My existing HDR-2000T 1TB has recently shown a surprising
increase in free space displayed, which has been hovering near
full for quite some time. The HDD check shows it as OK, but the
Reserved Space is very large - I wonder if it has decided to
release some?

If it is time to replace, I don't know which way to go. There
doesn't seem to be much choice, and I fear that the latest
interfaces have concentrated on appearance rather than
functionality.

For me a text EPG shows me all I need to know, and my TV
(currently) works fine for the occasional catch-up or YouTube
browsing.

One facility that I would really miss on my current Humax is the
ability to create folders, and move programmes into them. I also
want to be able to select and sort my Favourite channels.

Looks like I don't even have the option of buying the same again
unless I find a refurbished one that I could trust. Mmmm.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
chris@cdixon.me.uk @ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

On 07/06/2022 08:51, Chris J Dixon wrote:
> My existing HDR-2000T 1TB has recently shown a surprising
> increase in free space displayed, which has been hovering near
> full for quite some time. The HDD check shows it as OK, but the
> Reserved Space is very large - I wonder if it has decided to
> release some?
>
> If it is time to replace, I don't know which way to go. There
> doesn't seem to be much choice, and I fear that the latest
> interfaces have concentrated on appearance rather than
> functionality.
>
> For me a text EPG shows me all I need to know, and my TV
> (currently) works fine for the occasional catch-up or YouTube
> browsing.
>
> One facility that I would really miss on my current Humax is the
> ability to create folders, and move programmes into them. I also
> want to be able to select and sort my Favourite channels.
>
> Looks like I don't even have the option of buying the same again
> unless I find a refurbished one that I could trust. Mmmm.
>
> Chris

An Enigma 2 box running Openvix

Most are better suited to Satellite (Freesat or Sky Free to Air) but
some have the option of terrestrial HD tuners. I have a Enigma 2 box
with 2 satellite and 2 terrestrial tuners.

Openvix
https://www.openvix.co.uk/

Enigma 2 boxes (not all boxes on that page are Enigma 2)
https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/satellite-and-terrestrial/digital-receivers

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Tue, 07 Jun 2022 08:51:01 +0100, Chris J Dixon <chris@cdixon.me.uk>
wrote:

>My existing HDR-2000T 1TB has recently shown a surprising
>increase in free space displayed, which has been hovering near
>full for quite some time. The HDD check shows it as OK, but the
>Reserved Space is very large - I wonder if it has decided to
>release some?
>
>If it is time to replace, I don't know which way to go. There
>doesn't seem to be much choice, and I fear that the latest
>interfaces have concentrated on appearance rather than
>functionality.
>
>For me a text EPG shows me all I need to know, and my TV
>(currently) works fine for the occasional catch-up or YouTube
>browsing.
>
>One facility that I would really miss on my current Humax is the
>ability to create folders, and move programmes into them. I also
>want to be able to select and sort my Favourite channels.
>
>Looks like I don't even have the option of buying the same again
>unless I find a refurbished one that I could trust. Mmmm.
>
Is your existing box for satellite or Freeview?
If the latter look at the Humax Aura, a box that has three recorders
and available in 1Tb and 2Tb versions. I've had mine for over 18
months and am very satisfied with it.

Peter Johnson wrote:

>On Tue, 07 Jun 2022 08:51:01 +0100, Chris J Dixon <chris@cdixon.me.uk>
>wrote:

>>One facility that I would really miss on my current Humax is the
>>ability to create folders, and move programmes into them. I also
>>want to be able to select and sort my Favourite channels.

>Is your existing box for satellite or Freeview?
>If the latter look at the Humax Aura, a box that has three recorders
>and available in 1Tb and 2Tb versions. I've had mine for over 18
>months and am very satisfied with it.

Freeview.

Some reviews say the EPG is fiddly, and could be confusing, how
do you find it?

Can you add your own folders and move programmes around?

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
chris@cdixon.me.uk @ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

On Wed, 08 Jun 2022 08:43:24 +0100, Chris J Dixon <chris@cdixon.me.uk>
wrote:

>Peter Johnson wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 07 Jun 2022 08:51:01 +0100, Chris J Dixon <chris@cdixon.me.uk>
>>wrote:
>
>>>One facility that I would really miss on my current Humax is the
>>>ability to create folders, and move programmes into them. I also
>>>want to be able to select and sort my Favourite channels.
>
>>Is your existing box for satellite or Freeview?
>>If the latter look at the Humax Aura, a box that has three recorders
>>and available in 1Tb and 2Tb versions. I've had mine for over 18
>>months and am very satisfied with it.
>
>Freeview.
>
>Some reviews say the EPG is fiddly, and could be confusing, how
>do you find it?
>
It's an 8-day EPG, which is more managable after I had stopped it
displaying the channels I don't watch and never will match. Select a
programme to record and it asks if you want to record that episode or
the series, if there is one.

>Can you add your own folders and move programmes around?
>
Recorded series go into their own folders. I suspect the answer to
your question is no but I don't know.
It's a very sophisticated beast, although Humax don't seem to be
developing it further. (They had some user-group members, including
me, on a beta-testing group last year.) So far as I know its the only
retail recorder with three tuners. I click buy as soon as I heard
that.
There is an app, which I forgot to mention, which can be used to
manage the EPG and watch recordings when away from home.

Peter Johnson wrote:

>On Wed, 08 Jun 2022 08:43:24 +0100, Chris J Dixon <chris@cdixon.me.uk>
>wrote:

>>Can you add your own folders and move programmes around?
>>
>Recorded series go into their own folders. I suspect the answer to
>your question is no but I don't know.

That is something that I would really miss. We accumulate quite a
lot of material and seem to run verging on full all the time.

This is partly because the person selecting most material for
recording has limited time available for viewing. :-(

The ability to move older (but unwatched) programmes to folders
for each of us, or both, or special subject categories, is really
useful when deciding what to watch. If they are all piled
together only sorted on date or alphabet (Don't get me started on
"New" used in the listings) then searching will be far more
difficult.

>It's a very sophisticated beast, although Humax don't seem to be
>developing it further. (They had some user-group members, including
>me, on a beta-testing group last year.) So far as I know its the only
>retail recorder with three tuners. I click buy as soon as I heard
>that.
>There is an app, which I forgot to mention, which can be used to
>manage the EPG and watch recordings when away from home.

I don't really see that as useful for me personally.

I have the distinct impression that broadcasters really do not
like us to have PVRs, putting us in control of retention, and
skipping ads and prefiguring/ recaps. If they could get us all to
watch on demand, we would be a captive audience. :-(

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
chris@cdixon.me.uk @ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

"Chris J Dixon" <chris@cdixon.me.uk> wrote in message
news:spt1ah5tf127tmeeql0c46eho1f2metlps@4ax.com...
> I have the distinct impression that broadcasters really do not
> like us to have PVRs, putting us in control of retention, and
> skipping ads and prefiguring/ recaps. If they could get us all to
> watch on demand, we would be a captive audience. :-(

I saw an interview with an American advertising executive many years ago and
he was railing against viewers who will insist on getting up during the
adverts to go for a pee or make a cup of tea. He actually went as far as to
say "if you must do those things, do them during the program(me)s, and make
sure you watch every advert".

My view of adverts (whether TV, magazine or whatever) is that they need to
be included to subsidise the production costs, but I sure as hell am not
going to watch/read any of them out of choice. Also, the only time that
broadcasters should use any form of DOG (digital overlay graphic) is to
stamp a great big "ADVERT" caption across the adverts - especially necessary
with US TV where adverts and programmes seem to run seamlessly into each
other, with no recognisable "break bumper" (eg a caption with the
programme's title) either side of every break, as we are used to in the UK.
In particular they like to place an advert in the first or last few minutes,
between a brief "teaser" scene and the opening titles, or between the final
scene and the closing credits. At least we haven't stooped to that level
yet, and *some* of the old IBA advert-timing rules are still adhered to
about no breaks in the first/last few minutes, minimum spacing between
breaks (*), and insert a break only at a natural scene change, not at any
old random place, mid-sentence.

(*) Though I have seen a few recent programmes where the length of a break
is *longer* than the length of programme between two breaks :-(

On 07/06/2022 15:16, alan_m wrote:
> On 07/06/2022 08:51, Chris J Dixon wrote:
>> My existing HDR-2000T 1TB has recently shown a surprising
>> increase in free space displayed, which has been hovering near
>> full for quite some time. The HDD check shows it as OK, but the
>> Reserved Space is very large - I wonder if it has decided to
>> release some?
>>
>> If it is time to replace, I don't know which way to go. There
>> doesn't seem to be much choice, and I fear that the latest
>> interfaces have concentrated on appearance rather than
>> functionality.
>>
>> For me a text EPG shows me all I need to know, and my TV
>> (currently) works fine for the occasional catch-up or YouTube
>> browsing.
>>
>> One facility that I would really miss on my current Humax is the
>> ability to create folders, and move programmes into them. I also
>> want to be able to select and sort my Favourite channels.
>>
>> Looks like I don't even have the option of buying the same again
>> unless I find a refurbished one that I could trust. Mmmm.
>>
>> Chris
>
>
> An Enigma 2 box running Openvix
>
> Most are better suited to Satellite (Freesat or Sky Free to Air) but
> some have the option of terrestrial HD tuners. I have a Enigma 2 box
> with 2 satellite and 2 terrestrial tuners.
>
> Openvix
> https://www.openvix.co.uk/
>
> Enigma 2 boxes (not all boxes on that page are Enigma 2)
> https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/satellite-and-terrestrial/digital-receivers
>

+1

With perhaps a warning that they may not suit non technical people.

--
Brian Gregory (in England).

NY wrote:

>*some* of the old IBA advert-timing rules are still adhered to
>about no breaks in the first/last few minutes, minimum spacing between
>breaks (*), and insert a break only at a natural scene change, not at any
>old random place, mid-sentence.
>
>
>(*) Though I have seen a few recent programmes where the length of a break
>is *longer* than the length of programme between two breaks :-(

C5 are playing with that boundary. It is mainly their factual
programmes that I watch. I think we have discussed this before.

I wonder if it is something in Five's intentional house style -
the Chris Tarrant railway series, Alan Titchmarsh on National
Trust, Paddington Station programmes are all edited similarly.

The ad breaks seem to have been inserted with very abrupt edits.
One moment the presenter is in full flight, then he is suddenly
trying to sell you a holiday trip, then you get the actual ad
break.

They seem to have noticed that folk like me have a trigger finger
that reaches for the skip button as soon as I hear "coming up" or
"next", so instead they splice in what looks like it is simply
the next scene, but is actually an extract from what is to come
later, then jump cut to the adverts or a related competition.

I saw something recently, details forgotten, where they had left
the ident screens around an (intended) ad break, played straight
through and dropped the ads in later at a random point.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
chris@cdixon.me.uk @ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

On 08/06/2022 21:23, NY wrote:
> I saw an interview with an American advertising executive many years ago and
> he was railing against viewers who will insist on getting up during the
> adverts to go for a pee or make a cup of tea. He actually went as far as to
> say "if you must do those things, do them during the program(me)s, and make
> sure you watch every advert".

Does not surprise me, I can remember reading comments from Americans
that people had a duty to watch the adverts.

"Brian Gregory" <void-invalid-dead-dontuse@email.invalid> wrote in message
news:jgd11eFcqcpU1@mid.individual.net...
>> An Enigma 2 box running Openvix
>>
>> Most are better suited to Satellite (Freesat or Sky Free to Air) but some
>> have the option of terrestrial HD tuners. I have a Enigma 2 box with 2
>> satellite and 2 terrestrial tuners.
>>
>> Openvix
>> https://www.openvix.co.uk/
>>
>> Enigma 2 boxes (not all boxes on that page are Enigma 2)
>> https://www.world-of-satellite.co.uk/satellite-and-terrestrial/digital-receivers
>
> +1
>
> With perhaps a warning that they may not suit non technical people.

My setup is a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian and TVHeadend PVR software, with
a dual DVB-T2 tuner and a DVB-S2 tuner (*). I record to an external HDD
which is Samba-shared so it is accessible by a Windows PC. I use the Windows
PC to run VideoReDo editing software (which is sadly not available on Linux
and I've not found a Linux equivalent which is as good) to remove continuity
announcements and adverts. Having made the edited copy, I wipe the original
raw recording from the Pi. I store programmes on a multi-TB HDD on the
Windows computer, creating my own folder structure for categorising
programmes. I tend to watch a lot of TV using VLC on that PC, but for
anything we want to watch on the big TV, I run Plex server on the PC and
Plex client on a Roku which is connected to the TV by HDMI. I use MS SyncToy
to backup the programmes HDD to USB HDD, just as I do with other computer
data.

I can do lots that can't be done with a dedicated PVR - the editing, the
folder structure, the backup copy - but I'd be the first to admit that it is
not at all user-friendly to a non-technical person. ;-)

I do have a conventional PVR - an old TVonics one - but it's suffered from
obsolescence: its only output is analogue composite SCART, and our modern TV
does not have a SCART socket, nor composite phono sockets (I think the only
analogue input is component video where Y and U/V are kept separate and may
not even be encoded as PAL - I've never investigated component). That PVR is
also T1 only, so it can't record HD from a T2 mux.

(*) Satellite reception tends to be less glitchy, but the chances of two
channels that I want to record simultaneously being on the same mux is
vanishingly small, so I need terrestrial for recording other channels if
there is an overlap.

"Chris J Dixon" <chris@cdixon.me.uk> wrote in message
news:c073ahp73dq4vmf6qvlufb0ekg2eekh6bj@4ax.com...
> C5 are playing with that boundary. It is mainly their factual programmes
> that I watch. I think we have discussed this before.
>
> The ad breaks seem to have been inserted with very abrupt edits.
> One moment the presenter is in full flight, then he is suddenly
> trying to sell you a holiday trip, then you get the actual ad
> break.
>
> They seem to have noticed that folk like me have a trigger finger
> that reaches for the skip button as soon as I hear "coming up" or
> "next", so instead they splice in what looks like it is simply
> the next scene, but is actually an extract from what is to come
> later, then jump cut to the adverts or a related competition.
>
> I saw something recently, details forgotten, where they had left
> the ident screens around an (intended) ad break, played straight
> through and dropped the ads in later at a random point.

C5 have the annoying habit of including the selling of the holiday as part
of the programme, so it is *before* the break bumper. And as you say, the
transition between programme and holiday promotion is seamless (*). I'm
surprised that Ofcom (or other toothless ineffectual watchdog) allows it,
because the IBA used to stipulate a clear boundary between programme and any
sort of promotion/advert.

When did the house style for commercial broadcasters change from a break
bumper with "End of Part 1" and "Part 2" captions to the present style of
one which gives the programme name but no indication of which break it is?
ITV, CH4 and Five all seemed to change at about the same time, so I'm
guessing it was a relaxation of an old IBA rule - maybe when programme
lengths were reduced from 52 to 46 minutes per clock hour and an extra
advert break was allowed. I suppose they remove it because it makes it
harder for people like me to skim through the programme removing adverts,
and be sure that you haven't missed a break. I wish the advert rules had
still stipulated the same number of breaks and merely increased the length
of each break: an extra break is more intrusive and spammy than longer
breaks, even if the total time spent on adverts is the same either way.

(*) Typically it can be identified by OTT carefully-graded shots for the
promotion which have obviously had more time/money spent on them than the
"mere" programme.

NY wrote:

> My setup is a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian and TVHeadend PVR software, with a
> dual DVB-T2 tuner and a DVB-S2 tuner

Similar here, tower PC which is on 24x7 anyway, has a hauppauge combined
terrestrial/satellite PCI card.

I recently upgraded from an old chromecast to one of the newish chromecast with
android TV and a remote, installed DreamPlayerTV on that and it integrates
pretty well with the TVH epg and recordings.

"Andy Burns" <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote in message
news:jgdqauFfol9U1@mid.individual.net...
> NY wrote:
>
>> My setup is a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian and TVHeadend PVR software,
>> with a dual DVB-T2 tuner and a DVB-S2 tuner
>
> Similar here, tower PC which is on 24x7 anyway, has a hauppauge combined
> terrestrial/satellite PCI card.
>
> I recently upgraded from an old chromecast to one of the newish chromecast
> with android TV and a remote, installed DreamPlayerTV on that and it
> integrates pretty well with the TVH epg and recordings.

I used to use a Windows PC (the same one that I use for editing and storing
the recordings) for doing the recording as well, in addition to logging data
from a weather station and uploading it to a web site. Then I worked out the
cost of leaving that PC on 24/7 and realised a Ras Pi for PVR and weather
station was cheaper to leave on 24/7, allowing my Windows PC to be turned
off (sleep mode) overnight, and if I'm not using it for a while during the
day.

TVHeadend is decidedly geeky (text-based list of programmes in the EPG, as
opposed to a standard time-versus-channel display), and configuring it was a
bit hit-and-miss because the documentation is not very good: I found
third-party blogs a better tutorial than TVH's own documentation. I
initially just had the DVB-T tuners, and things were simple. When I added
satellite, when we moved to a house that had a dish, I was petrified that
I'd cock up the existing terrestrial setup, but I've got the hang of it now.
The secret was to avoid any attempt to let TVH map "services" to "channels",
because I found out the hard way that sat and terr versions of some channels
have minor differences in channel name (eg "BBC Four" versus "BBC FOUR")
which meant that two separate channels were created rather than merging into
a single channel which can use either sat or terr according to priority
rules. Instead, I manually created channels with the LCN in the name (eg
"009 BBC Four") which sort at the beginning of the list, and I map the
corresponding services to those (eg "009 BBC Four" uses the satellite one
and the terrestrial one).

NY wrote:

> TVHeadend is decidedly geeky (text-based list of programmes in the EPG

the DreamPlayerTV app uses a normal channel/time grid, e.g.

<http://andyburns.uk/misc/dream-player-epg.png>

It could be improved e.g.

the highlighted "Frasier" programme could be e.g. orange, rather than yet
another shade of blue

it could do with an area which displays the full title, and extra info of the
highlighted programme.

On 09/06/2022 10:03, NY wrote:

> TVHeadend is decidedly geeky (text-based list of programmes in the EPG,
> as opposed to a standard time-versus-channel display)...

TVHadmin (wot I rote) is a better interface for day-to-day use, though
you still have to use the original to manage channels etc.

https://github.com/dave-p/TVHadmin-JS
--
Dave

On 08/06/2022 21:23, NY wrote:
> "Chris J Dixon" <chris@cdixon.me.uk> wrote in message
> news:spt1ah5tf127tmeeql0c46eho1f2metlps@4ax.com...
>> I have the distinct impression that broadcasters really do not
>> like us to have PVRs, putting us in control of retention, and
>> skipping ads and prefiguring/ recaps. If they could get us all to
>> watch on demand, we would be a captive audience.  :-(
>
> I saw an interview with an American advertising executive many years ago
> and he was railing against viewers who will insist on getting up during
> the adverts to go for a pee or make a cup of tea. He actually went as
> far as to say "if you must do those things, do them during the
> program(me)s, and make sure you watch every advert".
>
> My view of adverts (whether TV, magazine or whatever) is that they need
> to be included to subsidise the production costs, but I sure as hell am
> not going to watch/read any of them out of choice. Also, the only time
> that broadcasters should use any form of DOG (digital overlay graphic)
> is to stamp a great big "ADVERT" caption across the adverts - especially
> necessary with US TV where adverts and programmes seem to run seamlessly
> into each other, with no recognisable "break bumper" (eg a caption with
> the programme's title) either side of every break, as we are used to in
> the UK.

Actually, most commercial channels put a DOG during the programme but
not the adverts/trailers/sponsor messages, so I just skip forward until
I hit the DOG, then back a bit.

--
Max Demian

On Thu, 9 Jun 2022 10:03:58 +0100, "NY" <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

>I used to use a Windows PC (the same one that I use for editing and storing
>the recordings) for doing the recording as well, in addition to logging data
>from a weather station and uploading it to a web site. Then I worked out the
>cost of leaving that PC on 24/7 and realised a Ras Pi for PVR and weather
>station was cheaper to leave on 24/7, allowing my Windows PC to be turned
>off (sleep mode) overnight, and if I'm not using it for a while during the
>day.

My first internet streaming box was a Windows PC, built into a
horizontal case to match the rest of the AV and hi-fi stuff and
permanently plugged to the TV, but otherwise just a normal PC
controlled with a mouse on the coffee table. It was unused for a while
after I acquired an Amazon stick, and later a mini PC, so eventually I
decided to get rid of it, and in the course of re-fettling it for sale
I plugged it into a power meter.

I hadn't realised, but even when switched off, i.e. completely shut
down but still connected to the mains, it was consuming 7 Watts. The
mini PC happens to take about the same when actually booted up and
running, and its consumption is so small as to be difficult to measure
acurately when shut down. This is definitely something to consider if
you have a lot of permanently connected electronics that is only
switched off with a "soft" switch rather than mechanically with an
airgap switch when not in use.

Rod.

On 09/06/2022 12:41, Roderick Stewart wrote:

> I hadn't realised, but even when switched off, i.e. completely shut
> down but still connected to the mains, it was consuming 7 Watts. The
> mini PC happens to take about the same when actually booted up and
> running, and its consumption is so small as to be difficult to measure
> acurately when shut down. This is definitely something to consider if
> you have a lot of permanently connected electronics that is only
> switched off with a "soft" switch rather than mechanically with an
> airgap switch when not in use.

So, it costs you about 3p per day, and you get all that power back as
heat anyway.

How much consideration does it warrant?

In article <t7sap0$oik$1@dont-email.me>, NY <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:
> My setup is a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian and TVHeadend PVR software,
> with a dual DVB-T2 tuner and a DVB-S2 tuner (*). I record to an
> external HDD

Up to now I've tended to use my own DIY prog with the relevant DVB-T/T2
packages to grab recordings from DVB. However I'm now tempted to get a Pi
and use that with my USB T/T2 dongle to record. cf below.

Raspbian + TVHeadend souds like worth a try. Up to now I've used an ancient
'Shuttle' machine running Mint, but the box is fairly knackered. So could
do with a replacement.

Is there a good place to find out more about TVHeadend and get advice?

And does ROX-Filer run on Raspbian?

> which is Samba-shared so it is accessible by a Windows PC.
> I use the Windows PC to run VideoReDo editing software (which is sadly
> not available on Linux and I've not found a Linux equivalent which is
> as good) to remove continuity announcements and adverts. Having made
> the edited copy, I wipe the original raw recording from the Pi.

I just use ffmpeg to cut or reprocess AV files. Also when I want to do
things like extract the audio, etc. Easy enough to do using DND with ROX
filer.

Watch live TV using ye olde TV set. Use VLC for playing the AV files, into
the same TV as a screen. (The audio gets sent to a decent USB DAC and
bypasses the 'screen' when playing files.) However this all uses a
different Linux box to the above in a different room. Not the ancient one I
use to capture.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
biog http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

"Jim Lesurf" <noise@audiomisc.co.uk> wrote in message
news:59f64a037anoise@audiomisc.co.uk...
> In article <t7sap0$oik$1@dont-email.me>, NY <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:
>> My setup is a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian and TVHeadend PVR software,
>> with a dual DVB-T2 tuner and a DVB-S2 tuner (*). I record to an
>> external HDD
>
> Up to now I've tended to use my own DIY prog with the relevant DVB-T/T2
> packages to grab recordings from DVB. However I'm now tempted to get a Pi
> and use that with my USB T/T2 dongle to record. cf below.
>
> Raspbian + TVHeadend souds like worth a try. Up to now I've used an
> ancient
> 'Shuttle' machine running Mint, but the box is fairly knackered. So could
> do with a replacement.
>
> Is there a good place to find out more about TVHeadend and get advice?

TVHeadend's own documentation is not very good. It describes the fields on
the various config screens but doesn't really give a very good "naming of
parts" explanation of that one-to-one, many-to-one and one-to-many
constructions that you create.

The principle is that you define one or more DVB input devices (terrestrial
and/or satellite). You associate each with a "network". If you receive from
one satellite and from one transmitter (irrespective of how many tuners you
have) you will create one network called "satellite" and one called
"terrestrial", and assign all the terrestrial tuners to the same network
"terrestrial" etc. In the early days I created separate networks for two
different terrestrial devices that received from the same transmitter, and
made things unnecessarily complicated ;-)

You tell TVH to scan all the multiplexes that it can find on each networks,
and end up with lots of "services". A service is a specific channel on a
specific network (eg BBC One on terrestrial, BBC One on satellite).

You then create a list of "channels". A channel is a group of services which
all give you the same TV station but via different networks. TVH can
automatically map services to channels. If your setup has both terrestrial
and satellite, I suggest that you auto-map the terrestrial services to
channels, and maybe rename each one so its name starts with the LCN (eg "001
BBC One", "009 BBC Four") so the channels sort in LCN order. Then scan for
satellilte but don't auto-map to channels otherwise you will end up with
duplicates for channels which have different name syntax on sat and terr (eg
"BBC One" versus "BBC ONE"). Instead, manually map specific services to
channels, for the ones that you commonly watch. I map each satellite service
to the channel that contains the terrstrial LCN in its name - eg "001 BBC
One" is linked to BBC One on terrestrial and to BBC One on satellite, since
TVH doesn't find any LCNs for satellite, even though Sky and Freesat PVRs
each have their own *different* LCNs (channel numbers). (Which bozo thought
it was a good idea to use a different LCN for BBC One (for example)
depending on whether you have a Sky or Freesat box? Why not make Freesat a
subset of Sky? Rant over!)

What I've done is to create a few deliberate duplicate channels (eg "003 ITV
(terr)" linked to terrestrial only and "003 ITV (sat)" linked to satellite
only, as well as "003 ITV" linked to both) so I can force a recording to use
one service rather than the other. That's useful if one network is worse
than the other for dropouts. I defined a blanket rule "use satellite in
preference to terrestrial" by using the "priority" feature for each network
(larger priority => use in preference) but can override this if I want to
make sure that of two overlapping recordings, "this" one uses satellite
because I'll be keeping it and want fewer dropouts, and "that" one is a
simple timeshift watch-and-delete where I'm less bothered about dropouts. If
your terrestrial and satellite reception are virtually error-free because
you don't have a dirty great hill in the way of terrestrial, as I do, then
you can ignore all that!

If you need any help in setting up and using, I may be able to help you -
I'd be glad to.

On 09/06/2022 12:41, Roderick Stewart wrote:

> I hadn't realised, but even when switched off, i.e. completely shut
> down but still connected to the mains, it was consuming 7 Watts. The
> mini PC happens to take about the same when actually booted up and
> running, and its consumption is so small as to be difficult to measure
> acurately when shut down. This is definitely something to consider if
> you have a lot of permanently connected electronics that is only
> switched off with a "soft" switch rather than mechanically with an
> airgap switch when not in use.

I also was quite shocked by the amount of power consumed by kit that's
not actually working. Apart from things with timers in, everything now
gets turned off at the mains at night.

--
rgds
LAurence
<><

There's no place like 127.0.0.1
~~~ Random (signature) 1.6.1

On 09/06/2022 08:13, Chris J Dixon wrote:
> I saw something recently, details forgotten, where they had left
> the ident screens around an (intended) ad break, played straight
> through and dropped the ads in later at a random point.

Talking Pictures has a habit of doing this, though usually the original
break bumpers are (often badly) spliced out.

Often on Forces TV there will be a break bumper, fade to black, DOG goes
off ... but no adverts appear, and then the programme starts again. I
assume this is due to a fault in the advert playback system.

--
rgds
LAurence
<><

90% of statistics are made up on the spot.
~~~ Random (signature) 1.6.1

On Thu, 9 Jun 2022 14:45:21 +0100, Norman Wells <hex@unseen.ac.am>
wrote:

>On 09/06/2022 12:41, Roderick Stewart wrote:
>
>> I hadn't realised, but even when switched off, i.e. completely shut
>> down but still connected to the mains, it was consuming 7 Watts. The
>> mini PC happens to take about the same when actually booted up and
>> running, and its consumption is so small as to be difficult to measure
>> acurately when shut down. This is definitely something to consider if
>> you have a lot of permanently connected electronics that is only
>> switched off with a "soft" switch rather than mechanically with an
>> airgap switch when not in use.
>
>So, it costs you about 3p per day, and you get all that power back as
>heat anyway.
>
>How much consideration does it warrant?
>

It may be only a tenner a year, but why spend it at all if I don't
need to? Also, it's not the only electronic device that was running in
"soft-off" mode all the time, so the total waste could be more than
that. Also, it's fairly warm today and I have the patio door open to
get rid of extra heat, so any waste heat from electronics is true
waste from which I recover nothing because I don't want it. My actual
heating system, for when I do want heat, runs on gas, which is cheaper
than electricity.

Rod.

On 10/06/2022 19:42, Roderick Stewart wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Jun 2022 14:45:21 +0100, Norman Wells <hex@unseen.ac.am>
> wrote:
>
>> On 09/06/2022 12:41, Roderick Stewart wrote:
>>
>>> I hadn't realised, but even when switched off, i.e. completely shut
>>> down but still connected to the mains, it was consuming 7 Watts. The
>>> mini PC happens to take about the same when actually booted up and
>>> running, and its consumption is so small as to be difficult to measure
>>> acurately when shut down. This is definitely something to consider if
>>> you have a lot of permanently connected electronics that is only
>>> switched off with a "soft" switch rather than mechanically with an
>>> airgap switch when not in use.
>>
>> So, it costs you about 3p per day, and you get all that power back as
>> heat anyway.
>>
>> How much consideration does it warrant?
>>
>
> It may be only a tenner a year, but why spend it at all if I don't
> need to? Also, it's not the only electronic device that was running in
> "soft-off" mode all the time, so the total waste could be more than
> that. Also, it's fairly warm today and I have the patio door open to
> get rid of extra heat, so any waste heat from electronics is true
> waste from which I recover nothing because I don't want it. My actual
> heating system, for when I do want heat, runs on gas, which is cheaper
> than electricity.

You can be as parsimonious as you like of course. However, there's a
cost in reducing the life of anything you switch on and off frequently,
and you do actually need space heating when the air temperature outside
is lower than you like inside, That's virtually constantly for 8 or 9
months of the year and, even at this time of year, is probably for 15 to
18 hours a day. So, if we said for 75-80% of all the hours in a year
it's providing something useful, however small, that estimate probably
wouldn't be far off. You're therefore 'wasting' no more than £2.50 of
electricity a year.

As regards the lower cost of gas, you have to take into account the
efficiency of conversion of the 'kilowatt-hours' the gas company charges
you for, into actual heat in the home. In an old boiler that can be
down to 60%. If you have a new condensing boiler it may be up to the
90% level but if you've afforded the cost of installing one of those and
know the price, you won't be concerned in the least with saving just
£2.50 a year.

Electrical conversion of power consumed into heat is of course
essentially 100% always.