[mythtv-users] scheduling priority inversion...show me what a record will do!

[David Jeske]

-- Bruce Markey wrote:
> But changes aren't engraved in stone =). The warning you
> mention I find lacking in two ways. First, it may tell you
> that it conflicts with "College Basketball" but it doesn't
> show you what subtitle/description to base your choice on.
> You may have to leave, find the details, re-find the the
> show and choose. Second, you can only decide on the schedule
> as it stands and you are not warned of a show you want re-
> scheduled later for the same time slot. A variation is that
> you won't know if a timeslot opens up later and you could
> have gotten something that you wanted.

I'm not really following what you mean here. There are always
annoyances in any system, but the common case is that I want to
record a show, and I want it to tell me whether or not this is going
to conflict with one of my existing scheduled recordings. When it
does, I want to decide which to record. I've used this model for 3
years, and it worked great. I never ran into weird scenerios where it
didn't record what I expected.

>> In Myth, when I'm trolling the program guide and I see a neat
>> looking show, I have to look at the time and try to
>> remember my recordings to get an idea of whether or not
>> it'll kick something out.
>
> I'd go ahead and schedule it then look at the conflicts
> page to make my choice for that show and the show around
> it (different lengths and starttimes, priority for which
> gets the best card, etc.).

First off, navigating in and out of these screens just to find out IF
there is a problem is really annoying. If it just told me that the
tuners were full I'd be pretty happy. At least then I would know I
should look that one time.

However, I'm quite convinced that in the priority inversion case I
described, the conflict screen didn't even show the conflict!

> With a single tuner scheduler it may be that simple but
> with multiple tuners, it may have to re-run the scheduler
> to determine what might actually be excluded if the new
> show was added. Overlapping shows of different lengths
> may fit together in another order so either it would have
> to make a 'what-if' run or you could add it and see the
> result. I think the latter is more practical.

To the user these two implementation choices are indistinguishable.
The relevant part is telling the user when a new recording caused a
conflicts with previously scheduled recordings, so they don't have to
constantly check and recheck the conflicts page on their own.

> One other point about 'remember'. With other systems, the
> scheduled recordings are on one page and the noRecords are
> on another. To find out if you are missing something you
> need to look for it on the other page, remember what it is
> and when then go back to the schedule page and figure out
> what you want.

I don't really understand what you mean. If my tivo even had these
screens I never looked at them. Not once in three years.

My point is that with more feedback about what an actual record does
to the schedule when I make it, I don't even need to visit the
conflicts screen. At the very least it should tell me when I make a
conflict and let me resolve it.

> So, I think it is a matter of habits. I've used several types
> of systems extensively and I believe that mythtv > 0.13 is
> already the most flexible and easiest to manipulate it to do
> exactly what you want, and with more improvements on the way.

So how do I prevent the priority inversion? I want to make sure that
my +5 show ALWAYS gets recorded, no matter what other stuff I do.
Especially since myth won't tell me when I make a change which will
screw that up. Seems pretty simple. Is there a way to do that?