[mythtv-users] Please Wait...

[Brent Bolin]

On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 11:29 PM, Nick Rout <nick.rout at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 3:01 PM, Brent Bolin <brent.bolin at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 9:36 PM, Dave Day <david.scott.day at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 04/25/2010 09:34 PM, Harry Coin wrote:
>>>
>>> Are there any settings or other changes I can make to reduce the time
>>> between choosing a recording and when it plays, or choosing a live channel
>>> before it starts?
>>> I'm wondering what is going on during the 'Please Wait...' that happens
>>> between when a recording is selected and when it starts playing.  It just
>>> takes so much longer than commercial DVR's that come with dish, cable
>>> etc.    It makes 'surfing channels' pretty much impossible.
>>> My setup is a master backend, a couple of slave backends, and a couple of
>>> frontends.   Whether the frontend is a really fast box or an older model
>>> seems not to matter.  Whether the show is 'dish 301 low def' or ATSC OTA
>>> hidef appears to matter little as well.   What settings or setups can
>>> improve the time between the choosing of a recording / channel and when it
>>> begins?
>>>
>>> Thanks for such a great effort, all the minutes I don't watch commercials,
>>> what a gift.  An online version of 'no erectile dysfunction or reverse
>>> mortgage' spam filter.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
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>>>
>>> That very small delay is due to the fact that Myth buffers the program to
>>> disk before presenting it to you, since you now have the highly convenient
>>> ability to pause/rewind/fastforward LiveTV very much like you are already
>>> used to doing on DVD's or your VCR.  It's a mighty small price to pay, I'd
>>> say......
>>>
>>> Most Myth oldtimers don't "surf" much.  Instead they go "Advanced" ->
>>> "Manage Recordings" -> "Schedule Recordings", where you can browse the EPG,
>>> or browse lists of programs by many categories, or alphabetically, etc.  For
>>> instance, I just ticked off the movies I want recorded for the next two
>>> weeks.  And I already have the various repeating shows that I like scheduled
>>> so I mostly browse the EPG for new ideas every few days and check the list
>>> of recorded shows when I find myself needing some down time/entertainment.
>>>
>>> I had for years complained that I had 200 channels and nothing to
>>> watch.....  Myth has made us realize how wrong that was.  There was way more
>>> to watch (and of good quality) than we could ever have time for.  It just
>>> wasn't being shown during my down time.   And Myth's search functions have
>>> help me find programming that I thought had completely disappeared but had
>>> just switched to  more obscure times and channels.  As a matter of fact, we
>>> decided that we had so much more good content available that we canceled
>>> cable and now use OTA TV and still have more content than we have time to
>>> watch.  And it is saving us $125/month to boot.
>>>
>>> For instance, right now I have 30 recording rules defined.  Those rules will
>>> have 87 "hits" over the next two weeks.  47 of those will record (the others
>>> are shown multiple times and so don't need re-recording).  Now, that means
>>> about 24 programs a week!  I can tell you right now, we don't have time to
>>> watch all those, so we will have the pleasant task of sampling and selecting
>>> the best and watching those.  Additionally, I am a bit of a cabinet
>>> maker/carpenter so some of them are crafty shows that I skim and keep the
>>> best of for future reference in case of similar projects.
>>>
>>> So, when we do have some down time, we go straight to "Recorded Programs"
>>> and pick from that list.
>>>
>>> Enjoy,
>>> Dave
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
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>>>
>>>
>>
>> I agree with this very much.  We too have moved from cable to just OTA
>> broadcasts.  It's surprising how much there is to watch when you can
>> organize it on your time.
>>
>> Just to touch on what the original poster said about wait times.  I've
>> noticed when firing up the front end for the first time in the morning
>> it does take a little more time to start anything.  Either live TV,
>> video or recordings.  Not sure if it's the front end making the
>> initial back end connection etc...
>>
>> Is there anything that can be done to make this faster?
>>
>> Currently running mythbuntu running .22 fixes
>
> could be all sorts of things, but likely some hard drives are spinning
> up first thing in the morning.
>
> Hard to keep 'em spinning when everyone these days seems to be intent
> on reducing power consumption!
>
> People say good quality ssd's are very fast, but getting enough ssd
> storage to keep your recordings on is prohibitive.
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>

No hard drives are spinning up.  The back end runs 24x7 with no power
management.

I was thinking it's just the front end making an SQL connection.