[mythtv] Record now?

[Erik Arendse]

At 17-1-03 14:16, Bruce Markey wrote:
>Chuck Wolber wrote:
>To continue at "Best", it appears it is simply renaming the
>ringbuffer to the filename for the show.
>....
>MythTV could do the same rename trick if there is nothing
>special about the ringbuffer file format. However, cropping
>a ringbuffer that started before the show's start time is
>trickier.
I was thinking along these lines a few months back, but a copy would be 
best. That way you can put recorded files on a different disk/nfs/partition 
whatever from your ringbuffer.

For me it should be possibel as well to search for the beginning of a show 
in the ringbuffer by hand, start recording, and have the option to let the 
show end ik scheduled or enter a manual endtime.
I need this for unexpected changes in programming, currently all depends on 
a EPG which matches the actual programming. Come and live over here in 
Europe, and see what you are missing...

If nobody else beats me to it I'll probably implement something like this 
one day as an added option to the current instand recording from the EPG:
1) optional: pause live TV
2) optional: search in the buffer
3) start instant recording
4) get show end from EPG, show it and let the user correct it, if no EPG 
available just suggest a fixed recordlength from starting time on.
5) display is locked with message "copying timeshift to new recording"
6) mythTV opens a new file, writes the header
7) while shifting is still going on, the copy routine copies all needed 
data to the new file
8) when position of copying reaches the position where timeshifting 
records, the timeshift output is send to the new file and shifting is stopped

This should be possible from what I looked into the source, similar to 
transitions like "watching recording" to "recording only"

>>>If you change channels, does the ringbuffer start over from the begining
>>>of the file?  If not, does it indicate that a channel change occured or
>>>does it just basically have a capture of what I've been watching (and,
>>>gosh, what are the privacy implications of that!:-)
>>Again, TiVo kills the ring buffer and starts over when you change 
>>channels. In fact it kills the ring buffer a little too easily if you ask 
>>me. I've lost more than a few programs I was intending to record.
>My first experience with a digital recorder was the ATI AIW
>windoze software. You set the ringbuffer size (say, two or
>three hours) and you could move back and forth to previous
>shows on previous channels. This made perfect sense to me.

Why not make a userselectable behaviour:
1) clean buffer whenever a channelchange (current implementation)
2) use all of the buffer
3) use all of the buffer without ever cleaning, keep buffer even in between 
livetv sessions. Check what the kids viewed three days and five reboots ago 
in your 120Gb ringbuffer-only drive. No privacy evermore... :-)
4) like (1), but let channelchange with its reset confirm on certain 
userselectable conditions:
         A) if shifting is used since last bufferclear on the current channel
         B) if buffer contains the start of the current show accoring to 
the EPG
         C) ... whatever, think of your own tv-behaviour...

Erik