Tracking tuner usage

[aoshi]

Is there a way to track which tuners are being used....

Sounds like an odd question, but I have one server feeding my my house with hd200's on the TV's. I want to know if I have enough tuners, or if I'm even using most of them. I think the meta data for each recorded show contains which tuner was used, which is great, but doesn't really give me a feel for how many tuners could have been in use for live tv.

Long story short, I'd love to see something that tracks the stats (ie: Tuner 1 used for 336 hours, tuner 2 used for 28 hours, tuner 3 never used, etc)

Is this something available? If not, does anyone else think this would be useful if it was?

[blade]

The total amount of time each tuner is used will not help you determine if you have enough tuners. All of your tuners may only be in use a couple of hours a day, but if they're all in use at the same time and a recording is missed you don't have enough of them.

If Sage can't record a favorite due to a conflict you'll get a conflict icon. If you try to watch live TV when the necessary tuner is already in use you'll get a message. That's how you'll know if you don't have enough tuners.

You can also go into the recording schedule's parallel view and see how many tuners are being used and which tuners are free during the heaviest recording times. This will give you some idea of how many tuners may be available for live TV during peak recording times. I say may because some of those recordings may be able to be rescheduled for a later time or day if the episode re-airs soon meaning you have more free tuners than it first appears.

[aoshi]

but of course the total time would help, since sage always tries to use "Tuner 1" first - and "Tuner 8" last... If I don't see any usage of my last tuner, then I know I'm not using them all.

I know there's warnings and such if I run out, and I know about the listing of scheduled recordings... but neither of them is a perfect or easy solution.

As it sits right now, I'll only know if (and when) I don't have enough tuners. I have no idea if I have too many (if thats even possible ) or if I'm cutting it close.

Anywho, I thought it would be a simple feature or plugin if it wasn't there already.

[ThePaladinTech]

Tuners are used based on tuner priority and ability to record the channel you need to record. Your statement that tuner1 is always used first is only true if it can record everything and is considered the tuner with the highest priority. In my case the first tuner used is always the HD-PVR. But the second tuner used depends on whether the channel requested is available via my HDHR. if it is not it goes to the MCE-500.

[blade]

Originally Posted by aoshi

but of course the total time would help, since sage always tries to use "Tuner 1" first - and "Tuner 8" last... If I don't see any usage of my last tuner, then I know I'm not using them all.

As enzominator stated, that's not always the case. Also I think Sage sometimes changes the order the tuners are listed upon reboot. At least I think it did in previous versions, but I could be mistaken and things may have changed in the newer versions. Honestly I haven't really paid attention lately.

Even if you had 1 tuner that showed 0 time used it doesn't mean that there haven't been times when all other tuners were busy capturing scheduled recordings leaving the one with 0 time used as the only tuner available for live TV. Also in my setup I have 4 QAM tuners and 2 Analog. I have set the merit so the QAM tuners are always the first choice then analog if the channel isn't available on the QAM tuners. Even if 1 of my QAM tuners was never used I might still not have enough tuners if what I'm wanting to watch is only available on analog or vice versa.

I know there's warnings and such if I run out, and I know about the listing of scheduled recordings... but neither of them is a perfect or easy solution.

I agree neither method is perfect, but I don't know what would be. The existing methods for checking tuner usage is going to provide better information for what you're trying to determine than the total time a tuner is used because you need to know when tuners are in use not just how long they are in use.

As it sits right now, I'll only know if (and when) I don't have enough tuners. I have no idea if I have too many (if thats even possible ) or if I'm cutting it close.

I can tell you right now if you're not missing recordings and aren't getting messages when you try to tune live TV that you have enough tuners.

As for cutting it close, I know I am at times because I've looked at at the parallel recording schedule during the peak recording times and I know which tuners are in use and which aren't and what channels are available to each one. It wasn't difficult and took about 5-10 minutes to scroll through and look at several days of the recording schedule during typical peak usage.

Anywho, I thought it would be a simple feature or plugin if it wasn't there already.

I don't know of any plug-ins that show that info and maybe it will be simple and someone will create something. I just disagree that it will really help with what you're trying to determine.

[GKusnick]

If you suspect tuner #8 isn't needed, remove it (or just disable it in Device Manager) and see what happens. If you start getting conflicts, then I guess it was needed after all and you should put it back before any recordings are missed. That's really the only surefire way to answer that question.

[aoshi]

So it appears I'm alone in the desire for something like this, gotcha.

I do understand the issues involved around this - such as people that have multiple sources (QAM, OTA, SAT, etc.) may cause a bit of confusion... but I still think something like this would be useful...

Also, in regards to the random tuner at startup, you could always get around that by resetting the stats on startup too... I don't need a lifetime running total (though that might be cool)

Anyway, I would really like to know my tuner stats, but I guess I'll need to find another solution.