[mythtv-users] Video Archive And Slow Program Listings... (Bit long winded)

[Shane W.]

I originally ran across MythTV back in the 0.7 days, somewhere around
March I believe. Of course I fell in love with it immediately, and
started recording things... which leads to my problem.

I currently have around 400 recordings in the recorded table of
mythconverg, and it is taking around 5 or more seconds to load the
listings when I go under the recorded shows listings. I recently
reinstalled a clean RH9 with 0.12 to get a clean system, and I have been
importing the listings here and there from the old DB. I could easily
have another couple hundred or even upwards to a thousand more records
that I haven't imported back in due to the delay.

Now, I admit, I am a packrat, but the thing I loved most about myth was
the ability to use it as a big scary VCR. I can't remember the last time
that I used it for live TV. Like most techies, I keep hours that don't
quite work well with broadcaster's schedules... and I also know what I
want to watch when and don't like to have to settle for what is on (man,
myth has me spoiled big time!)

It seems that a large portion of the list seems to use a PVR-250/350 and
from what I can gage from the posts, the shows are watched and deleted.
My setup consists of a beefy backend (2g with half a terabyte of
storage) and 2 ATI TV wonder cards that are being software encoded as
mpeg4 and ending with files that are about 800meg/hour with good
quality. Since mythtranscode has hit a point that it seems to work for
me flawlessly, I have been cutting the commercials and now the end file
is around 600meg/hour. 


However, I am kind of at a loss as to what to do with the lag in the
listings. I am kind of hoping that there are some other packrats out
there or even just someone with an easy solution to the lag. When I had
the previous system running, the listings could take around 10 seconds
to load, and on my remote front-end, it would take even longer.

The only solution that I have come up with is to dump things from the DB
that I am not interested in at that moment and importing them later.
(Made the mistake of seeing a weekend marathon of "I dream of Jeannie"
and hitting the always record button. The listings took almost a minute
on the local front-end and sig faulted the remote front-end.)

Though, I was thinking about it this morning and it occurred to me that
it might be possible to have an "archive" table that would contain
listings of programs that people want to keep for an extended amount of
time. Keep them from being easily deleted, and also keep them out of the
general listings of just the day to day things that are watched and
deleted. It is annoying when I watch one of the "watch and delete" shows
and it lags after exiting the recording (reloading the listings) and
then after telling it to delete it lags while loading the listings
again. 

Plus I am also sitting on a pair of PVR-250s that I am planning on
throwing in the remote front-end so I can take advantage of the time
shifting abilities on the local machine, but it isn't going to help my
lag any by adding 2 more tuners! ;)

Oh, and an FYI for people who want to keep programs but are running out
of room on their drives, Myth works seamlessly with symbolic links. Plus
it only deletes the link and not the program if it is accidentally
deleted from the front-end listings... a plus or minus depending on your
viewpoint. Since the drive that myth records to is the one most likely
to experience failure (lotta reading and writing going on!), I feel it
is safer to move the keeper programs to another drive and just link to
them.

And a huge thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to bring all of us
this amazing software!

Shane


BTW, I remember seeing somewhere in the docs that one should expect a
ratio of one software encoded tuner/gig of processor. I have seen my box
record 2 shows, play another show locally, and a fourth remotely and the
mythbackend process is only ~40% on my 2gigger. I have also run
mythtranscode while doing the 4 other processes, and it still is
perfectly fine. Was the estimate a conservative one? Or have I been
breathing in too much blue smoke?

Ok, I'm done now.