[mythtv-users] Question, recording/watching the same channel multiple times

[Michael T. Dean]

On 05/03/2011 11:08 AM, Martin Moores wrote:
> On a slightly related question, in my frontend setup, there is an 
> option to over record a certain TV category, I had set "Sport" to over 
> record by 2 hours (for Snooker, this can be very handy), but it didn't 
> work.  Does this option still have any effect?

Ooops, missed this part of your question.  The setting you're talking 
about is a terrible hack (that I will be removing) that is generally 
useless.

Category of shows to be extended
For a special category (e.g. "Sports event"), request that shows be 
autoextended. Only works if a show's category can be determined.

And the category is specified by the listings provider and is not 
user-editable.  So, when the listings provider lists a show as a "Sports 
event" (as in the example specified in the help  text), it will work.  
However, when the listings provider calls it "Sports non-event" or 
"Sports talk" or  "Baseball" or ..., it won't work.  And, since we have 
no control over these categories, it generally implies to the user that 
MythTV is smarter than it is.  And the setting applies to only one 
category and isn't extensible, and ...

The proper approach is to set up your recording rules with an 
appropriate end late.

My plan is to allow recording rule templates, so rather than specify all 
the options you want for this new recording rule you're creating, you 
simply select "Sports Event" or "Movie" or "Best Show Ever!" or 
whichever template (where you create as many templates as you like), and 
the values for all  the recording rule options are set according to that 
template.  Then you can adjust them for this particular rule, as desired 
(or use all the template's settings without modification).  Templates 
would likely be auto-applied if their name matches the listings-provided 
category or possibly the genre or ...

Anyway, I recommend doing proper recording rules so you don't have to 
fix rules when we drop the previously-mentioned hack.

Mike