Recorded TV - Watched status is not updated (1 Viewer)

[melstig]

In the latest pre release the watched status is not updated at all. A watched recorded show is listed as unwatched in the MP GUI. In the Movies section the watched status is still working as it should. This worked in the 1.19 release.

Please let me know if you need more information.

Kind regards

 

[regeszter]

Please create a step by step note what you do with screenshot and logs.

 

[CyberSimian]

In the latest pre release the watched status is not updated at all. A watched recorded show is listed as unwatched in the MP GUI.

I have just tried this using the most-recent build, without any plugins or extensions active, and MP behaves correctly.

Watching most of a recording causes the programme title in "Recorded TV" to change colour when the panel is redisplayed after pressing the STOP button on the remote control. Also, the played percentage in the programme info (new for MP 1.20) shows the correct value.

Displaying the context menu and selecting "Reset watched status" correctly resets the colour of the programme title to "unplayed", and resets the played percentage to zero.

Remember that in order for a video to be marked as played, you must watch at least the amount specified in the "Videos" section of "MP Config". I believe that this value applies to TV recordings too (seems reasonable to me). So, is your problem caused by the fact that you did not watch enough of the recording to exceed the threshhold specified in "MP Config"?

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[regeszter]

. I believe that this value applies to TV recordings too (seems reasonable to me).

Yes, the TVPlugin uses the same settings.

 

[melstig]

On my setup the color of a watched recording did not change as before after the upgrade from 1.19 to 1.20 pre release. The watched time is updated correctly though, if I try to play it again it is shown in the following pop-up.

Went into MP Setup and adjusted the played time percentage from 95% to a lower value as You suggested CyberSimian. After this the watched status started to work as before. I can also reset the status to unwatched.

I do not think I have altered this value previously, but somethong was changed during the latest upgrade.

 

[regeszter]

Went into MP Setup and adjusted the played time percentage from 95% to a lower value as You suggested CyberSimian. After this the watched status started to work as before. I can also reset the status to unwatched.

95% is too high for recording if the show duration is short and the post recording time is long. For example the show is 30 mins + 5 mins post recording time equal 35 mins duration. You stop watching the show at 30 mins (end of the show). This is not 95% of the file.

 

[CyberSimian]

95% is too high for recording if the show duration is short and the post recording time is long.

I agree with this. I record with 1 minute of pre-padding and 5 minutes of post-padding. So a 30-minute programme will notionally end 31 minutes from the start of the recording. The BBC channels in the UK do not broadcast advertisements, so the programme often ends around 31 minutes from the start. But for the independent channels, there can be up to 5 minutes of advertisements at the end of a 30-minute documentary (for documentaries they often omit the advertisement-break halfway through, and place all of the advertisements at the end), so the programme ends around 26 minutes from the start of the recording. 26/36 is 72% of the duration of the recording.

Actually, I don't use the change of colour to indicate programmes that I have finished watching. I use it to indicate programmes that I have started watching. So I have a very low value for the watched-percentage threshhold in "MP Config". In fact it is 5% (possibly too low).

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[joecrow]

@CyberSimian A little bit off topic but is it possible to select which colours get used for the watched/unwatched status. I find the white and yellow for DWHD not very intuitive.

 

[CyberSimian]

is it possible to select which colours get used for the watched/unwatched status.

In the "DefaultWideHD" skin, the master file for the "Videos" panel is "MyVideo.xml", but the subsidiary file that generates the list is (I think) "common.facade.video.title.xml". The <control> of interest is the one that has a <type> of listcontrol. If you look at that, you will see that there are numerous tags that have "color" in the name. Those define the colour for various different conditions (with focus, without focus, played, ...). Try altering the following (one at a time!) to see what happens:

textcolor -- unplayed with focus
textcolorNoFocus -- unplayed without focus
playedColor -- played with and without focus
dimColor -- the colour something has when it does not have the focus. Usually the colour part is "ffffff" (meaning no change) and the transparency/opacity part is less than "ff" (meaning that the colour is dimmed).

For the "Recorded TV" panel, the master file is "MyTvRecordedTv.xml", with the subsidiary file that contains the listcontrol being "common.facade.recordings.xml".

The skin engine is quite idiosyncratic, with many inconsistencies, and one can never be sure what effect any particular change will have. So you have to experiment to get the result that you want. The colour values are described in the Wiki.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[CyberSimian]

is it possible to select which colours get used for the watched/unwatched status.

One further point: when experimenting, you can change a skin xml file whilst MP is running. In most cases, if you have changed the panel that is currently on display, it is sufficient to exit that panel and then re-enter it. MP will notice that the xml file has changed and reload it. This makes experimenting very easy.

However, there are a few cases that are not quite so convenient. For some reason, changes that affect the "Videos" panel do not take effect the first time that you re-enter it. You need to exit it and re-enter it a second time in order to see the changes.

For some video overlays, you need to stop watching liveTV/video and then restart it for the change to take effect.

Finally, there are some xml files that are loaded at MP startup and never reloaded (I think that "references.xml" is like this). If you change any of those, you need to exit MP and then restart MP.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK