OrbitTv/docs/VERIFICATION-0.99.4.md

Orbit TV 0.99.4: weighted rotation on seven more channels

Paul approved this release on 4 November 2026 at 01:31, for seven channels: Orbit 1, Orbit 2, Orbit Gold, Paradox, Evidence, Heroes and Vortex. The change is to scheduling only.

What's in it

• Tiers from each brief: Orbit1Tiers, Orbit2Tiers, GoldTiers, ParadoxTiers, EvidenceTiers, HeroesTiers and VortexTiers in ChannelIdentities.kt. Core is 3, surprises 1, and everything else 2, all matched by exact title (docs/replays/tier-proposal-2026-11-04.md).
  • The Wonder Years is core on Orbit 1, as Paul approved.
  • On Vortex, the brief's "Gundam Wing", "Tenchi Muyo!" and "Mortal Kombat" are core under the library's names (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and Tenchi Universe, Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm), each beside its original.
• Weighted rotation exactly as installed for the first six channels. The tier decides how often a show is chosen; its own cursor or shuffle deck decides the episode. Every daypart, event, presentation key and order setting is unchanged.
• Unchanged channels: Rewind and Dark Files wait on the repeat investigation. Riot, Terra, Ring X and Junior keep equal turns.
• New in the weighted rule: when the show that just played has to play again because every other show in its block is on another channel at that moment, the reason now says so ("again, as the others here air elsewhere then"). The choice itself is unchanged.

Checks before install

• 409 unit tests pass, including the hand-run replays on box copies taken at 01:40. Lint has no errors.
• WeightedRotationTest: exactly 13 channels are weighted. Riot, Terra, Ring X, Junior, Rewind and Dark Files aren't. It also checks the key tiers (The Wonder Years, Heartbeat, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and Doctor Who (2023)).
• CatalogueNamesTest: each alias carries its original's tier.
• Four-week real-pool replay with clash avoidance, plus a save and reload every 18 hours (docs/replays/weighted-rollout-replay-0.99.4.txt):

Channel	Core	Same file within 7 days	Never aired / longest wait	Twice running*	3-hour bursts
Orbit 1	41% → 56%	0 → 0	Not Going Out, 28 d → none, 21 d (Heartbeat, Sunday drama only)	2 → 0	1 → 0
Orbit 2	34% → 34%	0 → 0	none, 25 d → none, 7 d	1 → 0	18 → 0
Gold	31% → 38%	70 → 0	none, 28 d → none, 7 d	11 → 0	173 → 16
Paradox	32% → 47%	0 → 0	none (Doctor Who (2023) waited 27 d) → none, 1.9 d	1 → 0	0 → 0
Evidence	47% → 48%	0 → 0	none, 26 d → none, 6.9 d	2 → 0	0 → 0
Heroes	62% → 60%	123 → 88	none, 20 d → none, 1.3 d	21 → 0	157 → 0
Vortex	40% → 49%	0 → 95	6 anime, 28 d → none, 10 d	1 → 0	0 → 0

* In blocks with more than one show to choose from. A one-show event such as Gold's Sunday Only Fools and Horses plays it back to back by design. Orbit 2 has one more case where its Friday Spooky event's only other show was on another channel at that moment, and it's named in the reason.

• Every weighted run:
  • No file airs again within 24 hours.
  • No in-order show steps back, and no shuffled show leaves its deck.
  • There are no gaps, nothing outside its block and no clash with another channel.
  • Committed programmes come through exactly.
  • A save and reload gives the identical four weeks.
• Fingerprints (docs/replays/replay-fingerprints-0.99.4.txt), a four-week replay of all 30 channels against 0.99.3:
  • Every committed fingerprint is identical.
  • Only the seven approved channels differ.
  • The presentation replay is unchanged (83 transitions, committedKeptExactly=true).

Known limits

• Vortex repeats: Vortex's weekly same-file repeats rise from 0 to 95. Its short catalogues now get their fair share, and lifting core from 40% to 49% plays the core shows' episodes more often. Paul asked to keep an eye on this. The episode-rest investigation for Rewind and Dark Files will cover Vortex too, and any fix it finds would come to Vortex in its own release.
• Paradox's pool cap: Paradox's list reads at most 20 shows, and its pool has 18.
• Coordinated cutover: every channel's committed plan runs to about 10 November, and these rules book from there, in line with the coordinated cutover still to come.

Rollback

Install 0.99.3. Tallies saved by 0.99.4 are ignored by channels 0.99.3 doesn't weight.