[mythtv] How to edit the gui? (And some profile related stuff)

[Bruce Markey]

Geoffrey Hausheer wrote:
> I am pretty much finished with my profile patch.  Basically the idea is
> that each card is associated with a default, and 'live' profile, along
> with having all other profiles associated with it as 'allowed'.  Any
> profile can be assigned to multiple cards.
> Also, each recording can be associated with any defined profile.  If a
> program is assigned a profile, all cards capable of recording the program
> are checked to see if they are capable of recording the defined profile. 
> A card which is capable of recording using the requested profile is given
> a higher priority than a card which can't.  This means that if there is a
> card free to record a program, it will be recorded, but it will try to go
> to a card that can record using the desired profile first.

Geoff, it sound like you've make good progress on this. I
liked your first idea in your earlier posting of LiveTV(card2)
with one exception. That is, that there can be more than one
card that could use the same codec params (2 or more bttv, 2
or more PVR, etc.) so LiveTV(group1), LiveTV(group2) is what I've
always envisioned as the best solution. 

It sounds like what you've come up with suggests that a profile
selected on the advanced option page may limit which cards are
available to record a show. I'd be concerned if I might miss a
recording or not meet the profile objective (high resolution vs.
save disk space) simply because of the combinations of which 
shows happen to overlap and what profiles I chose based on
guessing what card(s) might be available.

Please consider the following. If profiles are thought of as
descriptions then a translation table could map the profile
number to a codecparams number based on the profile and card 
group.

For example, the initial TV Settings->Recording page could be:

(Create new profile)
(Create new encoder group)
Default
Live TV
Transcode

I'd set these profiles for, say bttv cards. If I then added a
PVR-250, I'd choose 'Create new encoder group', fill in a name
like "PVR" and choose the card(s) that should should be included
in this group. After hitting Finish the top page would show:

(Create new profile)
(Create new encoder group)
Default
Live TV
Transcode
PVR->Default
PVR->Live TV
PVR->Transcode

I'd then set my profiles for the PVR entries. If I then wanted
to add a new profile name, the top page would show:

(Create new profile)
(Create new encoder group)
Default
Live TV
Transcode
High Res
PVR->Default
PVR->Live TV
PVR->Transcode
PVR->High Res

and I'd set my bttv settings for 'High Res' and hardware MPEG2
settings for 'PVR->High Res'. I could then set "Survivor: Pearl
Island" to "High Res". If the recording is assigned to a card
in the PVR group it would use the codecparams for "PVR->High
Res" or 'High Res' if not in the PVR group.

I think this would be much better for the user in the long run
because she wouldn't need to concern herself with which card
might be available on some future date when it may unexpectedly 
conflict with something else. The only concern is the objective
of the profile and it will do the right thing for whichever
card records the show.

This would also be very flexible for situations other than just
different types of cards. for example, if someone had bttv cards
on a fast master and a slower slave. The user could create a new
group for the card on the slower machine with more conservative
params for high res. A show marked for high res would use the
best possible setting for either card whereas currently the
settings would need to be the lowest common denomination.

--  bjm