[mythtv] mythcommflag control suggestion

[Ambrose Kofi Laing]

Hi Everyone,

first post here.  I have a problem with mythcommflag.  Somehow when it runs,

encoding (by PVR-350) seems to include artifacts.  Playback has lots lof
little split-second
freezes.  There is no problem at all if I switch things off so that
mythcommflag does
not run while recording.  Its an underpowered PC I know.

I know mythcommflag runs nice (17), but that seems to still not be good
enough for
not interfering with other processes.

I also know it is possible to set up a window of time during which
mythcommflag can run,
and no jobs will be initiated outside this window.   That works best if
there is a window during
which I never want to record any shows.  However some of the shows I record
are sitcom
reruns that run at all sorts of odd hours.  If I could keep these windows
disjoint from the
recording sessions, that would be great, but the interface is obviously
designed so that you
set the mythcommflag window once and leave it alone.

So my suggestion is that if possible mythcommflag should be designed to be
able to dynamically adapt
its operation to run outside the recording and playback sessions.  That is,
when any recording
or playback is happening, mythcommflag will not run, and when nothing is
happening, we don't need
to tell mythcommflag to run, it just kicks into gear on noticing the silence
and does what it has to do.
The goal is to have mythcommflag automatically know what the recording
schedules are and what the
users' viewing activity is, and know how to stay off the radar in those
times.  If this can be arranged,
then mythcommflag can run with no high nice setting, just barge through the
job and be done with it.

One way I was thinking of doing this (preferably without touching any source
code for right now),
is to misuse the commands for turning the machine off and on when nothing is
happening.  It is intended
for shutting down and waking up, but can we use those hooks to instead
enable and disable
mythcommflag?  That way, whenever the machine thinks it is safe to go to
sleep because no recording
or viewing is happening, it will instead permit mythcommflag to run.  And
when it thinks it is time to come
back on, it will instead disable mythcommflag.

Any reactions welcome -- either on how to get this implemented as a standard
feature, or how I
can configure my own installation to have that behavior with the minimum of
work.

Thanks,

Ambrose
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