How to use TimeShift on Samsung TV

Today’s Samsung TVs come with many interesting features. All of these features are designed to make watching movies, TV shows, and other content on your TV more convenient and exciting. One such feature is TimeShift in Samsung TVs.

TimeShift allows you to control the TV playback or streaming platform content. In short, it’s the ability to pause and rewind the live broadcast. This means that if you’re late to the NBA finals, you can simply rewind the program a few hours and watch it almost live. However, you need external storage for this. That means it requires the connection of a USB hard drive. Well, let’s take a closer look at the TimeShift feature on your Samsung TV.

What is TimeShift on Samsung TV?

TimeShift is a feature that allows you to pause or rewind the broadcast for a while if you don’t want to miss any important moments. This is somewhat similar to how the ESPN streaming service works on Samsung TV.

Since the data is stored on a USB drive, it takes up little space. The amount of space taken depends on the video resolution, space optimization technology, and recording format.

With TimeShift, you can rewind programs while watching and rewind specific scenes or segments you missed. TimeShift can save up to 90 minutes of video at a time.

There are some limitations that you should be aware of if you’re going to use Timeshift. For example, Samsung notifies: “when recorded, the hard drive will be formatted in Samsung’s proprietary operating system, and the recorded content can only be played back on the same TV, so it cannot be changed”.

This means that you can only view recorded content from the TV. You cannot play back recorded content on a PC, for example, because the recording will be encrypted and protected.

How to enable TimeShift on Samsung TV

If you want to start using TimeShift on your Samsung TV, you can follow these instructions:

First of all, turn on the stream you want to rewind or pause and record.
After that, press the “Play” button on your remote control and TimeShift will automatically activate.
Then you can press “Pause” on your remote control to stop the playback.
To speed up or delay playback you need to use the “Arrow” to one side and the other.
To move backward or forward 10 seconds in the video you should press the “Up” button to move the focus to the playback control panel, then select the “Left” or “Right” button on the playback control panel.
Finally, you can also switch from TimeShift to recording. When you switch to the record function, you can include the content recorded with the Timeshift function in a new recording.

Using these instructions you can control your Samsung TV playback as long as there is enough space on your USB hard drive. In almost the same way, you can also use the TimeShift option on your LG TV.

What are the conditions and guidelines for Timeshift?

You should check if the Samsung TV supports the TimeShift feature. Also, support for this feature may be limited by the user’s geographical location. There are also several other requirements to consider before using it:

Recording capacity may vary depending on available hard disk space and recording quality level.
USB hard drives of RAID type aren’t supported.
USB memory sticks and flash drives aren’t supported.
A 5400 RPM or faster USB hard drive is recommended for recording and using this function on your TV.
If the memory becomes less than 500MB, you won’t be able to use the Schedule Recording or TimeShift feature.
If the recording begins to exceed 90 minutes, the beginning of the recording is gradually erased.
When the external storage reaches maximum capacity, TimeShift is automatically interrupted.
If auto power off has been set, the TV will turn off when the recording is complete.

Moreover, you have also to be aware that at least 100 MB of free space on the USB storage device is required for TimeShift to work.

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How to enable recording on Samsung TV

Besides TimeShift, there are two common recording options – live recording and scheduled recording. You can set the content you are playing to record and watch it later. You can also schedule a recording if you don’t want to miss an episode of your favorite show that’s on in the evening.

In any case, the two options are very similar but may differ depending on your TV model and year.

How to start recording on Samsung TV

If you want to start recording on your Samsung TV, you have to follow these steps:

Turn on the TV and press the Guide button you find on the Samsung remote control.
Navigate to the channel you are interested in and press Enter.
Next, you need to select “Record”.

Once you have completed these steps, you will start recording on your Samsung TV.

How to start scheduled recording on Samsung TV

To start scheduled recording – follow these steps:

Make sure the time on your TV matches the real-time.
When you have selected the channel you want, simply press the Select button.
You will then see a window with the program information.
Use the Left or Right buttons to select the program you want to record on the schedule
Finally, press the Select button and schedule the recording.

TimeShift and scheduled recording are very handy features that allow you not to miss your favorite shows or go back to watch a particularly favorite moment.