[mythtv-users] Rec-Pending system event on backend-only system?

[Jeff Piazza]

Hi, all,

I'm hoping someone can set me straight on the "recording pending" system event.

I've got a slave front end/back end system in another room that uses a Hauppauge HDPVR to capture from a cable set-top box.  The STB is also used for watching TV directly, so the slave system can't make assumptions about whether the box is powered on or not.  

Googling around, I came across a shell script that captures a few frames of video from the capture box and tries to determine whether the STB is on or not.  The process takes a few seconds, but works reasonably well.  I used this as the core of a script that I associated to the "recording pending" event: a few minutes before a recording starts, the script ensures the STB is powered up.  (Because it does take several seconds to evaluate the state of the STB, I want to do this a short while ahead of the recording start.)

Now that summer's here, the TV associated with the slave myth system goes to another location entirely (long story).  Now that the slave system has no monitor, X won't start, and, in turn, neither with mythfrontend.  Well, that's fine, there's no special reason to have it running when there's no way to view it.  However, I do still have the back end set up, and use it for recording from the STB.

What I noticed with the change, however, is that, while "recording started" and "recording finished" events invoke their respective scripts, the "recording pending" script no longer does.  I infer from this that some events are handled by the back end, while others are handled by the front end.

This makes me all the more confused about what purpose the "recording pending" event is actually supposed to serve, and why it would be something handled by the front ends and not back ends.  Can anyone enlighten me?

While we're on the subject, I'd also like to understand why two or three "recording pending" events get sent, starting about five minutes ahead of the recording start.  Anyone know?

/JEP