Contour 2 - current channel counts as a "recording", but recording that program "back" to when you started watching?

Back to COX after a year or so with another provider & naturally have found differences between the Contour 2 & whichever system was place when we were customers before (Maybe the Contour 1...I'm not sure).  Most of it's been good, but now & then there's been what I consider steps back.

One that I just noticed -- before she joined me to prepare dinner, my mom asked me to record the show she had been watching (which had been on the same channel, unchanged). She didn't catch a few moments right before she got up (to stop watching), but I assumed that since the current channel counts as one of the 6 recording channels, it would record everything that had happened since she turned it to that channel (about 10 minutes into the show --- I hit record at about 45 minutes). 

However, when she went to finish watching it now, she found that it only recorded from the point I hit record.  This isn't a question per-say, since I already found how it works, but I just think this is a little odd. Partly because it's a step back from a good feature lesser boxes were able to accomplish, but also because it seems like it's pointless to have the active channel count as one of the 6 recordings if it actually wasn't "recording" (& then able to be literally recording) since you turned to the channel. This should be added to the list of previous-features they need to re-implement.

In fact, I just tested if I were to rewind the currently-being-watched program first, then hit record, if it would record from that rewound point on ---- but no, it only records from when you hit record, even if you had been watching the program the entire time it was on.  

This was such a convenient feature, it's quite a shame it's not available on supposedly superior technology. Especially since the ability to rewind the current-channel is because it's counted as one of our 6 possible recordings. Is there a way to "past record" the current program that I'm just missing? It seems like it should be possible given the ability to rewind.