[mythtv] Small show overlap schedule conflict resolution strategy

[Joseph A. Caputo]

Considereth thy brow beaten :-)
(i.e., top-posting rearranged)

On Thursday 06 November 2003 14:29, Bruce Markey wrote:
> Rob Comstock wrote:
> > This is continuation of a thread from the mythtv users list.
> >
> > In the case where the schedule of two conflicting shows overlap a
> > small amount (less than 5 minutes or therabouts) it should be
> > possible to add a recording option to allow overlap between shows
> > of "n" minutes. I have seen where ER starts at 8:59 and runs till
> > 10 and another show I want to record runs from 8 to 9. Current
> > system makes me choose between the two. If the overlap mins fall
> > below the threshold then both shows can be captured with the
> > following show having its minutes trimmed from its beginning.
> >
> > If the overlap exceeds the limit Myth recording behaves as it does
> > currently to prevent conflicts. Default allowable overlap shall be
> > 0 minutes.
> >
> > Comments on this?
> >
> > The following response came from Joseph A. Caputo:
> > An alternative approach would be rather than put the burden on the
> > user to figure out how many minutes of overlap to specify, why not
> > add an option to the Conflict Resolution screen.  Allow me to
> > explain:  let's say I want to record 'Friends' from 20:00 - 20:32
> > (damn NBC!) and 'Crank Yankers' on Comedy Central from 20:30 -
> > 21:00.  Since they overlap be 2 minutes, I'd normally have to
> > choose one or the other.  But, if we add an option for 'partial
> > recording', we could do the following:
> >
> > --------- Conflict Resolution Screen --------------
> > The following scheduled recordings conflict with each other.  Which
> > would you like to record?
> >
> > (checkbox) Remember this choice and use it automatically in the
> > future (checkbox) Record non-overlapping portions of conflicting
> > program(s)
> >
> > (item) Friends - Thur 20:00 on Channel 10
> > (item) Crank Yankers - Thur 20:30 on Channel 26
> >
> > -----------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > If you check the box marked "Record non-overlapping" and choose 
> > 'Friends', it will record all of Friends (20:00 - 20:32) and the
> > portion of 'Crank Yankers' from 20:32 - 21:00 (missing the first 2
> > minutes).  OTOH, if we check the box and choose 'Crank Yankers', it
> > will record Friends from 20:00 - 20:30 (missing the last 2 minutes)
> > and all of 'Crank Yankers' from 20:30 - 21:00.
> >
> > Now comes the fun part -- discussing how best to implement this!
> >
> [Top posting to piss-off the elitist brow-beaters ;-]
>
> What is needed is a more general mechanism to allow starttime
> and endtime offsets. This would be useful for many situations
> especially recording overtime for sporting events. Commercial
> DVRs only allow starting early and ending late. MythTV should
> allow positive and negative values at either end.
>
> So NBC lists Saturday Night Live at 11:30-1:01. If I want to
> record something at 1:00am Sun, I should be able to go to the
> Advanced Options page and set the endtime offset to -1 minutes
> for SNL. I know that by 1:00 they've said goodbye and are running
> commercials so I know I want to trim SNL and catch the next
> show from the beginning. In your ER example, I don't know, and
> myth can't know, if you would rather see the first minute of
> ER or the last minute of the previous show. You should have the
> choice of starting ER one minute late or ending the other show
> one minute early rather than leaving it to the computer to
> decide for you.
>
> Another situation that comes up ofter is a basketball game from
> 7:30-10:00 but there is another show from 7:00-8:00. The normal
> workaround is to create a manual record starting at 8:00. However,
> I'd prefer to just go to the Advanced Options page and set the
> game to start 30 minutes late and end 60 minutes late.
>
> I've mentioned before that I think there are four or five people
> who I believe would do a bang-up job of this if they get inspired.
> Still without naming names ;-) all of those people have chimed
> in on design issues in recent days. I hope one of them takes the
> need for this feature to heart.
>
> --  bjm

I think these are 2 separate (though related) issues.  I think there is 
a definite place for automatic 'partial' recording as I described 
previously.  By letting the scheduler auto-resolve which shows get 
recorded in their entirety and which shows get a partial (minus 
overlaps) recording, I am freed from needing to constantly monitor and 
adjust individual show recording times.  In your example with the 
basketball game, if I decide to cancel the 7:00-8:00 recording, in your 
example I would have to remember to go back in and adjust the 
basketball recording to start on time.  I'd much prefer the scheduler 
to notice that there's nothing overlapping now, and just start 
recording the basketball game when it's supposed to.  In my vision, I 
didn't even have to adjust the basketball game to start late to being 
with; I just gave it a lower priority than the 7:00-8:00 show, enabled 
partial recordings and let the scheduler handle it.  Now, as to the 
ability to have the basketball game record an hour past the scheduled 
end...

...I do think there is a separate need for the ability to manually 
adjust the start/end times of individual instances of scheduled 
recordings, even (especially?) in-progress ones.  Especially with 
sporting/special events or last-minute schedule changes, it would be a 
nice feature.

-JAC