Pvr - Record Series?

[bjanssen]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a PVR and have two primary requirements:

1) Must be able to use the IceTV guide

2) Must be able to do 'Record Series' from the PVR itself, not from IceInteractive or whatever it is called.

I've been reading through the manuals of the Beyonwiz devices and can't seem to find series recording, so I suspect it doesn't support it. I would really appreciate some suggestions!

Thanks, BJ.

[prl]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a PVR and have two primary requirements:

1) Must be able to use the IceTV guide

2) Must be able to do 'Record Series' from the PVR itself, not from IceInteractive or whatever it is called.

I've been reading through the manuals of the Beyonwiz devices and can't seem to find series recording, so I suspect it doesn't support it. I would really appreciate some suggestions!

Thanks, BJ.

That seems an odd combination of needs, since the IceTV guide offers pretty much nothing over the FTA guide. Would you like to expand on the reasons?

It may be met by using a combination of a Freeview EPG PVR with IceTV capability and IceTV, but that's still to be seen since, as far as I know, there aren't yet any Freeview EPG PVRs on the market yet.

A TiVo may also satisfy your requirements, though that doesn't have an IceTV guide, but it does allow series recording from the PVR.

It's hard to know what to suggest without knowing what you're trying to achieve.

[JaffaMan]

I'm in the market for a PVR and have two primary requirements:

1) Must be able to use the IceTV guide

2) Must be able to do 'Record Series' from the PVR itself, not from IceInteractive or whatever it is called.

I've been reading through the manuals of the Beyonwiz devices and can't seem to find series recording, so I suspect it doesn't support it. I would really appreciate some suggestions!

Thanks, BJ.

It is generally possible to do this with the Topfield TMS series boxes - 7160, 7100+, 2400 and 2460, but it is not native functionality. The 7160 does not support ICE, so delete that from the list if you need that, but all of these boxes can run user applications called TAPs - little applications that let you customise your PVR. There is one of these you can load called AutoSched or TMS AutoScheduler. You can set up searches on it and when it finds a match in the EPG, it will set a timer. Searches are quite flexible - exact, partial or advanced (wildcards, AND/OR etc). You can search on title or on extended information and can limit searches to particular services or range of services, days of the week, even time ranges, and you can get it to set it only a day or two out in case they change the programming. If you use ICE for your EPG it will use that as the source, if not it will use the FTA EPG.

It's not perfect - it does have an ignore repeats function, but this relies on it building a database of EPG entries it has seen before - if the EPG entries are the same every time, then this won't work. Of course, there are also occasions where you will get conflicts - three shows on three different services at the same time for example - it handles this by using a priority order. It does work pretty well though, so well that at the moment one of my PVRs only has timers set by AutoSched. It has saved me a few times - an unexpected double episode that a weekly timer would have failed to get, one series that they moved by an hour for one week only which it got and I would have missed with a regular timer, and I have it watching for a few shows which aren't on yet - it caught one recently and taped the first show of a returning program I would otherwise have missed. I don't use ICE, just FTA, but the program operates the same regardless.

That said, I agree with PRL - why do you want ICE and don't want to use it to set your timers?

[pgdownload]

1) Must be able to use the IceTV guide

2) Must be able to do 'Record Series' from the PVR itself, not from IceInteractive

As mentioned, these two requirements are currently essentially mutually exclusive (not to mention redundant if you actually had them both)

Assuming what you're really asking for is reliable onboard Series Record with a well populated and formated EPG then the only two options are:

1) Telstra PVR (Single HD tuner, 7 day EPG, needs broadband connection, and household must be on Telstra broadband plan. has on board series record, $300 for box)

2) Tivo. Full Twin Tuner, 7 day EPG, needs broadband connection, has on board series record. $500 for box)

Both boxes are essentially Freeview boxes (although not badged as such) with the primary limitation being no ad skip buttons, just FF.

Freeview have just started broadcast their own enhanced EPG which presumably some PVRs will soon be announcing being able to use. This EPG apparently allows for accurate series record (having the ability to keep recording if a show runs over time). These PVRs will not have ad skip either. Not sure if you want to wait for some of these models.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[Grampus]

I've been reading through the manuals of the Beyonwiz devices and can't seem to find series recording, so I suspect it doesn't support it. I would really appreciate some suggestions!

Thanks, BJ.

Not sure anyone has specifically answered this part of the question.

You can record a series, sort of. Not by name.

You can record by channel, start time, length.

You can record these daily, weekday only, weekly.

There are a number of options.

[prl]

Not sure anyone has specifically answered this part of the question.

You can record a series, sort of. Not by name.

You can record by channel, start time, length.

You can record these daily, weekday only, weekly.

There are a number of options.

Or you can subscribe to IceTV, which the OP seems to want to do, and use IceTV Interactive to record series, which the OP doesn't seem to want to do, for no stated reason.

[swordfish805]

Or you can subscribe to IceTV, which the OP seems to want to do, and use IceTV Interactive to record series, which the OP doesn't seem to want to do, for no stated reason.

I think he wants to be able to set the series record from the PVR by simply selecting the show and telling the PVR to record that series - the same way as with Foxtel iQ.

With IceTV and a beyonewiz you do this from your PC, phone or iPod - or even a PC at work or in a cafe, but not from the PVR itself. The closest you can get from the PVR is to do as Grampus suggested a few posts back.

[diesel]

Not sure anyone has specifically answered this part of the question.

You can record a series, sort of. Not by name.

You can record by channel, start time, length.

You can record these daily, weekday only, weekly.

There are a number of options.

This applies to pretty much all PVRs, so regardless of brand, they should be able to do the above.

Season Pass or Series Record need an interactive EPG which currently are limited to TiVo's own EPG, and IceTV. Freeview will have this feature in their EPG, available now, but I don't believe there are any products available on the market yet with the FreeviewEPG logo

[prl]

I think he wants to be able to set the series record from the PVR by simply selecting the show and telling the PVR to record that series - the same way as with Foxtel iQ.

...

I can understand that, but why the requirement of using the IceTV EPG?

Anyway name matching TAPS on TAP-capable Topfields for similar behaviour to series recording, or the TiVo's Season Pass capability would appear to be the closest solution to what he wants.

[tonymy01]

PerlTGD and the Wiz equiv I coded up will do the trick (well, the wiz one uses Eric Fry's wizremote app that is installed on the Wiz). This takes ICE XML data and sets timers based on keywords, but runs on something in your network, not the PVR itself (although I reckon the Wiz has the grunt to be able to do this itself, except the tool is written in perl...).

But saying all that, I abandoned development any further as ICE did 99% of what I wanted anyway for setting timers, with no major fuss.

Regards

[clive1503561402]

Season Pass or Series Record need an interactive EPG which currently are limited to TiVo's own EPG, and IceTV. Freeview will have this feature in their EPG, available now, but I don't believe there are any products available on the market yet with the FreeviewEPG logo

When/if there are FreeviewEPG PVRs available will they need to be connected to the internet to be able to use the interactive EPG or wil the data be able to be used natively by the PVR

[prl]

When/if there are FreeviewEPG PVRs available will they need to be connected to the internet to be able to use the interactive EPG or wil the data be able to be used natively by the PVR

Have you had a look at Freeview's information about the Freeview EPG?

But my understanding is that the answer is no, you won't need an internet connection.

[pgdownload]

When/if there are FreeviewEPG PVRs available will they need to be connected to the internet to be able to use the interactive EPG or wil the data be able to be used natively by the PVR

An internet connection isn't required. Tivo and T-Box are two boxes that require internet but for other reasons. What we're waiting for is a box to be put on the market that has the smarts to use some of the information Freeview are now broadcasting.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[clive1503561402]

What we're waiting for is a box to be put on the market that has the smarts to use some of the information Freeview are now broadcasting.

This is basically what I am after an easy to use EPG and provided it has decent FF then I will probably wait till one gets released

Any idea when a FreeviewEPG PVR will be released by someone?

[prl]

...

Any idea when a FreeviewEPG PVR will be released by someone?

There's been a post on the Beyonwiz forum from Beyonwiz Australia saying there will be a new Freeview model to replace the discontinued Freeview FV-L1 "later this year". It's assumed (but it's not stated in the post) that it will be Beyonwiz'es Freeview EPG model.

And to clarify, "discontinued" doesn't mean "no longer supported", as far as I can tell. The current Beyonwiz beta firmware covers all models, including all discontinued models.

I don't know of any announcements, official or semi-official, as this one was, from anyone else. However, the Freeview EPG manufacturers page on the Freeview Web site has a number of PVR manufacturers (including all the usual suspects ) with Freeview EPG models "coming soon". Some even have model numbers and pictures.

[beyonwiz beta tester]

[clive1503561402]

There's been a post on the Beyonwiz forum from Beyonwiz Australia saying there will be a new Freeview model to replace the discontinued Freeview FV-L1 "later this year". It's assumed (but it's not stated in the post) that it will be Beyonwiz'es Freeview EPG model.

[beyonwiz beta tester]

I really wanted to get one soon but looks like this will not be possible so am tossing up between BLite Toppy 7100+ and Tivo

[prl]

I really wanted to get one soon but looks like this will not be possible so am tossing up between BLite Toppy 7100+ and Tivo

You've just got to love Freeview's marketing strategy

[Robert E]

I really wanted to get one soon but looks like this will not be possible so am tossing up between BLite Toppy 7100+ and Tivo

One advantage of the Topfield options, 2400, 7100+ or the even cheaper 7160 is that can runs TAPs and there is now one TAP, TMS Auto Scheduler, where you can enter search terms and it will automatically create timers.

For example when I saw that Rescue Special Opps (or whatever it's called) was returning I set a schedule to find the word Rescue in the program name and it automatically created a timer when the series returned and automatically noticed and set a timer when they broadcast an episode on a non regular (fro the series) day and time.

It may not be as slick as the TiVo option for this sort of series recording but it does work and doesn't rely on having an Internet connection AND it does have a skip function.

[clive1503561402]

For example when I saw that Rescue Special Opps (or whatever it's called) was returning I set a schedule to find the word Rescue in the program name and it automatically created a timer when the series returned and automatically noticed and set a timer when they broadcast an episode on a non regular (fro the series) day and time.

When you say set the timers does that mean that it set it to record or just to remind you to record manually

Thanks

[pgdownload]

When you say set the timers does that mean that it set it to record or just to remind you to record manuallyThanks

It sets the timers for you.

Regards

Peter Gillespie