[mythtv] Channel change time improvements

[James Courtier-Dutton]

Hi,

I have done some more work looking at the channel change time.
The main cause of the long channel change time is that myth deletes
all the C++ objects of the old channel, waits for them to all
disappear, and the creates new C++ objects for the new channel.
The delete takes at least 2 seconds to do.
I would suggest that it would be better if instead of deleting objects
when changing channel, is to leave all the objects there, and just
change to writing to a different filename. Much like log rotating.

I did a lot of development on xine media player, which has a stream
model from input to output.
if the input stream changes, e.g. A DVD menu selection happens, the
input is told to change to different content, the input inserts a
control packet into the stream between the old content and the new.
This allows downstream processes, e.g. codecs, to flush themselves
correctly before starting to process the new content.
This permits xine to react to DVD menu selections very quickly.

I cannot find anywhere in myth where this "control packet" concept appears.
Can someone point me to it if it exists, and if not, I will try to
implement support for it.

Kind Regards

James