Auto-switch to re-processed recording

I watch a lot of in-progress recordings and it would be really cool if once a recording has been re-processed, it automatically switches to the re-processed video even when you’re currently watching the recording.

For example, lets say there’s a show being recorded from 7-8pm. You decide to start watching the show at 7:59. Even though the recording will be re-processed within the next 10 minutes, your video will still not have thumbnails for the duration of the viewing. The only way to fix this currently is to exit the recording and resume it. This isn’t very elegant. I also feel like fast-forward/rewinding are much faster in the re-processed files so it’s not just the thumbnails that people could be missing out on.

Maybe you can set things up to periodically check to see if an in-progress viewing has been re-processed and once it has then the next time the user tries to skip forward or backward it discretely jumps files during the skip? Even a notification saying the recording has been re-processed would be helpful to let me know to exit and resume the recording to get the extra features.

Random question, if you start watching a recording before it is completed, then it finishes recording do the preview thumbnails get created while the recording is in use? Or does the preview thumbnail creation only happen when the recording is not in use (aka not being watched)?

The re-processing will use a separate tuner so it will happen even if you’re currently watching the recording. You’ll notice if you’re watching a show that ended recently, if you quickly exit and resume, you will now see thumbnails. This is of course assuming you have an available tuner to do the re-processing while you’re currently watching the show.

This is why I also think it may be possible to elegantly “swap” the file that the Tablo is using after the better, re-processed file is ready.

Watching a recording doesn’t prevent the thumbnails from being created. However, the player only loads the thumbnails at the beginning when it starts up, so even if the thumbnails are created while you are watching, you won’t see them unless you exit from the player and then start watching again. This is the player behavior so it’s not something we have a lot of control over, especially on players like Roku that are locked down completely.

1 Like