[mythtv-users] Back-to-Back recording with endoffset set

[Michael T. Dean]

On 07/05/2013 06:34 PM, Angela wrote:
>> On 7/5/2013 2:34 PM, Angela wrote:
>>>>> Check that "Time to record past end of show" is 0, to allow
>>>>> consecutive shows to be recorded.
>>>> This should be unnecessary, as 'multirec' should take care of
>>>> allowing overlapping padding on back-to-back recordings.
>>> Multirec does not work for me, I have it disabled. I have three tuners.
>>> This is what happens:
>>>
>>> P1_CH1, 0700-0800+hard10 ->  T1 (what I would like is that it only
>>> records till 0800) P2_CH1, 0800-0900 ->  T3 (what I would like is that
>>> it will be using T1) P3_CH2, 0730-0830 ->  T2 P4_CH3, 0745-0845 ->
>>> Collision
>>>
>>> Is back-to-back only possible with multirec, or is there an option to
>>> make the "hard" record past end of show to behave as a "soft" endtime ?
>> The only "soft" padding is measured in seconds, and intended for use
>> allowing hardware to spool up, not handling scheduling errors. Enabling
>> multirec would accomplish exactly what you're looking for. Could you
>> elaborate more on what you mean by "does not work"?
> Multirec works fine for FTA, with encrypted channels it hangs after a while.
> Updated to several Kernels/Drivers, wanted to debug it once more, but didn't
> find any time yet.
>
> With "soft" endtime I meant the setting in the setup, which adds time to
> each recording, I add 10 minutes, it handles back-to-back recordings
> correct, it ignores this time when needed.
> For some shows I have to add more time, which I add to "Time to record past
> end of show". This time is always added to the recording. What I would like
> to see, is that it gets ignored when there are no free tuners (causing a
> collision for a show) and allow a back-to-back recording. Is there such an
> option ? Would it be worth to be added as a feature (I will create a trac
> ticket) ?

No.  If your recording rule says "Time to record past end of show" is 10 
minutes and that 10 minutes causes a conflict, then you'll either record 
that show with its 10 minutes extra and miss the other or the show with 
the 10 minutes extra won't record and you'll get the other.  In other 
words, it will always result in a conflict.

This is by design because there's no way MythTV can know the appropriate 
solution.  What makes the most sense for this show in this time slot and 
the other show?  Should MythTV

a) record all of both shows according to their scheduled times and 
completely ignore the over-record on both?
b) record all of the first show and all of its 10 minute over-record and 
then start the second show late
c) record the first show and half (or 1 minute of or 3 minutes of or 7 
minutes) of the 10 minutes extra and start the second show late
d) if the second show has a start early, record all of the second show 
and its start early and end the first show's recording early
e) if the second show has a start early, record some
f) use priority of the shows to determine how much of each's over-record 
to use
g) ...

in other words, there are a bunch of ways to resolve a conflict such as 
this, and only you know which way is right for you and your shows in 
each particular case.  No algorithm in MythTV can ever take into account 
the content of the shows and which part is the most and least important 
part of each show.

Therefore, MythTV marks the conflict, which allows you to find it 
easily, and allows you to fix the conflict as you desire.  That way, you 
can say, "Well, I can miss the beginning of

So, what can you do?  Ideally, you would do manual conflict resolution 
once every 2 weeks or so.  You can even set up a script to notify you of 
conflicts.  I have a "Miscellaneous Status Information" ( 
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Miscellaneous_Status_Information ) script ( 
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Myth_upcoming_recordings.pl ) set up that 
reports conflicts on the backend status page.  So, in the user-created 
script I specified for the "Miscellaneous status application" setting, I 
have a line:

# Display any upcoming recording conflicts
myth_upcoming_recordings.pl --recordings -1 \
                             --no_show_scheduled \
                             --heading '<h3>Recording Conflicts</h3>' \
                             --no_conflicts_message '<h3>No Conflicts</h3>'

and when I don't see, "No conflicts," I know I need to do some conflict 
resolution.  Alternatively, you can set up a cron job and add the 
--plain-text argument to the above command (and remove the HTML from the 
heading and no-conflicts message) and use its output with something like 
mailx to send you an e-mail with the list of conflicts.

If you really want to just let MythTV do its thing and hope you get a 
useful amount of each show, you can make a /second/ recording rule for 
the same show that does not have the 10-minute over-record and set it to 
a lower priority than the with-over-record rule.  Then, when there's a 
conflict with the original, with-over-record rule, MythTV could instead 
record the show using the second rule that doesn't have an 
over-record--and you'd get whatever part of it fits in the listed time 
slot.  The biggest challenge in doing this is in creating the 2nd 
recording rule--because when you select a show for which a rule matches, 
you'll actually be editing the existing rule.  So, the best way to make 
2 rules is to find 2 separate showings and create 2 "this showing" rules 
(i.e. 2 single-record rules) and set all the appropriate values (i.e. 
priority and over-record and ...).  Then, once both are set, go back 
into each and change them both to "any time/any channel" rules.

Mike