Rule-based TvScheduler service

[dvdfreak]

Originally Posted by mrbenji

Are you talking about the Mediaportal Schedules Direct plugin? If so the answer is no. That plugin doesn't generate an XML at all... it simply updates MediaPortal's EPG data directly. My XML file is generated by XMLTV's official utility suite (homepage here)... specifically by the tv_grab_na_dd grabber.

Oh, okay, I did misunderstand then It must be grabber/source related then indeed! Good luck!

[mrbenji]

Sheesh... I'm getting a headache from all of this.

Well, it appears that the problem *is* Shedules Direct's Tribune Media data, but it appears that the data issues have decreased dramatically since I started trying to figure this all out.

When I first started looking into this issue a couple of weeks ago most first run programs had previously-shown tags... in my initial tests (on a short list of stations... I'm OTA exclusively) I came up with nearly 400 instances where a first run show had a previously-shown tag.

In the process of trying to pin down the source of the problem today I found a perl script that easily downloads raw data from Schedules Direct. Picking through that file I realized that the first several first-run shows I spot-checked had the elusive "new" attribute correctly set to true.

I then cross checked the raw data against a newly downloaded TVXML file, and discovered that each of these shows had produced properly-formatted "programme" blocks... i.e. no previously-shown tag! By this time my head was spinning... so I went ahead and ran the new TVXML file through my markNew.py script. Well, it turns out there are still problem shows, but only a fraction of what there were. In the end I found 14 first run shows with previously-shown tags. I cross checked these with the raw data file, and they were indeed missing the crucial "new='true'" attribute.

The legitimately mismarked shows boiled down to 3 series ("American Idol", "Dancing with the Stars" and "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"), a handful of sporting events (golf, poker, basketball & racing) and the Academy of Country Music Awards.

By the way, I encountered an unforseen issue... my script was modifying about 50 other programme blocks -- turns out they were for shows that run one new episode a day with one or more repeats later. An example: "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" airs one new episode each weekday at 4pm, then runs repeats every 2-4 hours until the next new episode. On that show SD's data is a mess (several of the repeats are marked "new"), but the point is that my script marked any repeats before midnight as "first run," because their previously-shown embedded date matched the "programme start" date.

Rather than implement some twisted logic to fix the data for these repeated shows (which I seldom watch), the latest version of my script (attached) just ignores program entries belonging to categories that tend to have shows like these. You can customize the excluded categories as you see fit.

[petsa]

Hi all,

I have some problems to get scheduled recordings in TV SCheduler to be synced withTVserver. I use TVServer 1.0.0.0 with RC1 and TV Scheduler 1.0.15.0.

None of the recordings I schedule in TV Scheduler are in TVServer. I've checked that the plugin is activated and all channels are linked. The recording is in TV Scheduler's SQL database but not i TVServer's SQL database.

There is nothing in the log files that indicate a problem either.

Any ideas where to start looking? It used to work great with an earlier SVN.

/Peter

[yardern]

Some questions:

1. TV Server is getting EPG (tvguide) from Satellite and save them into SQL database.
Can TV Scheduler read EPG data from SQL database instead of feed it XMLTV file?

2. Can I use this software view EPG only from remote computer? I mean don't do any schedule,
in this case I think we don't need to interact with TV Server through the plugin, because we read SQL database only.
It will be much more stable.

[Legind]

Hi, I'm having a wee issue with conflicts in MP, I have two DVB-S cards and only watch channels from two frequencies so there should never be conflicts hawever I frequently get conflict messages. I was using tvserver SVN Rev18359 and Media Portal SVN Rev18080 and I when ever I got a conflict I just selected keep conflict and the program still recoreded fine even though it showed a ! symbol in the guide, but now I have updated to Mediaportal and tv server RC1 and when it picks up a non-existant conflict there is nolonger an option to keep the conflict so my programs don't get recorded even thouth there actually isn't a conflict. Since the conflicts manager is of no use to me what so ever is there a way to disable conflict checking all together?

[petsa]

Hi again,

After an upgrade to RC3 and a restart it now seems to work again, but only with 1.0.12.0. I still have problems with 1.0.15.0 since it causes TV Server to crash during startup after reboot. Anyone else experiencing this? I get a .NET2 error in the log.

/Peter

Edit: I meant an upgrade to Revision:19127 (as RC3 is not released yet, I think I refered to the third SVN on RC1...).

[dvdfreak]

Originally Posted by yardern

1. TV Server is getting EPG (tvguide) from Satellite and save them into SQL database.
Can TV Scheduler read EPG data from SQL database instead of feed it XMLTV file?

Yes and no. It can't do this itself but the TV Server plugin can synchronize the EPG data from TV Server to TV Scheduler.

Using an XMLTV file is better though, simply because there is typically more information in such a file, like names of actors, the director,...

Originally Posted by yardern

2. Can I use this software view EPG only from remote computer? I mean don't do any schedule,
in this case I think we don't need to interact with TV Server through the plugin, because we read SQL database only.
It will be much more stable.

Can you explain what you mean with "I don't do any schedule"? If you use TV Scheduler only to read XMLTV data you could indeed use it to only browse the TV guide (e.g. using Web Access). But you'd need an XMLTV file then of course, because for EPG data you'd still need TV Server.

Originally Posted by Legind

Hi, I'm having a wee issue with conflicts in MP, I have two DVB-S cards and only watch channels from two frequencies so there should never be conflicts hawever I frequently get conflict messages. I was using tvserver SVN Rev18359 and Media Portal SVN Rev18080 and I when ever I got a conflict I just selected keep conflict and the program still recoreded fine even though it showed a ! symbol in the guide, but now I have updated to Mediaportal and tv server RC1 and when it picks up a non-existant conflict there is nolonger an option to keep the conflict so my programs don't get recorded even thouth there actually isn't a conflict. Since the conflicts manager is of no use to me what so ever is there a way to disable conflict checking all together?

You problem seems to have little to do with TV Scheduler

But, no worries! The next release of TV Scheduler (which won't be called TV Scheduler anymore actually) will have full conflict management built in, so there will be no more schedules used in TV Server (so no MediaPortal conflict manager either).

Announcement and a first release coming soon!

Originally Posted by petsa

After an upgrade to RC3 and a restart it now seems to work again, but only with 1.0.12.0. I still have problems with 1.0.15.0 since it causes TV Server to crash during startup after reboot. Anyone else experiencing this? I get a .NET2 error in the log.

Once the new version is out you shouldn't have these problems anymore due to a totally different way of interfacing with TV Server. Release coming soon(ish)...

[yardern]

dvbfreak,

Thanks for your answer.
"I don't do schedule.", means I don't command TVServer to do any record for me.

I assumed your plugin is only for controlling TVServer, but from your answer it seems doing copy tvguide also.
Because TVServer is still changing every week, and it can make your plugin not working.

What I want is to view the program saved in TVServer SQL database from a remote computer.

Something like SQL Query to TVServer's Program table directly.

But it seems currently your software needs a plugin in TVServer to copy EPG data to your software,
and in order to start this copy I have to get XMLTV file from some where which I don't think it is available
in North America.

Thanks anyway. It is a very good sofware, I can tell from the screen captures.
May be it is more suitable in Germany.

[dvdfreak]

Originally Posted by yardern

But it seems currently your software needs a plugin in TVServer to copy EPG data to your software,
and in order to start this copy I have to get XMLTV file from some where which I don't think it is available
in North America.

Well, if you use EPG syncing you do not need an XMLTV file. You only need to define the channels in TV Scheduler (in the next release you won't even need to do this, it can autocreate them for you).

[yardern]

Originally Posted by dvdfreak

Well, if you use EPG syncing you do not need an XMLTV file. You only need to define the channels in TV Scheduler (in the next release you won't even need to do this, it can autocreate them for you).

That would be greater! Expecting.