[mythtv-users] Feature Request, Vacation Mode

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Jul 6, 2006, at 4:23 PM, Gabe Rubin wrote:

> I know that as a user who can't code, suggesting features is probably
> frustrating for those who do the coding, but I thought I would throw
> this idea out there in the hopes that (a) someone who knows how to do
> the coding would find this worthwhile and (b) it is relatively easy to
> do.
>
> There are several shows I record that I like to watch the day of, but
> after a week would be irrelevent.  For example, Pardon The
> Interruption, a sports talk show, is interesting (to me) on the day it
> airs, but a week later, who really cares about last week's stale
> sports news.  When I go on vacation, I really don't want my mythbox to
> fill up with these types of shows, potentially auto-expiring older
> shows.
>
> Perhaps there should be a way to set up a "vacation policy" for a
> show.  In other words, when scheduling the a recording, one option is
> to set the vacation policy, as to always record or don't record while
> on vacation.  I think just a yes/no condition set via radio button is
> all that is needed, but maybe other options would be useful (record
> show if HD is less than 80% full, etc).  Then when you go on vacation,
> you put myth in vacation mode (maybe from a main window or a setting
> screen), so all it records are the shows whose "vacation policy" is
> set to record always.

There are TONS of ways to expire recordings. I'm sure one of the  
existing rules (or exceptions) will work for you. For instance, when  
I don't want to watch something more than a week old and it airs  
weekdays, I set the recording limit to 5 episodes and to expire  
oldest recording when recording the next. For shows that my daughter  
watches (which are all repeats, so timing doesn't matter), I set it  
to only keep 10 episodes and not record any more until she deletes  
one of them. This way I don't bump other recordings in favor of a  
show she has decided she doesn't like to watch any more. You can also  
set a recording to inactive which will turn it off until you turn it  
back on again which I believe is what you're suggesting. Priorities  
are useful, too. You would make your daily sports show a low priority  
and your other recordings a high priority (and expire by priority,  
not age) to avoid expiring older shows you would rather keep instead  
of the newer but irrelevant show.