Package to manage consecutive progs same channel

R

rodp

Member
Hi All,

Not sure if this is the right section in the forum to put this in but... has anyone investigated the chance of creating a package that can highlight to the user consecutive recordings that are on the same channel and therefore combine the recordings into one so that you can then at a later date place a bookmark at the point you want it to be split and then split it? I think this would resolve the current problem we all have in terms of missing the end and beginning of programs people talk about (including myself!) which are consecutive and on the same channel.

Hope this is feasible.

Thanks in advance

Rodp
 
The nicesplice package can manually join recordings on the command line, and the WebIF offers a join option. One can then use crop to extract the relevant sections.

I agree it could be streamlined, but I'm not sure how one would go about identifying consecutive recordings.
 
rodp said:
has anyone investigated the chance of creating a package that can highlight to the user consecutive recordings that are on the same channel . . .
Click to expand...
You will only miss the beginning or end of a program if padding is enabled (which disables Accurate Recording) and programmes are running early / late, when this happens the the 'padding time' in-between the two programs is cancelled and any overrun on the first programme will be tacked on to the start of the second programme.
If you disable padding then accurate recording will track the start and end times for each programme so no programme time should be lost
 
Hi Ezra,

It sounds like AR should do the job then - but as we all know it's doesn't (which might be for a number of reasons including the broadcasters not transmitting the signal etc.).

So as a work around (specifically for consecutive programs on the same channel), I feel the best way to ensure the programs are recorded properly is to record both of them in the same file and then manully choose the split point rather than have to merge the two files together and then split them at the correct point. It would be alot easier and also would stop all the complaints about padding and accurate recording if this could be done I feel. It terms of detecting consecutive scheduled programmes on the same channel, can a script do this? and then can another script work through them to update the schedule?

I have some programming knowledge but it's more VBA so would need some guidance if I were to write this myself so I'd be really grateful if there is someone else out there who thinks this might be a good idea and a good work around.

Alternatively, could the script make it so that if the 1st recording would be padded at the beginning, AR'd at the end and AR'd on the beginning of the second one and finally padded at the end on the second one? That is assuming the the AR signal is transmitted!!

Thanks in advance

Rodp
 
You can't combine padding and AR but it would be possible to write something to walk the schedule and then convert any consecutive padded recordings into a single one.

There are two ways it could be done.
  • At boot time before the main Humax process is started. Here the best language would be C (the sqlite3 libraries are available at boot time with later custom firmwares).
  • During normal running. It would have to queue up two deletes and an addition for the extant boot-time schedule processes. This could be written in a variety of languages but Jim would most likely be best since there are libraries for schedule manipulation (the same ones used by RS and the web interface).
The first is probably the way I would choose if I were implementing this although the second could be extended to allow for manual merging of selected recordings through the web interface. Combining the EPG data properly could be a challenge though unless you don't care about the right information showing up when pressing (i) during playback.

Do you want this to be a completely automated process that always merges consecutive recordings? I can put something together for you if that's the case.
 
Hi af123,

That sounds great. In terms of EPG info, do the meta files contain multiple program info details if it crosses over onto a new program? I'm sure I've seen the info change from one program to another when using padding but I could be wrong. Perhaps the splitting process isn't clever enough to track the right info down. That's a compromise I'd be happy to live with as if I really wanted it I could take it offline and use AV2HDR-T2 to add it back in.

An automated process would be fine in my eyes as long as a report log was generated to track things downs.

I've got a couple of thoughts:
-Series link recordings saved in specific folders? If you were to merge the two programs then would the series link code be removed from the schedule meaning future episodes wouldn't be recorded? (I don't have any knowledge of the workings of the schedule so perhaps this is ok).
-Where would the merged files be placed if one was part of a series link (normally series links go in their own folder)? I suppose the answer would be to place it in my videos and rename it accordingly. The user would then split the file and move it into the corresponding folder. That would work for me.
-If one of the programs is a series link, would the schedule know that the episode has been recorded and therefore won't try to rerecord it if the same program ID pops up in the schedule (the dreaded re runs!)?

Thanks very much and hope preparing something isn't too time consuming.

Rodp :)
 
To add to this - to test what might happen - could we run it via a telnet session with an option to just preview it or because you have to run it at boot up time, would that not be possible.

Thanks

Rodp
 

That's interesting, I've not had a problem with AR for at least 12 months. There used to be the odd problem with Channel 4 but my recordings have been fine since. Do others still have a problem?

Rg.
 
hi Rg,

Yes - AR has often let me down, it will miss the beginning off or miss the end - sometimes by only a few seconds but on other occasions a minute or so. Haven't jotted down any numbers but it happened too many times for me within the first couple of weeks of getting the unit to think it's not reliable so moved to padding.

Thanks

Rodp
 
I'm surprised you are having trouble with AR. We came from a 9200 which I never trusted with AR, but with the FOX (and aside from Channel5 and it's children, which I use padding on instead of AR) we've had almost no problems at all with AR. Lost the last few minutes of something a couple of months ago, but TBH I think that may have been C5 anyway, as we only use a couple of minutes pad.

"the current problem we all have in terms of missing the end and beginning of programs". A bit sweeping. We almost never have that, and do have quite a few back-to-back recordings scheduled.

Regarding joining programmes, I think that could be a nightmare. I did that manually a few times on the 9200 and by the time we watched had forgotten the second prog was tacked on (the title was for the first one), deleted after watching and only later started wondering where the next episode of [whatever] was. "Oh, b****r!". Stopped doing that pronto.
 
If the schedule is changed to convert two consecutive padding recordings into a single recording, it will lose its tracking properties and become a manual timer recording. I think it is better to merge the recordings afterwards.
 
hi all,

I think I will start making a note of which programs are not recording properly for the next week or so. I'll turn AR back on and see what we get. I think the back to back on the same channel will still be a problem though but meanwhile I will do some jotting down and some testing.

Sorry if my comment was a bit sweeping but searching on here and on google seemed to highlight quite a few people having the same issue.

I'll be back in a little while with my results.

<af123> - do let me know if you get anywhere on the script in the meantime.

Thanks

Rodp
 
rodp said:
I've got a couple of thoughts:
-Series link recordings saved in specific folders? If you were to merge the two programs then would the series link code be removed from the schedule meaning future episodes wouldn't be recorded? (I don't have any knowledge of the workings of the schedule so perhaps this is ok).
-Where would the merged files be placed if one was part of a series link (normally series links go in their own folder)? I suppose the answer would be to place it in my videos and rename it accordingly. The user would then split the file and move it into the corresponding folder. That would work for me.
-If one of the programs is a series link, would the schedule know that the episode has been recorded and therefore won't try to rerecord it if the same program ID pops up in the schedule (the dreaded re runs!)?
Click to expand...

Having thought about this some more, I don't think it is practical to overcome these problems. If two series-linked recordings are combined into a single one then they would need to be restored afterwards and I think that's too difficult to get right, or at least certainly not something that can be done quickly. Sorry for the false optimism earlier!

As for AR versus padding, I think most people who use AR are happy with it now but you could use the multimode package to selectively enable AR on certain channels (BBC are usually trustworthy, C5 has got it wrong in the past) or you can even enable it on specific recordings through the web interface.
 
Hi af123,

Understand that the more you think about the different scenarios the more complex it may come. As a compromise and talking about padding / ar. Would it be possible for a script to still find back to back same channel recordings and highlight it. Even more could it automate the change from padding to AR. Can you do mixed padding / AR per recording?

In the meantime I am going to give AR another go but gut feel for me is that padding is still better for me.

Thanks in advance

Rodp
 
You can't mix padding and AR for a single recording but you can set single recordings to be one or the other.
 
rodp said:
Would it be possible for a script to still find back to back same channel recordings and highlight it. Even more could it automate the change from padding to AR.
Click to expand...
Yes, that would be possible.
 
Bearing in mind, of course, that there would need to be a reboot between the process finding a recording to massage and the time for the recording to start.
 
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