[mythtv-users] 2 capture cards: want 1 dedicated to live TV, other to recording

[Michael T. Dean]

On 12/17/2008 09:15 AM, James Miller wrote:
> Yeah, after initially inclining toward the theme-settings-edit option, I 
> began to reconsider whether the simpler, and equally effective option, 
> might not be to set capture card priorities. I looked at the link Brad 
> provided and, despite my technical deficiencies, I'm pretty sure I could 
> implement that option--though it would take some time and experimentation. 
> But reflecting on how little liveTV I watch, I began to conclude that, 
> were I to set card priorities, there could almost never be an instance 
> when a recording would be made from the lower quality card due to some 
> conflict.
>
> To attach some concrete figures to this, I'd say that not more than 10% of 
> my viewing is liveTV. That's not to say that, out of 2 hours of viewing on 
> a given day I watch 12 minutes of liveTV. But rather that, say, out 60 
> hours of watching in a given month, I might watch 6 1 hour programs on 6 
> different days. But like I said that's a pretty liberal estimate, and I 
> think the more typical scenario would see me watching even less than that. 
> So I'm now leaning toward the capture-card-priority-tweaking option after 
> all.
>
> My first questions with regard to that have to do with specific numbers I 
> might set and whether both cards should be affected. From your remarks I 
> gather that setting the better quality card's priority to _any_ positive 
> number will bring about the desired effect, correct? So is there no need, 
> then, to in addition set the poorer  quality card's priority to a negative 
> number? Were I to do that, what effect--good or bad--could it have?
>
> Thanks to Brad, Jon, et al for the helpful input on this issue.

If you're going to mess with "card" (actually input) priorities, you 
/really/ should read http://mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html#ss12.6 
(and, really, should read all of 
http://mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html) as any time they are not 0, 
Myth's behavior may not be what you want (i.e. Myth may not record some 
shows).

The short story (if you don't feel like reading the info in section 12 
of the HOWTO) is you're /much/ better off never messing with input 
priorities and simply connecting inputs in order from most-preferred to 
least-preferred input.***  In your case--since you want all recordings 
to come from the most-preferred input and LiveTV from the 
least-preferred--you should also enable the "Avoid conflicts between 
LiveTV and recordings" option.

Mike

***If you read the information in section 12 and understand the 
consequences, then feel free to edit input priorities.