# DVR software feature requests



## TD22057 (May 24, 2007)

I thought it would be a good idea to start capturing software feature requests somewhere. Since it seems like updates are still rolling out, perhaps we can get some new items added. Feel free to add your own - if we get enough requests, perhaps we can start a poll to prioritize them.

1) Allow DVR contents to be displayed in a list view like the 622. The show title is the smallest part of the box in the current tile view which makes it difficult to read, the largest piece of the tile is the channel icon which is the least useful piece of information, and long titles don't fit in the tile width. Having a list view that shows the title and episode length (for shows) or title/folder name and number of items (for folders) would be very useful. That format does show fewer items on the screen but they are easier to read and it's faster to find the item you want. Basically an optional view that's similar to the 622/722 would be great.

2) Show prime time recordings with explicit timers in the upcoming recordings schedule. For example, we record "Person of Interest" as a separate timer so we don't loose them after 8 days. It's great that it's recorded as part of PTAT and then immediately copied out to the regular DVR. But the upcoming recording schedule doesn't show that - it just shows that PTAT will be recorded on Thursday. Since we only record new episodes of most of our shows, that makes it very difficult to see what prime time shows that are coming up are new that we'll want to watch in the next week.


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## mbolack (Apr 6, 2012)

When recording a series, I want a setting to tell it to record one of each episode. This would be very useful when you are recording a series that is also broadcasting reruns that you haven't recorded yet. Otherwise you have no choice but to tell it to record new and reruns, and you get a lot of dupes.


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## Ray [email protected] Network (Dec 28, 2010)

When you place your cursor on the thumbnail, the title will scroll displaying the full title as it scrolls across the thumbnail. It scrolls from left to right. Thanks.



TD22057 said:


> I thought it would be a good idea to start capturing software feature requests somewhere. Since it seems like updates are still rolling out, perhaps we can get some new items added. Feel free to add your own - if we get enough requests, perhaps we can start a poll to prioritize them.
> 
> 1) Allow DVR contents to be displayed in a list view like the 622. The show title is the smallest part of the box in the current tile view which makes it difficult to read, the largest piece of the tile is the channel icon which is the least useful piece of information, and long titles don't fit in the tile width. Having a list view that shows the title and episode length (for shows) or title/folder name and number of items (for folders) would be very useful. That format does show fewer items on the screen but they are easier to read and it's faster to find the item you want. Basically an optional view that's similar to the 622/722 would be great.
> 
> 2) Show prime time recordings with explicit timers in the upcoming recordings schedule. For example, we record "Person of Interest" as a separate timer so we don't loose them after 8 days. It's great that it's recorded as part of PTAT and then immediately copied out to the regular DVR. But the upcoming recording schedule doesn't show that - it just shows that PTAT will be recorded on Thursday. Since we only record new episodes of most of our shows, that makes it very difficult to see what prime time shows that are coming up are new that we'll want to watch in the next week.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Ray [email protected] Network said:


> When you place your cursor on the thumbnail, the title will scroll displaying the full title as it scrolls across the thumbnail. It scrolls from left to right. Thanks.


The title and description also appears at the top of the screen.


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

mbolack said:


> When recording a series, I want a setting to tell it to record one of each episode. This would be very useful when you are recording a series that is also broadcasting reruns that you haven't recorded yet. Otherwise you have no choice but to tell it to record new and reruns, and you get a lot of dupes.


How are you creating timers? If you create the timer by selecting an episode in the guide and select new and reruns it will skip duplicates. If your initial selection is a rerun it defaults to new and reruns. If your initial selection is a new episode the default is new. I believe that some complaining about duplicates are creating their timers with seek and record.


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## mbolack (Apr 6, 2012)

No, I'm not using seek and record. But I am still getting duplicates with new and reruns. It isn't a horrible problem to go through once a week and delete out duplicates. 

But it seems to me that this sophisticated software ought to be programmable to have the option to check what you already have recorded and not record a dupe of those episodes. Perhaps this is because some of the shows in the series(s) I am recording are several years old. But they all show episode numbers in the guide. That's why I worded my request the way I did. Record only one of each episode.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

mbolack said:


> But it seems to me that this sophisticated software ought to be programmable to have the option to check what you already have recorded and not record a dupe of those episodes. Perhaps this is because some of the shows in the series(s) I am recording are several years old. But they all show episode numbers in the guide. That's why I worded my request the way I did. Record only one of each episode.


I believe it works that way on older receivers. I have had recordings skipped because the program "already exists" on the DVR. I have not tried that on the Hopper but I agree that the feature requested should be able to be worked in.


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## rgranberry (Mar 29, 2012)

patmurphey said:


> How are you creating timers? If you create the timer by selecting an episode in the guide and select new and reruns it will skip duplicates. If your initial selection is a rerun it defaults to new and reruns. If your initial selection is a new episode the default is new. I believe that some complaining about duplicates are creating their timers with seek and record.


Thanks for clearing up what I thought was random choice of "new and reruns" or "only new" when creating timers.


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

mbolack said:


> No, I'm not using seek and record. But I am still getting duplicates with new and reruns. It isn't a horrible problem to go through once a week and delete out duplicates.
> 
> But it seems to me that this sophisticated software ought to be programmable to have the option to check what you already have recorded and not record a dupe of those episodes. Perhaps this is because some of the shows in the series(s) I am recording are several years old. But they all show episode numbers in the guide. That's why I worded my request the way I did. Record only one of each episode.


Sounds like the series you are getting dupes on have bad guide info and don't trigger the skip. None of the series that I have new and rerun set on are recording dupes. I do remember the problem on my 622 when the guide info changed format in a series or two on some channels. I don't think it's a Hopper problem unless you have a defective unit. You can fix some of it with weekly or M-F timers, but some cable channels scatter episodes too much for that to always work.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

I don't know if this would have an impact, but (on the ViP series) if you have an episode on an external hard drive, the tuner won't know this and would record an episode of a show if it was set to 'all episodes'.


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## fredpb (Aug 30, 2007)

I would like it if the Slingbox could connect to devices on my home LAN directly, not go over the internet. I like to side out on my back porch at night and smoke and watch my Dish. But the throughput is sometimes slow, since it goes all over the country just to get 40 feet.


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

If it knows it's on your network, it knows the path automatically and stays inside your network.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

RasputinAXP said:


> If it knows it's on your network, it knows the path automatically and stays inside your network.


Then why big brother want you connect to their servers, log all commands and send them to your device what is reside in your network in 100 feet?
And not allow you to do that if Internet connection is down !


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

I'm sorry, I'm all out of tinfoil.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

RasputinAXP said:


> If it knows it's on your network, it knows the path automatically and stays inside your network.


Correct ... and nice to be able to use my home wi-fi from my notebook or cellphone to watch something via sling at a faster rate than my Internet connection.


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## gboybama (Mar 23, 2012)

I know we have parental controls. 

But, for those of us who are generally short on tuners in the house, I think each Joey should have a secure way of locking any selected Joey out of setting recordings or modifying the programs on the DVR. Make it a sort of "read only" client.

If I have a Joey in my five year old's room, I don't want them to be able to accidentally delete any of my timers or recordings and I may not want them scheduling the Hopper to record 200 episodes of Sponge Bob either.

Right now, there's nothing stopping them from doing any of that.

I am amazed that this feature was not included already.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

olender7 said:


> I want a setting to tell it to record one of each episode. This would be very useful when you are recording a series that is also broadcasting reruns that you haven't recorded yet


It should do this already as long as you don't set your timer to "new" only. It will not record more than one of each episode unless something is wrong with the EPG data... and it will record any unique episode as long as you haven't flagged to only record new ones.


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

We should be able to cut off time from the beginning or end of a recording.

I recorded a PG-13 movie from Cinemax. The auto timer started 3 minutes early. Imagine my chagrin when the previous show had not finished and was a Skinemax special! I couldn't very well keep the recording.


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

dmspen said:


> We should be able to cut off time from the beginning or end of a recording.
> 
> I recorded a PG-13 movie from Cinemax. The auto timer started 3 minutes early. Imagine my chagrin when the previous show had not finished and was a Skinemax special! I couldn't very well keep the recording.


You can edit start/stop on individual timers or the default, but not recordings after recording.


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

TD22057 said:


> 1) Allow DVR contents to be displayed in a list view like the 622.


+1
I am unfamiliar with the 622, but a list view would be nice.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Being able to trim a recording after completion has been a request since DISH first sold a DVR. I don't see it coming but wouldn't mind if it did.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

James Long said:


> Being able to trim a recording after completion has been a request since DISH first sold a DVR. I don't see it coming but wouldn't mind if it did.


Agree. It would be especially nice to go with the primetime anytime feature... so instead of having to set timers to catch events with start/end padding... you could just go into that primetime block and mark start/end points to break out to separate recordings as you wish.

I too have encountered the adult snippet before or after a family movie on late-night premium channel DVR recordings. It's one thing to catch skinemax before another adult movie... but when you catch a snippet of skinemax near a non-adult program it can be surprising.


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## gboybama (Mar 23, 2012)

Also, why not have a user setting on boxes, especially Joeys, for selecting how long a TV should be idle before automatically shutting down?

With Joeys eating up tuners on Hoppers, I would choose to set a timeout of like 30 minutes of live TV with no interaction before the Joey would turn off. 

That way, my family of inattentive viewers and kids would not screw up recorded events or leave other TV's that might be turned on without a tuner.


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

gboybama,

It's there - menu, settings, diagnostics, updates - but the minimum time offered is 2 hours.


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## 356B (Oct 11, 2008)

In my EHA I've noticed multiple actions (delete, protect, etc. is not possible with the Hopper system. The 922 had these options? ALso my EHD icons are very slow in appearing, 2 to 3 a day? The content and titles are there just no pictures for some.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

gboybama said:


> Also, why not have a user setting on boxes, especially Joeys, for selecting how long a TV should be idle before automatically shutting down?
> 
> With Joeys eating up tuners on Hoppers, I would choose to set a timeout of like 30 minutes of live TV with no interaction before the Joey would turn off.
> 
> That way, my family of inattentive viewers and kids would not screw up recorded events or leave other TV's that might be turned on without a tuner.


So... what happens when you are watching a 1 hour TV show, and 30 minutes into it your Joey shuts off?

30 mins of idle time is far too low with all but a handful of TV programs lasting no less than 30 minutes.

I would think the 2 hour idle time setting is low enough to accomplish what you are asking.


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## gboybama (Mar 23, 2012)

patmurphey said:


> gboybama,
> 
> It's there - menu, settings, diagnostics, updates - but the minimum time offered is 2 hours.


I spoke too soon. Thank you.

They should give the truly anal retentive among us more choices for lower timeouts though. :lol:


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## jgcecg (Apr 18, 2011)

Suggested improvements to Hopper software, current version S09
1 Use Rotten Tomato rating system like direct TV for movies

2 Use LIST of shows instead of B&W Icons in: 
MY RECORDINGS, My Folders or Folders by Genre
Software version S09 - Shows are listed as black and white icons 

Icons are very hard to read, compared to the color icons 
shows are not grouped, like they are in PTA (Prime Time Anytime) or My Recordings, folders by title.

Why can’t there be a choice to have a list like they are in 
prime time anytime or my recording, folders by title?

3 users should be able to increase their partition to 1.5 TB is not using PTA (Prime Time Anytime)
I understand that you are trying to idiot proof the Hopper for technology challenged people. 
For people like myself that don't need PTA, I would rather have a clean easy to read menu system and more storage.


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## j_t (Sep 3, 2008)

Marlin Guy said:


> +1
> I am unfamiliar with the 622, but a list view would be nice.


List View option would be really nice. I can't read the little print under the icons. Especially in the search results, where it displays what date and time a program airs.


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

A feature of older DVRs that is missing from the 922 and, I assume, Hopper:

With the DVR list sorted A-Z, be able to jump to shows that start with a given letter (8 takes you to T titles). Also expand that to do what the older DVRs still don't, be able to press that number again to get to the next letters (pressing 8-8-8 cycles through T-U-V).


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## orenr (Jun 10, 2004)

Here's the list of features I'd like to see:
1. The recordings shown as a list (there's a separate topic for that too, and I think this is everyone's #1 request)
2a. Show the separate timers for PTAT in the timers list. I know they appear as skipped, but showing all the skipped timers in order to see these is a pain.
2b. Show the separate timers for PTAT in the guide. Those yellow PTAT symbols provide no additional information, I know if I have PTAT enabled or not.
3. Make the description of the program that appears at the top larger (this means make the guide or whatever smaller). Right now the program description is only a couple of rows so there's almost no useful information. One must open the info box to see what the program is about.
4. In the timers list, add buttons for jumping to today/next day, like on the 622/722
5. Personally, I don't like the deleted recordings folder. Add an option to hide it.
6. My long time beef with the Dish guide (not specific to Hopper): show the full title of the programs. They have this bad habit of cutting the end of the title because it exceeds some character count threshold.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

3 and 6 could be done with a popup when you select that item, thereby not having to rearrange the guide - I want more lines in the guide - not fewer.


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## crabtrp (Sep 23, 2006)

If multiple Hoppers are running over MOCA then merge operations. Have an option of showing a merged DVR list or separate. If PTAT is running on one of the Hoppers then show them in the PTAT folder for the other without having to select the other Hopper. Share the tuners so that it would show the 6 tuners together and allow any of the Hoppers/Joeys to schedule 6 shows before it throws up a conflict.


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## orenr (Jun 10, 2004)

Jim5506 said:


> 3 and 6 could be done with a popup when you select that item, thereby not having to rearrange the guide - I want more lines in the guide - not fewer.


For #3, I realize that not everybody likes the same things. I'd like an option to set my own preferences, like on 622/722.
For #6, the problem is that the title is cut in the guide itself. Even if you pop the info box, it still shows the same cut title. That's exactly what I'm asking for: the full title in the info box, even when it doesn't fit in the guide grid.


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## patmurphey (Dec 21, 2006)

TD22057 said:


> ...2) Show prime time recordings with explicit timers in the upcoming recordings schedule. For example, we record "Person of Interest" as a separate timer so we don't loose them after 8 days. It's great that it's recorded as part of PTAT and then immediately copied out to the regular DVR. But the upcoming recording schedule doesn't show that - it just shows that PTAT will be recorded on Thursday. Since we only record new episodes of most of our shows, that makes it very difficult to see what prime time shows that are coming up are new that we'll want to watch in the next week.





orenr said:


> ...6. My long time beef with the Dish guide (not specific to Hopper): show the full title of the programs. They have this bad habit of cutting the end of the title because it exceeds some character count threshold.


2) Select "show skipped" on the daily schedule. The recordings that will be saved will show will show skipped for PTAT when highlighted.

6) When you highlight a title in the guide, the full title scrolls across the space. If there is more missing, blame the guide info provider.


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