Beginning of shows missing, despite padding

[woodchuck]

Hi Guys-

I'm looking for confirmation on a solution I read about elsewhere.

Problem: A series show running back to back on the same channel will not respect the start padding for any show following another, even if other tuners are available.

Workaround: Set the default start padding to at least 5 minutes under Settings->TV->Recorder-> Recording Defaults. Then set the series end padding to "10 minutes after". Apparently this will cause media center to begin using other tuners to capture a full 5 minute start padding. Is this correct???

I will report back to confirm, but it may take a few days. I have 6 tuners with my InfiniTV ETH and it's stupid for me to keep having the start of my shows clipped off. I can spare tuners!

[CyberSimian]

Problem: A series show running back to back on the same channel will not respect the start padding for any show following another, even if other tuners are available.
Workaround: Set the default start padding to at least 5 minutes under Settings->TV->Recorder-> Recording Defaults. Then set the series end padding to "10 minutes after". Apparently this will cause media center to begin using other tuners to capture a full 5 minute start padding.

Yes, that is the work-around for this problem. Some points:

(1) You need to do this for all recordings, including one-off recordings that follow another recording (whether on the same channel or on different channels).

(2) I don't think that the size of the start padding is critical, so if you want some value other than 5 minutes the work-around should still work. (I use one minute of start padding, albeit on Vista.)

(3) The size of the end padding is critical; it must be "10 minutes". It must not be "10 minutes when possible", or any other number of minutes. (Note: on Vista, this critical value is 5 minutes.)

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[Mike88]

(2) I don't think that the size of the start padding is critical, so if you want some value other than 5 minutes the work-around should still work. (I use one minute of start padding, albeit on Vista.)

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

Just to confirm, I use WMC7 with the 2 minute start padding & with the "10 minutes after" and it works.

[woodchuck]

Cool. Thanks a bunch for the info guys!

[blueiedgod]

I use both 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after. Works for us with 12 tuners.

[pittsoccer33]

I had a problem like this a while ago and it was happening because my system time was several minutes off.

[DrSmith]

I had a problem like this a while ago and it was happening because my system time was several minutes off.

Hey, same thing happened to me, even though I had "This computer is set to automatically sync on a scheduled basis" in my Date and Time configuration. I switched to another time server, besides the default time.microsoft.com to see if my clock stays in better sync going forward.

[woodchuck]

I had a problem like this a while ago and it was happening because my system time was several minutes off.

Hey, same thing happened to me, even though I had "This computer is set to automatically sync on a scheduled basis" in my Date and Time configuration. I switched to another time server, besides the default time.microsoft.com to see if my clock stays in better sync going forward.

That's a different issue. Go check out http://www.timesynctool.com/ if your PC clock doesn't stay accurate. There is a thread around here somewhere about it, but basically the internal windows time sync can drift more than is acceptable for accurate TV recordings. I've used the this tool for years now and it keeps the clock spot on.

[webminster]

Major +1 on NetTime suggestion. I've used it for a long time, the Windows Internet time sync isn't good enough or out-of-box frequent enough. With this tool my clock is always spot-on without worry.