Timer (Schedule) functionality needs enhancement
#1
Let me start off by saying I'm a former SageTV user who is running MediaPortal but would rather be using XBMC! Thank you Google for blowing up Frey (Sage) and giving me an identity crisis Stare

Anyway - I'm waiting for a bit more PVR functionality before I can consider jumping over. I know a LOT of guys over at the Sage camp who would probably do the same, as well as many others from MediaPortal, etc.

When scheduling a series, presently the options are sparse (to my knowledge). Pretty much program name, channel, regular time.

In Sage, and most other legacy PVR apps, when you schedule a recording, your basic options are things like:

[ ] Record Series [ ] One-Time Record

Series Settings:
[ ] Occurrences On a Specific Channel: ____ [ ] Occurrences on Any Channel
[ ] First Run / Premiere [ ] Re-Runs [ ] First Runs and Re-Runs
Priority: __ (to allow the back end to decide what to record if there are conflicts)

Different back ends may have more features than this for series recording, but these are generally the basics. Sage did allow a per-series padding setting as well, for things like the shows that follow American Idol's floating end time, or shows that usually follow sporting events, etc.

Is there any way this can be integrated into the GUI and added to the API's for the PVR plugin developers?
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#2
For the MythTV Addon I'm still considering what is sensible to do. It too supports options similar to Sage TV.

I've wondered whether it makes sense to start off by doing the "Record Once" vs "Record Always" based on whether it is defined as a Series or One off type of show in the EPG, e.g. Movie.

MythTV also has a number of options when "Record Always" is chosen, e.g. Weekly in this Timeslot, Anytime On Any Channel, Anytime on This Channel, Once a Week on This channel.

I don't know how all these options could be presented with the current API, so in the interim I'll be starting with hardcoding to "Anytime on this Channel" if it's a TV Show and "Once" for Movies until some other mechanism comes to light.

I'm not sure how the existing MythTV Schedules can be presented either since content set to record using the native mythfrontend will have settings different to those hardcoded when created by the XBMC frontend.
Use MythTV for recording TV? Try the integrated MythTV support in XBMC Media Center. Now with commercial skip support built-in and integration with the Movie database!
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#3
IceTV has a good design and the layout is horizontal within the EPG, so it would work well with the current XBMC PVR design.

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Cheers,
Matt
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#4
One of the reasons I posted this is, in investigating the PVR capability of XBMC, I get the feeling that the developers trying to write code to interface the back-ends to the XBMC API's are getting a bit stifled by the spartan functionality provided by the GUI/API at present.

I'm using ForTheRecord/Argus which has most of the capabilities I expressed, but there is no way for plugin authors to expose any significant part of it to an XBMC user.

I think the basics outlined in this thread should be the baseline for the functionality on the XBMC side. Most back-ends should be able morph their functionality to these fields/controls. I don't want this to become a begging session where every detailed control for every possible back-end is brought up - but enough to allow decent scheduling functionality without having to go to a desktop or to machine running the back-end directly.

I wish I had Sage fired up - I could provide a screenshot or two. Heres one that buried in a forum thread:

Image

I know I'm new to the XBMC arena, but I've been running HTPC's and PVR's for years. I'd love it if this generated some dialog with dushmaniac and possibly a subsequent expansion if the PVR scheduling interface.
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#5
I think that dushmaniac is waiting until some of the binary Addon work is further along / complete before too many changes are made to the existing API.

There are many cool things that XBMC could provide in the area of scheduling, e.g. show upcoming Movies from the EPG along with all the scraped details for it and then allow "one click" record options.

I think the challenge will be making sure the user interface for the generic timer area is still straight forward. MythTV has lots of configuration options, but that adds a lot of complexity to the interface and potentially the API. I'd be disappointed if the complexity of the MythTV interface leaked into XBMC so I'm happy with some restrictions.

Some more flexibility in what "type" of recording it should be, e.g. "only record once", "record anytime on any channel" might work better rather than the fixed enumeration in the API. As long as that API is symmetric so the Addon can get the same information back from the UI options that it specified in the first place that might provide enough flexibility.
Use MythTV for recording TV? Try the integrated MythTV support in XBMC Media Center. Now with commercial skip support built-in and integration with the Movie database!
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#6
dteirney Wrote:I think the challenge will be making sure the user interface for the generic timer area is still straight forward.

I'd be disappointed if the complexity of the MythTV interface leaked into XBMC so I'm happy with some restrictions.

I listed a total of 4 options, all of which can be done with drop-down selections, and three of which would be hidden or grayed if the first option was set to record once. That set would translate to most of the back-ends available. Anything less than that and you're killing the patient to prevent scarring, IMHO.
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Timer (Schedule) functionality needs enhancement0