[mythtv-users] Oddity with keep max and overlapping recordings

[John Veness]

Hi,

I have discovered an oddity (I think it's a bug, but want to check 
first), regarding recording rules which specify to keep a maximum number 
of episodes and to not record if that would exceed the max, and 
situations where multiple recordings happen at once.

Background and example:

Let's say I have a rule to record The Simpsons, keeping a max of 3 
episodes, and not to record if that would exceed. Allow expire is set to 
Yes, but I have plenty of disk space. I do not use the Deleted group. My 
recording rule is set to include 3 minutes before and 3 minutes after.

Here's the important thing: Sometimes multiple episodes of The Simpsons 
are broadcast back-to-back. With my recording rules, that would mean 
that for 6 minutes there are actually two episodes of The Simpsons being 
recorded at once.

If I have three episodes recorded (the max) then everything is fine - no 
new episodes get recorded, nothing gets expired.

If I then watch and delete an episode, I have 2 left, and so another 
episode of The Simpsons should be recorded. However, if two episodes are 
broadcast back-to-back what actually happens is the first episode is 
recorded (making 2 recorded eps and 1 recording in progress), and then 
near the end the 2nd episode starts recording (making 2 recorded eps and 
2 recordings in progress).

When both eps finish, I have 4 recorded eps, exceeding the max. The 
autoexpiry code soon kicks in and deletes the oldest ep, leaving 3, 
namely the two new ones and one of the old ones.

So, this means that in this situation, I watch and delete one ep, then 2 
get recorded and 1 gets expired. This is inefficient, e.g. on tuners, 
and a bit annoying as I might have been looking forward to watching a 
particular episode which I could see had been recorded.

I think the crux of the problem is that the second recording should not 
have started if it noticed that there are already 2 recorded eps and 1 
recording in progress, as that adds up to the max of 3 in my mind. I 
guess this is a scheduler issue.

Anyone else seen this and can confirm?

Cheers,

John

-- 
John Veness, MythTV user, UK, DVB-T