IceTV not properly adding buffering

[neomut]

Hey guys,

Have just finished the ICETV trial period and I have to say I am not overly excited about it.

Basically the main reason we go it was to enable the larger pre and post padding to recordings. But this is failing when shows are back to back. The recording will stop and start the new show. This is even when my other tuners are doing nothing else. So it is not a tuner not been free issue.

I have 3 tuners in a Vista box.

Please someone tell me that there is a trick that I have missed, over looked or not RTFM properly I will be raising a support call to IceTV but if this is not fixable then I personally odnt have a use for it, as the free job did everything we needed (and teh descriptions where just as good, noticed the program descriptions are somewhat lacking sometimes.)

Thanks for any insight.

Cheers

[dgaust]

Are you sure it's an IceTV issue? Seems more like a problem with MCE than IceTV.

Try downloading MCECustomizer and change the pre-post padding through that. There is a version for Vista or MCE2005.

Also, have you checked your tuner priorities are correct, especially as you seem to have done the hack to enable three tuners.

[pistnbroke]

IceTV, as well as any other TV guide is just that, a guide. Any post\pre padding is in your setup... MCE is not great for that...

[dgaust]

Actually, the program that comes with IceTV does have an option for it to change the pre/post padding values in the registry.

The IceTV interactive thingy isn't just a guide, it also allows you to log into their website and schedule recordings from the net.

[pistnbroke]

Originally Posted by dgaust

Actually, the program that comes with IceTV does have an option for it to change the pre/post padding values in the registry.

True, but you still have to hope MCE will carry it out.. ;-) . I gave up using it for recording a long time ago....

[ExtremePC]

Originally Posted by dgaust

Actually, the program that comes with IceTV does have an option for it to change the pre/post padding values in the registry.

The IceTV interactive thingy isn't just a guide, it also allows you to log into their website and schedule recordings from the net.

I'm trying to use the IceTV thingy to do a defrag of my Xbox hard disk natively via Wifi I can't find the option to do this.....oh hang on it is just a guide.

[neomut]

That feature is only for the Wii, ExtremePC. Perhaps next release?

Thanks for the responses guys but to clarify a few points.

A selling point which ICETV claims is the ability to override the little to non-existent pre and post buffers on the standard MCE built in ones. (please refer too http://www.icetv.com.au/cgi-bin/webpimp.cgi - please check the "A very Welcome Addition" section")

I am also aware of the other features of ICETv. i.e we access. But they are not a selling point of me, I personally don't need it It is nice sure, but meh.

I went for ICE for:
1) Accurate and up to date tv guild which didn't require fiddling.
2) Pre and Post buffering increases
Both are advertised as an ICETv function. For "my" needs ice TV does nothing better (so far) then the free solution.

I am not bagging ICETv so please don't get defensive. I am just asking for any experience in this product from users of it. I would like to use it if it does what I need (also I love to help out the little guy), but if it doesn't ill happily go back to the free one.

I was just hopping that there was a small piece of "yoda" advice that experienced users might have had that I had not yet found. HOpefully the ICETv lads can assist.

Thanks guys.

Cheers


PS ill give the above app a go, dgaust. Yeah the priorities are correct, that was my first thought I have checked and double checked the configuration. 3rd time cannot hurt though

[neomut]

I might remove one of my tuners and fall back to a default 2 tuner setup and see if it still happens.

[dgaust]

Originally Posted by neomut

That feature is only for the Wii, ExtremePC. Perhaps next release?

Thanks for the responses guys but to clarify a few points.

A selling point which ICETV claims is the ability to override the little to non-existent pre and post buffers on the standard MCE built in ones. (please refer too http://www.icetv.com.au/cgi-bin/webpimp.cgi - please check the "A very Welcome Addition" section")

I am also aware of the other features of ICETv. i.e we access. But they are not a selling point of me, I personally don't need it It is nice sure, but meh.

I went for ICE for:
1) Accurate and up to date tv guild which didn't require fiddling.
2) Pre and Post buffering increases
Both are advertised as an ICETv function. For "my" needs ice TV does nothing better (so far) then the free solution.

I am not bagging ICETv so please don't get defensive. I am just asking for any experience in this product from users of it. I would like to use it if it does what I need (also I love to help out the little guy), but if it doesn't ill happily go back to the free one.

I was just hopping that there was a small piece of "yoda" advice that experienced users might have had that I had not yet found. HOpefully the ICETv lads can assist.

Thanks guys.

Cheers


PS ill give the above app a go, dgaust. Yeah the priorities are correct, that was my first thought I have checked and double checked the configuration. 3rd time cannot hurt though

Vista seems on occasion to ignore pre and/or post padding for some reason. Not sure as to why this happens, but it can be a bit of a pain.

There was a thread around where someone had done some research into how and why it happens.

[jollster101]

So if you do schedule back to back recordings on the same channel, is Vista clever enough to effectively "override" the padding settings, or will it go to an alternative tuner as it believes the first one to be in use exclusively for the first recording..........

If that makes sense??

[slimf]

I also have big issues with IceTV.

For a while in Vista 64bit the guide was quite ok - but in the last two weeks it drops its guts and the guide goes beserk -- I think its due to Channel 7 doing some weird ****.. But in the end the channel DB seems fubar and i have to start again from scratch with it. (delete all the channels, rescan, then setup the guide and then remove unwanted channels and map the remaining channels to the guide etc)

My my other problems are:

Pre/post padding no go.

I have two tuners and if im watching a channel when another is scheduled to start recording the damn thing changes channels to the one scheduled to record on me automatically instead of using the spare tuner!

The most frustrating is the entire channel database going crazy.. im sick and tired of my wife complaining about not being able to watch TV!