DVR setting: Start when possible. (x minutes ahead). What is meaning of "when possible"?

[xrqp 11]

Assume I have 1 tuner, and it is set to record show1 today on Channel1 from1am to 2am , and is set to record show2 today on Cannel 2 from2am to 3am. 

If the minutes "Start when possible" before and after is set to 0, then will it record both shows, and miss only a few seconds for the switching?

If I set "minutes before" to 5 minutes before for both shows, what happens when show2 wants to start recording at 1:55am, but the tuner is busy with show1?  Now it is "not possible" to record both shows and start show 2 early, so start early "when possible" means it knows it is not possible to record both shows and start early, so it will wait to start show2 recording at 2pm?  (I hope the answer is yes, but I will not invest too much hope).

Edited February 2, 2021 by xrqp

[Carlo 4330]

Hi it will be the same as the first situation because it was not "possible" to add pre/post time as the tuner was needed.

However most devices these days have multiple tuners built in so it's a bit rare these days to have a single tuner vs 3 or 4 built in.

[xrqp 11]

So even if I had setting to start 5 minutes ahead, on show 2 it would not start early.  Then I get the bulk of show2, rather than nothing, which is good, and what I hoped.  Good news.  Thanks.

The one tuner was used to more easily explain the concept of my question.  A 4 tuner device also could be set up to have the same problem.

Edited February 2, 2021 by xrqp

[Carlo 4330]

You  should get both shows in full minus the overlapping padding.  The key word is "possible" for padding.  When possible you'll get padding.  When not possible (ie tuner in use) you won't get padding.

[Carlo 4330]

To add to this.  If you were recording back to back shows on the same station padding is possible for the overlap as Emby is smart enough to share the same tuner for two shows one with post and one with pre padding.

[Ronstang 205]

5 hours ago, cayars said:

To add to this.  If you were recording back to back shows on the same station padding is possible for the overlap as Emby is smart enough to share the same tuner for two shows one with post and one with pre padding.

Yes it does and that comes in extremely handy when the guide data is incorrect like it was last night for me.  It recorded one movie but terminated early even with the padding because the guide was WRONG like it is more often than it should be (Gracenote problem, not Emby because Schedules Direct has the same issue) but the next movie it recorded on the same channel had the pre-padding so there was a recording overlap.  This allowed me to use Avidemux to save the first movie and the piece of it at the beginning of the next movie with frame accurate matching cut points and then use joiner.bat to put them back into one TS file.  Quite nice if you know this capability is there.

[Carlo 4330]

You can just do this all in AVIDemux.  Look at the file menu and you'll see you can append files.

[Ronstang 205]

9 hours ago, cayars said:

You can just do this all in AVIDemux.  Look at the file menu and you'll see you can append files.

That must be a new feature because I have not seen it.  You still have to open two instances of Avidemux so you can get a frame accurate cut point or as close as possible because the two segments don't always have exact matching keyframes.  Last night I was lucky and they were pretty much dead on but I have had some where you had to scroll back and forth between both segments to find one close enough to avoid a hugely noticeable hiccup.

[Carlo 4330]

2 hours ago, Ronstang said:

That must be a new feature because I have not seen it.  You still have to open two instances of Avidemux so you can get a frame accurate cut point or as close as possible because the two segments don't always have exact matching keyframes.  Last night I was lucky and they were pretty much dead on but I have had some where you had to scroll back and forth between both segments to find one close enough to avoid a hugely noticeable hiccup.

You just combine the videos together using append and then edit as normal.  You only need one instance and you can cut on keyframes easily as you have 2 buttons for moving back or forward to the keyframe before marking.

I've been doing this for 5 to 7 years so append has been there "forever" or so it seems.

[Ronstang 205]

9 hours ago, cayars said:

I've been doing this for 5 to 7 years so append has been there "forever" or so it seems.

I just never saw it and I have been using Avidemux for years so that is a nice addition to my arsenal of software choices....thanks 

[xrqp 11]

It sounds like ideal behavior how it defines "possible".  It give up the padding before it gives up the main show time.   That is excellent.  Thanks for the info.

Cayars, In the example you gave:

On 2/1/2021 at 9:51 PM, cayars said:

If you were recording back to back shows on the same station padding is possible for the overlap as Emby is smart enough to share the same tuner for two shows one with post and one with pre padding.

Were you assuming a 1 channel tuner?  If you were, then again that is ideal behavior by Emby.

If it had a 2 channel tuner, and both channels were available, would it use both channels, so it gets all the padding (pre and post) on both back to back shows?

Edited February 17, 2021 by xrqp

[Carlo 4330]

It will still use the same tuner to stay efficient.  This leaves the other tuner free for use.