[mythtv-users] Getting the most use out of all tuners

[Peter Schachte]

Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 02/18/2007 09:41 PM, Peter Schachte wrote:
>> So it seems there should be two kinds of pre-roll:  the kind that can be
>> ignored if the same tuner is already in use, and the kind that should only be
>> ignored if doing so would allow more programs to recorded.  The kind of "soft
>> pad" people are looking for would fit into the second category (there's already
>> a "hard pad" in the Start Early and End Late recording Scheduling options).
> 
> Far more important is the hard padding available with the start 
> early/end late options on a per-recording-rule basis.  With these, you 
> are allowed to /tell/ Myth what you want.

Agreed.  What you describe is what I do currently.  However, it's easy to
forget to look for conflicts in the upcoming programs list.  And sometimes it's
tricky to figure out how to override schedules removing hard padding to
maximize the number of wanted programs to be recorded.  That's something that
computers can do better than people.

> Myth is not a mind reader.  Myth should /not/ be a mind reader.

It doesn't have to read my mind.  I can already tell Myth my priorities for
different programs.  I can tell it for each program how much extra time I want
recorded.  As of 0.20 I can even tell it how long before and after I want it to
record by default.  The only thing I can't tell it is that, as a policy, I'd
rather have it record a show without the extra time before and after than not
record it at all.

Actually, the way I usually wind up fixing conflicts is by finding adjacent
programs on the same channel and overriding their hard padding.  Unfortunately,
this usually means the beginning or ending of one program is on a different
recording, which may get deleted.  So Steve Hodge's suggestion in a different
message of allowing Myth to write overlapping recordings of the same channel
from the same tuner would fix many of my problems.  Allowing it to write
multiple recordings of different channels on the same DVB transport at the same
time from a single tuner would solve many others.  But even if these features
are implemented, the ability to gracefully drop padding when it would allow
more programs to be recorded would be a useful feature for Myth.

-- 
Peter Schachte              When your hammer is C++, everything begins to
schachte at cs.mu.OZ.AU        look like a thumb.
www.cs.mu.oz.au/~schachte/      -- Steve Haflich
Phone: +61 3 8344 1338