Algorithm for Choosing HD or SD Channels

[Diego Garcia]

I'm trying to understand how Sage chooses which channel to record when I define a favorite. I know I can manually tell it to choose among only certain channels. What I'm interested in is the default "automatic" behavior.

For example, I have a favorite set up for "In Plain Sight", which in my area shows up on either channel 42 (USAP) or channel 738 (USAHD), with the latter being the HD version of the former. Sage automatically chose the HD version (which, of course, is what I want).

But in another case things didn't work out that way. I have a favorite for "The Daily Show", which shows up either on channel 63 (COMEDYP) or channel 745 (CCHD). In that case Sage chose the SD version on channel 63. I'd obviously prefer the HD version .

So... how does the algorithm for deciding which channel to chose work?

It looks like the match may be on channel name, with some kind of threshold for a "good enough" match. "USAP" and "USAHD" are pretty similar (particularly if one were to discard all "HD" suffixes), while "COMEDYP" and "CCHD" are pretty different. Is that how it works?

[PiX64]

I wouldn't be surpised if it also had something to do with the way you have your encoder_merit set in the Sage.properties.

[Fuzzy]

It will choose an HD version over an SD version, if available. This is based on the guide data. If both CCHD and COMEDYP show the show as HD (or Non-HD, for that matter) in the guide, than it has nothing to go on. I'd actually recommend removing the SD versions of channels, if you have an HD version available (as they serve no real purpose for you anyways).

[Diego Garcia]

I didn't think to check the details of the guide data. I don't recall ever seeing any flag for HD, but maybe I just ignored it.

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I'd actually recommend removing the SD versions of channels, if you have an HD version available (as they serve no real purpose for you anyways).

I would only remove them [SD channels] from the channel linup of the HD tuner. If you have any SD tuners then removing them will just reduce your ability to record multiple shows. I prefer the HD shows, but if there are two recordings and neither is repeated then I'd rather have one in SD than not get it at all.

[Fuzzy]

ys, if you have SD encoders, than you should remove them from only the HD lineups, and remove the HD channels from the SD lineups. Basically, make sure sage has aleh info it needs, and it works pretty smart.