Bug? Back to Back rec, dual tuner

[PVRUser]

I noticed this in version 1.4 and it appears it is the same in 2.0.

I have two PVR250s. Every weekday I record two shows back to back on the same channel. I have set padding on both sides for both shows. However both shows record on the same tuner. The result is I "miss" the end of the first show. It is actually at the beginning of the second show but there is still about 5-15 seconds I miss.

I am not sure if this is by design. I speculate that the second tuner kicks in to record if there would have been a conflict but this probably would not have created a conflict. So is there a way to have the second program record on the second tuner?

Also, a minor issue. The Hauppauge #2 shows up first. How can I get the two tuner names reversed?

Thanks

[Opus4]

I _think_ that this is by design: SageTV notices that both shows are on the same channel, so instead of using 2 tuners w/padding in the shows, it simply records them back to back, as you described, expecting that each show will provide the padding for the other. I never checked to see if my shows like that were missing any time, but I could see where you wouldn't want that to be happening.

BTW: What happens when you change channels in Live TV? Do you get a fairly quick channel change ( just a second or so), or does it take 5-15 seconds -- the time you see is missing in back to back recordings? I ask because I believe SageTV is essentially doing the same thing in both cases: ending one recording & starting another.

- Andy

[ErsatzTom]

Even if there is no time lost at all, who wants to be digging around to find the recording that holds the rest of the one you are watching. There has got to be a better way to handle this... if you can't programatically write out a portion of the stream simultaneously to both the end of the old show and the beginning of the new one (I'm not really sure what issues are involved in starting a new mpeg file from the middle of a stream) then just record the second show on another tuner if there is one available.

t

[mlbdude]

This is odd, that is one of the items I liked about 2.0. I have a 3 tuners system and always hated how 1.4 recorded them back to back with padding when it did not need to. With 2.0 it does not do that for me any longer. It uses all 3 tuners as necessary. I will pay close attention to see if it behaves well for same channel back to backs.

Have you by any chance messed with the merrit setting on the tuners? I know this works differently in 2.0.

[ErsatzTom]

I haven't tried padding anything in a while... I'll have to test it.

t

[carlgar]

I believe this should be reported as a problem. Using a single tuner for back to back programs with padding is only proper as a last resort or by user choice. If another tuner is available then it should be used. I think using a single tuner is just the "simple" way to do it. The correct way may open entire can of worms such as:
Complicating the program conflict logic ( it would have to provide for the option of using a single tuner)
Actually, I think it should be a user option on a per program basis. This is pain to correct manually, I once did it for a day long marathon. It requires 3 steps for each show. (record, modify start time, modify end time). Which by way tied up both of my tuners (my choice) all day long. I can see where some users may prefer to only use 1 tuners in that case.

[Opus4]

My same-channel, same-show, start & stop padded shows in v2 w/2 tuners always record on 1 tuner such that the 1st show has no stop padding & the 2nd one has no start padding. Shows that are on different channels w/padding record on separate tuners, of course, so they each retain all of the padding I specify.

Recording them back to back like this does free up the 2nd tuner for other shows, so that's a plus. For mine, so far the only parts that play into the 2nd recording are the credits, but if it were actual show time, that might be annoying to me & it would be a negative.

- Andy

[mlbdude]

I am going to submit a bug report for it. In testing I can't get it to behave consistently.

[ErsatzTom]

Does anybody know enough about the way mpeg2 is recorded to know if it would possible (or easily enough implemented to be worthwhile) to solve this by simply recording the same stream to two files at once? I'm sure that you can't just start dumping the stream at a completely arbitrary point into a file but surely there must be a way to start up a second recording while still finishing up the original? Just a thought.

t

[stanger89]

It should be no problem writing data to two files at once in general, but, from what I know of Directshow (from playing with graphedit) it's probably quite difficult to do. It's probably necessary to rebuild the filtergraph when starting a new recording (which could help explain the gap between recordings).

[mlbdude]

Anyone try that new property setting to see if this works as requested now?