[mythtv] [PATCH] Record what I'm watching

Joseph A. Caputo jcaputo1 at comcast.net
Mon Dec 29 16:23:07 EST 2003


On Monday 29 December 2003 15:58, Ben Levitt wrote:
> --- "Bruce C. Dillahunty" <bdillahu at peachbush.com>
>
> wrote:
> > Is it possible to somehow roll the ringbuffer "over"
> > into the recording
> > (or even fancier, go back to the beginning of the
> > show from the program
> > guide info, even though the ringbuffer might go back
> > longer than that or
> > less than that)...
> >
> > In other words, if I'm watching live TV, have
> > watched for a while, then
> > start recording, the recording will include what I
> > have already watched
> > live... apparently Tivo will do this and it sounds
> > like a neat feature.
>
> I agree, that would be awesome.  But I imagine it
> would be hard to do it well...  We wouldn't want to
> interrupt the recorder, so we'd need a special way to
> switch from LiveTV to Recording without stopping and
> restarting the encoder.  Also, we'd have to deal with
> moving the file from the ringbuffer location to the
> stored programs location... presumably after recording
> is done(?)...
>
> I was thinking that if they had been watching from
> before the show started, we could be clever and cut
> out the stuff from before the preroll... but I think
> the right thing to do in these cases would be to just
> keep the entire ringbuffer.  People can always edit
> stuff back out if they want...
>
> Any 2nd opinions on how hard this would all be, or
> (Isaac?) on how this should work?
>
> Ben


Why not just get rid of the ringbuffer completely?  It seems like a lot 
of the issues with LiveTV vs. WatchingRecording have to do with the 
different way in which a normal file is accessed vs. the way the 
ringbuffer is handled.  Why not have LiveTV always record to a file 
with the same naming convention as regular recordings?  When you change 
channels, the following would happen: (1) a new file would be created 
for recording the new channel.  This might eliminate some of the 
channel-changing-speed issues involved with resetting the ringbuffer 
(2) the old channel's file would be closed, and (2a) deleted if the 
program was not chosen for recording 'on the fly' or (2b) kept and 
entered into the 'recorded' and 'oldrecorded' tables so as to be 
accessible from the 'Watch Recordings' screen.  This approach would 
also enable things like a 'history' function, where the entire contents 
of what is now the ringbuffer would still exist after a channel changed 
(configurable option: how many previous channel-changes to save) so 
that if you accidentally change channels you can go back and catch up).  
The code could be written in such a way that if we are watching LiveTV 
across a program boundary (i.e., one program ends & another begins), 
the same 'channel change' behavior occurs -- the existing file is 
closed and a new one begun.

Obviously there are other issues to consider, like how to get 
NuppelVideoPlayer to switch files on the fly and such.  Maybe this 
isn't a workable approach, but I thought the idea interesting enough to 
'put it out there'

-JAC



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