Long shows and ShowGuard

[l8er]

Shows that are now running a minute or more past the half hour or hour are perfect reasons to activate ShowGuard. ShowGuard is a feature that was written into the software but never implemented, that automatically extends all recordings by a set amount (like 5 minutes) if there is not a show to be recorded immediately following. SportsGuard does the same thing with shows flagged as sports.

I'm guessing ShowGuard/SportsGuard are not perfect, since they were never officially turned on, but ShowGuard seems to work well in my limited experience with it.

It can be activated through WiRNS and the getshellcmds plug-in. [color=red]Disclaimer: since it's modifying the registry, it's possible to corrupt it and end up with a ReplayTV that won't boot.[/color] Following are the commands to activate ShowGuard and SportsGuard. The ShowGuard time can apparently be changed in 1 minute increments* and I think the SportsGuard time can be changed in 15 minute increments (these commands go in the file shellcmds):

regedit setstr Software/Apps/ReplayChannels EnableShowGuard TRUE
regedit setstr Software/Apps/ReplayChannels EnableSportsGuard TRUE
regedit setstr Software/Apps/ReplayChannels SportsGuardTime 90
regedit setstr Software/Apps/ReplayChannels ShowGuardTime 5

Use these commands at your own risk. If you are not comfortable with the remote possibility of having to re-image your ReplayTV, then you should probably not try to implement this feature.

*Edit: Previously it was believed that ShowGuard could be changed in 5 minute increments. Actual experience in 5XXX ReplayTVs has shown it can be changed in 1 minute increments.

[joesc1]

Is this a 5000 series only thing? I know with the 4000's , you could put showguard on in the CFP, but it never seemed to do anything.

[l8er]

I know it works on the 50XX/55XX ReplayTVs but not sure about the 40XX/45XX (I don't have one of those to test it on). If someone has a 40XX/45XX you can use getshellcmds and DVArchive to view the registry, then verify what the settings should be to enable ShowGuard and/or SportsGuard.

[rm -rf *.*]

Based on looking at a 4k registry file extracted from the most current copy I have of an RTV-4040B Registry file (upgraded to 160Gb at time of OS partition backup w/ RTVPatch - about 4 months ago) the showguard/sportsguard HKeys/strings/values from that 4k match up exactly with those from a recent backup of a 55xx (os 5.3 build 144) and also from a 5k (os 5.3 build 19, and also, os 5.3 build 140).

So in theory, to answer the question of "can you use these commands on a 4k via WIRNS?" the answer should be yes but REMEMBER l8er's WARNING: "Disclaimer: since it's modifying the registry, it's possible to corrupt it and end up with a ReplayTV that won't boot"

Oh, yeah, I believe I recall seeing a note somewhere (dammed if I can find it now though) in a post about the 4k/45xx's and the CFP command for showguard & why the OS responds with "Enabled/Disabled" and that was that you could use the CFP to turn it on/off, but you had to hack the registry to set the time values to something other than zero (0), as this value will cause the feature to be disabled regardless of the true/false on/off setting.

[rm -rf *.*]

Originally posted by l8er
The ShowGuard time can be changed in 5 minute increments and I think the SportsGuard time can be changed in 15 minute increments


Everything I've ever seen seems to support those increments as being correct & the replay rounds down to the next lowest increment if you decide not to conform...

I don't recall if I ever saw a noted maximum settable/allowable value for ShowGuard. (Who needs more than 5 min of default auto-padding anyway? More than that and you can just manually pad the show...)

I believe the maximum SportsGuard setting was 120 (2 hours).

[rickster]

I'm surprised.

My experience (with 5xxx boxes) when I've changed the registry settings for both sportsguard and showguard has been that the registry settings change, but the behavior of the RTV does not. So I gave up on it a while ago.

I used to own a 4xxx box and was able to get sportsguard to work on that at one time, but I no longer own that.

Can you confirm that your RTV actually adds the padding to the shows? I'll try again if it is known to work.

Rick

[Kevin Main]

Just had my Panasonic Showstopper HD upgraded and ShowGuard and SportsGuard were installed on the new drive. Have not tested it yet, will comment when test complete.

Kevin Main

[l8er]

Originally posted by rickster
My experience (with 5xxx boxes) when I've changed the registry settings for both sportsguard and showguard has been that the registry settings change, but the behavior of the RTV does not. The trick is using the correct settings. The ones I've posted are the correct ones, and yes, they do work. Shows get automatically padded by 5 minutes if there is not a recording immediately afterward.

[rickster]

Alrighty then - I'll give it a try with those settings and report back.
Rick

[mhargr03]

sorry for reviving an old thread but i could not find anything on replayfaqs regarding showguard...

is this something that can ONLY be activated using WiRNS and the getshellcmds file? i have yet to use WiRNS and therefore am not that familiar with setting it all up...is it difficult?

or can i use a clawfoot portal command?

also, can i use any value where it shows '5' above for showguard?

thanks so much!

[l8er]

Originally posted by mhargr03
is this something that can ONLY be activated using WiRNS and the getshellcmds file? i have yet to use WiRNS and therefore am not that familiar with setting it all up...is it difficult? I think WiRNS and getshellcmds is the only way to enable it. If you follow the directions (links are at my upgrade site, setting up WiRNS for CA and IVS would work similar to setting it up for ShowGuard), WiRNS is not hard to set up.

or can i use a clawfoot portal command?I think not.

also, can i use any value where it shows '5' above for showguard?
Valid values for ShowGuard appear to be in 1 minute increments.

[MaxH]

Actually, I have ShowGuard set at 2 minutes, and if you check my show DB on Poopli, you'll see I have a fair number of 32 and 62 minute recordings.

[mhargr03]

Great...I'll give it a try! Thanks Gary and Max