[mythtv-users] Bolstering a system for Watch TV

Steven Adeff adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com
Tue Nov 12 22:47:30 UTC 2013


On Tue, Nov 12, 2013 at 8:30 AM, Michael T. Dean
<mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
> On 11/11/2013 01:45 PM, Stefan Jones wrote:
>>
>> To reduce my monthly cable TV bill, I'm thinking of turning in my STB and
>> DTC, and just using a HDHR Prime/Cablecard.
>>
>> This would mean using MythTV's Watch TV function if I ever want to watch a
>> live show.
>>
>> I have used Watch TV many times as a test tool, to check on reception and
>> channel identities and so on. But it has always seemed a little flaky to me.
>>
>> Besides increasing the size of the ring buffer (?), are there other things
>> I could do to make my system better able to handle the task?
>>
>> I may also make a couple of simple front ends to stick on my guest room
>> and office TVs.
>
>
> I think any "Live-TV-specific" flakiness you may have noticed is actually
> just due to the (hasn't-gotten-much-TLC) Live TV implementation in MythTV.
> Basically, as MythTV (and its use of the huge variety of supported capture
> devices for capturing TV with a huge variation in tuning/timing/...) has
> changed over the years since the current Live TV implementation was put in
> place, much about the Live TV implementation seems to be in need of
> updating.
>
> So I don't think there's anything you (or anyone else) can do to your system
> to make it more stable with respect to Live TV usage.  The only solution to
> Live TV flakiness is for someone who cares about Live TV to actually "pay
> the fees" (i.e. put in the work to find bugs/issues in the Live TV code and
> patch them).
>
> The alternative that's available to anyone (regardless of the amount of time
> they have to spend on MythTV), though, is to just not use Live TV.  There's
> really no need for Live TV if using a DVR as a DVR, where you record
> anything you might possibly ever watch.  Even for "time-specific" content,
> like news or sports, Live TV isn't necessary and has many disadvantages over
> non-Live-TV recordings (
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/387302#387302 ).  (Even
> in the

Sometimes I'll see two housemates watching the same sports event in
two different rooms via LiveTV instead of the in progress recording. 3
tuners, one channel. Oy!

-- 
Steve
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/User:Steveadeff
Before you ask, read the FAQ!
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions
then search the Wiki, and this list,
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/
Mailinglist etiquette - http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Mailing_List_etiquette


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list