it. Is the possible? I might be an edge case, but I record a lot of stuff like this for the kids (where I may record the same episode multiple times as long as it’s not currently on the dvr).
Yes the DVR remembers what episodes have been recorded in the past, and will not record them again.
How about using the same rule that Tivo uses? If an episode hasn’t been recorded in 28 days or more then it should be recorded again. Also, there should be a setting to override this rule and record ALL episodes…
Yeah I admit this is confusing to me. Even cable company DVRs worked this way.
Perhaps we can make a distinction between episodes that have been recorded already and still exist in your recordings, vs ones that were deleted already.
Even then though, the current behavior seems like a more sane default because most people don’t want to watch the same thing over and over again. I can see how it could be different for kids though, so perhaps another option on the Series Pass makes the most sense.
I’m going to mull this over some, but would appreciate more feedback from others regarding their use-cases.
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I think an option to re-record would be nice. An example for this: I had a power outage and the middle of a show didn’t get recorded, but the beginning and the end recorded. I’d rather grab one of the reruns that might play and delete the one that had issues with the recording. I’ve only had this happen twice the whole time I’ve been using it, but it could also be useful if a hard drive crashes where the DVRs are stored (like an external) but the channels data itself is fine and you want to record the shows you lost.
+1
I’d point out it’s not just kid shows. Comedies. There’s a reason the FX App has a Simpsons channel with nothing but repeats. Just because I’ve seen Homer goes to Space once doesn’t mean I don’t want to see it again in six months. Really this applies to any syndicated show. It’s kind of the point of syndicated shows. You’ve seen this, but you loved it so much you wanna see it again. It’s the basis for cable afternoon programming.
Also - if you have it set to record everything, and everything runs at that point (think a comedy that ran a few seasons and airs twice a day) the season pass is useless. It won’t ever record anything at that point. You don’t think that’s more confusing for the end user?
I think it depends on whether or not the episode is still available in your library or not. If I have a 4TB drive and tell the DVR to keep all episodes of the simpsons, I can easily go back and watch my favorite episodes again and again.
For these one-off cases, I go to search, bring up the show/movie, find the episode, click on “Recorded”, then “Mark as not recorded”. DVR will then re-record the show. After correct recording is done, both will be in recordings, then I delete the first. Use it a lot to obtain higher resolution movie.
Of course, this doesn’t work unless the episode/movie is listed on the latest guide.
Exactly. So if it’s not on my DVR, I want to record it again so I can do that.
I still contend I shouldn’t be able to have a Season Pass that’s guaranteed not to record anything.
I would like to be able to make this distinction. Occasionally, I delete recordings because there was a problem with my reception at that time, or possibly I missed the beginning/end of the show due to a live broadcast that interfered with the schedule. In such a case, it would be nice to automatically re-record the deleted episode if it airs again later.
I think this is a different use-case, which I had planned to address with a “Delete and Re-record” button.
I think the case mentioned by the OP here is for passes which are set to auto-delete recordings, where those same episodes air again on a repeated basis. It seems like a new option on the Pass is the best way to handle this, although I’m still not quite sure what to call it to effectively convey the new behavior.
I prefer the current way it works. I always delete immediately after watching. I’ve never watched a show or read a book twice, unless it was for my kids.
If the default behavior for this needs to change so that it is similar to competing products that people are moving from, i don’t mind going in and setting my defaults.