[mythtv-users] How to record a particular station on only one of many tuners?

[Bruce Markey]

Stephen Hocking wrote:
> I have a backend with three tuners and two possible sources of OTA
> signal. One of the antennas gets perfect reception for every available
> station except one, which I'll call SBS (because that's its name). The
> other antenna gets mediocre reception for every channel except SBS,
> which comes over clear as a bell, without any glitches at all. Is
> there anyway of binding a  channel to just one tuner?

No one has sent the link yet?

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html#ss12.6

All else is rehashing what is covered there.

Three tuners and two antennas don't add up. The third card may
be an STB or something else but for the sake of composing a reply,
I'll use this setup as my incorrect guess.

card 1 coax antenna1 (good except SBS)
card 2 coax antenna1 (good except SBS)
card 3 coax antenna2 (bad except SBS)

If this is not the order, run mythtv-setup, delete all cards, then
re-add your best card 1 and input first, next best card and input
next and add the good SBS input last. This means that myth will
always fill card 1 and card 2 before considering card 3. You want
that and do this regardless of any other tricks down the line.

Next, in mythtv-setup, set the coax input for card 3 to have an
input priority of -1. What this does is it says that it is better
to record any show on 1 or 2 before considering card 3 even if the
showing on card 1 or 2 is at a later time. This avoids "mediocre
reception" from card 3 unless there is no other choice. OTOH, if
you are recording Rugby championship week and there are three live
games, it will record a game on card 3 which is better than marking
it as a conflict and not recording, right?

Now, you want to record SBS shows on card 3. Nicks suggestion is
valid but over kill to create two video sources just to flip
the preference for one channel and probably unnecessary. What
you can do is for your rules for SBS shows, go to the "Scheduling
Options" and set "Prefer input 3: Tuner 1" (or whatever) to say that
this rule should try to use card 3. Because 3 is the last choice
otherwise, rules for these SBS shows should always win card 3.

However, you may have some search rules that occasionally match
SBS shows. If this happens and a rare show is assigned to SBS on
card 1, you can "Add override" and set the preferred input for
just that showing.

With 0.21 and current SVN there is a much slicker solution for
all of this and any unlimited number of possibilities for setting
any weird preferences that you can imagine. Your SBS situation
is a prime example for "Custom Priority".

TV Settings->Recording Priorities->Custom Priority allows you to
set special priority factors. In your case you want to tell the
system that it is better to use card 3 for any showings on SBS.
By choosing "Modify priority for all inputs on a card" and "Only
channels that carry a specific station" and a few quick edits,
you can create a a priority rule like this:

Priority Rule Name: SBS
Priority Value: 2

cardinput.cardid = 3
AND channel.callsign = 'SBS'

This says to add two points for showings on card 3 of SBS programs.
You can click "Test" to see how this will affect your current
schedule. Once you Install this priority rule, you won't have
to add per recording rule input preference, overrides, or anything
else. The scheduler will automatically choose card 3 for SBS shows
regardless of which recording rule matches the show.

Hope this helps,

--  bjm