[mythtv] RFC on proposed scheduler patch re: hdtv dups

Brad DerManouelian myth at dermanouelian.com
Sat Jul 28 08:51:02 UTC 2007


On Jul 27, 2007, at 10:40 PM, David Shay wrote:

> I would like some quick comments on acceptability and/or direction
> before I go much further with some code work.
>
> I would like to add an additional check into the scheduler so that it
> would consider the hdtv flag.  Basically, I would like to be able to
> record both the standard-def and high-def versions of a program and
> not have them considered dups.  Yes, I know you can transcode them
> down, but if you have enough tuners, why not record both, and the
> networks have already done the appropriate pan/scan and format
> conversion for you...
>
> Anyway, here were the basic thoughts:
>
> * Add an additional flag to the scheduled recording class for duphdtv,
> add options on recording screen for ignore hdtv/quality or consider
> hdtv/quality.
> * Add hdtv flag to oldrecorded table.  Set existing entries to null in
> dbcheck.cpp
> * Add logic in scheduler.cpp to do additional checks based on  
> duphdtv setting
>
> Thoughts?

I think it's a great idea. In addition, I would also like to be able  
to keep both a HD and a manually transcoded version of the program  
available to me. In an ideal world, you could set up a frontend to  
prefer SD or HD. Then when you choose to play a recording where two  
videos are available (one marked as HD and the other as SD) the  
frontend will choose the preferred video and play that one (along  
with an added menu option to play the other). That way my wireless  
frontends could prefer the SD and my wired frontends would use the HD  
one.

It would also be nice to make this completely configurable and tie it  
into the playback groups. Since you can call playback groups anything  
you like, you could have High Res, Standard Res, Low Res. Run  
multiple transcode jobs which sets the playback group when it's done.  
Set up my living room to play the High Res version of any file, my  
wireless frontends to prefer Standard Res and the option to switch to  
low res if my wireless bandwidth is saturated or if I'm away from  
home and have to transfer the data over my DSL line.

Yes, I know I can set up streaming, but I prefer to use up the CPU/ 
drive space in transcoding when the machine is idle instead of trying  
to stream HD content while someone else might be watching a HD  
program at home at the same time. And of course, this is in an ideal  
world. I would love to simply see the functionality of keeping 2  
recordings (one original, one transcoded) tied to the same metadata  
and have the frontend prefer one over the other, and use the other if  
the preferred one isn't available.

Sorry not much technical direction here, but something I've been  
thinking about that I'm sure would be useful to other people.


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