[mythtv] another scheduling idea (not softpad)

[Steven Adeff]

On 6/30/07, Robert Tsai <mythtv at tsaiberspace.net> wrote:
> I had asked about implementing "end recording xx minutes after
> beginning" logic at
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/265449
>
> The use case was to allow me to get partial recordings of stuff that I
> cared enough about recording partially, but not enough to take
> recording priority over something else with partial overlap (I have
> two tuners):
>
>         Monday
>         8-9:30 Dancing with the Stars (recpriority 10)
>         9-10 Heroes (recpriority 20)
>         9-10 24 (recpriority 20)
>
>         Tuesday
>         8-9 Dancing with the Stars (recpriority 10)
>
> I had set up Dancing to "end 30 minutes early", but that needlessly
> truncates the Tuesday recording (where there was no scheduling
> conflict). Setting up manual recording rules is lame. And I'd have to
> remember to cancel the rule at the end of the season. And "Dancing" is
> one of those shows where you don't really need to see the whole thing
> (each couple has a set of maybe 10 minutes which basically stand
> independently as content from the other couples).
>
> I was about to start coding up a "end recording xxx minutes after
> beginning" option to allow me to just say "record up to the first 60
> minutes of this show" (stop recording if it is scheduled for less than
> 60 minutes).
>
> But then I thought a more generic way to do this would be to introduce
> a notion of abbreviated schedules, where "it's OK to miss XXX minutes
> of a recording without completely bailing on it". So I could just
> configure my "Dancing" schedule with an abbreviation tolerance of
> missing up to 30 minutes (from the end, or from the beginning,
> depending on how many knobs you want).
>
> Today, after the scheduler does its thing and decides to record
> "Heroes" and "24" (on my two-tuner system), it knows that "Dancing"
> has a conflict.
>
> My idea is to introduce some number of subsequent passes to the
> scheduler to play with the abbreviation settings (chop off the last
> minute, chop off the first minute, chop off the last two minutes, chop
> off the first two minutes, etc.) to see if any recordings that aren't
> recording due to conflict would be able to be recorded with the new
> abbreviated recording time. In this example, when it finally tries to
> chop off the last 30 minutes of "Dancing", it will see that the
> recording schedule from 8-9pm is free to accommodate another
> recording.
>
> The goal is to leave the current scheduling results alone, but
> possibly augment them with more recordings if that would allow more
> partial recordings to be captured.
>
> Any thoughts from anyone while I start working on this feature?

I like the idea. I've had times where I wish i could do similar (like
record the last part of a sporting event if possible). One idea would
be to include the pre/post-roll options into your settings. So for
instance I have 2minutes pre-roll to account for tuning speed, etc.

-- 
Steve