[mythtv-users] Enabling multirec borks usability a bit.

[Simon Hobson]

mugginz wrote:

>I should be able to switch between any channel from the muxes sitting on each
>of the tuners.  So, any channel available from the muxes that transmit
>channels 7, 9 and 10.

ASIU, the standard functionality is that you can only select channels 
available in the mux that the tuner is currently tuned to - to select 
anything else you must manually switch card. I'd imagine it's an 
artifact from when the system was originally coded when one tuner 
meant one channel - the ability to access other channels in a mux is 
a bonus add on. Look on the bright side, a colleague at work looked 
over my shoulder today when I was remotely adding some recording 
rules with MythWeb and commented that he thought he should try it 
sometime.

At the moment he's using Win7 Media Centre and that does not allow 
multirec - when a tuner is in use, that's it. So even if he wants to 
record from channels in the same mux, he must use a different tuner 
for each.


mugginz wrote:
>It's the little (or not so little depending on your point of view) things like
>this that stop a few people I know from setting up MythTV.  Not to mention the
>nightmare that is initial config (but at least with practice becomes easier).

I know what you mean, it is no mean feat to get a system up and 
running - but it's getting 'less tricky' !

To be fair to the project, they have a HUGE target to hit. Just 
consider all the various combinations of digital & analog, cable & 
terrestrial & satellite, analogue & digital displays, remotes, case 
front displays, ... and not least of all, a veritable plethora of 
tuners and encoder devices. All this across lots of countries with 
differing ideas of what the broadcast signal should be. The old 
saying about the dancing bear comes to mind - the wonder is not that 
it dances so well, but that it dances at all !

When a manufacturer brings an appliance PVR to market - they'll have 
just one hardware platform, one transmission standard, and one 
relatively small set of functionality to support. Even then, it can 
be a nightmare - we've a Panasonic PVR in the house that cost a not 
insignificant sum to buy, was positively bug ridden when it 
eventually arrived, has had just one software update that partially 
fixed some bugs, and has been dropped like a hot potato and the users 
abandoned (doesn't make me want to buy another Panny product ever 
again). My Myth setup is more reliable, and far more capable - though 
it was harder to set up and would cost more to build from scratch.

-- 
Simon Hobson

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