1.10.0 Radio recordings issues (1 Viewer)

[Aquarius]

MediaPortal Version: 1.10.0

Description
Hi all,
Preface: This not necessarily a 'bug', but a follow-up and summary of a discussion in thread https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...io-recordings-on-channels-without-epg.129055/ where some issues with radio recording arose. Issues reported here are on the edge between a bug and an improvement suggestion. It's up to the the devs to decide.

Problems:

• Scheduled recording of a Radio station that has no EPG, is not possible.

Reproduce:
Radio/Menue / Recordings /Menue / recordings timer/ New /extended recordings -> Only TV channels are presented.​

• MP does not remember the resume point for partially-listened radio recordings.
• "Skip Forward" and "Skip Backward" are not supported (only "Fast Forward" and "Fast Rewind" are supported).
• "Play" button on remote control irritatingly resets play to the start of the recording. Hence, when pausing playback, and then resuming playback, one must resume by pressing the "Pause" button again, otherwise play restarts from the beginning

I'm willing to discuss the issues and test any development. ( Likely user 'CyberSimian' also, I assume )

Thanks for taking care !

Best regards
Gerd

Steps to Reproduce:
(see above. steps are obvious)

 

[CyberSimian]

May I make some comments? When resource is constrained, there is always the choice to be made between:

(1) The right fix
(2) The quick fix
(3) No fix

The right fix makes the capability available in a way that is entirely consistent with the conventions of the existing product, but is not necessarily the smallest implementation effort.

The quick fix makes the capability available for the smallest implementation effort.

If the choice is between the right fix and the quick fix, I would vote for the right fix. But if the choice is between the quick fix and no fix, I would vote for the quick fix.

Scheduled recording of a Radio station that has no EPG, is not possible.

When the user is presented with a list of channels from which to select one, the quick fix would be (probably) to append the list of radio channels to the list of TV channels and show the combined list. The user could then select either a TV channel or a radio channel for the manual recording.

I have one concern about the existing TV list -- it shows the unedited list of TV channels. In the UK, this list includes the overnight soft-porn channels. I have excluded these channels (and others) from the EPG, and I would rather that they did not appear in the list of channels when scheduling a manual recording.

MP does not remember the resume point for partially-listened radio recordings.

Surely this is an important capability to support.

Skip Forward" and "Skip Backward" are not supported (only "Fast Forward" and "Fast Rewind" are supported).

Curiously, Windows Media Center does the opposite -- for radio recordings, WMC supports only "Skip Forward" and "Skip Backward"; WMC does not support "Fast Forward" and "Fast Rewind" for radio recordings.

I have a Humax HDR-FOX-T2 DVR. As a test, I copied a MediaPortal radio recording onto a memory stick, transferred the memory stick to the Humax, and copied the TS file onto the Humax disk. The Humax plays this recording without problem, and supports skip forward and skip back. So absence of skip support is not a limitation of TS files that lack a video stream.

"Play" button on remote control irritatingly resets play to the start of the recording. Hence, when pausing playback, and then resuming playback, one must resume by pressing the "Pause" button again, otherwise play restarts from the beginning.

This is incredibly irritating. Please fix it!

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[CyberSimian]

I was experimenting with some remote controls yesterday, during which I noticed that the problems addressed by this thread are somewhat more complex than described earlier.

MP does not remember the resume point for partially-listened radio recordings.

I had thought that this was the case, but I now realise that it depends on where the radio recording is stored:

(1) If the radio recording is stored in the normal recordings folder, the file will be listed in the "Recorded Radio" panel (in the "DefaultWide" skin), and the resume point is retained.

(2) If the radio recording is moved to a folder residing in the "Videos" section (see below for why one might want to do this), the resume point is not retained. (And I mean here that you listen to the recording for the first time after moving it to the "Videos" section.)

"Play" button on remote control irritatingly resets play to the start of the recording. Hence, when pausing playback, and then resuming playback, one must resume by pressing the "Pause" button again, otherwise play restarts from the beginning.

Again, this behaviour depends on where the radio recording is stored:

(1) If the radio recording is stored in the normal recordings folder:

(a) If playback is started,
(b) and the focus is not moved off the list-entry or icon for the recording,
(c) and the PAUSE button is pressed on the remote control,
(d) and then the PLAY button is pressed,

playback does resume from the pause point. However, MP also displays the panel for the "Resume" dialogue. Now one can press the BACK button on the remote (ESC key on keyboard), and all is well. But the only reason this works is because the focus was not moved off the list-entry/icon for the recording being played.

If playback is started, and then the focus is moved to a different recording that has not been played before, and then PAUSE is pressed, when PLAY is pressed to resume playback, the current recording resumes playback for about 1.5 seconds, but then playback starts for the recording that now has the focus.

So although playback can be resumed using the PLAY button, it is by accident and not by design.

(2) If the radio recording is moved to a folder residing in the "Videos" section, starting playback and then pressing PAUSE followed by PLAY always resumes playback from the start of the recording, because the resume point is not remembered for radio recordings in the "Videos" section.

Why would anyone in their right mind move radio recordings to the "Videos" section?
People will vary in their preferences and in their use of MP. My view is that once the number of recordings in one's recordings library exceeds a certain threshold, the only sensible way to arrange them is in a folder tree that has a structure ("hierarchy") that can be decided by the end user. The only place within MP that I have found that supports this is the "Videos" section.

In fact, I think of the "Videos" section as being the "Media Library" where media of all types can be stored. So within the library one might have categories such as:

(1) Radio recordings
(2) TV recordings
(3) Music files (MP3 or other)
(4) Digital photos
(5) Personal videos
(6) ...

Each major category would be subdivided in a way that is meaningful to the end user. For example, I divide "Radio Recordings" into: "Comedy", "Documentary", "Drama", and "Music". Within each of those folders there is one folder for each radio series, plus one folder for single-programmes (programmes that are not part of a series).

I tried creating subfolders within the normal recordings folder, but MP ignores them. So it seems that the "Videos" section is (currently) the only place to create a media library for all types of media.

It is always risky making assertions in the absence of any evidence, but it seems unlikely to me that the way that I want to arrange my recordings library is at all unusual.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK