[mythtv-users] tuner allocation

[blind Pete]

Hi list, 

Given three physical tuners that work equally well, with five virtual
tuners per physical tuner, what is the sanest way to make this work?  

Edited and re-arranged output from "mythbackend --printsched".  

2014-12-16 17:04:52.045637 C  
mythbackend version: master [v0.28-pre-2438-g206aea9] www.mythtv.org$

Title - Subtitle           Ch Station Day Start End   S C I T  N Pri

ABC News                   21 ABC1    16 19:00-19:30  1 1 1 A  1 -10
7.30                       21 ABC1    16 19:30-20:00  1 7 7 D  7 -11
Family Confidential        21 ABC1    16 20:00-20:31  1 6 6 A  6 -6
Inside Amy Schumer         22 ABC2 /  16 22:29-22:53  1 1 1 A  1 -8
7.30                       24 ABC New 16 23:30-00:00  1 0 0 D  E -11

Mythbusters                73 7mate   16 19:34-20:41  11515 A 15 -10
Family Guy                 73 7mate   16 20:41-21:10  1 2 2 A  2 -9
American Dad               73 7mate   16 21:10-21:39  1 1 1 A  1 -8
Family Guy                 73 7mate   16 21:39-22:38  1 7 7 A  7 -9
American Dad               73 7mate   16 22:38-23:34  1 6 6 A  6 -8

Secrets Of Britain         30 SBS HD  16 19:30-20:30  1 0 0 A  L -6
Secrets Of Britain         33 SBS 3   16 19:30-20:30  1 1 1 A  1 -6

David Attenborough's Africa 1 ONE     16 20:30-21:33  1 0 0 A  L -9

Clearly one tuner could handle the ABC (20, 22 & 24 are all on the
same multiplex), the second 7mate, and the third SBS then ONE, 
but that is not what happens.  The ABC swaps tuners at 19:30.  
7mate swaps tuners at 20:41 and again at 21:39.  One misses out, 
despite a tuner being free.  (Well 7mate is using two tuners, but 
apart from that there is a spare tuner from 20:30 to 21:33.) 

Does anyone want to talk algorithms?  Allocating tuners on a 
round robin basis rather than from an ordered list might 
reduce, but not solve the problem.  But the user can not do 
that anyway.  

I had a crude mechanism for allocating tuners to multiplexes, 
but I have deleted it.  I know which multiplex is my favorite, 
but I am uncertain about my second favorite.  

-- 
testing
bP