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Download higher quality when available

user-537

Hi! Love the software, works a treat.

I have noticed that some of the kids series I'm recording are receiving reruns in HD recently. Is there an option to re-download a program if a higher quality file is available? If not I'd really appreciate such an option.

Thanks,

Oliver

user-2

Use
Code:
--force
to re-download a programme in whatever quality is currently available.

user-537

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I was aware of
Code:
--force
but was hoping, since quality levels are stored in download_history, there would be a more intelligent way.

Thanks anyway,

Oliver

user-2

I don't know what you mean by "intelligent". The programme is either in your history or it's not - no intelligence required. Surely adding
Code:
--force
to your command isn't too much of a burden.

user-537

Sorry, no offence meant.

What I wanted to say is that rather than forcing ALL programmes to download again, it would be great if the PVR could check the quality downloaded BEFORE and compare to the quality available NOW. And ONLY download again when there is a higher quality file available. Make sense? As I understand
Code:
--force
in this case would also work the other way and, to my detriment, overwrite HD with SD on 'traditional' re-runs.

Just an example, Q Pootle 5 was aired in SD last month and now it looks like they are airing it again in HD. I only noticed this by chance, and you are correct, I could just force the ones I want to download again, but then that would defeat one of the things I love most about get_iplayer and that is that I don't have to worry about anything.

It's not that important really, I don't think the little ones mind one way or the other, as long as they get to see new episodes. I was just wondering if there was an option for that. And if there is no point in adding it, or if it is not feasible, then that is fine.

Thanks again,

Oliver

user-2

Feel free to implement something like that and submit a pull request. Other people have asked for the same thing, but I have no interest in implementing it. Those programmes that show up in HD for repeats have just been upscaled since all BBC channels now go out in HD. You get twice the file size, but not much better visual quality.

user-537

Ok, I was not aware of that. You are quite right, in that case there is not much point in implementing it.

Thank you for the explanation, and thanks a lot for all the hard work put into get_iplayer - such a time saver for me!

Cheers,

Oliver

user-2

It occurred to to me that you can accomplish more or less the same thing with the little-used
Code:
--multimode
option.
Code:
--multimode
will download all requested modes for a programme that are not in your history file. So, if your PVR job includes
Code:
--multimode
and
Code:
--modes=flashhd,flashvhigh
, it will download just the HD stream, assuming that flashvhigh is already in your download history. Of course, this depends on you knowing which quality was downloaded previously. Naturally, you wouldn't use
Code:
--multimode
for new programmes - just get HD the first time around.
Code:
--multimode
will produce some spurious "Already in history" warnings, which you can generally ignore.

user-537

Cool! That works!

Thanks a lot for your help,

Oliver

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