[mythtv-users] Strange recording priority

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/12/2009 09:33 AM, Wilfred van den Assem wrote:
> I've got 2 cable-boxes connected to 2 Hauppauge 150 PVR card and one
> Satelco DVB-C.
> The 2 cable-boxes are Encoder 6 and Encoder 7
> When I start watching live-tv, it choose Encoder 7 by default.

Only because you've enabled the setting:

Avoid conflicts between live TV and scheduled shows
If enabled, live TV will choose a tuner card that is less likely to have 
scheduled recordings rather than the best card available.

which tells LiveTV to start from the "bottom of the list"--i.e. use the 
highest numbered cardinput rather than the lowest-numbered.  (Or because 
you haven't enabled that setting and input 7 is on the same host as the 
frontend but input 6 is on a different host.)

>  If I
> start a recording (when watching live-tv) it choose Encoder 6.
>   

Right, as it should.

> But when I start watching live-tv on Encoder 7 and change it manualy to
> Encoder 6 (so I'm watching live-tv on Encoder 6) and if I then start a
> recording it switched from live-tv (Encoder 6) to the recording on
> Encoder 6.
>   

Right, because cardinput 6 is the "better" of the 2 encoders, so for 
recordings (which are considered infinitely more important than LiveTV 
by Myth), the best is used and LiveTV will be "pre-empted," even if 
another tuner is available.  Then, the user who was watching LiveTV can 
either watch the recording in progress or exit and re-enter LiveTV.

> And at that moment, Encoder 7 is free and the same configured as Encoder
> 6.

Right.

>  They have the same record-priority 0.
>   

Good.  No one should ever mess with the input priority unless they read 
/and/ understand all of 
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html#ss12.6 (really, all of 
section 12, but /at least/ 12.6).  (Of course, once you read that, 
you'll realize that the /best/ approach is to never use input 
priorities, but instead to use the video sources part of  
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/264034#264034 to 
clear all Input Connections, then re-create Video Sources, Input 
Connections (in order of preference), and Channels.)

> Is this a misconfiguration from me?

Nope.  That's just Myth.  The best solution:  don't use LiveTV--Myth is 
a DVR, where "R" means Recorder.

Second-best solution: get another PVR-150 that can be dedicated to the 
satellite set-top box (i.e. so you have a /separate/ encoder for each 
set-top box) instead of using Input Groups and having 2 STB's share the 
same encoder.

If you want it to choose the PVR-150 that's /not/ connected to the 
satellite STB, if possible, first, you'll need to do the video sources 
portion http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/264034#264034 
then re-create Video Sources, then connect the inputs on the PVR-150 
that's connected /only/ to the cable box, then connect the inputs on the 
PVR-150 that's connected to both the cable and satellite boxes, then 
re-create Channels.

Mike