[mythtv-users] Help needed to track down a scheduling problem

[Michael T. Dean]

On 04/05/2010 06:42 AM, Roger James wrote:
> On 03/04/2010 13:09, Roger James wrote:
>> I am currently bogged down trying to resolve a scheduling problem. 
>> Any help would be gratefully received.
>>
>> My backend has two DVB-T cards and one DVB-S card. The DVB-S card is 
>> one one video source and the two DVB-T cards are on another. Multirec 
>> is enabled and each card appears to mythtv as 3 "pseudo cards". The 
>> first DVB-T card appears as cardids 3, 4 and 10, the second DVB-T 
>> card as 5, 6 and 11, the DVB-S card as 7, 8 and 9. Many of the 
>> channels appear on both video sources and have been set up with 
>> matching callsigns. Here is an example from the channel table.
>>
>> "chanid","channum","freqid","sourceid","callsign","name","icon","finetune","videofilters","xmltvid","recpriority","contrast","brightness","colour","hue","tvformat","visible","outputfilters","useonairguide","mplexid","serviceid","tmoffset","atsc_major_chan","atsc_minor_chan","last_record","default_authority","commmethod" 
>>
>> 15260,"10","",5,"ITV3","ITV3","/home/mythtv/.mythtv//channels/itv3.jpg",0,"","itv3.itv.co.uk",0,32768,32768,32768,32768,"Default",1,"",1,271,10260,0,0,0,"2010-04-01 
>> 21:00:02","www.itv.com",-1
>> 1010,"10","",1,"ITV3","ITV3","/home/mythtv/.mythtv/channels/itv3.jpg",,"","itv3.itv.co.uk",0,32768,32768,32768,32768,"Default",1,"",1,9,16048,0,0,0,"2010-03-31 
>> 22:00:04","www.itv.com",-1
>>
>> All the cardinputs have the same priority (0).
>>
>> My problem is that every now and again I get a "conflict" which I 
>> think should not be occuring. Using the above channel as an example, 
>> if I schedule something ("Lewis") on the ITV3 channel it will almost 
>> always end up using a channel on the single DVB-S card (sourceid 5). 
>> I believe this is because of the order of things in various tables 
>> and the fact that all the cardinputs have the same priority. Here are 
>> the relevant parts of the record and recordmatch tables,
>>
>>
>> "recordid","type","chanid","starttime","startdate","endtime","enddate","title","subtitle","description","category","profile","recpriority","autoexpire","maxepisodes","maxnewest","startoffset","endoffset","recgroup","dupmethod","dupin","station","seriesid","programid","search","autotranscode","autocommflag","autouserjob1","autouserjob2","autouserjob3","autouserjob4","findday","findtime","findid","inactive","parentid","transcoder","tsdefault","playgroup","prefinput","next_record","last_record","last_delete","storagegroup","avg_delay" 
>>
>> 647,3,1010,"00:00:00","2009-12-28","00:00:00","2009-12-28","Lewis","","","Drama","Default",0,1,0,0,0,0,"Default",6,15,"ITV3","5426691","",0,0,1,0,0,0,0,2,"21:00:00",734106,0,0,0,1,"Default",0,"0000-00-00 
>> 00:00:00","2010-03-27 21:00:02","2010-03-28 03:20:39","Default",107
>>
>> "recordid","chanid","starttime","manualid","oldrecduplicate","recduplicate","findduplicate","oldrecstatus" 
>>
>> 647,15260,"2010-03-27 21:00:00",0,1,1,0,-3
>> 647,15260,"2010-04-02 20:00:00",0,0,0,0,
>> 647,1010,"2010-04-02 20:00:00",0,1,0,0,-3
>> 647,15260,"2010-04-03 21:00:00",0,0,0,0,
>> 647,1010,"2010-03-27 21:00:00",0,1,0,0,-3
>> 647,1010,"2010-04-03 21:00:00",0,1,0,0,-3
>>
>> If I now schedule a recording for the same time (2010-04-02 20:00:00) 
>> on a channel that only exists on the DVB-S card I get a conflict. Why 
>> does the scheduler not record "Lewis" on the second DVB-T card (5, 6 
>> and 11) which is totally idle at the time.
>>
> The answer to my own question is: The recording opportunities 
> available on the DVB-T source have a subtly different "description" 
> than the ones on the DVB-S source and this description matches a 
> previously recorded one, so they are not available as candidates for 
> scheduling.

I'm glad you found this.  I apologize--I really meant to go through your 
--printsched and reply, but I hadn't gotten time, yet.

> I have never found "description" useful for duplicate matching. Is 
> there somewhere I can change the default from "subtitle and 
> description" to "subtitle" rather having to remember to set it each time?

Unfortunately, no.  We have a plan (but no code) to allow users to set 
up logical names referencing a set of recording rule options (including 
one called Default) so you can save and apply those options as desired 
(i.e. Default for "normal" stuff, Movies for one-time recordings of 
movies, ...).

If you're interested in working on the implementation, I can get you 
some references to the threads where the ideas were discussed.  
Otherwise, you'll either have to set the duplicate-matching method each 
time you create a rule, hack your own local copy of MythTV/MythWeb, or 
wait for someone to get time to implement the planned approach.

(FWIW, if you're using packaged MythTV, hacking MythWeb is an easy 
approach that wouldn't require recompiling anything.)

Mike