[mythtv-users] Mechanical cable splitter
David Brodbeck
gull at gull.us
Tue Nov 20 17:55:37 UTC 2007
On Nov 20, 2007, at 5:36 AM, Josh White wrote:
> As a machine designer, I know it's kind of a cop out when you
> complain that the user isn't using it right. If the machine is
> designed well, it will work as the user wants it to work.
Assuming the user is willing to accept the compromises necessary to
get what they want.
> For the last 27 years at least (I'm 27 years old), most any TV I
> have used was capable of changing channels about as fast as you can
> press/release the channel up/down button, or capable of stopping on
> the channel currently displayed when the channel up/down button is
> held (some older cable boxes excluded).
Newer digital cable boxes, too. Mine takes the better part of a
second to lock on to a signal when I switch channels with it, even
without MythTV in the loop. This is common with digital systems and
is probably one of the reasons they all include a program guide. I
remember when DSS first came out there were a lot of complaints about
how slow channel surfing was.
If you don't have a cable box, you can get faster channel-changes in
Myth if you have it launch a different app that doesn't record for
viewing live TV, like tvtime or xawtv. What you compromise is you
lose the ability to pause, rewind, and save live TV, of course.
Basically, when you switch channels in Myth you're seeing several
delays stack up. There's the delay of tuning the cable box, if
you're using one. (On some boxes it can take a couple of seconds
just to enter the channel number into the box.) Then MythTV has to
close one file and open another, and do the necessary database entries.
There *may* be room for improvement in Myth's channel-change speed,
but it's never going to happen "as fast as you can press/release the
button." There's just too much going on when you're recording a
stream and playing it back, instead of just overlaying it as it comes
in like xawtv does.
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