How does "Channels" pick a source?

[dw886]

So I get the concept of channels, and it's pretty slick.  Where I'm a little confused is how this works when I have multiple channel sources available in a single room...

Scenario:

3 DirecTV boxes connected to a video matrix; the TV in the room is connected to the matrix output.  All set top boxes are available in Navigator for the room.  I am watching DirecTV STB1, I go into channels, and choose "ESPN".  I see the screen go dark, the matrix switches me to DirecTV STB2, and the channel changes to ESPN.

Question:

How does the "Channel" driver choose which of the 3 DirecTV STBs it's going to use to process the request?  Is there a reason that it didn't use the one that was already on the display in the room?

[Cyknight]

The basic selection method is: Oldest NOT IN USE available source device (oldest as in by driver ID) gets selected.

If all possible sources are already in use, it will select based on FiFo - first in first out, meaning the source that was in use the longest gets 'stolen'.

That said once a source is already in use in that room it should select that source first - I would suspect something's off with the conections

[dw886]

Thanks, this helps a lot.  So basically it's better to use "Channels" than having any one person select an individual box.  In that method, it should (hopefully) pick a DirecTV box that isn't being used somewhere else.  Correct?

 

Well, in all fairness, when this happened, I had just added the matrix in composer - so the connection had just been created (but the room was off).  I then fired up the room with the first DirecTV box, then went to channels to see what it would do, and saw it jump to a different STB.  So it's perfectly possible that however it's tracking sources wasn't completely populated because C4 had only "known" about the matrix for a short period of time...

[Cyknight]

On 11/16/2018 at 9:46 AM, dw886 said:

it should (hopefully) pick a DirecTV box that isn't being used somewhere else.  Correct?

Correct

 

On 11/16/2018 at 9:46 AM, dw886 said:

So it's perfectly possible

Maybe. Alternatively, the 'cable' or 'sat' feed connection could be missing on one or more boxes however. those should be made automatically but it's always possible it got deleted accidentally.

 

On 11/16/2018 at 9:46 AM, dw886 said:

it's better to use "Channels" than having any one person select an individual box

Not really. Not worse eother. It all depends on the setup and user scenarios, but there are examples I could give where it might be 'best' to first select a box. They should work together just fine though.

[dw886]

16 hours ago, Cyknight said:

Correct

 

Maybe. Alternatively, the 'cable' or 'sat' feed connection could be missing on one or more boxes however. those should be made automatically but it's always possible it got deleted accidentally.

 

Not really. Not worse eother. It all depends on the setup and user scenarios, but there are examples I could give where it might be 'best' to first select a box. They should work together just fine though.

For some reason, the "Channels" option isn't available to expose in the Navigator "Watch" menu for some rooms.  Those rooms have the same available sources (all 3 DirecTV STBs).  What controls whether or not that is available to make "visible" as a navigator option for a room under Watch?

[msgreenf]

30 minutes ago, dw886 said:

For some reason, the "Channels" option isn't available to expose in the Navigator "Watch" menu for some rooms.  Those rooms have the same available sources (all 3 DirecTV STBs).  What controls whether or not that is available to make "visible" as a navigator option for a room under Watch?

its hidden.  Do you have HE? if so you can fix it, if not a dealer needs to.

[dw886]

I figured this out after you mentioned this.  I had the DirecTV cloud driver hidden in those rooms.  I had each of the 3 STBs showing, but the generic DirecTV cloud driver was hidden. After I added that to the room, then the "Channels" option would show up and be available to make hidden / shown.

The weird part was that "Channels" was showing up in some rooms, and the 2-3 rooms where it would show also didn't have the DirecTV cloud driver exposed.  I'm assuming if you use the generic "DirecTV", it follows the logic that Cyknight had originally said.  So maybe the best way is to hide all 3 STBs, just expose "Channels" and the DirecTV cloud driver and let C4 sort out what gets used in each room?