[mythtv] Next Scheduler Patch

[Jay Love]

I still routinely watch LiveTV even though I've been a Tivo user for 3 
years.  I just can't anticipate everything I want to watch, nor do I 
have the time to go through and plan my viewing habits in advance.  
That's why Tivo has its Suggestions feature,  which would be nice to get 
into Myth eventually. But...

What I'm here to talk about is a couple of things that are related to 
this thread.  Often when I'm watching LiveTV, I'll find something mildly 
entertaining and start watching it.  Then I'll wonder if there's 
anything more interesting already recorded.  But in order to check, I 
have to exit LiveTV and go to the Recordings screen.  I then lose 
whatever I've been wathcing, both the history and whatever is shown 
while I'm checking what has been recorded.  I would like to be able to 
have the option of having LiveTV always running, and I can exit out and 
check the weather or listen to a song and come back and rewind LiveTV 
and see what I missed.  This must be a FAQ, because its how Tivo works, 
but why can't we have LiveTV always recording to the ringbuffer even if 
you're not on the LiveTV screen (or in the program, rather)?  If the 
scheduler changes the channel on that tuner to record something, when 
that recording is finished, it can just leave the tuner on that channel 
and go back to recording to the ringbuffer.

Perhaps the reason is related to my next issue, which is multiple 
frontends and LiveTV.  If I'm watching LiveTV in one room on a frontend, 
and someone else can't stand the smell of the chili I'm eating and wants 
to go watch on another frontend in another room, they can't watch LiveTV 
(with only one tuner) because apparently the ringbuffer is local to a 
frontend.  Is there a technical reason why a ringbuffer can't be fed to 
more than one frontend?  I guess this would mean treating the ringbuffer 
more like a regular recording.  Is that not feasible with the current 
architecture?

I'm not asking anyone else to implement this; if no one else is 
interested but its feasible and noninvasive, I'll eventually take a 
crack at it.  But I was wondering if there are architectural limitations 
that preclude getting this done.  This is one of those WAF things, 
coming from a Tivo household.

Thanks-
Jay


Tako Schotanus wrote:

>I hear this a lot on this list but I just don't agree, for a number of
>reasons:
>
>a) I don't always know what is "good", most things I just encounter by
>accident because while browsing the channels it attracted me more than
>everything else
>b) There are times that there is nothing on that you consider good and
>you're just looking for an alternative to while away the time _now_
>c) Here in The Netherlands the channels all seem to conspire to put
>their best movies on at the same time, and I don't have an unlimited
>number of TV cards, in fact I have only one
>d) I don't have unlimited harddisk space either to just go and record
>everything that I might possibily want to watch
>e) Some TV grabbers only provide the most basic information (title and
>start/end times) and nothing more, making it very difficult to make any
>good decisions about what to record and what not.
>
>So I don't mind that you and people like you don't need Live TV anymore,
>but don't patronize us by saying that it's only because we haven't seen
>the light yet. :-)
>
>Cheers,
> -Tako
>
>  
>
>>100% agree. I think of live TV as A/V test mode. Other than
>>that, I think of using live TV to preserve channel surfing
>>habits as sort of 'training wheels' for new DVR users. Once
>>someone 'gets it' they realize that they can schedule all of
>>the shows they might like to watch. When they turn the TV on,
>>they can choose from any of the shows they think are 'good'
>>rather than channel surfing hoping to find something 'good' on.
>>
>>When designing a bicycle, the training wheels should be sturdy,
>>practical, and well designed but Lance Armstrong will never use
>>them. I like to think of MythTV as a Tour de France DVR with
>>on-going improvements to the training wheels ;-).
>>
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
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