[mythtv-users] Live TV playback frustration

[Michael T. Dean]

On 08/24/2012 10:55 AM, Thomas Mashos wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 3:50 AM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>> On 08/23/2012 03:15 PM, Ian Wilkinson wrote:
>>> You could setup a recording and watch it live from the recordings list (as
>>> is the recommended method in Myth).  However, if you were channel surfing
>>> and stumbled across it (perhaps you'd forgotten it was on but fancied
>>> watching it there and then), you could wind back to the start of the show
>>> without going to the recordings list.  It just used the recording file when
>>> you reached this channel when surfing.
>>>
>>> Does myth do this? No, it insists on creating two recordings of the same
>>> thing, because myth is not looking at providing the user with the content,
>>> myth is just looking at it as two different consumers that both happen to be
>>> receiving the same data.
>>
>> In MythTV, Live TV has an implied contract that the Live TV viewer is the
>> "owner" of the tuner.  If you were channel surfing and stumbled across a
>> channel on which a scheduled recording is occurring and MythTV noticed and
>> instead started playing back the scheduled recording, it would presumably
>> "release" the tuner you were using for Live TV.  And, unlucky you, your wife
>> just happened to start Live TV--and claim that just-released tuner--right
>> before you hit channel up, again.  Now you've lost your tuner, so what to
>> do?
>>
>> What you describe is easy to implement in a single-system setup.  MythTV is
>> a multi-system DVR that may have more than just one concurrent user on any
>> of potentially many frontend systems.  We need a way to ensure that Live TV
>> continues to work like Live TV even if you surf through channels with
>> scheduled recordings.
> That seems like you could fix that by locking the tuner to a frontend
> while it was in "live tv mode", just because it's locked to the
> frontend doesn't  mean it has to be recording though, it could be in
> "standby". I suspect that when the backend attempt to start another
> live tv session (for another user) or a recording that is only checks
> if the tuner is currently recording. This functionality would seem to
> resolve both mentioned issues. (FWIW, I don't use Live TV, so I don't
> know of any of the issues.

Oh, but then it's wasting a tuner, and users wonder why, "My tuner isn't 
in use, but it won't let others use it."  Or, "We always go into Watch 
TV to find something to watch, but then it locks up extra tuners, even 
though I end up watching recordings."

That said, I'm all for notifying the user that, "This episode is 
currently recording," or, "A previous showing of this episode was 
recorded," and offering to let the user exit Live TV and begin playback 
of the recording.  With that approach, the user has to tell us that's 
what they want and they no longer have expectations that Live TV things 
will work (like channel surfing or whatever).

Mike