Scheduler EPG Recording: Season Pass / Smart Timeslot

[dvdfreak]

Smart Timeslot Recording

Smart timeslot recording enhances the MediaPortal scheduler to allow scheduled programs to "shift" in the EPG. It makes the scheduler smarter so it will really look for the program you want to record, instead of blindly recording it at the same time every day or week.

For example, this means a weekly program that is scheduled to start at 21:00 will also record when it starts at 21:10, 20:55, 21:30, 20:45, etc... You will no longer miss out on the first few or, even worse, last minutes.

If a program has a different running time one week it will now record completely, so you won't miss the second part of that double episode (as long as it's being broadcast as one big program).

If a program is not being broadcast one week or day it will also not be recorded (e.g. there are elections and the whole evening schedule is different).

If no EPG data is available on the day the program should be recorded there is a fallback and the program will be recorded at the originally requested recording times.

In case there are two programs with the same title one after the other, the one closest to the originally requested timeslot will be recorded.

Attached to this post are patches for today's builds of MediaPortal and TVE3.

Installation instructions:

A few assemblies need to be copied on top of the existing TV Server and MediaPortal assemblies. So make sure the TV Server service is stopped and that MediaPortal itself is not running.

Unzip TVServer-SmartRecording.zip in your TV Server directory (usually Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server). The following files will be overwritten:

• TvService.exe
• TVDatabase.dll
• TvBusinessLayer.dll

Unzip MediaPortal-SmartRecording.zip in your MediaPortal directory (usually Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal). The following files will be overwritten:

• Plugins\Windows\TVPlugin.dll
• TVDatabase.dll
• TvBusinessLayer.dll

Now restart the TV Server service and MediaPortal and enjoy the smart timeslot recording feature!

How To

To use the smart recording feature simply make sure you use the TV Guide (EPG) to schedule your recordings. Click on a program and use a recording setting like Daily, Weekdays, Weekends or Weekly. These four options all have the enhancement.

And that's all there is to it. From then on MediaPortal will do all the hard work All you have to do is watch the recordings afterwards

Any feedback is more than welcome!

[dvdfreak]

In case anyone wants to do their own patching, here are the modifications to the source:

[dvdfreak]

These are updated binaries based on today's SVN.

I've had zero feedback so far, so is noone using these or are there simply no problems to report?

[Noelix]

I've been waiting for something like this for a long time. I'm getting married next week which is why I haven't been around the forums much lately, but I definitely intend to test it out when it's all said and done. Good job!