Suggestions - won't be home during daylight savings switchover

Started by dwids, March 24, 2014, 05:53:43 PM

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dwids

Hey all. Got a Beyonwiz DP-P2 with IceTV.

For the first time, I'll be away on that first Sunday in April.  I'll leave on the Sat morning before that Sunday and be gone about a week.
Time on P2 is updated using a time server with manual UTC offset. 

Can anyone think of a set up I can use where my timers will fire correctly (even 'clever' ones like pad by an extra hour?)? Thanks!

prl

I think that this is one area where you can just do nothing. The recordings will end up with the wrong time stamps, but they should record at the right times.

The time you get from NTP is UTC, and the times in the IceTV guide and timers are in UTC; that doesn't change with DST. After the DST changeover, the Beyonwiz will be miscalculating local time, but it will do it consistently, so it shouldn't cause any problems (apart from incorrect timestamps on the Recordings).

If you wish, you can also increase your padding on everything in SETUP>Preferences>PVR. 90 min would probably cover the DST change and network scheduling vagaries.
Peter
Beyonwiz T4 in-use
Beyonwiz T2, T3, T4, U4 & V2 for testing

Dave at IceTV

#2
It is not as bad as prl suggests, though twice each year it does my head in trying to work out and document the exact steps required for a Beyonwiz. The problem is if you get it wrong it's a 6 month wait before you can adjust the steps and retest it. Step 3 below is the bit I'm not sure about.

If you need to disable daylight saving early on the Beyonwiz the following should work:  See my other post below for a better solution

  • Adjust the clock on Friday night.
    • For Auto Time mode you just change the 'Daylight Saving option'.
    • For Manual Time mode you just change the 'Time Offset' by 1 hour.
    • For Network Time mode you just change the 'Time Offset' by 1 hour.

  • From the Beyonwiz's timer list, delete all existing timers that are for after 3am Sunday.

  • If there are any timers on the Beyonwiz for Saturday you may, or may not, need to manually adjust their start time by 1 hour. If unsure you could change the start time to 1 hour earlier and the duration to 2 hours longer (just for the timers you did not delete - i.e. The timers for before 3am Sunday).

  • Leave the Beyonwiz on or setup a wakeup timer for each afternoon (or just for Sunday afternoon if you trust everything will work).

  • On Sunday after 3am click on "Resend all recordings" from My Recorders under My Account on the IceTV website. When the Beyonwiz next updates from IceTV it will schedule all recordings for the next 5 days at the correct time with the correct program name.

Note: Any new IceTV timers downloaded by the Beyonwiz between when you delete the existing timers (in step 2) on the Friday and 3am Sunday may be out by 1 hour. But when you resend all recordings a 2nd timer will be scheduled for those shows for the correct time (assuming they don't conflict with other timers). You will see false errors in My Week for these shows (the Beyonwiz cannot schedule a show that already has a timer set). This would only affect shows for the 5th day (Thursday in this case - or maybe Wednesday night to Friday 3am).
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

Dave at IceTV

#3
I just found my notes from my tests in April 2012 which indicate that this solution is easier and cleaner than the steps I posted earlier.


  • Disable Ice Guide.

  • Adjust the clock.

    • For Auto Time mode you just change the 'Daylight Saving option'.
    • For Manual Time mode you just change the 'Time Offset' by 1 hour.
    • For Network Time mode you just change the 'Time Offset' by 1 hour.

  • From the Beyonwiz's timer list, delete all existing timers that are for after 3am Sunday.

  • "Resend all recordings" from My Recorders under My Account on the IceTV website.

  • In My Week cancel all recordings for before 3am Sunday (don't cancel the series).

  • Enable Ice Guide.

  • Watch the status box and wait until Ice Guide has finished downloading from IceTV. If it's blank or idle then try 'Check User Info' or step 8.

  • Reboot the Beyonwiz.

  • After 15 minutes you should have all of your timers back and each set for the correct time.
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

dwids

Hey everyone.  Thanks very much for this, excellent stuff.

I should point out the PVR will not have net access when I'm away, so NTP won't work and the PVR's clock won't change. 

In fact it seems prl's "do nothing" may just work, with one proviso. I just looked at the Timers; without me doing anything, Offsiders (ABC1 10am Sunday) is set on my BW to now be 11am Sunday. I'd tip due to the raw timer data - as has been said - being in UTC.

If I don't change the PVR's time at all, won't my "11am" timer fire at 11am PVR time, which is now 10am 'real' time, which is when the show goes to air?

The proviso is once I turn the BW and my LAN off (soon!) no more new timers will flow in. Not too fussed about this as the key ones are in there already.

Have I got that right?

Dave at IceTV

Quote from: dwids on April 05, 2014, 09:49:26 AM
I should point out the PVR will not have net access when I'm away, so NTP won't work and the PVR's clock won't change. 

<snipped>

If I don't change the PVR's time at all, won't my "11am" timer fire at 11am PVR time, which is now 10am 'real' time, which is when the show goes to air?

<snipped>

Have I got that right?
Seems right to me.

In your case, once you turn off the network tonight, all existing timers on the Beyonwiz for Sunday onwards should still record the correct program.

e.g. If you had timers set for ABC's 7pm News program for next Monday it would currently be set for 8:00pm and start to record at what the PVR thinks is 8:00pm but ABC will actually be broadcasting the 7pm News program at that time.
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

dwids

Just closing this out. The "do nothing" approach worked just fine. Got home, after a week away, and - as predicted - the PVR
's clock was an hour out (i.e. still on DST) but all the timers had fired correctly and recorded just fine. I had not changed the padding.  Followed the usual process to change the time and all (still) working ok. Thanks again.