New IceTV feature - "failed timer" email

[prl]

IceTV has added a feature to allow emails to be sent when timers managed by IceTV fail. In particular, it will send an email if a scheduling clash occurs that causes more then two simultaneous recordings to be sent to a Beyonwiz (the most common "yellow triangle" event).

The IceTV forum discussion shows that while the feature was probably released without sufficient testing, it now seems to be working as it should.

I've also posted in Feedback and Suggestions about how the feature might be improved by minor changes in the Beyonwiz firmware.

[tonymy01]

It is off season at the moment, so not many (none!) scheduling clashes for me, but it has been emailing me to say when timers have failed (but they haven't), specifically when there has been back to back shows (Warehouse13 followed by Alpha followed by Alpha). I had the wrong beyonwiz model setup for this timer set (I have a 2TB P2 to supplement my 1TB S1 now), not sure if that would be the reason (I fixed the model last week and last night didn't get the 2x failed timer emails, so perhaps it is fixed).
When I saw it was emailing for timers that had (supposedly) some problem recording, I thought it was a pretty useless feature compared to timers that couldn't be set at all due to clashing though....

[prl]

It is off season at the moment, so not many (none!) scheduling clashes for me, but it has been emailing me to say when timers have failed (but they haven't), specifically when there has been back to back shows (Warehouse13 followed by Alpha followed by Alpha). I had the wrong beyonwiz model setup for this timer set (I have a 2TB P2 to supplement my 1TB S1 now), not sure if that would be the reason (I fixed the model last week and last night didn't get the 2x failed timer emails, so perhaps it is fixed).
When I saw it was emailing for timers that had (supposedly) some problem recording, I thought it was a pretty useless feature compared to timers that couldn't be set at all due to clashing though....

It's a bug that I and others had been grumbling about on the IceTV forum. It appears to have been fixed on 1 Jan (after it being announced fixed on 22 and 31 Dec ). My back-to-back recordings of Grimm on 3 Jan did not generate a timer failed email.

The problem was more generic than simply with back-to-back recordings - it seems to have happened any time that a timer didn't run to its full padded end time, including when it was manually stopped, or other recordings starting meant that the padding of the earlier timer didn't complete.

I have also since received a timer failed email about a timer update that actually did fail, but it was a failure that I think indicates some sort of bug in IceTV (unclear where, though).

[tonymy01]

Thanks Peter.
I have been absent for some time off the forums, too much work last year (lots of os stuff too), will get back in the swing now.

[Paul55]

Received one of these messages today.
Have 'Revenge' set for series record and IceTV had correctly set a PVR (Toppy 2400) to record the episode tomorrow night. Yesterday I realised that, while it isn't a Repeat episode, it is a catch-up/summary of the previous season.
This morning I cancelled the episode via the IceTV website and received the Notification of Failed Timer e-mail when the PVR came out of standby.
The episode timer had been removed from the PVR.
Haven't had this situation with any of my BWs yet. Seems that the service still needs a bit of work.

[prl]

Hi, Paul.

Probably a good idea to post this in the IceTV Forum topic. IceFolk used to read the IceTV bit of the Beyonwiz forum, but I'm not sure whether they still do. Anyway, it gives more visibility to a problem that may not just affect Beyonwiz.