[Pending] Feature Request: TV-Recording - more intelligence - like WMC please (2 Viewers)

This is interesting

  • Yes, we'll have a look at it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Boring, TV recording is lame

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    3

1st1

Portal Member
October 30, 2008
10
1
Hello, I am a long time user of Windows Media Center. I still use it even on Windows 10. This is getting more difficult with every featzure update of Windows 10, but basically it still works. The reason why I still can't switch to Mediaportal 2 or Kodi is the very intelligent way Windows Media Center does the TV recordings. There is no competition for that yet.

So I ask you if you please can have a closer look at the interesting and inteligent series recording functions of WMC and implement that in MP2.

wmc1.jpg


The standard function which also MP2 supports is:

1. Select a channel, select a start time, select an end time. This is the very basic. WMC "Kanal und Zeit". You have that in MP2.

2. Click on a show in EPG and record it, it's also possible to mark series here for recordings. That's quite nice done in MP2 and basically similar to WMC "TV Programm". But that series recording in MP2 is just limited to the channel where it was found in EPG. WMC does not know this limit, if I select a part of the "Star Trek" series (example) in WMC EPG, optionally it takes them all, from any channel in EPG. And optionally it trys to avoid double recordings by comparing title, subtitle and content description.

wmc2.jpg


3. Another simple one I haven't found in MP2 is the "search". (Suchen) I type some words and WMC searches through the EPG on all channels. I can select if I search in title (Titel), keyword (Stichwort), category (that comes from EPG) (Kategorien), actor (Darsteller), film director (Regisseur).

I mostly use "keyword" (example: record anything with the keyword "football" if I am a big fan of that sports, but if one is a big fan of "Sophia Loren" the usage of actor (Darsteller) would be a nice choice to not miss anything from her.

wmc3.jpg

It does a live search in EPG while typing. At the right side "Weitere" signals that it has found this special one on different times and channels.

wmc4.jpg

If I mouse over on one of these (here: the 1st), I get a more detailed result, with time, channel name and so on. I can click that one to record it. I also can select "record that series" (Serie aufzeichnen).for a full take.

This is not available in MP2.

4. The smartest one is the user defied search "Wunschliste oder Stichwort".

wmc5.jpg

First I select by actor, film director, title, subtitle and general keywoard. The most fexible is the last, because it searches in any of the EPG records (actor, director, title, subtitle).

wmc6.jpg

I type my keyword(s) to search, select "speichern" to save that.

wmc8.jpg

Now I get a list of options which I can set up for that series recording:
a) I can select a category from EPG, so I can limit it to movies, documentary, news, etc.- I can choose between categories available in EPG
b) I can select how often it is recored (Häufigkeit): every time it is broadcasted, only once,
c) Type: new and repetition (that means: any), new (here it compares with alredy recorded shows - it trys to avoid double recordings by comparing EPG datas (title, subtitle, content description)) and "live" (a show which is marked/transmitted live - there should be a marking in EPG ):

When I scroll down the options I get more:

wmc9.jpg

f) Kanäle: Select the channels from where to record it: "from all channels", "HD only", HD prefered", "SD only", "SD prefered". (my prerfed option is "HD prefered")
g) Aufzeichnung behalten (max) = Keep recordings as long as: as many as possible, (last) 10 recordings, last 7, 6,5, 4, 3, 2 1
h) keep; Until I delete, until I watched it, last recordings (this refers to g), until disk space is full (then delete oldest).
i) Beenden: end recording exactly on time, 1 minute later (if possible), 2 minutes, 3, 4, 5

Then the settings for this task can be queued by pressing on "Aufzeichnen" or canceled (Keine Aufzeichnung).

This setting can already be preset with default values in the general TV recording settings of WMC, and inside the recording task setup like screenshotted here it still can be modified. Additionally in the general TV recording setting also an offset for the start time can be setup (start 5,4,3,2,1 minutes earlier (if possible), but I think I also have seen this in MP2.

To summarize:
This recording function 4 user defined search is the killer featire for me, to unfortunatelly still stay with WMC and not using MP2 (or Kodi). Please implement this function into Mediaportal 2.

mediaportal.jpg


Thanks for the audience!
 
Last edited:

ge2301

Lead Design MP2
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  • January 11, 2014
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    Hi,
    I appreciate the effort you made to summarize this points. In the end we need clear feedbacks and I agree with you, that some recording features are not really intelligent or intuative. There is already a task list out of that.
    The main problem is, that it's every difficult to find developer willing and having time to fix this. Your request is even much more sophisticated.
    • It's definitely not easy to implement
    • A lot of tasks with higher priority are waiting first
    • Are really many people needing this? Normally you know what you want to record and do not search for it (at least, that my perspective, but I do not record at all. Maybe I'm the wrong person to ask here ;))
     

    1st1

    Portal Member
    October 30, 2008
    10
    1
    Hello, for me this flexible recording support of WMC is really essential. I record mostly documentary of certain topics I am interested, like some historic era, prefered vacation country, whatever... I don't care on which channel it comes, at which time, just let's WMC doing a "full take" of all what is interesting to me. I know, this is a bit old fashion in times of smart TV with online mediatheque, netflix, prime and so on, but I do that since many years that way, so why I should change? I only want get rid of trouble with WMC with every Win 10 feature update.

    Unfortunatelly I am not a programmer otherwise I would offer to help. After comparing WMC to MP2 and Kodi I think MP2 is the one which has the biggest chance to realize it as Kodi relies on external EPG including recording software (like DVBViewer recording service/media server). MP2 has full control over it's own recording service, like WMC has as well - best condition to start to implement it.

    By the way. More screenshots.

    wmc10.jpg

    In WMC I can open the recording queue and delete entries from queue, or changing settigs if the entry, like change recording priority and all of the above options (a-f) and see EPG details.

    wmc11.jpg

    I also can view the assigned keywords which generate the queue from the EPG, sorted by priority, name and type.

    wmc12.jpg

    In WMC I also can change the priority of the keywords, so if a show with prio 1 and 2 are broadcasted at the same time on different channels, it automatically chooses prio 1. Prio 2 hopely is repeated later again....
     

    Lehmden

    Retired Team Member
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  • December 17, 2010
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    Hi.
    I can agree to most of your points. I also record a lot of stuff and I always had lots of wishes to improve the scheduler.
    But some of the things you're asking for are definitely possible already in MP2 (and by the way in Kodi too).
    But that series recording in MP2 is just limited to the channel where it was found in EPG.
    This definitely is not the case. You can select some options, one of them is "always on all channels". You're not limited to the channel, the show was find first.
    Zwischenablage-1.jpg


    And optionally it trys to avoid double recordings by comparing title, subtitle and content description.
    This also is implemented, but not with so many search parameter. But this option you need to set in the configuration program for the TV server (setuptv.exe) not in MP2 GUI:
    Zwischenablage-2.jpg

    Personally I don't like this option at all, as I prefer the re-airings at night over the first airing on daytime. Much less ads and most often the titles are complete opposite to the daytime airings where the title, especially the end credits are most often cut and replaced by advertising... That's why I always record anything and delete manually, what I don't need.

    Another simple one I haven't found in MP2 is the "search". (Suchen)
    Of course you can search for programs:
    Zwischenablage-3.jpg


    I mostly use "keyword" (example: record anything with the keyword "football"
    Yes, here you hit a wound. This is not possible in MP, at least not if you don't use the plugin "tvwishlist". But as soon as you install this plugin you will have much more scheduling options:
    Zwischenablage-4.jpg


    Select the channels from where to record it: "from all channels", "HD only", HD prefered", "SD only", "SD prefered".
    Th is something I'm missing too. But You can circumvent this by using different groups for HD, SD and all favorites. This way I at least can select some of this options in TVWishlist...

    The smartest one is the user defied search "Wunschliste oder Stichwort".
    You're right this is something that is not really possible in MP, not even with installed TVWishlist plugin... And for me this would be a "killer-feature" too. But sadly we are very short on dev time and there are much more important things to do on the TV part than that. E.G. MP did not even support some very important ways to receive the TV signal. As example, SAT>IP is not supported up to now, also many people are using this smart and clever "tuner system" (me included)... So I even can't use TV in MP at all without a lousy compromise by using IPTV playlists. This is working somehow, but with the lost of nearly all nice TV server features. You can imagine that such things are more important than a better scheduler, also an overhauling of the scheduler is very important and urgently needed too... But there simply is no one who can do this and has the time to do it...
     

    1st1

    Portal Member
    October 30, 2008
    10
    1
    Thanks a lot, I have to check that. Where to get and how to install the wishlist plugin?
     

    Lehmden

    Retired Team Member
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  • December 17, 2010
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    is the plugin now available for MediaPortal 2?
    Yes, it is, since a long time. I've used it for some years and still use it. Only the client plugin was not successfully ported to MP2.

    One glitch is still existing in the server plugin, you need to trigger the search manually. Normally it should run automatic but this did not work, at least not for me... Even without automatic search it's a huge improvement to the not very feature rich in-build scheduling options...
     

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