Start initial playback after padding

[cncb]

I have a 1-minute padding at the beginning of most of my recordings just in case. I like the way SageTV handles this: playback begins at the original "start" of the show (after the padding) and this is considered "0:00" so that in most cases I don't have to skip forward to find the beginning of the show. Ok, so I realize this sounds kind of lazy on my part but it still would be nice to have.

[bgowland]

Ok, so I realize this sounds kind of lazy on my part but it still would be nice to have.

Well my initial thought was more a case of reverse-logic rather than lazy - if you don't want pre-padding then don't use it.

In saying that though it's an interesting one for the wishlist - perhaps a config.xml option such as <IgnorePrepaddingOnPlayback>.

In reality though it would simply reduce rather than eliminate the amount of seeking I have to do on many of my recordings these days. It seems the commercial channels like to pad 20 or 25 minute shows (for example) out to 30 minute timeslots so I'd still probably have a minute or so of commercials to skip past.

Still, not a bad feature to have.

[cncb]

Here in the U.S. most shows seem to start right on the money (they do the commercial padding in the middle and end). I have the pre-padding just in case they start a few seconds early.

[mvallevand]

Thinking about it, zero pre-padding does make a lot of sense here in Canada, and I think I will try it Our networks broadcasts are synced to US networks anyway and the FCC laws in the US require the station ID close to the hour, and they do seem very accurate.

I still have to work more getting the sports scores from Slugger so I don't , miss as many "Good Wife"s and "Amazing Race"s next year.

Martin

[mvallevand]

Looking at this as a wishlist item, I checked and in addition to the recording time, SageTV stores the actual time that the show starts recording down to the millisecond and that is why it can start at zero. With the current structure, NextPVR only knows the recording time and you can't really tell when padding started, since you might not even get the full amount.

Martin

[bgowland]

With the current structure, NextPVR only knows the recording time and you can't really tell when padding started, since you might not even get the full amount.

But the prepadding is stored in the SCHEDULED_RECORDING table of the DB which is where the filenames of successful recordings are also stored. So if playback from the recordings plugin already requires a lookup on that table then seeking to ignore prepadding would be possible.

Admittedly if a programme started early, or the programme started on time but the PC clock is running fast, then ignoring prepadding would jump into the start of the programme. If that only happens occasionally though it might still be a nice feature.

Cheers,
Brian

[mvallevand]

But the prepadding is stored in the SCHEDULED_RECORDING table of the DB which is where the filenames of successful recordings are also stored. So if playback from the recordings plugin already requires a lookup on that table then seeking to ignore prepadding would be possible.

Admittedly if a programme started early, or the programme started on time but the PC clock is running fast, then ignoring prepadding would jump into the start of the programme. If that only happens occasionally though it might still be a nice feature.

But that would only be the optional period, and I don't believe they are reset to zero or actual at record time if it wasn't available.

Martin

[bgowland]

But that would only be the optional period, and I don't believe they are reset to zero or actual at record time if it wasn't available.

Nope...you've lost me there I think. :confused:

By default my recordings all have a 2 minute prepadding and that's stored in the DB. NexrPVR has no way of knowing when the actual broadcast of the programme starts but it does know I added 2 minutes to the beginning - my take on this wishlist feature is that it simply seeks 2 minutes into the recording when I play it.

[sub]

What Martin is saying is that even though you've requested 2 minutes pre-padding, that pre-padding may or may not have happened. For example, tuner was in use elsewhere so wasn't available to start the recording until after the (desirable, but optional) padding. The app doesnt currently store information to indicate whether or not the padding happened.

[bgowland]

Ah OK, thanks sub.

Apologies to Martin, I genuinely didn't get the point. I suppose with 4 DVB-T tuners and only 6 MUXes I don't see the padding on recordings being discarded for back-to-back recordings these days. I'd forgotten about that.

Cheers,
Brian