(COMPLETED) Adjust the start/stop times to Guide Scheduled recordings

Feature Requests
21

@Jestep @luker


We’re not saying this won’t happen, we’ve just got plenty to work on right now! 

As you guys know, we’re dedicated to consistently supporting the Tablo with new features and functionality. When we have the time, we hope to cross cool requests like this off the list.
22

Keep up the great work.  Just throwing out there some ideas to see if these features can be done like on other platforms.

23

@TabloSupport understand, just wondering why it seems so “complicated” when from a programming perspective I am just not seeing it. I mean I understand it is not as easy as saying just add the time, but not as complicated as I think it is being mentioned :wink:


Just my 2 cents 
24
@TabloTV the complex part is :

Start the show 5 min early, if I have a free tuner, otherwise start on time.
End the show 10 min later, if I have a free tuner, otherwise end on time.

I know that is simplistic, but am I missing something?

I am just trying to understand why it is so complex.

If all is static (that is, you never ever make recording changes…which sort of defeats the purpose of the Tablo)… then yes… it’s that simple.  But the fact is people are allowed to make dynamic scheduled recording changes and people are allowed to watch live tv whenever… and that’s what adds the complexity.  Handling one scenario is easy… as for what to do with a more complex set of dynamic changes and how to communicate the impact of such or developing “the rules” for what happens in those situations… it’s actually pretty complicated.

25

@cjcox see my comment above, as I said, if there is an available tuner…


I don’t see it as complicated from that stand point. Either a tuner is available at start time or not.
26

@cjcox let me add, what one may think is complicated another may not :wink:



27

@Jestep… just keep giving it some more thought…   Even have just one tuner doesn’t cut it.  Now infinite tuners… that does make things pretty easy.

28

@cjcox let me restate what I said above 


Start the show 5 min early, if I have a free tuner, otherwise start on time.
End the show 10 min later, if I have a free tuner, otherwise end on time.

Now you tell me what I am missing. As I said, it doesn’t seem complicated from my stand point. But give me more of an idea why you think what I am saying doesn’t cover the tuner in use case you mentioned
29

:-)  like I said, if you don’t add, watch live tv, change anything, if there are no dynamics, your (very) simple case holds up.  So… yes (I suppose) assuming you don’t change anything, assuming you just have one show you’re dealing with, yes… it holds up.

What you are trying to do is establish “the rules” as I mentioned before.  Your ruleset isn’t complete, again only covering a very simple case.  The problem with rules is that you end up with unexpected results.

30

@cjcox, why does it not hold true for all those ???


I honestly believe it is pretty simple from that perspective. I am seriously asking for a specific reason those rules don’t work.
I am not trying to be a jerk, just trying to understand what else I am missing. I think it holds up for all 

As an example:

4 tuner Tablo

lets say I have 4 recordings scheduled to start 5 min early and end 10 min after.

and 1 show is currently recording. 3 of the tuners are still free 5 min early.

So 1 show loses out on the early start. Now maybe that is what you mean, like what loses? 

Otherwise all 3 tuners available could start. Now you start watching live TV on one of those 3… I would say your Live TV loses out and the recording starts.

But I still don’t see a huge complication to any of this. And I am thinking about it from a programming perspective, not a user perspective.

Help me understand why you think it is so complicated. Maybe I am just dumb and not getting it, but it seems pretty straight forward no matter how you slice it. If a tuner is free then you can start…




31
@cjcox let me restate what I said above 

Start the show 5 min early, if I have a free tuner, otherwise start on time.
End the show 10 min later, if I have a free tuner, otherwise end on time.

Now you tell me what I am missing. As I said, it doesn't seem complicated from my stand point. But give me more of an idea why you think what I am saying doesn't cover the tuner in use case you mentioned

What if I am recording 4 shows 6 to 7 but want to record 2 shows 7 to 8 - what happens since Tablo adds 5 minutes to the end of each of those 4 shows going 6 to 7:05 instead of just 6 to 7:00… do my two 7 to 8 shows simply not record or not start recording until 7:05?  Or do they drop that extra 5 minutes so they can record the 7 to 8 shows?
They already have to handle overlap since they tack on that 5 minutes - going into my next show time slot as it is now. 

Heck, they record 5 extra minutes at the end now… so they do have some logic there!
Record 3 shows 6pm to 7pm. That’s 3 tuners taken.

Say I want to record another show from 7 to 8pm. Gee, Tablo is already using 3 tuners of the 4 and using them until 7:05 pm, correct? But there is a 4th tuner free so it can start that show at 7pm no problem - it could start at 6:59 if I set it manually, no problem.
Say I want to record 4 shows from 6pm to 7pm
4 tuners each busy recording a show from 6pm to 7:05pm.
I want to record another show 7 pm to 8pm. Can’t do it, all 4 tuners are busy from 6pm to 7:05 pm recording shows off the program guide - 4 tuners doing 4 shows 6 to 7:05pm. 
Say I want to record shows that over-lap in time - Tablo has to handle that now somehow. If I am recording 2 shows 6 to 8pm, a show 6 to 7pm and a show 7 to 8pm it’s still got to work out conflicts somehow since it records that extra 5 minutes at the end of a show… the logic must already be there to work out scheduling conflicts since they already automatically add 5 minutes to the end of each show, and I can manually record shows starting 1 minute early - and it doesn’t melt the Tablo or set the house afire.

Use some graph paper and chart it out  - they are already doing very similar and such conflicts are possible daily if you record enough shows due to the 5 minutes they add to the end of each show. How about instead giving us the option to move that to the front of a show, or splitting it. 
I’ve drawn this out on paper, and the possibilities of ending up in a conflict are really quite slim. And the fact that I don’t use Tablo to watch live TV isn’t the point since we do record a lot of stuff - my wife has several westerns set to record any time they are on, any episodes we don’t have, day or night and I’ve set up many a recording myself and not run into issues, but expected to thanks to the extra 5 minutes that frankly I’d leave off in favor of adding a minute to the start. Or make the 5 minutes 3 instead and add 2 to the front end. 
On paper I get no conflicts. If it can’t start a show at a certain time now the thing still operates - if it’s got a tuner it records. IF not, it doesn’t.

I guess I can just do manual recordings to catch all of our favorite shows but doesn’t that really defeat the whole point of a program guide and the automation if I must manually record almost every prime-time show we watch now? What’s the point of the guide if we have to lose the first part of so many shows, or else set them up manually anyway.
We may end up regretting the life-time subscription if we have to have be resigned to manually recording so many prime time shows anyway. That or miss the first minute or two of all of our favorites. 

32

My TiVo doesn’t have problem performing this function. If by setting it one minute ahead and it causes a conflict it allows you to resolve it by not setting it ahead one minute or by deleting a scheduled recording. That being said more tuners help to resolve it. Two vs four vs six. You get the picture.

1 Like
33

Regardless of the complexity of implementation, this is a basic feature that nearly all other DVRs have. I personally have seen this feature in Comcast and Dish Network DVRs that I have owned, and it sounds like Myth TV, ChannelMaster, and Tivo support it as well, based on what other’s have said. There is a reason that it is a basic feature, because not all stations air programs at the correct time, so a DVR must be flexible enough to allow a user to tweak the record times to compensate. 


I don’t watch a lot of live TV, I rely on recordings and so when I record a program, I want all of it. And the reason I purchased a Guide subscription is to have all the automatic, smart features that it brings. A manual recording solution isn’t going to cut it.

In my opinion, this is not a “when the developers get some free time” feature that can be released in Version 5.0, years from now. This is an obviously overlooked feature that should have been implemented by this time. 


    
2 Likes
34

@Mightyse agreed, I want my 8 tuner Tablo!!! LOL

35

So, to be clear, there is no reason as of this date, Sep 16, 2015, to look for a solution to this problem? I am new to Tablo, and this is an irritating problem. I had this problem with my old Dish DVR, but it had an option to start a minute, or two or three, early. It was then up to me to deal with conflicts and prioritize.

Has there been any change on this subject since March?

1 Like
36

@iwan2noy - If a tuner is available, Tablo always starts 15 seconds early and ends 5 minutes after the scheduled end.

We’ll be sitting down in the next few weeks to discuss priorities for new features and I’ll be sure to include this on the discussion list.

2 Likes
37

Thank you, I will continue to watch this (if I can get things to record - I have submitted a ticket about this) and see if the programs are not clipped when there are tuners available to do so. I believe that with the 2 programs I can specifically recall, that there would have been a tuner available to allow it to start early, but it did not.

38

I would like to see this resolved too. I have to do a lot of manual recordings to ensure that I do not miss the beginnings of programs.

1 Like
39

It could be that the broadcaster is actually starting these programs earlier than they’re actually scheduled for… (For example a show that is scheduled to start at 8 ACTUALLY starts at 7:55) Some broadcasters are doing this in order to keep viewers from tuning into a show on another network starting at around the same time.

Great for broadcasters and their ratings, super annoying for our engineering staff and our users!

This is the exact reason it would be great to have this feature.

1 Like
40

If tuner is being used to start early, then tuner not available to watch live. BTW TW now has a 6 tuner dvr.