Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Advice on HD, Digital SD, Analog SD scheduling priorities

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lunchtimelarry at gmail

Nov 3, 2009, 11:51 AM

Post #1 of 8 (162 views)
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Advice on HD, Digital SD, Analog SD scheduling priorities

I am running myth 0.21 right now, and I currently use 2 analog capture
cards, and a (dual tuner) HDHR. I have Comcast, so I still get most of the
basic cable + OTA in both analog AND digital form, but this may not last.

The challenge I have now is balancing recordings against the HDHR vs. analog
tuners. If I bind recordings to specific channels, then sometimes I get
conflicts because I will tend to overbook the HDHR looking for HD content
(usually this is why). Obviously, when this happens, I can miss
recordings, when the show could have possibly been recorded using one of the
analog tuners. I would rather fall back to analog SD than miss a show
completely. So, I end up having to edit individual recording schedules and
relax the channel binding, but maybe prefer a specific tuner. I am not
crazy about this either since I am not sure how to prefer tuners in a
hierarchical way.

I would like to find a global solution where, for a given recording schedule
that is set to 'any channel', I prioritize the tuners in roughly this order:

Choose an HD channel on the HDHR first. If this is not available, then
choose a digital SD channel on the HDHR. If this is not available, then
choose an analog SD channel.

So, I would modify my recording schedules to be 'any channel', and let the
system decide which channel to use based on the above tuner preference. The
system would use my show priorities to decide what gets put on the preferred
tuner. So, if CSI is +2, Modern Marvels is +1, Law&Order is 0, and House is
-1, then CSI would get an HD channel, Modern Marvels would get a digital SD
channel (both on the HDHR), and Law&order and House would fall back to the
analog tuners.

Can this be done?

Thanks,
Larry

kkuphal at gmail

Nov 3, 2009, 12:36 PM

Post #2 of 8 (147 views)
Permalink

Re: Advice on HD, Digital SD, Analog SD scheduling priorities [In reply to]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 1:51 PM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry[at]gmail.com> wrote:

> I am running myth 0.21 right now, and I currently use 2 analog capture
> cards, and a (dual tuner) HDHR. I have Comcast, so I still get most of the
> basic cable + OTA in both analog AND digital form, but this may not last.
>
> The challenge I have now is balancing recordings against the HDHR vs.
> analog tuners. If I bind recordings to specific channels, then sometimes I
> get conflicts because I will tend to overbook the HDHR looking for HD
> content (usually this is why). Obviously, when this happens, I can miss
> recordings, when the show could have possibly been recorded using one of the
> analog tuners. I would rather fall back to analog SD than miss a show
> completely. So, I end up having to edit individual recording schedules and
> relax the channel binding, but maybe prefer a specific tuner. I am not
> crazy about this either since I am not sure how to prefer tuners in a
> hierarchical way.
>
> I would like to find a global solution where, for a given recording
> schedule that is set to 'any channel', I prioritize the tuners in roughly
> this order:
>
> Choose an HD channel on the HDHR first. If this is not available, then
> choose a digital SD channel on the HDHR. If this is not available, then
> choose an analog SD channel.
>
> So, I would modify my recording schedules to be 'any channel', and let the
> system decide which channel to use based on the above tuner preference. The
> system would use my show priorities to decide what gets put on the preferred
> tuner. So, if CSI is +2, Modern Marvels is +1, Law&Order is 0, and House is
> -1, then CSI would get an HD channel, Modern Marvels would get a digital SD
> channel (both on the HDHR), and Law&order and House would fall back to the
> analog tuners.
>

I would think giving your HDHR tuners a +1 priority would solve this:

HDHR HD = +2 (+1 for tuner, +1 for HD)
HDHD SD = +1 for tuner
Analog = 0

Kevin

mythtv at rodsbooks

Nov 3, 2009, 1:03 PM

Post #3 of 8 (147 views)
Permalink

Re: Advice on HD, Digital SD, Analog SD scheduling priorities [In reply to]

On Tuesday 03 November 2009 02:51:21 pm Larry K wrote:
> I am running myth 0.21 right now, and I currently use 2 analog capture
> cards, and a (dual tuner) HDHR. I have Comcast, so I still get most of the
> basic cable + OTA in both analog AND digital form, but this may not last.
>
> The challenge I have now is balancing recordings against the HDHR vs.
> analog tuners.
...
> I would like to find a global solution where, for a given recording
> schedule that is set to 'any channel', I prioritize the tuners in roughly
> this order:
>
> Choose an HD channel on the HDHR first. If this is not available, then
> choose a digital SD channel on the HDHR. If this is not available, then
> choose an analog SD channel.

There are several things you can do that will produce effects you might find
acceptable. Each will produce subtly different results:

1) Tuner order -- MythTV favors low-numbered tuners over high-numbered tuners,
with tuner number being defined by the order in which you set them up in
mythtv-setup. Thus, if you clear all your tuner definitions and add them
back, defining your HDHR tuners first, then MythTV will favor your SD
digital channels over the equivalent SD analog channels. This preference
will not be strong enough to bump an earlier recording on an analog
channel to a later recording on its digital SD equivalent, though.

2) Tuner priorities -- You can assign your digital tuners a higher priority
(or alternatively, give your analog tuners a negative priority) in
mythtv-setup. This will cause MythTV to favor the digital channels over
the analog channels, to the point of bumping recordings to a later
showing, when possible. This approach is pretty blunt, though; it will
affect ALL the stations on the tuner(s) you adjust in this way. This
may be fine -- certainly I didn't notice anything in your description
to make me think you'd object to this.

3) Channel priorities -- If you use multiple Schedules Direct lineups (one
for analog cable and one for digital cable), you can assign different
priorities to your analog and digital SD channels. This will work much
like adjusting your tuner priority, but you can fine-tune it. For
instance, you could adjust just those SD digital channels whose content
you really want recorded digitally, or reduce the priority of just those
analog channels you really DON'T want recorded from an analog source
(say, if the problem is that the picture quality on some analog channels
is sub-par). Since the default in MythTV is to boost the priority of
HD content by 2, IIRC, adjusting SD digital channels by +1 should leave
HD content with a priority benefit over SD digital content. (You could of
course reverse this if you wanted to.)

Neither #1 nor #2 should depend on the order in which tuners is defined; even
if your analog tuners are numbered 1 and 2, your digital tuners (or some of
their channels) should be preferred over them.

There may be other ways to achieve similar results, but these are the ones
that spring to my mind.

--
Rod Smith
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

ben at locojeeper

Nov 3, 2009, 1:04 PM

Post #4 of 8 (146 views)
Permalink

Re: Advice on HD, Digital SD, Analog SD scheduling priorities [In reply to]

That is how I have my unit setup. Through Comcast (in Lancaster PA) I pick
up clear QAM HD through a pchdtv-5500 and have a PVR-150 and PVR-350 picking
up SD. The PCHDTV is setup with a higher priority then the PVR's and the
SD side of the PCHDTV. Every now and then the priorities that I set my
individual recordings to along with the priorities of the tuners make them
record in an unexpected way... but the other 95% of the time it works like a
champ.

God Bless,

Ben T. Eisemann
beisemann[at]gmail.com

Faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse. -
Philip Yancey

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 3:36 PM, Kevin Kuphal <kkuphal[at]gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 1:51 PM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry[at]gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I am running myth 0.21 right now, and I currently use 2 analog capture
>> cards, and a (dual tuner) HDHR. I have Comcast, so I still get most of the
>> basic cable + OTA in both analog AND digital form, but this may not last.
>>
>> The challenge I have now is balancing recordings against the HDHR vs.
>> analog tuners. If I bind recordings to specific channels, then sometimes I
>> get conflicts because I will tend to overbook the HDHR looking for HD
>> content (usually this is why). Obviously, when this happens, I can miss
>> recordings, when the show could have possibly been recorded using one of the
>> analog tuners. I would rather fall back to analog SD than miss a show
>> completely. So, I end up having to edit individual recording schedules and
>> relax the channel binding, but maybe prefer a specific tuner. I am not
>> crazy about this either since I am not sure how to prefer tuners in a
>> hierarchical way.
>>
>> I would like to find a global solution where, for a given recording
>> schedule that is set to 'any channel', I prioritize the tuners in roughly
>> this order:
>>
>> Choose an HD channel on the HDHR first. If this is not available, then
>> choose a digital SD channel on the HDHR. If this is not available, then
>> choose an analog SD channel.
>>
>> So, I would modify my recording schedules to be 'any channel', and let the
>> system decide which channel to use based on the above tuner preference. The
>> system would use my show priorities to decide what gets put on the preferred
>> tuner. So, if CSI is +2, Modern Marvels is +1, Law&Order is 0, and House is
>> -1, then CSI would get an HD channel, Modern Marvels would get a digital SD
>> channel (both on the HDHR), and Law&order and House would fall back to the
>> analog tuners.
>>
>
> I would think giving your HDHR tuners a +1 priority would solve this:
>
> HDHR HD = +2 (+1 for tuner, +1 for HD)
> HDHD SD = +1 for tuner
> Analog = 0
>
> Kevin
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>

james.orr7 at gmail

Nov 4, 2009, 7:32 AM

Post #5 of 8 (129 views)
Permalink

Re: Advice on HD, Digital SD, Analog SD scheduling priorities [In reply to]

I have the same setup, 1 HDHR plus 2 PVR-250s for analog capture.

What I did was setup the PVR-250s with a higher tuner priority than the
HDHR. Then I set it so that any HD programs have a higher priority modifier
(Setup -> Recording Priorities -> Set Recording Priorities). That way, any
SD programming is still recorded on the PVR-250, but any programs flagged as
HD will be recorded on the HDHR.

For example, Family Guy is available on both my HD FOX channel via the HDHR
and SD via the 250, as it's not flagged as an HD program in the
schedulesdirect listing it records on the higher priority 250.

Law & Order on the other hand is flagged as HD so it gets recorded on the
HDHR.

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Larry K <lunchtimelarry[at]gmail.com> wrote:

> I am running myth 0.21 right now, and I currently use 2 analog capture
> cards, and a (dual tuner) HDHR. I have Comcast, so I still get most of the
> basic cable + OTA in both analog AND digital form, but this may not last.
>
> The challenge I have now is balancing recordings against the HDHR vs.
> analog tuners. If I bind recordings to specific channels, then sometimes I
> get conflicts because I will tend to overbook the HDHR looking for HD
> content (usually this is why). Obviously, when this happens, I can miss
> recordings, when the show could have possibly been recorded using one of the
> analog tuners. I would rather fall back to analog SD than miss a show
> completely. So, I end up having to edit individual recording schedules and
> relax the channel binding, but maybe prefer a specific tuner. I am not
> crazy about this either since I am not sure how to prefer tuners in a
> hierarchical way.
>
> I would like to find a global solution where, for a given recording
> schedule that is set to 'any channel', I prioritize the tuners in roughly
> this order:
>
> Choose an HD channel on the HDHR first. If this is not available, then
> choose a digital SD channel on the HDHR. If this is not available, then
> choose an analog SD channel.
>
> So, I would modify my recording schedules to be 'any channel', and let the
> system decide which channel to use based on the above tuner preference. The
> system would use my show priorities to decide what gets put on the preferred
> tuner. So, if CSI is +2, Modern Marvels is +1, Law&Order is 0, and House is
> -1, then CSI would get an HD channel, Modern Marvels would get a digital SD
> channel (both on the HDHR), and Law&order and House would fall back to the
> analog tuners.
>
> Can this be done?
>
> Thanks,
> Larry
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>

mtdean at thirdcontact

Nov 4, 2009, 9:44 AM

Post #6 of 8 (124 views)
Permalink

Re: Advice on HD, Digital SD, Analog SD scheduling priorities [In reply to]

On 11/04/2009 10:32 AM, James Orr wrote:
> I have the same setup, 1 HDHR plus 2 PVR-250s for analog capture.
>
> What I did was setup the PVR-250s with a higher tuner priority than
> the HDHR. Then I set it so that any HD programs have a higher
> priority modifier (Setup -> Recording Priorities -> Set Recording
> Priorities). That way, any SD programming is still recorded on the
> PVR-250, but any programs flagged as HD will be recorded on the HDHR.
>
> For example, Family Guy is available on both my HD FOX channel via the
> HDHR and SD via the 250, as it's not flagged as an HD program in the
> schedulesdirect listing it records on the higher priority 250.
>
> Law & Order on the other hand is flagged as HD so it gets recorded on
> the HDHR.

Please make sure you read Section 12.6 (at least--preferrably all of
Section 12) of the HOWTO (
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html#ss12.6 ) before changing
(especially) input priorities. Note that changing input priorities does
/not/ change "where to record" so much as it changes "how much I want to
record <some program>". Similarly, setting a "HDTV Recording Priority"
can say that a lower-priority show that's high-def is better than your
favorite show in standard def.

Mike
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

kbass at kenbass

Nov 4, 2009, 10:15 AM

Post #7 of 8 (124 views)
Permalink

Re: Advice on HD, Digital SD, Analog SD scheduling priorities [In reply to]

Michael T. Dean wrote:
> Please make sure you read Section 12.6 (at least--preferrably all of
> Section 12) of the HOWTO (
> http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html#ss12.6 ) before
> changing (especially) input priorities. Note that changing input
> priorities does /not/ change "where to record" so much as it changes
> "how much I want to record <some program>". Similarly, setting a
> "HDTV Recording Priority" can say that a lower-priority show that's
> high-def is better than your favorite show in standard def.
Has there been any discussion of changing the setup to allow a simple
reordering of the cards without removing and re-adding them? That would
make things easier especially without having to re-setup the various
input-groups associated with digial/analog hybrid cards.
_______________________________________________
mythtv-users mailing list
mythtv-users[at]mythtv.org
http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users

james.orr7 at gmail

Nov 4, 2009, 11:20 AM

Post #8 of 8 (121 views)
Permalink

Re: Advice on HD, Digital SD, Analog SD scheduling priorities [In reply to]

On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Michael T. Dean <mtdean[at]thirdcontact.com>wrote:

> On 11/04/2009 10:32 AM, James Orr wrote:
>
>> I have the same setup, 1 HDHR plus 2 PVR-250s for analog capture.
>>
>> What I did was setup the PVR-250s with a higher tuner priority than the
>> HDHR. Then I set it so that any HD programs have a higher priority modifier
>> (Setup -> Recording Priorities -> Set Recording Priorities). That way, any
>> SD programming is still recorded on the PVR-250, but any programs flagged as
>> HD will be recorded on the HDHR.
>>
>> For example, Family Guy is available on both my HD FOX channel via the
>> HDHR and SD via the 250, as it's not flagged as an HD program in the
>> schedulesdirect listing it records on the higher priority 250.
>>
>> Law & Order on the other hand is flagged as HD so it gets recorded on the
>> HDHR.
>>
>
> Please make sure you read Section 12.6 (at least--preferrably all of
> Section 12) of the HOWTO (
> http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-12.html#ss12.6 ) before changing
> (especially) input priorities. Note that changing input priorities does
> /not/ change "where to record" so much as it changes "how much I want to
> record <some program>". Similarly, setting a "HDTV Recording Priority" can
> say that a lower-priority show that's high-def is better than your favorite
> show in standard def.
>
>
Yeah, I understand that, but it's never been an issue for me. Conflicts are
extremely rare with 4 tuners covering the major networks, cable is only
covered by two but most cable shows have multiple airings.

Mainly the biggest issue is in the cases where there are three potential HD
shows to record, the only instance I have of that is House, Heroes and How I
Met Your Mother. As all three are HD they all have the same base priority
and then the individual show priority is used to determine which one gets
recorded in SD (in my case it's How I Met Your Mother with the lowest
priority).

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