If you have the same show meeting a subscription criteria on more than one channel MC will record all of them.
1. This can cause unnecessary recording conflicts due to missing ressources therefore missing recordings.
2. Using unnecessary ressource and hard drive space.
This right now is my #1 issue when creating subscriptions especially for sports events as I need to limit my STB usage to a minimum and always favor OTA when possible.
Background on this has been discussed as per the posts below.:
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am going to tackle the problem of multiple channels airing the same show simultaneously. I believe this is the only reason for your duplicate recordings. I could have filtered out multiple channels and leave only one channel for recording, but I did not do it because I did not want to pick one channel but only to find out that the particular channel failed to record. I need to keep the second channel ready to record. I will work on it. Promise .
EDIT: Yes I do need all channels selected or more than one as these events may show on one or more channels...Sometimes OTA sometimes STB. BUT most of the time on both which is why it's problematic!
If MC could just select one channel for an identical TV program based on a priority list this would work.
I don't think there is a need to change anything in the subscription setup. Just using the the priority list done in the TV setup with tuner card order and favorite cards to use with specific channels would take care of it as this now works fine since implemented in MC21.
One thing that I still do not have an answer and probably will never have. It will require user's diligence in checking programming changes. The issue mostly affect people who use "All channels" as a subscription option.
Here is the scenario:
Suppose I subscribe to NBA Basketball: Chicago Bulls. NBA TV often carries the games. Some local channels also carry some games.
The problem occurs when a local channel buys exclusive rights. NBA TV still has the game on the schedule, and worse, they do not even air a replacement show. All they do is to put a static message on screen that says "Due to licensing issues, this show is blocked from your local market".
If we decide to record only on one channel, and if we choose incorrectly, we end up recording not the game, but only the static message "Due to licensing issues..." for two and half hours.
Then a user would simply favor NBA TV over the local channel and leave the local "unreliable" TV source lower in the priority list. The show would only record on NBA TV and if the show is not on NBA TV it will fall back on the local channel.
EDIT: However in this case the channel order would be more efficient if done in the subscription as you may want to favor the STB over OTA in some odd cases. (However for me this has never happened but maybe others would need it....)