How do I enable timer padding under Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 Media Center? or Why do I miss the end of my shows?

You can setup timer padding on the Media Center which will automatically extend all timers based on the time you set. This is to prevent missing the start or end of recorded shows due to the TV stations not sticking to their advertised start and stop times. As a general rule we would recommend anywhere from 15 to 20 mins to be automatically added to the end of recordings, and 2 to 5 minutes added to the start.

You can set the padding options in the IceTV Interactive application.

To setup padding in IceTV Interactive please do the following:

1. Double-click on the IceTV Interactive icon (a round blue icon with a white cross/star in the Windows tool tray, next to the clock).
2. Click on the Recordings tab in the IceTV Interactive window.
3. Set your preferred padding options.
4. Click on the Apply button to save your settings.
5. Click on the Close button.

That's it. You are done. Now any recordings that you set via IceTV will have the extra time added to it automatically.

If your version of IceTV Interactive does not have the Recordings tab you should update to the latest version of IceTV Interactive for Windows 7, 8 or 10 Media Center, or you can use Windows Media Center's built in soft padding options as follows.

Note: These steps are not necessary if you have done the steps above.

1. Open Media Center.
2. Under Tasks, select Settings.
3. Select TV.
4. Select Recorder.
5. Select Recording Defaults.
6. Change the options for "Start when possible" and "Stop when possible".
7. Select Save.

All future schedules will now use these settings to extend the recordings.