Recurring recording priority

[mvallevand]

I normally haven't used recurring recordings on multiple channels but my wife is interested in watching "The Big Bang Theory" and it is on 10 different channels on some many time choices that it is the best fit. The big plus is I will have lot of opportunity to record it, I'll be able to get 37 different episodes in the next two weeks alone without difficulty. I find however that when I set the recordings the tuner priority is not respected, it seems to match the first one in the data which is my lowest priority tuner. Does the proper tuner get selected at record time?

Martin

[mvallevand]

I guess no one has any ideas. I ended up making 3 separate rules which is a shame, so I still am looking for options. I hoped for better things with tuner priority but I am still making good progress with 10 shows in only 3 days.

The Big Bang Theory.S01E12.The Jerusalem Duality.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S01E13.The Bat Jar Conjecture.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S01E17.The Tangerine Factor.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S02E01.The Bad Fish Paradigm.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S02E02.The Codpiece Topology.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S02E03.The Barbarian Sublimation.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S03E02.The Jiminy Conjecture.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S03E03.The Gothowitz Deviation.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S03E18.The Pants Alternative.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S03E19.The Wheaton Recurrence.ts

This bulk recording shows some big weaknesses in the Recording screen, it assumes you record shows chronologically.

Martin

[sub]

It will try to honor the tuner priority for any recordings it schedules. The scheduler will work it's way through the list of capture sources, in priority order, checking if the device has the required channel, and is capable of recording it (taking into account multi-record, and any overlaps with other recordings, including those on other mutually-exclusive sources).

At recording time it'll use that capture source chosen at scheduling time unless the device is in use for something else (like post-padding or live tv), then it'll try to find another source. If it cant find another available source, then it'll stop whatever was in progress to make the recording.

[mvallevand]

Ok thanks, does that priority only come into play when the channels are merged?

Martin

[Jaggy]

The Big Bang Theory.S01E12.The Jerusalem Duality.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S01E13.The Bat Jar Conjecture.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S01E17.The Tangerine Factor.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S02E01.The Bad Fish Paradigm.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S02E02.The Codpiece Topology.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S02E03.The Barbarian Sublimation.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S03E02.The Jiminy Conjecture.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S03E03.The Gothowitz Deviation.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S03E18.The Pants Alternative.ts
The Big Bang Theory.S03E19.The Wheaton Recurrence.ts

This bulk recording shows some big weaknesses in the Recording screen, it assumes you record shows chronologically. Martin

How are they named? Does the series-episode go into the subtitle?

If so I found while playing with the Files archive plugin rename function that viewing them in the TV Recordings plugin & then selecting "Title (asc)" it will sort them by the subtitle name as they all the titles are the same..... This will be the only thing I use the TV Recording plugin for but it's still better than not being able to sort on subtitle at all......

[mvallevand]

Thanks for the idea. Those are the names that my imageGrabLite utility renames them to from the The Big Bang Theory_yyyy... format that NextPVR uses and I hadn't thought about also adding the S#E# to the subtitle because the default plugin doesn't use it and it does work from the Video Library. It's a bit tricky because the field that is used is one of the XML fields that I didn't want to muck with but I might consider it.

Martin

[johnsonx42]

Martin, I didn't respond initially because I wasn't quite sure what you were asking. However now I think I know what you were getting at...

You're saying that you see the same episode of Big Bang Theory on two different channels at the same time, and the scheduler is just taking the first version of the episode it finds in the epg data and scheduling that one, even though it's on a lower priority tuner than the other version of the episode? In that instance, yes, it would only do what you want it to do if the channels were merged.

It would be interesting if the scheduler could hunt across channels and even across timeslots to some extent (maybe a two hour window?) to find multiple versions of the same episode then choose the version that's on the highest priority capture source. However such logic might get complex and have unintended consequences in some cases.

[mvallevand]

Yes, that's it johnsonx42. I might have the same show from various cities at the same time and it seems to be first-come first-recorded when it hits a new unique_id which is typically a crappy analog one. I thought a higher tuner priority would cause it to become the new recording. I am not asking it to hunt just use a higher priority tuner when it is available, which shouldn't impact anything, it would just record as if the lower priority tuner didn't have the same show.

Martin

[johnsonx42]

Yes, I see what you mean. But the unique_id is evaluated before it considers tuner priority; the tuner priority isn't considered until it's already decided to schedule the episode and no longer cares about the unique_id.

I guess what it would have to do after it checks to see if the unique_id is already scheduled is then check all the epg entries for the same timeslot and see if the unique_id occurs on other channels; if it does then it would have to temporarily merge the channels and evalutate tuner priority as if the channels were merged.

Then as it resumes looking for episodes to record, it would find the one it just got done scheduling 'out of turn' but the unique_id would be in the 'already has' list so it would just move on. No adverse consequences.

So all that remains is whether sub thinks the scenario where this extra logic would be helpful is common enough to warrant his time, and of course how much he loves you

[mvallevand]

Yes maybe the Canadian guide is more complicated then many with both Canadian and US feeds and in both East and West timezones. Add a show like this that is in heavy rotation in syndication, showing on US Superstations in many time zones, and on locals in the after school, and pre and post primetime slot, plus the Canadian cable channels

It might be an unusual case and what I want is more a "wish" item. When a match like the following is found, I guess I'd like it to respect tuner priority too

Code:

012-08-01 07:39:39.871    [DEBUG][1]     - Potential episode at: 14/08/2012 7:30:00 PM
2012-08-01 07:39:39.872    [DEBUG][1]       ...check IsValid()
2012-08-01 07:39:39.872    [DEBUG][1]       ...already got this episode: EP009311820024
2012-08-01 07:39:39.872    [DEBUG][1]       ...already got this episode scheduled

Martin