[mythtv-users] Consecutive programs, dual tuners

Brad Templeton brad+myth at templetons.com
Tue Dec 21 06:55:59 UTC 2004


On Tue, Dec 21, 2004 at 03:31:13PM +1100, Martin Brown wrote:
> Unfortunately, a second tuner card does _NOT_ necessarily solve this 
> problem. You'd think it would but no.
> 
> If the two programs are on the same channel, only the one tuner will be 
> used, the end of the first program will be on the file for the second 
> program. Sure, it's recorded ... until you edit or delete the second 
> program to discover that you also lost the last bit of the first one. 
> Bummer!
> 
> I haven't seen it do this for two consecutive programs recorded from 
> different channels. I'll try that one out.
> 
> This sounds like a bug the more I think about it.

Considered one of the great flaws of the Tivo as well.  The right
answer, when two programs overlap on the same channel, is to put
the overlap minutes into _both_ programs.

Ie. if I have a show from 8 to 9 with "record 1 minute extra at end"
and a show from 9 to 10 with "record 1 minute earlier at start" on the
same channel, it should just work.   Two 61 minute recordings, sharing
2 minutes in common.

If you want to get really fancy, you would in fact have them share the
very disk space.   


To do that, Myth would need to convert to a system where single shows
can be recorded in a set of files rather than a single file, and playback
involves concatenating the files.  This can be done if you pre-buffer
stuff when heading for a transition so it never skips.

This has a lot of uses, and in fact it makes a lot of sense that all
recordings might be stored in smaller 15 minute or so chunks.

It allows easy deleting of the front of a program, up to near the point
where you've watched.  It allows easy integration as described above.
It allows easy deletion of the end of programs too, though you can
also ask the filesystem to shrink a file there.

It also is a path to the ultimate goal for live-tv watching, where
live tv watching is actually identical to recording, but the recording
is done in chunks so the old chunks can be removed to save space once
watched.

Yeah, it's always easier to talk than to write code!


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