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

[dvdfreak]

I'd just like to add that the whole idea of "integration" seems to be looked at differently by different people. I'm not unbiased of course, but I think the architecture of For The Record has proven itself over the last year or so. We often get positive feedback about the stability of the system.

I see no reason to mess with that: the core of For The Record is just fine as it is (which doesn't mean it won't keep improving over time, of course it will).

So, simply releasing the sources and try to make a melting pot with the current source code of TV server would make a rather ugly mess (just my honest opinion). I sort of keep repeating myself, but the best road to closer integration would be to fine-tune the recorder/tuner interface from the core services into the recording system. This is perfectly in line with the service oriented architecture in which I continue to firmly believe, and which as I just mentioned has proven to be very effective and solid.

Additionaly, improving the GUI plugin would also be the way to go. Here For The Record actually follows the same path as the original TVPlugin: provide a user interface onto your core server (be it local or remote on your LAN). The main difference, once more, being that For The Record uses the SOA architecture here, so the client is much more cleanly separated from the server than the original TVPlugin.

It's unclear to me what Team MediaPortal thinks about this potential road (to success? ).

 

[infinite.loop]

It's unclear to me what Team MediaPortal thinks about this potential road (to success? ).

Actually i am not sure what you are proposing.
Because as i read your post, everything would stay as it is atm.

Or do you propose that we should include 4TR as closed source binary version (or 3rd party application) in TV-Server and remove our current recording and scheduler parts?

Technically this is possible, but we then would have this:
Pro:

• User installs MediaPortal and allready has 4TR "inbuild"

Con:

• without access to the sourcecode of 4TR:
  • we can not fix bugs, we find
  • we can not do changes we, or our users consider as required
  • debuging issues is a big problem, if they are caused in the scheduler/recording section
• if 4TR is "stopped" in 2 years, or goes commercial, then TV-Server does not have an recording or scheduler anymore

As you can imagine, this is no option for us, nor our users.

I only see these 2 options:

• completelly integrate 4TR sources into MediaPortal/TV-Server svn, under gpl
• keep 4TR a community plugin where the core service/application stays closed source. if we can do changes to our TV-Server in order to allow you to improove 4TR, let us know.

 

[dvdfreak]

keep 4TR a community plugin where the core service/application stays closed source. if we can do changes to our TV-Server in order to allow you to improove 4TR, let us know.

Perhaps this is indeed the best path to follow for the immediate future, make the two work better and better together.

To kick things off in that respect it would be great to have a DVB-EPG "hook" into the system, so detected programs can be sent to the For The Record core services by the recorder/tuner (instead of importing them into MP's database which is actually no longer used when you're using For The Record).

 

[infinite.loop]

it would be great to have a DVB-EPG "hook" into the system, so detected programs can be sent to the For The Record core services by the recorder/tuner (instead of importing them into MP's database which is actually no longer used when you're using For The Record).

If you have an idea about a solution, then please send me a technical description which i can propose to our developers.

If you have other ideas, send them as well please.

 

[kkendall]

@kkendall
We have no problem with constructive criticism.
But you should realy tone your voice down in here. Some of your posts are close to be considered as flaming.

Well, excuse me.
It's really not my intension to flame in here. I've read over my posts, but I can't really see what's wrong with my comments. But if you could point me to the comments you find so offensive I'll watch out not to post like that in the future...(maybe it's because I'm dutch, we here are quite used to be more direct )

But to get back on topic, thank you very much for your good explanation of the situation!! That really helped a lot

EDIT: By the way, the discussion you're having right now with dvdfreak is exactly what I was hoping for! Just to see if a mutual understanding can be reached.
My personal preference is to include 4TR as open source binary version in TV-Server and remove our current recording and scheduler parts.
This way dvdfreak (as part of the dev team) can keep on working on this, the rest of the devs can also see all code to ensure continuation if dvdfreak for whatever reason is not available anymore.

 

[Ernie-c]

This way dvdfreak (as part of the dev team) can keep on working on this, the rest of the devs can also see all code to ensure continuation if dvdfreak for whatever reason is not available anymore.

Well, being part of the FTR record team I definately agree with dvdfreak and infinityloop to let both systems live their own life, but at the same time to allow a max of co-operation.

keep 4TR a community plugin where the core service/application stays closed source. if we can do changes to our TV-Server in order to allow you to improove 4TR, let us know.

Perhaps this is indeed the best path to follow for the immediate future, make the two work better and better together.

 

[tourettes]

My personal preference is to include 4TR as open source binary version in TV-Server and remove our current recording and scheduler parts.

Binary only isn't open source

 

[kkendall]

My personal preference is to include 4TR as open source binary version in TV-Server and remove our current recording and scheduler parts.

Binary only isn't open source

o haha where is a hole i can crawl into...
like i said before i'm not a programmer
Is it correct like this?:
"My personal preference is to include 4TR as open source version in TV-Server and remove our current recording and scheduler parts.
This way dvdfreak (as part of the dev team) can keep on working on this and the rest of the devs can also see all code to ensure continuation if dvdfreak for whatever reason is not available anymore. "

 

[infinite.loop]

"My personal preference is to include 4TR as open source version in TV-Server and remove our current recording and scheduler parts.
This way dvdfreak (as part of the dev team) can keep on working on this and the rest of the devs can also see all code to ensure continuation if dvdfreak for whatever reason is not available anymore. "

Thats exactly what i proposed with "Option A"

 

[kkendall]

I thought so! ...but I wasn't sure.
What would you prefer Infinity?
I'd say to serve the community better it should be fully integrated. This would take care of some of the bugs that people are running into now plus expand MPs capability.
The integration of 4TR would further support the filosophy that MP has an advantage over other htpc software because of it's configurability.
An extensive and good configurable recording section, I think, would be a big plus for MP!