MP - Dependent on For the Record? (1 Viewer)

[dir]

When I first installed MP 18 months ago or so, someone advised me to try using ForTheRecord to handle the EPG, scheduling, recording of TV etc. So I installed it and use it as a regular, integrated part of MediaPortal.

I noticed however that a couple of days ago, the guys over at FTR made a post regarding the future of FTR and it seems clear that they want to be able to develop a more commercial, independent application suite. They stressed that this doesn't mean it won't work within MP or other applications, but they wanted to be more removed from the dependence between FTR and apps like MP. At least, that's my interpretation.

They also said they started early conceptual development of a complete suite but realised it was too big an elephant to try, so they scaled it back and are working on something else.

That's all great but it got me wondering about my current dependence on FTR within MP, and THAT got me wondering why I'm using FTR at all. Perhaps MP already can do the very simple things I want to do for TV:
Watch TV Channels
Change TV Channels
Use an EPG (I get my xmltv feed independent of FTR and MP and import it weekly)
Select shows and record an episode
Record all occurrences of a TV show.

That's it. I know FTR can do a whole bunch more but I don't use any of that functionality.

So it's possible that MP can already do this within MP and the TV server/client, but I may have never realized it before.

Can someone tell me if I need to use something like FTR (or similar, external app) to be able to do the things listed, or can they all be done from within MP without requiring something like FTR?

Also, being a fairly commercial, capitalist person, I realize that ultimately something like FTR is likely to become a commercial enterprise, and may one day not be as freely integrable into MP as it currently is. If MP is dependent on FTR to provide missing functionality, is there any thought by the developers about how to deal with not having FTR available in the future?

 

[JoeSmith]

mp can do most (all) of the stuff without any problems at all, but FTR gives you a ton of options to do more (advanced scheduling, webinterface,...) .
As long as FTR is free and you are able to install it (which has become much easier) there is no reason not to use it.
They want to create their own recorder because they have to rely to much on other software and so it's not as easy to develop a rock solid solution. And as much as i love mp, the tv-server can sometimes really be a little bitch ;-) (ie. epg)

I think FTR is planned to become a commercial product one day, but that is yet to come - and if they really develop a good working solution that still works with mp i might be willing to even pay for it. But today that should not be our concern. It's a great peace of software, it's free - use it ;-)

Joe

 

[tourettes]

I noticed however that a couple of days ago, the guys over at FTR made a post regarding the future of FTR and it seems clear that they want to be able to develop a more commercial, independent application suite.

Something that I already did assume over a year ago (and few PMs did make it more clearer). Main reason why I haven't been that interested in their plugin Sounds like they first used the MP as stepping board to fetch big user base and then starting their business based on it. Of course that is 100% ok on legal perspective, but I think it is a little bit immoral. But as long as there won't be any GPL code in their closed source system its all ok.

They stressed that this doesn't mean it won't work within MP or other applications, but they wanted to be more removed from the dependence between FTR and apps like MP. At least, that's my interpretation.

They also said they started early conceptual development of a complete suite but realised it was too big an elephant to try, so they scaled it back and are working on something else.

Sounds like the end user experience will fall down (users would have to use two programs for HTPC), unless MP client is still going to be supported.

That's all great but it got me wondering about my current dependence on FTR within MP, and THAT got me wondering why I'm using FTR at all. Perhaps MP already can do the very simple things I want to do for TV:
Watch TV Channels
Change TV Channels
Use an EPG (I get my xmltv feed independent of FTR and MP and import it weekly)
Select shows and record an episode
Record all occurrences of a TV show.

Current TVE3 handles such tasks without any additional software required (only scheduling rules are much more flexible when 4TR is used).

 

[tourettes]

They stressed that this doesn't mean it won't work within MP or other applications, but they wanted to be more removed from the dependence between FTR and apps like MP. At least, that's my interpretation.

They also said they started early conceptual development of a complete suite but realised it was too big an elephant to try, so they scaled it back and are working on something else.

Sounds like the end user experience will fall down (users would have to use two programs for HTPC), unless MP client is still going to be supported.

After reading the vision on their site, sounds like they aren't removing all the dependencies to the 3rd party direction. So the front end would be still have to be provided by some other application ( MediaPortal, MeediOS etc. ). So I guess there won't be any need for you to stop using 4TR.