[mythtv] More scheduling scheduler

Paul Andreassen paulx at andreassen.com.au
Mon Apr 17 10:30:24 UTC 2006


Hi Max,

Firstly thanks for testing this patch.

On Mon, 17 Apr 2006 01:50 pm, Max Barry wrote:
> Here are my test results from the new "softpad" branch.
>
> WHAT WORKED
> -----------
>
> Most of the time, it worked as advertised. That is, the scheduler would
> move recordings to idle tuners and even later showings in order to
> capture the soft padding. If that wasn't possible, it would drop the
> soft padding before and/or after the show. Yay!
>
> "Upcoming Recordings" also displayed the exact time that MythTV would be
> recording, including any soft pad.

Mythweb needs some fixes to display record time instead of schedule time.

> CONDITIONS
> ----------
>
> I used the following settings:
> * start-early soft pad of 60 seconds
> * end-late soft pad of 120 seconds
> * no pre-roll
> * no post-roll
> * no individual hard start-early or soft-late
> * 2 tuner cards (IDs 6 and 7)
> * no tuner/input priority
>
> I tested scheduling only. That is, I did not actually record any
> programs. I just scheduled different shows and watched what happened.
>
> BUGS
> ----
>
> I found three situations in which the program didn't act as I expected.
>
> BUG #1: Setting or clearing a soft pad in "Setup" didn't trigger a
> reschedule. That is, when I set my soft pad for the first time, nothing
> happened until I changed one of my recordings.
>
> I think all that's needed to fix this is to add:
>    ScheduledRecording::signalChange(0);
> ... in mythfrontend/main.cpp after settings.exec().

Sounds good.

> BUG #2: The soft padding was sometimes mysteriously dropped when it
> could have been preserved. I couldn't figure out why.
>
> Example 1:
>
> Title - Subtitle                    Chan Start  End   C I  T N   Pri
> ABC News                               2 18:59-19:30  6 5  T 6   0/0
> The Biggest Loser                      1 19:00-19:30  7 6  A 7   0/0
> The 7.30 Report                        2 19:30-20:02  7 6  C 7   0/0
> 20 to 1 - "Great Aussie Ideas, Icon    9 19:30-20:35  6 5  A 6   0/0
>
> Here THE BIGGEST LOSER has no 1-minute start-early pad, even though
> tuner 7 is idle before that.
>
> When I added an override to prevent ABC NEWS from being recorded, THE
> BIGGEST LOSER's start-early pad mysteriously re-appeared:
>
> Title - Subtitle                    Chan Start  End   C I  T N   Pri
> The Biggest Loser                      1 18:59-19:30  7 6  A 7   0/0
> ABC News                               2 19:00-19:30  0 0  O X   0/0
> The 7.30 Report                        2 19:29-20:02  6 5  C 6   0/0
> 20 to 1 - "Great Aussie Ideas, Icon    9 19:30-20:35  7 6  A 7   0/0
>
> Example 2:
>
> Title - Subtitle                    Chan Start  End   C I  T N   Pri
> The Biggest Loser                      1 18:59-19:30  7 6  A 7   0/0
> The 7.30 Report                        2 19:29-20:02  6 5  C 6   0/0
> 20 to 1 - "Great Aussie Ideas, Icon    9 19:30-20:35  7 6  A 7   0/0
>
> Here 20 TO 1 has no soft padding. For some reason its end-late padding
> has been dropped, even though there's nothing scheduled after it.
>
> When I changed the schedule so that 20 TO 1's start-early buffer could
> be preserved (e.g. move its start time forward by a few minutes), its
> end-late buffer mysteriously re-appeared also.

I noticed this but before I put in some debugging statements and recompiled it 
went away.

> Example 3:
>
> Title - Subtitle                    Chan Start  End   C I  T N   Pri
> Survivor: Panama - Exile Island - "    9 19:29-20:32  7 6  A 7   0/0
> Thank God You're Here                  1 19:30-20:30  6 5  A 6   0/0
> House - "Dnr"                          1 20:30-21:32  6 5  A 6   0/0
> ER - "Two Ships"                       9 21:30-22:30  7 6  A 7   0/0
>
> "ER" has no soft padding, even though tuner 7 is idle before and afterward.
>
> BUG #3: When a recording has a higher priority, its soft buffer turns
> hard, causing conflicts with other shows.
>
> Title - Subtitle                    Chan Start  End   C I  T N   Pri
> ABC News                               2 18:59-19:30  7 6  T 7   0/0
> The Biggest Loser                      1 18:59-19:32  0 0  A C   0/0
> Survivor: Panama - Exile Island - "    9 19:29-20:32  6 5  A 6   2/0
> Thank God You're Here                  1 19:30-20:30  7 6  A 7   0/0
>
> Note that THE BIGGEST LOSER is conflicted, but it could be recorded if
> its end-late padding and SURVIVOR's start-early padding was dropped.
>
> When I removed SURVIVOR's raised priority, this problem went away.
> Similarly, if I elevated the priority of the other shows so they were
> all +2, soft buffers were dropped in order to resolve conflicts.

Have you turned on Utilities/Setup\Setup\Tv Settings\Recording Priorities\Set 
Recording Priorities\Reschedule Higher Priorities.  The default is off.

> SUGGESTIONS
> -----------
>
> The following are mere ideas. Softpad will work perfectly well without
> them. I hesitate to suggest them, because I would much rather have a
> basic, working softpad in the trunk than a full-featured one stuck in a
> branch. But I know other users want at least some of these, so I might
> as well mention them as things to possibly consider in the future.
>
> SUGGESTION #1: In "Upcoming Recordings," recordings for which MythTV is
> planning to drop the soft pad could be shown in a different color.

I believe this is done by the themes.

> Also, when a recording is highlighted, the lower information box could
> show more detailed information. E.g. instead of just "Mon Apr 17, 8:29pm
> - 9:32pm", it could display:
> (a) Mon Apr 17, 8.29pm - 9:32pm (+1/+2)
> ... or...
> (b) Mon Apr 17, 8:30pm - 9:30pm (8:29pm - 9:32pm)
> ... or something similar.
>
> These would help users identify recordings that will not have soft
> buffers, and distinguish the guide data time from the padded time.

This is easier because its just appending to a string.

> SUGGESTION #2: When a program is conflicted, and the user views which
> shows are conflicting it, MythTV could not list shows that only overlap
> because of the soft padding. At present, it misleadingly suggests that
> the conflict could be resolved by removing soft pads, which is not true.

Haven't looked at this code.  Probably just lists all programs that are using 
the same time slot.

> SUGGESTION #3: In "Setup," soft pads should be specified in minutes, not
> seconds. Soft pads are "just in case" buffers, for which it's not
> important to specify a time that is precise to the second.

I believed some people would only require a small pad.  Some set top box take 
10 seconds to change channels and remove their osd.

> SUGGESTION #4: There are now two sets of buffer settings in "Setup",
> distinguished only by the fact that one is called "soft" and the other
> isn't called anything. However, it's backwards: pre-roll, being more
> likely to be abandoned by the scheduler than this new system, is thus
> actually softer.
>
> Perhaps pre-roll can be actually called "pre-roll" in the UI. Or I know
> devs were considering limiting pre-roll/post-roll to less than a minute:
> if this was done, and soft pad was specified in minutes as per
> Suggestion #3, this would provide an even clearer distinction between
> the two.

Naming and describing this and the old padding is very difficult.

> SUGGESTION #5: Users could cancel or modify the soft padding of
> individual recordings/showings. Because fine-grained control is nice. :)

I find it useful to enable it on a channel by channel basis.

> Hope this helps! I'm happy to do more testing.

Great.  Will do up another patch tonight.

Paul
-- 


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