Duplicate Recordings

[johnsonx42]

sub, the dupes are coming from the new "find alternate showing on conflict" code. "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver" episodes EP01877254.0056 and EP01877254.0057 produce conflicts in their original timeslots. When it hunts down replacement episodes it eventually finds them on 9/28 @ 2:30pm and 10/5 @ 12:30am respectively, but doesn't see that it's already got them scheduled and creates dupes. I'm guessing the code that schedules the replacement recordings doesn't bother to check if they're duplicates, because the original scheduling routine should have seen that those two episodes were already scheduled and should never have created the conflict in the first place.

I believe it doesn't see that they're already scheduled because of the period in the Unique_id; you added code awhile back (at my behest) to disregard the period when comparing Unique_id's, to make them consistent between Schedules Direct and MC2XML/ZAP2XML and allow users to switch between the EPG sources. I think something's become inconsistent there with this new code, and it's creating the dupes because of it... probably the scheduled recording is put in the database without the period, but it's still using the period when it checks for the dupe (or vice-versa, I'm not sure which way it goes).

relevant portion of log attached.

[TRiddle]

Seeing this same behavior. I have about 10 instances of every Fear The Walking Dead episode because it is a lower priority, thus gets the "find alternate showing on conflict" code. I view it as a minor hiccup at this point, because I still prefer the new logic versus creating timeslot timers.

[johnsonx42]

what is your epg source?

if you're using an xmltv file, can you post one?

[TRiddle]

I use SD. When I get home, I'll pull a copy of it for you and post it.

[johnsonx42]

ok, then my theory about what why the duplicates aren't being detected is wrong, it must not have anything to do with the dot in the unique_id (since SD doesn't have them). I'm sure it's the conflict alternative code that's creating them, but after the first time through the regular scheduling code should see that they're already scheduled and not try to schedule them again (therefore not create the conflict, therefore the conflict alternative code won't fire and create another recording)

[jghanisco]

Ah, so this is what I've also been running into. Thanks for showing that it's not just me that this is occurring to! I use zap2xml to pull the guide...

[johnsonx42]

i have raised this as a bug to be fixed for 3.6.x, not sure when it will be though.

[johnsonx42]

got a wild hair to look into this today, and found the real source of the duplicates has nothing to do with dots/no-dots in the Unique_ID, nor anything directly to do with the "conflict alternative airing" code itself, rather use of that code exposes a bug elsewhere...

the "avoid duplicates" logic doesn't detect episodes already set to record on a different channel

This subject has come up before, and there was logic created along with a config.xml setting " <AllowCrossChannelDuplicates>false</AllowCrossChannelDuplicates>", however it's not working, or at least it's not working in this scenario.

the issue can be recreated without any use of the "conflict alternative airing" feature, assuming you have the right EPG data available:

1. find a show that airs the same episodes on multiple channels... usually either east/west feeds or sister-station relationships; for my testing I used Seinfeld which airs the same pair of episodes on KCOP at 10pm and KDOC at 11pm.

2. schedule single recordings of one or more episodes on one channel (in my case I chose the two episodes airing on KDOC)

3. now schedule a recurring recording on the other channel (KCOP in my case)

4. after scheduling, you will find that the recurring recording scheduled duplicates of those already scheduled on the other channel.

this effect is compounded by the "conflict alternative airing" logic, as it doesn't check for duplicates (it shouldn't need to) so it keeps creating more recordings to resolve the conflict the regular scheduler should never have created in the first place.

this problem was not revealed in my original testing of the "conflict alternative airing" feature, as my test case was America's Got Talent which aired an encore of the weekly live show later in the week on the same channel.

[Handy.Man]

1. find a show that airs the same episodes on multiple channels... usually either east/west feeds or sister-station relationships; for my testing I used Seinfeld which airs the same pair of episodes on KCOP at 10pm and KDOC at 11pm.

My problem happen on only one channel. I have only 8 ATSC channels in EPG from different broadcasters.

It looks like the logic for "Avoid duplicate recordings where possible" does not detect these duplicates.

[johnsonx42]

sorry, I don't see any way it can happen on the same channel.

(I mean to say, yours will have to be investigated as a different problem, it's not related to this)