Fwd: Re: [mythtv-users] feature request

[Ray Olszewski]

At 02:03 PM 5/11/2003 -0500, Pete Hartman wrote:
>Why not install NTP on your system?

As a general matter, this will not solve the problem. TV stations are less 
than reliable about starting their programs on the dot of the hour ... I 
learned a long time ago (with my systems, all of which use NTP) that some 
cable networks and broadcast stations start shows a minute or more before 
the hour, others as much as 2 minutes after. (Perhaps they need to use NTP 
on their systems?)

For years before I started with vidcaps, I knew I had to set a regular vcr 
to begin taping about 2 minutes before the scheduled start time, and end 
about 2 minutes after, to be reasonably sure of getting the show in 
complete form.

Does anybody know how TiVo, or any of the other commercial PVRs, handles 
this variability?

There is also the question of startup latency in recording. I've seen maybe 
5-10 seconds of this with other capture programs. Perhaps someone knows 
what MythTV's startup latency is? I do know I've been missing the first 
little bit of every show in my tests of Myth here, but I haven't done the 
needed checks yet to quantify "first little bit".


>>At 10:54 AM 5/11/03 -0700, Chris Petersen wrote:
>>>Not sure if this is in cvs or not, so ignore if it is...
>>>
>>>MythTV encoded my first scheduled program last night, and I was upset to
>>>see that it missed the first 15-30 seconds or so..  Any chance we can
>>>get an "encode x minutes before program" option on top of the "after"
>>>one that's already there?
>>>
>>>And what does Myth do when shows are scheduled sequentially but on
>>>different channels?  I'd personally like it to ignore the before/after
>>>settings at that point...
>>>
>>>Anyway, back to playing (well, or going to see my mom and mother-in-law
>>>for mother's day).