Either the start is missed, the end is missed, or both. It happens on every channel I've recorded from, so I don't know what to think. I have 2 minutes added to the start and end of every trecording but yet it's still missing the start or end on most recordings.

Are the signals telling the box to start recording being missed, or does it go purely by the time the EPG says it is, so the broadcasters obviously have a different time on their systems.

Recorded two programmes last night, both were set exactly as the EPG stated (I didn't change the start and end times manually and only the automatic 2 minute padding at either end was used) and yet both of them had about 3/4 minutes of the previous programme at the start which meant I missed the last 3/4 minutes of the programme recorded. It also happened over the weekend with other recordings.

It's incredibly annoying and frustrating that I can't seem to just be able to set something record and that's it, every time I'm now going to have to go in, manually edit the recording to add 5 minutes on, on top of the extra 4 minutes it's already set to record over and above the scheduled time, just so I can watch a programme in it's entirety!

Very odd.

Apart from certain know situations; C5 getting the start time of the second part of a split film wrong and C4 cutting the ends off programmes I very rarely have a problem.

Whether this is due to the accuracy of the recordings or all the junk at the start and end of programmes 'shielding' the wanted material I'm not sure.

Is this the Humax Foxsat you are talking about? If so I had a very similar problem a few weeks ago. There were very few replies on the subject here. I did a factory reset and this cured it completely. I dont know why, but it did

I use the automatic padding, the only channel I find problems with is channel 4. I think if you add time at each end the time set is used rather than the transmitted start end signals.

What box?

If it's the Humax HDR and you're using padding then you've disabled Accurate Record so the box should I believe ignore all start/stop signals sent by the broadcaster. Assuming the clock is accurate it seems likely the broadcaster is just not sticking to their schedule very well - not unheard of.

Still - I have two minutes either side and haven't missed anything so perhaps a power cycle would be a good move. Also - which channels are you seeing this on?

Yees, it's the Humax Foxsat HDR. I have the 2 minutes added to the start and end for all recordings as set in the menu. This still means that I am either missing the start or end of programmes.

I'm finding that it happens on all 5 main terrestrial channels or their HD equivalents, I don't really record much from any of the other channels to be honest.

Will try a power cycle and will remove the automatic padding and try some more recordings during the week to see how they turn out. I would have thought even with the extra padding getting the whole programme recorded would be a cert, but apparently not.

The user guide for the HDR says.

• On Time - the broadcasters signal will be used for
accurate recording when broadcast

• 1,2,3,5 Mins - The minutes you select to the start
and/or end times will be included where possible
to the recordings.

As already been mentioned some channels might not use accurate recording. CBS and Channel 5 have given me problems in the past so I do a 'manual record' for those channels.

Dan.

Do you get a good signal on Men and Movies? The freesat epg and other data is on the same transponder.

Yes, I get 100% strength and 90-100% quality on all channels on Freesat.

Will set it up tonight with no padding and set to Auto and see if that does anything. If not, a ful factory reset can be tried.

If you are using padding and consistently missing the ends of all programmes on all channels then that says to me the clock is fast. It should be really be set using a trusted channel eg BBC1.

Recordings are from BBC ONE, TWO, ITV 1, Channel 4, Channel 5 or BBC ONE HD, BBC HD or ITV 1 HD.

You'd like to think the clock is right for those channels!

What time does your box think it is right now? And what time does your computer or your radio-controlled clock think it is?

Plus you said in your OP that you miss both the start and end of programmes.

That cannot be blamed on the clock being wrong in a consistent manner.

I would also strongly suspect that whatever channel(s) the box uses to set its clock use a time source synchronised, directly or indirectly, to an atomic clock.

Just another thought: Does this box support negative padding (as seen on the Topfield / MyStuff) and the OP has set that instead of the more usual positive padding?

You can't set auto negative padding, only way is to convert a recording reservation to a manual one by physically altering the start and end times, then of course you can input any recording times you want. Since auto recording uses the event status codes sent by the broadcaster to initiate and stop recording and the start one is looked for about 15mins before a recording is due to start I can't see how the internal clock can be the problem.

The HDR time is set to that broadcast by freesat.

Yes, the Ch 4 set of channels are the least reliable, and the Ch 5 split film issue is annoying.

Apart from that, whenever there's a problem on the other channels, it's quite common for the first few seconds to be missed but not the last. Better this way than the reverse though.

I removed any extra pading and left both on Auto and recorded some shows from BBC THREE, ITV 1 and E4 as a test.

The BBC THREE programme started playing from about 2 seconds into the programme, just missing the end of the ident and the start of the programme, but nothing major. It continued recording until the ident for the next programme came on. No major issue there. The ITV 1 recording did practically the exact same thing, it missed the start by a second or two and ended just as the programmes credits were ending.

The E4 recording had around a minute of adverts before the programme started and it missed the last few minutes of the programme. Obviously, something is wrong with Channel 4's signal then if it's being sent out too early and is not correctly mapped to the beginning and end of the programme.

I'm surprised you had trouble with BBC because they usually get it right.

I know this because whenever I'm watching something on BBC I have a sort of 'personal macro' of:

Select | Resume | FF | FF <pause> | Play.

I'm so used to the pre-programme announcement backdrop that it would give me quite a shock to be dumped into the programme - even if it were just the opening shot.

C4 is hopeless.

Paddy C - what region (postcode area) are you in? I use a London postcode and have my machine set to accurate record. In the two years plus that I have owned it, my experience has been that the BBCs are always "bang-on" and recording starts at the pre-programme announcement and finishes at the start of the next programme announcement. ITV is 99% exact (Coronation St.!), starting as the titles come on. CH5 often starts early, but doesn't cut the end off the programme. CBS Drama is pretty good as I've been recording "Boston Legal" without missing any of the programmes. CH4 is quite unreliable in that the recording seems to start at the scheduled time of the programme, even though the programmes often start after their scheduled time and then you miss a minute or two at the end.

ITV normally sends the start recording (running status change) at the very beginning of the titles rolling and the status change at the end at the end of the follow up adverts. Depending on what you are recording this often generates a run time clash resulting in a small loss of content (and a failure flag) on the follow up recording using the same tuner if it's on a different channel.

If you are around and see the clash dialogue it's usually safe to just stop the ITV recording that's just about to finish.

The BBC English regions tend to be spot on for networked programmes. With local programmes, less so.

The BBC Nations (NI, Scotland, Wales) are less accurate in their timings. Wales, in my experience, usually triggers during the trailers before the station symbol/announcement, sometimes a few seconds into the programme.

Hello I'm using the humax hdr 500 free sat and the recordings are off or inaccurate when it decides to stop recordings all across channel, seems fine after I rescan the channels, full signal and quality well the quality is like 99.5. Any ideas?