[mythtv-users] is mythtv smart enough to do this(overlap/back-to-back) with recordings?

[Steve Hodge]

On 7/31/06, chris at cpr.homelinux.net <chris at cpr.homelinux.net> wrote:
> When you have overlap recording then you are
> complicating the scheduler because it has conflicting requirements
> to satisfy when placing shows - it has to balance off the desire to
> record the maximum number of shows versus the desire to pad.
> Adding a 3rd or 4th tuner only makes things worse because the
> scheduler has to consider the placement of overlaps on more than
> one tuner.  It becomes a chess game, with more parts meaning more
> possible moves to consider.

I'm not saying the scheduler has to be rewritten to maximise overlaps.
I'd prefer it did, because it would help maximise the use of my
hardware, but I'd be happy with the overlap functionality even if it
didn't. Overlaps have happened often enough in the past for me for
that to be a significant improvement over the current setup.

If that's your only objection then I don't think we have much to argue about.

> That's not to say that recording the overlap is a bad idea when one
> comes along through pure chance.  It's just that recording overlaps
> as a matter of policy and scheduling to create overlaps where they
> didn't otherwise occur naturally is going to be a lot of work for
> minimal gain.

I'm not sure I agree that being able to record programs I wouldn't
otherwise be able to is minimal gain, but so long as I can manipulate
priorities to get what I want I won't be upset.

> Taking advantage of overlaps that happen by chance
> is *still* going to represent an increase in program complexity and
> will therefore almost certainly introduce more bugs.

That argument applies to any functionality. You may say that
functionality is not worth the extra code, I disagree. I'd argue that
the "fragments" proposal doesn't provide enough extra over the
"overlap" proposal to justify it's implementation, and I'm sure you
disagree there. It'll be up to whoever makes the decisions on what
gets included in the official releases (Isaac ultimately).

No matter which way the ability to record the overlap between two
shows with one tuner is implemented I'd welcome it because the "buy
another tuner" suggestion is not practical in my case. I don't mind
the one off extra hardware cost, but I'd also need to pay for another
satellite decoder and pay a monthly subscription for it. No doubt
others have similar setups or have other reasons for not wanting
another tuner.

Steve