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[greynolds]

On Monday nights, I have a show that typically goes 15-20 minutes past the scheduled end time, so I have it setup to record 30 minutes beyond the scheduled end and that seems to work fine.  However, the "To Be Recorded" list also shows the show that follows as scheduled to be recorded, but it doesn't actually get recorded as a separate show.  I'm assuming that something is just looking at the scheduled channels and recording times and assumes that I'm recording 2 different shows, rather than looking at what is actually setup to record.  Not a super high priority, but it would be nice if this can be cleaned up at some point.

[RoderickGI]

I think this is by design. It is showing you what will actually be recorded, even though the following program is only being recorded because it is within the Padding time your added to the previous show.

I have also thought that this is a bit strange, and it has caught me out a couple of times, wondering "why am I recording that program?" But it has also been useful at times.

Perhaps the colour of the dot on the following program should be different, to indicate that it is not the targeted program, but will be recorded.

[greynolds]

I think this is by design. It is showing you what will actually be recorded, even though the following program is only being recorded because it is within the Padding time your added to the previous show.

I have also thought that this is a bit strange, and it has caught me out a couple of times, wondering "why am I recording that program?" But it has also been useful at times.

Perhaps the colour of the dot on the following program should be different, to indicate that it is not the targeted program, but will be recorded.

Thanks for the reply, and I agree.  It may be by design, but it really feels like a bug to me as I quite honestly don't care about some random program that happens to fall within the extra recording time.  I've never seen any other DVR software or hardware do this (AccessDTV (I worked on the software for this tuner card on a volunteer basis for a few years - it's a long story ), Tivo, DirecTV DVR's, BeyondTV, and WMC).

[RoderickGI]

I haven't seen it before either. But MC does some really neat things with consecutive recordings if you use the JTV file format, and I wouldn't want to see that functionality broken while trying to fix a cosmetic issue.

For example, MC using JTV files is the first PVR/DVR hardware/software I have used that can record consecutive programs and create two recording records in its database with all the meta data for each program, so that you can watch either at your leisure, but at the same time shares the "overlap" portion of the recordings rather than duplicating the recording in files that fill a hard disk, and honours the padding on each recording, and (optionally) starts playing from when the program should have started not at the beginning of the padding time, and doesn't require another tuner for the second recording, and possibly other good stuff I have forgotten. WMC may have come close to that, but I didn't use it long enough to remember.

The only strangeness in this functionality is that the two programs will likely be stored in the one folder, and that folder will be named according to the first program. That can make moving and renaming programs a bit of a challenge, but even that still works.

At this time I consider MC's TV functionality to be a bit like that eccentric, nerdy uncle we all have, who is sort of neat to have around, but you have to forgive his strange habits and foibles. 

[greynolds]

I haven't seen it before either. But MC does some really neat things with consecutive recordings if you use the JTV file format, and I wouldn't want to see that functionality broken while trying to fix a cosmetic issue.

For example, MC using JTV files is the first PVR/DVR hardware/software I have used that can record consecutive programs and create two recording records in its database with all the meta data for each program, so that you can watch either at your leisure, but at the same time shares the "overlap" portion of the recordings rather than duplicating the recording in files that fill a hard disk, and honours the padding on each recording, and (optionally) starts playing from when the program should have started not at the beginning of the padding time, and doesn't require another tuner for the second recording, and possibly other good stuff I have forgotten. WMC may have come close to that, but I didn't use it long enough to remember.

The only strangeness in this functionality is that the two programs will likely be stored in the one folder, and that folder will be named according to the first program. That can make moving and renaming programs a bit of a challenge, but even that still works.

At this time I consider MC's TV functionality to be a bit like that eccentric, nerdy uncle we all have, who is sort of neat to have around, but you have to forgive his strange habits and foibles.  

Yeah, MC definitely has a bunch of good points.

Back-to-back recordings on the same channel is not one of WMC's strong suits.  To get WMC to work well with back-to-back recordings, you have to set the first one to pad 10 (or more) minutes onto the end, which triggers it to use a 2nd tuner.  Further, there are 2 options for some of the padding times, one of which is a "when possible" choice.  The "when possible" choices effectively ignore the padding request on back-to-back recordings.  If using less than 10 minutes or using the "when possible" choices, WMC will use a single tuner, but the recordings will be in separate files without any overlap, so you would need to watch the start of the 2nd show at the end of the first recording which is obviously a PITA.  When using the "when possible" or less than 10 minute options, the padding just controls which file the overlap ends up in.  Figuring all this out was a rather frustrating process that almost made me walk away from WMC, but once I understood the simple workaround to make it work, I've been really happy with it and just make sure I have enough tuners in my setup to handle any recording scenario I'm likely to encounter and setup all recordings to pad 10 minutes or more at the end.  Unfortunately, Microsoft has put the WMC code on ice and didn't include WMC Extender support in the new XBOX One, so the writing is on the wall that WMC's days are numbered.  If I didn't need CableCard support, the list of options would be longer, but I'm hoping that the JRiver crew will beef up their TV functionality.  It really isn't THAT far off, it's just that some of the things that are currently missing are showstoppers.

The primary topic of this thread definitely falls into the nerdy uncle category - it definitely isn't a showstopper.

[RoderickGI]

Ah yes, I remember the "when possible" choice now. What an annoying option that was. All it ensured was that you always missed some part of one of the programs, especially if you had already watched and deleted one of the programs!

Even my ancient Topfield with TEDS Suite software understood that wasn't a good solution, and recorded both programs in one file, so I missed nothing. Then with the bookmark functionality I could mark the start point for the second program when I watched the first, or there were good program scanning capabilities to find the start of the second program.

I reckon 80% of MC users fall into the nerdy uncle category.