[mythtv-users] how to resolve a suboptimal scheduling situation

Brian J. Murrell brian at interlinx.bc.ca
Fri Sep 10 16:20:59 UTC 2010


On Fri, 2010-09-10 at 10:24 -0500, David Engel wrote: 
> 
> It should be on the same screen with "Reschedule Higher Priorities".
> I don't have access to a MythTV frontend to double check, but it should
> be something like Setup / TV / Recording Priorities /... .

Yeah.  I don't see it there.  I have:

O Reschedule Higher Priorities
O Avoid back to back recordings from different channels
Default 'Start Early' minutes for new recording rules: 0
Default 'End late' minutes for new recording rules: 0
Preferred Input Priority: 2
HDTV Recording Priority: 1
Wisdescreen Recodring Priority: 1
Automatic Priority Range (+/-): 0

Then the next page is a list of accessible (sign language, subtitles,
CC, hard of hearing, etc.) priorities.  Next page is priorities for the
various different kinds of recordings (Single, Override, Find One, etc.)
and that's it.

> Unreasonable, no. not if the priorities are equal.

Showing priorities as well as channel priorities?

> As I recall in
> yuor cases yesterday, they weren't.

The show priorities were not, no.  I rectified that today (as of my
previous posting) and it still scheduled the less desirable 1xD+3xA (vs.
the possible 3xD+1xA) recordings.  Right now, all of these shows have
the same priority (0):

The Middle - "Back to School"         9 WWTI    22 20:00-20:30  1 4 4  A 4 -2/-1
Survivor: Nicaragua                   3 CIII    22 20:00-21:00  2 1 1  A 1 -1
Undercovers - "Pilot"                40 CITY    22 20:00-21:00  1 0 0  A E -2
Undercovers - "Pilot"                 5 WGRZ    22 20:00-21:00  1 5 5  A 5 -2/-1
Survivor: Nicaragua                   7 WWNY    22 20:00-21:00  1 6 6  A 6 -2/-1
Better With You - "Pilot"             9 WWTI    22 20:30-21:00  1 4 4  A 4 -2/-1

The -1 on the "3 CIII" is the effect of the (digital) channel priority
of "1".

> Anyway, the scheduler actually
> has code to do try to accomplish this IFF the priorities are equal.

Again, are you referring to only the "showing" priorities here?  If so,
then it's not working as the above shows all have the same (0) priority.

> FWIW, that's the questionalbe code I mentioned yesterday.  My thinking
> is the code should be a slightly more liberal in moving things around.

Ahhh.  So perhaps not quite working.

> In an ideal world, this might be a good idea.  In our current reality,
> it will probably not happen.  The scheduler follows the adage "The
> perfect is the enemy of the good."

Yeah, that adage has some merit.

> Scheduling times are already long
> enough for some people, we can't afford to exhaustively try every
> combination to find the absolute best one.

Interesting.  Mine is pretty quick and I have 7 (theoretical)/5 physical
tuners and when the fall season rolls around I record everything I
actually want to see plus everything that is new for the season, to see
what makes it and what doesn't (and not get wrapped up watching shows
that will very soon get cancelled).  I would think my schedule was
pretty demanding.  Although with all of the tuners, perhaps not so much.

In any case, here:

2010-09-10 12:11:50.560 scheduler: Scheduled items: Scheduled 876 items
in 6.5 = 0.01 match + 6.49 place

Doesn't seem so demanding and I'd put up with double or perhaps even
triple that to optimize the digital recordings.  Maybe as an optional
feature.

> Same thing.  You can't really directly do things with multiple shows.
> You have to impart your own a priori knowledge into rules for single
> shows.  For example, you could say when Survivor is on WWNY, give it a
> little boost so it will be fovered over Survivor on CIII.

Ahhh.  Interesting.

> Please do.  It will probably have a positive effect on your equal
> priority case.

I would love to, but it's location still eludes me.  :-(

b.

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