[mellomade]

Hi Guys,

I wonder if you might be able to clarify how ServerWMC selects tuners. Using the latest (1175) and both 0.3.108 in Helix and 0.2.99 in Gotham I get a strange response.

For example I have 7 channels set up in WMC with 4 tuners. Each channel is set up exactly the same with each channel source set to Tuners 1-4 in that order.

ServerWMC reports back the exact order that WMC reflects - something like:

Tuner #1
Tuner #2
Tuner #3
Tuner #4

What is strange is that when I start a live stream from any of these channels - Tuner #4 is used first - then Tuner #3 etc.

I checked the log for ServerWMC and it is loading the devices backwards as well - Tuner #4 is loaded as ContentRecorder 0 and Tuner #3 as ContentRecorder 1 and so on.

Is this the expected behavior?

[scarecrow420]

Yes it's expected. This is our "decoy" feature to protect live streams from WMC recordings. In the past if we were live streaming a channel when a scheduled recording on that same channel occured, WMC would steal our tuner rather than use a spare. What we now do is use the tuners in reverse order and set a decoy usage of the first tuner, then WMC takes the decoy leaving our live stream unaffected.

This behaviour can be modified or disabled if you require

[mellomade]

Thanks for the clarification, scarecrow.

I assume these behaviors can be altered via the settings file?

Do you have documentation on that?

Thanks again!

[scarecrow420]

The setting is called DecoyLiveStreamProtectMethod or something similar. A value of 0 disables it (we take first tuner in list but WMC will steal it for a recording), 2 is the behaviour I mention above (we take tuners from the end of the list staying as far away from WMC as possible and maximum number of decoys if required) and 1 is sort of in the middle (we start at the top of the list but leave 1 for a decoy then take the next tuner after that)

In general all sources for a channel should be valid so I'm interested in what you're trying to achieve

[mellomade]

Thanks for the details. I do appreciate it.

I have an HDHR in addition to a dual channel Hauppauge 2250 that I use for testing purposes. The HDHR is a bit finicky compared to the 2250 and I rarely record more than 2 channels at the same time. Since I set it up I noticed that it was being used for live tv rather than the 2250 and it performs worse so I was curious.

The logic you are using is solid and I wouldn't consider changing it.

[scarecrow420]

Yep I figured you may have 2 tuner devices and prefer to use one over the other for whatever reason.

It doesn't matter how many recordings you have at once etc, the unfortunate behaviour is that if we take tuner 1 and tune it to a given channel, if a recording is scheduled on that channel (and even if there are other unused tuners) WMC will steal the one we have. Hence our "decoy" approach to protect live streams. In your case method 1 should be ok - this should mean we use your preferred tuner device (but grab it's second tuner) so you would still have some protection from WMC