[mythtv-users] Live TV playback frustration

[Michael T. Dean]

On 08/22/2012 05:02 PM, Joseph Fry wrote:
> I can't believe all the anti-live-tv sentiment here.  There are plenty of
> reasons to watch live tv where scheduled recordings don't make much sense:
>
> 1. background noise:  I tune in to CNN while I work and just leave it on
> most of the day with the volume low.

I've never understood playing a TV show with talking and pictures as 
"background noise."  If I hear talking, I tend to listen to it.  I can't 
imagine much TV is actually worth "listening to" without the 
pictures--unless maybe you actually put on the "audio described" track 
so they tell you what's happening.  I find that music is much better 
background noise for me--since it's not distracting/doesn't pull me in 
trying to follow some discussion, but is something to listen to.

That said, many seem to prefer TV for it, so I suppose they have a 
reason for it.  If I really did TV as background noise, I'd probably 
just put on one (or a playlist of) the episodes of some of the "probably 
don't care to watch it, but I'll record it just in case" shows I 
record.  Or, if I actually watched news, maybe some of the news shows 
I'd have recorded that day.  But then again, I'm not one who /has/ to be 
the first to know when something happens somewhere else in the world, so 
I don't feel a need to keep the news running as close to real time as 
possible just in case something happens somewhere--perhaps I'm just 
jaded, but it seems that every half hour they recap all the important 
things that have happened in the last couple days, anyway.  And, if I'm 
going to listen to the news, I'd rather listen to news programs I like 
instead of whichever program/correspondent happens to be on right now.

> 2. severe weather:  If I notice things are looking particularly bad, I tune
> in to one of the local networks to see if they are saying anything about
> it... may need to scan a few channels to find one that didn't just finish
> talking about it.
>
> 3. breaking news: If I hear about something major going on, I flip through
> the major networks/news channels to see if anyone is reporting it.

For breaking news/weather alerts, I'll actually schedule recordings on a 
bunch of channels, then start watching one and if they're not talking 
about the thing I'm interesting in hearing about, I'll use MENU to go to 
Jump to Program and switch to one of the other programs.  I'll do this 
for each of the recordings I started, then use JUMPPREV (no default 
binding) or PREVCHAN (H) to flip through all of them--and I can jump 
backwards or forwards in them to find the spots where they /do/ talk 
about the important stuff...  It's basically channel surfing 
evolved--channel surfing but with the benefit that MythTV keeps 
recording the shows when I'm "surfed away" so I don't have to worry 
about missing the important stuff because I'm on some other channel when 
they talk about it...

> 4. a change of pace:  I have a couple of dozen shows I record... but
> sometimes I want something different/new so I channel hop, watching a few
> minutes of this or that until I find something that keeps my interest.

When I'm looking for a change of pace, I look at the guide and see if 
there's anything interesting.  Since browsing everything means I'm 
unlikely to find anything, I'll often browse a list of everything on a 
given channel ( Manage Recordings|Schedule Recordings|Search 
Lists|Channels ) that tends to air things I'd like (or one of the 
independents that typically pick up cable shows I haven't seen once they 
go into syndication).  Sometimes I'll use Manage Recordings|Schedule 
Recordings|Search Lists|New Titles to see what new shows (premieres, 
movies, series, specials) are coming up (this is how I found, "Solar 
Flares: Are You at Risk?").  Sometimes I'll look at Manage 
Recordings|Schedule Recordings|Search Lists|Movies to find movies that 
are airing that I never got a chance to see.

> 5. KIDS!!  I don't know about your family, but my kids will watch just
> about anything that airs on Disney and Nick... if I told them that live tv
> wasn't an option, they'd give me a list a mile long of shows they want
> recorded... I'd have two tuners running around the clock recording stuff
> for the couple of hours /week they actually watch tv.  Far better to just
> let them watch what is on, they don't complain, and I don't burn disk space
> needlessly.  I just record a couple of their favorites so they always have
> something... just in case.

A friend of mine with kids sets up recording schedules for the kids' 
shows with appropriate priority and sets a maximum number of episodes to 
keep and "Record new and delete old".  He'll then move the ones they 
want to keep watching over and over into Video Library.

Mike