[mythtv-users] 'End late' ignored when recording LiveTV

[Richard]

On 30/07/12 17:29, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 07/27/2012 03:19 PM, Richard wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I noticed recently that if I toggle the recording status on a
>> programme I'm watching via LiveTV, the recording often stops before
>> the programme does because the 'End late' value was not applied.
>>
>> I did a bit of digging in the code and found this is done intentionally:
>>
>> void TVRec::NotifySchedulerOfRecording(RecordingInfo *rec)
>> {
>> ...
>>     // + remove DefaultEndOffset which would mismatch the live session
>>     rec->GetRecordingRule()->m_endOffset = 0;
>> ...
>> }
>>
>> The comment for NotifySchedulerOfRecording seems to indicate that this
>> goes against the purpose of this method:
>>
>> "In this case the scheduler needs to know about the recording so it
>>  can properly take overrecord into account, and to properly
>>  reschedule other recordings around to avoid this recording."
>>
>> Normally I'd open a ticket but since it's been done intentionally I
>> thought I'd check here to see if anyone can explain why.
>>
>> I don't need this feature very often but there's not much point using
>> it at all if there's a good chance it's going to cause me to miss the
>> end of the programme.
>
> So, what you're saying is, "the setting which specifies a default value
> for the end late when creating a new recording rule isn't applied when
> I'm watching Live TV and I hit R to record the rest of the show"?

Hi Mike,

No, what I'm saying is that the setting *is* being applied but then it 
is being *explicitly* deactivated in this case, and I don't understand 
the reasoning.

The RecordingRule class automatically sets the end offset member in its 
constructor.  The method I mentioned in the TVRec class then explicitly 
sets it to zero.

> The setting is meant to pre-populate the value in the recording rule
> editor and nothing more.  If you want to use that value, create
> recording rules.  IMHO, the benefit to be gained from adding code to
> send a recording rule update after converting a Live TV recording to a
> "normal" recording by hitting R when watching Live TV to retro-actively
> apply an end late isn't worth the benefit.  Not to mention the fact that
> hitting R during Live TV doesn't even work properly, right now--meaning
> any time spent on that code would be better spent fixing the brokenness.

What else is broken?  Apart from the issue I mentioned, I've not noticed 
any other issues but it would be nice to know before they bite me (or 
worse, the wife :) )

The time required to "fix" it (assuming it's broken, which is why I was 
asking the in first place) should be less than a minute (basically the 
time it takes to open tv_rec.cpp, search for the line above and delete it).

> Now it is possible--and not too difficult--for you to manually extend
> the recording-in-progress that was created when you hit R (the same way
> you do when you extend any other already-in-progress recording--left as

As a work-around, yes, you can.  But that's a lot of keypresses (come 
out of LiveTV, down to 'Schedule Recordings', OK, down to 'Recording 
rules', OK, scroll, scroll, scroll until you find the new rule, OK, down 
to 'Scheduling Options', OK, down to 'End offset', right a couple of 
times, down to 'Done', OK, down to 'Save', OK...

Interestingly the 'Start early' setting is correctly set (because 
RecordingRule automatically set it in its constructor).

> would be way more typing than I care to do).  And, since you won't be
> creating a lot of recording rules this way (after all, the fact that
> you're starting the recording from Live TV means that you likely missed
> some portion of the beginning of the show before you stumbled upon an
> interesting show), doing so shouldn't be too much work.  (In other
> words, the point of a DVR is to set it to record anything and everything
> you might possibly want to watch so that you always have something more
> interesting to watch than whatever is currently airing--along with its
> commercials and such--and you can then delete (or let it expire) the
> cruft as you get more and more recordings of better shows to watch. And,

I understand the arguments made against LiveTV but I don't accept them 
as always valid world-wide.  I absolutely agree that watching programmes 
stripped of adverts and the rest (or at least pre-recorded so that they 
can be jumped over quickly) is much more pleasurable.  I've wanted to 
put my foot through the screen when I've been in the US and it felt like 
the TV station couldn't show more than three or four scenes before they 
had to go to yet another ad-break.  Other countries have fewer ad-breaks 
per hour but then collect them into such large chunks that they re-show 
the last scene again after the break because the viewer will probably 
have already forgotten was happening.

I've noticed myself how I automatically reach for the remote control to 
skip stuff and then realise I can't because I'm watching live.  It 
doesn't happen too often because I usually watch stuff that's already 
been recorded.  However, there are times when I do want to watch live 
TV, and not every TV station in the world has adverts.

If I happen to know/see that a programme is on now that I'd like to 
watch, where's the problem?

The particular instance I had the other evening was that I'd been 
watching a programme (without adverts!) and the following programme 
sounded interesting so I started watching it too.  It was starting to 
get late and I needed to go to bed so I just pressed 'R' to record the 
rest of it but then found the end was missing when I came to watch it. 
The schedules are generally fairly good but it's certainly possible that 
there's maybe a minute or so of 'mismatch' from time to time (which is 
presumably why the setting is there).  I certainly wouldn't trust it 
down to the second.

> BTW, I mean /anything/ and /everything/--including news and sports and
> ...  http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/387302#387302 )

I get that too, but there are some programmes I just couldn't create a 
rule for (e.g. one-offs starring no-one I've ever heard of) but I may 
still be interested in.  Maybe some sort of bayesian algorithm or the 
like could be used but that sort of rule doesn't exist yet and would 
also depend heavily on how much metadata is available.

In most cases you could probably argue that these programmes probably 
aren't *that* important to me and you'd almost certainly be right but if 
I've started watching something, I usually want to finish watching it too.

Richard.