Making timed recordings with Media Encoder

This example is for Media Encoder. The Task Manager method may also be helpful for other applications. See here.
Other methods, programs and News here.

Our output file is named TV.asf. We set the recording duration to 3 hours in this example. Then we close Media Encoder; when it asks to save, click yes and save this settings (template) file as TV.asd.

Now we use the Windows Task Manager to start the recording. To achieve this, Task manager has to start Media Encoder and pass a parameter to it that specifies the settings (template) file to use.

If you don't find Windows Task Manager in your system tray, search the executable in your \Windows\System folder. The name is MSTASK.EXE. Put a link to it into your Autostart group for convenience. It will then install in the taskbar every time Windows is started.

When it runs, click on the tray icon in the taskbar and you get the scheduled tasks folder displayed.

The first task must be defined by clicking on "Add Scheduled Task". This starts the wizard:

The wizard looks up your Start groups. This may take some time. Then you can choose any program. This time it's Windows Media Encoder.

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Now you can set the scheduling time and options.

After this, check "Open advanced properties" before you continue.

Add   /Start   E:\TV.asd   (or any other template file file name and drive letter desired) to the program name. This will make sure that Media Encoder gets the necessary information when it's started.

Press OK an you'll see your new task in the listing.

Next time you want to program a task, you may either double click the old one to modify it,

or if you need more than one, you may click on the task, press Ctrl and drag it into an empty place in the same window. This makes a copy. You may rename the copy by clicking on its name twice w. some delay in between. Then you modify its setting by opening it with a double click.

Do not forget to specify different output file names for Media Encoder if you program different tasks, otherwise only the first recording will work and the others will stop, asking if the file should be overwritten.

To prepare Media Encoder for the timed recording, always make sure the desired output file does not already exist and your TV card is set to the right program.

Other recording software

To program multiple recordings from different TV stations, you need a way to program your TV card. Here are procedures for channel setting on Hauppauge WinTV cards I just got from Bob Jiantonio.

Hauppauge and Pinnacle have also released some new VCR like programs for their top products. I can't comment on these because I don' own any.
Terratec's new WDM 0.3 beta software is promising, very stable capturing under Windows2000, but lacks a timer. I have made a simple one for it (see Links page).

There are also commercial programs using Media Encoder for a VCR:
Snapstream
and
ShowShifter (this one is under development and they're looking for beta testers).
Both are giving me headaches with their user interface, and compatibility issues are numerous.

AVI_IO also develops into a VCR program. It's drawbacks so far: Likes to forget compression settings, can not always tune to all TV stations, no sound compression.

I hesitate to mention WinVCR and PowerVCR. If you ever got to work one of these on your computer, you're lucky. So far, I had nothing but difficulties with both on several different systems. Like with most commercial systems, the main problem is the lack of support for a wide veriety of TV cards.

The freeware Dscaler supports a whole host of TV cards. I wrote a free timer program for Dscaler 4.16 that can also set the TV channel at at start of recording. You may pre- program multiple TV recordings by starting multiple instances of it. Use PTFB to click away Dscaler's "experimental feature" warning.

VitualDub can also capture, although it is not very flexible when it comes do drivers and haedware support.
A VirtualDub version with built-in timer is available at http://www.virtualdub.net (link: Downloads).

You may also like to try my free timer utilities for VirtualDub (VDtimer) and Terratec WDM (TTTimer).

If you have a Digital8 Camcorder with analog/DV feed through, or a dedicated DV converter (from about $250), you may use any VCR or other receiver, convert its output to DV and capture with ScenalyzerLive. Sclive meanwhile has multiple timers and an option to capture without starting the camcorder tape. All one needs. It's the best and most reliable way to capture, although about 14 GB/hour of harddrive space are required.
This is what I use to convert / capture analog sources. It is still the best way. MPEG2 converters that can do real time, both hard- and software based, are not really good (at least not anything privately affordable).
Be cautious about Scenalyzer's timer function however, I found that letting the timer wait overnight would not always reliably start recording .