Epg listings for usa (1 Viewer)

[ap90033]

FYI: I've done some work on this feature this evening and have it very close to up and running. Just a few issues with the XMLTV plugin that are baffling me. Anyone keen to try my patch when it is complete?

I would be happy to help in anyway I can!

 

[2BitSculptor]

Re: eeee

1. Great United States (Especially Over the Air) EPG. (seems like the US gets hosed)
2. Integration of Media Center Master. I am a lifetime Premium member and this tool is handy.
3. Easier Setup for TV Tuners. Disclaimer- Its been a long time since I even tried and yes I did get it working but I remember it was a pain setting up (I have 3 dual tuners HD Homerrun).
4. Video Converter - Automated utility that would take my 8-12 GIG recorded shows (currently in Media Center) and convert the file to a smaller format at minimal loss of quality. (like MCE Buddy sort of) with really good instructions for dummies like me...
5. Commercial Skipping - Utility like comskip that is setup either to mark a tv show so the program will automatically skip the commercial, or actually remove the commercials from the file and shrink the filesize.

If I had these I would have to pinch myself to make sure I wasnt dreaming.

#1 -would LOVE this to happen ... I hope the broadcasters are listening...

#2 -Don't know what this is.

#3 - I have 2 HD Homeruns, I don't remember having issues with setting up, once SiliconDust and MediaPortal got on the same page 3 years ago. Now with the new cable-card devices from SiliconDust we have the same scenario.

#4 - I don't know if I want conversion built in. Having used a second computer to schedule and manage conversions with Handbreak, I can tell you that a lot of CPU cycles is needed, and sometimes (for me) conversion of 1080 programs can take up to half a day to complete. I convert from the mpeg2 TS file to mkv with cropping and sometimes rescaling. I don't want my HTPC to be backed up in that process.

#5 - even using a commercial editing program - I use VideoReDo TVSuite V4 - to remove commercials (the program runs a wizard looking for black frames between the program and commercials, then a best guess to mark it for removal) I still find it faster, and more reliable, to manually locate and mark commercials, then save the file for further processing using HandBreak. There are black frames all over the place within the content of the program itself that cause miss marked edits.

a nice list though.


Chuck

 

[mm1352000]

Re: eeee

Hi again

1. Great United States (Especially Over the Air) EPG. (seems like the US gets hosed)

I was going to say yesterday that this is really a major problem from my perspective. EPG info is not often "rich" unless you pay for it, and even then everything relies on what the content producer or broadcaster provides. In the US and Canada things seem to be particularly bad as there doesn't seem to be any EPG provided over-the-air or on cable like there is in the rest of the world. Well, to be fair I should qualify that:
- Dish and DirecTV have guide info that I'd like to try and support in the next version of MP
- people have said that EPG provided in over-the-air ATSC does not seem to be accurate
- I know that cable companies provide EPG to their set top boxes *somehow*, but it doesn't seem to be available in the stream dumps that I've seen

So we have a bit of a problem finding a good source for EPG for people like yourself. At present the only options that I know of for US EPG truly are SD and mc2xml. I don't know how SD source their data but it seems like they exist in constant fear of having their license/source removed. Microsoft with all their pulling power is able to organise a service that broadcasters and providers are willing to participate in, but we don't have anywhere near that kind of "power".

So we're in a very difficult position. Any thoughts?

2. Integration of Media Center Master. I am a lifetime Premium member and this tool is handy.

Never heard of it, but I'll have a look this evening.

3. Easier Setup for TV Tuners. Disclaimer- Its been a long time since I even tried and yes I did get it working but I remember it was a pain setting up (I have 3 dual tuners HD Homerrun).

I do agree that the scanning interface for ATSC and cable is confusing. I'm going to try and fix that up in the next version of MP. I'm also going to try and get it documented as right now there is *nothing* about ATSC or cable scanning in our wiki (!!! ).

Regarding tuners: HDHomeRuns are possibly one of the easiest and best options for good US TV tuners. They're really well supported (by Silicondust I mean), the software is good, and I think MP supports them reasonably well. Hauppauge tuners also aren't too bad. When it comes to CableCard, the issue there is DRM. It is simply out of the question for us to support protected content. The implementation effort + implementation time + cost of licensing/certification by Cable Labs + implications for our code (potentially having to be closed source)... all make it essentially impossible for us. Having said that, I am in contact with both Ceton and Silicondust to try and add support for their InfiniTV 4 and Prime CableCard products. It looks like that will be a *huge* job, and at the end of the day we're still going to be limited to "copy freely" content. That will be the best we can do...

Summary:
- I hear you loud and clear
- I think a big part of the problem is the lack of documentation
- another part of the problem is DRM which we can't do anything about
- we're going to do the best we can within the constraints

4. Video Converter - Automated utility that would take my 8-12 GIG recorded shows (currently in Media Center) and convert the file to a smaller format at minimal loss of quality. (like MCE Buddy sort of) with really good instructions for dummies like me...

I'm sorry but I think this is one we can't do. Encoder software [should] pay licensing fees to the applicable patent holders. We don't have the resources to implement our own encoder. Nor do I think we have the money to pay licensing fees. Open source software like MP has traditionally got away without paying licensing fees for codecs as the patent holders seem to think there isn't much money in taking them (us) to court (at least that is my opinion), however we prefer to operate legally.

5. Commercial Skipping - Utility like comskip that is setup either to mark a tv show so the program will automatically skip the commercial, or actually remove the commercials from the file and shrink the filesize.

ComSkip is already supported.
Possibly not the best documenation - wiki - still...

If I had these I would have to pinch myself to make sure I wasnt dreaming.

 

[ap90033]

2bitsculpter -- I get what you are saying, but some of what you do has no easy how to out there on it (I dont have a lot of free time so I try to make my HTPC work as close to what I want using what I know) I am trying to make it as hands free as possible. I would love to one day have an automated HTPC (even if it isnt possible)..

Media Center Master otherwise referred to as MCM is at Media Center Master official website it has some handy utilities built in...

It would be really neat if some of the HTPC Heavyweights put together a blog/site on how to setup a really nice HTPC. I have seen some but I dont think they are quite on your level.

 

[mm1352000]

I see in the program description whether the show is "New (date)" or "First Shown (date)". This isn't always consistently displayed in the guide, but I think that is mostly caused by program broadcasters not providing complete information to EPG providers. I sometimes look for repeat episodes that I may have missed in their first or most recent broadcast - sometimes a weekday show is repeated in the weekend lineup.

Okay so it might be there. All that we'd have to do is get the SD plugin developers to put the data in the right place in our database.

I was thinking that Series/Season/Episode info would be helpful in determining whether a program was previously viewed/recorded in a database record. Maybe even flagged to check if the episode is in the local TV-Series db.

This is how the current implementation of duplicate prevention works. It checks the recording database for existing recordings for the same program with either the same episode name or number and then records (or doesn't record) based on whether a previous recording is found or not.

mm

 

[ap90033]

Re: eeee

Hi again

1. Great United States (Especially Over the Air) EPG. (seems like the US gets hosed)

I was going to say yesterday that this is really a major problem from my perspective. EPG info is not often "rich" unless you pay for it, and even then everything relies on what the content producer or broadcaster provides. In the US and Canada things seem to be particularly bad as there doesn't seem to be any EPG provided over-the-air or on cable like there is in the rest of the world. Well, to be fair I should qualify that:
- Dish and DirecTV have guide info that I'd like to try and support in the next version of MP
- people have said that EPG provided in over-the-air ATSC does not seem to be accurate
- I know that cable companies provide EPG to their set top boxes *somehow*, but it doesn't seem to be available in the stream dumps that I've seen

So we have a bit of a problem finding a good source for EPG for people like yourself. At present the only options that I know of for US EPG truly are SD and mc2xml. I don't know how SD source their data but it seems like they exist in constant fear of having their license/source removed. Microsoft with all their pulling power is able to organise a service that broadcasters and providers are willing to participate in, but we don't have anywhere near that kind of "power".

So we're in a very difficult position. Any thoughts?

Keep in mind I am a noob, but I thought that if there was some way to grab the data from one or two reliable sources like TV Listings Guide and TV Schedule, Where to Watch TV Shows - Zap2it and imdb.com then the data could be piped into the EPG? I feel the data is in these two places, just dont know if it can be fetched and put into an EPG.

2. Integration of Media Center Master. I am a lifetime Premium member and this tool is handy.

Never heard of it, but I'll have a look this evening. I personally had the lead programmer fix an issue and he seems to be a fantastic guy!


I do agree that the scanning interface for ATSC and cable is confusing. I'm going to try and fix that up in the next version of MP. I'm also going to try and get it documented as right now there is *nothing* about ATSC or cable scanning in our wiki (!!! ).

Regarding tuners: HDHomeRuns are possibly one of the easiest and best options for good US TV tuners. They're really well supported (by Silicondust I mean), the software is good, and I think MP supports them reasonably well. Hauppauge tuners also aren't too bad. When it comes to CableCard, the issue there is DRM. It is simply out of the question for us to support protected content. The implementation effort + implementation time + cost of licensing/certification by Cable Labs + implications for our code (potentially having to be closed source)... all make it essentially impossible for us. Having said that, I am in contact with both Ceton and Silicondust to try and add support for their InfiniTV 4 and Prime CableCard products. It looks like that will be a *huge* job, and at the end of the day we're still going to be limited to "copy freely" content. That will be the best we can do...

My problem at the time I think was trying to get the tuners to play nice and I was trying to setup for the record since I had heard it might do what I wanted. Never did get it working right...

Summary:
- I hear you loud and clear
- I think a big part of the problem is the lack of documentation I agree but if I can help in some way I am willing
- another part of the problem is DRM which we can't do anything about
- we're going to do the best we can within the constraints


I'm sorry but I think this is one we can't do. Encoder software [should] pay licensing fees to the applicable patent holders. We don't have the resources to implement our own encoder. Nor do I think we have the money to pay licensing fees. Open source software like MP has traditionally got away without paying licensing fees for codecs as the patent holders seem to think there isn't much money in taking them (us) to court (at least that is my opinion), however we prefer to operate legally.

Dont do anything illegal of course, I was thinking that if MCE Buddy and MCTV Convertor did it for free (at least I think they do it free?) then this might be possble.

5. Commercial Skipping - Utility like comskip that is setup either to mark a tv show so the program will automatically skip the commercial, or actually remove the commercials from the file and shrink the filesize.

ComSkip is already supported.
Possibly not the best documenation - wiki - still...

I will take a look, I tried comskip by itself before, and for me it was a hassle but again I am not a programmer.

If I had these I would have to pinch myself to make sure I wasnt dreaming.

See above in bold.

 

[mm1352000]

Re: eeee

Keep in mind I am a noob, but I thought that if there was some way to grab the data from one or two reliable sources like TV Listings Guide and TV Schedule, Where to Watch TV Shows - Zap2it and imdb.com then the data could be piped into the EPG? I feel the data is in these two places, just dont know if it can be fetched and put into an EPG.

It seems that there used to be a plugin for getting data from Zap2It as they used to offer a free EPG service. The service was discontinued in 2007 or so and the alternative that sprung up out of the ashes is/was... Schedules Direct, for which there is a plugin...

 

[ap90033]

Re: eeee

Keep in mind I am a noob, but I thought that if there was some way to grab the data from one or two reliable sources like TV Listings Guide and TV Schedule, Where to Watch TV Shows - Zap2it and imdb.com then the data could be piped into the EPG? I feel the data is in these two places, just dont know if it can be fetched and put into an EPG.

It seems that there used to be a plugin for getting data from Zap2It as they used to offer a free EPG service. The service was discontinued in 2007 or so and the alternative that sprung up out of the ashes is/was... Schedules Direct, for which there is a plugin...

Yes saw that, to be honest a year and a half ago I would have done that no problem, but lost my job so its tight. I try to donate to what I can. They were $20 a year and now are $25 and rising... Plus it is a bit frustrating knowing I have EPG on my machine that is free, seems like I could grab that data somehow and import it.

 

[mm1352000]

Re: eeee

Yes saw that, to be honest a year and a half ago I would have done that no problem, but lost my job so its tight. I try to donate to what I can. They were $20 a year and now are $25 and rising... Plus it is a bit frustrating knowing I have EPG on my machine that is free, seems like I could grab that data somehow and import it.

I hear you. It would be quite manageable to write a scraper for that website I think, however I'd imagine there would be pretty serious trouble if they found out about it. Also there is the issue of reliability: the scraper would have to be fixed every time they change their page. Not "un-doable" - just another legal grey area and maintenance issue...

 

[ap90033]

Re: eeee

Yes saw that, to be honest a year and a half ago I would have done that no problem, but lost my job so its tight. I try to donate to what I can. They were $20 a year and now are $25 and rising... Plus it is a bit frustrating knowing I have EPG on my machine that is free, seems like I could grab that data somehow and import it.

I hear you. It would be quite manageable to write a scraper for that website I think, however I'd imagine there would be pretty serious trouble if they found out about it. Also there is the issue of reliability: the scraper would have to be fixed every time they change their page. Not "un-doable" - just another legal grey area and maintenance issue...

As usual, cant ever be simple. Currently I record in media center and have media center master grab metadata and rename then move to proper location and then media portal is used for watching recordings. I would prefer to simplify this and the OTA recordings are huge but I understand there are many issues.