[mythtv-users] MythTV Installer Usability: An Analysis

[Chris Down]

On  Fri, 4 Nov 2005  Dewey Smolka wrote
>
>Sorry for the confusion. The coffee analogy applied to the OP who was
>complaining about a Knoppmyth bug where it sets a ring buffer larger
>than the partition designed to handle it, which will cause a crash.
>The example he used was leaving Live TV on all night and waking up to
>find the system in an unusable state.

Ok thanks for the clarification.

>I say this is not the recommended use because, while live TV works,
>there are certain shortcomings that are structural and fundamental --
>i.e. can't be fixed, at least in the current design.
>
>One of these is that the ring buffer is not a standard recording, so
>that when you change channels, for example, the ring buffer is erased
>and restarted. This means that when channel surfing, you lose the
>ability to rewind to a point behind when you switched channels. I
>understand this is currently being addressed and that the ring buffer
>will be redone in future versions.

OK that explains the problem. From browsing the archives I see that there is
work being done on the ring buffer.

>Another problem is that there will always be a slight delay on Live
>TV, and a delay of a few seconds when changing channels. This is
>because MythTV has to instruct the tuner to change channels, initiate
recording in the ring buffer, then initiate playback of the ring
>buffer. As the whole system is currently being redone, I don't know
>how this will change in future versions, but I don't think the delay
>in changing channels will go away. There is also a delay with any
>digital cable or satellite system.

Yes, on some satellite receivers the delay can be quite long.

Thanks for the clarification, I will get back to my mythtv build now :-)

Chris Down