TV Server tuner priority in complex set-up (1 Viewer)

GaryMartynUK

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    A question if I may for those folks with a deeper understanding of how TV Server works when picking tuners for recording.

    If I have 2 tuners (call them A & B) that can pick up channels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and another tuner (C) that gets channels 1, 2, 5, 6 & 7. If I put the tuners in with A highest priority, then B then C. If I have a programme set to record on channel 1 then 15 mins later a programme on channel 5 then 15 mins later one on channel 4 (with them all running concurrently in the end) what happened in TV Server?

    Is TV Server clever enough to know these programmes are in the schedule and pick Tuner A for channel 1 then pick C for channel 5 instead of B as it knows it will need B for the Channel 4 programme later?

    Or will it go simply on priority and pick A as first available for Channel 1, then B for Channel 5 and then fail to record the 3rd programme because there is no available tuner for channel 4?



    My actual set-up is a bit more complex than this, I have 4 DVB-T2 tuners, 1 DVB-S and about to add a colossus connected to a cable set top box. So priority has become a little more important recently.
     

    mm1352000

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    what happened in TV Server?
    TV Server assigned the first programme on channel 1 to tuner A, the second programme on channel 5 to tuner B... and failed to start the third programme on channel 4 because tuner C can't tune it.

    Is TV Server clever enough to know these programmes are in the schedule and pick Tuner A for channel 1 then pick C for channel 5 instead of B as it knows it will need B for the Channel 4 programme later?
    No.

    Or will it go simply on priority and pick A as first available for Channel 1, then B for Channel 5 and then fail to record the 3rd programme because there is no available tuner for channel 4?
    It simply goes on priority.
     

    GaryMartynUK

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    Thanks for the REALLY quick reply mm135200. I really appreciate it. Armed with that info I can make the best decision for priority of my cards.

    I figured that was probably the case, although kinda hoped it would not be. It makes sense of course, it would take quite some effort to plan tuners in advance for all recordings and replanning everytime a change was made to the schedule, or indeed if live TV was being watched/streamed when recordings were going on.

    The reason it would have helped me is that the set-top box I'm adding gets a HD version of one the channels the other tuners only get in SD and if TV Server were "clairvoyant" enough I would have put the colossus as highest priority and only tuned in the 'extra' channels I can't get elsewhere, that way any scheduled recording would be picked up in HD on that channel if the colossus was not needed for anything else. However as the colossus will get about 15 channels I can't get anywhere else I'd hate to tie it up on a channel I can get in SD elsewhere and miss something I can't get anywhere else. So I'll programme all the standard channels in on it as well and set it as the lowest priority (although I can't imagine I'll need the standard channels on 6 recorders at once with only one person in the house!)

    Long winded way of saying thanks! I really appreciate the help.
     

    mm1352000

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    Yeah, that's a tough one.

    It got me thinking. If schedules had priorities then you could solve the problem by:
    • setting duplicate schedules on the SD and HD versions of that channel
    • setting the priority of the HD schedules lower than the priority of any schedules on the ~15 other unique channels
    With such a scheme, TV Server would record HD when it could... falling back to SD to avoid blocking recordings on the Colossus' unique channels.

    Something to think about for the wish list. ;)
     

    GaryMartynUK

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    mm1352000,

    Sometimes the simplest solution is the best! That would likely be much easier than the ever changing clairvoyance I was suggesting. Perhaps when MP2 goes live I'll suggest it as a feature request for TVE3.5. Prioritising schedules would make a lot of sense as it would help handle clashes that get created by channel schedule changes as well as solving my problem.
    :)
     

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