Messages

I've long been of the opinion that if you set up a recording on, say, SBS, it should default to "Prefer standard definition", and if you set it up on SBS HD, it should default to "Prefer high definition".

That would work for me.

In fact you've just made me realise why it bugs me: I've made the effort to identify and select the standard-def show/channel when it is available on multiple channels, then I have to go extra effort to ensure it actually records on the channel I selected!

Thanks - I feel a bit better now.  :)

Could I please request a facility that allows the Advanced Options - Quality selection to be remembered for future timer settings?

I would imagine the last option used could be retained in the cookie or account database (as the last Device and Time/Channel currently are), or an option added in the account config to set the prefered default.

Reason being: I ALWAYS prefer my recordings to be standard def, but I want to retain the duplicate hi-def channels for the very occasional show I may prefer to watch in better quality, such as the Olympics recently.

Currently, every time I set a timer for SBS, TEN, Nine or 7mate I have to go into Advanced Options and change the Quality to "Prefer Standard Def", which frustratingly adds three mouse clicks to every timer setting.

Apart from the increased file size of hi-def recordings, the Skippa beavers away unsuccesfully for hours trying to process ad-skipping on these hi-def files. Im sure this extra disk and CPU activity is just shortening the Skippa's life expectancy.  :'(

Thanks in advance for any consideration.

BUG: I'll use the word "file" to describe a recorded program, to avoid mixed use of the word "recording"
If you delete a file while it is still recording (as opposed to stopping the recording first, then deleting the file) future timers will not trigger until you reboot the Skippa.

CAUSE:
Buggered if I know  :)

SOLUTION:
Don't delete an in-progress recording directly from the list of recorded programs. Always stop the recording first, then bring up the list and delete.

I have some more information.....

As mentioned, "Adam Hills: The Last Leg" had disappeared from My Series on the website, which is set to display All recorders. I now recall that the series was originally set for my Beyonwiz.

When I re-added the series I set it for my Skippa instead, and it appeared as expected in My Series for that device.

What I have now found is if I select Beyonwiz in My Series the original entry is there. Likewise, if I select Skippa, the new entry is there. If I select All then only the Skippa entry appears.

I can accept that the My Series "All" option can't or won't display duplicate entries for the same series on different devices.

What is a mystery is why the original Beyonwiz entry disappeared from the All list.

Hi Ian.

To answer your question: Skippa (and Toppy 5000 and Beyonwiz).

However I posted this in the general thread because I don't believe it is PVR relevant - the Series entries have disappeared from my IceTV account, which was why the timers weren't created.

The missing Series have been set up for years, in some cases.

Two of the missing Series are long-term shows returning tonight, I believe: "Border Security - Australia's Front Line (2004)" and "The Force - Behind The Line (2006)". I been recording these since they started, on one device or another.

Perhaps Dave can check my history of Series creations (I such a log exists) to confirm if/when they may have dropped off? The above two may have been recorded by TED/S on the Toppy in the past (which has not been used for some time due to a PC failure) so I'm prepared to accept I may not have set up Skippa Series entries for them yet.

However I think "Adam Hills: The Last Leg" would be of most interest as that was certainly there last week.

On my Skippa I had the first episode record but not the second this week.

By the time I realised it I couldn't see the guide to see if the second episode had been incorrectly flagged as a repeat.

Previous weeks both episodes have recorded fine.

It appears that at some stage in the last few week several of my Series entries have disappeared.

I only realised because I scan the guide each day for anything new of interest and noticed several regular recordings had not been set. On checking the Series section they were no longer there.

Example: Adam Hills: The Last Leg. This has been recording fine for as long as I can remember, including last week's episode.

It may well be operator error, but I can't think how. I'm just putting this out there in case others notice the same.

Looks like the restart has done the trick, following your fix.

Thanks very much, Dave.

The world is back to normal.  :)

Doesn't it check during a reboot?

I saw an "Autoskip activated" (or similar) message during the startup process earlier, as I was specifically watching for it.

Will know after 19:00, when I can reboot after my news recording.

Good to hear, but no change yet.

I'll reboot and recheck once current recording has finished.

Just as a test I set a new, short recording since performing the above steps, with no improvement.

Hopefully it is a problem at your end which is easily resolved.

Thanks for the reply and suggestions, Dave.

By "power-cycled" I meant I actually pulled the power plug for 10 seconds. I've done that twice in the last few days. Knowing the unit "never sleeps", I figured that process would nornally fix most problems

As suggested, I tried the menu restart. It took several minutes for the unit to start rebooting. Unfortunately no improvement.

I then tried the Reset EPG option, again with no improvement.

Should the Skippa start processing a file as soon as it boots, or is there delay?

After doing the above, should the Skippa pick up the unprocessed files, or only those recorded since the restart?

I've just realised that none of my recordings have been Autoskip processed since 20:30 21/6/2016.

Autoskip is showing as enabled in the settings, and I've power-cycled the Skippa a couple of times.

Recordings are from a mixture of SD and HD channels, including ABC.

Any other Skippa owners seeing this?

The only event I can associate this with is the server issues with Humax, Topfield and WMC recorders last week. Is there a connection?

Pity the undocumented feature causes bug 1 (maybe that's why it wasn't documented in the manual).

I'm wondering if it was actually even intended?

I've never seen the ability to delete an active recording with the 3-4 PVRs I've worked with over the last 10 years.

Then again, the Skippa does a lot of things I haven't seen before.

[Undocumented Feature]

After some failed timers and confusing Skippa behaviour over the last week associated with an "undocumented feature", I have identified a couple of bugs. Obviously these can't be fixed, but this information may save others experiencing the same issues:

Undocumented Feature
I accidentally discovered that an active recording can be deleted from the My Recordings list without the need to stop the recording first, thereby saving several key presses.
In the My Recordings list press the red (Delete) button on the active recording, as you would to delete a previous recording. Once the deletion prompt is confirmed the recording stops, the "R" icon on that entry changes to the incomplete icon, and the recording is deleted as normal.
I found this quite useful to delete an unwanted active recording until I found.....

Bug 1
After using the above "feature" the next timer of the day always fails to trigger. The failed timer remains in the My Week list well after the event, and never appears in Failed Recordings. Sometimes I will get a failed timer email if I completely reboot the Skippa.

Example
I have a recurring timer for "Sunrise". When I get to the TV at 6:30 I watch the active recording from the start for about an hour, then stop and delete the remainder and "turn off" the Skippa when I head off to work. When stopping the Sunrise playback it was convenient to just press the red (Delete) button on the active recording in My Recordings, rather than having to close the list, stop the recording, go back into the list and delete the recording - an extra 4 key presses.
I also have a recurring timer for the Seven evening news. Since I started using the above process that timer would never trigger - it took a few days of failed timers, and removing and re-adding the timers, before I finally made the connection. If I use the "traditional" method to stop and delete the Sunrise recording then the news timer DOES trigger.

Bug 2 (unrelated to above)
Timers will not trigger while moving a recording to a USB stick. They will trigger once the move is complete, but obviously you'll be missing part of that recording. I assume an active recording may also be impacted when transferring to USB - I haven't had time to check.
It reminds me of my old Topfield 5000 file transfer application (Altair) which had a "turbo" mode - when that mode was engaged it doubled the transfer speed by disabling all playback and recording functionality on the Toppy for the duration.