[TV] Epg Grabber on multi-tuner setup (1 Viewer)

[l_blue_l]

Just wondering if there are any technical reason for the epg grabber to only grab data when the system/tuners are idle.

I understand that the tuner should be free for recordings and clients but can't the Server just kick the epg user when it needs to use the system?

Feature:

Allow epg grabber to work while a single tuner is idle.

Benefits:

Epg will be more up to date.
Epg can get populated while watching tv (Improves users experience as they can see the system is working on first setup, Some users will think something is wrong when EPG is showing as unavailable in epg even after media portal has been running for hours)
System will sleep/hibernate earlier as the system is not waiting for EPG grabber to finish

 

[Jay_UK]

+1

J.

 

[DJBlu]

I am looking at the Now & Next epg function of TV Server.

I'll take a look at this also.

 

[Vasilich]

DJBlu,
can you first check if this behaviour has been changed in TVServer rework (reservations) for 1.3 alpha, please? I remember that there was similar report about impossibility to grab EPG simultaneously for 2 tuners...

 

[DJBlu]

DJBlu,
can you first check if this behaviour has been changed in TVServer rework (reservations) for 1.3 alpha, please? I remember that there was similar report about impossibility to grab EPG simultaneously for 2 tuners...

I think what the poster is saying is all tuners have to be idle before the EPG grabber kicks in when a tuner that could be grabbing isn't because one is timeshifting or recording.

The other report is grabbing 2 different epg channels at once.

 

[l_blue_l]

Hi,

Good to see this idea has support within the community. DJBlu please let me know what you think of this idea after looking at the code. (Do you believe it is easy/simple to implement)

Note: I personally do not see much of a point to allow more then one epg grabber/user at once.

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

For me the two technical "issues" are:

All cards must be idle before EPG occurs - I was told this was to prevent excess load on the machine while watching content - IMHO if any card is free EPG grabbing should occur
EPG grabbing does not instantly stop when watching live TV - Watching LiveTV should take priority over EPG grabbing (even half way through) - So if EPG grabbing has started, and you watch TV, it should instantly stop the grabbing and tune to the required station.

I'm sure there are other "issues"....

J.

 

[DJBlu]

Hi there,

For me the two technical "issues" are:

All cards must be idle before EPG occurs - I was told this was to prevent excess load on the machine while watching content - IMHO if any card is free EPG grabbing should occur

This is easily manageable with threading priorities. It is the database update that uses the most CPU cycles.

EPG grabbing does not instantly stop when watching live TV - Watching LiveTV should take priority over EPG grabbing (even half way through) - So if EPG grabbing has started, and you watch TV, it should instantly stop the grabbing and tune to the required station.

This should already happen as EPG grabbing gets the lowest priority.

J.

@I_blue_I

I also think multiple EPG grabbing is favourable as having a multisat setup it can take a long time to populate even when you aren't watching anything.

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi DJBlu,

I agree with you on the DB function being very intensive, but this could be throttled back.

I thought that EPG grabbing should stop when switching to LiveTV, but I have a system with a single tuner. If EPG grabbing starts and then I start to watch live TV, I get an error that no free tuner is available??

J.

 

[SciDoctor]

I would like to see the user selection of time between timeshift EPG grab; at the moment the grab occurs once at the begining of the timeshift buffer stream creation, if the user watches the same channel contnuously for many hours, easy with films and sport, no epg update occurs but with a timeout between grabs ,say, every half hour the EPG would be kept fresh and accurate.

In the UK the broadcast Freeview EPG is kept very accurate and schedule changes made for breaking news, sport extra time etc filter through almost immediately.

With Freesat the EPG grab is tuning into a non viewed data only RADIO channel, not convenient at all for timeshift EPG.

Certain issues need to be addressed though with concurrent epg grabs, this issue exists since 1.2.2 and is still in 1.30alpha
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ervice-unhandled-app-domain-exception.108302/

The other issue is that MP doesn't update the existing schedules after an EPG grab; if there has been a schedule change time or otherwise the existing schedule remains unchanged, so you get some rubbish recorded or the last fifteen minutes missing.