[mythtv-users] Live TV playback frustration

[Thomas Mashos]

On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 3:50 AM, Michael T. Dean
<mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
> On 08/23/2012 03:15 PM, Ian Wilkinson wrote:
>>
>> You could setup a recording and watch it live from the recordings list (as
>> is the recommended method in Myth).  However, if you were channel surfing
>> and stumbled across it (perhaps you'd forgotten it was on but fancied
>> watching it there and then), you could wind back to the start of the show
>> without going to the recordings list.  It just used the recording file when
>> you reached this channel when surfing.
>>
>> Does myth do this? No, it insists on creating two recordings of the same
>> thing, because myth is not looking at providing the user with the content,
>> myth is just looking at it as two different consumers that both happen to be
>> receiving the same data.
>
>
> In MythTV, Live TV has an implied contract that the Live TV viewer is the
> "owner" of the tuner.  If you were channel surfing and stumbled across a
> channel on which a scheduled recording is occurring and MythTV noticed and
> instead started playing back the scheduled recording, it would presumably
> "release" the tuner you were using for Live TV.  And, unlucky you, your wife
> just happened to start Live TV--and claim that just-released tuner--right
> before you hit channel up, again.  Now you've lost your tuner, so what to
> do?
>
> What you describe is easy to implement in a single-system setup.  MythTV is
> a multi-system DVR that may have more than just one concurrent user on any
> of potentially many frontend systems.  We need a way to ensure that Live TV
> continues to work like Live TV even if you surf through channels with
> scheduled recordings.

That seems like you could fix that by locking the tuner to a frontend
while it was in "live tv mode", just because it's locked to the
frontend doesn't  mean it has to be recording though, it could be in
"standby". I suspect that when the backend attempt to start another
live tv session (for another user) or a recording that is only checks
if the tuner is currently recording. This functionality would seem to
resolve both mentioned issues. (FWIW, I don't use Live TV, so I don't
know of any of the issues.

>
>> Don't get me started with the problem with two recordings on the same mux
>> using both tuners and stopping LiveTV from receiving any other mux, or the
>> fact that you have to /Manually/ change input to use an inactive tuner, or
>> to see channels on the other mux if two recordings are in progress.  My wife
>> asks almost every week why it won't let her see something on ITV2 when she
>> knows it's recording ITV1 and BBC1, the Topfield just worked and sorted it
>> out and she knew she couldn't get to channel 5, etc, but was happy with the
>> experience.
>
>
> 0.25-fixes and above should automatically switch tuners when another tuner
> is available.  It sounds like you're still on 0.24-fixes or below.
>
>
> Mike
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users