MP recording or 4TR: pros and cons? (1 Viewer)

[kkendall]

I've had some trouble lately with the built-in recording section.
It seems the 4TR plugin keeps getting better and better while the built-in recording section only loses features.
And as far as I can read it has far more possibilities than the standard recording section.

But somehow the devs seem to have something against it (It's not even in the Hot Plugin section...) because otherwise you'd assume the devs would have joined forces with dvdfreak to take best of both worlds and implement what's best for MP in general.

So I'm really wondering...What is it that the devs have against 4TR?
What do the devs and DVDfreak think are plusses for MP's built-in recording section,
and what are plusses for the 4TR plugin compared to eachother?
And especially, what do the devs think are weaknesses in the 4TR plugin compared to the built-in recording section?
(remember that priority management has also been taken out of the built-in recording section recently...)
I'm really interested in the pros and cons of both...

 

[JoeSmith]

personally in my environment 4TR is the clear winner. Back in the days i was not a big fan of 4TR because of the missing live tv support and other problems that reduced the usability.
But since that time the guys have done a terrific job and 4TR is great. Installing it takes a bit patience, but once you have completed that the fun part begins.

My Pros /Cons :
+ good web-interface
+ priorities
+ working conflict managment
+ good integration into mp
+ great recording planing (searching for actors, directors, genre, ... so many possibilities)
+ many more great things

Cons :
- installation can be a bit confusing at first

Joe

 

[dvdfreak]

We'd love to have an even tighter integration between For The Record and MediaPortal. And feedback like the above is very valuable to us, so keep it coming.

If the MP devs do indeed have "something" against For The Record I'd definitely like to know about that as well But as far as I'm concerned I can only see more potential in having the two products work better and better together.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

I use FTR as well, incredibly good at doing "start around this time" recording, example I'm a sci-fi nut, but missed a lot of the Andromeda episodes, this shows 4 times in the week 2 at peak time 1900 and then repeated the following mornings, rather than tie up a tuner of a evening, i choose to record the day time shows, now comes the problem, these episodes may start anywhere between 10.30am and 12.30pm, Mediaportals epg just cannot cope with this, but FTR can, so a big plus in my book.

If the MP devs do indeed have "something" against For The Record I'd definitely like to know about that as well

There is no grievance regarding FTR and Team-MediaPortal.

dvdfreak has decided to keep his code closed source, but seeing that he supports other recorders and this gives him more control over the work done, is understandable, including running his own Website\forum to support his users.
Maybe one day he will change his mind and release the source, this of course would blend more into Mediaportal's open source heritage, but this is his choice alone to make, the same goes for all plugin\skin creators, its not compulsory to release your sources, especially when you consider it your baby

Just enjoy a very well thought out piece of programming.

Regards

 

[tourettes]

its not compulsory to release your sources, especially when you consider it your baby

If you are using even a single line of GPL lisenced code then you aren't able to make such decission, you can only release the source code. Just like 4TR has done, the MediaPortal side plugin is open source as it borrows some code from MP.

Of cource the main system can be closed source, thats completely up to dvdfreak + other devs.

 

[Bagal]

I've been using FTR since the 1.3.0 release as I was waiting for the live tv integration, as PD said one of the best features is the "start around this time" scheduling, but the main reason I use FTR is the support of multiple TV Servers. Master/slave servers were originally implemented in the TV server but was dropped for the 1.0 release as it never worked properly.

Prior to using FTR if I wanted to switch between TV servers in the client I had to shut down MediaPortal, enter the config, change the server and restart, which basically meant that I didn't switch servers very often!

With FTR, I just choose a channel in the guide and then FTR allocates a tuner on either one of the servers and away I go, happy as larry!

I should also add that I think FTR's management console is great as without loading up MediaPortal I can browse the TV Guide, schedule recordings, see what recordings are coming up etc. etc.

 

[Bussiebaer]

Just give it a try, you can always deinstall it. To make your decision a little easier, you can import your already made recordings into 4TR. So you can keep them inside the TV-Section of MP.

First installation can be a little confusing the first time. But when the setting are made, upgrade to a new version only take about 5 minutes.
Here it runs very stable. Love to set up recordings to record series anytime on any cannel. One time a recording was abordet (unknown error, never happened again). 4TR automatic scheduled a repeat of the show and recorded it again, now complete. An other time a serie was taken back into programm from one day to another. It was recorded without an issue, since 4TR checked only for the name, not for specific starttimes. Saved me an angry wife ;-)

The only issue can be that your used skin is not supported. But you can copy the 4tr_-skinfiles from an other skin, if that is the case. Won't look so good, but should be usable. As far as I know, the most-used skins should be supported.

 

[kkendall]

its not compulsory to release your sources, especially when you consider it your baby

If you are using even a single line of GPL lisenced code then you aren't able to make such decission, you can only release the source code. Just like 4TR has done, the MediaPortal side plugin is open source as it borrows some code from MP.

Of cource the main system can be closed source, thats completely up to dvdfreak + other devs.

Ok, so the 4TR(GUI) part is open-source and can be used to integrate into MP but the main program/system is closed, so you're not able to integrate the system behind it into MP. When all code is released it will be possible to integrate it into MP, right?
So if everybody agrees it is a big improvement to the standard recording part of MP (I haven't seen any arguments that would make one prefer the standard recording part), why don't the devs start a dialogue with dvdfreak to see what can be done to integrate this into MP, have it as a standard active plugin, give it a prominent place in the forum like in Hot Plugins, or something like that.

That would serve the whole MP community, it would give MP more advantages over other htpc software and it would wash away quite a lot of bug that are in the recording section right now. And most of the programming work has already been done by dvdfreak, so I'd say welcome him to the dev team and let him take care of that part of MP.
Just giving some possible suggestions

If I was a dev for MP, I know what I would do I'd swallow my pride and see how I can replace my work for something better.

Just give it a try, you can always deinstall it.

I definately will
But I would really like to seen MP improve as a whole for everybody, not just the few that find 4TR after searching for it on the forum.

 

[dvdfreak]

Ok, so the 4TR(GUI) part is open-source and can be used to integrate into MP but the main program/system is closed, so you're not able to integrate the system behind it into MP. When all code is released it will be possible to integrate it into MP, right?

The GUI plugin is indeed open source, but so is the TV server recorder/tuner (this is the module that handles recording/channel allocation/...).

Sources are available here: https://mp-plugins.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mp-plugins/trunk/plugins/ForTheRecord/

What's closed-source is the central part, the core services. But we have an extensive API available which makes is very easy to extend and enhance For The Record.

 

[kkendall]

The GUI plugin is indeed open source, but so is the TV server recorder/tuner (this is the module that handles recording/channel allocation/...).

Sources are available here: https://mp-plugins.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mp-plugins/trunk/plugins/ForTheRecord/

What's closed-source is the central part, the core services. But we have an extensive API available which makes is very easy to extend and enhance For The Record.

I'm no programmer, so I believe you immediately
Just wondering, do you feel for integration of 4TR into MP in some form? Or do you prefer to keep it like it is now?