[danz0l]

Not sure what you are asking for. I'm contemplating adding a "commercial" feature to allow a user to select a folder which contains videos to play between shows, but not sure how effective that would be since there are many channels and selected a folder for each channel would be cumbersome. I'm always open to hear ideas.

As for single episodes, you can always use a custom SmartPlaylist to define a channel the way you want. For example, if you want to specify specific episodes and movies, you would use the file rule.

Mmmmm one suggestion I have is one folder with channelname_xx.avi files. So if for instance you create a syfy channel and want a logo randomly playing, have

Syfy_01.avi
Syfy_02.avi
Syfy_03.avi

Then have TVTime pick one at random at random times (maybe with a setting to say dont play more than xx in so many hours) between shows. Then you could have a Syfy logo play or perhaps adverts for other shows etc ?

[mwkurt]

jtucker1972,

Hello again....I was wondering, what is the behavior supposed to be when TV Time loads up a playlist of shows that does not have any episodes? Will it break anything or will it simply skip that playlist until the next update? I would like to enter some playlists for shows that aired in the last 7 days, and sometimes there aren't any new episodes for over 7 days.

Thanks,
Mark

[jtucker1972]

Mmmmm one suggestion I have is one folder with channelname_xx.avi files. So if for instance you create a syfy channel and want a logo randomly playing, have

Syfy_01.avi
Syfy_02.avi
Syfy_03.avi

Then have TVTime pick one at random at random times (maybe with a setting to say dont play more than xx in so many hours) between shows. Then you could have a Syfy logo play or perhaps adverts for other shows etc ?

This would be doable. I believe I have all the core components in the code to achieve it.

I'm thinking this is how I would implement it in settings:

I would have separate settings in TV Settings, Movie Settings and Mixed Settings. In TV Settings, there would be separate settings for TV Genre & Network vs TV Shows.

Enable Commercials
Select Folder with Commercials
Frequency of Commercials: After each show, Every other show, Every third show, Every Fourth Show (how many choices do you think we would need?)

Enable Bumpers
Select Folder with Bumpers
Frequency of Bumpers: After each show, Every other show, Every third show, Every Fourth Show (how many choices do you think we would need?)

The Commercials folder would have a bunch of commercials videos in it that are randomly selected.

The Bumpers folder would have the bump files named SyFy_1, SyFy_2, etc. since bumpers are channel specific, e.g. you are watching the SyFy channel.

Then functionality wise, if the "Enable Commercials" is enabled, the code would create an additional fileList for commercials and if the "Enable Bumpers" is enabled, it would create an additional filelist for the bumpers. This is similar to how I create the mixed and tv network channels. The commercials filelist would contain the files selected randomly from the "Folder with Commercials". The bumpers filelist would contain the files matching the channel name prefix, so SyFy_1, SyFy2, SyFy3, would be added to the bumpers filelist when building the SyFy channel. As shows are being added to the final channel filelist, the code would pick a random commercial file and/or random bumper file from the filelists and add it in based on the "Frequency of Commercials" and "Frequency of Bumpers" setting.

For example: SyFy Channel
SyFy FileLists:

• Caprica FileList
  
• Battlestar Galactica FileList
  
• Eureka FileList
  
• Sanctuary FileList
  
• Commercials FileList
  
• Bumpers FileList
  

Get Caprica Episode from Caprica FileList
If "Frequency of Bumpers" = 1 (after each show):
Get random bumper from Bumpers FileList
If "Frequency of Commercials" = 1 (after each show):
Get random commercial from Commercials FileList
Get Battlestar Galactica Episode from Battlestar Galactica FileList
If "Frequency of Bumpers" = 1 (after each show):
Get random bumper from Bumpers FileList
If "Frequency of Commercials" = 1 (after each show):
Get random commercial from Commercials FileList
etc.

So the final FileList would look like:

Caprica Episode
Bumper
Commercial
Battlestar Galactica Episode
Bumper
Commercial
Eureka Episode
Bumper
Commercial
etc.

Does this sound like what you are wanting to do with this?

[jtucker1972]

jtucker1972,

Hello again....I was wondering, what is the behavior supposed to be when TV Time loads up a playlist of shows that does not have any episodes? Will it break anything or will it simply skip that playlist until the next update? I would like to enter some playlists for shows that aired in the last 7 days, and sometimes there aren't any new episodes for over 7 days.

Thanks,
Mark

It doesn't create a channel for it. It shouldn't break anything. The next time you reset channels, it recreates all the playlists and checks again.

[danz0l]

Caprica Episode
Bumper
Commercial
Battlestar Galactica Episode
Bumper
Commercial
Eureka Episode
Bumper
Commercial
etc.

Does this sound like what you are wanting to do with this?

Looks perfect mate and certainly would enhance the end viewing pleasure.
Now i wonder what a good source of bumpers are But yes, sounds great .. Thats as cable like as its ever gonna get.

[jtucker1972]

Version 1.0.8 is available. This version adds support for selecting a custom Channel Logo Folder. You can grab hundreds of channel logos from the download link in the first post. Just download it. Unzip it to a folder and point TV Time to the custom folder via General Settings.


TV Time - Channel Logo Folder Setting by jtucker1972, on Flickr

[jtucker1972]

Version 1.0.9 added. This version fixes an issue where a channel reset could be triggered while another channel reset was in process. Added code to prevent this from occurring.

[grumpygamer]

Not sure what you are asking for. I'm contemplating adding a "commercial" feature to allow a user to select a folder which contains videos to play between shows, but not sure how effective that would be since there are many channels and selected a folder for each channel would be cumbersome. I'm always open to hear ideas.

As for single episodes, you can always use a custom SmartPlaylist to define a channel the way you want. For example, if you want to specify specific episodes and movies, you would use the file rule.

Hi the suggestion of using file rules is probably what I was looking for.

What I was thinking was to have a complete set of tools to create a custom broadcasting. For example "define a show" > assign a folder to it > then "create schedule for xx" > set the episode to be played every monday at eleven, etc.
It would be great to have a timeline per channel in editing mode so you can see exactly what's gonna happen while you create it.
To make myself clearer I would like you to imagine some tool like Premiere or rather Flash5 as for what layout is concerned.

You can move the shows left or right in the channel, add a subsequent show afterwards OR a commercial, add eventual intros or whatever.

This kind of layout would be optimal also for synchronizing shows between channels.

Anyway I hope I gave you the idea.

Using the smart playlists is a good idea, but it would be even greater if we had some tools to visually create them with little hassle and a better global view of what we are doing.

-gg

Edit something like this: http://rittorno.files.wordpress.com/2010...eline1.png

[jtucker1972]

Hi the suggestion of using file rules is probably what I was looking for.

What I was thinking was to have a complete set of tools to create a custom broadcasting. For example "define a show" > assign a folder to it > then "create schedule for xx" > set the episode to be played every monday at eleven, etc.
It would be great to have a timeline per channel in editing mode so you can see exactly what's gonna happen while you create it.
To make myself clearer I would like you to imagine some tool like Premiere or rather Flash5 as for what layout is concerned.

You can move the shows left or right in the channel, add a subsequent show afterwards OR a commercial, add eventual intros or whatever.

This kind of layout would be optimal also for synchronizing shows between channels.

Anyway I hope I gave you the idea.

Using the smart playlists is a good idea, but it would be even greater if we had some tools to visually create them with little hassle and a better global view of what we are doing.

-gg

Edit something like this: http://rittorno.files.wordpress.com/2010...eline1.png

I don't think XBMC will ever have the ability to provide a linear video timeline like you want. That's beyond the capabilities of what is provided by the XBMC GUI.

[jtucker1972]

FYI, I found another bug in the auto-reset functionality which is resulting in the channel m3u files not to be named properly resulting in a no channels found error. I have a fix in and I am testing to verify the issue is resolved. Fix will be in the 1.0.10 release.

If any of my Linux friends could confirm if 1.0.9 fixes the previous issues they were having, please let me know. As soon as I feel confident the kinks have been worked out, I will submit TV Time to the Official Repo.

[jtucker1972]

Version 1.0.10 now available. This version should fix the issue with auto reset not naming the cache channel files correctly.

[TheDoughboy]

Not sure what you are asking for. I'm contemplating adding a "commercial" feature to allow a user to select a folder which contains videos to play between shows, but not sure how effective that would be since there are many channels and selected a folder for each channel would be cumbersome. I'm always open to hear ideas.

I would be love that option, I have a folder of classic commercials that I was thinking would work great with this

I got a question that is a little off topic but how did you learn Python? I tried to use the tutorials on site but no luck, is there some resource you could point me to?

I want to try and add my own modifications to the script but I'm not having much luck.

[jtucker1972]

I got a question that is a little off topic but how did you learn Python? I tried to use the tutorials on site but no luck, is there some resource you could point me to?

Studying PseudoTV code and Cinema Experience Settings file and Google.

Commercials and Bumpers are coming in the next version. Bumpers will be for anything Channel specific, e.g. bumpers, idents, promos. Commercials are self explanatory.

For movies, I have it as Trailers and Bumpers so on your movie channels you can have a movie intro (think VIPID.me movie intro) like in Cinema Experience, as well as play trailers before each movie.

[PatK]

Tried to install the latest, had the same issues... stalls around half way on load. It just freezes... the cancel doesn't work, but a simple close XBMC window exits from the windows bar.

The Pastebin is cut down quite a bit from the 1.3 megs hopefully there's enough to give you the idea of what's up. at the end...

http://pastebin.com/LExGCR9j


the last lines are:

stop python
00:19:33 T:5388 M:1521422336 WARNING: WARNING: File is larger than 32bit stat can handle, file size will be reported as 0 bytes

[grumpygamer]

I don't think XBMC will ever have the ability to provide a linear video timeline like you want. That's beyond the capabilities of what is provided by the XBMC GUI.

Of course, but what about a dedicated tool running under windows / linux? Maybe team up with some programmer

Or maybe I'm getting to ahead of myself.