[mythtv] Dual tuners, LiveTV, why must LiveTV always be interrupted?

[Bruce Markey]

Joe Votour wrote:
> Isaac,
> 
> Thanks for the pointer in the right direction.  Just
> by messing around with the value of
> nextRecording->cardid (just set it to 2, rather than
> 1), I've been able to watch LiveTV while recording
> another program (well, something recorded, I need to
> make sure it's the right thing), without being asked
> to change the channel.
> 
> This is up for debate, but I'd like some ideas (from
> you, and other people on the list) as to how this
> situation should be handled...  Should it be automatic
> that in a multi-tuner system that the recording be
> done on the second tuner when watching LiveTV?  Or
> would people like to have this seen as a configuration
> option?

Perhaps you should think about this the other way around.
Rather than forcing the scheduler to rework things at the
last second (you haven't scratched the surface on all the
intricacies of this ;-) you can simply choose the last
available card for LiveTV so that the first card is available
for the scheduled recording.

In other words, if you have three cardinputs, watch LiveTV
on 3 so that 1 and 2 are free to record scheduled shows.
You would only be prompted when there are three to record
and you would be prompted to not record a lower ranked show
(your highest ranked show will be recorded on 1).

You could modify this for yourself in HandleGetFreeRecorder
by ignoring the host stuff and returning the last available
encoder.

That being said, I wouldn't want it to behave any differently
than it does right now. I've used DVRs for over two years
and haven't intended to watch "Live TV" for nearly two years.
If my list of recorded shows isn't more appealing than the
things that just happen to be on now, then I know I'm not
using the DVR properly.

If I do find something currently showing that I want to see, I
mark it to record then watch the recording. This has several
advantages. First, it won't timeout if you are called away or
distracted for longer than the ringbuffer time. You won't lose
the recorded portion if you want to go back to the menu or if
you inadvertently change channels. The show may contain something
that you want to keep or show to someone else later.

For MythTV with multiple cards, if you really feel the need to
channel surf ;-) you can mark an interesting show for record then
go back to Live TV to continue channel surfing on another card.

This also addresses the problem you are trying to solve. Once
you mark a show to record, the scheduler knows which card is
busy, and more importantly, when it will stop being busy, so
that it can update the schedule correctly.

The way the cardinput for Live TV is selected now is that it
looks for an available card that matches the hostname of the
frontend. If there isn't one then use the first available card.
I like this because I can go to a host and test that card's audio
and video without having to start dummy recording to make the
card I'm interested in the next available.

For me, I would not be interested in silently moving recordings
to other cards or always using the last available card. However,
I would say that the best way for you to get the behavior you
are suggesting would be by defaulting to always choosing the
last available card to use for Live TV.

--  bjm