TiVoWeb Module : Manual Record

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John 1980

Thanks for the reply .... partial success
first - (my software version is 2.5.5-01-1-023)

Removed the "set showdate MM/DD[/YY]" line as suggested.

"Set Weeks" now seems to work Ok (additional ToDo Repeat dropdown appears).

Favourites;
(I normally use the Tivo GUI to set favourites)

Re-setting favourites is still no-go, even without the cfg file - tried quick, full and power off/on with no joy.
I can live with this - I just have to use the GUI to set recordings - (but I would prefer to find out why).

 

I have a UK TiVo running this version along with both TivoWeb and TivoWebPlus. Are you able to explain the problem a little further? Could you also check that the missing? channels are appearing in the list under the "Logo" module?

Essentially all channels that are flagged as ones that your "Receive" should be listed... and if you use "set favs 1" then only channles that you both "Receive" and are set as "Favourites" are listed.

You might also wish to consider running TivoWebPlus with the ChannelPrefs module (found here) as this will clearly show what shows are flagged as "Receive" and "Favourite".

I will have a play with the settings using the GUI to see if there is an issue in the code that TW/TWP uses and post back here if there is. [Update: The GUI reflects the exact settings under ChannelPrefs - so I am not sure what the issue could be... if you could provide some more details on what channel is not being displayed and what it's setting is under the GUI then it may help]

 

Why is it that I am unable to set a manual season pass to record three hours of cartoon network on sunday nights and also manually name it adult swim without also manually repeating it?

Why is it so difficult to create a standard repeating manual season pass with a custom title?

Either I have to schedule four months of recordings by hand at once, or I get Manual:Family Guy...

Older version had an Adult Swim season pass, but with nothing scheduled...

It seems that it should be easier, right?

 

For version 0.1.9 (onwards) I decided to implement true manual season passes. This was done by having a look at how the Tivo creates its manual season passes when the on-screen-GUI is used. The idea being that this will keep the database in a consistent (and expected) state.

If you have a look at the source of the module (manrec.itcl) you will find the full version history at the top as well as comments throughout the code. Wingert created the module (v0.0.1->v0.0.3) and since his "disappearance" I have been patching it.

You could try version 0.1.8 if you do wish to perform such unsupported actions. The issue with the older versions were that they would create a manual season pass (which is okay), but they would then create an entry in the database for a "series" associated with that pass (as this is the only way to label the season pass). This could cause issues as this "dislocated" series could get lost and never cleaned up from the database. It also means that the season pass is not a manual season pass, as it was inserting "guide data" into the database to fool it.

If it is mainly the naming of the recordings that bother you, then you may like to have a look at TivoTitle as this is able to rename shows and remove "Manual: " tags, etc...

 

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I am trying to do individual manual recordings where I change the Title and Description. I am not interested in Season Passes, just individual manual recordings.

Soon after creation (sometimes only a few hours), my custom Title/Descriptions are replaced by what was originally in the guide data. I have seen other posts on this subject and have tried everything including starting the recordings a minute later, but no luck so far.

I have an idea as to what might be happening. Even if I use the script and state NO to a Season Pass, when I click on the recording in the ToDo of TiVoweb+, it says under the field SELECTION TYPE, "Manual Season Pass". When I create a manual recording through the TiVo remote, when i check that recording in TiVoweb+ the field SELECTION TYPE says just "Manual". I think the fact that TiVo thinks the individual manual recording is a manual season pass, might have something to do with why it changes the custom Title/Description.

Any ideas. The script is fantastic (thanks John1980 for all your hard work), and I'd really love to get it working. As others have said, Title changing is very useful for recording things you don't want others in the house to know about.

 

I am guessing you are using a Tivo which is version 3.0 or later. This is a "feature" of the Tivo software and seems to have been introduced in version 3.0 (as the UK hardware which runs version 2.5.5 does not do this). I do not know of an easy fix for this.

 

Yes that's my version. Do you have any idea why the individual recording is listed as a manual season pass? I think that might be the reason it's changing.

 

The reason it is changing is that the newer Tivo software seems to be looking for conflicting showings in the database and "cleaning" them up. This is not the case for the UK (v2.5.5) software. Having said that, the individual recordinds should not be listed as manual season passes unless you have selected "Use a Season Pass" when creating them (and this option is not available for "once" only recordings).

I do have a v3.0 system, so if you do think there is an issue if you could detail the steps you are taking then I will be able to find the issue and fix it. This will not resolve the issue where the v3.0 software is cleaning up the episode titles... the previous advice about starting the show a little earlier (or later) and ending a little later does work in some situations - but it seems the software is using some fuzzy logic when renaming the shows.

 

Version 0.2.5 (full change history can be found in the readme)
Now supports an additional option under "Use a Season Pass" called "Yes (with series title)" which reimplements the old method for creating a season pass (it was change in v0.1.9 to mirror the actions performed by the Tivo software when setting up Manual Season Passes). The advantage of this method is that a user defined title can be assigned, but does result in zombie series entries in the database, and will result in errors when the series is viewed under TWP.

I can't say I recommend using the above option, but it is one way to avoid the newer TiVo software (> 2.5.5) from re-titling recorded programmes. Update: It seems that on the >2.5.5 systems, the title will still revert to that contained within the guide data. See the next post from me for more information.

 

Unfortunately for me, it still seems to revert to whatever the title is in the guide data after a day or so. Boo.

 

I've just had a play with this and I do not think there is going to be a solution. I setup two manual recordings to coincide with a recording in the guide data and then monitored the MFS (Recording) database entry.

The link from the database entry to the manual recording information is held in a field called "Showing". On the (UK) v2.5.5 system when the recording starts the database entry is modified and a new link is added called "ActualShowing" which is a link to the information contained for that timeslot in the guide data. However, on the (US) v3.0 system, as soon as the recording starts, the database entry is modified and the existing "Showing" entry is replaced with a link to the information in the guide data (ie, it does not use an "ActualShowing" field).

So what this means is while the v2.5.5 system maintains both a link to the manual information (held in "Showing") AND a link to the guide data information for that timeslot (held in "ActualShowing"), the v3.0 system overwrites the manual information with the information from the guide data (as it only uses "Showing").

Hope that was not too confusing

 

I follow mostly. Unfortunately I think its even more problematic, as on my system the manual title doesn't even hold until the recording. It just drops out probably as soon as the guide data is updated during the night from the best I can figure.

I'm just going to leave this one alone. Thanks for all your troubles though.

 

which is the most recent version of this module please?

 

Errrm, is your scroll-up function broken? (four posts)

 

Wow, I was so far behind in versions. And boy did it effect me when the DST hit! My gorlfriend was so mad at me! I probably need to start looking at getting a guide into this box.

0.2.5 is amazing! Thanks for all of the hard work!!!

 

Hello Everyone.

Having just installed this module, I've managed to confuse myself.

I set up some repeating Manual Recordings, all of which took their titles from the Guide Data.

Now I can't seem to make that happen no matter which options I choose;
as I say, I'm confused.

Could someone give me the definitive options to choose to get a recurring, and a single, Manual Recording to take their titles from the Guide Data?

My Tivos are UK series One, with v2.5.5 software running TivoWeb.

Cheers, M'Dears.

[Edit] OK, panic over. I think my Tivo was in a tizzy.

The option I needed to choose (indeed I was choosing and Tivo was ignoring), were
Repeat Options Every Monday
Use a Season Pass Yes

Wasn't working; now it is: I'm happy.

 

I'm glad it is working for you. I notice you mentioned you were using TivoWeb... in which case you might like to have a look at a TivoWebPlus bundle that I have been working on. It is developed and tested on both a UK v2.5.5 and a US v3.0 system and can be found here. It also includes a conflict resolver module that utilises facilities from the Manual Recording module which may help in your multi-TiVo environment.

Oddly enough it's pretty strange that the manual recordings are taking the title from the guide data, as I have only seen this in v3.0+ software. It could be that if you are creating manual recordings that exactly match an entry in the guide data then this could be the case?

If you wish to have a technical answer, the following is from the README

Code:

Why are recordings magically renamed?
 Information entered for manual recordings are linked from a field
 called "Showing".  On the (UK) v2.5.5 system when the recording
 starts (and during the indexing of guide data), a new link is added
 called "ActualShowing" that links to the information contained, for
 that timeslot, in the guide data.

 However, on the (US) v3.0 system, the existing "Showing" entry is
 replaced with a link to the information in the guide data (ie, it
 does not use an "ActualShowing" field).

 So what this means is while the v2.5.5 system maintains both a link
 to the manual information (held in "Showing") AND a link to the
 guide data information for that timeslot (held in "ActualShowing"),
 the v3.0 system replaces the link to the manual information with
 a link to the guide data (as it only uses "Showing").  This results
 in manual recordings being renamed on those systems.

 

I just upgraded to 0.2.5 (via your latest TivoWebPlus - good stuff ) and noticed this line is commented out:
set womin [expr [clock format [clock seconds] -format {%M}] + 2]

FEI: This line sets the default start minute to current minute + 2 so that a timed recording starts (by default) 2 minutes from now instead of in the past, which will likely error out when it's more than 10 minutes ago.

So I added it to manrec.cfg (the use of this config file is a nice addition!). You might want to move the line (leave commented) to the cfg file in case others want to use it.

It's nice being able to use your version, unmodified!

One thing though. It seems to me that chnnum is not really a useful parameter, as this is an offset to the list, which can change over time, and thus not entirely reliable. I previously had a channum in my copy, but now I think the callsign parameter is best, as long as it's unique. So I'm thinking you might want to just remove the chnnum parameter or turn it into channum (actual channel number) which is more useful.

BTW, I wanted to thank you for incorporating all my changes, either in the code or allowing me to set in the cfg file!

-Don

 

I think chnnum is the channel number (ie 5 or 23.1) rather than the offset into the list... I could be mistaken but am pretty sure the array is indexed on the actual "channel number" rather than a sequential integer.

PS: I've added the womin to the manrec.cfg file

 

Supports the latest v8.1 software which requires DRM fields in its manual recordings (without these fields the system will reboot when it attempts to record the show).