How smart is the DVR?
jorge281
Enthusiast - Level 2

Many times, especially during football season, I schedule a program for recording only to have the wrong thing recorded because a prior program (like a football game) ran longer than scheduled.  When I schedule "The XYZ Show" to be recorded why does the DVR ignore that request and instead record a time slot?  Why can't it record the requested show regardless of when it actually airs?

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Re: How smart is the DVR?
RalphTomaccio
Contributor - Level 1

I have asked this a few times and the answer I get is that it can't be done. I say BULL! We can send a man to the moon, stream stereo music and TV programs and movies, automate pretty much anything, and we can't get a DVR to automatically adjust a program's time slot? I don't believe it. They can if they want to.

Re: How smart is the DVR?
PJL
Master - Level 3

@RalphTomaccio wrote:

I have asked this a few times and the answer I get is that it can't be done. I say BULL! We can send a man to the moon, stream stereo music and TV programs and movies, automate pretty much anything, and we can't get a DVR to automatically adjust a program's time slot? I don't believe it. They can if they want to.


What you both are asking for is unrealistic given how programs are broadcast today.  A DVR (be it the FiOS STB or another like TiVo) can only record based on what it knows, and it only knows what's in the guide, which is not dynamically updated by the programmes or the guide providers upstream from Verizon.  What you are seeking is an "on-the-fly" adjustment of requested recordings.  But what could this be based on?  Maybe if each broadcaster sent the data along with their programming that changed the start and end times for their programming, and the DVR was monitoring each channel (over 410 channels in the Ultimate package, for example plus all of the other channels not in the Ultimate package) for the changes, then "scheduled" recordings could be modified to the time a program actually begins.  Pretty complicated, but yes, likely doable, but realistic to implement?  I doubt it given it took the industry 10 years to develop and implement fully the digital broadcast standard transition from analog broadcasting.

You compare implementing the capability you want to sending a man to the moon.  Yes, it's probably easier, and would obviously cost a lot less, but who's going to develop the technology and get it implemented?  I don't see a business case for doing something this complex and expensive, which is why it's not in place now.  If anyone had the capability to implement this type of function it would probably have been Tivo, but they don't have it either.  Tivo has always differentiated its service by implementing advanced functionaliy.  But, again, they don't do this either.

(Just my thoughts, so please don't say "BULL" even though you may think they are.)

Re: How smart is the DVR?
sangs1
Specialist - Level 2

There is a viable workaround that I employ during football season - and to a lesser extent, baseball postseason. I pad any recordings that could be effected by game overruns by at least 30 minutes. That usually covers it, unless OT is involved. Then when the season ends, I go back and change the record settings to the default. It's not perfect, but it'll help you.

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Re: How smart is the DVR?
charliebarrett
Contributor - Level 2

Now I'm saying Bull to that too.

The real answer is for Verizon to hire someone at 5 bucks an hour to DYNAMICALLY change the Guide schedule, so whenever a football game, etc looks like it's running long, that employee should manually shift the Start & Stop Times of  the next few prime-time programs on that channel.

Of course, that assumes the dang DVR would refresh its internal schedule and pick up on that change BEFORE it tries to fire a Record or Stop Record event. Perhaps that's a leap of faith to assume the DVR software is smart enough to re-check the guide before it kicks off a scheduled recording or stops the recording, but I'm assuming that the software programers were awake enough to think of adding that feature, and the programming managers didn't have their heads up a dark hole when someone proposed that feature. But I have a tiny glimmer of hope that the feature got put in.

That $5 per hour person would potentially save MILLIONS of Verizon customers the inconvinience of missing the last half of a football game, or the last half of 60 Minutes and whatever comes after 60 Minutes. It would also save us from having to just record the whole dang Sunday Night CBS lineup and then Fast Forwarding through all the football crap to find the start of 60 Minutes.


I'm not saying that they have have someone watching every channel on the air, or even every night on CBS - But certainly that person should have a list of major shows to monitor, that have a proven track record of late start/end times.

Actually if I were CBS, I'd just ban football from my airwaves, because this has been a huge sore spot for me from CHILDHOOD, when CBS, ABC, and NBC (those were the only stations we could receive back in the 1960's) would cavilearly pre-empt Sunday night shows that my whole family loved (like Disney, Lost in Space,  and the "21st Century" science show) nearly every time there was a football game shown before it. Back then, the networks didn't even bother shifting the schedule, they just deleted my shows and then you had to wait 6 months for them to be re-ran, assuming another storts game didn't preempt it AGAIN..


Because of that I guess, I hate Football, Baseball, Golf, etc, with a PASSION - so prempt my favorite Sunday-Night shows, so I have to wait 6 months to see it again, and we have a problem!!! That's just one more reason I love the cable channels like Discovery, Science Channel, NatGeo, Fox News, Smithesonian, etc: NO FOOTBALL, NO BASEBALL, NO GOLF, NO BOWLING, NO GREAT RACE, NO BIG BROTHER  - Just TV Heaven!!! And if you miss your show, chances are it will be re-played later that night!!!

The only time I tune to CBS these days are for 60 minutes, NBC is Jay Leno, PBS is for Nova, and ABC is for ... Nothing I can think of at the moment.

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Re: How smart is the DVR?
CRobGauth
Community Leader
Community Leader

Yes they can if they want to.

But they don't want to.

And they don't have a business case to do it.

Given the fact that there isn't a cable provider that does it (and I am sure a lot of people would like it), it must not be as easy as you state.

Otherwise, the first to do it would be advertising it to get customers and then others would have to follow.

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Re: How smart is the DVR?
PJL
Master - Level 3

@charliebarrett wrote:

Now I'm saying Bull to that too.

The real answer is for Verizon to hire someone at 5 bucks an hour to DYNAMICALLY change the Guide schedule, so whenever a football game, etc looks like it's running long, that employee should manually shift the Start & Stop Times of  the next few prime-time programs on that channel.

Of course, that assumes the dang DVR would refresh its internal schedule and pick up on that change BEFORE it tries to fire a Record or Stop Record event. Perhaps that's a leap of faith to assume the DVR software is smart enough to re-check the guide before it kicks off a scheduled recording or stops the recording, but I'm assuming that the software programers were awake enough to think of adding that feature, and the programming managers didn't have their heads up a dark hole when someone proposed that feature. But I have a tiny glimmer of hope that the feature got put in.

That $5 per hour person would potentially save MILLIONS of Verizon customers the inconvinience of missing the last half of a football game, or the last half of 60 Minutes and whatever comes after 60 Minutes. It would also save us from having to just record the whole dang Sunday Night CBS lineup and then Fast Forwarding through all the football crap to find the start of 60 Minutes.


I'm not saying that they have have someone watching every channel on the air, or even every night on CBS - But certainly that person should have a list of major shows to monitor, that have a proven track record of late start/end times.

Actually if I were CBS, I'd just ban football from my airwaves, because this has been a huge sore spot for me from CHILDHOOD, when CBS, ABC, and NBC (those were the only stations we could receive back in the 1960's) would cavilearly pre-empt Sunday night shows that my whole family loved (like Disney, Lost in Space,  and the "21st Century" science show) nearly every time there was a football game shown before it. Back then, the networks didn't even bother shifting the schedule, they just deleted my shows and then you had to wait 6 months for them to be re-ran, assuming another storts game didn't preempt it AGAIN..


Because of that I guess, I hate Football, Baseball, Golf, etc, with a PASSION - so prempt my favorite Sunday-Night shows, so I have to wait 6 months to see it again, and we have a problem!!! That's just one more reason I love the cable channels like Discovery, Science Channel, NatGeo, Fox News, Smithesonian, etc: NO FOOTBALL, NO BASEBALL, NO GOLF, NO BOWLING, NO GREAT RACE, NO BIG BROTHER  - Just TV Heaven!!! And if you miss your show, chances are it will be re-played later that night!!!

The only time I tune to CBS these days are for 60 minutes, NBC is Jay Leno, PBS is for Nova, and ABC is for ... Nothing I can think of at the moment.


You post cracked me up.  Really.

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Re: How smart is the DVR?
dcymbor
Enthusiast - Level 2

During football season, I usually ask the DVR to record the shows after 11:00 pm (starting with the news) for about 1 - 1.5 hours. 

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Re: How smart is the DVR?
georgemc
Newbie

When a show changes time slots, recording follows. When a season starts/ends, recording follows. So, matching dvr instructions to specific shows can happen. Why doesn't it happen when the nfl screws up the schedule?

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Re: How smart is the DVR?
CRobGauth
Community Leader
Community Leader

As people have stated, the guide being updated is the issue.

Suppose you want to record the show right after the program that runs long.

When does the guide update to say that the program times have changed?

What happens to the reocrding in progress? Does it just go long?

BTW, DVRs (and all STBs) only go out once a day or so to get guide updates.

How do you get the guide update to probably 10M+ boxes out there.
I don't beleive there is a service out there that dynamically adjusts to changing schedules.

Maybe the finger should be pointed at networks/NFL to do more to keep their games on schedule.

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