Doctor Who - multiple timers sent

[vader1111]

Doctor Who
7:40pm, Sunday May 7th
ABC HD & ABC ME
Canberra, ACT

For some reason my T2 has received two timers for Doctor Who - one for ABC HD, and another for ABC ME.  The ABC HD timer is correct.. I have no idea why the ABC ME timer is being sent.  Doctor Who is being simulcast on both channels, but why is IceTV sending me multiple timers for the same show?

** This also happened last week.  I deleted the ABC ME timer the first time, but I thought I should report it now that the problem is recurring.

[IanL-S]

I saw the same thing on at least one of my Toppys. Not sure if it was this week or last week.
Ian

[grumpy_geoff]

...
For some reason my T2 has received two timers for Doctor Who - one for ABC HD, and another for ABC ME.  The ABC HD timer is correct.. I have no idea why the ABC ME timer is being sent.  Doctor Who is being simulcast on both channels, but why is IceTV sending me multiple timers for the same show?

Shorter duration of ABC ME event, so considered to be not a simulcast.
See explanation here - http://forum.icetv.com.au/iceforum/smart-recording-website-and-general-questions/35/three-times-the-mystery/5604/msg30000#msg30000

[MD]

Hi grumpy_geoff,

I apologise but IceTV has a piece of logic missing in our system that dates back to before there were multiple channels.  It didn't become apparent until channels, seems the ABC right now, started to simulcast a show.  We are aware of it but it's a complex piece of careful analysis and coding to fix within an already complex database. The way around it is to set the show to 1 per day and/or HD only. We will attend to it once we've got through our current software tasks.

[vader1111]

Hi grumpy_geoff,

I apologise but IceTV has a piece of logic missing in our system that dates back to before there were multiple channels.  It didn't become apparent until channels, seems the ABC right now, started to simulcast a show.  We are aware of it but it's a complex piece of careful analysis and coding to fix within an already complex database. The way around it is to set the show to 1 per day and/or HD only. We will attend to it once we've got through our current software tasks.

Thanks for the extra info.  At least we know that IceTV are aware of the problem and are working on it, even if the solution is non-trivial and may take some time to implement.

[vader1111]

...
For some reason my T2 has received two timers for Doctor Who - one for ABC HD, and another for ABC ME.  The ABC HD timer is correct.. I have no idea why the ABC ME timer is being sent.  Doctor Who is being simulcast on both channels, but why is IceTV sending me multiple timers for the same show?

Shorter duration of ABC ME event, so considered to be not a simulcast.
See explanation here - http://forum.icetv.com.au/iceforum/smart-recording-website-and-general-questions/35/three-times-the-mystery/5604/msg30000#msg30000

This is interesting too, even if it's not the root cause of the problem.

You are correct in that the ME version is 2 minutes shorter.  Presumably this is because the ABC choose to run less advertisements/promos between programs on ME, compared to the primary HD channel.

IceTV operates at a 5 minute resolution, so I wonder how they'd handle a show starting at 8:28...  I don't have kids, so I never watch ABC ME and have setup my account to not receive ABC ME guide listings.  If they scheduled the changeover for 8:25, then viewers would potentially miss the end of Doctor Who.  If they schedule it for 8:30, then viewers would almost certainly miss the start of Yonderland.  It doesn't worry me, as I use significant pre- and post- padding on all of my recordings, it's just a matter of curiosity.

[prl]

... IceTV has a piece of logic missing in our system that dates back to before there were multiple channels.  It didn't become apparent until channels, seems the ABC right now, started to simulcast a show.  ...

Having the HD channel as a simulcast of the main channel is not new. It's how HD broadcasts started in Australia, and I don't think that SBS HD has ever been anything other than a simulcast of SBS ONE.

What is new, it seems, is that some "simulcasts" on some channels aren't actually simultaneous: in this case, the Dr Who on ABC and ABC HD are simultaneous, but the "simulcast" of Dr Who on ABC ME is not simultaneous with the other two. I'm at a complete loss as to why Dr Who is even being broadcast on ABC ME in the same rough timeslot that it's on ABC and ABC HD.

True simulcasts (same program shown on two different channels with the same start and end) seem to be pretty well handled by IceTV. "Simulcasts" with slightly different start and end times (e.g. Dr Who on ABC and ABC HD vs Dr Who on ABC ME) are not handled well by IceTV.

[vader1111]

Like you, I have no idea why they would simulcast it on ABC HD & ABC ME.

I'm not so sure I like your definition of a "true simulcast"... 

In the case of Doctor Who, the show starts at the same time on both channels - but "ends" earlier on ABC ME.  In reality a show's "end" time is actually the scheduled start time for the next program.  In this case, it's the running time of Doctor Who, plus advertisements & promos between Doctor Who and the next program.  I have no doubt at all that the running time for the Doctor Who episode will be identical on both ABC HD & ABC ME, and that the only difference would be the duration of ads & promos.  Given that ABC ME is a kids channel, many of the promos normally shown on ABC HD would not be appropriate - hence ABC ME having fewer ads/promos, and thus an earlier "end" time.

As I see it, Doctor Who is a true simulcast - it's just that the ads/promos which follow are not synchronised.