ALL of my recordings start early, big hassle to fast forward every time

I am sorry, but your information is wrong.  I tested several programs and the "soft padding" for the beginning of the show is 1:20,  one minute and twenty seconds.   That is why if you click the skip forward button twice you still have to watch 20 seconds of the previous program;  if you click skip forward three times you have gone too far.  Check it yourself to confirm:  1:20 before the program starts.

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mitchflorida wrote:

I am sorry, but your information is wrong.  I tested several programs and the "soft padding" for the beginning of the show is 1:20,  one minute and twenty seconds.   That is why if you click the skip forward button twice you still have to watch 20 seconds of the previous program;  if you click skip forward three times you have gone too far.  Check it yourself to confirm:  1:20 before the program starts.

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Your statement is wrong.  Soft padding starts a scheduled recording 1 mintue prior to the scheduled start time shown in the Guide.  The actual time a channel starts a program will never be exactly to the second of the scheduled time shown in the Guide.  It varies from channel to channel and program to program.  Thus, if you fast forward the recording, the actual amount of time before the actual progam begins varies.  I have checked it out, and with soft padding the time varies on my recordings from less than a minute to slightly more than a minute.

Soft padding is not set to 1:20 before the program starts.

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@mitchflorida wrote:

I am sorry, but your information is wrong.  I tested several programs and the "soft padding" for the beginning of the show is 1:20,  one minute and twenty seconds.   That is why if you click the skip forward button twice you still have to watch 20 seconds of the previous program;  if you click skip forward three times you have gone too far.  Check it yourself to confirm:  1:20 before the program starts.

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I had a PBS program that started 40 seconds in.  I had another (TVLand) that was 1:10 before the program started.

Not all networks or stations have synchronized their clocks, hence the need for "soft padding".

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@mitchflorida wrote:

I am sorry, but your information is wrong.  I tested several programs and the "soft padding" for the beginning of the show is 1:20,  one minute and twenty seconds.   That is why if you click the skip forward button twice you still have to watch 20 seconds of the previous program;  if you click skip forward three times you have gone too far.  Check it yourself to confirm:  1:20 before the program starts.

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Sorry, no, most are right at 1:00, some at :40, some at 1:05.  You don't realize that back when I got Uverse in 2008, there was no soft padding and people were complaining they did not get the start of some programs, so they instituted soft padding 1 minute before, 2 mins after.

Seems you're the only only one complaining and complaining much about nothing of consequence.   There are more important things in life to worry and complain about than 1 minute of soft padding.

Chris
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How hard would it be for Uverse to provide an option for this feature?  No padding or 1:20 minute padding at your option.   How much would it cost for an engineer to program that.  I might be able to pay for it myself with my $150 monthly bill.  

My wife and I really appreciate the "soft-padding" feature.  Sometimes the networks run over at the end of a program and we would have missed the ending had it not been for the fact that recording continued on 3 minutes.  Likewise.....our local news station sometimes jumps the gun and hits the air with the first....and often most important.....story of the evening.  Were it not for "soft-padding" starting the recording early we would have missed out.  So.....thank you AT&T for this feature.  It's a real plus for us.....and my arthritic finger can still push that little button a few times to fast forward when necessary.

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@AmishGuy91 wrote:
If they eliminated the soft padding, this is the same guy that would complain about a recording starting 5 seconds late.

Since the internal clocks at every station are not consistent, nor in sync with AT&T, give me the soft padding so I never miss the beginning

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Exactly. Like I said earlier, my local news will start at 4:59 (they have a clock on-screen.) A lot of other shows do this...some other shows may go a few moments late, too.)

But...would it be so hard to give the option to turn it off for the 1% that complains about it?

The soft padding really confounds my wife.  When watching a recording, at the start she will ask why XYZ show is on (the tail end of) and not her show.  AND after her show, she will start to get into the next show, what she can see in 2 minutes and she will be confused as to why it stops.  Oh me.

I much prefer the "inconvenience" of soft padding compared to what I used to get with TiVo and TWC. I don't know what messed up the timing between them but I can't tell you how many times I missed the very beginning or the last 30 seconds or so of a program. For lots of shows those first few moments are just "previously on......" but that is not always the case. I prefer to fast forward than miss any part of a program I take serious enough to record.

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@GPM75070 wrote:

I much prefer the "inconvenience" of soft padding compared to what I used to get with TiVo and TWC. I don't know what messed up the timing between them but I can't tell you how many times I missed the very beginning or the last 30 seconds or so of a program. For lots of shows those first few moments are just "previously on......" but that is not always the case. I prefer to fast forward than miss any part of a program I take serious enough to record.

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While I don't have TWC anymore (haven't in about 9 years), I do have TiVO with my local provider and it has soft padding built in as well as the option to start early or on time and the ability to adjust the end time and for live events it let's me know this is a live event would you like to add 1,3,5, minutes up to 3 hours to the end of a recording.  For NASCAR I typically add 3 hours.  I also add 3 hours on CBS shows on Sunday nights during football season so that if a game goes long I'm not missing any of my recording.

Bit hard to do when AT&T requires a 2 year contract.  This is a major annoyance for me too and when my contract expires I will be switching to cable.