[mythtv-users] 'Upcoming Recordings' screen: tuner identity

[John Pilkington]

On 12/11/2019 22:13, David Engel wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 12, 2019 at 08:44:18PM +0000, John Pilkington wrote:
>> I put a comment about this in Ticket #13501, and was invited to ask on a
>> mailing list.  Here goes:
> 
> Thanks.  This is the proper forum for such discussions.
> 
>> I have 3 OTA multirec-capable hardware tuners on this box; sometimes (trees,
>> rain, wind, or when making several simultaneous recordings) their outputs
>> may get degraded, and I like to know and perhaps control which device will
>> be used for a planned recording.  The frontend 'Upcoming Recordings' screen
>> shows this.
>>
>> But when the recordings are in progress, the number (and the colour)
>> changes, showing a virtual tuner number instead.  It used to be possible
>> (though tedious) to have mythtv-setup create virtual tuner numbers in
>> blocks, say 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 with a clear relationship to the hardware
>> device, but I'm not sure if 'schedule as a group' will do that.  I have the
>> impression that the virtual tuner numbers will be assigned as the need
>> arises, so that there will no longer be a fixed relationship.
> 
> Yes and no.  When a virtual tuner is needed, it will indeed be given
> the next tuner number regardless of any relationship you tried to
> create.  However, existing tuner nubmers are never changed after they
> are created.
> 
> If you really want some artifical, numbering scheme for your setup,
> you're still free to do so.  Just make sure that you create enought
> virtual tuners ahead of time that no new ones will ever need to be
> created on demand.  Personally, I gave up that folly long ago and now
> use what I think is a better method.
> 
>> I know that highlighting in 'Watch Recordings' and hitting 'Info' twice will
>> show the 'Recording Input', which does look to be firmly tied to the
>> hardware.  Would it be better to display that identifier, or the 'real'
>> tuner number in 'Upcoming Recordings' ?  Doing that would also make it
>> obvious when multirec was happening.
>>
>> If it matters, I'm using Myth-Center-Wide with a few minor tweaks.  I don't
>> think they are affecting this.
> 
> For the recording status/tuner number column in Upcoming Recordings,
> Myth-Center-Wide uses the theme element called "card".  That element
> shows a single letter for non-recording statuses or the tuner number
> for recording statuses.  There is a similar, theme element called
> "input".  Instead of showing the tuner number, the input element shows
> the short display name for the tuner for recording statuses.  The
> short display name is simply the last two letters of the display name.
> You are also to put the full display name in your theme if you like.
> 
> I use the input element in my custom, Blue Abstract theme.  My tuner
> display names HDHR1-A[0-2], HDHR2-B[0-2] and Ceton-C[0-5].
> Consequently, for recording statuses, I see A[0-2], B[0-2] or C[0-5]
> on my Upcoming Recordings screen.  I no longer know nor care what the
> actual tuner numbers are in most cases.
> 
> David
> 
Thank you, David, for the explanation.  I will investigate.  I had often 
thought that letters and numbers would be better than what I currently 
see, which is just numbers in both places.

I was also puzzled recently on finding that what was, IIRC, a new 
git-based installation on another box wasn't showing the editor's audio 
output graph, and then that appeared after a let's-just-try-it theme 
download;  so perhaps I really ought to pay more attention to theme 
updates.

John