Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
I've just been told that it is a feature of an MPEG transport stream on DTT, DSAT & DCAB that channels only require one tuner to record if on the same mux.
Does this mean that, if they're on the same mux, we could record, say, 7 programmes at once? |
Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
Struggle to find one thing to record, let alone 7...
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Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
Technically this is possible, but I don't think the main providers boxes (Sky, Virgin, Freeview) are set up to allow it. I guess to avoid confusion with non-technically minded customers.
A few years ago, I set up a media server running TVHeadend PVR software with 6 x USB DVB-T receivers. This allowed me to effetively record every single channel at the same time if I wanted to! (There were only 6 DVB-T Muxes at the time). |
Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
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I've since been told that this was a feature of early DTT PVR's when they were built with only one or two tuners. I only knew about this possibility after someone else told me that their Humax Freeview PVR allows complete recordings using this feature ie it has 3 tuners, but can record 4 programmes! No idea how old it is or which model though. jj20x has informed me that Tivo's used the feature on VM when recording consecutive programmes from the same channel with overlapping start/end padding: https://www.forumbox.co.uk/forum/thr...704#post105704 In this case, it was possible to record the overlap at the same time as recording other content from the other tuners. As far as he knows, the feature wasn't carried over to the V6, but can't say for sure. Anybody? |
Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
I used to have a Freeview PVR that could do this. But as gaz says, it's confusing
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SkyQ doesn't even allow you to add padding to a recording - progress apparently. So you have to rely on the broadcaster updating the schedule when programmes overrun - some do lots dont |
Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
The problem on the Original VM Tivo, and presumably on the V6, is that if you have padding on consecutive programmes it uses the order of the user's priority list to decide which one gets the padding and which one cuts into the programme and instead of extending the recording shortens it.
The alternative settings are that it will automatically find another time to record that programme or simply not record at all if it can't. I'll give an example, from memory , as the above isn't particularly clear. Under particular scenarios if you recorded Programme 1 at 9pm and Programme 2 at 10pm from the same channel... On the V+ it would drop the padding on the end of Programme 1 and beginning of Programme 2. On the Original VM Tivo ( and presumably on V6 if you using all the tuners) all your shows are ranked in order of importance (which the user can reorder). If Programme 2 was higher priority than Programme 1 it would instead of adding 2 minutes to the end of Programme 1 actually remove the 2 minutes so that it was able to add the 2 minutes to Programme 2. So in certain circumstances you could have a show that overran slightly and would've been successful recording it if there wasn't a recording after it, instead end up with even more missing. In the end, after advice from a high usage VM Tivo user, I set the default to having no padding for Series Links and more carefully planned my recordings. After upgrading to V6 the increase in tuners means this is less likely to happen, but I immediately set the padding defaults the same anyway. Hence why I said "presumably". To be clear, I don't completely avoid the padding feature, I just have it set by default to none and only set it for a select few shows, with particular emphasis on channels that regularly run early/late. I also deprioritise shows that are reliably on Catch-Up On-Demand and prioritise those that don't have repeat showings or +1 channels. |
Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
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Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
Incidentally, I've just discovered that on a 360 you can record six and watch a 7th.
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Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
If these boxes allow this to be done all the time, does this mean that they must have more rhan the advertised number of tuners then??
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Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
Well if you can record 6, and watch a 7th, that would suggest at least 7 tuners in total.
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There are many possible reasons why VM have chosen not to use them all. It may not be desirable to allocate more than 6 active streams to each box on the network, resources need allocated and the cost/usage ratio may not be favourable. Remember, someone might watch a couple of channels most of the time and the remaining tuners are still actively working regardless. So VM may have decided it's not a good use of their network resources to have 8 active streams on every box when the average user uses 2-3. Forward planning for something that didn't happen. The 8 tuner component might only have been marginally more expensive and VM wanted the option to offer more at a later date, depending on how customers used those they already had. It could have been that VOD may not have become popular, so extra streams may have been a greater selling point, but the market decided otherwise. The 2 extra tuners might be configurable to take over if one of the other 6 cease operating properly. Of course it could be argued that VM could offer a variety of tuner options and enable/disable them depending on what the customer wants and is willing to pay. They may have indeed considered this, but upon weighing up the costs it was much cheaper to provision for all TV customers to have the same setup, rather than complicating the Services Offering and systems required, and to maintain those on an ongoing basis. I have a vague recollection that VM said years ago why they didn't use all 8 tuners, but it's so long ago and I can't remember. |
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Re: Is this a workaround to record more than 6 channels on cable boxes?
I remember when the TiVo first came out that it didn't initially have all of it's tuners activated for some reason.
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So TiVo had to update the software to deal more than two. |
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