Jukka Palko wrote:

I am curious on the recording priorities and especially what is the way vdr decides which card to use to record at a given time.

My system is now setup this way: Card #1: Technotrend C2100 rev2.1 Card #2: Hauppauge Nexus-CA Card #3: Technotrend C2100 rev2.1 -card #3 has the CI attached to it and a Conax CAM

I have setup the card #3 to be my viewing card.

So does vdr select the card which to use for recording by starting from card #1 and then if card #1 is busy, then card #2, etc?

Somewhat like that, the actual selection process is more complex.

And if card #2 is recording and card #1 and #3 are not, then card #1 is used?

Yes.

Or is the card chosen in such a way that if one card is already tuned to the frequency then that card is used for recording that channel?

Yes.

The reason I am asking this is that I wish to keep my card #3 free for viewing those encrypted channels and still be able to easily choose recording on those encrypted channels.

Automatically done as of 1.4.1-4.

I noticed there is the priority setting, which for recording I currently have set to 50 and the primary card usage is allowed for only higher priorities than 55. This would be one way to keep my card free, but then if I want to record on encrypted channels, I need to set the recording priority to higher than 55? Not exactly easy for other members of my family. They can be taught to do it so, but wish there was an easier solution. ;)

No need to use this.

In certain ways I was whondering if there could have been a way to set those encrypted channels to have a higher priority than 55 on recording them so that recording would just happen.

No need for that, either.

I'm basing my question on the understanding that vdr can only tune into encrypted channels using the card that has the CAM attached to. Is this valid still?

Yes.

For a reference, here's the algorithm VDR 1.4.2 uses to select the device for viewing and recordings: If this is liveview and the primary device provides the channel without interrupting anything else, it is used. Otherwise: Devices that have higher priority receivers on other transponders than this recording will not be considered. For other devices, checks are done in this order (the first ones are valued the most): 1. If the card is already recording on the same transponder, use that device. 2. Avoid the card if it has an ongoing recording. 3. Avoid the card if it is used for transfer-mode receiving. 4. Use the device which has the lowest priority recording already running. 5. Use the device which has the lowest number of CAMs. 6. Avoid primary device. 7. Avoid full-featured cards.

Anssi Hannula anssi.hannula@gmail.com writes:

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[...]

For a reference, here's the algorithm VDR 1.4.2 uses to select the device for viewing and recordings: If this is liveview and the primary device provides the channel without interrupting anything else, it is used. Otherwise: Devices that have higher priority receivers on other transponders than this recording will not be considered. For other devices, checks are done in this order (the first ones are valued the most):

1. If the card is already recording on the same transponder, use that

device. 2. Avoid the card if it has an ongoing recording. 3. Avoid the card if it is used for transfer-mode receiving. 4. Use the device which has the lowest priority recording already running. 5. Use the device which has the lowest number of CAMs. 6. Avoid primary device. 7. Avoid full-featured cards.

is it possible to give different priorities to transfer modes ? i'm using xineliboutput for liveview streamdev vtp for 2nd liveview ( would several liveviews be handled in vdr 1.5 ? :) ) i'm using a script to manually get epg (something that reads from streamdev http) and i like this to have priority over vtp but not over xineliboutput. (and for sure recordings still have the higher priority)

is it possible to change the priority in the plugin sources ? (i'm still not understanding everything about Receiver, Device and {p,P}riority, any advice where to start ?)

for example, i'd like xineliboutput to set a higher priority to the receiver (is it the good term ?) when a xine client is connected. so that transfer_mode-liveview with xinelibout gets handled in a better way does it make sense ?

is vdr actually ready for that kind of things ?