Proper padding handling w/multiple tuners please.

[ApexHack]

The following is my understanding of the situation after a lot of searching. If I'm missing something, feel free to kick me in the balls virtually.

I've got three tuners and record with all three simultaneously a couple of times a week. There are also lots of instances of back-to-back shows interleaved in there.

The default setting of <PreferAlternatingCaptureSources> is "false" which allows me to use all three tuners, but ignores padding. I'm now sure that this was the cause of past failed recordings where three were supposed to record at once and one didn't. "True" is where I had it set for a long time because it seemed to make sense and I was unaware of this other action.

<TryToHonourPaddingIfPossible> is default "yes" and this would make sense, but it obviously does not work.

To complicate things further, apparently the action is set in stone when the recording is initially scheduled. This leads to a mess when <PreferAlternatingCaptureSources> is changed down the line. I spent quite a bit of time deleting and rescheduling recurring recordings after realizing that <PreferAlternatingCaptureSources> needs to be "false" as this is the lesser of two evils.

So, now to be able to use all three tuners at once <PreferAlternatingCaptureSources> has to be set "false" and back-to-back shows just get their ends clipped. No, Sir, I don't like it.

I sure hope this is something that gets cleared up with the next release.

[stustunz]

i use alternating i find that the best i offset the time on the pc clock to be 2 minutes behind at least then the end is always there
but yes you are right a couple of times a week you have to watch the end of one show onthe beginning of the next

this is no fault of gbpvr it is to do with the epg and the time been out i can record back to back just fine and it works the way it should i cant see how it could be improved without it been able to actually watch the program and work out where the end and the beginning is (as in its not a person its a computer)

[sub]

With three tuners, I'd just set <PreferAlternatingCaptureSources> to true. It should work fine. What problems did you have?

[sub]

To complicate things further, apparently the action is set in stone when the recording is initially scheduled. This leads to a mess when <PreferAlternatingCaptureSources> is changed down the line. I spent quite a bit of time deleting and rescheduling recurring recordings after realizing that <PreferAlternatingCaptureSources> needs to be "false" as this is the lesser of two evils.]

Its not "set in stone", but it has to have a plan for how its going to record the shows that are scheduled, so that it knows it has enough capture devices available. The recordings can swap devices before recording under some circumstances.

[ApexHack]

Problem - The third show won't record when the other two tuners are recording back to back shows. When <PreferAlternatingCaptureSources> is true.

[stustunz]

are you sure the second show doesnt start before the end of the one still recording thats the way i can see that happening

[ApexHack]

This is next Monday, same as last where it failed to record Prison Break.


This is next Wednesday and I'm not sure if there will be a problem or not but I assume so.

[stustunz]

i have never had any failed recordings like youare talking about
it will tell me it cant reord and i have to re-enter the recordings in order
do you have any conflicts when you look at the schedule
what are the exact start/end times of the programs can you list them for me
looking at that i see chuck looks like it goes past the end of the next show

[ApexHack]

I'll go check some details a bit later, but there probably won't be any conflicts cause I reset config to "false" and then went and redid all the recurring recordings.

To get what you want to see I'd have to do all this over again and I'm not really feelin' that.

Thanks for trying, but I still don't understand how to get around this. To me it looks like either I can have padding and effectively only two tuners or no padding and all tuners.

[sub]

You're right that having <PreferAlternatingCaptureSources> set to true can lead to conflicts (that dont get recorded). The default is false to avoid this scenario. I sometimes recommend it is set to 'true' for users with three or more tuners, usually because they have enough tuners available that it is rarely a problem, but given how many recordings you're packing in that short period of time - yes, you could have problems and should probably stick to the 'false' setting.

<TryToHonourPaddingIfPossible> was introduced many releases ago to resolve this, but the logic doesnt work quite as I intended though, so it'll need to be revisted in future. It wont be in the next release though.