[mythtv-users] Tuners, conflicts and padding

[Simon Hobson]

E James <e_james at dsl.pipex.com> wrote:

> A further comment on padding. Apart from this most recent event, I have routinely set "back to back" recordings with acceptable padding i.e. overlapping. I think I just pushed the envelope a bit too far, hence the additional virtual tuners.

Just an FYI
I have two physical tuners, with 4 virtual tuners each. 5 Muxes available on UK Freeview.
I have the default for recording rules set to 5 minutes padding on the front, and 10 minutes on the end of recordings (hard padding) since some channels seem to thing published schedules are merely suggestions and it's annoying to lose the intro to an episode now everyone seems to think it's clever to do "cold entry"* starts to programs.

It's rare for me to get conflicts - the only ones I can remember have involved needing access to 3 muxes.

* Where the program starts, they set up the plot, and then roll the titles. Guess it's to make people sit down and be ready to watch from the start.


As an aside, I used to use a VCR that worked off codes transmitted with the programs - so it could record the actual program rather than the programmed time period. It worked quite well except for Channel 4 who set their codes such that you got the adverts before and after the program. No big deal except when recording two back-back programs. After the first program, the VCR would record the ad break and the first few seconds of the next program. It would then see the end of program code and stop. It would then pick up the start of program code for the next program and start recording again - neatly cutting out the intro to the second program <aaaaaaaah>.
Combination of C4 being "greedy" and the VCR not being clever enough to just carry on recording.