I've just been doing a bit of cleaning up on my DVR server and I noticed that I've got absolutely LOADS of duplicate recordings.
Is there a way to sensibly:
This is a screenshot of just some of the duplicates.
How are you scheduling movies to be recorded? Seems like someone selected record from the guide multiple times.
Well, I guess that's quite possible. It's kind of reasonable to expect that not everyone will remember what's been recorded already.
It would be nice to have some kind of UI that notifies you when setting a recording that a show or film already exists in the DVR library. Or it just refuses to record much like if you've already got a recording queued for a particular film and you select to record a different showing of it.
But as this situation seems to be inevitable, especially if you have a pass set up, it would be good to have some method for removing duplicates / tidying up.
Edit:
Incidentally, on the topic of passes, it does seem that it would be really helpful to have a bit more of a description around what some of the options do. For example, this:
What does it actually do? If I have 'all episodes' selected, will it just record anything ever that comes up, or will it only record each episode once? I guess it's the ambiguity of 'new' that is confusing. Is it new as in new to me, or new to the world, ie the first ever broadcast of a show?
Also, having now tidied this up via macOS finder, I could really do with a button to press in the settings web interface to force a refresh of the library.
I've seen the discussion here: DVR cleanup
But I tend to just leave me DVR server Mac running and access via the web interface from my MacBook. I mean, I could screenshare in to the server Mac but it would just be so much easier to click a button on the web interface.
I think fundamentally, there are some big issues here that need grappling with.
It boils down to a kind of existential discussion about what Channels is and who it is for. In my mind – and please correct me if I'm wrong – setting it up is expected to be a task that requires some tech knowledge. Using it, however, should be for a whole household regardless of how nerdy they are.
Assuming that is correct, and it is a system intended to be used by a whole household or family, it is really not reasonable to expect everyone to check the library before scheduling a recording.
So without some kind of setting to prevent duplicates, or a UI prompt to warn that the show or movie already exists in the library, duplicates are going to occur and a lot of them.
If Channels DVR is going to let people make duplicate recordings, there better be an easy way to resolve the duplicates.
At the moment there is not.
The only viable way I could see was to use macOS Finder to locate the duplicates and delete them. Great, I've saves a load of space on the server. BUT, the Channels DVR library still thinks the duplicates are there.
A refresh or rescan button in the web-ui would be fine. That would get the job done.
Even better if Channels could identify and clean up duplicates automatically.
What's not OK in my mind is to expect someone to need to use a command line in order to keep a tidy and efficient library. The tone of the discussion on the other thread was troubling, the lack of commitment to a button was troubling, the fact the thread was closed was troubling.
Personally, I think all of the above should be implemented. To summarise:
Or, coming back to the existential question, perhaps Channels is aimed at nerds and only for nerds. If that's the case I need to find something else. Because however hard I try, I'm not going to be able to stop duplicate recordings being made and I'm not going to get my wife or daughter to mess around with a command line.
As a minimum, providing a similar icon in the iOS app as on the web interface would suffice. The play icon vs the scheduled recording icon. Ideally it would show both where a duplicate recording is scheduled. Sometimes, duplicates might be intensional because the first recording had a problem or was in SD vs the new one being in HD.
Any update for this issue?
I also agree that there should be an easy way to prevent or notify the user when trying schedule a duplicate recording from the guide.
We are a year on from what I think was a clear explanation of the issues. If there’s any ambiguity or uncertainty around the issues or the questions asked please let me know.
At the most simple, an icon on the guide or even on the window that opens when about to set up a recording that indicates the show is already recorded would be just so much better than nothing. Surely that wouldn’t be that hard to implement would it?
