I've had enough now - After missing yet another show the other night, I've decided to switch the padding/dumb recording option back on. Not sure where the problems were but my machine was filling up with Family Guy and Scrubs at a rate of knots - and missing other stuff.

Seems a shame to miss out on series link, but there you go...

/rant over

I was sceptical having read peoples early reports using .21 so waited for the OTA and have had no problems at all with accurate record or series link except sometimes missing just a few seconds off the start of some progs. I think some broadcasters are better at sending the start recording signal than others perhaps.

Like you, Accurate-Recording and Series-Link have been working well for me with sometimes a few seconds missing from the beginning of the odd program, particularly if the program introduction was short. Then early this week an episode of Emmerdale started quite a few minutes late, but I noticed the Hummy started recording just after the scheduled start time of 7:00 so picking up the adverts. Then the recording stopped just as the Emmerdale theme tune started. This is exactly the point I would have expected a recording of the previous program to have stopped. Needless to say the recording of Emmerdale was missed but I was there to see what the Hummy was doing.

From this I conclude that if the Hummy starts recording a couple of minutes before the actual start of the program, the Hummy is likely to see the start of the program as a stop signal (on ITV at least). A trend I’ve observed on ITV is that if a program starts early the Hummy is more likely to miss the start. If the program starts late then the Hummy is more likely to start recording early, maybe with the problem outlined above likely to happen.

To carry on from the above post, tonight I got in at 7:10 expecting the Hummy to be recording Series-Linked Emmerdale, it wasn't. Emmerdale for tonight was in the schedule, I checked last night before going to bed. The Hummy was in full STANDBY and NOT displaying the clock icon even though two more recordings were scheduled for tonight. Those recordings were also Series-Linked and DID record ok.

From other discussion on this subject there are certain alleged facts.
1. itv have stated that they set the "programme Start" time for AR capable PVRs to the start of the ad break before the programme.
2. BBC set it to the last ad (sorry trail) before Programme Start.
3. PVRs under the digital tick and Freeview Playback licences should check the EITpf table (Now & Next) every 30 secs minimum for updates. (An drastic change of minutes is unlikely close to the programme start.)

1 is now thought to be dubious; 2, from BBC contacts should be happening.

So programme recordings starting several seconds in should not be happening.

Having said all that, I started to note down what happened on my recordings. I have concluded that Series Link is upsetting Accurate Recording on my Humax. The greater majority of recordings started several seconds into the programme content. The worst was You've Been Framed, which started seconds in to the first clip!
This is with BBC1, BBC2, BBC4, itv1 and ch. 4 recordings. Ch. 4 with SL seems to work!

I have emailed Humax, who replied saying that they had tried an experiment with two 9200Ts side by side. One with SL, one without. And I quote,
"On 5 different test on different channels both boxes started to record at exactly the same time. When items are set to record as Series or One Programme they will record in the same manor."

They also said :
"On one of our test boxes we have approx 80 recordings from BBC channels and 47 of them start recording with the BBC logo at the start, they have been one of the better broadcasters at sending the information accurately."
So 47 out of 80, about 50% start at the BBC logo, when the BBC say that the start flag is set to be the trail before the programme start! Humax do not state if this box is the one with SL set or not.

I am about to email Humax back with my log.

Dubious..... porky pies more like. In my experience ITV's STOP signal is consistently at the end of the advert break/ beginning of the next program.

All my BBC1 recordings start at the trail with SL even on consecutive recordings ie Eastenders then Holby City.
ITV1 never starts when it needs to. Usually on a monday and friday the 1st Corrie starts late so we get some ads at start and we miss the last few seconds at the end. The 2nd Corrie starts early so we miss a few seconds from the start but get the rest of the episode and some ads.
C4, im even getting the whole programme now. ie Ramsay's kitchen nightmares USA.
A while ago I used to always miss the end of the episode when Ramsay went back some time later.
For the past month or so we have had whole episodes starting at the C4 trail.
Unless my Hummy does'nt like ITV for some reason I would say that they are not getting data correct for AR to work correctly.

My Hummy never gets the start of the second Corro on Monday and Friday because the program intro is so short. Tonight's Wild At Heart started recording bang on the beginning of the intro, this is how A-R should work. I've never had an end chopped off.

I have had my Humax for 2 months and had no problem until last Friday, when Jools Holland's Later only had 10 minutes recorded - it is a series link but started about an hour late, which does not seem to make any sense.

other programmes have been ok since

All was going quite well for me with AR until last week.

Sure, we occasionally miss the first 30 seconds to a minute of some progs (Mainly ITV) and we can live with that, but this past week has not been good.

We too had the problem with Emmerdale at the begining of the week, we got some adverts before the program and nothing else after that, the recording time was about 1 1/2 mins.

Friday we didn't get any recording at all for Emmerdale and then last night (Sunday) the Humax failed to record Dancing on Ice and the Dancing on Ice skate off.

That's 4 progs in one week that have gone wrong, which isn't good.

I've deleted the Series links for both Emmerdale and reset them using the next instances of the programs.

This is exactly my experience, see posts #3 and #4 above. It does look like there were a few problems with the broadcasters last week. I've left my Series-Linked Emmerdale untouched so I'll see what happens tonight.

As an AP user I have Coronation Street and EastEnders set to record through the week. I have edited the end/start times to force the use of two tuners.

The total time added to each end is 4 minutes, 1 minute of manual padding for the force tuner thing and 3 minutes of AP.

Never missed one and never missed the start/finish of one. Don't see myself ever using AR and SL and am surprised you guys stick with it after these comments.

I can't recall the last time I missed anything using AP. The only time I'd be careful is on live broadcasts, I'd just add lots of manual padding, say an hour, it's only hard disk space!

I do agree with your sentiments but as I’m usually in when these programs are being recorded I’m basically giving AR/SL a fair test. The one big advantage of AR/SL over AP is when a program like Emmerdale is unexpectedly on for an hour.

ITV are doing a staggered rollout which started with IIRC ITV4 or 3, and may not yet have reached ITV1.

On balance I prefer to use AR/SL, primarily because of its "set and forget" reliability. I've missed the first few seconds of quite a few progs and the end of the odd programme on Channel4. But in general it's been reliable and easy to use.

If I'm recording a film that I *really* want to record I'll set it from the EPG and then edit the recording schedule to pad it at both ends.

For the kids it's very handy too - series link their favourite prog and forget about the schedule (kids progs tend to move around the schedule every week).

I take your point, but from these posts it does appear that the chances of something going wrong with AR is much greater than the rarity of an unknown schedule change.

It's just a general comment that I'm surprised people are having problems and sticking with it. Missed recordings in my house are grounds for manslaughter, i.e mine!

You're probably right there, and as Mr_Jolly says above, if it's a program I really want I would manually pad.

In my experience programs in the middle of the night seem to be the ones most likely to be way off schedule, but for the ones I've recorded AR has done a perfect job.

I've been on holiday for a week or so and left my humax with the seemingly simple task of series linked Friends on E4, Simpsons on C4 and Film 2008. F2008 and the Simpsons were fine, but the E4 recordings are all over the place. Friends frequently started into the cold opening, endings are chopped and some episodes just didn't record.

What we need is a FAQ of what broadcasters are sending data for accurate record!

I'm going to try emailing Freeview seeing as how their digital tick and "Freeview Playback" specs require manufacturers to use it! Shame there isn't a broadcasters equivalent.

No point talking to Freeview about the Digital Tick you need Digital UK.

http://www.digitallogo.co.uk/company_intro.php

For FP compliance you should contact DTG

http://www.dtg.org.uk/testing/


Freeview is just a marketing organisation...

Which is why the spec for PVRs is on their site?
http://www.freeview.co.uk/docs/retail_licence.pdf

I've been corresponding with Humax and have now discovered how the 9200T "Accurate Recording" works.

In the EITpf (Now & Next) table is a "running status" flag. This will change when a programme starts. Or, rather, when the broadcaster decides the programme start is.

The 9200T, checking every 10 seconds, comes up against the broadcaster repeating the EITpf every 20 secs.

This is complicated by the fact that the Humax gets the "Billed Time" from the EPG (EITsch). So if the broadcaster changes this, the Humax is only checking these changes every 30 secs and the EITsch repetition rate is greater that 20 secs.

We can see that itv setting the start time at the beginning of the ad break is a good thing!

I'm going to go and lie down in a darkened room now

Oops, some numbers were wrong or typos!

Recommended Transmission repetition rates:

EITpf (actual) every TWO secs
EITsch (actual) - first day - every 10 secs
EITsch (actual) - all sections - every 30 secs

I am using series link on me 9200 with limited success. Last night, Monday, it missed both episodes of Coronation street, but picked up Emmerdale, plus it recorded the hour long Emmerdale tonight.

When it does go wrong we use our backup, TiVo. In almost six years it has never gone wrong, or even had to be power recycled once. It's just six years+ out of date, but the Thompson hardware & the Linux OS is bomb proof.

when i first updated my box the padded recording was terrible, when i tried to recored family guy it would only start when i changed to that channel.
I contacted humax and they said this somtimes happens when you are recieving signals from two transmitters. They told me to reset the box and stop the automatic search for channels straight away and do it manually on certain channels to avoid any mixed signals. This cured it.

Apart from missing a couple of second at the start it works very well. This normally happens with the shows like csi and ncis, but basiclly if it's eastenders you get all of it(Not that i ever want to recored eastenders)