RockDawg Wrote:I'm still playing with the method for interleaving hidden channels with a visible channel and each channel being based on a single show. I've got it working, but there's something I've noticed - In order for all the episodes of each channel to play, it seems that the base channel (the visible one) needs to be built on the show with the most episodes. For example, if you have show A with 50 episodes and build the base channel on that show and then interleave a channel based on show B that contains 100 episodes and you have the min and max interleave set to 1, it will only interleave enough of show B (50 of the 100 episodes in this case) as needed to mesh with the base channel's number of episodes.

It would be better IMO if PTV would repeat the base channel episodes as needed until the interleaving has included every episode from every channel at least once. Setting the largest show as the base channel isn't the best solution as the show with the most episodes could change over time.

I've managed to get a balanced programming schedule with interleaving channels and increasing the min/max interleave by 1 for each interleave rule. My problem is that I now get too perfect of a schedule. Shows A, B, C and D always play in the order ABCDABCDABCD. I'd like to have just a little more randomness. I tried playing with the min/max interleave setting and it works, but with then some shows have episodes that never air. I presume this is because of the limitation I mention above.

Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. Have any of you managed to get a bit of random interleaving while still getting all the episodes of each show to air?

opentrick1 Wrote:I noticed someone else getting the same error, if not the exact same behaviour(See original quote) was wondering if there is some kind of workaraound?

RockDawg Wrote:For example, if you have show A with 50 episodes and build the base channel on that show and then interleave a channel based on show B that contains 100 episodes and you have the min and max interleave set to 1, it will only interleave enough of show B (50 of the 100 episodes in this case) as needed to mesh with the base channel's number of episodes.

Daavid Wrote:Hi, Maybe I missed an earlier post that explained this, but why are you only trying this with Interleaving? Is there some benefit I've not thought of?

I'm doing pretty much what you're after with Smart Playlists and I get no limitations. I've set multiple rules in the play list to bring in the shows I want (or genres, or networks in some cases) - Then I set the playlist to random behaviour.
I then add a channel in PTV configuration and set the playlist as the channel. Then I add the rule, 'play shows in order' And while it keeps the randomness of teh playlist, it forces the episodes to be in order. Give it a shot and let me know if it solves it for you.

Jason102 Wrote:You're partially correct. It will only fill in the first 50 in this case. When you start PTV, though, it should fill out the channels a bit more in order to get a 5 day buffer of things to play. While it's doing this, it should continue where it left off with the interleaving.

This is all a should. I've done some testing, but there could be some issue that I don't know about. Do you have any sort of background updating on? If not, then this may not work, but otherwise it should.

Can you verify one way or another?

Jason102 Wrote:TheFonz: Weird, it appears to start a video and then doesn't ever finish. You said you get an error message...what does it say? I've added a couple more debug messages to the code, can you download the latest stable-pre and get another log? Thanks.

TheFonz Wrote:Sorry I am not exactly sure how to download the Stable Pre?
I went to the repository and clicked the Download Zip button. Is that right?

thumbinollie Wrote:Jason,

I've built most of my TV channels by interleaving. It works GREAT and gives me plenty of flexibility to schedule things the way I want.

I've been trying to figure out how to get bumpers in between every show, and I'm stumped. Best I've been able to come up with is getting a bumper at the end of my scheduling loop before it starts again.

Any suggestions?

THANKS!

Quote:9:40
Finish time:

RockDawg Wrote:I tried that in the past, but I found random to be problematic when the channel contained shows of various sizes. The shows with a lot of episodes played often and the shows with much fewer episodes seemingly never played. Some shows would play 4-7 episodes in a row. I am using interleaving to get a more balanced mix.

Keeper Wrote:Here is how I do it:

Channel 1: CBS
Channel 2: ABC
...
Channel 100: Adverts (Hidden channel)
Channel 101: CBS Bumpers (Hidden channel)
Channel 102: ABC Bumpers (Hidden channel)
...

On Channel 1, put a rule to interleave channel 100 (adverts) after every 1 show.
On Channel 1, put a rule to interleave channel 101 (cbs bumpers) after every 2 shows.

This gives you:
1) CBS Show
2) Advert
3) Bumper
4) CBS Show
5) Advert
6) Bumper
7) CBS Show
8) Advert
9) Bumper

Hope that helps...

Quote:This ONLY uses your existing video library to play video. It will NOT play
video from the internet. If you do not have a significant number of videos in
your library, then this script probably isn't for you. Sorry.

thumbinollie Wrote:My problem with this is that my channels are built entirely of interleaves to begin with.

<snip>

It repeats that way.

What I want to do is insert bumpers between every show.