Add "Limit" dropdown to standard pass creation

Channels DVR Server Feature Requests
#1

I made the switch yesterday from MythTV, and I'm impressed with the look and WAF of Channels. While I was recreating all of our series passes from Myth, I noticed the "Limit" dropdown is only in the Advanced setting, while the "All episodes" choice is only on the standard pass creation menu.

For example, I want to keep 10 episodes of Mythbusters on hand. Since it's a canceled show, I have to create the pass from the standard window so that I can select "All Episodes," otherwise nothing will ever record. After creating the pass, I have to navigate to DVR > Passes, find the show in the ever growing list of passes, click the down arrow, choose advanced, select Limit 10.

It seems like there's plenty of real estate to add the Limit dropdown to the standard series pass creation dialogue, and that would greatly reduce the amount of clicks required to establish a pass with a limit.

Incidentally, I'm making sure to limit most passes since Channels can't automatically record to multiple storage locations. I'm gone for long periods of time and don't want to get caught out of space while I'm unable to move things around on the storage drives. We tend to keep a bunch of shows on hand, some for family viewing, some kids only, some adults only, and a few just for my wife or me.

#2

Thanks for the feedback. Welcome to Channels!

The limit feature is somewhat new and was placed in there as a test. We plan to revamp the Keep settings to incorporate it and try to make the Keep settings a bit more clear.

Since you sound like you have a large library, be sure to check out the Enhanced Browsing mode with handles larger libraries better.

Also check out the Kids Section feature since you have a lot of kid content. It will let you classify shows and movies to be in your main library, just the kids section, or both.

These features are available in the tvOS/iOS app and currently on the Beta Android/Fire TV app. They will be generally available soon.

Also, don't miss the fact that you can import your old recordings from Myth using the imports feature:

1 Like
#3

Oh man, as a long-time MythTV user evaluating Channels this month, I got all excited!

Unfortunately, this is what a typical MythTV datastore looks like… :grimacing:

1071_20210830020000.ts.-1.-1x134.png  1561_20210730003000.ts.-1.100x56.png
1071_20210830020000.ts.png            1561_20210730003000.ts.png
1071_20210831000000.ts                1561_20210731143000.ts
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1071_20210831000000.ts.png            1561_20210731143000.ts.png
1071_20210901000000.ts                1561_20210806003000.ts
1071_20210901000000.ts.-1.-1x134.png  1561_20210806003000.ts.-1.100x56.png
1071_20210901000000.ts.png            1561_20210806003000.ts.-1.-1x134.png
1501_20210814010000.ts                1561_20210806003000.ts.png
1501_20210814010000.ts.-1.100x56.png  1561_20210824093000.ts
1501_20210814010000.ts.-1.-1x134.png  1561_20210824093000.ts.-1.-1x134.png
1501_20210814010000.ts.png            1561_20210824093000.ts.png
1501_20210821010000.ts                1561_20210827000000.ts
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1501_20210821010000.ts.png            1561_20210827000000.ts.png
1501_20210828010000.ts                1561_20210827003000.ts
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1501_20210828010000.ts.png            1561_20210827003000.ts.png

I don’t know if MythTV’s MySQL tables reliably contain season and episode number information… otherwise you might be able to write a script that creates a directory structure (with symlinks to the .ts files) that could be imported in to Channels…

#4

ha, yeahhhh your filenames and paths are going to need to provide a little more info than that for use to be able to scan them in reliably.

Check out that page I linked to, it has documentation on best practices for filenames. It'll be a slog doing it, but once you have, you'll be good to go on almost any software that imports things like this, not just Channels.

#5

Yes, they do. Everything needed to create a symlink farm for Channels is in the recorded table and a script to do it could be whipped up in an hour or two. The cutlist is easy to extract, too. If I stay with Channels and decide to import my recordings, I'll write something and put it up on GitHub.

Back on topic and speaking of MythTV, that software's recording storage management model (last three items) is worth emulating. I've been running it for 13 years and have never missed a recording because the disks got full or been surprised by what's deleted to make room for it. The only thing Channels seems to be missing on that front is a flag on a pass that allows deleting the oldest watched or unwatched episode(s) to make room for new recordings on a higher-priority pass.

Even closer to topic, I second OP's wishes to have the limit pulldown part of the standard pass.

2 Likes
#6

An addendum to this request is I'd like to see more granularity in the limit choices. If you can parse data from a dropdown, why not an entry field where the user can specify? Instead of making me choose 3, 5, 10, 20, 50 or 100, how about just type in how many eps I'd like to keep? I get that it's (still) a test feature, but I'd like to see it added to the standard screen.

Here's an example why: away from home my wife asked me to record some Seinfeld for her. I setup the pass from my phone, which doesn't have an option for advanced pass editing as far as I can tell. By the time we got home days later and changed the limit to 20, it had already recorded 117 episodes! I'm not out of space yet, but those 117 episodes pushed me a lot closer to the limit.

#7

Not in the app, but you can always go to https://my.channelsdvr.net on your phone's browser to access your DVR's web UI and the full pass editor. (I personally find the iOS app too limiting, and anything other than viewing is always done through the browser.)

1 Like