I'm not sure if this is the same problem , if it's not, I apologize.

I've been having weird issues with my HD8300 not recording some of my scheduled programs. IE: last night, CSI Miami did not tape. However, when I checked my Scheduled Recordings list this morning, I saw the CSI:Miami dated for 5/2 still in my Scheduled recordings list, however, next week's episode was not there.

I've had this in the past. I basically need to remove the program from the scheduled recording list and re-schedule it the following week, otherwise, i'll just continue to miss recorded episodes.

It's happened numerous times, but I can't recreate the problem, nor can I predict it. Unfortunately, I did not notice the title name of CSI:Miami last night, so i can't be sure if the title changed.

However, this has happened with many different shows (not always the same ones, and not always on an HD channel). I guess it's getting frustrating, as my HD8000 did this as well (i'm also currently on my second HD8300, the first one just died on me after rebooting one night).

I got caught by this again last night. Set up NCIS last week to record from CBS-HD every week. And this week it didn't record ... as it appears to be called NCIS (HD) this week ... but it was broadcast in HD last week too.

I complained to Rogers ... again. Anyone heard anything?

Nick

I complained to Rogers ... again. Anyone heard anything?Oh, I got a response from Rogers:
"We understand your concerns, and would be glad to assist you. To correct this symptom, please power-cycle your Digital Terminal... "

Ah, now why didn't I think of that! What would I do without these brilliant folks at Rogers' Electronic Support Group!!!

Nick

NCIS is one of the worst shows for inconsistent titling.

Is it possible to set the PVR to record both titles, say "NCIS" and "NCIS (HD)" to record all episodes (assuming you catch the name change before the show airs) to ensure whichever title shows up the show will record? Or do they negate each other?

Hi,

I took Hughs advice about complaining to the right person and just sent this email to Rogers. While it was not on the same topic that he mentioned in his posting, it still is an issue with a Rogers product, and something that they should be responsible for resolving.

Here is a copy of the email if you are interested, and I agree with Hugh, that if we do not complain directly to Rogers, who will? Not the regular customer that does not even realize that there is a problem?

------------------------------------------

Good afternoon,

I would like to bring to your attention a problem in the way some show are listed in your program guide. Sometimes the same show is listed with the additional (HD) after its name and sometimes it is not.

For example Monday night Ocotober 3, 2005 my 8300HD was set to record Surface on HNBC 529 from 8pm-9pm. I confirmed that it was set, and the listing in the guide was coloured to indicate that effect.

At 9pm the show was not listed in my recordings, and when I checked the guide again and compared it against my scheduled Recording page, I noticed that my scheduled recordings has it listed as:

Surface

but in the current guide it was listed as:

Surface (HD)

I of course had set this a week earlier with the guide you had then. This was for the same tima and channel so it essentially should have recorded.

The DVR made it seem like it was going to record it, but then it did not because the program name was listed differently then my scheduled recording.

I also notice that this coming Wednesday I have a scheduled recording for Still Standing (HD) on HCBSW from 11pm to 11:30pm. My scheduled recording as mentioned has the (HD) after the name. The program you have listed in the guide is currently missing the (HD) after the program name. It is currently listed as just Still Standing. I know this will be missed if you do not change the way you list programs. Or if I do not manually change what is recorded.

Last week I missed another program on channel 523 called Out of Practice (HD). Tuesday nights (12:30pm-1am). My scheduled recording had it listed without the HD, but your current listing it now with. So one week it has the (HD) the other week it does not. But they are both in HD and both on the same channel and at the same time. So my DVR should record it, but it does not.

I do not think this is a problem with the DVR, but more with the consistancy of your program listings.

You offer a DVR that lets subscribers record based on the name of the show in the guide listings. You must make the weekly program listings more consistant, so as not to allow this sort of thing to happen.

Can you please tell me what is Rogers is doing to ensure that subscribers will have a correct program guide in the future so as to stop this sort of issue from reoccuring.

Yes...with some effort. Let's say this week's show is just "NCIS". Set it up to record as usual (all episodes on this channel at any time). Keep looking each week (before it is on!) in the guide (don't just use the "to be recorded" list). If it comes on as "NCIS (HD)", set up a *new* timer for that show, but don't delete the old timer. Now both "NCIS" and "NCIS (HD)" will be in your list of things to be recorded, and no matter which one comes on, the PVR will record it. The other version will just sit in the list until that title comes on again. A real pain, but it does work.

I have it set to record the program every time it is on, and it recorded it fine the week before, but then they changed the name on me.

I did not want to get too detailed in the email. I notice that when you set up a scheduled recording, so that it records your title every time it is on the specific channel, that it sets it to record the next week within the same time slot, even if it is named differently. It makes it seem like it will record it, but does not.

I think tonight is a perfect example. I record HOUSE on fox every week. I have it set to record anytime it is on, on the specific channel. Tonight Fox has a baseball game scheduled. My scheduled recordings still shows that fox will record tonight, even though the name on the guide totally does not match the scheduled recording.

merged threads here.

Dear Allan Weinman,

Thank you for taking the time to write to Rogers Cable Inc. We
appreciate this opportunity to respond to your inquiry.

As we do appreciate your concerns regarding your issue, please be
advised that the online TV Guide is a service which is out-sourced from
a third party vendor.

Although Rogers is aware of the various bugs in the software, please
note that we are continually modifying the Internal Operating System
(IOS) for the PVRs/digital terminals. We apologize for the
inconvenience.

In order to ensure that your digital terminal / PVR has been updated
with the recent release of the IOS, please try power cycling the unit.
You may perform this by unplugging the power cord from the outlet in the wall for one minuite, and then plugging it back in. Wait until the unit
power back up and the internal operating system (IOS) loads. Once you
are able to view a channel on your television set, please recheck your
digital cable TV services.

If you have any further questions or comments regarding our service,
please fill out the online form on our Customer Support page listed
below or contact us by phone at 1-888-764-3771.

IMHO, I think that Rogers brushing off the issue as outsourced and therefore not their responsibility is a poor excuse. They pay for a service that we in turn pay for from Rogers. We, and hopefully Rogers, have certain expectations of the quality of that service. Rogers should be taking ownership of their relationship and pursuing better quality data from their existing service provider, or seeking out a better quality service provider.

John

IMHO, I think that Rogers brushing off the issue as outsourced and therefore not their responsibility is a poor excuse.Agreed. Perhaps our response to Rogers should be them how to contact their vendor to discuss the issue directly with them!

Personally, if my vendors continually to not provide what they are supposed to provide, they get fired.

Nick

Let me preface this by agreeing that ultimately, it's Rogers problem that, in theory, they should deal with.

But that being said, I the provider that Rogers has chosen is probably just as much to blame as Rogers. It's not like they call each broadcaster and inquire if each show is going to be HD, they get their schedule from, assumably, the broadcaster themselves, and I can imagine the amount that they care whether or not they label something properly or not. I know it shouldn't be that hard really, simply flag a show as HD, or not, but regardless. I'm sure Roger's provider is meeting their end of the agreement, they're providing a schedule that shows what's on at what time, just not the detail that we'd all like.

The people who can receive HD is still relatively small, the people with PVR's is even smaller, and the people that are going to complain about inconsistant titles is even smaller than that. The amount of time, effort, and possibly money it would take for Rogers to switch to a more accurate provider is probably not worth it for them. Whether or not you agree with that is a personal decision, I'm betting most of you don't. :) Of course, if enough people complain, something will be done...I just don't see that happening anytime soon. :(

To be honest, I'd prefer SA come up with more advanced scheduling features, and a more reliable OS, but that's just me.

It's a systemic problem, that's easy to fix, if they'd use their heads.

Remove the HD from the name of the program. Add it to the description. Problem solved ... duh ..

What ... still not done? Too many MBAs ...

Nick

Writing a small bit of code to remove the "(HD)" suffix from every program title in the TV Guide feed as it comes into Rogers should not be a big deal for Rogers. This would solve the majority of PVR recording problems.

Frankly I don't care if the guide shows the HD at all (in title or description) since it is so inconsistent anyway.

Frankly I don't care if the guide shows the HD at all (in title or description) since it is so inconsistent anyway.Seconded! It's like the old days, when it used to note that it was CC ... or in Colour.

Nick

Writing a small bit of code to remove the "(HD)" suffix from every program title in the TV Guide feed as it comes into Rogers should not be a big deal for Rogers. This would solve the majority of PVR recording problems.
I would suspect given the proprietary nature of both the guide-data from Gemstar/TV Guide (who I believe still provides Rogers with their IPG info), and SA's backend, I don't see it being anything Rogers can really touch themselves.

I agree that somewhere along the line, it should be very easy to do, but getting the right person to do it is probably a whole lot trickier.

If Rogers has Name Based Recording, then will it do this:

If you record a show, for example - say Lost, at 8:00PM and set that to record weekly. Then, one week on the day of, for reason it gets pushed back to 9:00PM and it's in the guide. Would the box catch that and record it? Or if it moved to a different night one week? Do I have to select the option, "record in any timeslot"?

The problem is, I always record only in that timeslot. And, I think a timeslot does not care about the day, since I've seen it record Law & Order that they reply on Saturday nights, even with "only in this timeslot" set. I just hate for some shows with many reruns on many stations, you get so many of them if you don't select that.

Regardless of all that, I've had shows that got missed when they are were moved on me. Also, if the show isn't on that week, the program still highlights in red, even though it's not the same show. If you try to delete it, you have to delete all future recordings. Uggg - now I have to remember to record that again for next week. And, if you don't, sometimes it will record whatever show happened to be on at that time anyway. So, how can that be name based recording?

To be clear, The SA8300HD HAS name-based recording. It does automatically find the programme, provided the name is identical.

If you use "in this timeslot" it will be recorded each day it's on "in that timeslot". I thought that was pretty clear, but some people are confused by it. I use this option to record Daily Planet every day at 7PM.

If you use the "in this timeslot" option to try to limit the number of recordings/repeats of a programme, sometimes it'll work if it's only in that timeslot once a week, but if it's on again in the same timeslot, it'll be recorded.

There is no "weekly" recording option, unless you do a manual recording.

Just ignore the "red highlight" if it's not the correct programme, it's simply a bookmark and if the correct programme is not on, nothing will be recorded.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, any change in the name of the programme will cause it not to be recorded, even though the "red highlight" is still there and even though the DVR appears to be recording the programme.

It's very easy to remember which programmes have difficulties and simply programme them once a week.

All of this has already been discussed earlier in this thread. I strongly suggest that people read the entire thread, rather than simply lengthening it by reading a post or two and commenting.

We have also heard a thousand times how TiVo is better, but damnit, TiVo doesn't have an HD recorder available for us (in Canada) to use, so let's give it up on TiVo comments until we can do an actual comparison.

The SA8300HD is not perfect, we know the imperfections and need to use the workarounds until the firmware is updated to address the imperfections. If you want to complain, send suggestions to Rogers and SA. I'm sure they've heard most of them by now though.

Complain to Rogers? Oh I have. It's funny, I still get some CSAs that say they've never heard anyone complain about this, and I laugh.

Okay, I never knew that - in this timeslot - meant every day in that timeslot. I think I was thinking it was equivalent to the Tivo's first run. I get it now.

But, I've still seen my box function differently than you describe. For example, it was set to record a show - can't remember which one. Instead, it was showing the Katrina distaster news special. It displayed in the guide that it was indeed the Katrina news special, not the show, and of course in red. But, it actually did record the damn thing. (In the list, it still showed the name of the show - not Katrina. Hit play, you see the news special.) So, if Medium changes itself from Medium (HD) and it won't record, why would it record the other news show??? My point is, it doesn't appear consistent. And, I find the fact that it doesn't record based on the name a new thing. I've had this box (well, 8000 and 8300) since May '04 and missing shows seems to be happening a lot now, where I found it didn't happen last season.

So, I've been reading a lot of threads. I know it's all been said, but it hurts. We all pay a lot of money to Rogers, and for that, I have to program my box every Sunday, set it up to record shows for the week, and cross my fingers it will happen. Why do I post? I'm really curious how others are not as frustrated as me.

I have about half of my programmes (that I know work consistently) set up for "every epsisode" or "in this timeslot".

The other programmes which are only on once (like a special or a movie), or require a "time extension" (Leno, Corner Gas), I programme every Saturday or so.

I've had the DVR for 16 months now and yes, it's missed the odd recording, but since I've recorded probably 3000 shows in that time, that's not a bad average. It's also way better than a VCR, since the DVR doesn't miss any of the programmes, if the name is correct (which it is "most" of the time.) I missed a lot of programmes with my VCR because I had most of them set up as "weekly" and often didn't even bother to check the TV guide.

People who set up too many "every episode" recordings will also run into the issue where more than 2 recordings are in conflict.

TiVo only has one tuner, what happens there??? There must be conflicts?

Remember this is "only" TV... ;) I've always got more programmes on my DVR than I have time for. Eventually I end up deleting the "least likely to watch" ones that have been stored for a few weeks....