[mythtv-users] Problem with Hard and Soft Padding on recordings

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/09/2011 08:19 AM, David Watkins wrote:
>> It sounds to me like we can get rid of "Time to record past end of show
>> (secs)" completely, and either hard-wire "Time to record before start of
>> show (secs)" to some kind of sensible universal average (10 seconds?), or
>> better, analyse the user's individual hardware over time programmatically to
>> tune a pre-startup time that suits. E.g. with a brand-new setup, start 30
>> seconds early, then automatically adjust that up and down depending on how
>> quickly the card and hard disks start up.

Last time a change was suggested, it was simply to set the maximum value 
for both these settings to a (sane) value (like 1min) rather than the 
30min it currently allows.  This didn't go over well, so I doubt anyone 
(even me) is willing to mess with these settings at this point.

> I fully understand that using the pre/post roll to allow for
> inaccuracies in programme scheduling is not using it in the way that
> was intended, and that the proper solution is to use hard padding and
> make sure you always have enough tuners.
>
> However, for anyone who doesn't have 'enough' tuners (for a long time
> I was running with a single PVR350) the pre-post roll provides a means
> of recording a few extra minutes at each end of a show, while still
> allowing for back-to-back recordings to be made on the same capture
> device.
>
> Certainly for anyone who only has one capture card I'd recommend using
> the pre/post roll rather that hard padding.
>
> I guess I'm saying keep the soft padding option for single tuner setups?

Again, it's not soft padding.  Albeit, in the case of a single capture 
card/tuner, it operates more like soft padding than in any other 
configuration, but really it's not soft padding--it's start/end of 
recording session padding.  :)

Mike