24-time Format in MP 0.2.1.0

[wlgspotter]

Hi:

I'm a relatively newbie to MP, and am currently running 0.2.1.0. I'd like to have the tiem display on the MP screen to display is 24-hour time format as opposed to AM/PM? I have 24-hour set in Windows XP Control Panel --> Regional Settings, but my MP screen still display in AM/PM. I'm checked out configuration.exe --> plugins --> home, and could only find the date format but not time format.

Anyone has any ideas if it's possible to set the time display for 24-hour as opposed to AM/PM?

Thanks.

[wlgspotter]

Hi everyone:

It's been a while since I've posted this initial question, and MP has gone from 0.2.1 .0 to 0.2.3.0 RC3, however, I'm still seeing the problem in that I can't get MP to display in 24-hour time format, despite it being set in my windows --> Control Panel --> Regional Settings. I'm based in New Zealand and had the settings set to English (New Zealand).

I had a play with the settings and came to realise that if I set the Control Panel Regional Settings to one of the European languages (i.e. German or English UK) then MP will display in 24-hour time format.

Could this perhaps be some kind of bug that someone could look at?

Thanks.

[infinityloop]

does windows display the time correctly (24h) when you set "to English (New Zealand)" ?
or does it display am/pm then?

[wlgspotter]

Originally Posted by infinityloop

does windows display the time correctly (24h) when you set "to English (New Zealand)" ?
or does it display am/pm then?

Yes it does - windows display in 24-hour when I set to English (New Zealand). But MediaPortal only shows in AM/PM....

[Mercbac]

I have also faced this behaviour and found that MP seems to decide whether or not to use a 12-hour time format (with AM/PM) or a 24-hour format, based on the country or region defined in Windows, and not based on the Windows time format that's defined for the Windows system tray (=notification area) clock.
Not sure if this is intentional, but to me it would be more intuitive to have MP use the same time format as the Windows clock, and not based on the country/region.

[wlgspotter]

Originally Posted by Mercbac

I have also faced this behaviour and found that MP seems to decide whether or not to use a 12-hour time format (with AM/PM) or a 24-hour format, based on the country or region defined in Windows, and not based on the Windows time format that's defined for the Windows system tray (=notification area) clock.
Not sure if this is intentional, but to me it would be more intuitive to have MP use the same time format as the Windows clock, and not based on the country/region.

Yes I think it seem so that way... I've tried to use English (Australia) and English (US) and MP uses AM/PM, but when I switch to Engish (UK) or even German MP uses 24-hour clock.

And I second Mercbac's suggestion that I think it would be more intuitive for MP to use the same time format as the Window clock, or better still allow the user to customise it to their liking, much similar to how you can now customise the date format using the "Home" plugin.

[pbb]

As a programmer, I am quite surprised about MP using it's own hard-coded list to decide whether to display 24- or 12-hour time, while Windows offers an easily obtainable, user-configurable and uniformly used date and time configuration.

Is there something that MP is using, that doesn't make it as easy to retrieve that value?

Anyway, I agree with above posters, MP ought to use Windows' regional settings preferences to show date and time. (This includes removing the date formatting from the Home plugin configuration.)

[rekenaar]

I changed the GetTime code in MediaPortal.cs to read the current user setting from the registry. On my PC, it now correctly handle the switch between am/pm or 24-hour format.

By the way - this was still flagged as TODO in the code, so technically, it was not a bug

I am not a MP developer and therefore cannot commit it to SVN. The changed file is attached. If one of the developers wants to look at it and commit to SVN.

One thing - it is now also showing the seconds. The time is still only updated every minute. Should I remove the display of the seconds (I think so)?

[rekenaar]

OK, I have decided to just go ahead and remove the seconds.
Time is now displayed according to user setting either HH:mm or hh:mm AM/PM.

Source file attached. I only changed in the GetTime code block.

Still begging DEVS to incorporate this enhancement in SVN.


Off Topic:
Also my other post, this time a with a bug-fix, without any reaction from DEVS: Slideshow bug

[pbb]

Rekenaar, did you submit them to SourceForge, according to the patch policy?