[mythtv-users] Getting the most use out of all tuners

[Peter Schachte]

Steve Hodge wrote:
> On 2/18/07, *Jerry* <mythtv at hpcjerry.com <mailto:mythtv at hpcjerry.com>>
> wrote:
> 
>     I've got 6 tuners.
>     I've set RecordOverTime and RecordPreRoll to 120 seconds each.
> 
>     But, when I've got two shows that are back to back, the scheduler likes
>     to use the same tuner for both of them - even when I've got 5 other
> 
> According to at least some of the devs you are not supposed to use
> Pre/Post Roll this way. IIRC it's intended for hardware that takes a few
> seconds to initialize. So the scheduler ignores those settings for back
> to back recordings on the same tuner (no re-initialisation required).

I've heard that too, but it's not clear that always makes sense, either.  It
all depends on why you need a little extra time to get ready to start
recording.  If you need a couple of seconds to acquire a tuner card, load some
modules, or whatever, than it makes sense to skip it for the second consecutive
recording.  But if you need to rotate a dish to a different satellite before
you can start recording, then you'll need that time for each program, unless
you know somehow that the dish will already be pointing to the right satellite.
 Even if you just need a few extra seconds for the card to tune a different
station, you'll still need it between adjacent programs on the same tuner,
unless both programs are on the same channel (or at least the same transport).

So it seems there should be two kinds of pre-roll:  the kind that can be
ignored if the same tuner is already in use, and the kind that should only be
ignored if doing so would allow more programs to recorded.  The kind of "soft
pad" people are looking for would fit into the second category (there's already
a "hard pad" in the Start Early and End Late recording Scheduling options).

While we're on the topic, post-roll seems kind of dubious.  I can understand
that it might take time to finish using a tuner.  Maybe you want to close down
devices, unload modules, even rotate a satellite dish into a parked position or
whatever.  But I just can't see why you'd ever need to keep recording during
that time.  Once the program is over, you can stop recording, and then do
whatever shutdown operations are needed.  So I don't see why myth needs a
post-roll time that is ignored for back-to-back recordings.

-- 
Peter Schachte              The ruling class has the schools and press under
schachte at cs.mu.OZ.AU        its thumb. This enables it to sway the emotions
www.cs.mu.oz.au/~schachte/  of the masses.
Phone: +61 3 8344 1338          -- Albert Einstein