[mythtv-users] more scheduler options

[Bruce Markey]

Paul wrote:
> Can we have another options for scheduling recordings
> ie
> 
>    1.  anytime on this day
>    2. Any day starting between x hr and y hr  (eg  8pm - 10pm)
> 
> 
> This covers shows which repeats on other days from an older series

As others pointed out, Custom Record can do this and a whole
lot more. Most people other than Nick neglected to mention that
one of the key features of Custom Record is that there are pre-
fabricated pieces that you can simply select and add. "Anytime on
a specific day of the week" and "Only in primetime" are a click
away with no typing or reading mysql docs. There are a couple
dozen of these ready to use Lego blocks to piece together for
your special rules.

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html#ss12.5

However, before going further, I'd like to point out that based
on your description, the distinction you may be looking for is
new episodes vs old episodes. This is common and the dup option
under Scheduling Options for "Record new episodes only" may be
what you are really looking for. This will only work well if your
listings include the original air dates or repeat flags. If that
doesn't do the trick, then think about a custom rule.

> Actually it would be great if you could create custom rules and then 
> apply them in the normal scheduler , then the options would be limit-less
> eg if I created a rule called "only-prime-time" then I  could select 
> recording  and apply that rule to that title
> eg Record "The Bill" using rule "only-prime-time"

Find "The Bill" and press "E"dit. Press right arrow about ten
times to find "Only in primetime". Click "Add..." then "Record".
Set your recording options then click Save.

No typing. You're done.  But wait, there's more... ;-)

Sometime after 0.19, customrecord changed to customedit to be
a library function that can be called from other pages. If you
press the CUSTOMEDIT button (default "E") on a title from the
EPG, Program Finder, any program list, upcoming recordings, etc.
you will see the Custom Record page pre-loaded with that title:

Rule Name: The Bill

program.title = 'The Bill'

Some of the examples with info like the channel, callsign, day
of the week, category and even programid, will be pre-loaded
with the info from the chosen showing. So, if you chose a showing
on Wed, the "Anytime on a specific day of the week" example is
set to "DAYNAME(program.starttime) = 'Wednesday'" so that you
don't have to edit the day name.

A common thing that some people used to fuss about in years
past was setting a FindOne rule for a specific episode rather
than any showing from the series. E, right, right, Add, Record,
right, Save will create a FindOne search rule for a specific
episode with no typing and only a handful of keystrokes.

Now, you mentioned creating your own "only-prime-time" that
you could apply easily. While this is unnecessary because we
already have "Only in primetime", Custom Record does support
rolling your own so that you don't have to retype a favorite
hack.

For example, I have a power search rule:

Rule Name: Breaking News

channel.callsign = 'CNN'
AND program.starttime < '2007-02-15 18:00:00'

This will record every program on CNN up until a cutoff time.
I see I haven't needed this since Feb but if some big news
broke today, I'd edit the date to 2007-05-24 and instantly
have 24 hour news that I can scan through (rather than sit
through) and see all the press conferences and new developments.
I also use lots of priority, profile options and such that are
already set in this rule so I only need to set the cutoff date
and/or time and it's off and running.

The idea of setting a cutoff time can be useful for other things.
Last week G4 had a Ninja Warrior marathon that I wanted to record
but not match all the on going repeats after the marathon ended.
Therefore, I want to reuse this trick.

You can go to Custom Record and enter:

Rule Name: Timeout

program.starttime < '2007-05-24 18:00:00'

then press "Store" and click 'Store "Timeout" as an example'.
Now when you look a the list of built in examples, there is a
new "Timeout (stored example)" added to the end of the list.
You can then select and add this just like any of the built in
examples from now on.

When I saw the Ninja Warrior marathon I just clicked "E", left,
(a couple times because I now have many of these ;), Add, edited
the date and time then Record.

--  bjm