# showcase priority over tuners



## dutch (Feb 12, 2006)

Hello all, sorry if this has already been discussed, tried looking for it but did not find a topic for this.
Several times now, since the start of the showcase recordings of pay per view, I have not been able to access both tuners at the same time. If I am recording one channel I can not view another without stopping the recording. System tests are all good. Tuner 1 and 2 OK, Signal strength 80s and up. It is an r15-500, latest software update was 07/02/08, Reseting the receiver during this will set things right again. Could this be a conflict with the recording of showcases?


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

It shouldn't be. Everytime I've noticed a showcase recording, I've been able to stop it by using both tuners.


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

This issue has come up before. Unfortunately the recording of the Showcase PPV does seem to use up a tuner. DirecTV should have it that these pushes only occur in the very early AM when users are most likely not going to be using both tuners.

- Merg


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## RenHoek (May 25, 2006)

The Merg said:


> This issue has come up before. Unfortunately the recording of the Showcase PPV does seem to use up a tuner. DirecTV should have it that these pushes only occur in the very early AM when users are most likely not going to be using both tuners.
> 
> - Merg


Yeah, or how about a little courtesy check to see if the DVR is powered off AND not scheduled to record other things in the same timeframe. Seems pretty simple to me...


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## dazed&confuzed (Mar 10, 2008)

RenHoek said:


> Yeah, or how about a little courtesy check to see if the DVR is powered off AND not scheduled to record other things in the same timeframe. Seems pretty simple to me...


I agree! If DTV is going to push these programs down and not have them stop when both tuners are in use overriding our recordings they should not be charging us a DVR fee. If I am paying a fee for a service, I expect control of the service. The showcases should only download when the DVD is not using both tuners and if the user starts using both tuners the showcase recording should stop. Or they need to enable a setting so the user can choose whether they want these items to download on not.


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## inquisitive1 (Oct 29, 2007)

dazed&confuzed said:


> Or they need to enable a setting so the user can choose whether they want these items to download on not.


Bingo.


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## Bud33 (Jan 26, 2006)

My thought is since I own my DVR's The pushed Showcase recordings are putting extra stress on the drives and shortening their life.
I don't think I like that, and why should I have the same PPV shows on both of my DVR's???


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## dutch (Feb 12, 2006)

I see we all have some opinions about the content being loaded on our DVR's. I also wish the showcase stuff had an off switch but my question still remains, is it interfering with the use of my receiver? I know it is programmed not to interfere but as with ALL software there can be glitches show up in a number of applications. Has anyone else had trouble using the second tuner with no obvious reason since the recordings began?


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

dutch said:


> I see we all have some opinions about the content being loaded on our DVR's. I also wish the showcase stuff had an off switch but my question still remains, is it interfering with the use of my receiver? I know it is programmed not to interfere but as with ALL software there can be glitches show up in a number of applications. Has anyone else had trouble using the second tuner with no obvious reason since the recordings began?


Apparently it is not programmed to not interfere as there have been multiple documented cases of this happening. That is the issue that is bothering a lot of us. If a user is using the receiver and requires the use of the second tuner then the DVR should automatically cease recording the Showcase/PPV and allow use of the second tuner.

It also should never push recordings down during normal daytime hours. I've had multiple days in which I've found the record light on during the middle of morning/afternoon when I know I am not recording anything. Going through the Reset Receiver process shows me that it is recording a Showcase or PPV.

- Merg


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## dutch (Feb 12, 2006)

Merg, thanks for the clarification on the issue.


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

dutch said:


> Merg, thanks for the clarification on the issue.


Anytime! 

- Merg


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

inquisitive1 said:


> Bingo.


+1

I have IPPV (impulse pay-per-view) DISABLED on my account. (I.E. I cannot purchase ANYTHING with my remote-even though my phone line is connected)

This means there is NO WAY I could "purchase" (rent?) one of these PPV showcase movies. But my poor DVR gets stuck wasting it's time recording them anyway. Stupid software!


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

The Merg said:


> Apparently it is not programmed to not interfere as there have been multiple documented cases of this happening. That is the issue that is bothering a lot of us. If a user is using the receiver and requires the use of the second tuner then the DVR should automatically cease recording the Showcase/PPV and allow use of the second tuner.
> 
> It also should never push recordings down during normal daytime hours. I've had multiple days in which I've found the record light on during the middle of morning/afternoon when I know I am not recording anything. Going through the Reset Receiver process shows me that it is recording a Showcase or PPV.
> 
> - Merg


Oh, they are going to fix that. New CE releases don't turn the record light on when a showcase PPV is being recorded. 

As for interference, I've seen posters state that Series Link recordings were aborted because a tuner was unavailable due to a showcase PPV movie recording.

It will take ordinary users awhile to figure all this out, but when they do watch the fireworks with loads of calls to the poor CSR's....

The showcase PPV downloads should be totally invisible to the DVR user. They should only occur if one tuner is building a live buffer and the other tuner is doing absolutely nothing. These PPV showcase movies amuse me about as much as the thought of someone taking my car out to get lunch while it is in the shop for service. The car should only be driven where I decide to drive it!!


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## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

ThomasM said:


> Oh, they are going to fix that. New CE releases don't turn the record light on when a showcase PPV is being recorded.


The record light is not supposed to come on .. but it does on the R15. This will be corrected



ThomasM said:


> As for interference, I've seen posters state that Series Link recordings were aborted because a tuner was unavailable due to a showcase PPV movie recording.


If you are recording something or making use of the receiver, then your activity will take priority over any Showcase activity. The best way to showcases delivered to you is to put your receiver in standby.


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## K4SMX (May 19, 2007)

ThomasM said:


> .....These PPV showcase movies amuse me about as much as the thought of someone taking my car out to get lunch while it is in the shop for service. The car should only be driven where I decide to drive it!!


Excellent analogy. This is really nothing more than yet another instance of the trend toward spamming our DirecTV experience. I'd actually like a "give back" of the HD space reserved for these trips to lunch in my car. It's obviously a lot bigger than I previously thought.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

According to DIRECTV*:



> *Will Showcases programs affect space or schedulings of my recordings?*
> 
> No, programs in the Showcase tab will NOT impact your available playlist recording space.
> 
> ...


Outside of the bad grammar (schedulings?), the intention is that Showcases never should interfere with a scheduled recording. If the recording of Showcases interrupts either live TV viewing or a scheduled recording, that's a bug that should be reported in the appropriate issues thread ...

**Source:* Channel 114 > Customer Support Interactive Tool (wait for it to load) > Answer Center > Programming > DIRECTV Plus DVR > Page 2


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

Doug Brott said:


> If you are recording something or making use of the receiver, then your activity will take priority over any Showcase activity. The best way to showcases delivered to you is to put your receiver in standby.


That's not true. I had a recording scheduled for 10AM and left the R15-300 on and tuned to a *different* channel so it would create a live buffer I could watch when I turned the TV back on. When I did turn the TV on (at 10:30AM) the DVR was tuned to the channel being recorded and the other tuner had been "comandeered" to record a stupid showcase PPV movie.

When I tried to change the channel, it wanted to know if I wished to abort the show I was recording instead of obeying me and tuning in the live channel I requested on the other tuner. It would not release the tuner being used to record its PPV showcase movie. Who is paying the bill for this DVR? That's who should be able to utilize/control all functions 24/7.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

Drew2k said:


> If the recording of Showcases interrupts either live TV viewing or a scheduled recording, that's a bug that should be reported in the appropriate issues thread


1. It DOES interfere with my use of the DVR.

2. It HAS been reported in the appropriate issues thread(s).

Others have reported falling asleep while watching live TV or leaving their DVR on only to find the screen saver active when they wake up or turn the TV on. I wonder if when they restore the picture a live buffer exists, or if the tuner they were watching went to record a showcase movie. Hmmm.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

Yup, like the title sez, it's been awhile but I decided to mosey over to the DirecTV Technical Help Forums just to see if any subs who haven't discovered DBSTALK.COM were having "showcase" problems....and they sure are!!

Most report that the PPV showcase movies ARE taking up THEIR disk space...but the disk space meter still says there is plenty available. One poster said a PPV Showcase movie DELETED one of HIS recordings! Others are all grumbling because they are getting "disk full-delete something" messages even though as I said the disk space meter says there is still plenty of space. All state this started when the PPV showcase movie downloads started.

Are they all wrong?

I also noted that a number of posters were so irked that they were considering dumping DirecTV because of this. I wonder if the revenue from these PPV showcase movies will exceed that lost by irked customers who cancel?


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## K4SMX (May 19, 2007)

At least we should be able to delete Showcase items at will, including mid-recording.


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

Ya know, I wonder if this is an issue solely with the R15/R16. I haven't noticed space issues being mentioned in the HR series threads. Maybe NDS coded stuff wrong and the pushes are not being written correctly to the reserved part of the hard drive. First, that would answer the question as to why people are running out of space and second, that wouldn't surprise me considering I've had more issues with my R15 than my R22.

- Merg


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## Phroz (Jul 3, 2006)

ThomasM said:


> That's not true. I had a recording scheduled for 10AM and left the R15-300 on and tuned to a *different* channel so it would create a live buffer I could watch when I turned the TV back on. When I did turn the TV on (at 10:30AM) the DVR was tuned to the channel being recorded and the other tuner had been "comandeered" to record a stupid showcase PPV movie.
> 
> When I tried to change the channel, it wanted to know if I wished to abort the show I was recording instead of obeying me and tuning in the live channel I requested on the other tuner. It would not release the tuner being used to record its PPV showcase movie. Who is paying the bill for this DVR? That's who should be able to utilize/control all functions 24/7.


I had this happen today. I had it tuned to an XM station, then my R15 changed the channel to record a show because the other tuner was being used for a showcase... I got the cancel recording dialog when I tried to change it back as well. Ridiculous.

I don't usually have more than a handful of saved shows at any given time, so I can't comment on the space issues.


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

ThomasM said:


> That's not true. I had a recording scheduled for 10AM and left the R15-300 on and tuned to a *different* channel so it would create a live buffer I could watch when I turned the TV back on. When I did turn the TV on (at 10:30AM) the DVR was tuned to the channel being recorded and the other tuner had been "comandeered" to record a stupid showcase PPV movie.
> 
> When I tried to change the channel, it wanted to know if I wished to abort the show I was recording instead of obeying me and tuning in the live channel I requested on the other tuner. It would not release the tuner being used to record its PPV showcase movie. Who is paying the bill for this DVR? That's who should be able to utilize/control all functions 24/7.


Well, the two or three times I tried to stop the showcase from recording, I was able to do so. This was at the start of the movies being pushed to us, so something may have changed.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

K4SMX said:


> At least we should be able to delete Showcase items at will, including mid-recording.


Once they are recorded, you're stuck with them until they expire unless you reset everything which, of course, also deletes all of YOUR recordings.

Now, mid-recording you can abort them in several ways.

1. Select MENU/SETTINGS/SETUP/RESET and choose "reset receiver". It will warn you if it is recording a showcase movie (or anything). Press "YES, Interrupt" and poof the showcase movie download is aborted and the disk space recovered. Then just press EXIT.

2. Run a transponder test. Be sure to try it on both tuners.

3. Turn DVR on and press RECORD. Now enter the number of another channel. This takes control of both tuners (if it lets you) and by default aborts the showcase movie download. Then just press LIST, highlight the show you just started recording and delete it.

NOTE: This info applies to the R15 DVR with current national release software.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

The Merg said:


> Ya know, I wonder if this is an issue solely with the R15/R16. I haven't noticed space issues being mentioned in the HR series threads. Maybe NDS coded stuff wrong and the pushes are not being written correctly to the reserved part of the hard drive. First, that would answer the question as to why people are running out of space and second, that wouldn't surprise me considering I've had more issues with my R15 than my R22.
> 
> - Merg


I think the software for the R22/HR series was changed awhile back knowing that this showcase movie thing was coming. That's why the record light doesn't come on when a showcase is being recorded but it still does on the R15 (but not for long) 

I let my R22 record all the showcase movies just to see how many of them there were and when they get recorded.

The showcase movies for the week begin recording *Tuesday night* at 11PM CDT on the R15 and 10PM CDT on the R22.

The next movies record *Wednesday* at 4AM 7AM 9AM and possibly 11AM on the R22. The next movies record *Wednesday* at 5AM 7AM 9AM and possibly 10:30AM on the R15.

No more late evening recordings, but the Wednesday schedule continues Thursday and Friday on both DVR's. A total of 5 movies is recorded each week. They expire *THREE WEEKS LATER* meaning it's possible to have 20 movies available at the same time (*40 hours worth!*)

I don't utilize "game lounge". Instead I play a new game I created called "Block that ^%$^#& Showcase Move" 

So far, I'm doing pretty well. My two R15's have a total of 2 and 3 movies on each one respectively. Tonight at 7PM, they expire and my R15's will be showcase movie free! I had to let the R22 record these things so I could study them and see when they arrive, but now the R22 isn't permitted to record them anymore. I carefully schedule recordings I never plan to watch at critical times when the stupid movies are scheduled to record thus blocking them. HA HA HA!!!


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