Local Content vs. Recorded "priority"

Channels DVR Server
#1

Before I add some directories of "Local Content", I have questions about "priority".

I have a Pass set up that is recording re-runs of Friends as they air. Channels DVR has already found and recorded quite a few episodes.

Now say I'm at a garage sale and find a boxed set of the first season of Friends. I buy it, bring it home, and rip the discs. The ripped episode files end up in a directory named Friends/Season 1/1x# that Channels DVR sees via a "TV Source" "Local Content".

I now have two copies of most of season 1: one recorded (of lesser quality, with commercials, channel logos, overlays, etc.) and one ripped from disc.

What does Channels DVR do when there are "content conflicts" like this? Does it show multiple sources to pick from for the season 1 episodes? Does one "source" always have a higher priority? Something else?

Is there any indication of where an episode or movie is coming from (an icon indicating "Recorded" or "Local Content" or something)?

#2

Good question.

I know once you import something, Channels DVR treats it like it was recorded and won't record it again from a pass. It doesn't care how it got in your Library.

As far as what it chooses to play, given multiple copies in your Library, I'm sure that depends on how you view the Library and what client you use to play, if it's part of a collection, etc.

Would love to hear an official answer.

Personally I quit playing with TV Shows and Specials Imports until they start addressing the issues with those. Movies are no issue.

#3

It just shows multiple episodes.

no

#4

Well, technically this is false. If it's recorded, it would show a network logo. So that would be your indicator. But overall, Channels does not care about the source of the recordings in your library.

#6

Any plans to allow setting a "priority" for sources?

In my example, it would be nice to have the ripped version automatically picked instead of having to try and figure out which one was ripped and which one is of lesser quality because of all the things broadcasters do. :face_vomiting:

Also some kind of "duplicate episode" and "duplicate movie" detection feature that you can activate as and a way to remove "equivalent" content of "lesser priority" would be a useful feature...

#7

We'll eventually collapse versions into single items with the choice of which to watch. We'll let you set priority based on quality.

1 Like
#8

Personally I'd still prefer a way to simply choose "Local Sources have higher priority than Recordings".

A "Recording" may be a 1080i MPEG2 file, but have commercials, channel bugs in the corner, pop-ups for upcoming shows, warp-speed credits, etc. While a "Local Source" that I've ripped myself may be a 720p H.264, but be "pristine". Saying that you'll "set priority based on quality", it isn't clear to me which recording Channels would pick in such a situation.

I still haven't added any "Local Sources" because of comments like this. What kind of issues do I need to be aware of?

#9

I wonder why you would keep a recorded version of a movie or episode if you even had a clean version.

Stacking mostly solves the problem of having multiple qualities, which has a great reason. 4K or high bitrate 1080p for home use, and low bitrate/resolution for streaming or travel.

#10

I mentioned an example earlier: I have a Pass set up to record re-runs of Friends (and a few other series, like Frasier, Seinfeld, etc.), hoping to eventually get all the episodes to be able to binge-watch them from beginning to end. At a garage sale recently, I got the first few seasons of Friends on DVD and ripped them. When I add my "Local Source" to Channels, it would be nice to have it automatically prefer my Local Source version (which are "pristine" recordings) over the episodes that it has recorded from broadcast re-runs (which have commercials, are trimmed for syndication, have channel bugs, bottom-third pop-overs, etc.)

Obviously finding and removing each recorded version "by hand" is not my idea of fun. :wink:

Which is why I said it would be nice to have a way to run a "clean up" routine to automatically remove Recordings that have a duplicate in "Local Source" (especially since broadcast recordings take up a lot of space).

#11

One reason was a bug that was recently fixed that kept a pass from recording something.
The main reason for me is too much work trying to match incorrectly matched imports on TV shows and Specials. Movies work great since they added matching with TMDB.

You could always try it out and delete the local import path if you don't like it.

#12

I'm moving a bunch of recoded tv programs to a satellite drive on my NAS to free up space on my core system. I'm going to map those drives as locations in Channels for the programs that I move.

My question is will Channels know that those programs are recorded and not re-record the migrated programs? I'm guessing it will work as Channels maintains a virtual DB of recorded content so location doesn't matter but thought I would check to make sure.

Thanks