[mythtv-users] Effect of auto-expire on recordings history

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Sat Jun 25 21:15:40 UTC 2011


On 06/25/2011 04:41 PM, John Pilkington wrote:
> I usually transfer my recordings to an archive and then delete them from
> the 'Watch Recordings' screen.  Their details remain in the database; if
> it's in the database it's (somewhere) in the archive and there's usually
> no need to record it again.
>
> This model breaks down if the recording discs get full and a programme
> is auto-expired before archiving; it won't be in the archive and it
> won't be recorded again.  I'm not really interested in the fact that it
> was once recorded, I just want to know if I ought to be able to find it
> (and it would, of course, be nice to be told where to look, but that's a
> separate problem).
>
> Is there a mechanism for removing auto-expired recordings from the
> database?  I suppose I could extract details from the backend log and
> work from there, but a more direct method would  be better.

In mythfrontend Manage Recordings|Previously Recorded, you can select 
episodes and then choose, "Delete this episode of ..." to delete the 
episode (and all evidence your system once recorded it) from the 
history.  However, I'm pretty sure you don't want to remove all evidence 
that you have recorded it.  MythTV is supposed to have a complete 
history of every show you've ever recorded--and it will /still/ allow 
you to re-record episodes, even if it remembers that you've previously 
recorded them.

So, you probably actually want to find the episode in Previously 
Recorded, select it, and then choose, "Allow this episode to re-record."

But, it sounds like you just need to fix your configuration so that you 
don't have to do this manually.  MythTV treats expired recordings 
differently from manually-deleted recordings.  By default, the setting:

Re-record watched
If enabled, programs that have been marked as watched and are 
Auto-Expired will be re-recorded if they are shown again.

is enabled.  This means that MythTV will always allow re-record of shows 
that it expires, unless the show was marked as "watched" when it was 
expired.  Any show that is not marked as watched will always be allowed 
to re-record--regardless of the value of, "Re-record watched" (since 
it's not watched).

You can manually mark shows as watched, but if you enable the setting:

Automatically mark a recording as watched
If enabled, when you exit near the end of a recording it will be marked 
as watched. The automatic detection is not foolproof, so do not enable 
this setting if you don't want an unwatched recording marked as watched.

shows will be marked as watched if you exit playback anywhere near the 
end of the show (regardless of how much you've watched).  So, I think 
you have enabled, "Automatically mark a recording as watched," and your 
archiving process may result in your editing the recording and exiting 
the editor and playback at the end of the recording or something like 
that.  This marks the recording as watched, so when MythTV expires it, 
it expires it and does /not/ mark it to allow re-record.

Note that if you manually delete a show (to the Deleted recording 
group), /you/ choose whether to allow re-record or not (and watched 
status is irrelevant).

So, it sounds like you need to disable, "Automatically mark a recording 
as watched," and then /manually/ mark episodes as watched as you archive 
them, or manually delete recordings and choose to not allow re-record.  
With this approach, you're basically treating the "watched" flag as an 
"archived" flag.

Alternatively, if you'd like to use the "watched" flag as a "watched" 
flag, disable the setting, "Re-record watched," and MythTV will allow 
any show that it expires to be re-recorded and only shows that you 
manually delete will be marked to not allow re-record.  If you choose 
this approach, you can enable, "Automatically mark a recording as watched."

Note, also, that you still must have a recording rule that will match 
future showings of the show/episode, or MythTV will not record it.  So, 
for series, you'll likely have a rule, but will need to ensure you don't 
have filters like, "Exclude old episodes," or, "Record new episodes 
only," or, "Record new episode first showings."  And, for one-time 
recording rules (like Movies), you'll need to create new "Find one" rules.

Mike


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