Request: New option for Max Number of Shows feature

[Papa Smurph]

First of all, I've seen people mention making an "official" feature request to Snapstream... how would I go about that? I've not seen anything in a brief search.

On to the feature request:

The Max Number of Shows feature is very interesting, but does not work exactly as I would want. Currently, once the limit is hit, new shows are recorded and previously recorded ones are deleted. What I desire is a "Stop recording when limit reached" option which would not record an episode if the limit has already been reached. I have several shows that I want around, but I don't want the "latest" episode, any episode will do. Having BTV keep recording new shows and deleting old shows just keeps the tuners and computer more busy than necessary.

Does anybody else think this would be a useful option?

[ejdriscoll]

Eh. Since you asked for opinions (sort of), I'm not personally that worried about my tuners being "more busy than necessary". I don't think they're gonna wear out.

But that's just my personal opinion.

[Papa Smurph]

You know, when I posted, I figured someone would give that line. You are right, my tuner probably won't wear out, and neither will my CPU, memory, PSU, etc. My hard drive might, but it's very unlikely. And it would save some electricity usage, but who really gives a damn about that?...

My point is, all these extra recordings aren't a major problem... except when they cause conflicts. Proper prioritization might help with that, but why do I have to worry about it? I have about 15 (or more) shows for which I'd like to have a few episodes recorded at any time. Most of these are for my kids, and these shows are on all morning and afternoon. So, you're solution is "just record shows you don't need for about 8 hours a day, just so that BTV can delete all the extras that it is creating"? I think that is pretty unreasonable. Especially when this prevents other recordings from taking place, and ties up the tuner for most of the day. My wife stays home, and doesn't like that idea that she can't watch live TV just because the software (Beyond TV) is missing this feature.

For now, I'm scheduling everything, letting it record for a few days, then deleting the scheduled recordings. Then, when the kids start getting low on recorded shows, I have to repeat the process. Not very user friendly is it?

[ejdriscoll]

It does seem like job prioritization might go a long way toward solving that problem. If the kid shows are on all day, why not just make them lower priority than the stuff that isn't? In fact, I have a few similar kid shows on my own list and in fact, they are indeed at the bottom of the priority queue for exactly this reason.

The user-friendliness angle is a double-edged sword. If they put in every feature that any person would find useful, I expect they'd end up with a complicated mess that can do everything you want -- but only if you're willing to fight through the learning and configuration effort (see, for instance, Meedio, which suffers from exactly this).

Mind you, I am in no way trying to invalidate your request. You're entitled to ask for whatever you want. Just responding to your question about whether others would find it useful (and no, I don't claim to speak for *all* others...).

[Equivicus]

I think this might be useful as I'm faced with the same issue with kids shows. Imagine that! I too set them to the lowest priority. The other factor is that kids, at least mine, will watch the same exact episode several times. So having some sort of retention before recording another batch of episodes would work for me.

[jmaver]

Same issue with kids shows here. BTV should be like a waitress. If I have a full glass of water, when the waitress comes over with the pitcher, she doesn't dump out my glass and fill the whole thing up again. She waits until I drink some, and then just fills it back up to the top. That is what I want. My glass is 2 episodes of Dragon Tales. Just keep it topped off.

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Papa Smurph

What I desire is a "Stop recording when limit reached" option which would not record an episode if the limit has already been reached.

Dont we already have this function. I admit I've not tried it as I record all and bought big drives so I'd have lots of hours.

But. If you set the Max number of shows and set the keep until delete will you not get the exact thing that you want. ie it will stop recording at your max until you delete one of the shows.

[shaikjawad]

Originally Posted by Cal

Dont we already have this function. I admit I've not tried it as I record all and bought big drives so I'd have lots of hours.

But. If you set the Max number of shows and set the keep until delete will you not get the exact thing that you want. ie it will stop recording at your max until you delete one of the shows.

Nope... Have you tried to set them both (max shows + keep until) at the same time? you cant do it!

I agree... we need a feature like this.

[sainswor99]

I second (er, third... er, whatever) this request! In fact, the other day I was getting caught up on some of my old shows when BTV deleted the show I was watching (via BTV Link). I think the waitress analogy is a great one.

[Equivicus]

I second (er, third... er, whatever) this request! In fact, the other day I was getting caught up on some of my old shows when BTV deleted the show I was watching (via BTV Link). I think the waitress analogy is a great one.

So the waitress shouldn't yank the glass from my hand if I'm still drinking from it!

[Cal]

Originally Posted by shaikjawad

Nope... Have you tried to set them both (max shows + keep until) at the same time? you cant do it!

I agree... we need a feature like this.

Umm. yes, I did try it. Thats an old thread. In a still old but slightly newer thread I tried it and confirmed what you guys are saying. So I agree that it can't be done. Only one of the settings can be done at a time. I'd also like to see that fixed.

Originally Posted by Equivicus

So the waitress shouldn't yank the glass from my hand if I'm still drinking from it!

OK. That was funny.