Documentation:dev:record

Recordings
The record wizard is the control center for scheduling and managing recordings. Adding a new recording is quite simple. Just click on the corresponding button and a new dialog will pop up. There you have to choose a station, time (you can switch between 12-hour and 24-hour clock in the preferences, record section), date, duration (hours - minutes - seconds), repetitions (daily, weekday, weekly) and video resolution. The output file name will be determined for you if you don't provide one yourself. You can also schedule recordings using external applications (tv-viewer_recext).

In the middle of the window you see already scheduled recordings which can be edited or deleted.

At the bottom is a status box where can see the status of the scheduler and start / restart it.

You may also stop running recordings here.



When a recording is starting or TV-Viewer comes up while a recording is running, the software will switch into file playback mode. Now you won't be able to edit your stations, change video card controls (color management), run a diagnostic routine, start tv playback or timeshift and some preferences are locked. If you didn't activate the special option in the preferences it is also not possible to change stations in this mode. But you may watch the recording. The same mode is activated when you start timeshift but a recording always supercedes timeshift and stops it. The control bar in file playback mode should be self explanatory.

Start recordings from external applications
TV-Viewer has a special interface to start recordings from external applications. You have to use the symlink % tv-viewer_recext

If you want to add a recording this values have to be provided

--start_time=TIME  specify start time (HH:MM 24-hour clock, "HH:MM am/pm" 12-hour clock) --start_date=DATE  provide start date (YYYY-MM-DD) --duration=DURATION duration of the recording in SECONDS --repeat=NUMBER    repeat the recording (0 - never; 1 - daily; 2 - weekday; 3 - weekly) --repetitions=COUNT how often to repeat a recording --title=NAME       name/title for the recording --station_ext=NO   provide the station number as specified in TV-Viewer

additional options

--path=PATH       path where the recording should be stored --resolution=RESOL resoltion in which the recording should be performed

and these if you want to delete a recording

--delete --start_time=TIME specify start time (HH:MM 24-hour clock, "HH:MM am/pm" 12-hour clock) --start_date=DATE provide start date (YYYY-MM-DD) --station_ext=NO provide the station number as specified in TV-Viewer

So a simple example would be

24-hour clock tv-viewer_recext --duration 1800 --start_time=11:00 --start_date=2010-03-01 --repeat=0 --repetitions=0 --station_ext=12 --title="some_title"

12-hour clock tv-viewer_recext --duration 1800 --start_time="11:00 am" --start_date=2010-03-01 --repeat=0 --repetitions=0 --station_ext=12 --title="some_title"

and to delete this recording

24-hour clock tv-viewer_recext --delete --start_time=11:00 --start_date=2010-03-01 --station_ext=12

12-hour clock tv-viewer_recext --delete --start_time="11:00 am" --start_date=2010-03-01 --station_ext=12

See also

tv-viewer_recext --help

Timeshift
Timeshift is a special feature of all devices with a build-in hardware MPEG2 encoder. This means the telecast will be cached to the hard disk. This allows you to pause playback or seek back / forward. Timeshift can be started by the mainui and a key sequence, but it will only start if there is no running recording. Also if a planned recording is starting while timeshift, the recording has priority and timeshift will be terminated.

TV-Viewer will switch into file playback mode when you start timeshift with the same restrictions as if you where running a recording. After you stop timeshift a disk icon will be activated in the control bar. Clicking on this icon will pop up a special dialog where you can permanently save the timeshift video file. Otherwise this file will be deleted when you start TV playback or exit TV-Viewer.