AutoTimer will not set Timer

[leshay]

Hi
I kept getting a 'conflict' message from an AutoTimer set up to record The One show. I have the Recordings settings Margin Before and After set to 0. I find it strange because: there is only one other timer set for that time slot, if I delete the AutoTimer and set a plain Timer it works fine. Deleting the manual Timer and trying a new AutoTimer, again it fails with a 'conflict' message.

OK, I had noticed VIX 037 was available, so I upgraded to that and restored settings. Same thing happened again (for that AutoTimer only - there are others which don't complain and have similar circumstances)

What else can I try/check?

[Joe_90]

How are your tuners set? It would appear from the message that the system thinks you have only one tuner available at that time slot.

[leshay]

How are your tuners set? It would appear from the message that the system thinks you have only one tuner available at that time slot.

Not sure what you mean by 'set'. I have 2 terrestrial tuners, what do I need to do to 'set' them? BTW there are a few other timers in the list already that overlap.

As a separate point: I have always assumed that scanning on one terrestrial tuner serves both tuners. I mean it isn't necessary to scan for channels on both? Since other Timers manage to overlap seems to suggest one scan is enough.

[Joe_90]

Right - at least now we have established that you have two terrestrial/cable tuners and not two satellite tuners (which could be looped through internally or connected to different LNBs). Do you have a splitter in the cable which serves both tuners or is it an external loopthrough? Are you watching on a cable system or do you have a aerial (Freeview)? Can you record a BBC programme and an ITV programme simultaneously if watching on Freeview? I'm just trying to determine if both tuners are working at the same time. You don't need to scan on both tuners, one will be ok. If you are using ABM on terrestrial (and most cable) you don't need to do a conventional scan at all, but I've seen your other thread where you are having reception difficulties. Some of these problems can be caused by poor quality cabling or splitters.

[leshay]

Hi
I am using single aerial into tuner C and a loop cable from C to D. I am using Freeview.

To absolutely confirm my answer, right now, I have set 7 simultaneous recordings and all are currently recording OK.

Also watching a recording at the same time.

[Joe_90]

Ok thanks - both your tuners must be working ok then. If you look at your timers list (ordinary timers, not autotimers), is there a possibility that there is an overlap around the 7pm or 7.30 mark? The One Show is usually of 30 minutes duration from 7.00 - 7.30pm, but if I recall, it is 60 minutes long occasionally and when autotimer looks forward it may find a clash with another timer. Conversely there may be another autotimer set for a show which moves around - like Corrie which is usually 7.30 but occasionally moves to a 7.00 slot when the football is on midweek?

I had an issue where I was setting an autotimer for Home and Away (for the missus of course!) on Channel 5 on Freesat, but for some reason it was setting timers for the Irish Freeview service instead. I ended up deleting all autotimers and setting up from scratch. It's generally bulletproof, though. I find it almost as good as Series Link on a genuine Freesat receiver.

[leshay]

Hi
I had checked the Timer list and there was only the one overlap (start same time - end same time) - I might have to delete everything and redo as you say, but not a very good thing to have to do.

BTW, do you know the location and file names of the various data files such as Timers AutoTimers etc on the GigaBlue?

[Joe_90]

The timers and autotimers etc are just xml files and can be found in /etc/enigma2 if you want to view or edit them directly. I edited my autotimer for Formula 1 manually to have it span BBC1 and BBC2 and record the practices etc on Friday, Saturday. It would be advisable to make a settings backup before doing any major hacking.

By the way, an overlap would be any common recording time over events spanning more than two tuners, not just same start time or end time.

[leshay]

Hi

Yes, I know about overlapping as partial time slots etc - it was just that in the case I mentioned, the overlap was the whole slot.

Thanks for the pointer to the location.

I had previously learned the hard way about keeping backups

There is something odd going on with AutoTimers I think.

As a trial I set a new AutoTimer for the Paul O'Grady Dog show and nothing showed up on the EPG for it, yet a timer did appear in the Timer list for the show. When I looked in the Sutotimer.xml file, all the autotimers listed had a 'serviceref' *except* the Paul O'Grady one! Wonder if that has something to do with the lack of EPG icons for it? Further investigation needed I think. Maybe I should start a new thread for this.

Example excerpts:

</timer><timer name="Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs" match="Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs" enabled="yes" avoidDuplicateDescription="3" overrideAlternatives="1">
</timer>

</timer><timer name="Daily Politics" match="Daily Politics" enabled="yes" avoidDuplicateDescription="3" overrideAlternatives="1"><serviceref>1:0:19:4440:4 0BC:233A:EEEE0000:0:0:0:</serviceref><!-- BBC TWO HD --></timer>

[duoduo]

Having the same problem with it too, appears just recording soaps on a Thursday night and Monday night. Every other autotimer works fine just Eastenders Thursday and Coronation Street Mondays. They show in the autotimer menu but dont record also they dont show as setup to record in the main Epg menu. I have updated to vix 37 this evening but made no difference, the problem started about 4/5 weeks ago..

[leshay]

Hi

Another strange one. The Autotimer I set for the Paul O'Grady dog show has been recorded, *but* it was recorded from a channel not shown in my EPG. On my EPG, I set the Autotimer from STV HD (I had swapped HD for SD in WebIF), and the timer was set and recorded from STV (SD version) - that seems to be why it didn't show in the EPG as I didn't have that channel in the EPG. This *may* not be a bad thing, as a clash could possibly be resolved it (say) a +1 channel was found and recorded from even though it wasn't shown on the EPG (assuming this is not a one off case, but it does need further thought)

[Joe_90]

Ok - this sounds like my issue with trying to record Home and Away from CH5 satellite which resulted in a terrestrial timer being set. I don't know the internal search strategies that autotimer uses to match a timer setting, but it seems odd if you selected STV HD as the source in the EPG that it would have selected STV SD to record from. It may be that autotimer is following the links to similar EPG entries and using those to minimise clashes. I'll see if I can get someone more familiar with the internal workings of autotimer on the case

[nsw9154]

I can not seem to get the autotimer to work at all just tried 5th gear on Discovery Shed it repests quit often but the autotimer found 0

[Joe_90]

I can not seem to get the autotimer to work at all just tried 5th gear on Discovery Shed it repests quit often but the autotimer found 0

Ok nsw9154 - try typing that again
Are you saying that you selected autotimer on an EPG entry on Discovery Shed or did you type "5th gear" (instead of 5th Gear)? Autotimer is case-sensitive.

[nsw9154]

sorry tony I should have said that I set it from the EPG, and that should have spelt (repeats)

I think I have found out what I am doing wrong the selected recording dose not show up in the EPG so presumably it has not worked so I just left it at that
I just went in tho the Autotimer menue and their it is with a ticked box and a Red clock face si I presume that I should have pressed the Green Button for it to set

just pressed the Green Buton to Save and Found a total of 0 events -- ah well back to manual recording