[mythtv-users] Thoroughly confused about scheduling

[f-myth-users@media.mit.edu]

[Had to do other things for a few days; now I'm back.  I -think- I get
it now; see below.]

    > Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 20:08:14 -0800
    > From: Bruce Markey <bjm at lvcm.com>

    > f-myth-users at media.mit.edu wrote:
    > > In 18.1:
    > > 
    > > I've just been trying to use Custom Record to create some very simple
    > > rules, e.g., record only new episodes of a particular series, on any
    > > channel.
    > > 
    > > I started out by saying (in the Power Search Recording Rule Editor):
    > >     program.title = "American Experience"
    >     program.previouslyshown = 0

    > s/pro/AND pro/

    > The syntax checker should not have let you save it like this. If so
    > it was improved a long time ago and will catch this in 0.19.

Well, it sure did.  I assumed the AND was implied.  I'll fix it
in my rules---at least, those I keep (see below).

    > There was an American Experience about my home town but I was late
    > in watching it only to find that it was part 1 and I'd missed the
    > second half. This rule will catch it again when it is rebroadcast
    > without matching any other episodes:

    > program.title = 'American Experience' 
    > AND program.subtitle LIKE '%Las Vegas%' 

    > > and then clicking Record and filling in "Record only this showing",

    > Look again. No such option.

No, there -is- such an option.  If I click on Record after typing in
my rule, it pops up a (Power Search) box which has all the usual
options of scheduling, e.g, it lists sveeral items including "Do not
record this program", "Scheduling Options", Storage Options", Post
Recording Processing", "Program Details", "List upcoming episodes",
"[ Save these settings ]", and "[ Cancel ]", with several grayed
out until I change "Do not record this program" to something else.

Since they're variously grayed out and I can't click on the grayed-out
"[ Save these settings ]" until I change the "Do not record" thing, I
need to change it -to- something.  That's the fundamental source of my
confusion.

				> By the nature of Power Search rules, the
    > types are All and the three Find*. "Record one showing of this title"
    > is the choice for a single recording but it sounds like you want "Record
    > at any time on any channel" to record all episodes that are new on an
    > on going basis.

Er, okay, but then it's picking up repeats, which I don't want.
[But see below; I think I see what I missed the first n times.]

    > > then clicking on "Save these settings".

    > Correct. You can go to the Set Priorities to see that the rule exists
    > and if it matches any current listings at this point.

Ah!  It hadn't occurred to me that rules created in the Scheduling
page would vanish from there once created and reappear in Set
Priorities (which I'd never used and hence never looked at).

    > > Unfortunately, then I realized that I might be saying, "Really record
    > > only this very showing at this very time that for the program I happen
    > > to be editing" as opposed to "record any new episode of this on any

    > Let's be clear, Custom Record in mythfrontend? There is now something
    > called custom in mythweb that is not the same thing.

I'm using mythfrontend.  (I was burned a couple of times by [manual]
scheduling in mythweb screwing things up royally [and my report about
it didn't elicit any information on what it was -supposed- to be
doing], but should try going back to it, since mythweb would be a
lot more convenient.)

    > If you are using mf Custom Record, you are not 'editing a showing' but
    > working in the abstract from a blank slate. If you start a rule and
    > press "Test" you will see a list of matching showings.

Yup, works for me.

				> 			   If you press
    > "I"nfo or Enter, for one of these, you will be editing a rule for
    > that title(!) and not the Power Search rule. If you had, the title
    > would be "American Experience" [sic] and kSingleRecord would have been
    > a type choice.

I did "Test" to make sure the right things showed up, then hit ESC to
back out to the rules page, then clicked Record and wound up in the
menu I mentioned above w/all the options.

    > Instead, from the Test list, if you see the correct results, click ESC
    > to go back to the Custom page and click the "Record" button on the page
    > (you must fill in a rule name first). Now you would see a recording
    > options page with the title "American Experience (Power Search)" or
    > whatever you entered in "Rule Name:".

Right.  That's the menu I was getting above when I said ``and then
clicking Record and filling in "Record only this showing"`` and you
said ``No such option.''

    > > channel."  I thought this because I tried it with a different series
    > > and found the schedule only claiming it would be recording ONE of TWO
    > > new episodes, claiming that the later-airing, completely different
    > > episode was "E" for "earlier recorded."  Wrongo.

    > Righty. If you said to FindOne, it's done as soon as it records one
    > showing so all other showings after that are dups and the rule
    > disappears sometime after it successfully records one showing.

Well, "wrongo" in terms of what I -wanted- it to do, because I was
misunderstanding what it was supposed to be doing... :)

    > > So I found an AmExp episode in the Upcoming listing, went to Edit Options,
    > > and changed it to "Record at any time on any channel", whereupon the

    > > At this point, it is ambitious what rule that is. Look at the title
    > > and determine if it is a ".* (Power Search)" or a rule you created
    > > previously.

    > > scheduler promptly claimed it was going to record EVERY showing of
    > > American Experience, including multiple copies of 3-year-old repeats,
    > > so now I have to go turn off every single one of them -and- it'll no
    > > doubt keep doing this forever until I figure out how to fix it.

    > If the rule is set to not match dups, or the listings are all
    > generic episodes with no episode specific info, or if there are no
    > originalairdates to determine if the previouslyshown should be set,
    > then this might happen but this is off the beaten path at this point.

I think I figured out (just now) what I missed.  In the "Scheduling
Options" subpage off of the menu w/the Save/Cancel & rest of options
(what's the generic term for that page?), it was matching duplicates
(default setting) but I had -NOT- also changed "Look for duplicates in
current and previous recordings..." to "Record new episodes only",
which is presumably where to make this preference known.

It's confusing that "Record new episodes only" is buried in the second
of two menu items whose default values seem to be talking about the
same thing, namely:
  "Match duplicates using subtitle & description"
  "Look for duplicates in current and previous recordings"
It's not obvious that the latter is where "New episodes" will be
hiding, because it's not obvious what semantic category each of
the two is really in.  It becomes clear once you -find- it, but
it's not obvious before you -do-.

(And OTOH, it -also- seemed that Myth wanted to record, say, 5 copies
of the -same- AmExp, which means even the "Look for duplicates"
default wasn't being obeyed.  These episodes -are- described in my
listings, so it's not as if Myth was just flailing and recording
everything because it couldn't tell episodes apart.  If I reproduce
this, I'll be more specific about what was going on.)

    > > I think the problem here is that it's really unclear to me exactly
    > > how I'm supposed to be specifying this, and what's overriding what.
    > > Should I be specifying "any time, any channel" in edit options if I'm

    > Yes.

    > > writing a custom rule like this?  If not, what -should- I be doing?
    > > If I edit options on some random episode already in the Scheduled
    > > Recordings list, am I bashing what the custom rule is trying to do?

    > Um, I'll say 'yes' to get your attention.

...to get my attention?

				> 	      However, one and only one
    > rule applies to a specific showing. If there is a show that could
    > be matched by two or more rules, one of the rules will win in a
    > deterministic way. See "Scheduling decisions" in:

    > http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html

Right.

    > If you press "I" or click Edit options for a showing on one of the
    > scheduling pages, you will see the recording options for the matching
    > rule that controls the recording of this showing. Changes will change
    > that rule and if it is a recurring type, it will affect all future
    > showings. You could instead press Enter to see the page 'o buttons
    > and click "Add Override" which adds a rule to modify the attributes
    > of this one showing without affecting the recurring rule and any other
    > future showings.

Ok.

    > > It doesn't help that, once I create one of the Custom Record rules,
    > > I can't figure out where to -find- it again---not in the UI, nor even

    > Set Priorities is a list of everything in your 'record' table.

Yes.  That's one of the key pieces I was missing.

    > > in the database (what is the name of the table that holds these rules?
    > > I've tried all the likely ones and many of the unlikely ones and can't
    > > find them; I'm about to resort to dumping out the DB as ASCII and
    > > grepping it to see where these rules are).  So if I screw it up, I'm
    > > not sure how to fix the situation.
    > > 
    > > So how -exactly- do I:
    > > (a) Specify "record any new episode of this series at any time on any
    > >     channel", and

    > Go to Set Priorities and change everything that is "American Experience"
    > to "Do not record this program". From Custom Record in mythfrontend:

    > Rule Name: American Experience 

    > program.title = "American Experience"
    > AND program.previouslyshown = 0

    > Press test to see that it just matches the new episodes. If so, press
    > ESC back to the custom page and click "Record". Verify that the title
    > on the options page is "American Experience (Power Search)". Choose
    > "Record at any time on any channel" then Save.

Okay, that makes sense.

(Although to avoid creating a zillion Power Searches, I'm probably
going to go back and create normal rules by finding an episode and
then setting Record New Only on it that way; Power Search is faster
to use 'cause it doesn't require searching for the episode and then
marking it (since I can just type its name in directly in a PS), but I
should probably reserve PS's for things that the normal searches can't
accomplish, for semantic clarity (and maybe scheduler/DB efficiency?
And doing this from mythweb may solve both issues simultaneously.)

    > > (b) How do I go back through the rules I've already created and fix
    > >     them such that (a) is true, -without- having them spuriously try
    > >     to pick up redundant copies of repeats?

    > Moot. Remove any existing rules for this title first rather than
    > worrying about what went wrong. Done correctly, the rule will only
    > match the new episodes then, like all other rules with the default
    > duplicate options, it will choose one showing of each episode to
    > record.

Right.

    > > Yes, I've looked at mythtv-HOWTO-12.html, and no, it doesn't seem to
    > > be describing the behavior I'm seeing at all.

    > Everything mentioned here is in section 12 somewhere. Your description
    > of choosing kSingleRecord from a PowerSearch recording options page is
    > bogus so there no lead on how exactly you got off track.

Well, hopefully I've explained how above.

Thanks!