How do I record 5 shows and stop?

[msalzge]

Hey guys, here's a noobie question:

We just migrated from DTV to Dish with a hopper/joey setup. My kids love Phineas & Ferb and we'd like to record 5 rerun shows and STOP recording. In DirecTV this was easy as we could tell the box to keep 5 episodes and protect them all. On the Hopper, we can't specify the number of shows and protect at the same time, so we either record and protect all of the shows, or 5 episodes are kept, but Hopper keeps recording new ones and recycling over the ones that are already there. As a result, my daily schedule looks like a phineas & ferbfest.

Any suggestions?

 

[my3son]

after you get the 5 episodes you want, delete the timer.

 

[patmurphey]

It's a Hopper not a DirectTV box. your unusual desire has to be dealt with differently. You CAN protect recordings and you CAN limit the number of recordings, but the methods and numbers are DIFFERENT.

 

[msalzge]

Yes, thanks, I am aware that these systems are different. Certainly there are plusses and minuses to each one, but I can't believe that this request is as unique as the technical folks at D* are making it out to be. Perhaps our family is in the minority in enjoying watching old episodes of things like P&F or Law & Order etc. It was nice to have the system be able to record a set number of shows without clogging up the to-do list.

Perhaps someone at D* will take this as a feature request.

 

[Scherrman]

I've never really heard of someone doing this so I'm not sure if it can be done. I know when you originally set up a series to record it is defaulted to only record 20. You can change that number to unlimited but I'm not sure if it can be changed to a lower number.

 

[navychop]

D* = DirecTV

E* = Echostar/Dish.

 

[kwindrem]

I've never really heard of someone doing this so I'm not sure if it can be done. I know when you originally set up a series to record it is defaulted to only record 20. You can change that number to unlimited but I'm not sure if it can be changed to a lower number.

You can set it to any number but that's to KEEP not to "stop after". Dish receivers will record all episodes and delete oldest ones once the set limit has been reached. You can also not set a timer to keep a limited number of episodes AND protect them.

I think the logic of keeping the most recent episodes is the norm. The OP has a less common but still valid request. There are questions to be answered however such as what happens when one of the episodes is deleted?

With some work, you can manually achieve a similar behavior. You need to go through the daily listing and skip shows manually after you've recorded the episodes you want. As new days are added to the guide, it will record episodes you have not skipped.

Also, if you just want to record a few episodes, set separate timers to record just one episode each.

 

[JPhil]

I solve the Kid problem by creating a timer to record New and Rerun on a specific channel up to 10 episodes. When it reaches 10, I switch to Only New and move the reruns to my EHD.

Can be busy for a few days, but then I'm all good.

I then switch back to New and Reruns a couple of times a month.

 

[Chimera]

Just let it record all episodes of P&F - they're only SD (since E* has no HD Disney) and damn, it's worth it just for the Doof. I think we currently have 40+ episodes on the Hopper and we've only had it 5 days.

 

[garys]

You want to search and pick five episodes to record once and be done.

 

[dare2be]

It's too bad that you can't select the "Protect Recordings" option and pick a max number of episodes at the same time. That would get the OP what he wants.

 

[msalzge]

It's too bad that you can't select the "Protect Recordings" option and pick a max number of episodes at the same time. That would get the OP what he wants.

Under "seek and record", you actually can, but it doesn't work as it should (or as it would appear to indicate that it should). The system will record everything and keep it, because the #1 rule according to tech support is that the hopper won't ever delete a protected recording.

BTW thanks for the D* vs. E* lesson, still trying to get these training wheels off...

 

[dare2be]

Under "seek and record", you actually can, but it doesn't work as it should (or as it would appear to indicate that it should). The system will record everything and keep it, because the #1 rule according to tech support is that the hopper won't ever delete a protected recording.

BTW thanks for the D* vs. E* lesson, still trying to get these training wheels off...

I was referencing the behavior of the 722(k). When you select "Protect Recordings" it automatically sets the number of events to "#", and if you select a number of events, it unchecks the Protect option. Maybe the Hopper is supposed to work as it would appear to indicate, but is just a bug or "future enhancement."