Schedule conflicts that shouldn't be conflists

[-stattik-]

I have three tuners (2 QAM and 1 ATSC)
The two QAM tuners (HDHR) receive all stations except CBS HD (as referenced in another thread) so I've unchecked that station for these two tuners.
The ATSC tuner receives all channels including CBS HD.

Here is my pending.log for Monday, Feb 2nd:

Code:

5589    Chuck *   2/2/2009 7:00:00 PM - 2/2/2009 8:00:00 PM  capture-source:9  tuning:T:667250,0,0~P:1~V:112~A:113~PMT:111~PCR:112~N:>4.1  WTMJ-DT* (000(AC3))
5593    House *   2/2/2009 7:00:00 PM - 2/2/2009 8:00:00 PM  capture-source:10  tuning:T:33,6,1~P:3~V:49~A:52~PMT:48~PCR:49~N:>6.1  WITI DT (eng(AC3))
[B]5587    How I Met Your Mother *   2/2/2009 7:30:00 PM - 2/2/2009 8:00:00 PM  capture-source:8  tuning:T:589250,0,0~P:5~V:52~A:53~PMT:51~PCR:52~N:>58.1  CBS HD* (000(AC3))[/B]
5590    Heroes *   2/2/2009 8:00:00 PM - 2/2/2009 9:00:00 PM  capture-source:8  tuning:T:667250,0,0~P:1~V:112~A:113~PMT:111~PCR:112~N:>4.1  WTMJ-DT* (000(AC3))
[B]5588    CSI: Miami *   2/2/2009 9:00:00 PM - 2/2/2009 10:00:00 PM  capture-source:8  tuning:T:589250,0,0~P:5~V:52~A:53~PMT:51~PCR:52~N:>58.1  CBS HD* (000(AC3))[/B]

There's a few problems.
The shows in bold are CBS HD and should be using tuner 10 which is the only tuner that is set to receive that channel so those will end up failing.

Focusing on the 8-9PM time block:

Code:

5590    Heroes *   2/2/2009 8:00:00 PM - 2/2/2009 9:00:00 PM  capture-source:8  tuning:T:667250,0,0~P:1~V:112~A:113~PMT:111~PCR:112~N:>4.1  WTMJ-DT* (000(AC3))

There is just one show set to record and two shows that won't because of "conflicts." I put the info in pending.log-form.

Code:

Two and a Half Men *   2/2/2009 8:00:00 PM - 2/2/2009 8:30:00 PM tuning:T:589250,0,0~P:5~V:52~A:53~PMT:51~PCR:52~N:>58.1  CBS HD* (000(AC3))
Worst Week *   2/2/2009 8:30:00 PM - 2/2/2009 9:00:00 PM tuning:T:589250,0,0~P:5~V:52~A:53~PMT:51~PCR:52~N:>58.1  CBS HD* (000(AC3))

So it looks like two of the three tuners should be enough to handle these shows. Since Hereos is using tuner 8 that means tuner 10 would be available to record the two shows on CBS HD.

I'll attach logs and I can include more if needed. This is not the first recording conflict issue I've had since the upgrade but it's the first with multiple shows being marked as conflicts in a single hour.

[pBS]

what kind of cap cards do you run? [brand etc.]
i had same problem with my aver m780 in this release...fix was adding a 'shared name' to bda.ini so it wouldn't think it's part of same card...
[in my case, "SHARED_NAME=AVerMedia M780 digital"]

it only seems to happen to dual cards...but then it may be something else completely..lol

[-stattik-]

The 2 QAM is a HDHomeRun
The 1 ATSC is a Dvico Fusion Gold 3t

I'm not sure what you mean by "shared name." Has anyone used a shared name with a HDHomeRun?

[sub]

So it looks like two of the three tuners should be enough to handle these shows. Since Hereos is using tuner 8 that means tuner 10 would be available to record the two shows on CBS HD.

Assuming I understand your problem correctly....

Things can get complicated when there is multiple captures sources and some receiving a subset of the available channels.

When scheduling season recordings after the EPG update, it goes through season recordings in priority order (order showing in 'recurring' list), scheduling each recording using the normal recording rules (top down in capture source source, with a few exceptions relating to back to back recordings). Whats probably happening is one of the first season recordings processed is taking the one tuner that has CBS-HD, and GB-PVR will no try to move existing recordings when scheduling the following season recordings.

To cut a long story short, you'll probably have to either move the tuners that dont have CBS-HD to be before the others in the capture source list, or change the priority of your recordings with the FF/RW buttons on the Recordings screen.

Hopefully that makes sense.

[-stattik-]

The one tuner that has CBS-HD is already at the bottom of the list. (Its ID is 10. The QAM tuners are at the top of the list at 8 and 9.)

I'll check out the season recording priorities to see if it helps any.

Thanks for the help.

[johnsonx42]

move the tuners that dont have CBS-HD to be before the others in the capture source list

Yes, I have a problem of a similar nature, and ordering the tuners appropriately was my solution. In my case I have two ATSC tuners both tuning the same set of channels, EXCEPT one of the tuners can't tune ABC-DT (which is currently on UHF 53.. when ABC-DT switches down to VHF 7 on Feb 17th this problem will probably go away).

To solve it I put the tuner that CAN tune ABC last in the list. So for the first scheduled recording, it uses the tuner that can't tune ABC, leaving the good tuner for liveTV or a second recording. If the scheduled recording does need ABC, it automatically uses the second tuner, leaving the first for LiveTV (in which case I can't also tune ABC on LiveTV, but it's never mattered even once).

So stattik should have the two HD Homerun tuners first, and the ATSC tuner last.

But one thing that doesn't make sense is why gb-pvr would even schedule a recording on a tuner that doesn't have the channel enabled? The pending log appears to show recordings scheduled for Tuner 8 on CBS-HD, yet stattik says that channel is not enabled on that tuner. That suggests then either the channel is not in fact disabled correctly, or there is a bug.

[johnsonx42]

oh, I just thought of something... stattik, when did you uncheck the CBS-HD channels for the two QAM tuners? After the recordings were already scheduled?

I found when I had to disable a channel and change the tuner order as I mentioned above, any recordings already scheduled for that tuner were not automatically re-scheduled for the other tuner. I ended up simply deleting and re-creating my season recordings, and then they all were scheduled on the proper tuners.

sub, I've been meaning to post a wish-list sort of question about this... it seems that gb-pvr is sometimes not very smart about tuner allocation. For example, changing anything about tuner order and/or channel assignments ought to set a flag that causes the recording service to re-allocate the recordings according to the new order and channel assignments. Likewise, if it goes to do a recording on a tuner that it finds is unavailable for some reason (like the error condition where a recording doesn't stop at the end of a show, tying up that tuner forever) it won't just go try the other tuner... I've missed an entire day of recordings because of that.

(though I must admit I've not had the recording-doesn't-stop issue since upgrading to 1.3.11, so maybe that particular error condition is gone)

When Feb 17th rolls around (assuming the analog shutdown doesn't get delayed), I'm going to have to re-scan all my channels and update the tuning assignments, as most of the digital channels are moving from their temporary frequencies back to their traditional broadcast frequencies. I have a feeling all my scheduled recordings are going to break, because they'll all have the wrong tuning request associated with them.

[-stattik-]

So stattik should have the two HD Homerun tuners first, and the ATSC tuner last.

Thanks for the reply johnsonx42.

I already have the tuners in the above order, they've always been that way. I emptied the EPG for each tuner, verified it by making sure there were no scheduled recordings and then performed an EPG update.

One of the things I tried was removing the tuning information for CBS-HD on the tuners that didn't have it. Then I was able to get the correct tuner recording CBS-HD but other anomalies occurred like scheduled recordings just not showing up even though I knew they should be there.

So I reinstalled GBPVR from scratch and the conflicts are gone. The correct tuner is set to record CBD-HD. I'm not sure what caused the initial issues but I haven't performed a clean install for years so it was probably overdue.