Windows 7 Media Center padding issue

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cshaun

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#78762 8-Mar-2011 01:34

Problem:
Recording back to back programs with 5 min padding that gets dropped... and decent solutions?
How are you guys that are using MC7 coping?
(Spent the last couple hours reading about it but couldn't find any solutions.)

Been using Media Portal for the last couple years (because Vista MC couldn't record Freeview). Was sorta always temporary because I MUCH preferred MC interface. Anyway finally got round to using Windows 7 few months back and got stuck at deciding between Big Screed EPG vs GuideHound (no decent comparison). Anyway figured I'd actually try them both... So first night of recording stuff with my dual tuners and most of the stuff I recorded tonight missing start/end.

ARG?!?!

I could probably live with the not being able to record multiple channels on the same mux, and just buy more tuners.
Really happy with the MC7 interface. So much less work required to map keys, remote, front panel display etc (everything just works out of the box and is intuitive) and just find that everything just makes sooo much more sense than Media Portals way of doing things.

Assume most people in NZ using Media Portal? What's the distribution like - haven't had a very good look at the other contenders.

Help?? Please?

MickeyD

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#446507 8-Mar-2011 05:38

I couldn't find any way around it other than to get more tuners. I have 2x dual DVB-T tuner cards, and so rarely have a problem. Except for when the program starts broadcasting 5 minutes earlier than scheduled so I still miss the start!

I guess the ideal solution would be for TV stations to broadcast CRID information (as per sbiddle's post at http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=114&topicid=78082) and for Media Center to recognise it so we wouldn't need padding at all. Sadly that's just a dream at present.

Nety

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#446508 8-Mar-2011 06:28

With back to back programming on the same channel it will drop the padding but put the end of that program at the beginning of the next one. It does seem to take a few seconds to start the new recording so you do loose a little bit and of course it is annoying to have to start watching the beginning of the next recording just to see the end of the last one.

I have always found it ridiculous that there is no way to get it to use a different tuner if one is available (I have 4 available) rather then interrupting the existing recording but there does not seem to be any interest in MS to to do so.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

Satch

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#446622 8-Mar-2011 12:43

The solution is to go into your series recordings and change the padding from whatever the default is to '10 mins after' (not the '10mins after if possible' option).

Unfortunately you cannot set this up as a default for series recordings, but you have to set this option the first time you set up each series.

This will give you hard padding for back to back recordings on the same channel.

cshaun

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#446682 8-Mar-2011 15:39

I did read about those as 'work arounds'. So I guess there's been no progress, no hacks, no fixes, nothing...

UN-BE-lievable!

So basically you need double the amount of tuners you normally would (well more when compared to media portal) AND more HD space seeing as you're forced to record an 'extra' extra 5 min.

You guys find that it's a bearable work around?
Just struggling to decide if it's worth it.
Pretty MAJOR bug/issue.

And by the sounds of it it's been around since the beginning and not likely to be 'fixed' any time soon. Likely not even with Windows 8.

Frustrating, everything designed to work well with MC: My keyboard, Harmony one remote, iMon display on case etc.

In the last two years think it's only been once I've actually wanted to record tv that were on more than two muxes. So 1x dual tuner perfectly adequate with media portal.

Satch

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#446797 8-Mar-2011 21:02

I have 5 tuners in my HTPC. Two for Freeview and three for Sky. Not an issue for me.

cshaun

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#446821 8-Mar-2011 22:46

Ok I'm strongly considering getting another dual DVB-T tuner and giving it a go.

Seeing as you can't force it to add any padding at the start... Do shoes every get clipped off from the start? Obviously generally shows run 1-4 minutes late, but I'm unsure of if they're ever early?

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cshaun

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#446839 9-Mar-2011 04:27

Oh. Just realized setting it to 10min actually enforces the 5min start as well... weird.
So that answers that.

No way to hack the 5min after 'forced' setting to work?

Satch

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#446906 9-Mar-2011 12:09