[mythtv-users] Record only HD or prefer HD over SD
Christian Szpilfogel
chrisznews4 at rogers.com
Thu Feb 4 03:09:21 UTC 2010
Yeechang Lee wrote:
> Right. I presume Christian Szpilfogel is located in Canada given his
>
Correct. Six time zones aggravates the issue but it is not isolated to
time shifting.
> Mike Dean says:
>
>> The point is that when you set channel and input priorities, Myth
>> will /no longer/ always record the first showing--even if there are
>> available inputs (meaning it will leave inputs unused when shows you
>> want to record, but haven't yet recorded, air). Therefore, you
>> /could/ have recorded the show when it first aired, but you didn't
>> because you set your channel priorities such that Myth said, "Simon
>> would rather record it on the other channel, so I won't record it
>> now."
>>
>
> But neither I nor Christian want to always record the first showing of
> a program. Within the two-week period that a given SchedulesDirect
> feed covers, a movie might very well air on HBOHDP, HBOP, HBO, HB2P,
> HBO2, HBOSIG, and HBOSIGP, and the first airing is quite possibly not
> going to be on HBOHDP (guaranteed, actually, since HBO--the Eastern
> time-zone SD feed--will always air it three hours before
> HBOHDP/HBOP). Even making HBOP invisible (the right thing to do, given
> its exact redundancy with HBOHDP) doesn't change the situation.
>
Correct. And if it was only limited to time shifted national channels it
would be trivial for the reasons you state below.
We have other related issues. We have networks that sometimes
rebroadcast US or other international shows and even sometimes two
networks may take the international feed. So I may see the same show
listed on say US ABC and CTV and sometimes another channel. In other
cases we have regional or city only channels that are rebroadcast
nationally (e.g. CityTV in Toronto which I can pick up in Ottawa; bad
example as it is HD here). And in other cases you have national networks
that have many regional variations with local programming content. CBC
and CTV do this to a certain extent. Many of these channels do not have
an HD variant so I can't delete them unless I really don't care about
them. Add a little time shifting into the equation and it's bonkers.
An example this week was when I was trying to record a UK show that was
shown on one of our national networks, one of the regional broadcasters
also had the rights and showed it ahead of the one I wanted. I found it
by trying the "any time any channel" option. I didn't get dinged because
I suspected this might happen.
> Since I want the same thing Christian asked for--the scheduler
> choosing the HD version of a program if available--I thus give HBOHDP
> and other HD channels a higher priority than for others, and also bump
> up Recording Priorities|HDTV Recording Priority two notches. This has
> worked very nicely for my 4+ years using MythTV. If there is a better
> way of achieving my goal, I'd love to hear it.
>
But this will only work if you can guarantee or manage it so that HD
variant will show up first or simultaneously. I can manage this on
strict national stations as you say by deleting the time shifted SD
feeds but that's it.
> As noted above, I do mark redundant SD channels as not visible in the
> lineup; there is no point cluttering up the scheduler (or the EPG)
> with SD channels that are 100% duplicated by HD counterparts. "100%
> duplicated" means both content *and* time zones; I do not mark HBO
> invisible.
>
The conclusion I come to is that it appears this can't be done without a
custom rule. So now I wonder if it is worth submitting an NFR. I haven't
seen much traffic on the issue so it is unclear to me if people are
simply not using the "any time any channel" option or they have found
reasonable work-arounds.
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