[mythtv-users] Overlapping recordings on SAME channel w/ one tuner

[Chris Adams]

On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 11:54 AM,  <glenhawk at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
>> Chris Adams <rocket at extremelan.net> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 11:03 AM, Jeff Evans <jeffe at tricab.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> IMHO, your buying additional capture cards is /immensely/ cheaper
>> >> than the amount of code required to do what you're asking.
>> >>
>> >> If you don't have enough capture cards to record what you want,
>> >> you need more capture cards.
>> >
>> > Ahh, but I'm using a STB, and each extra STB needs an extra
>> > subscription, an extra blaster, an extra capture card.. etc...
>> >
>> > This setup quickly becomes unwieldy and costly.
>> >
>> >> Please read (all 5 pages of) the thread at
>> >> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/dev/195124#195124 for
>> >> a small sampling of some of the things you're forgetting.  Though
>> >> that's all related to "soft padding," many of the same issues occur
>> >> when trying to do overlapping recordings.
>> >
>> > Thanks for the ref.
>> > I do realise that this feature isn't straight forward.
>> > I'm just curious as to whether there is any interest in pursuing its
>> > implementation.
>> >
>> > Cheers, Jeff.
>> >
>>
>> Hi Jeff. I didn't mean to sound as harsh as I did with that.
>> Seriously, it came out far surlier than it sounded when I wrote it.
>> I'm a chilled out guy, honest! Bloody e-mail. Anyway. The reason I
>> said it's a corner case is that from lurking here for a while, it
>> sounds like a design goal of myth (at least since multirec) is 1:1
>> mapping between a file being written to disk and a tuner. Otherwise
>> you've got to deal with lots more complexity in the scheduler so that
>> would've another reason to do virtual tuners/multirec.
>>
>> I can totally respect costs increasing pretty quickly with multiple
>> STBs/subscriptions. Providers here in AU offer cheaper
>> second/third/4th box but it's a waste when you just want to overlap
>> recordings. So that's not a solution.
>>
>> If you could get multirec to work with your STB you'd be set - you
>> could have 2 virtual tuners and set up rules with your overlap and the
>> scheduler ought to just work it out. It should also be smart enough
>> not to re-tune.
>>
>> If it needs a patch it would be useful for other STB users..
>>
>> Cheers
>> Chris
>
> Totally crazy idea but what if you had a second capture card attached to the cable box (via a video splitter or from another output on the box) and then scheduled the recordings with overlap so that they would have to "hand-off" to the second capture card to begin recording the next show. I dunno if it would work because I only use DVB-T and download anything else that I can't get ;-)
>

Ha! Wow what an awesome hack :-)

To take it a bit further, if you want to avoid the OSD being displayed
between programs: make the second tuner have no ability to tune (call
out to an external script perhaps /bin/true) and decrease its priority
so it doesn't get used unless there's an overlap. Be sure nothing else
gets recorded on that tuner though - perhaps have a cron job to email
you if something pops up on it with an unexpected title :-)