Girevik's profile

Scholar

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82 Messages

Friday, June 28th, 2013 10:15 PM

Conflicts and "First Run" vs. "Repeats"

I am having issues recording shows that are shown many times during the week, as many cable channels do.  I want to record the new episodes of these shows.  When I have my settings for "First Run" and there is a conflict with the first airing, my show never gets recorded.  If I say "repeats", it wants to record every airing of this episode plus all reruns.  I've had several DVR's and never one that couldn't handle this situation.

 

Please tell me there's a way to set it to get a later showing of a first run episode without all the other stuff!

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Expert

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14.5K Messages

11 years ago


@esblinus wrote:

 

So here are my questions.  When setting Series Priorities, it obviously makes sense to put the network shows up top since they are rarely replayed, and the cable shows near the bottom.  1) If there is a conflict, will it automatically record the next scheduled episode?  My understanding is no.  2) But, will it at least alert me that there is a conflict?

 

What if the scheduled playing time of a higher priority show gets changed and creates a conflict that did not exist -  say, NBC changes a show from 9:00 to 10:00, and now I suddenly have a conflict with a lower-priority program on USA.  3) How do I find out that I now have a conflict?


1. It depends on how the series recording was set up (First run only vs. First run & rerun)

 

2. Yes, any scheduled recordings that will not record, will be flagged with a red conflict button in the Scheduled Recordings List.  You can't miss it.

 

3. See #2

Master

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9.8K Messages

11 years ago


@Girevik wrote:

I am having issues recording shows that are shown many times during the week, as many cable channels do.  I want to record the new episodes of these shows.  When I have my settings for "First Run" and there is a conflict with the first airing, my show never gets recorded.  If I say "repeats", it wants to record every airing of this episode plus all reruns.  I've had several DVR's and never one that couldn't handle this situation.

 

Please tell me there's a way to set it to get a later showing of a first run episode without all the other stuff!


That is the way U-Verse works.  If "Zombiechasers" (pulled that one out of my thin air) airs first run at 8 and you have it set only as first run only and a conflict occurs, it will not record the midnight (second) showing.  The nmidnight show is NOT a first run.  In the cases where a channel had an East anbd West, feed, that would bne a big help but most of those have gone to a single feed.

Guru

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417 Messages

11 years ago

The U-Verse prioritization mechanism works well in these cases. You just have to remember to look for shows that are conflicted out and set a recording for the later time.

 

My problem with "First Run" is that the Guide doesn't seem to know until a day or two before the event what is going to be a "First Run" so the scheduled recording tab is frequently populated with shows that will not be recorded. It's a glitch, but U-Verse rarely fails to record the correct episodes..

 

 

Scholar

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82 Messages

11 years ago

that's just stupid. This is about the 4th DVR I've had and all handled this. They would consider a show first run for like a week, and was smart enough not to record the same episode twice in the same month.

ACE - Master

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6.9K Messages

11 years ago


@Girevik wrote:
that's just stupid. This is about the 4th DVR I've had and all handled this. They would consider a show first run for like a week, and was smart enough not to record the same episode twice in the same month.

I've had Dish, Direct and TWC.  First run is just that, the first showing at the specified time. after that it's a rerun. If you wish to record it at a later time you need to set your schedule for first run and repeats for the time you wish to record. I typically do that with shows like Defiance and Longmire since I record other prime time shows.

Master

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9.8K Messages

11 years ago


@Girevik wrote:
that's just stupid. This is about the 4th DVR I've had and all handled this. They would consider a show first run for like a week, and was smart enough not to record the same episode twice in the same month.

The only other DVR that I had was Comcast and it worked just like U-Verse.  First run is the "first run" and everything else is not.  What DVR's record a second run as a first run?  Just curious.

Scholar

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82 Messages

11 years ago

I guess it's a matter of semantics.  I don't consider an espisode on it's 2nd airing in the same night to be a "repeat".  I know TiVo considered a show to be "1st run" as long as it was on within something like a week of it's original air date (basically any time before the next episode was likely to air).  Likewise, I don't remember having this issue with my DirectTV dvr.  I think where were both also smart enough not to record the same espisode twice in a short period of time if you hadn "repeats" set.

 

To me, the intent of "first run" is to get me a new episode that I haven't seen in a prior season or earlier this seaon.  If an episode is shown at 9:00 and again at 11:00, and think it's silly to call the 2nd showing a "repeat" and not give me that if there was a confilct with the first.  In fact, that's a perfect scenario....I put all my major network shows high on my priority list, and the cable shows that get aired multiple times in a week lower.  When there's a conflict, I sure think it should record the network show that is only on once and the cable show at a later airing.

Expert

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20.4K Messages

11 years ago

This is not Tivo and if Tivo considers the Saturday repeat of a new program that was new Tuesday still as new, it's a repeat and Tivo is not the smartest device after all.

 

The 11pm show is a repeat of the 9pm show, simple as that.  You have to manually choose the later show if there is a conflict.

 

In series priority, make all your 'network' shows above all the 'cable channel' shows as they tend to have the later repeat for a conflict.  Network shows usually are not repeated like that. 😉

 

Chris


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Voyager

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1 Message

11 years ago

Just wanted to comment that I'm having the same issue.  My Dish DVR, and if I'm not mistaken (it's been YEARS) the TW DVR, also did this.  If a conflict arose, they would record the show the next time it came on.  In addition, they would also check and see if you had previously recorded this show and if so, skip the repeat...I'm having a difficult time with this and spending WAY too much time setting a DVR to get around this shortcoming...in my opinion.

Scholar

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82 Messages

11 years ago


@mibrnsurg wrote:

This is not Tivo and if Tivo considers the Saturday repeat of a new program that was new Tuesday still as new, it's a repeat and Tivo is not the smartest device after all.

 

The 11pm show is a repeat of the 9pm show, simple as that.  You have to manually choose the later show if there is a conflict.

 

In series priority, make all your 'network' shows above all the 'cable channel' shows as they tend to have the later repeat for a conflict.  Network shows usually are not repeated like that. 😉

 

Chris



Whether a 2nd airing of an episode within a matter of hours of the first is a "repeat" or not is, as I said, a matter of semantics.  What should be important to AT&T (and us users) is the user experience.  I can see zero advanatge to the user in the current functionality, and a huge benefit in the other way.  In fact, it is so obvious an advantage to me I'm surprised there are so many defending the current functionality.

 

To me, the biggest sin a DVR can commit is skipping a show the user wants to see.  This happened to me last week which is what prompted me to post this discussion.  If competing DVR's have the intelligence to say "the user wants first run episodes, and this one is less than a week old and never been recorded, then he probably wants to see the show", that gives an advantage over simply saying "this how is 2 hours old, and the guy only wants 'first run' so I'm not recording this".

 

And as far as TiVo not being the "smartest device", that may well be.  But it was the first DVR I had probably close to 15 years ago and it is still far and away the best I've used.  It had way back then many features I'm still waiting on in other DVRs.  Keyword recordings is a big example  (i.e. record any show with the word "Columbo" in the title).

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