PADDING - Max.padding both ends does not prevent loss of either start or finish.

[manjimupp]

Almost at the point of throwing the TV and Humax out the window and going back to books. When will IceTV EPG be reliable? The loss of either the start or end, or both, of a show, is driving me bananas. Does anyone out there have the answer?

[prl]

It depends on what you mean by IceGuide being reliable. It's actually pretty good at getting the scheduled times correct for program start and end times. After that, the TV networks decide not to actually start and end their programs to schedule. On some programs IceTV tries to compensate for that behaviour of the networks. Sometimes they get that right, sometimes not. When they predict an actual start time, but the network in fact runs the program earlier than that, then without pre-padding you'll miss the beginning of the program.

IceTV does not use published guide data for the commercial broadcasters. They assemble their own guide for them, mainly based on predicting the broadcaster's behaviour.

There are some circumstances where padding can't be applied fully, because that would need more simultaneous recordings that the PVR is capable of. For example, if you have a limit of two simultaneous recordings on the PVR, and you record ABC1 20:00-21:00, SBS1 20:00-21:00, Nine 21:00-22:00 and Seven 21:00-22:00, the padding that should be applied pre- and post- 21:00 can't be applied in the expected way. Only having more tuners (e.g. another recorder) can you be sure that padding can be applied.

I run our two Beyonwizes with 5 min pre-padding and 25 min post-padding, I'm careful to try to avoid padding conflicts like that, and when the padding can be applied I only very occasionally miss parts of programs.

For the programs where you are missing parts of the recording, is padding being properly applied? If not, then that's probably more of a problem with the PVR, either bugs or inherent limitations (as in the example above), than a problem with IceTV itself.

Are you sure whether padding is actually being applied to the programs? Do their actual recording start and end times reflect the amount of padding that should be applied.

Unfortunately, IceTV isn't nearly as "hands off" as certain IceTV slogans might lead you to believe, and yes, sometimes they get it wrong.

[Madeleine IceGuide]

While overruns do happen, if you've set pre and post padding, it shouldn't be frequently missing the start and end of programmes. (prl means well but comments about how the guide is actually compiled are incorrect).

This may be an issue with your padding, or you may not have updated your firmware to the latest version - there were some known bugs in previous versions of Humax firmware.

The best thing to do is call customer support. They can look at your account, check all your recordings and isolate any issues, talk you through updating the firmware, and more.

Our support number is 1300 654 803 and is open 12-8pm weekdays, 12-6pm weekends and public holidays.

[prl]

... prl means well but comments about how the guide is actually compiled are incorrect ...

I had simplified, perhaps oversimplified.

[Dave at IceTV]

Hi manjimupp,

I can see in your account that you are on your 2nd Humax, and that you resent all recordings 5 days ago, and late last night you switched to the Humax EPG Type.

When using the Humax EPG Type you will experience the same padding issues as it is the Humax PVR software that adds the padding, not IceTV.

I can also see that the Humax's Internet connection appears reliable, and that you leave the Humax turned on (or have 'power saving in standby' disabled). As long as you have the latest software version installed you should not be experiencing any padding issues.

The latest software (aka firmware) came out after you received your Humax so please update the Humax software as follows:
http://support.icetv.com.au/entries/20414081-how-do-i-upgrade-the-firmware-of-the-humax

If the software version installed on your Humax is already 1.08.06 or 1.08.07 (depending on which hardware variation your Humax has) then you will need to do a factory reset to clear out the bug left from the old software version.
http://support.icetv.com.au/entries/20394703-How-do-I-clear-out-all-settings-and-start-again

[bodogbodog]

Remember the networks will often do this deliberately in a perverse attempt to retain viewers from one show onto another by messing with the "balance" of all the channels changing their programmes at the same time - which is what you'd expect if you believe the published schedules from each of them

Makes it hard for a guide provider to get it right when the channels themselves don't seem to make the call until very late in the piece

You could write to the management of the channels - but good luck on that!

Best just to pad the beginning and the end to try and capture everything