Timeshifting when viewing recording program and return to 'now' (1 Viewer)

[perky]

First, big thanks to the MediaPortal Team for providing such great software!

There a couple of features that my old Humax PVR had that I miss. The first is the ability to return to the 'now' position in the EPG, maybe as a button on the bar just above the listings. The second is that when a program is being recorded, switching to the live TV on the Humax effectively uses the recording stream rather than the timeshift buffer and this allows rewinding right back to the beginning of the recording. This is really useful if you hop across live channels, say during a break, then return back to it later.

BTW people should upgrade to the 1.10.0 pre-release if they have 1.9.0 IMO, it fixes a few annoyances like the DVD resume not working, loss of picture during timeshifting, adds a volume overlay and fixes the revert to Titan Basic skin etc.

 

[mm1352000]

The first is the ability to return to the 'now' position in the EPG, maybe as a button on the bar just above the listings.

If timeshifting, you can use the up or right arrow (skip steps) repeatedly to skip quickly forward to the live point.

The second is that when a program is being recorded, switching to the live TV on the Humax effectively uses the recording stream rather than the timeshift buffer and this allows rewinding right back to the beginning of the recording.

If you choose to play an active recording (ie. go into the recordings section, and select it there) instead of the channel then you have the option to view the recording from the live point or from the start. Actually, there may also be a choice to resume from the point that you stopped at. This may not be as convenient for you as selecting the channel, but I point it out anyway in the absence of an alternative. While possible, substituting the live stream with the recorded stream as described would be technically very challenging. I'm not aware of any plans to implement support for this.

 

[perky]

If timeshifting, you can use the up or right arrow (skip steps) repeatedly to skip quickly forward to the live point.

OK, I meant when moving forward in the EPG and returning back to the now position. This isn't too bad though, I can exit and restart the EPG by pressing the EPG button twice (although the blue bar focus will be back to the current selected channel).

If you choose to play an active recording (ie. go into the recordings section, and select it there) instead of the channel then you have the option to view the recording from the live point or from the start. Actually, there may also be a choice to resume from the point that you stopped at. This may not be as convenient for you as selecting the channel, but I point it out anyway in the absence of an alternative. While possible, substituting the live stream with the recorded stream as described would be technically very challenging. I'm not aware of any plans to implement support for this.

This is definitely not as convenient as you can't just hop around channels and rewind without restarting the recorded stream playback, this feature would be really nice to have - it does IMO make a big difference to the perceived usability. I understand if there are technical issues why it would be difficult though.

 

[mm1352000]

OK, I meant when moving forward in the EPG and returning back to the now position. This isn't too bad though, I can exit and restart the EPG by pressing the EPG button twice (although the blue bar focus will be back to the current selected channel).

Oh, I see what you mean now. Sorry.
I think you can do that by pressing the "home" key on a keyboard, as specified in the wiki:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/20_Reference/Keyboard_Shortcuts/2_TV#TV_Guide

Maybe you can map a remote button to that function if important enough to you?

This is definitely not as convenient as you can't just hop around channels and rewind without restarting the recorded stream playback, this feature would be really nice to have - it does IMO make a big difference to the perceived usability.

In one sense I can see the value of what you're suggesting. However I don't see how the use case you're describing would fit MP's current behaviour.

Consider that MP keeps the buffer when you hop between channels. In other words, you can skip back to the previous content you were watching even after changing channel multiple times. Suppose that you were to hop to a channel that was recording and we had magically added the ability to use the "recording" as buffer instead of the regular timeshift buffer. So, you're switched over to the recording and can skip within it as described. Fine. But what happens to the timeshift buffer at that point? Is it lost, somehow "paused", or does the part of the recording that you watch somehow get written into it? ...and what is used as the timeshift buffer after you hop away from the recording to a non-recording channel? ...and what happens (what content do you see) if you skip/rewind back once on the non-recording channel?

The usability you've described makes sense to me if the timeshift buffer were reset on each channel change. When changing to a non-recording channel you'd just get a fresh buffer, and can't skip back until you've watched a few minutes; when changing to a recording channel you'd get the recorded buffer and can skip back to the start of the recording. However, like I said above, MP doesn't start a new buffer on each channel change. That's intentional. Other people have asked for that behaviour, and I think we'd have a riot on our hands if we changed it.

 

[perky]

Well that will teach me not to read the wiki! Yes, I'll map the Home function to a key, thank you for pointing it out.

I didn't realize the behaviour of MP was not to throw away the timeshift buffer when changing channels, what you say now makes perfect sense. This was the behaviour of the Humax. To review something when changing channels and to have those channel changes appear in the timeshift buffer to me though is a little confusing. You could I suppose treat the timeshift buffer as a timeshift of selected live channels only and continue to store the previous live channel even though you're playing a recording (does the playback of a recorded channel also go in the timeshift buffer BTW?).

 

[mm1352000]

Well that will teach me not to read the wiki!

LOL, it can be very useful to have a quick search of the wiki before asking. There's lots of good information in there. So much so that sometimes it can be difficult to find what you're looking for.

You could I suppose treat the timeshift buffer as a timeshift of selected live channels only and continue to store the previous live channel even though you're playing a recording.

Perhaps. The first trick would be to realise that you're playing a channel that is recording, and that there is an alternative buffer available. I guess the trade off with this approach is that the timeshift buffer is not available.

does the playback of a recorded channel also go in the timeshift buffer BTW?

Yes, it does.

 

[perky]

Yes, you would lose access to the timeshift buffer (although it could possibly still record the last live channel viewed so it isn't missed while a recording is playing). It depends on how you view the reason for a timeshift buffer I suppose, I see it as a mechanism to store the current live TV stream in a way that allows pausing and replaying rather than replaying viewing history, it doesn't make much sense to me to store replayed recordings as they are already timeshifted and are already accessible, and you lose the ability to hop from a live channel to a recording and back without missing what was on the live channel at the time. I can see the elegance in using a single circular buffer for playback though from a software point of view. Maybe there's scope for a configuration option?