Any interface that allows manual programme recording? (1 Viewer)

[technoweary]

Hi
Currently using Titan and WebEPG
Programme EPG is so inaccurate I need to resort to manual programme to set recording schedule
Any recommendations for a skin or plugin that allows manual record programming?
I use TV Guide.co.uk to get the correct up to date schedules and just need to set up recordings manually
Most grateful for any recommendations
Many Thanks
TW

 

[CyberSimian]

I think that you can schedule manual recordings in most skins. For "DefaultWide" (MP 1.12):

(1) Go to the "Schedules" panel.
(2) Press LEFT to display the left side menu.
(3) Select "New".
(4) Select "Advanced record".
(5) Select the channel.
(6) Select the frequency (once, every time, weekly, ...).
(7) Select the date.
(8) Select the start time (5-minute increments).
(9) Select the duration (30-minute increments).
(10) Job done!

The disadvantage of this technique is the name that is attached to the recording; it is:
"Manual (channel_name)". With WMC it is possible to enter the name that you want to assign to the recording. Perhaps MP will support this in a future release.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[technoweary]

Hi CyberSimian

I have tried this and not had any success
Apart from being, (in my opinion), a most frustrating process for applying a manual recording, I discover that even when programmed the recording does not take place!
I think the interface is based on a non-keyboard, remote control only, setup and I find this most frustrating
I was hoping that there is a skin that allows a keyboard input or easy form style, (like enter Date / Start Time / Stop Time / Repeat), type of input
Scrolling up and down lists of 5 minute time periods makes me go a bit peculiar and I start turning into the "Incredible Hulk". I am concerned my TV might end up being thrown out of the window!

Of course this would not be so important if MediaPortal had a working solution to get an accurate EPG
The only accurate provider I can find is tvguide.co.uk and I cannot find any way of grabbing and integrating this service into MediaPortal succesfully

Maybe this should be a priority because although I like to support MediaPortal I think there are many users getting a bit disappointed with the general useability for broadcast and Internet TV

Thank you for your response though I am most grateful for your attention
Best regards and compliments of the season
TW

 

[Owlsroost]

According to your system specs, you use DVB-T/T2 and DVB-S for UK Freeview and Freesat.

The UK Freeview (over the air, OTA) EPG has always worked fine for me. I don't have satellite TV so can't comment on the OTA EPG accuracy for Freesat.

What problems are you having with the OTA EPG?

Finding reliable non-OTA EPG data sources (in a form that can be machine read and parsed) has always been difficult, especially free sources. The non-OTA EPG grabbers in MP have mostly been contributed/debugged/improved by users over the years, so the best thing to do if you want to improve things is get stuck in and contribute to making it better - MP is open-source and the dev tools are free...

I think there are many users getting a bit disappointed with the general useability for broadcast and Internet TV

Can you point me at the evidence for that?

 

[technoweary]

Hello Owlsroost
Thank you for your reply

The problems I am having with the OTA EPG is accuracy
As I explained in my previous post I would wish to use tvguide.co.uk because they update their information and are consistantly accurate
But, as you point out, finding the information to use in a grabber is difficult
I was using WebGrab+Plus but I had problems in that it appears to have problems with timezones and I was unable to get it working

I am afraid I do not have the technical skills to become part of the development team and if it comes down to "if you dont like it do it yourself" I can only reply by saying I thought I was contributing by asking questions on the forum and giving a little finance to the project
If you take a look at my downloads you will see I have in fact downloaded some tools, and they confirmed that I do not have the skills to contfibute technically

It is difficult to ask questions and drone on about why you are having problems, or why you think something is not working, without it appearing to be a criticism of peoples good work. I do not wish to hassle any of the development team and I never intend to be critical. My posts are genuinely requests for help. To point me in a direction so that I may be able to help myself.
Many times the problems have been me not understanding the instuctions or not reading them correctly. I never wishcriticism of the work of other people more skilled than me.
After all if I really do not like it I can always contribute on a monthly basis to Sky TV and not have to make any effort

This Christmas break I am doing a full re-install of MediaPortal 1, because it has become unuseable on my system with continual lock ups requiring me to use Windows task manager to end the process or regular hard resets
I know this all stems from the updates a few months back when all the codecs re-set to only use MP renderer to get any audio and it will probably only get worse or my PSU will give up becuase of the continual resets
It was my idea to change the skin during the process, hence this post about manual recording, so I am always looking to improve my experience of MediaPortal with what most people would consider too much p***ing about just to watch TV!

Can I point you to evidence that some people are unhappy with the useability?
Well I do not think listing posts I have trawled through on this forum reading others asking for help is taking a positive step
It is just as disappointing for me when I read posts asking for help that I am also looking for, or posts asking if MediaPortal is dying
All I can do is say just try searching in the epg pages and you will see immediately that people are struggling to get options for the guide and browse the plugins to see the efforts of people trying to use internet

So please be assured I am whole heartedly behind MediaPortal but I am probably one of those people who the forum warns very fairly that you do need some computer skills to maintain and use MediaPortal
Regards
TW

 

[mm1352000]

The problems I am having with the OTA EPG is accuracy

Accuracy in what way?
Can you please be much, much more specific?
For example, are there specific programs or channels that have inaccurate program:

• start times, AND/OR...
  
• finish times, AND/OR...
• titles

I'm asking you to be more specific because although I'm not aware of any automated way to pull data from tvguide.co.uk into MediaPortal, I think it's almost certain that there are equivalent or better data sources or alternative solutions for whatever accuracy problems you're facing.

As I explained in my previous post I would wish to use tvguide.co.uk...

If you insist on using tvguide.co.uk, and if a grabber does not currently exist, and considering you're unable to produce a grabber yourself, ...then I suspect your quest is probably doomed to failure, at least in the short term. On the other hand, if you're open to alternative solutions and willing to share more information about the problem you're facing then we may still be able to assist you.

...because they update their information and are consistantly accurate

I note that the OTA EPG data is updated too, so again I come back to the request for more specific information about what exactly is inaccurate about your current data source.

It is difficult...

I understand how you feel. The developers (like myself and Owlsroost) and other members of the community are here to help. If we thought your request was a critical drone/moan, we'd either say so or simply not reply. The fact that we're replying and asking questions back to you should tell you we're engaging, trying to help you, and don't think you're droning or moaning.

I know this all stems from the updates a few months back when all the codecs re-set to only use MP renderer to get any audio...

If that's the case, the solution should be as simple as changing the codec settings - a 2 minute job. Reinstalling would only be necessary if you have other reasons for doing it. I'd note that in my experience reinstallation has often resulted in more problems than it solves, and for that reason I don't recommend it at all unless there is really good justification for it. Based on the limited info you've shared about why you're choosing to reinstall, I reckon the risks (creating more problems) probably outweigh the benefits. Ultimately the decision is yours though.

Well I do not think listing posts I have trawled through on this forum reading others asking for help is taking a positive step

Sure, fine - I generally agree that wouldn't be particularly productive. Cutting to the chase though, you're indicating that the nature of your evidence - if you were to collect and present it - would be posts from our forum.

I would want to make sure that you understand that the nature/purpose of support forums is that they're mostly a place where people who have problems ask for help, moan or vent. Every second post will contain phrases like "I have this problem...", "help me!!!..." etc... but I'd consider this normal. It wouldn't lead me to the conclusion that "many users [are] getting a bit disappointed with the general useability for broadcast and Internet TV". Obviously I respect your right to hold an opinion, and I respect the opinion itself... but I don't agree with the opinion based on the forum content that I read.

 

[technoweary]

Hi mm1352000
Thank you for your reply
The epg accuracy for me is focussed mainly on the RT / Euronews / NHK channels, and in fairness they do keep messing around with their programming and I rely on recording the regular shows that get shifted around by the news reporting. The accuracy I refer to is more to do with the updating speed of the guide. Out of the TV guides I refer to via internet browser TVguide.co.uk always seems to reflect the most "up to the minute" schedules and as I have to record the shows I want to watch I find I must rely on day by day accuracy.

The codecs will not behave at all. I returned home about three months ago and had no audio at all. It transpired that only MP renderer would provide audio. I generated and submitted a file for analysis at the time and was informed that there was no obvious reason for the problem. So I tweaked the delays on TV and Video in the renderer to get the sync close enough and decided to sort it out later. The regular lock ups occur when I am flicking through live channels or recordings and for all I know may well be the windows drivers letting MP down. On a regular basis I get the 'Unable to play .ts' when I try and watch TV or recorded TV. Most times I can Ctrl-Alt-Del task manager and restart MP but occaisionally it has jammed the OS as well and I have to do a reset. Maybe the reason for this is that I have my media on a different hard drive, (just so I can do a clean OS re-install without wiping media files), and I believe microsoft do not like the default folders being set on other physical drives.

It is an easy task just to wipe and reinstall the OS and then reload MP and configure everything back to usual. It's just tedious but usually gets results without doing the detective work.

I always do a search on the forum before I ask for help, not just using forum search, my search also includes searching the forum using google and there is usually more than one request for help by others that are coincident with my query. I am not being critical when I say that my search often results in posting for help because it appears that others have drawn a blank. Even this very post did not provide an answer, because most probably I am asking for something that is just not available. If I could programme a skin I would set up a manual recording screen that would simply be like the old fashoined VCR timers. Just a few fields that you type the Start / End / Date and repeat option in. But of course this is not a great idea considering most people do not want to use a keyboard to use MP so I really do understand that this cannot be an important "must have" for 99.9% of MP users.

In my opinion I have taken up too much time already on what is not an important aspect of MP. I am sure you have more important fish to fry, and I can get by using the epg as long as I make a note of what name the OTA time slot schedule uses so I can find it later in the recordings.

I will revise my statement to 'I am getting a bit dissapointed with the general useability for broadcast and Internet TV' as I do not wish to cause any disruption, and I apologise for the wasted time.

Thanks again for your attention TW

 

[mm1352000]

technoweary, if you don't want to take any more time on this then that's fine. However I'm quite happy to continue. You're not wasting or taking up too much of my time.

The epg accuracy for me is focussed mainly on the RT / Euronews / NHK channels...

Okay. Given that these are widely syndicated, international channels, a potential solution need not be limited to UK-based guide data sources. Have you thought of looking for XMLTV data sources for just these channels? (It's also not necessary to restrict yourself to one guide data source. For example, you can use OTA for most channels and WebEPG or XMLTV for others.)

The accuracy I refer to is more to do with the updating speed of the guide. Out of the TV guides I refer to via internet browser TVguide.co.uk always seems to reflect the most "up to the minute" schedules and as I have to record the shows I want to watch I find I must rely on day by day accuracy.

I think there are two things mixed up here:

1. Whether (and how quickly) a guide data source such as the OTA source is actually corrected.
2. How often you configure TV Server to check for updates.

The first element is completely out of your control, but the second element is completely in your control. If you wanted to, you could configure TV Server to update guide data every hour. Is this something you considered?

The codecs will not behave at all...

For the record, I was the person who responded to that request for help, and I didn't say or intend to indicate that there was no obvious reason for the problem. If you go back and read the thread, you'll see that I thought the no-audio-without-MPAR had nothing to do with codecs and everything to do with MP audio being muted somewhere. Also, I was waiting on you to provide additional log files. Lock ups are not out of the ordinary when using MPAR for TV. Like I said in my original reply to your audio help request: don't use MPAR for TV.

Honestly, I'm disappointed that you feel that it's easier to reinstall than solve the problem, but again, I respect your choice.

Even this very post did not provide an answer, because most probably I am asking for something that is just not available.

Did not provide an answer in what way?

Surely the answer to your original question about the availability of a manual programme recording interface is a clear "yes". The functionality exists, and it does in fact work. Further, the time selection increment is 15 minutes not 5.

The answer to your subsequent question about a tvguide.co.uk grabber is a tentative no. However in my opinion there are alternative solutions... if only you'd be willing to consider them.

 

[CyberSimian]

the availability of a manual programme recording interface is a clear "yes". The functionality exists, and it does in fact work. Further, the time selection increment is 15 minutes not 5.

On "Quick record" it is 15-minute increments.
On "Advanced record", it is 5-minute increments (MP 1 .12).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[technoweary]

On "Quick record" it is 15-minute increments.
On "Advanced record", it is 5-minute increments (MP 1 .12).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

Hi CyberSimian
I did not look at "Quick Record" because I assumed it would be way of time recording the channel you are currently watching by adding timed period increments.
I went straight to "Advanced", saw the scroll list and did not think it was what I wanted.
Thanks for your help
TW