Recorded TV Manager Add-in for Windows® Home Server

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MS Windows Home Server


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Home Server Add-in

Recorded TV Manager Tab

Collections

Select a series

1. Select a series to collect.


Choose a collection location

2. Choose a location to collect the series.


Choose a Media Center to watch the collection

3. Choose a Media Center computer to watch the series on.

AutoMove

AutoMove

AutoDelete

Settings
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Recorded TV Manager Vista Media Center Add-in Beta 2

Play NextPlay Next Page

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Use Play Next to play the next episode in a recorded TV series collection, regardless as to where it is stored on the Home Server network.  The Play Next collections list represents a subset of the complete recorded TV collection.  The subset is defined by setting collection rules in the Recorded TV Manager tab on the Windows Home Server Console.

What is a Collection?

In order for a series collection to appear on the Play Next page in Media Center, the following conditions must be met:

  1. In the Recorded TV Manager tab on the Windows Home Server Console, in the Collections Wizard, the series collection is enabled.  Also see Using Advanced to define a Collection.
  2. In the Collections Wizard, the series is NOT being watched on a specific Media Center computer.
  3. There is at least one current recording of the series.

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What is the 'Next Episode'?

The 'Next Episode' to play is determined as follows:

  1. If the 'last watched episode' is known, then the next episode is the next recording selected by original air date.
  2. If the last watched episode is not indicated, then the next episode is always the first one by original air date.
  3. Sometimes the recordings do not have valid original air date information.  In those cases, the "next episode" is somewhat random but will probably follow date recorded.

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Using Play Next

The Play Next page has a scrollable list of series collections (as defined above) on the left hand side of the screen.  Each series in the list also indicates the number of current recordings in parenthesis.  The right side of the screen indicates the currently selected series and the next episode (as defined above).  Select the series to play and then click OK to play the next episode of the selected series within Vista Media Center.

When you play the next episode from the Play Next page, the Series Info database will be updated as follows:

  1. The episode is checked if the Check on Play option is defined for this series.  Use the Series Info dialog in the Recorded TV Manager Client application to set the Check on Play option.
  2. The date watched of the episode is set to the current date.
  3. The last watched episode of the series is set to this episode.
  4. The software will issue a series update request. See Series Info Update Issues

After playing the selected episode, Media Center will return to the Play Next page.  Click Delete to delete the recording.  Deleting the recording from the Play Next page will automatically check the episode (it will issue another Series Info Update request.)  Control will then return to the Media Center Start menu.

Developer's Note: In order to play multiple consecutive episodes of the same series using Play Next, either the AutoCopy Restart Service Version 3.2.2 must be installed and running on the WHS or, Version 3.4.12 of the client application must be running somewhere on the network.  See  Series Info Update Issues for more information,  (Leaving the client app running is basically the same as leaving Windows Explorer running, and does not consume much in the way of resources unless you are using it for something.)

The last watched episode for a series can be changed using the Recorded TV Manager WHS Client application.

  1. Start the client application on a network computer.
  2. From the Tools menu select Series Info...
  3. Select the series in the drop-down list.
  4. Right-click on the episode and select Last watched episode.

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Using Advanced to define a Collection

Istead of using the Collections Wizard, you can use the Advanced button on the Settings page to manually define collection rules.

  1. On the Recorded TV Manager tab on the Home Server Console, click Settings to open the Recorded TV Manager Settings page.
  2. Under AutoCopy Service click Advanced...
  3. Use the AutoCopy Rules dialog to set up collection rules.  Create an OnCreate rule for each series you wish to include on the Play Next page.
  4. Click OK to close the AutoCopy Rules dialog.
  5. Important: After making modifications to the rules, you MUST click Apply on the Settings page in order to save the changes.

Rules

See also: Recorded TV Manager Version 2 help for more information about AutoCopy rules and the AutoCopy Rule dialog box.

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