[mythtv-users] Events at the beginning of a recording

[Jan Ceuleers]

On 09/02/2023 04:36, David Engel wrote:
>> But I still might!  Someday.  When I have a better solution to the
>> misuse.  I've never bought the "my guide data is bad" argument and I
>> still don't.  In the immortal words of Steve Jobs, "You're doing it
>> wrong?" :)
>>
>> Either you care about catching the beginning or ends or your
>> recordings or you don't.
> 
> Also, how many of you that claim you must have long pre- and
> post-rolls have actually tried using start early/end late instead?  I
> suspect most of you would get by just fine.

Just to state my understanding of your point: I believe you refer to
specifying pre and post-roll in recording rules, is that right? (Perhaps
I'm not using the correct terminology here; apologies if so).

If so, the reason why I am now using the global pre-roll feature is
that, in my understanding, it enables back-to-back recordings on the
same capture card, whereas with recording rule-specified pre/post-rolls
two capture cards are needed to record back-to-back programs.

The other reason is one of convenience: it is easier to specify
pre/post-roll periods in only one place rather than having to do so in
each recording rule. Particularly if a bad experience shows that the
pre/post-roll periods need to be extended. Please keep in mind that the
guide data unreliability we face here is universal and unpredictable, so
the pre/post-roll periods need to be applied to all recordings.

I used to use recording rule-specified pre/post-rolls but switched to
the global approach for these reasons.

BTW (and I don't mean to annoy you), a dream feature sidestepping the
first reason above would be to add "multirec" capabilities to all
capture cards, by regarding a regular (currently non-multirec capable)
tuner as one that has as many "multiplexes" as it has channels it can
tune to (i.e. 1 channel = 1 multiplex), such that a channel can be
recorded from multiple times at once. This would enable recording
back-to-back shows, with each recording containing its own pre/post-roll.

>> If you do care, you should use the start early/end late options.
>> That's what they are for(*).  If there is a conflict, wouldn't you
>> really rather have the scheduler choose a later showing that woh't get
>> chopped off?  IMO, that's much better hoping that the tetris blocks
>> just happen to fall in perfect way by accident.  If there is a
>> conflict, the scheduler will tell you so that YOU can make the best,
>> informed decision on what to do.

I'm afraid I don't understand this point. The scheduler cannot know
whether a show is going to be chopped off because it can only base its
decisions on the guide data it has at its disposal. If that guide data
is unreliable all bets are off.

HTH, Jan