# Strange PTAT Activity



## jwt0001 (May 21, 2005)

I turned on PTAT for the first time on Saturday. When I checked what I had on Sunday morning, most of the shows seemed to contain no content. When I click on one and started it, it immediately indicated that the show was over and didn't play anything.

Obviously, I may be not understanding something correctly, so I would appreciate any information.

Thanks!


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Did you have weather problems or otherwise signal outages Saturday night?

Signal outages at any point in the PTAT time period seem to often result in the whole night's recordings being corrupted even if the signal outage is a brief one.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

No, it was a visit of MIB.  Because your DVR accidentally recorded alien's transmission.


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## saberfly (Apr 5, 2010)

That would explain why he dosent remember


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## 356B (Oct 11, 2008)

So that's what happened......thank you.


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## jwt0001 (May 21, 2005)

Of course, none of this answers my question, but thanks.


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## garys (Nov 4, 2005)

There has been a history of PTAT not working correctly the first couple of days when put in use. See how it is tomorrow.


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## jwt0001 (May 21, 2005)

That must have been it. Last night's shows were perfect.


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## tcatdbs (Jul 10, 2008)

Is there a way to extend PTAT? Looks like it records 3 minutes early and 1 minute late, no matter what DVR settings are. Be nice to make all PTAT record +15 minutes.... or change the +1 to "0", so there would be more timer options at 10:00 PM on other channels.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

tcatdbs said:


> Is there a way to extend PTAT? Looks like it records 3 minutes early and 1 minute late, no matter what DVR settings are. Be nice to make all PTAT record +15 minutes.... or change the +1 to "0", so there would be more timer options at 10:00 PM on other channels.


The PTAT window is set by DISH. It has changed over time ... and DISH adjusts it to cover scheduled Prime Time programming that starts or ends outside of prime time.


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## garys (Nov 4, 2005)

I've seen problems with Sunday Night Football being cut with about 2 minutes to go a couple of times along with numerous preseason games as well.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

garys said:


> I've seen problems with Sunday Night Football being cut with about 2 minutes to go a couple of times along with numerous preseason games as well.


I suspect the PTAT only records until whatever the EPG has the scheduled end time to be, maybe with a default 1 minute overage... and since most games run a little long, you probably will almost never get Sunday Night Football (or MLB or NCAA when those are running in primetime) in their entirety.

What would be nice is IF PTAT gave you an option to extend the end-time the same way you can other timers. You might even be able to catch a late night talk show if you were able to extend a full 90 minutes.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

The PTAT window is shown in the "Daily Schedule" each day.
For example, on Saturday my receiver is showing 7:27pm-11:31pm. Sunday is 6:57pm-11:31pm. That places the current padding at 3 minutes before and 1 minute after the scheduled Prime Time block.

Earlier this year the block was slightly bigger.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I was thinking too... I know they added the ability to shut off PTAT some days of the week, shut off some channels, and lower the number of days from the 8 maximum...

It might be awkward on a GUI, but I wonder if a matrix config screen might not be nice so that you didn't have to make these decisions for every channel, every night, identically.

By which I mean... Would it be nice to not record NBC on Monday if you know nothing comes on Mondays that you want... but record it other days? Right now, I believe you can shut down NBC for the whole week but not for just a specific day.

For me... since I watch Sunday Night Football live... I would know that during NFL season I would not need to record NBC on Sunday nights... and since I watch college football on Saturdays I could probably cut ABC out of most Saturday nights too.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

A more complicated matrix would probably just confuse people. Choosing channels helps on the legal issue (the customer DECIDED to record their affiliate ... they are not forced to record it). The choice of days of the week might be helpful to some who "never watch TV on a Thursday" - I suppose. The number of days saved is the best option added ... why save 8 days if that customer only goes back 2 days?

But one thing I would like added is the intelligence to know what channels are part of the big four 24/7. If a timer is set on NBC at the same time as CBS let the timers share the same tuner ... regardless of time of day. It would take additional logic but it should not be impossible.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

James Long said:


> But one thing I would like added is the intelligence to know what channels are part of the big four 24/7. If a timer is set on NBC at the same time as CBS let the timers share the same tuner ... regardless of time of day. It would take additional logic but it should not be impossible.


That would be a slick feature... I hadn't thought about that since I don't typically record much outside of primetime on the big 4... but that doesn't mean other people wouldn't... like people who watch daytime soaps or talk shows, perhaps.


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