Dont know if anyones discovered this yet and i havnt seen it mentioned before..

Ive just been viewing picture in picture using the side by side option/view and notice that it SAVES BOTH BUFFERS!!!!...Does that mean if kids are watching the cartoons on cbeebees and dad decides to watch the football the kids can go back to where they left it after dad decides to stop watching football?...Then dad could come back and pick up the footie where he left it...all without recording..looks promising to me and must admit i really like this feature and goes a long way to making my humax experiance that much better

Ill try and see if both buffers are still saved when pip is used in default ie..1 large pic and 1 small pic in corner...that way it less obtrusive if peeps wanna ude this COOL feature

...Also some members like marcdavid have been asking for the buffer to be saved to allow momentarily switch9ing channels so that if nothing intersting is found you can go back to original channel and carry on viewing it with timeshift options still available....maybe if we switch channels using pip we will be able to achieve this "wishlist" option heh...ill try now

calamero

thats interesting! though it means having an annoying screen in the corner. does the buffer remain (obviously for the one channel you stay watching) if you exit out of pip altogether?

YES!!!...buffer is saved when switching channels that means u can...

Be watching a film with say 1 hour in buffer...want to check what else is on so u switch to picture in picture...(even while watching from buffer ie..ur not viewing live tv ) and browse througfh the other channels in 2nd window...if nothing is found u can leave pip and still maintain the buffer.....ALSO..what ever channel u switch to in pip and "idle" on that channels buffer will start to build up too

Excellent or what???

calamero

Just seen your post stonehenge....

YES..u can enter / exit pip whilst maintaining buffer!!!

Calamero, its a cool find and really gald you pointed this out. Though I've seen this before http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/...&postcount=504 I completely forgot about since. Cool. This should be in the FAQ if not already. There must be laods of treasures on that thread started by Barry like this but its so big they are probably lost forever, lets hope most of them are captured in the FAQ.

AH!!! lol aw well might have known barry sussed it already heh..

BUT after looking at barry's post he says you need to pause things first but thats nort the case way ive been doing it??...maybe barry just came across it too and didnd have time to muck around with it .

..if u try it marcdavis youll notice that theres no need to pause before or after or stay in pip....it just like normal viewing..ie...

1..your watching a show ...if your live and have say 60 mins buffered you can open pip,swap views then switch channels ..even having sound on channels ur going thru then when your done, swap view back to channel you started with and leave pip, buffer is maintained..no need to pause beforehand etc....

2..If your watching from buffer ie..your watching bbc1 1 hour behind live tv...you can enter pip,switch channels using the pip channel changer on remote,leave pip after a while without losing buffer or your viewing position 1 hour behind live tv

its cool

Calamero brill. I'm looking forward to trying all that stuff out tonight. I'm sure loads of people will be seeing this and think ing like me this could come in very handy. Cheers

I'm not sure of its application though. I mean if you're really concerned about whats on another channel wouldn't you just record it?

But you would be able to chase play in the buffer - so if you want to watch a half-hour programme on channel 1 you could be buffering a two hour movie on channel 2, switch to it and start watching it immediately from the beginning, by rewinding. I assume that while you're in PIP mode you keep both buffers, but once you exit the PIP you lose the one from the channel you are no longer watching - is that true?

Yes I see.

And yes when you exit PIP you lose one channel's buffer.

I will look into creating an FAQ for this feature, as I cannot see it in the list of questions.
Just one other point that I think should be mentioned - If any recordings are taking place, then PIP and this feature are not available.

I kept it in pip for a good few hours last night chase playing the 2 busiest channels for me and was well pleased with it

I was watching something and during the adverts was able to "swap" over to the gadget show ,rewinding through it to the bits i liked...when my other show restarted i simply swapped over again..i did this basically all night lol...It brings up another wishlist for me now and thats an option to resize the PIP window...if i was able to reduce its size by half just say then i could have any 2nd channel i wished quietly being buffered in the background accessable at any time...If its "preview" window was made postage stamp size then it would be small enough to be left in a corner of the screen and forgotten about but large enough to let me "see" whats going on

Wow come to think of it that be great i reckon!!!

stonehenge asks if i reckon a show is good enough then why dont i just record it?

Yes there will be times i want to see a show that bad ill record it but all other times im just surfing channels trying to catch the best shows that day...

Being able to hold a channel in reserve allows me the freedom to catch shows ive been waiting on that basically start at the same time thereby removing any need to setup a recording schedule

For example...

I can watch the 3.30pm film on Channel 5 that finishes at 5.30

at the same time reserve in PIP

Deal or no deal on Ch4 that starts at 4.15pm and ends at 5pm.

...having Deal or no deal in PIP also aids in removing adverts because when you swap over to it you can then rewind to Deal or no deal's start and commence watching from there ,then you can FFwd thru any ads ahead...

Method above is slightly better and quicker imo because normally if you've been watching "live" tv you cant skip ahead througfh ads until you've paused the show for a bit ... ive actually found my self either watching the ads or pausing a live show and walking round my room for a bit OR switching channels ( losing valuable buffer time ) bit silly yep...BUT if ive been holding that channel in reserve so to speak in PIP, then when i swap over to watch i use the timeline to jump back to 4.15 pm in the buffer and start watching from there

Now if they can just allow us to minturise that PIP window then my hummy will become a great friend indeed

calamero
Last edited by calamero : 13-01-2006 at 14:12

Thanks whisper

Better still, allow a sort of virtual PIP mode whereby you can remove the small inset screen altogether and still buffer the other tuner. In other words, why can't the Humax buffer both of its tuners anyway?

I also think that buffered TV should be saved as a temporary file to the HD when you change channel, to enable you to check other channels. These temporary files could be automatically deleted after an hour or so.

Brazen Anthropoid (DS chopped off my ID)

But this would leave you with a discontinuous buffer - the buffer is no good unless it ends "now" and doesn't have any gaps. I certainly think they should be buffering from both tuners simultaneously, but there may be technical reasons why this isn't possible - if you're recording two channels and watching one you lose the buffer, so if you started recording you would lose one of your buffers, and the whole thing might become a bit too unpredictable.

Come to think of it, if you're watching from the buffer, rather than live and you start two scheduled recordings, do you lose the buffer and get bounced to realtime? I guess you must, but I don't watch from the buffer that much. You probably get bounced off the channel altogether if it isn't on one of the muxes you're recording. My head's starting to hurt...

thedweeb, I also started to think about how it might be difficult to implement two buffers on this product and got a bit confused with the diferent implications. At least you made a stab at it!

If you are wathing from the buffer and two recordings start, then the buffer is just descarded and goes back to live (mux permitting).
It would be nice if it gave you a warning and allowed you to carry on watching up till when the two recordings started.

100th POST!

Congratualtions whisper. keep up the good work!