Recordings ending prematurely? Hopper 3

[docdaddy]

Hopper 3 - I've notice in the last couple of months or so a number of recordings ending prematurely. We have the default set to start on minute early, end 10 minutes late. We almost never have more than two or three shows recording at any one time.

Yet, for example, we were watching Modern Family (episode from a month ago) and it ended abruptly right at the end of the show but before the little short epilogue they have after the last commercials. It clearly did not record 10 minutes extra.

I've seen this on several programs, usually 30 minute shows. With 16 tuners, and only say 3 shows recording at any one time, and PTAT taking up one tuner, I'm not sure why the DVR would stop recording early; its not like it needs the tuner to switch channels?

Ideas on what's going on?

 

[JSheridan]

Hopper 3 - I've notice in the last couple of months or so a number of recordings ending prematurely. We have the default set to start on minute early, end 10 minutes late. We almost never have more than two or three shows recording at any one time.

Yet, for example, we were watching Modern Family (episode from a month ago) and it ended abruptly right at the end of the show but before the little short epilogue they have after the last commercials. It clearly did not record 10 minutes extra.

I've seen this on several programs, usually 30 minute shows. With 16 tuners, and only say 3 shows recording at any one time, and PTAT taking up one tuner, I'm not sure why the DVR would stop recording early; its not like it needs the tuner to switch channels?

Ideas on what's going on?

I've never had any luck extending timers on any PTAT show. I turned off PTAT for Sundays to be sure to record an extra hour of NCIS LA and Madam Secretary because there always seems to be something on Sunday like golf or football that makes the shows run over.

 

[docdaddy]

I was wondering if PTAT had anything to do with it, but I set my Sunday evening shows to go an hour late due to football, golf, etc. and they all seem to record for that extra hour. Or they did last fall.

I guess I could turn PTAT off since I have timers set for all of the shows we watch, but sometimes it's nice to browse what PTAT recorded and watch something we don't normally watch.

 

[ncted]

I turned off PTAT. We never got to enjoy AutoHop any more, and it seemed to cause a few frustrations like this. With 16 tuners, it just wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[docdaddy]

Oh, I forgot you lose Autohop when you turn off PTAT! We love Autohop, much more than we expected we would. Nice to be able to turn on a show and just put the remote down and not touch it until the show is over.

 

[JSheridan]

I was wondering if PTAT had anything to do with it, but I set my Sunday evening shows to go an hour late due to football, golf, etc. and they all seem to record for that extra hour. Or they did last fall.

I guess I could turn PTAT off since I have timers set for all of the shows we watch, but sometimes it's nice to browse what PTAT recorded and watch something we don't normally watch.

My Sunday night shows have never extended the recordings according to the timer settings until I turned off PTAT for Sunday night. As you probably know you can turn it on and off for whatever nights you want to.

 

[ncted]

Oh, I forgot you lose Autohop when you turn off PTAT! We love Autohop, much more than we expected we would. Nice to be able to turn on a show and just put the remote down and not touch it until the show is over.

As long as you leave PTAT on for 1 night a week, say Saturday, AutoHop should still work for all recordings that would have been PTAT, or so I am told.

 

[JSheridan]

As long as you leave PTAT on for 1 night a week, say Saturday, AutoHop should still work for all recordings that would have been PTAT, or so I am told.

You were told right. And AutoHop will even work on any recordings made from the OTA PTAT primary channels.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I have ALL my timers set up for start 1 minute early and end 2 minutes late and I don't use PTAT at all since it cuts off all my shows at the half hour mark regardless of timer settings. No longer miss anything at the start or end of shows. Of course like others I have certain shows on Sunday set with timer endings going up to 90 minutes over because of sports over runs.

 

[Jackonearth]

I don't have too many good things to say about the Comcast X1 but one feature that actually works well is what they call "auto-pad recordings" it automatically starts all recordings early and stops them late. I haven't seen any recordings cut off early on the X1 in a long time. I'm surprised Dish hasn't thought of this.

 

[ncted]

I don't have too many good things to say about the Comcast X1 but one feature that actually works well is what they call "auto-pad recordings" it automatically starts all recordings early and stops them late. I haven't seen any recordings cut off early on the X1 in a long time. I'm surprised Dish hasn't thought of this.

What you describe is literally what the Hopper does by default. Is there some logic that the X1 uses to detect when a show will start and has ended, or does it just start some amount of time early and end some amount of time late?

 

[Jackonearth]

What you describe is literally what the Hopper does by default. Is there some logic that the X1 uses to detect when a show will start and has ended, or does it just start some amount of time early and end some amount of time late?

Comcast doesn't do anything that involves logic. The X1 starts recordings 1 minute early and ends them 3 minutes late. I see plenty of recordings on the Hopper get cut off early. Is there a setting I should look for somewhere? What is it exactly that the Hopper does by default?

 

[logdog]

I've never had any luck extending timers on any PTAT show. I turned off PTAT for Sundays to be sure to record an extra hour of NCIS LA and Madam Secretary because there always seems to be something on Sunday like golf or football that makes the shows run over.

I used to have the same problem. Someone suggested setting timers on the PTAT channels for the news shows that follow prime time. I've been doing that for several months now and it works great. If it's a half hour news show, I extend the recording an extra 30 minutes. I have the news shows record to a folder called "temp" which I clean out once a week. If my Madam Secretary gets cut off, I can find it in that folder.

 

[docdaddy]

OK turned PTAT to On but only for Saturday and will see if my padding at the end of shows now works (and if I still have Autohop on everything.)

 

[Falcon195]

OK I have two questions. What the heck is PTAT and how do you turn it on and off on a Hopper 3?

 

[ncted]

Comcast doesn't do anything that involves logic. The X1 starts recordings 1 minute early and ends them 3 minutes late. I see plenty of recordings on the Hopper get cut off early. Is there a setting I should look for somewhere? What is it exactly that the Hopper does by default?

That is the same at the Hopper does by default, 1 min early, and 3 mins late. Apparently, however, if you are also using PTAT, you may not get the padding. This should not happen on non-PTAT channels. If it happens on HBO, for example, it is due to bad guide data, not because the padding isn't there (unless someone disables the padding).

 

[ncted]

OK I have two questions. What the heck is PTAT and how do you turn it on and off on a Hopper 3?

PTAT= PrimeTime Any Time. What this refers to is Hopper DVRs recording the "big 4" major networks, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox automatically every night during Prime Time hours. The AutoHop (auto commercial skip) feature requires PTAT to be enabled on at least one night per week.

To enable/configure it, Menu -> PrimeTime Anytime.

 

[Jackonearth]

That is the same at the Hopper does by default, 1 min early, and 3 mins late. Apparently, however, if you are also using PTAT, you may not get the padding. This should not happen on non-PTAT channels. If it happens on HBO, for example, it is due to bad guide data, not because the padding isn't there (unless someone disables the padding).

Almost everything I record is from PTAT. Is there any way to get the padding to work on PTAT?
And why is Mike setting the padding himself if the Hopper already does it?

 

[ncted]

Almost everything I record is from PTAT. Is there any way to get the padding to work on PTAT?

The prescribed solution is apparently to turn it off except for 1 day per week (Saturday seems to be the day of preference), and then keep all your timers setup with padding. You still get AutoHop on all the Big 4 networks that way, without the padding problems. Or, just turn it off altogether, and lose AutoHop, but avoid padding problems, thereby leveraging the 16-tuner wonder that is the Hopper3.

 

[Jackonearth]

The prescribed solution is apparently to turn it off except for 1 day per week (Saturday seems to be the day of preference), and then keep all your timers setup with padding. You still get AutoHop on all the Big 4 networks that way, without the padding problems. Or, just turn it off altogether, and lose AutoHop, but avoid padding problems, thereby leveraging the 16-tuner wonder that is the Hopper3.

Guess you missed my edit