Having to repeatedly stop a recording

[adm]

Vix image 71, Miraclebox Twin Premium

I have an number of auto timers set up to record a number of programs. They are configured to look for unique titles and descriptions in an attempt to stop recording repeats. Unfortunately the broadcasters subtly change the description for a repeated episode and so the repeats do get recorded.

If I'm watching live TV at this time this unwanted recording may require the free tuner and therefore the box changes channels. I now manually attempt to stop the current recording by going into the timer menu, highlighting the active recording and hitting the delete key(RED). This stop the recording BUT 5 minutes later the box announces that it is starting a recording and starts recording the program that I've just previously stopped/deleted yet again. No matter how I try and stop the recording it will always start again a short time afterwards.

How do I stop the current recording for good so it will not start again? I still want to record future new episodes so the auto timer needs to remain active.

[ronand]

Change the interval that the auto timer searches the EPG to something like 6 hours. The program will be long over by the time it polls again. I have a feeling your timer is not set up correctly - if you use a narrower time span it should sort it too.

[adm]

Change the interval that the auto timer searches the EPG to something like 6 hours.

My machine is in deep standby for most of the time and seldom on continuously for anything approaching 6 hours. The auto-timers being polled at 6 hour intervals (when the box is on) will probably never find anything to record

The program will be long over by the time it polls again. I have a feeling your timer is not set up correctly - if you use a narrower time span it should sort it too.

I suspect the polling interval time, which is currently set to 2 hours, is ignored if I go into the timer screen and perform any action such as deleting the current recording. The interval times appear to be reset as the timer screen is exited. I suspect that the box thinks it has just booted and the (default) 3 minute startup delay before the first poll is kicking in. I'm going to experiment with changing this start-up delay to an hour, or more.

The reason I suspect that it is the 3 minute start up delay time is because it was approximately how long it took between my deleting a current recording and the box indicating that it had started recording the same program again.

Next time I need to stop a current recording I will try what fat-tony has suggested but only disable the current timer rather than delete it. Having to leave an auto-timer is a disabled state for more than a few seconds will probably mean that I will forget about re-enabling at a later time in an evening!

EDIT
Will changing the start up delay to, say, 1 hour actually stop a recording happening if the box wakes up from standby to record something I want and have previously requested from the auto-timer setting?

[Joe_90]

I've lots of autotimers set and never get the issue where a repeat is recorded. Example - Neighbours and Home & Away on Channel 5 (honest it's for the missus ). One at 13:15 and the other at 13:45. Repeats at 18:00 and 18:30 or thereabouts. Have them set for every weekday. The suggested time boundaries in the autotimers are something like 12:15 - !5:15, so it never matches the repeat. Same for Corrie or other repeating programmes.
As ronand has indicated, the reason you can't successfully stop a recording is that the autotimer is scanning the EPG in the background and identifying that a programme you set is now on and kicks off the recording. If you ever want to delete a timer recording you should disable or inhibit the autotimer first (untick the selection in the autotimer list).

[ronand]

You dont disable the autotimer - you disable the actual timer that you are trying to get rid of. Anyway you should try setting up the autotimer correctly. Polling every 6 hours or even once a day is plenty as you will be adding events 7 days in advance. What program are you having a problem with anyway (if you dont mind me asking?)

[adm]

You dont disable the autotimer - you disable the actual timer that you are trying to get rid of. Anyway you should try setting up the autotimer correctly. Polling every 6 hours or even once a day is plenty as you will be adding events 7 days in advance. What program are you having a problem with anyway (if you dont mind me asking?)

Polling every 6 hours requires the box to be on for at least 6 hours. My box remains in deep standby for most of the day which turns practically everything off including polling the EPG for programs to record. The polling time was already set to hours but it doesn't stop the box attempting to try and record again a few minutes after stopping a current recording.

I may not have explained the problem very well.

I'm not trying to disable a timer before it has started. I'm trying to stop a recording that has already started. The only way that I can see is to go to the timer menu and for a recoding in progress the options are
i) RED to delete
ii) Green to add
iii) Blue to Cleanup
The yellow button is unavailable if a recording is in progress. The yellow button to disable a recording is only available for one that is pending (waiting)

The only option here to stop the recording is to delete the recording. However the program is still configured in an enabled Auto-timer and it starts recording again a few minutes later. The ONLY way I've found to stop this behaviour is to deactivate the auto-timer setting which basically defeats the option of setting and forgetting, and I have to remember to enable it again an hour later.

I've also tried selecting the channel that the program is being broadcast on and pressing the stop button on the remote - I get invalid button press icon. Pressing the record button gives another menu with an option to "stop timer recording" - this does nothing when selected.

I'm aware that if I set tighter timer parameters I may/will avoid some of the repeats but in some cases I don't know if the next time the program is on it will be in the same time slot or day of the week. This is not really the problem I'm having with the box. It's just that the last couple of times I've wanted to stop a recording it's because it's automatically changed channel to record an unwanted repeat. This is rather annoying if it now takes a few minutes to stop a recording and it starts again a little later. Some broadcasters are not very good at keeping titles and short descriptions the same for repeats. Recently when I got 3 copies of the same program the only differences in the description were a missing episode number and the inclusion of the subtitle [S] indication.

[ronand]

I must repeat this again - if you set up the autotimer correctly you should not have any repeats. However without knowing your settings there is nothing more I can suggest. You are correct in that you cannot disable the recording after it has started so it is best to avoid repeats in the first place. I have usually around 8-10 autotimers running - some daily & some weekly and never have any repeats.

If an autotimer is set to check the full 24 hour period of every day then you will definitely get repeats. Setting the appropriate time-spans gets the best results not concentrating on the exact title

[Joe_90]

adm - what programmes are you recording? The BBCs/ITVs/CH4s etc on Freesat and Freeview and various on SKY are pretty consistent with how they name the programmes. The only major issue I ever hit was on F1 where I was trying to ensure I was recording all practices, qualifications and the actual race over a weekend on BBC1 and BBC2, so I reduced the name matching to just F1 and relaxed the channel matching. Bad move on my part as the autotimer then set a timer for every instance of the event on the SKY F1 channel - one I don't have a subscription for and ended up having to deleted about 20 timer entries WOn't make that mistake again.

[adm]

adm - what programmes are you recording? The BBCs/ITVs/CH4s etc on Freesat and Freeview and various on SKY are pretty consistent with how they name the programmes.

Perhaps I'm more used to a Topfield SD box box (with third party software) that works far better when setting up timers - nearly a TeraByte of recordings with a handful of repeats However, avoiding repeats isn't really the problem - I can tweak the timer configurations on the Miraclebox. My Topfield box also allows me to stop any current recording and it remembers that it has been stopped. As ronand has confirmed disabling a current recording that has been set by a still active auto-timer isn't a one button press operation on the Miraclebox/VIX image. I'll just have to work around this limitation of the box.

BTW - for info: while 'messing around' with some of the default timer settings and trying to stop active recordings my box got slower and slower with the spinning VIX image often up for 30+ seconds. Speed was only restored by putting the box into deep standby and rebooting.

[judge]

Been asked a few times but not answered. What show on what sat is this happening on? It's going to be impossible to find a solution unless it can be reproduced.
Without knowing that, have you tried Long green press for Auto timers, press menu & choose setup, then change poll automatically (a setting I've never had to change though.).

[adm]

Been asked a few times but not answered. What show on what sat is this happening on? It's going to be impossible to find a solution unless it can be reproduced.

If you are inquiring about recording repeats - it is not a bug. It's just that I have auto-timers set to look for unique titles and short descriptions BUT the broadcasters are changing the description for every repeat, albeit in very small ways. I can solve this by reducing channels/times etc.

If you are saying that a auto-timer generated current recording can be deleted or stopped without the active auto-timer starting the recording again isn't the expected behaviour then I have seen this on my box when I had terrestrial tuners fitted and using the Freeview set of channels. Currently I have two Sat tuners fitted tuned to 28.2 and Freesat channels. I have an auto-timer set for 'Speed with Guy Martin' and this is one of the ongoing recording when deleted will start again a few minutes later.

As there is no menu option for stopping or suspending an ongoing auto-timer generated recording I do suspect this may be the expected behaviour from the box.

have you tried Long green press for Auto timers, press menu & choose setup, then change poll automatically (a setting I've never had to change though.).

Reading the description suggests even when disabled what will happen as you leave the timer GUI screen after deleting the ongoing recording the polling will again take place immediately. The polling takes place immediately on ANY change of timer and then thereafter at regular intervals set by the polling interval. This would explain why the auto-timer re-instates a deleted timer.

I'm also beginning to suspect that changing some options in the menus don't actually do anything until the box is rebooted and/or the software is sometimes getting lost and not recovering properly until the reboot. However it's a lot better than some boxes that I've owned in the past

[birdman]

Been asked a few times but not answered. What show on what sat is this happening on? It's going to be impossible to find a solution unless it can be reproduced.

It's easy to reproduce.
The problem is that if you have a timer set from an auto-timer and it is currently recording then if you Delete it (which is all you can do, as the Disable option is disabled once timer actually starts) the Auto Timer mechanism will soon after re-add the timer and restart the recording.
You probably have to have Automatic Polling set for your Auto Timers, but beyond that this is independent of what show the Auto timer is for.
Yes - it's happened to me as well. I discovered that the box wouldn't wake up if you run "shutdown" from the command line when I noticed it still asleep when I thought it should be recording Doctor Who. So I started the box. The recording started. Since the programme was already half-way through I Deleted the timer. A minute later the timer was re-instated and the recording restarted. In the end I think I just let it run and then deleted it (and recorded the full programme off BBC Three the next day).

[judge]

It's easy to reproduce.
The problem is that if you have a timer set from an auto-timer and it is currently recording then if you Delete it (which is all you can do, as the Disable option is disabled once timer actually starts) the Auto Timer mechanism will soon after re-add the timer and restart the recording.
You probably have to have Automatic Polling set for your Auto Timers, but beyond that this is independent of what show the Auto timer is for.
Yes - it's happened to me as well. I discovered that the box wouldn't wake up if you run "shutdown" from the command line when I noticed it still asleep when I thought it should be recording Doctor Who. So I started the box. The recording started. Since the programme was already half-way through I Deleted the timer. A minute later the timer was re-instated and the recording restarted. In the end I think I just let it run and then deleted it (and recorded the full programme off BBC Three the next day).

That reply is going to be as hard to reproduce, so hard to narrow down any fix, or use correct E2 settings.

[birdman]

That reply is going to be as hard to reproduce, so hard to narrow down any fix, or use correct E2 settings.

Why would it be hard to reproduce? It applies to any timer set-up via an auto-timer!!

The issue is that before the timer kicks in it can be disabled (yellow button). But once it has started to record then you can no longer disable it. You can delete it (which will stop the recording), but you can't then disable it as it doesn't exists until the auto-timer re-adds it, and as soon as that is done it starts recording and you are back to square one.

What is required is for a running timer to be abort-able, meaning that not only does it get stopped, but that it also gets marked as disabled, so that auto-timer won't try to recreate it.

This is a separate issue to how the auto-timer is/should be set-up. That leads to, but is separate to this problem.

[judge]

Why would it be hard to reproduce? It applies to any timer set-up via an auto-timer!!

Well, you've explained the issue a lot better since, so probably a bit easier to reproduce.
Still no idea what show on what sat you're having this issue on though?

An auto-timer set up correctly will record the correct show, an auto-timer set up with less logic will still kick in when less logic is used.