[mrpults]

Hello everyone,

I'm going out of town on Sunday and want to record the Tour de France on my Nextbox (Ch. 99 in Toronto-SN1HD).

I've set it to:
"Record Series"
"New Episodes Only"
"Any Timeslot" (it varies each day)
"Any Day of the Week" (usually six days a week plus a rest day)
Stop "30 Minutes After" (sometimes it runs long)

Questions: have I done this correctly and will it work? Is there a better way?

It's about 5 hours a day on Sportsnet One or a total of about 75 hours.

My Nextbox is about 40% full. Can it hold another 75-100 hours? If not, how much space do I need to clear?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[BoardGhost]

You may have an issue.

Over on the Rogers board, someone has a similar issue...they can't record it as a series because the title changes every day....

 

[57]

Since the title changes every day (they stupidly add the stage number to the title instead of putting it in the info), you may need to set up a manual recording for say any day, 7AM-1PM or some such time to cover the varying start/finish times.

 

[ExDilbert]

I've noticed that with some series, especially marathons, and also the Olympics last Winter. (Rogers guide information is abysmal.) The Olympics required a separate recording event for each day. If you know the times, it may be better to set a manual recording for each day. As for capacity, I doubt it will fit. A 1TB external drive should handle it but they present other issues.

 

[57]

With SARA firmware (SA8300HD) you could set a "daily recording" (or weekly) which meant you would be safe until you stopped that daily recording. Unfortunately, with RTN firmware you can only set manual or normal recordings up to a week ahead (that I could see when I just checked into it), so you'll need to set a single recording for each day (as I have done for the Tour), but you're out of luck beyond 7 days out. Manual recordings with RTN are therefore not any use for this particular instance. Remember to add an hour or so to the scheduled time because the race sometimes runs overtime.

Between now and Sunday, you can try the series recordings, but it may not work properly due to the title changes. You could perhaps record the SD channel as the HD channel will likely use more than 1% of your drive per hour.

You can check the amount of space per recording by looking at the available space before and after deleting the 5 hour recording then subtracting the difference. Some people have reported issues when you push the limits of the iHDD beyond say 80%. I always recommend not filling up the iHDD of a PVR, due to potential issues, as mentioned above.

 

[57]

What I do when I'm on vacation is log into the web application for my PVR and set recordings every few days.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=127977 See the last few pages.

I travel with a MacBook Pro Laptop. You could log in from any computer or internet cafe, but I don't trust them that much, so I always use my own for that sort of functionality. You need to have a Rogers account and go to the "TV tab", then click "Manage My Recordings" or "View My Guide". You should practise this before you leave. The functionality can sometimes be a bit slow, especially if you're at a slow connection on the other side of the world. Be patient. You cannot login after 2AM Eastern time (they do maintenance for a few hours) and I don't advise logging in during peak hours Eastern time.

 

[mrpults]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I'm shocked that my "state of the art" PVR can't do this easily.

Here's my solution:

I have an HD Digital Box and a Sony DVD Recorder with a hard drive.

I can set the Digital Box in the "VCR-New" setting to "Channel 99", "Everyday", from 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM.

I can do the same on the DVD Recorder.

The only thing I give up is the HD because the DVD Recorder is only SD.

Oh well. Thanks so much everyone.

 

[57]

I see that later this week, the Tour will not be on SN1, so a manual recording or an ongoing series recording is not adequate. What one would need to have is "record new airings of TdF on any one HD channel" for example...

 

[mrpults]

Thanks to 57 for teaching me how to remotely record on my PVR (see earlier post for instructions).

Not only did I not know how to do this, I didn't even know I could do it.

Now I'm going to Florida tomorrow, confident that I can record the first two Bills games (and the Vuelta de Espana) by pressing a few buttons on my computer or Ipad.

Thanks 57!!! I can hardly wait to come home and watch them.

You gotta admit, this is amazing technology.

 

[57]

Thanks for the feedback. Glad to be of assistance.

 

[SpinMaster]

Thanks for the feedback. Glad to be of assistance.

Just wanted to chime in and say thanks to 57 as well. I creeped the thread since it relates to me as well (huge cycling fan) and sometimes recording these events can be tricky.

 

[mrpults]

Need Help with 8642 recording from Florida

Hi everyone,

I'm down in Florida and am trying to program the PVR to record the Bills-Dolphins game on Sunday.

I get the Program Guide okay and can navigate to 1:00 PM on Sunday and the right channel, but when I click "record", it says:

"COMMUNICATION ERROR: Your digital box is currently unavailable, please try again later (921)."

Any ideas what I should do?

I have a feeling this isn't going to work.

Thanks for your help

 

[sesinger]

Are you using an app or browser to connect to Rogers?

 

[mrpults]

Are you using an app or browser to connect to Rogers?

I've tried it with my PC and with my IPad, both through the browser (Chrome and Safari). I get the same message for both

"COMMUNICATION ERROR: Your digital box is currently unavailable, please try again later (921)."

 

[57]

Sometimes there can be an issue communicating with the STB, especially if you have a slow connection. Try again in a few hours and always be patient, waiting for each screen refresh to complete before asking it to do anything else. If possible, try to do this at non-prime time for the internet, but remember, as I mentioned earlier, you cannot do this after 2AM Eastern time because the system is down for maintenance then. I can't remember when it comes back up - perhaps 6AM...

After you click on "Manage My Recordings", make sure that the PVR shows in green at the top left of the screen, not just the TV listings. I always wait until I can see the PVR at the top left and if it's not there, it'll say "STB not available" and I don't bother even looking through the TV listings.

 

[sesinger]

Has it ever worked for you?

When you're in My Rogers, is the PVR shown in the TV Digital Box section? If not, you need to call Rogers customer service.

 

[mrpults]

Has it ever worked for you?

When you're in My Rogers, is the PVR shown in the TV Digital Box section? If not, you need to call Rogers customer service.

i was able to get it to work when I tested it in Toronto about 2 weeks ago.

When I load the Guide now, in the top left hand corner it says "Connecting to STB". A moment later, it says "STB not available".

I can try calling Rogers, if you think that will help.

 

[sesinger]

The fact that it worked in the past indicates that the PVR is attached to your account. You can verify that in the account section of My Rogers. If scheduling doesn't work today, I would call Rogers.

 

[57]

The website occasionally has problems. I tried connecting last night after you mentioned your problems and I got "STB not available". This morning I get "Unable to retrieve your account information, please try again later", as soon as I try to log in to Rogers.

I tried clicking one of the Tabs for my services and got: "We are currently experiencing problems accessing your account and therefore cannot complete your request at this time. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please try again later."

Although the system has generally been good for several years, there are instances where it doesn't work for a day or so... I hope that it's working for you before Sunday. I'll try again later today if I remember.

 

[ExDilbert]

I often see communications error messages. Another possibility is geoblocking by Rogers. Streaming and associated activities are often blocked to out of country IP addresses. I see no reason to block non-steaming functions but I've seen similar actions by media companies.