Newbie DVR question...

[polksda]

Been with DirecTV for about a month and a half now. Still getting used to it compared to Dish.

I'm wanting to build a library of NCIS episodes in HD, since the early seasons have not been released on Blu-Ray. So I have one of my HD-DVRs set to record all the episodes on USA (they show 20+ episodes a week).

Here's the question: Is the DVR smart enough to not re-record episodes that it has already recorded even they are all reruns, or will I have to manually cleanse duplicates from thethe library before the HD-DVR fills?

Thanks.

 

[jdspencer]

It should, but it depends on how good the guide data is. To be safe you'll need to cull the duplicates.

 

[JerseyMatt]

Right now I have NCIS, CSI, Southland, Damages, Justified, Mythbusters, Grey's Anatomy (yeah go ahead and laugh, but it's good), South Park, Futurama, and Family Guy going. I seem to have problems sporadically (where it'll record both the eastern and pacific runs on the same day), usually happens after a software update, then goes away after the next update. The main thing you have to watch for is when they dump the new episodes to the rerun channels. A lot of times they will put the 'first run' flag up the first time it is run on that channel, even though it originally aired on the other network a few weeks ago, and it'll record even though it is already on the DVR. I have that problem with Grey's Anatomy, where the new episode on ABC is recorded, then 2 weeks later Lifetime gets it and it records again because they set it as first run.

But out of all those series, I wind up with maybe 3 or 4 duplicates a week at this point.

 

[raoul5788]

The only way to filter is new/rerun, so if you are recording all of them, it will record duplicates. You will have to remove them one at a time.

 

[polksda]

To clarify my original question: At this point I'm not recording any of the new shows. Only reruns on USAHD. If I understand the above responses correctly, I shouldn't have an issue with duplication due to incorrect flagging, as I'm only recording reruns, correct?

 

[raoul5788]

It will record all of the reruns, including duplicates. The dvr only differentiates between first run and reruns, not already recorded episodes. That would be a nice feature to have though.

 

[polksda]

Frack. Then it looks like I'll have to manually keep track of the individual episodes and keep on it as the DVR gets full. *grumble*

 

[jdspencer]

Maybe getting an external 1TB eSATA drive wil help.

But, I'd get a second DVR for exclusive use of recording NCIS.