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[stanger89]

Jim poked me on AVS to post a wishlist for MC's TV/DVR functionality, which is probably good because I keep meaning to give it's functionality a shot.  Below are, in chronological to when I notice them or basically no particular order, my thoughts/wishlist for the DVR functionality in MC, as it stands today.  Full disclosure, I've been using SageTV since version 1.4 or so, so I've got a bit of a bias about how I expect things to work so that will probably factor in here.  So, onto the list.

I don't see a way to enable/disable which tuners MC uses.  In the TV section they are all automatically listed whether I've configured a tuner or not.  This worries me to a degree because I sometimes (often?) have a tuner that is not properly setup or not compatible that is listed here.  Case in point, in setting up MC today I see both my HDHR and my HDHR Prime (w/ CableCard installed).  Now as I understand it, MC doesn't support the Prime so I don't want the Prime configured or used, but I see no way to prevent it from being used.

I'm just going to toss this out here:  Extenders.  I don't want to have to build a PC for each location I want TV, heck I don't really want a PC at any location I want TV.  For my music at home I use a Squeezebox and a Roku (the old M500-audio only version), for my TV I currently use SageTV extenders everywhere.  Extenders were the single best thing I ever did to my system, they improved reliability and quality (native output switching, smoother decoding, etc).

Setup from inside a 10' UI.  I run my systems from a headless server, so it's "difficult" (OK not really but it is more of a pain) if I have to remote into the box to configure things like channel lineups.

I'll be back edit this some more, but I'm out of free time for now so I'm going to post it so my (still incomplete) thoughts aren't lost.

[JimH]

Thanks for the list, Stanger.  BTW, you have 16,000 posts on AVSForum now!  Whew!

You can set the order of the devices that MC finds.  Use Move Up and Move Down to re-order them.  I guess we could provide a way to disable them.  I don't think it's ever been requested.

Some folks have been using Sage to record and MC to play.  MC will import the files and make sense of the naming.  You could find some posts about this.

For extenders, consider a DLNA device or Xbox or PS3.

[stanger89]

Thanks for the list, Stanger.  BTW, you have 16,000 posts on AVSForum now!  Whew!

I didn't even notice, I almost don't want to post there again so as not to ruin it 

You can set the order of the devices that MC finds.  Use Move Up and Move Down to re-order them.  I guess we could provide a way to disable them.  I don't think it's ever been requested.

Yeah, I saw that, which is good.  The immediate issue I see is what happens in a situation like I've got now.  I've got an HD Homerun and a Prime on my network, so MC finds both of them, all 5 tuners, but it can only configure/use the HDHR.  So what happens if I setup some "subscriptions" (not sure on the terminology yet), and it determines there are more than two things on at the same time.  My expectation, given that all tuners are enabled and there's only one lineup for all of them, is that MC will try and use a couple of the Prime's tuners, which aren't configured, and fail the recording rather than trying to record them later, or inform me that it couldn't be recorded.

Some folks have been using Sage to record and MC to play.  MC will import the files and make sense of the naming.  You could find some posts about this.

Realistically I'm looking for a complete replacement for the whole system.  I've got enough SageTV licenses/extenders that so long as SageTV is workable I can use it for recording and playback.  I'm not in the situation like some where I've run out of clients and am unable to extend my system.

For extenders, consider a DLNA device or Xbox or PS3.

The problem with DLNA is you don't get a complete experience/functionalty do you?  You can't view the program guide, live TV, schedule recordings, etc can you?

[JimH]

I didn't even notice, I almost don't want to post there again so as not to ruin it 

Good.  You're 15,964 behind here.

There is a Sage board here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=24.0

If you have tuners you don't want used, just move them down the list.  That should work.

As an extender, MC is the best.  As you say, the DLNA interface is always limited.

[Yaobing]

I don't see a way to enable/disable which tuners MC uses.  In the TV section they are all automatically listed whether I've configured a tuner or not.  This worries me to a degree because I sometimes (often?) have a tuner that is not properly setup or not compatible that is listed here.  Case in point, in setting up MC today I see both my HDHR and my HDHR Prime (w/ CableCard installed).  Now as I understand it, MC doesn't support the Prime so I don't want the Prime configured or used, but I see no way to prevent it from being used.

Allowing users to disable a device is a good idea.  For now there is a work around.  You can configure your Prime devices in MC so it is of an input type that you do not use (the one that you do not have channels setup).  For example, let's say your HDHR is set to be used to tune to ATSC, and you do not have any other devices to tune to DVB-C, you can pretend your Prime tuners are for DVB-C and set them to that type.  MC will never try loading them for ATSC tuning.

This will work because we are not doing automatic detection of tuner types.  If auto detection is implemented in the future, I will also make sure we have a way of disabling the devices.

[stanger89]

There is a Sage board here:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=24.0

Yup, I've looked there a bit, but I wanted this to be more general (even though I do come from a Sage-familiar POV).

If you have tuners you don't want used, just move them down the list.  That should work.

Right, so then they won't be used first, but if I setup three shows to record at the same time, MC would still try and use them (unless I do the input type workaround Yaobing suggested).

As an extender, MC is the best.

But it needs to run on a PC

Anyway, I had a bit of trouble configuring my HDHRs, no channels showing up so I've got to do a bit more firewall checking, but I'll post a new thread for that if I can't figure it out.