[mythtv-users] 'Upcoming Recordings' screen: tuner identity

[David Engel]

On Tue, Nov 12, 2019 at 08:44:18PM +0000, John Pilkington wrote:
> I put a comment about this in Ticket #13501, and was invited to ask on a
> mailing list.  Here goes:

Thanks.  This is the proper forum for such discussions.

> I have 3 OTA multirec-capable hardware tuners on this box; sometimes (trees,
> rain, wind, or when making several simultaneous recordings) their outputs
> may get degraded, and I like to know and perhaps control which device will
> be used for a planned recording.  The frontend 'Upcoming Recordings' screen
> shows this.
> 
> But when the recordings are in progress, the number (and the colour)
> changes, showing a virtual tuner number instead.  It used to be possible
> (though tedious) to have mythtv-setup create virtual tuner numbers in
> blocks, say 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 with a clear relationship to the hardware
> device, but I'm not sure if 'schedule as a group' will do that.  I have the
> impression that the virtual tuner numbers will be assigned as the need
> arises, so that there will no longer be a fixed relationship.

Yes and no.  When a virtual tuner is needed, it will indeed be given
the next tuner number regardless of any relationship you tried to
create.  However, existing tuner nubmers are never changed after they
are created.

If you really want some artifical, numbering scheme for your setup,
you're still free to do so.  Just make sure that you create enought
virtual tuners ahead of time that no new ones will ever need to be
created on demand.  Personally, I gave up that folly long ago and now
use what I think is a better method.

> I know that highlighting in 'Watch Recordings' and hitting 'Info' twice will
> show the 'Recording Input', which does look to be firmly tied to the
> hardware.  Would it be better to display that identifier, or the 'real'
> tuner number in 'Upcoming Recordings' ?  Doing that would also make it
> obvious when multirec was happening.
> 
> If it matters, I'm using Myth-Center-Wide with a few minor tweaks.  I don't
> think they are affecting this.

For the recording status/tuner number column in Upcoming Recordings,
Myth-Center-Wide uses the theme element called "card".  That element
shows a single letter for non-recording statuses or the tuner number
for recording statuses.  There is a similar, theme element called
"input".  Instead of showing the tuner number, the input element shows
the short display name for the tuner for recording statuses.  The
short display name is simply the last two letters of the display name.
You are also to put the full display name in your theme if you like.

I use the input element in my custom, Blue Abstract theme.  My tuner
display names HDHR1-A[0-2], HDHR2-B[0-2] and Ceton-C[0-5].
Consequently, for recording statuses, I see A[0-2], B[0-2] or C[0-5]
on my Upcoming Recordings screen.  I no longer know nor care what the
actual tuner numbers are in most cases.

David
-- 
David Engel
david at istwok.net