[mythtv-users] Switch to enable "TiVO" like experience? WAS Re:mythtv keeping recordings of everything i watch?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 07/26/06 19:12, Chad wrote:

>On 7/26/06, Tony Chiaffredo <tony at chiaffredo.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>I come from the Tivo world, and I find the Mythtv LiveTV
>>behavior to be very useless. Meaning, if I simply turn off the
>>TV and fail to exit to the Menu or turn off the Mythtv
>>frontend, I end up with somewhere around 30G of LiveTV
>>recordings (including the Paid Advertising spots that repeated
>>at 3,4,and 5am) before I ever make it back to the boob tube.
>>This is a lot of disk to some people! Could be upwards of 1/4th
>>of their storage.
>>    
>>

How?  Assuming 2GB/hr, that would mean that you just recorded a 15-hour 
program.  However, you just said you got "the Paid Advertising spots 
that repeated at 3,4,and 5am."  That implies the recordings were 1-hour 
long, meaning it's impossible to lose 30 hours of recordings.

So, how would this /actually/ work in a disk-full situation?  You have 
LiveTV on.  In spite of your unfounded fear of losing 30GB of 
recordings, you leave LiveTV on and turn off the TV.  As soon as the 
program you were watching finishes (we'll say it was the one preceeding 
the 3am paid programming, because no one watches those), the 3am program 
starts.  Myth breaks the recording at the boundary.  Then, Myth realizes 
that it needs more space.  It checks for recordings to expire and 
realizes that there's a LiveTV recording (the one you just watched), so 
it deletes it.  Then the 4am program begins.  Myth breaks the recording 
and deletes the 3am program.  At 5am, Myth breaks the recording and 
deletes the 4am program.  And so on...

>A cap was recently commited by Isaac that auto "ends" a LiveTV
>recording after 8 hours of recording (and starts another).  This could
>be added to the "LiveTV options" screen an changeable (to accomodate
>those that want a 30 min "buffer", and those that will die without the
>8 hour "buffer" currently in place).
>

But this cap /only/ applies for programs that show up as longer than 8 
hours in the guide data.  On my system and one I set up for a friend:

mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM program WHERE UNIX_TIMESTAMP(endtime) - 
UNIX_TIMESTAMP(starttime) > 60*60*8;
+----------+
| COUNT(*) |
+----------+
|        0 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.06 sec)

meaning the cap does absolutely nothing on these systems.

Mike