[vdr] Re: Recording programes followin one another from the same channel

[Usenet-372112@zocki.toppoint.de (Rainer Zocholl)]

andreas@eudoxus.xcapenet.de(Andreas Gebel)  17.10.01 10:02

Once upon a time Andreas Gebel shaped the electrons to say...

>Hi

>when trying to record programmes following one another there is a
>problem that vdr stops the recording at the end of the first timer and
>re-enters the recording mode just after that. This will always cause a
>few seconds lost between the two recordings.

Currently VDR seems to look only for the minutes.
"While timer time is equal "now" do record."
So the overlap/missing maybe upto 59sec.


timer 15:00 .. 15:30
will record from 15:00:00 to 15:30:59 (AFAIK)

To record the entire and not more than required
the user have to programm

timer 14:59 .. 15:29

to record from 14:59:00 to 15:29:59.

That's not "look and feel" :-)

I think it would be easier if VDR would take the seconds 
into account, asymmetrical..


Example:

timer 15:00 .. 15:30  (as the user "thinks" and sees in the EPG etc.)
will record from 14:59:55 to 15:29:59


There would be only 4sec "overlap" 
(
Why not start at 14:59:59 or 15:00:00?
  Because the first seconds are often/sometimes a little "garbeled"...
  and if the device is not blocked: Why annoy the user?
Why is starting at 15:00:00 not sufficient?
  Because the PC-clock may not be so precise so the first, sometimes
  important seconds are not recorded.
  The next "step" would be a 60sec margin...giving a large
  unexceptable gap/overlap.
Why not recording in one file?
  Because this do not help if it should record from 
  different channels.
  Because "auto naming" would not work.
  Because it is very unconvienent.
  Because both records may not have the same priority and hold time.
)

actually nothing from the 15:30-transmission will be lost, maybe
one second of the end of 15:00-transmission, which is normaly not
so important to view... (if it is, the problem is due to be solved by
the user, for example by buying an extra card. VDR can't)

And the user do not have to bother with "margins".


This "shift second(s)" may be user 
configurable because it depends on the accuracy of the PC-clock,
which varrie from PC to PC.

(Problem: Some TV channels do not transmit exact time.
Had someone tested which time MTV (for example) uses to
start transmssions? If DCF or so, then it would be nice
to be able to block systimer setting for specific channels
(easier: allow it for only a few known "have to be by law" 
precise like ZDF) in channels.conf or similar.)

>No problem if there is a commercial break between the two programmes
>but on channels like ProSieben there is often not.
>My suggestion is that vdr looks if overlapping timers are programmed
>on the same channel and writes the dvb data to the two recording files
>simultaneusly.

This would be real elegant, but i think it would really become complicate.
The next point will be:
VDR should check all timers for resource overlaps...
That might require a redesign of this part of VDR...


>I have no idea about coding such a thing but I think this would be a
>nice to have feature that is usefull for others, too.

I would be lucky if VDR would do the 55-seconds-"trick" 
(resp. "shift start second").
That does not sound so very complicate, or?