Why doesn't the DVR find both SD and HD channels when scheduling a recording?

[MBSki 1114]

There seems to be a small glitch in scheduling programs to record. If I search on a program, select one and click "record series", the Channels only displays 1 of the channels that the Program is available on. Why isn't it showing all the channels that the Program is available on? In this example I apparently clicked the SD Program not the HD Program, so it only shows the SD channel. I suppose the first question should be, "why is the search showing 2 different Programs for the same Program?" it should just show 1 Program that includes all the channels that the 1 Program is available on. 

Is there a glitch in LiveTV/DVR? Is there a different way to schedule a recording that avoids this issue?  

[ebr 16184]

Hi.  This is because the search is returning individual programs on individual channels and you chose the one on that channel.

In the future, search will hopefully be able to group these but, for now, you need to pay particular attention to the channel if that is important for you.

[MBSki 1114]

@ebr Ok, that's what I figured. Any way around this? Is there any other way to get a "grouped" listing? 

And, if that's a feature request let me know and I'll give it an up vote. Otherwise I'll post a new request.

[ebr 16184]

It is already a planned enhancement.  For now, if the channel is an important factor, use the channel to do your scheduling.  Either from the full guide or the individual channel detail screen.

[MBSki 1114]

Thanks. Or I'll just shut off all my SD channels. 

[MBSki 1114]

Btw, I did just stumble upon a work around. Changing to record on All channels does in fact record on all channels, it just doesn't show the other channels in the list. 

[ebr 16184]

1 minute ago, mbarylski said:

Btw, I did just stumble upon a work around. Changing to record on All channels does in fact record on all channels, it just doesn't show the other channels in the list. 

Yes, but then it will just be a crap shoot as to which one you get - the SD or HD channel.  The DVR will be smarter about this in the future.

[MBSki 1114]

6 minutes ago, ebr said:

Yes, but then it will just be a crap shoot as to which one you get - the SD or HD channel.  The DVR will be smarter about this in the future.

Yea, true, and it can't filter out shows I've already recorded. The "don't record episode already in my library" is ok, but this doesn't work with kids shows that don't have accurate episode numbers. It needs to remember the history of recordings. And, a setting to "Start from Season x for recordings" would be useful too. Basically match the TiVo DVR settings.  

It sounds like you've all got some updates planned for the DVR. Should I bother with any feature requests?

[ebr 16184]

2 minutes ago, mbarylski said:

but this doesn't work with kids shows that don't have accurate episode numbers. It needs to remember the history of recordings.

How is it going to remember the history if we cannot properly identify the episode? 

3 minutes ago, mbarylski said:

Should I bother with any feature requests?

I think everything you've mentioned is already on our wish list. Thanks.

[Carlo 4561]

4 hours ago, mbarylski said:

Thanks. Or I'll just shut off all my SD channels. 

THIS!  Best approach IMHO.  First it makes your channel list and guide smaller.

It's stops you from watching something in SD accidentally when you could have used the HD channel.

Stops the DVR from recording SD content

Stops you from having to be super careful dealing with search results or program listings (SD vs HD).

Just do it!

[MBSki 1114]

10 minutes ago, cayars said:

THIS!  Best approach IMHO.  First it makes your channel list and guide smaller.

It's stops you from watching something in SD accidentally when you could have used the HD channel.

Stops the DVR from recording SD content

Stops you from having to be super careful dealing with search results or program listings (SD vs HD).

Just do it!

Yea, I should. The only problem is that there are some channels (Disney is the main culprit) that has some episodes ONLY on the SD channel and not on HD. I might just shut off all the SD except for Kids channels. 

[Carlo 4561]

I didn't know that.  I might reactivate the Disney channel just to compare.  Of course if moves/shows are broadcast on the SD channel I likely don't want them anyway.

[MBSki 1114]

9 minutes ago, cayars said:

I didn't know that.  I might reactivate the Disney channel just to compare.  Of course if moves/shows are broadcast on the SD channel I likely don't want them anyway.

LOL, yea, in some cases I feel the same way. Especially when the SD channel has black bars on all 4 sides!! So irritating.  

[MBSki 1114]

@cayars I'm going through the channels now and it's looking like a lot of the SD channels that I have do mostly correspond with an HD channel. However, the issue is more the cable provider. I have Verizon Fios in US and some channels ONLY come in SD. Sorting by channel Title in the web app seems to help at identifying which are only SD. So I'm going through and hiding all the channels that have an exact match in HD.

One problem though. What happens when Verizon moves channels around? They might move a channel that I need to see that is now hidden because I had that number hidden. Is there any notification when the provider moves a channel? TiVo has a pop up whenever this occurs. Is there anyway to capture this info in Emby? 

[Carlo 4561]

What I did was create an Excel spreadsheet with the channels.  I used the HDHomeRun app in web view to copy paste the channel info into excel.

Then I could sort easily by name to find the SD dupes of HD channels and track them.

When cable providers move mass channels around it's a pain in the butt as you have to rescan channels.  HDHomeRun kept my SD channels hidden when the name matched but they added some additional channels and removed others so still had some manual work today.  Kind of goes with the territory.  Only 1 big change for me in the last 5 years so keeping fingers crossed.

I've run both Verizon Fios and Comcast Xfinity both through two different HDHomeRun Primes and that made things interesting. Surprisingly Xfinity has much better picture quality than Fios even though "cable" is more limited on bandwidth than Fiber.  Fios internet on the other hand is much better than xfinity especially the upstream!

[MBSki 1114]

Hmmm, ok. Thanks for the info. I think I might post a feature request then. Is it possible for Emby to capture a channel change? For now I still have my TiVo's hooked up, so I'll have to make a habit out of checking them periodically to see if anything changed. 

[Carlo 4561]

Not sure I understand the question about the channel change.

[MBSki 1114]

51 minutes ago, cayars said:

Not sure I understand the question about the channel change.

Same thing as you were mentioning in post 15..."when cable providers move mass channels around". I think it mostly only happens on a few channels at a time, but basically I'm wondering if Emby can catch this and provide a notification like Emby does when this change occurs. 

[Carlo 4561]

Good question I myself can't answer as I sort of cause my own grief in a one respect.  With the HDHomeRuns you can mark your channels as a favorite and also to remove channels.

So I make use of the favorite feature so I can keep my Emby Live TV grid/guide info smaller to channels I care about but still allow the tuner to server up other channels which I can access with LiveChannels or something else for the occasional other view.

In Emby when I setup my tuners I have it set to only import channels that are favorites.

Thus until I manually scan and make favorites, Emby will not know.  Now with my IPTV "tuners" Emby does update my lineup based on different streams in the M3U files so for them a definite YES.

EDIT:  Emby will auto adjust to channel changes but I don't know if it does any re-scanning of channels or how often the device does this on it's own.

Edited July 27, 2020 by cayars

[MBSki 1114]

35 minutes ago, cayars said:

EDIT:  Emby will auto adjust to channel changes but I don't know if it does any re-scanning of channels or how often the device does this on it's own.

How does the auto adjust work? For example, if I have NBC on channel 500 and it moved to 400, but 400 is hidden, will 400 now be unhidden? I don't see how it could do that given the hiding of channels occurs on the HDHomeRun Prime.

[Carlo 4561]

This is more to do with the tuner then Emby.

Emby will reload the channel list and of course the guide data during each scan.

An HDHomeRun may function different than a EHauppauge  card.

So this IMHO is more a function of the tuner as Emby will reload the channels the tuner says are available.

 

[MBSki 1114]

1 hour ago, cayars said:

This is more to do with the tuner then Emby.

Emby will reload the channel list and of course the guide data during each scan.

An HDHomeRun may function different than a EHauppauge  card.

So this IMHO is more a function of the tuner as Emby will reload the channels the tuner says are available.

Got it, I'll reach out to the SiliconDust team. Ideally they could pass something to Emby though since Emby is the DVR. I'll find out if it's possible.