Recording clashes

Channels iOS Feature Requests
#1

I have a 4 tuner HD Homerun. So clashes of recordings are rare. But they do happen now and again.

I have a couple of suggestions:

1 - A UI for alerting the user to clashes that offers solutions to resolve the clash. For example, stop or start a recording a few seconds earlier or later. Or cancel a scheduled recording

2 - To help manage things, it would be good to have a visual representation of the scheduled recordings. I think of it as the same format as the guide, but only showing scheduled recordings. It would make it far easy to spot any issues at a glance

#3

I just came to post the same feature request and did a search before posting and the top hit was my post from 3 years ago.

I still find this creates friction when setting multiple recordings. There's not coincidence that this happens around December when there's lots of good stuff on TV.

It wouldn't even require knowledge of how many tuners are available, it would just need to show how many tuners would be required for the scheduled recordings. It would then be up to users to manage things. It could show a warning if the required number of tuners is greater than the total number available. That would be helpful.

Here's a sketch of a potential idea for a UI.

Screenshot 2023-12-23 at 10.40.51
Screenshot 2023-12-23 at 10.40.511544×646 46.6 KB

#4

Eye TV for Mac does that, warns about conflicts and gives the option to disable 1 of the scheduled recordings. With Channels I have to count scheduled shows and watch what channels they are on. I sometimes record 5 show at a time on 3 dual HDHR tuners.
You also have to take into consideration overlaps, if you add time to beginning or end of a show.
If you are recording 4 shows and have 2 more scheduled after on different channels than any of the first 4 recordings with say 3 min added to the beginnings and ends then that is 6 recordings happening for 3 minutes at the overlap time.
I did find, so far, it seems that with Channels if the 2 scheduled recordings are on the same channels as any of the previous 4 then there is no conflict, I get 6 recording streams from 4 tuners.

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#5

Just a curiosity, but if you're using an OTA tuner and you want these features, have you considered using SageTV? I know it's unsupported and can be a challenge to set up, but at least it has these rudimentary DVR features.

#6

No. I hadn’t come across it if I’m honest. I’ve been using channels for years now mostly without a problem. There’s just a few areas like this where it is rough around the edges.

It does sometimes feel that impressive / sophisticated features are maybe prioritised over fundamental features. Features that are essential for a amultichannel DVR system.

#7

I find that if you are very Serious on maintaining a full functional DVR that records everything when you want it is to add Tuners. One 4 tuner Device is just not enough. I find 2 4 Tuner devices to be adequate.... but I have collected 3 through the years and do not run into conflicts.

Also remember Channels DVR uses HTTP I believe to record not the BDA drivers for the HDHomeRun devices which allows recording the main Channels and subchannels on 1 tuner. So if you love Channels add a few tuners.

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#8

That is a good point, you can pretty much load up on hardware tuners and solve it that way. When OTA DRM shows up full force and everyone is left with the HDMI option only, that will take a little larger investment.

#9

Do you have any more info on that @Kryptonyte ? Is it ATSC 3.0 you’re referring to, if so I don’t need to worry about it personally here in the UK I think.

#10

Sorry Robin, I don't know what broadcast standard the UK uses for OTA, but I have to believe that corporate greed will eventually make everyone pay in some way to authenticate and watch any form of media.

Here in the US we are apparently adopting ATSC 3.0 as you mention which gives the broadcasters the ability to lock it down with DRM. There are numerous threads here in the Channels forum where users are losing access to OTA networks due to DRM. It's in the beginning stages and we're all watching to see what will happen.

#11

We have DVB-T2 over here. I’m not particularly on top of what’s going on though so I don’t know if changes are planned.