Scheduler Improvement

[vbvos]

Hello Chris,

As of version 5.00, the scheduler is much better. The file names are now much more informative, and programming the times is also inproved.

However, I believe there are still some improvements which you could consider.

1. Although the file names including the channel description are an improvement, when recording from the scheduler you have the additional option of specifying the file name for the current task. What I would like is the ability to use the name of the task description here. For example, if I program a task for my wife called "deperate housewives", it would be nice if the dropdown list with suggested file names included this title in addition to <default>. As it is now, you need to specify the same text in two locations (the task name and the file name) if you want more instructive file names to be used. (Note that you are required to type a task name anyway.)

2. Scheduling a task for immediate execution can still be improved upon. The orange button for inserting the current time is an improvement, but if you use this button hoping that recording will start when you save the task you will be disappointed, as the starting time will be in the past, especially if you change some other settings before saving.
The way it should be, in my opinion, is that clicking the orange button should add a checkbox to the menu "Start recording when I save this task". That way you could just focus on setting the end time, and click the orange button and tick the checkbox to ensure that recording always starts immediately.
One of the main differences between starting a recording with ^C and using the scheduler is that in the latter case you can set an end time, so that you don't need to hang around to switch off the recording afterwards (what I do now is to change the recording length limit on the General page of the recording settings, but this is a bit of a hassle and there is always a danger that you forget to re-set the time).

3. Elaborating on point 2, you could consider including a currently running recording made by pressing ^C in the task list shown in the scheduler. This would allow you to immediately start recording something you see and which you want to record by pressing ^C, and then set the end time and file name at your leisure by calling up the scheduler and editing the task currently being executed. Of course if you change the file name, you would need to rename the currently open file when recording stops, but that would be easy to implement. I find that I am making such spur-of-the-moment decisions rather often, so anything that improves my "reaction time" is welcome.

The ability to use hot keys (such as ^C above) is a great time saver. Even better, if you use a keyboard macro program, you can remap these shortcuts to whatever yoiur remote is sending to your computer. Using this trick I can use my ASUS remote (which is not supported directly) with ChrisTV! Just remember to configure your macro program so that it only translates the codes sent by the remote if ChrisTV is the active window.

Paul