522: Buffers and Tuners

[Jolard]

I have just had my new 522 installed, it replaces my 510 and 311. So far, it is amazing, and I love it.

There are two issues though that seem like they should be really easy to fix, but I cannot get them to work, and from what I can see, there is no way to. I have spent hours looking through old threads, and some of these are mentioned, but not definitively.

First off the easiest to describe:

When I set a record timer, it automatically sets the show to start 1 minute early, and end 3 minutes later. I know how to change that in the options menu, but I would like to change the default. It is actually good to have the buffers most of the time, however when I have shows that run consecutively on the same channel, it either has to record on two different tuners, or one of the shows gets bumped. Like I said, it is reasonably easy to change the start and end times, but it seems there should be a good default setting somewhere.

Second:

Why is it so impossible to pick which tuner a show records to!! I am operating in dual mode. I have turned on Smart Recording, or whatever it is called, and that allows me to pick the tuner I want to use when I hit the record button, why can't I also pick the tuner when I am setting up a timer? If I turn off the smart record, then I can use the remote 2 to setup tuner 2 timers, and I can use remote 1 to setup tuner 1 recordings, and that works fine. But as soon as I then turn on the Smart Recording function again, all my timers switch to the new default tuner.

I want to be able to specify which tuner each timer gets recorded on. For some periods during the day my son watches cartoons in the bedroom, so I want the living room to be where the recording happens. Other times I know my wife is likely to be browsing in the living room, so I want recording to occur in the bedroom. For you long time users, how do you deal with this? I know there has to be a "best" way to do this without all the hassle.

As I said, it is a great system, and a big step up from the 510, if I can just get used to some of the quirks it will be wonderful!

Thanks!

 

[n0qcu]

You cannot at this time change the default padding.

The only way is what you have discovered turn off smart recording and use remote 2 to setup recordings you want on tuner two and remote one to use tuner one.

 

[tracyt]

Don't remember how I did it, but will look tonight... I defaulted to TV2 for all recordings (unless a conflict or two recordings at same time) it seemed simple enough to change.

 

[Stargazer]

The bad part about the time padding is that it could cause you to miss some of your recordings if it runs into the time that another show is to record. Another thing is that it is not bringing up a screen saying that there is a conflict in that it will not be able to record that show and that another show has priority over the one you just selected to record.

 

[Jolard]

Thanks for the replies.

I do have some good news for anyone who is looking at this in the future.

The time padding doesn't matter!!!!

I was happy to see last night after some experimentation, that the 522 will remove the default time padding if it causes conflicts. Let me explain.

I set up two timers. The first I set up from 8 to 9, and left it with the default padding of 1 minute early, 3 minutes late. So it is setup to record from 7:59 to 9:03. Then I setup a second timer for a show from 9 to 10, leaving the default padding as well. The good news is that the 522 software automatically removed the padding from the beginning of my new timer (so it would start at 9:00 instead of 8:59) and it ALSO removed the padding on my earlier timer, so that it would now stop at 9:00 instead of 9:03. So Dish is way ahead of me, and have taken care of the issue for me!!

So no longer do I need to worry about the padding, if it causes a conflict DISH will remove the padding for me. I am not sure if it will always work that way, but it was working in all scenarios I tried last night, whether both shows were on the same channel or different channels. The only time it didn't auto fix the padding was of course when the two shows were on different tuners.

As for the other issue, (being able to select the tuner that is used) I just ended up turning off the Record Plus "feature" and set up all my timers again using the correct remote for the correct tuner. It was kind of a pain, and should be a lot easier to do (DISH??? Listening??) but it is possible. Just make sure you don't turn on the Record Plus "feature" again or it will automatically change all your timer tuners again.

My suggestion for DISH is pretty simple. Make it possible for me to pick which tuner the show will record on when I am setting a timer. Also, when I do end up with a conflict on one tuner, make one of the options be that I can move the timer to the other tuner. Thanks!

 

[maximum]

...
So no longer do I need to worry about the padding, if it causes a conflict DISH will remove the padding for me. I am not sure if it will always work that way, but it was working in all scenarios I tried last night, whether both shows were on the same channel or different channels. The only time it didn't auto fix the padding was of course when the two shows were on different tuners.

That's interesting. In the past it would only remove padding if the shows were on the same channel. I haven't messed with it much since the last software update so maybe this is a new feature (to remove padding to resolve conflicts of shows on different channels).

 

[Jolard]

Yes it does work with different channels. I was taping Days of our Lives and General Hospital for my wife (now before you laugh, remember, this helps with the wife acceptance factor )

These two shows are on different channels, and follow directly one after the other. When I set them up with the padding set at default, (1 and 3) it removed the padding automatically when I added the second show. Very cool!

 

[Stargazer]

WOW, this software is smarter than I thought it was. I guess the 721 and 921 cannot do this but I havent tried it.