[mythtv-users] Common BE, separate FE's seeing just their own recordings (by default)

[Jim Stichnoth]

On Sat, Mar 6, 2010 at 5:50 PM, David Kubicek <foceni at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering whether it's possible to keep recordings of each FE
> "separate" in a split config / multiple FE's scenario. I'd prefer if both
> could see everything on request, but when entering Watch Recordings, they'd
> see just their own recordings by default (i.e. recording from rules created
> by them). With MythTV being network oriented and intended for several FE's,
> such a separation is probably taken care of already. With this in place,
> I'll also need some recordings to be seen by all FE's - that might be more
> intricate.
>
> Anyway, there are Playback, Recording and Storage groups (and although
> they're designed for a different purpose primarily), this should be just a
> matter of selecting a default group per FE and taking it into account on
> rule creation and upon entering Watch Recordings.
>
> Currently, I have just one FE+BE machine so I cannot research this
> requirement properly.

As you said, use Recording Groups to partition your recordings,
particularly in your recording rules.

On my frontends, I customize mainmenu.xml to add actions to enter
Watch Recordings with a particular recording group.  For example:

<button>
<type>TV_WATCH_RECORDINGS</type>
<text>Recordings - Movies for Kids</text>
<action>TV_WATCH_RECORDING Movies - Kids</action>
</button>

<button>
<type>TV_WATCH_RECORDINGS</type>
<text>Recordings - Movies</text>
<action>TV_WATCH_RECORDING Movies</action>
</button>

This corresponds to recording groups "Movies - Kids" and "Movies".
The customization of mainmenu.xml is done by copying the master
version from under /usr/share/mythtv/ (or wherever it's installed)
into ~mythtv/.mythtv/ and editing it there.  You could have a
different ~mythtv/.mythtv/mainmenu.xml on each frontend.  This applies
to other xml menu files as well, such as tvmenu.xml.

Jim