[vdr] Re: Two recordings on the same channel, only one card

[Carsten Koch <Carsten.Koch@icem.de>]

Martin Schoenbeck wrote:
> 
> Hello Klaus,
> 
> when recording two adjacent broadcasts on the same channel, there will
> be used two cards for a while, because of the additional 'security' time
> before and after each recording. I didn't investigate the source,
> whether it would be easy, to record into two files from one card.

I like that idea.


> But I
> think, it should be possible, to start with a new file, as soon as the
> second recording starts and then link this file with both recordings. 

That also sounds like a great idea, but you mention some
of the problems yourself:

> Of
> course, the file itself must be deleted only, if both recordings were
> deleted, but perhaps this could be managed, by placing it in another
> area.

If you use a hard link (as opposed to a symbolic link),
the operating system will take care of that for you.
So, no problem?
Unfortunately, you cannot use a hard link in all cases,
as the recordings go into different directories and 
these directories can be on different file systems.
I am using such a setup to put my 
Action, Comedy, Horror, Kids, SciFi, Thriller on one
disk, Fantasy and Science on a second disk and Music
on the root disk:

/> ls -l /video
total 124
drwxr-xr-x    3 cko      users          39 Dec 23 07:34 AC3_Trailer
drwxr-xr-x   10 cko      users        4096 Mar 23 15:29 Action
drwxr-xr-x   24 cko      users        4096 Mar 22 22:13 Comedy
lrwxr-xr-x    1 cko      users          15 Feb 14 08:38 Fantasy -> /video2/Fantasy
drwxr-xr-x    3 cko      users          23 Mar 16 02:48 Horror
drwxr-xr-x    6 cko      users         116 Mar 21 20:19 Kids
lrwxr-xr-x    1 cko      users          17 Jan 12 17:44 Music -> /videor/vdr/Music
drwxr-xr-x   12 cko      users        4096 Mar 21 20:12 SciFi
lrwxr-xr-x    1 cko      users          15 Feb 14 08:38 Science -> /video2/Science
drwxr-xr-x    7 cko      users         134 Mar 21 20:17 Thriller
-rw-r--r--    1 cko      users      111944 Mar 23 15:30 epg.data

So a hard link would not work.

Maybe for simplicity, it would be best to just do two
normal, separate recordings, but use the same card.

In fact, AFAIK vdr could not only do two recordings from
the same card if the channel is exactly the same, it could
even do two or more recordings from the same card if all 
channels to be recorded are on the same transponder.

Klaus, what do you think? Would that not be a VERY nice feature?
It definitely would help much by freeing the primary card more often. 

As an example, DSF, KABEL1, N24, NEUN LIVE Television, ProSieben 
and SAT.1 are all on the same transponder.

Carsten.