No tuners available for this recording

[wodger]

I just tried to schedule a recording which would have used the multirecord feature. I got a message which said no tuners were available for this recording. The program was on DVB-S NZ Freeview "FOUR" and the existing scheduled recordings at the same time were on channels 2 and 3. As I understand it the tuner locked on channel 3 should have been able to record channel four at the same time.

I just demonstrated multirecord a few days ago to a friend by loading up about 5-6 channels to record all at the same time and showed him that I could record them all at the same time and watch any of them as well, so I really expected this to work.

TV2 is on frequency 12483/H.22500 SID 1036, TV3 and FOUR are on 12456/H/22500 SID 1920 and 1921 respectively.

The day in question is 11 May 2011: TV2 is scheduled to record American Idol at 8.30pm and then Distraction at 10.00pm, TV3 is scheduled to record the program 7 Days at 9.30pm. I was trying to add Chain Reaction at 8.30-10.30pm on Four.

Logs attached, have I missed anything?

[sub]

I cant see the attempt in the logs. Do you remember what the approximate time was when you tried to schedule this recording?

[wodger]

I dont *remember* exactly when, but it was minutes before I posted this thread. I deliberately rebooted, reproduced the error message, closed the app and grabbed the logs.

[wodger]

Here it is again, but didn't close the app this time.

[sub]

I can seem to see the logging I expected to find.

You might need to zip and attach your npvr.db3, along with instructions for reproducing the 'no tuner available' with recordings in a few days time. With your database I'll then try the same steps.

[johnsonx42]

The day in question is 11 May 2011: TV2 is scheduled to record American Idol at 8.30pm and then Distraction at 10.00pm, TV3 is scheduled to record the program 7 Days at 9.30pm. I was trying to add Chain Reaction at 8.30-10.30pm on Four.

I've run into this several times. The likely cause is that Tuner 1 was set to record American Idol on TV2, but then at 10pm it scheduled Distraction to record on Tuner 2. Then Tuner 1 was going to record 7 Days at 9:30pm. So now, even though it looks like you have a tuner available to record Chain Reaction on TV3, you actually don't, because Tuner 1 was busy recording TV2 at 8:30pm, and then Tuner 2 would be on TV2 at 10:00pm; so no single tuner could be on TV3 from 8:30pm to 10:30pm.
NPVR doesn't have the logic to re-assign tuners on the fly. So you've not encountered a bug so much as a missing feature.
The work-around that I have to use frequently is to cancel the later recording(s), schedule the one I want, then re-schedule the later recording(s) again. Then in your case, Distraction would have been re-scheduled on Tuner 1. (I'm just using Tuner 1/Tuner 2 as an example - I'm not looking at your logs, and don't know exactly which shows were scheduled where; I just know this scenario is the likely cause of your problem)

[sub]

Yeah, it is most likely something like that. Nextpvr (and GBPVR) schedules the recordings in order, tentatively allocating recordings to resources as it works through them, so sometimes the order you've scheduled the recordings can mean that recording scheduled later unable to find an available tuner that could fulfil the new request, because the tuners have already be assigned for other recordings. It doesnt go back and reasses all previous allocations at that point. It is something I'd like to look into in the future, but it is complicated and not a small task.

[Reddwarf]

Yeah, it is most likely something like that. Nextpvr (and GBPVR) schedules the recordings in order, tentatively allocating recordings to resources as it works through them, so sometimes the order you've scheduled the recordings can mean that recording scheduled later unable to find an available tuner that could fulfil the new request, because the tuners have already be assigned for other recordings. It doesnt go back and reasses all previous allocations at that point. It is something I'd like to look into in the future, but it is complicated and not a small task.

I seem to recall that we have discussed this algorithm for scheduling in the past. It is still my opinion that it would be better to not assign the tuner until the actual recording is to start.

[sub]

I seem to recall that we have discussed this algorithm for scheduling in the past. It is still my opinion that it would be better to not assign the tuner until the actual recording is to start.

So what are you suggesting - dont even bother coming up with a plan for how the devices will be used, and instead assume that anything the user wants to schedule will be fine, then just let them fail at recording time if no tuner was available? I'm sure that'd be popular

[Reddwarf]

Absolutely not! The algorithm known how many tuners there are at any given time, and if, at schedule time, the user schedules more shows than there are tuners at showtime it can issue a warning and say that there will not be enough tuners available. Ofcource the algorithm need to analyze the shows and see if any of them can utilize multirecord. That way you won't have the situation discussed in this thread, and if a capture device is removed before an epg update takes place in best case another device can take the recording.

Fully possible but requires some out-of-the-box thinking (and less stubburnness )