[mythtv-users] Record table preferences

[Bruce Markey]

Corey Virgil wrote:
>>When I add things to 'record' I already know that I prefer
>>"Nova" over "Bowling for Dollars". I want to let the system
>>know this. I want to to catch every episode of "Survivor"
>>even if it gets moved to Wednesday or if there is a special
>>one time episode of "That 70's Show" on a Thursday.
> 
> 
> I believe TiVo has the correct approach to this problem with their
> "Season Pass Manager".  It simply presents a list of all your season
> passes (basically the same as an any time - any channel recording) and

[Actually anytime, single channel. If a show is on more
than one channel, you can add an entry for each channel
and it will still record each unique episode only once
regardless of which channel it was recorded on.]

> lets you rearrange the order.  If two recordings conflict with each
> other, the one that's highest on the list gets recorded.  One time
> recordings that conflict with a previously scheduled program are dealt
> with at the time you try to schedule the recording.

First, I want to be clear that I'm not suggesting reverse
engineering proprietary software from commercial products.

One problem I've had with commercial products is single
record can't be prioritized. For example. Say I find a
science special on Discovery but the NBA finals schedule
isn't set yet. I'd like to see this show but I don't want
to miss a Lakers game because of it. In MythTV, single record
items are in the record table and could initially placed at
top priority. I could then move it down below NBA Basketball
and avoid inadvertently blocking what I really wanted to see
(this has happened to me several times where schedules change
after I pick a single record).

> IMHO, this is a much better approach than the way MythTV currently
> handles it.  I don't really see what the length of a show has to do with
> which show I want recorded.  I'd much rather see Survivor (1 hour) than
> WWE Smackdown (2 hours 20 minutes), for example.
> 
> What would be cool, though, would be to have it record the higher
> priority, but shorter, program then go pick up the remainder of the
> longer program when it's done.

Yeah, that would be slick. I manually piece together sections
but an option could grab the time segments that don't conflict
for the things where you would want to specify this behavior.
With myth, the solution is to have enough backends to record
all the shows in their entirety.

--  bjm