Per-show-in-queue encoding formats

My one major usability issue remaining is that if I queue up a bunch of shows 
to decode before 
heading away from my computer for a bit, they all get encoded with the global 
encoder settings.  
But often I'll want to queue up several different programs and use different 
settings for each.  For 
example, I might want to queue up The Daily Show, for which I can use a 
relatively low bitrate, 
and NFL Primetime, which as a sports show needs a significantly higher bitrate, 
and Late Night 
With Conan O'Brien, which is letterboxed so I use special settings (see Issue 
63).  (Also, I tend to 
disable commercial skipping for most shows, because it sometimes misfires and 
snips a segment 
of actual show; but I often turn it on for letterboxed shows, because the 
letterboxing provides a 
strong cue that really boosts comskip's accuracy.)

What would be really nice is if each time I queued or started to download a 
show, iTivo asked me 
which one of my presets to use *for that show*, and each time it began a new 
show in the queue 
it would know to switch to the appropriate settings.

I think this would also allow a better solution to Issue 47, which asks to use 
different formats for 
SD vs HD shows.  Rather than having this switch automatically each time it 
begins encoding a 
new show in the queue, the user could simply choose an HD preset each time he 
adds a HD show 
to the queue and choose an SD preset each time he adds an SD show to the queue. 
 (To address 
Issue 47 even better, you might then have the "choose a preset" drop-down 
default to on option 
for HD shows and another option for SH shows.  You then might even have a 
different default for 
letterboxed vs fullscreen shows, see Issue 63, or default to a different video 
bitrate depending 
on whether the show was originally recorded in Basic/Medium/High/Best quality.)

This might require a bit more restructuring than most enhancements, so I know 
it might not get 
top priority, but I think it's something that would be valued by a large number 
of your users 
(since I see other people posting similar requests, like the SD vs HD presents 
issue).

Original issue reported on code.google.com by snov...@gmail.com on 15 Dec 2008 at 12:07

Yes, that is something that would be incredibly useful, as would the ability to
remember what tivo a show came off (for those who use multiple tivos).

  Honestly though that kind of change would need an overhaul of how things are passed
around (yeah it just reads the values it needs directly off the queue table, 
and then
applies the current encoder settings -- which are the values you see in the 
advanced
tab)...  It's doable, but I'm wondering, have you looked at Tivo Butler?  It's 
a more
power-user oriented program which does all those things, but with a slightly 
more
complex UI...  It *should* do all the stuff you want though...

  Anyways, marking this as an enhancement.  Don't want to be a dick about my answer
but I'll be honest that it's probably not gonna happen for a while (still have 
major
encoder problems to iron out first)...

Original comment by yoav.yer...@gmail.com on 15 Dec 2008 at 2:54

Changed state: Accepted
Added labels: Type-Enhancement
Removed labels: Type-Defect

mattmartini / itivo

Per-show-in-queue encoding formats #65