"I don't really follow what you are saying. If the 8pm show ends at 9pm, the PVR will stop recording it and start recording the 2 shows at 9pm.
Mediaroom has "Soft Padding", which means that it starts recording 1 minute early and ends 2 minutes late, but only if a stream is available. If the 8pm show is on the same channel as one of the 9pm shows, the shows will overlap, since both shows use the same stream. In this case the 8pm show will end at 8:02 and the 9pm shows will start at 8:59."
say I am recording one program from 8-9 on channel A. And then from 9 -10, I'm recording two programs, one on channel B and the other on channel C, the 'soft padding', one of the 9-10 programs will get the first few minute cut off b/c of it.
It's all fine and dandy if it's on the same channel, but for me, it wasn't. trust me, i got a verbal lashing from my wife saying her program got cut off the first 5 minutes b/c I was recording something at 8.
In my situation, the softpadding involves 3 streams and i can't record 3 things at once.