timer overview

[terry]

Hi All, First of all I would like to thank PRL Uber Wizard and Mr Quade for a quick answer and I apologise if I miss pronounced the name. I am pretty sure that I have sorted out the timeshift issue many thanks to you two guys . As I said in my first post I have a few issues. One of the other issues is that when I am in timer overview, when I have three programs on the same channel following each other I want to set them as one long program, when I cancel the last two of the three programs and extend the first one to cover those two as well, I save the changes , I go out to live tv and go back in later to check the changes it puts it all back as three separate recordings.
Can you please help again?



Regards
Terry
P.S.[ Sorry for being a pain.]

[prl]

Hi, terry, welcome to the forum.


What firmware version are you running (MENU>Setup>Information>About>Latest Upgrade)?

The most recent official firmware (+online updates) allows you to simply jump back into timeshift using the LEFT button (and then use LEFT/RIGHT for skipping in timeshift and recordings as well as the number buttons).

The most recent beta firmware allows you to use UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT for skips (LEFT and DOWN to enter timeshift) as well as the number buttons.

You can either use the beta now, or wait unitl it becomes the official firmware (which I hope shouldn't be too far off).

and when you change channels it's meant to put a 10 second buffer?

Do you mean the setting of MENU>Setup>TV>Timeshift>Automatically start timeshift after?

I don't know quite what you mean by "buffer", but that setting is the delay between when you change to a new channel and when the timeshift data starts recording. You can't start using timeshift on the new channel before that time runs down. You can set it as low as 2 seconds if you want to (that's what I do).

The timeshift data is held in individual programs (aka "events"), so the current timeshift only holds the current program. If you stay on the same channel, then older programs are available in timeshift and you can access them by entering timeshift and using PREV/NEXT.

[MrQuade]

Hi Everybody I am new to the forum and T3.
I have a few questions to ask but I will ask them a few at a time.
The first one being about the timeshift. I have read the online instructions and apparently the pause/play button is meant to timeshift and when you change channels it's meant to put a 10 second buffer? and continue timeshifting on the newly selected channel, but I am lucky to get It to timeshift for half an hour or so let alone timesift on the new channel. On my tv when I timeshift that and change channels it continues to timeshift so to apparently is the T3. Am I stupid or am I doing something wrong? Can somebody PLEASE help

regards Terry.

Firstly, ensure that you have fully up to date firmware by installing the latest USB update followed by an online update. I'd recommend installing the latest beta version at this moment in time, as it is the best version available and will soon become the public version.

Timeshifting normally "just works". When you start watching a channel, the T3 waits 10 seconds and will then start buffering timeshift data. So for the first 10 seconds after changing channels, you can't pause (because it is not buffering yet). After 10 seconds though, you can just press pause, or skip back and watch any of the buffered show at will.

If you change channel, then all buffered timeshift data from the channel you left will be discarded, and the new channel will start buffering. (depending on your settings you may or may not get a warning about losing timeshift data....personally I have chosen to disable those warnings).

When you say you are lucky to have half an hour, you may have noticed a feature of the T3. When a new show starts, the T3 starts a new timeshift buffer, but saves the previous show in a separate file. This lets you do a few tricks. Basically, if you have been on a channel for a few hours, you will have a number of separate timshift buffer files available. When you enter timeshift mode, you can press the "PREV" button to skip to the start of the previous show.

Also, when you press "Record" you have an option to save a previous event from the timeshift buffer. The T3 will bring up a list of the shows and their start/stop times and you can pick which one you want to save.

[terry]

Hi All, First of all I would like to thank PRL Uber Wizard and Mr Quade for a quick answer and I apologise if I miss pronounced the name. I am pretty sure that I have sorted out the timeshift issue many thanks to you two guys . As I said in my first post I have a few issues. One of the other issues is that when I am in timer overview, when I have three programs on the same channel following each other I want to set them as one long program, when I cancel the last two of the three programs and extend the first one to cover those two as well, I save the changes , I go out to live tv and go back in later to check the changes it puts it all back as three separate recordings.
Can you please help again?



Regards
Terry
P.S.[ Sorry for being a pain.]

[prl]

Are you trying to change timers created by IceTV?

[terry]

Yes I assume so because the icetv logo appears alongside. But that logo is next to all the timers in the timer overview list. Which most were set on my smartphone but even the ones set by the remote from the epg guide appear in the timer overview list with the icetv logo also. So am I doing something wrong? So how can I extend or shorten the timers?



Regards
Terry

[MrQuade]

You should be able to just set a one off timer (not an autotimer) for a particular start and end time and the T3 will simply record that.

It sounds like you have IceTV or an autotimer that is adjusting the run length back to whatever it was originally programmed to be.

Can you explain exactly how you originally set your timers, and how you are trying to adjust them afterwards? There are quite a number of ways to achieve a result on the T3, and the solution to your problem may depend on what method you used.

BTW, is there aspecific reason you want the three programs in the one recording?
I just ask, because sometimes people want to set the recordings as a single one because they are used to the way the old DP series worked, where you couldn't have overlapping timers on the same channel and they didn't like the way a show would spill over into the next recording. The T3 doesn't work that way and it will happily record 2 or more timers at once on the same channel.

[peteru]

am I doing something wrong?

Yes. It depends on your point of view, but basically IceTV is the problem. When you elect to use IceTV, you lose control over timers. IceTV server will use it's "judgement" as to what you want and force the T3 to do it the IceTV way. In particular, the T3 will allow you to edit any timer as you wish, but when you enable IceTV, you are effectively giving the IceTV server the permission to update the timers as it sees fit.

If you have a problem with this, you will need to take that up with IceTV and ask them to add support for timer merging (or whatever it is that you want to achieve) on their server.

[terry]

In answer to your question MrQuade , I set the timers by my smartphone and when I get home I press the timer button on the remote, select the program I want to change, then I adjust the timers and that is where the problems begin.


Regards
Terry

[MrQuade]

That's part of the answer.
I am guessing that when you say that you are setting them via smartphone you mean that you are using the IceTV app to do so.
If so, then as PeterU says, there is nothing you can do to change those timers on the T3 that the Ice server won't then go and un-change.

In order to record three shows in a row, you would need to create the timer on the T3 itself, and then when you create it, you need to extend the end time to cover the duration of all three shows before you save it.

Even if you create a timer for the first show, and then edit it after you have created it, the Ice server will still want to set it back to its original duration. Or at least it did when I tested it.

You should be able to use the T3's web interface to do the same sort of thing if you want to do it when you are away from home. Its a bit less convenient to remote in via VPN to use the web interface though.

[peteru]

If you chose the use IceTV, you are giving it the permission to manage all your timers, except autotimers. It does not matter where you create a timer or how you edit it, the IceTv server will overwrite all your changes on any timer that is not an autotimer.

[terry]

Sorry that it has taken awhile to get back to you guys. Been playing around with the timers, I think i've worked out that if I delete the recordings created on my phone , using my phone to do so. I can edit the start and stop times via the epg. But am I right in assuming that in the future if any changes of time or days made by the broadcasting channel then I will lose those recordings. Or is that what the auto timer function is for? If so can you please explain exactly how does an auto timer work? What exactly is it meant to do? Does it in a sense replace icetv?



Regards
Terry

[MrQuade]

Can you clarify if when you say you are setting timers via phone, you mean via your phone's IceTV application?

If you set timers through the Ice website or the Ice application, then the timers are managed by Ice. If the show time moves, and Ice is aware of it, they will update their EPG and your timers will move to the new time as well.

Autotimers on the T3 do similar things, but without requiring IceTV.

If you are not using IceTV, an autotimer can be used to search for shows that meet a set of criteria that you set.
For example, you can ask the Autotimer to search for any instance of a show that contains the word "News". You can narrow that search by telling the autotimer to only search between certain hours of the day. There are many other criteria that can be used to narrow the search.
Once the Autotimer is set up, it will run periodically and look for matching shows in the EPG, and automatically set up timers for those shows.

Autotimers can get confused in certain conditions, so they have to be set up carefully, and even then they can be tripped up, if there are short shows before or after the show you are intending to record. The details are complicated, suffice to say they don't always work.

[simoncasey]

There's been a few posts about the relative benefits of IceTV vs AutoTimers.

One thing I would add is that you shouldn't use both, use either IceTV or Autotimers.

My assessment of the two in terms of timers and epg are:
IceTV is generally more reliable, Autotimers have been a bit buggy
IceTV takes over more control of your PVR, eg what you have seen, there are things you cant do with IceTV but could do with Autotimers and Timers
IceTV allows you specify first runs only, Autotimers dont know about repeats but you can use times of day etc to try and filter out obvious repeats
IceTV has an iPhone app allowing you to set up your recordings remotely, Autotimers need you to be at home or use a VPN
IceTV has its own EPG rather than the Free to Air EPG
IceTV is only accurate to 5 mins start time, free to air EPG can be more accurate
IceTV is quit expensive, Autotimers are free

A lot of IceTV users use it because we have always done so, back in the days when there wasn't much of a free to air epg and pvrs didn't have the equivalent of autotimers. For me, the remote app and the filtering out repeats are enough to justify the cost of IceTV.

[Gully]

IceTV is quit expensive, Autotimers are free

With their special offers people have managed to get IceTV for around $25-35 a year which I wouldn't call expensive and is convenient.

[peteru]

One thing I would add is that you shouldn't use both, use either IceTV or Autotimers.

I'm not sure what information you are basing this advice on. It is quite the opposite. One of the design goals was to make sure that IceTV and Autotimers do not conflict. In fact, if you want IceTV to leave your timers alone, you need to use autotimers.

[prl]

... Autotimers dont know about repeats ...

The problem is not really with Autotimers. It's possible to set up an Autotimer that doesn't record shows that have "RPT" in their description.

The problem is that the ABC and SBS don't have that flagging in their broadcast EPG at all (or at least didn't when I tested it), and the commercial channels don't do it consistently.

The problem is the data, not the Autotimers. You still can't do it reliably, though.

[simoncasey]

... Autotimers dont know about repeats ...

The problem is not really with Autotimers. It's possible to set up an Autotimer that doesn't record shows that have "RPT" in their description.

The problem is that the ABC and SBS don't have that flagging in their broadcast EPG at all (or at least didn't when I tested it), and the commercial channels don't do it consistently.

The problem is the data, not the Autotimers. You still can't do it reliably, though.

Yes, fair enough. It's not really about autotimers it's about FTA epg vs icetv and the data available when the timer is created.

[simoncasey]

One thing I would add is that you shouldn't use both, use either IceTV or Autotimers.

I'm not sure what information you are basing this advice on. It is quite the opposite. One of the design goals was to make sure that IceTV and Autotimers do not conflict. In fact, if you want IceTV to leave your timers alone, you need to use autotimers.

I was basing on the number of posts where people have had issues between the two but if you're saying that is no longer an issue, I'll retract that advice.

[Paul55]

IceTV is quit expensive, Autotimers are free

With their special offers people have managed to get IceTV for around $25-35 a year which I wouldn't call expensive and is convenient.

And a 'standard' IceTV subscription covers 5 recording devices. If you have multiple PVRs, it works out to very cheap per unit.

[simoncasey]

IceTV is quit expensive, Autotimers are free

With their special offers people have managed to get IceTV for around $25-35 a year which I wouldn't call expensive and is convenient.

And a 'standard' IceTV subscription covers 5 recording devices. If you have multiple PVRs, it works out to very cheap per unit.

Looking at all of the devices in your signature, they're probably paying you!

[prl]

IceTV is quit expensive, Autotimers are free

With their special offers people have managed to get IceTV for around $25-35 a year which I wouldn't call expensive and is convenient.

And a 'standard' IceTV subscription covers 5 recording devices. If you have multiple PVRs, it works out to very cheap per unit.

I'm currently running 4 IceTV devices, though one is just for testing.

I've never paid as little as $25/yr for IceTV (I've been using it since 2007 and I'm paid out to 2020). Even the 4-year subscription I bought recently was more than $35/yr ($37.25; $37.80 incl credit card surcharge). The standard 5-year 5-device subscription is almost $50/yr. Other than the 4-year subscription, the least I've paid was $44/yr. OTOH, I've only ever paid full price, $99/yr, once. Mostly, I've paid $49.

Clearly, I think it's worth it

[tezza007]

If you use the Jim's coupon code, it's 5 years for about $125. That's what finally sold me

[peteru]

I was basing on the number of posts where people have had issues between the two

I can not think of any instances where there were issues between IceTV and autotimers. I know that there is a lot of speculation and guessing going around, but the source is available, so it's not that hard to confirm what's going on.

[Paul55]

Looking at all of the devices in your signature, they're probably paying you!

Yeah. I'm a borderline hoarder (my wife would dispute the borderline qualifier ) - I've only recently retired my Toppy 5000MP. Hate throwing away working or repairable equipment.

[diesel]

The Pioneer 508 - what a thing of beauty!
And the Harmony 525 - I'm surprised you can still read the keys

[Paul55]

And the Harmony 525 - I'm surprised you can still read the keys

Oops! Attention to detail - I replaced the 525 with a Harmony 785 a while back. However, the 525 is still in good physical condition - hasn't had batteries in it for a while though. I'll revisit my signature block - again!
The Pioneer 508 has turned out to be an excellent purchase - it's relegated to the rumpus room now but still gets plenty of use on weekends. Still looks good after all these years. Must say though, the Sammy TV is significantly better - should be too given it is a few generations along. Pity about the terrible native EPG on the Samsung - not much better than the non-existent one on the 508. Conversely, the EPG on the Panasonic is excellent - age wise, it splits the other two.

[Gully]

If you use the Jim's coupon code, it's 5 years for about $125. That's what finally sold me

Just spotted that they have an even better offer if you only have one device, $99.50 for lifetime (which in IceTV speak is 5 years.

http://www.jimsantennas.com.au/icetv-fa ... nds-offer/

AS I already have over 5 years left, I won't bother but it might be useful to someone.

[simoncasey]

I was emailed the IceTV 10 year anniversary special today.
5 devices for 5 years for $150. Still not at cheap as Jim's $125.

Note that it is specifically for 5 years and not a lifetime

[terry]

Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you Mr Quade as Telstra disconnected my internet,BEWARE when changing to nbn with Telstra.
Yes I mean when I am using my icetv app on my smartphone.



Regards
Terry