[mythtv-users] MythTV should react on stop of DVB stream

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Sun Apr 14 20:37:49 UTC 2013


On 04/12/2013 01:50 PM, Thomas Börkel wrote:
> HI!
>
> In the last weeks, it happened twice for me that a recording (DVB-S2)
> stopped before it was supposed to stop.
>
> Both times, I was watching the recording while it was still recording,
> at least 15-30 minutes behind real time.
>
> I do not know the cause for the stop, could be anything hardware or
> software, that's not easy to find out.
>
> But really painful was, that MythTV did not realize that the recording
> stopped. MythTV thought, it was still recording.
>
> But when I looked at the length of the recording in the OSD, this was
> correct, meaning the real (shorter) length.
>
> So, in such a case, MythTV should be able to detect this and restart the
> recording (to a 2nd file), so that only a few seconds would be lost. In
> my case, I lost 15-30 minutes.
>
> What are you thinking?

FWIW, if the driver tells MythTV there's a problem, MythTV reacts.  
IMHO, the driver should figure out if there's a problem, and MythTV 
shouldn't be trying to figure it out for you.  Different hardware works 
differently and the whole point of drivers is to insulate applications 
from those differences.  Trying to figure out a proper value for when to 
say, "Obviously this card or driver is broken, and I, the Great and 
Powerful MythTV, am smarter than both the card and the driver, so I 
shall unilaterally just start hammering the (same|different) card to try 
to stop a recording and start it over," would probably mean that it kind 
of works for some, it causes problems for others, and it's right for 
maybe one.

So, the best solution is to have working hardware (mine just works, 
FWIW).  The 2nd best solution is to have drivers that detect when your 
hardware fails and gives the application an error, so it can react to 
valid information, rather than conjecture.  Granted, it can be a 
challenge to work within the bounds of "I want hardware that just works" 
when constrained by operator requirements (with DRM and access control 
and ...), but that's the challenge of using your own built-from-scratch 
DVR rather than the one the service provider has customized to work with 
their system.

Mike


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