Confused between number of tuners and CAM limit etc (1 Viewer)

[artisticcheese]

Hello,

I have HD HomeRun device with 3 tuners. So it shows as 3 Tuners in TV Server. They are also setup as CAM enabled with 0 as number of channels which can be decoded simulatenously.
I want to limit TV server to be able to record 2 shows at once. Do I need to increase CAM number or I'm totally confused
How do I do that?

Thanks,
G

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Hi,

setting the CAM limit to zero simply means that you allow multiple channel decoding on the very same tuner.

For example you are watching an encrypted channel on transponder A and now want to record another channel on the same transponder. With CAM limit = 0 your system will attempt to continue using the same tuner for decrypting the other channel on the same transponder but this will be subject to hardware and driver capabilities. If you set the CAM limit = 1 there will be only one decrypted channel per tuner and for the above example the second channel would then be tuned on tuner 2.

In summary limit=0 may work - test it - and limit=1 will work, but you will be limited to a maximum of three simultaneously decrypted channels.

Regards,
HTPC_Sourcer

 

[artisticcheese]

Thanks.
So what do I need to do to limit my TV server to record at most 2 programs at the same time?

 

[HTPCSourcer]

I thought that my explanation was clear - apparently not

Recording has nothing to do with CAMs. MediaPortal will use the maximum of available tuners to display TV and/or record shows. In your case this means that you will be able to watch one and record two other channels at the same time, or - if you define the MePo settings accordingly - have the show that you are currently watching be interrupted and then record three other channels simultaneously.

If your channels are encrypted, the CAM limit is coming into the game. The above is independent of the CAM setting and MediaPortal will record two or even three streams. Again, depending on the hardware/software capabilities of the HD HomeRun, your system may not be able to decrypt that many encrypted channels at the same time. As I said before, I don't know what CAM you are using and have no intimate knowledge of the HD HomeRun. The easiest way would be to just test it with CAM limit 0 and then 1 by scheduling respective simultaneous recordings.

 

[artisticcheese]

I want to prevent HD HomeRun from recording 3 programs simultenously since I will put 1 into CAM limit for each tuner.
How can I do that? I want HD HomeRun only to record 2 programs at most and leave 1 tuner for live TV all the time Is it possible?

 

[HTPCSourcer]

TVServer Config | Recording | Maximum free cards to try

Set to 2

 

[mm1352000]

TVServer Config | Recording | Maximum free cards to try

Set to 2

Sorry, that won't work.

I want to prevent HD HomeRun from recording 3 programs simultenously since I will put 1 into CAM limit for each tuner.
How can I do that? I want HD HomeRun only to record 2 programs at most and leave 1 tuner for live TV all the time Is it possible?

The way to do it is with user priorities.
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...n/TV-Server_Configuration/10a_User_Priorities

Set the priority for "default users" to 3, and set the priority for the scheduler to 2.
This won't prevent TV Server from recording 3 programs simultaneously (that's impossible)... but it will mean that if you want to watch live TV and there are no tuners free, TV Server will cancel one of the recordings. In my opinion this is the best of both worlds.

BTW, are you using an HDHR PRIME? If so, CAM limit must be set to 1.

 

[artisticcheese]

Yes, I have HD HomeRun Prime and already set CAM limit to 1. Issue is that I don't want to record more then 2 programs simultensouly since it overloads my server. I'm not concerned about live TV availability much but more about limiting concurrenct, so it's impossible?

 

[mm1352000]

Yes, I have HD HomeRun Prime and already set CAM limit to 1.

Good.

Issue is that I don't want to record more then 2 programs simultensouly since it overloads my server.

Can you please explain what you mean by "overloads my server"?

I'm not concerned about live TV availability much but more about limiting concurrenct, so it's impossible?

Limiting to two recordings is impossible, yes... unless you disable 1 tuner (which would mean that tuner can't be used for live TV or recordings).

I'm really interested to know more about the situation, because from my perspective it is a very unusual request. TV Server is not very demanding; recordings are not very demanding; the difference between 2 and 3 recordings is minimal from a TV Server perspective. So, please share more details. We may be able to help you work around or resolve the "overload" that you mentioned.

 

[artisticcheese]

I record to NAS device and do comskip processing afterwards, my server runs at 100% CPU during those times, I saw bunch of articats and failed recordings durings those times/