If you have existing timers for series you want to have AutoTimers for, you can import them into the AutoTimer system using MENU>TV/RADIO>AutoTimer, then MENU>Import existing timer.
When you use "Import existing timer" to import a timer created from the IceTV guide, the title used in the two guides may differ, e.g. Hollands Hoop" in IceTV, "Hollands Hope" in the FTA guide, "Clarke and Dawe" in IceTV, "Clarke & Dawe" in the FTA guide.
Alternatively, you can make IceTV timers from the EPG. Navigate to the show you want to "series record" and press BLUE Add AutoTimer.
If you go through the EPG, you get the Import AutoTimer screen, first screen in peteru's AutoTimers are cool post, and in that you probably want to untick everything except match title and exact match.
The Import AutoTimer screen you get when you use "Import existing timer" is similar, and unticking all the boxes except except match title and exact match is probably the best option.
The next screen you get is Edit AutoTimer, the "full blown editor" pages in AutoTimers are cool.
- Set "Search type" to exact or title starts with
- Set "Search strictness" to case-insensitive
- Turn off "Only match during timespan" (that allows the AutoTimer to follow scheduling changes), and it should be off by default,
- Set "Require description to be unique" to "Any service/recording" (that helps eliminate recordings of "encores" of current series)
- Set "Check for uniqueness in" to "Title and all descriptions"
- Set the "Restriction to certain bouquets" to your Favourites bouquet
- You may want to set up "Other filters" to filter out shows marked as repeats
The settings will match any show at any time if the title matches, a show with the same title, description and extended description hasn't already matched and it's being shown in any of the channels in the bouquet you set
I found the interface to setting filters (the last 4 entries on the Edit AutoTimer page) rather unintuitive. Expect it to not do quite what you wanted the first few times you try. Match strings in title and description filters are Python regular expressions, so they may do odd things if you're not aware of characters that have special meaning in regular expressions. For example, the Nine markup for repeats is '[RPT]' in the short description. But if you use '[RPT]' in an exclude filter on short description, it will exclude anything that has a 'R', 'P' or 'T' in the short description, because the regular expression characters '[]' mean match any single character, or character in a range, inside the brackets. The correct match string for '[RPT]' is '\[RPT\]', but that may be hard to enter through the SMS-style keyboard. The match string 'RPT' should work almost as well.
At least in the Canberra FTA EPG, only WIN has the [RPT] repeat markup, and it's not all that reliable.
There have been reports on the forum that repeat markup is not nationally consistent. A repeat match string of '(?i)rpt' (case insensitive search for 'rpt' may be more generally useful.
Once you've worked out what settings you want most of the time, you can enter them in a similar editor screen in MENU>TV/RADIO>AutoTimer, then MENU>Edit new timer defaults. Once you've done that, you'll get those as the defaults in every new AutoTimer you create, but you still need to do that un-ticking in the first, because ticked items there will over-ride your defaults!
Once that's done, it may be a good idea to set MENU>Setup>TV>Recording settings>Remove completed timers after to 7 days or more (the default is 7). That will help Require description to be unique to work properly.
And last, but by no means least, set MENU>TV/RADIO>AutoTimer, MENU>Setup>Guess existing timer based on begin/end to OFF, if it's not already (on a new box with recent firmware it should be OFF by default). You may want to enable Add similar timer on conflict. Other default settings should be OK.
Matching events and filtering
Each time the AutoTimer system looks for new timers to add, each defined AutoTimer runs through the list of events (programs) in the EPG.
It selects a list of candidate events for the AutoTimer based on the settings "Match title", "Search type" and "Search strictness". "Match title" is the string used for matching. It's always used for the match whether the "Search type" is actually matching in the title, or if it's set to "match description".
In "Search type", "exact match" requires the "Match title" to match the event's title exactly, "title starts with" requires the event title to start with the "Match title", "partial match" matches if the "Match title" string is anywhere in the event title and "description match" matches the event if either the event's short description or extended description contain the string in "Match title".
The list is then filtered. Filters that are disabled or empty are ignored. The events in the list are removed if they match an exclude filter, and only included if they don't match an exclude filter and also match an include filter. If there are no filters defined, all candidates are left in the list.
Then all matching events are used to generate once-off timers in the timer list (TIMER from live TV).
Avoiding recording recently-shown shows
While the EPG doesn't have enough reliable repeat markup to avoid recording unwanted repeats of shows, it does have a mechanism to avoid recording "encore" showings of a program within a short time of the first showing.
There are two AutoTimer settings to control this: "Require description to be unique" and "Check for uniqueness in".
The settings for "Require description to be unique" are "No", "On same service", "On any service" and "Any service/recording". Setting this to "No" disables the feature for the AutoTimer". "On same service" restricts the checking to events on the same service (but "encores" on the broadcaster's main service are often on one of the other services). "On any service" checks looks for matching events on any service, and "Any service/recording" also checks for recordings with matching descriptions.
The settings for "Check for uniqueness in" are "Title", "Title and Short description" and "Title and all descriptions". The title alone is probably not specific enough to be useful for this purpose in most cases, and the way short and extended descriptions are used in the EPG is not well specified in the FreeTV operational practice guides, so it's probably bets to use "Title and all descriptions" most of the time.
Sometimes the EPG title and description for all episodes (or several episodes) of a series can be the same, even though the episodes are different (episodes of Horrible Histories showing currently on ABC3 is an example), and "Require description to be unique" won't work properly on those series.
Services from Ten sometimes add the text " - Encore" to the end of the title of an "encore" showing of a program. This means that the "encore" will not be correctly identified by "Require description to be unique", because the two showings of the program have different titles, even though their content is the same. To remove programs that have "- Encore" in their titles from consideration for recording, see "Including/excluding recordings based on string matches" below.
For the search over existing timers looking for recordings of the same show to work properly, set MENU>Setup>TV>Recording settings>Remove completed timers after to 7 days or more (the default is 7).
The list of already-existing recordings of a candidate event for recording is built up as the list of AutoTimers is scanned. It will always contain all the recordings in the destination set in the AutoTimer's "Use a custom location" setting, or the directory set in MENU>Setup>TV>Recording settings>Timer recording location if no specific directory is set in the AutoTimer. However, it will also contain the recordings in other folders used by previous AutoTimers checked in the scan. The list of AutoTimers is scanned in alphabetical order by the AutoTimer "Description".
Including recordings based on time of day
In the Edit AutoTimer screen, enable "only match during timespan" and enter the time limits using the numeric keypad. Entering a number moves right automatically. Use LEFT/RIGHT to move without entering a number. If "End" is less than or equal to "Begin", the end time is taken to be on the following day (i.e. 20:00 - 02:00 means from 8pm on the day of the start of the recording to 2am on the following day).
Including/excluding recordings based on day of week
Only the enable/disable status of this filter is available in the Edit AutoTimer, displayed in "Restriction to certain days of the week".
To set up a day of week filter, press YELLOW Edit filters to enter the Edit AutoTimer filters screen. switch on "Enable filtering" if it's off, navigate to Filter and use LEFT/RIGHT to select "on Weekday". Then press BLUE New to get the "Select type of Filter" popup, and choose "Exclude" or "Include".
Navigate to the new Exclude or Include screen entry and select a specific weekday, "Weekday" (Mon-Fri) or "Weekend" (Sat-Sun").
Press BLUE New to add further day-of-week conditions. Press GREEN Save to save the new filter(s) or RED Cancel to cancel the addition(s).
The day of week filter applies to the EPG event start time (unpadded). The order of entry of the filters makes no difference to their behaviour. The screen lists all "Exclude" filters before all "Include" filters, and an event will be excluded from being recorded if it matches any "Exclude" filters, and included if it matches no "Exclude" filters and also matched at least one "Include" filter.
Including recordings based on date
In the Edit AutoTimer screen, enable "Restrict to events on certain dates", and enter dates for "Not before" and "Not after". The only way to change the dates seems to be using LEFT/RIGHT. Press-and-hold seems to be the only way to change dates quickly. The default is not before today and not after 7 days time.
Including recordings based on Channel or Bouquet
Only the enable/disable status of these filters are available in the Edit AutoTimer, displayed in "Restriction to certain services" and "Restriction to certain bouquets".
To set up a services or bouquets filter, press Blue Edit services to enter the Edit AutoTimer services screen. switch on "Enable filtering" if it's off, navigate to "Editing" and use LEFT/RIGHT to choose between "Channels" and "Bouquets". Then press BLUE New to get the Bouquets selection screen. If you are choosing a channel, navigate to a bouquet that contains the channel, press OK, then in the channel selection screen, navigate to the channel you want to select and press OK. If you are selecting a bouquet, navigate the the bouquet and press OK.
Press BLUE New to add further services or bouquets. Press GREEN Save to save the new filter(s) or RED Cancel to cancel the addition(s).
This is an "include-only" filter. The event will only be considered for recording if it matches one of the services in the services list or one of the services in the bouquets list. There's no way to exclude services other than by making sure they're not included in either of the lists.
Including/excluding recordings based on string matches (Other filters)
Only the enable/disable status of this filter is available in the Edit AutoTimer, displayed in "Other filters".
To set up a string match filter, press YELLOW Edit filters to enter the Edit AutoTimer filters screen. switch on "Enable filtering" if it's off, navigate to Filter and use LEFT/RIGHT to select "in Title", "in Shortdescription" or "in Description". Then press BLUE New to get the "Select type of Filter" popup, and choose "Exclude" or "Include".
Navigate to the new Exclude or Include screen entry and enter a match string. The default is SMS-style text entry. Press TEXT to get the on-screen keyboard. It contains some characters that are missing in SMS-style entry. If you're entering a complicated match string, or you're entering a lot of match strings a USB (wireless) keyboard may be useful.
The match strings are Python regular expressions, and some characters have special meaning and don't match "as-is". They are '.^$*+{}\[]|()' (quite a lot, really). If you want to include one of these characters for a filter match, put a '\' in front of it. That includes using '\\' to match '\', and explains why '\[RPT\]' is needed to match the string '[RPT]' above.
A useful trick is to put '(?i)' at te beginning of the match string to get case-insensitive matching, as in the '(?i)rpt' example above.
Press BLUE New to add further match strings. Press GREEN Save to save the new filter(s) or RED Cancel to cancel the addition(s).
The order of entry of the filters makes no difference to their behaviour. The screen lists all "Exclude" filters before all "Include" filters, and an event will be excluded from being recorded if it matches any "Exclude" filters, and included if it matches no "Exclude" filters and also matched at least one "Include" filter.
Other useful AutoTimer controls
Timer type can have the AutoTimer generate either recording or "zap" (view) timers.
Use automatic selection of alternatives will use the alternative for an channel if one has been set up in the channel list, through FAV, MENU>add alternatives. Alternatives are generally not needed for Australian FTA television.
Custom offset allows you to set pre- and post-padding for timers generated by the AutoTimer, so, for example, if you know a program always runs on schedule, you can make the padding short.
Set maximum duration allows you to limit the length of recording timers generated. If an event runs for longer than the time set here, no timer will be generated for it.
After event allows you to set the action taken by the timer when it complete. "Standard" uses the default action for record timers, "auto".
Use a custom location allows you to set a destination directory for recordings generated by the AutoTimer. This allows you to create "per-series" folders, for example. Otherwise the AutoTimer records to the directory set in MENU>Setup>TV>Recording settings>Timer recording location.
AutoTimer settings
AutoTimer settings are in MENU>TV/RADIO>AutoTimer, MENU>Setup.
Poll automatically enables regular automatic polling of the AutoTimer list to check for new recordings and adjust existing ones in their EPG entry has changed. Otherwise, the AutoTimer list is only scanned by using GREEN Save from the AutoTimer screen, MENU>TV/RADIO>AutoTimer.
Only poll while in standby will update timers from the AutoTimers list only while in standby (not deep standby/shutdown).
Startup delay is the time in minutes after startup when the first automatic poll will be done.
Only add timer for next x days limits how far in the future the AutoTimers will create timers for. Set to 0 for no limitation.
Show in plugin browser controls whether there is an AutoTimer entry in the PLUGIN screen.
Show in extension menu controls whether there is an AutoTimer entry in the live TV BLUE Extension menu popup.
Modify existing timers controls whether and how timers are updated if their event's time changes in the EPG. "None" disables this feature. "All non-repeating timers" allows the timer to be modified even if its event id is different from the event id in the EPG, and "Only AutoTimers with the same EIT" allows the timer to be changed if the EPG event id is the same as the timer event id. If you want to modify timers using "Guess existing timer on begin/end" (below), you need to set this to "All non-repeating timers". If "Guess existing" is disabled, "All non-repeating timers" and "Only AutoTimers with the same EIT" should have the same effect.
Guess existing timer on begin/end when enabled, AutoTimers try to find existing timers for the AutoTimer from their begin/end time. This option works very poorly for programs that are short compared to the padding used. It's recommended that you turn this off, because it can cause large numbers of timers to be created when there should only be one.
Add similar timer on conflict allows the AutoTimer system to look for similar events to record if recording the first selected event would cause a tuner conflict. The settings for "Check for uniqueness in" in the AutoTimer are used to control which EPG information is used to compare for similarity.
Editor for new AutoTimers allows you to choose between the normal AutoTimer editor (Classic) and an AutoTimer wizard (Wizard) to create new AutoTimers using BLUE Add in AutoTimer Overview.
Add timer as disable on conflict creates a disabled timer if it would create a tuner conflict if enabled. If "Add similar timer on conflict" is enabled, and an alternative can be found, the alternative is recorded and there is no disabled timer created.
AutoTimer MENU
The AutoTimer menu is MENU>TV/RADIO>AutoTimer, MENU.
Help Some help about AutoTimers. I didn't find it particularly helpful.
Frequently asked questions A brief FAQ. I didn't find it particularly helpful, either.
Preview Lists the timers that the AutoTimer system would generate from the current set of enabled AutoTimers. The list takes into account all filtering except for the filtering described in "Avoiding recording recently-shown shows" above.
Import existing timer sets up an AutoTimer from the information in an existing timer. When you use "Import existing timer" to import a timer created from a different EPG, like the IceTV guide, the title used in the two guides may differ, e.g. Hollands Hoop" in IceTV, "Hollands Hope" in the FTA guide, "Clarke and Dawe" in IceTV, "Clarke & Dawe" in the FTA guide.
Import from EPG Allows you to import AutoTimer settings from the EPG. It takes you to the Bouquet selection screen. Navigate to a bouquet that contains the service you want to record from, press OK, then in the channel list, select the service you want to record from. This takes you to a single-channel EPG. Navigate to the event you want to use for the AutoTimer setup, and press BLUE Add Auto Timer. Ten set up the AutoTimer as described in the first section of the guide.
Setup is described in detail in the previous section.
Edit new timer defaults allows you to set up defaults for the creation of AutoTimers. This allows you to, for example, set up filters that are added to all new AutoTimers.
Create a new timer using the classic editor creates a timer using the full AutoTimer editor, ignoring the setting "Editor for new AutoTimers"
I did say I hadn't tried it.