sage tells me there is a conflict when one tuner is free

[zubblwump]

When recording one show in a dual tuner setup, I want to watch or record something else. The second tuner is free, so I'd expect it just to tune in the new channel with the second card, but I still get the message (same as if there was only one tuner):

"Watching XXXXX conflicts with scheduled recordings. Please select an option:

Don't do anything
Watch the selected show and cancel the recording of XXXXX"

If I choose "Don't do anything", it switches channels and I can watch what I seleced, while the recording continues on the first tuner. If I select option 2, it does what it says and I lose the recording.

This is very confusing and won't do much for the WAF. Is this normal? Is there some setting that will get rid of this warning when another tuner is availible? (btw, I have altered the ecoder merit so the card hooked to basic analog cable is first and the digital box is second. Don't know if this behaved the same before)

[heffe2001]

Could it be that what you're trying to watch is only on the Digital box? I have that problem sometimes.

[dagar]

When flipping channels, check the recording properties to see which tuner is being picked.

My problem: Both of my Roslyn cards and PVR250 (2 Rosyln + 1 PVR250) show up. However, I get blank nothing but blank channels from one of the Rosyln boards. I have disabled it and have not had any opportunity to troubleshoot -- it actually helps to be home for more than weekends I have RF (Coax) input on the Ros 1 and Svid Digital Cable on Ros 2 -- Ros 1 failed.

[Opus4]

I think this might be because the encoder merit has been set, but I'm not entirely sure. Anyone out there who has multiple tuners & has not set the encoder merit properties? What happens when one tuner is recording a Fav or Manual Recording & you try to watch live TV? (IR is automatically cancelled to switch to live TV.) If you don't get a question when trying to watch live TV, then this is probably occurring because the merit settings have specified that you have a preferred tuner, so it tries to use that one first.

- Andy

[Opus4]

Update: I don't really need the merit settings, so I removed them & tried again. This time, there was no question about cancelling the current Manual Recording. So, it appears that because the merit setting has specified a preferred tuner, it tries to use that one first for live TV too. You'll have to ask Frey whether that is something they would consider changing so that live TV will always simply look for an unused tuner first, or if that is really the intention due to the merit setting.

- Andy

[mls]

I believe I've had it do that here (with 4 tuners) even before I had changed any tuner merits. I suspect it might have something to do with which tuners SageTV has already planned to use for upcoming recordings though since it doesn't always pop up that question.

So far, I haven't been able to find any exact pattern as to why/when it does it. Sometimes it does, sometimes it don't, and so far hasn't really matter which tuner(s) were already in use.

Sorry I can't be of much help, but would be nice if could find out why it does that. Especially since it doesn't seem to always happen when only the first tuner is in use.

I could be missing a pattern to it though, since I haven't really bothered checking things to closely when it does come up. I just hit "do nothing" and it then picks a tuner that's not already in use.

Has worked like this in all the versions as far as I can recall, so isn't a bug in any specific version.

[Opus4]

To expand on what I posted above: when I had merits set, live TV would try to use the highest merit tuner first, regardless of whether any others were free. If the highest merit one was free, it would just start live TV; if it was in use, it would ask me what to do.

After removing merits, it didn't matter which 2 of the 3 tuners were in use, it never asked me what to do; it simply used the free tuner.

I'm running v2.2.2, so I don't know if something might have changed from any previous versions. My results were pretty consistent, so I don't think it was just a fluke.

- Andy

[mls]

Originally Posted by Opus4

After removing merits, it didn't matter which 2 of the 3 tuners were in use, it never asked me what to do; it simply used the free tuner.

As I said, I think it was doing it even before I changed the merits on my end, but that's such a long time ago I could be wrong. However, I can see where setting the merits could cause it to occur more often. Might set mine all back to zero merit and run for a while that way again just to see how it behaves on my end.

It's never bothered me, but I can see where it might be confusing to others (especially if they are new to SageTV).

[zubblwump]

If no merits are set, does Sage default to some basic merit system; i.e. always tuner #1 first, then tuner #2, etc? If so I could just connect the cable box to what sage deemed tuner #2 and basic able to tuner #1 and not use the merits. Or is it just random with no merits set? Just a thought...