[mythtv-commits] Ticket #4130: Extend mythcommflag to flag bad recordings

[MythTV]

#4130: Extend mythcommflag to flag bad recordings
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 Reporter:  Tony Lill <ajlill at ajlc.waterloo.on.ca>  |        Owner:  cpinkham
     Type:  patch                                   |       Status:  assigned
 Priority:  minor                                   |    Milestone:  0.23    
Component:  mythtv                                  |      Version:  head    
 Severity:  medium                                  |   Resolution:          
  Mlocked:  0                                       |  
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Comment(by ajlill at ajlc.waterloo.on.ca):

 I tried commenting on #3872, but it was locked.

 These tickets are duplicates in only the sense that mythtv thinks it's
 done it's job, but you still wind up downloading the show off the net!

 The are two basic causes of why a recording fails, hardware failure and
 signal failure. Hardware failure is usually permanent (requires a manual
 reboot or reset), while signal failure is transitory, where simply
 retrying after some delay usually works.

 Ticket #3872 is about early detection of hardware failure. The resolution
 requires that you detect an obviously bogus file during recording, abort
 the recording, disable or de-prioritize the borked video source, and do a
 reschedule in time to record the same showing on a different source. You
 should also let the user know that mythtv suspects one of the video
 sources is boned.

 This ticket (and #6899) are about signal failure, where you record a
 perfectly valid file, but the contents are unwatchable because it's blank,
 has no sound, the STB froze or was reset, etc. Detecting this requires
 more signal processing that you probably want to do in the recorder,
 although some might be easy to do, like what I think #6899 does. Also, you
 generally want a long retry, especially if it's weather related.

 My patch works in the comflagger by re-analysing the blank frame data,
 then removing any probably bad recordings from duplicate detection and
 rescheduling. It works great in Canada 'cause cable and satellite pad
 their lineups with stations from every timezone, but would be less
 effective if you only had one shot at recording a show.

 That being said, my patch also detects a zero byte file, but since it
 simply causes it to be re-recorded at a later time, doesn't solve all of
 the other tickets concerns, especially avoiding the jammed hardware.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/4130#comment:7>
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