Windows 7: Duplicate TV series recordings

I am having WMC make duplicate recordings of TV series when the duplicates have exactly the same title. Does anyone know exactly what the rules are that control the recording of a TV show in a series?



Also a related issue, if one deletes a recording after watching it should it still remember that this was recorded in the series and not re-record it?

Finding these by trial and error seems less than ideal.

Please provide an example of a specific situation in which you're getting duplicate recordings that you don't want. What is the setup for that series recording, i.e. each option and how you've got it specified? Is it on multiple channels? Multiple replays of the same show?

Please be specific for one example.

Normally if you specify "new" then it will only be recorded once, even if it is repeated throughout the day or week. The "History" kept by WMC treats the first recording as satisfying the "new" requirement, and all other airings are "not new".

You can also further restrict accidental duplicates by limiting the air time to that once-a-week first run event (e.g. 10PM on Wednesday, with all other airings being repeats and typically at other times than 10PM, so you specify "around 10PM" in your series setup). But honestly "anytime" is not a problem, coupled with "new", and you'll only get one airing per week recorded of that week's episode.


Correct. That's what "History" is for.

By any chance is there a way to view the history data? I assume it is in some binary format that only WMC can decode. Perhaps there is a utility to decode it. I have not been able to find a place in the normal GUI where a user can access it.
Lacking that I will do some screen dumps to document the duplication.

Go into "recorded TV", and up-navigate to "view scheduled". Then down-navigate to "History".

Now it is very clear but I kept missing the "history" entry. An example of the two identical entries show in the history. I will do a screen dump and post it. It is too bad the history can't be dumped as a spread sheet file or the like.

The problem of duplicate recordings has not happened again. I think the listings from the station may have had some odd characters in it that were not easy to see in the on screen display. Perhaps if the files were "open" format, one could see what happened. For now I am considering this done.