6 replies to this topic

[silid]

Hi

I have a Vu+ Duo and I would like my box to have the following features. I am prepared to do development to achieve it but as per the wiki I am sharing my ideas here for feedback and suggestions, and in case I am duplicating work or haven't noticed existing features.[list]
[*]Bouquets will be organised as EPG provider
[list]
[*]Eg. in the UK Bouquets could be BSkyB, Freesat and Freeview
[/list][*]Genres should be supported for channels within a bouquet
[list]
[*]Eg. Entertainment, Sports, Movies
[/list][*]Genres will be selectable when browsing the EPG
[*]Channel numbers will be unique per bouquet, but not necessarily across the system
[list]
[*]Eg. On Freesat bouquet 106 is BBC Three, on BSkyB bouquet 106 is Sky One
[/list][*]Bouquets should be updated automatically by downloading EPG providers data on a regular basis
[list]
[*]This means that on a bouquet the channel number always matches the advertised channel number
[*]This should include adding or removing services where that data is available without a rescan
[/list][*]Series link recording should be available with providers data
[list]
[*]Eg. TVAnytime, and maybe green button to set a timer from a trailer.
[/list]
[/list]
I think that covers my ideas - and perhaps these are a bit UK centric but there may be benefits to the wider community too.

Any thoughts? I'd like suggestions as to what could be accomplished via plugins (existing or new) and what would require core modification.

[silid]

A bit disappointing that no one has any comments on these ideas.

I'm going to start by looking at series link with TV-Anytime data.

I am based in the UK so all information I have is based on what is currently used here.

On DTT in the SDT, each service has a descriptor (0x73) for default authority, this combined with descriptors in the EIT (0x76) make the programme crid and series crid. These are used for series record or providing alternative programmes for clashing recordings.

Example:
pcrid: crid://fp.bbc.co.uk/4J62MZ, scrid: crid://fp.bbc.co.uk/KQPS53

Sometimes two broadcasts of the same programme may have the same programme crid but not the same series crid, this may be because one is being broadcast in SD and the other in HD. The series record will ensure that the same version is recorded, the programme crid will be the same though so find alternatives will also work.

Series link recordings should know which programmes have been recorded in a series and so not record repeats (by keeping a record of the crids that have been recorded), but look out for new programmes with the same series crid and record those.

To tie in with this I'd like to add an option to use the EIT to record the programme when it starts, rather than use padding. This should also ensure that programmes that overrun are recorded in their entirety.

I believe similar data is broadcast on Freesat but I have not yet investigated this.

I'd really appreciate someone with familiarity with the EPG and timer code to provide suggestions on how I should approach this?

[silid]

For all the details see: http://www.etsi.org/...323v010501p.pdf

[mirakels]

silid, please don't be disappointed when youdo not get prompt response. There are many topics/interests/issues to follow. The core developpers cannot touch everything...
Please develop your ideas in proof of concepts and present them here and I'm sure people will start discussing.

For the genres features. We recently added support to extract genre data. I mainly look at dusthc providers and notices the genre information is not always correct/complete so it may be hard to use that to organise things.

[silid]

Thanks for your reply. I wasn't necessarily expecting a core developer to respond, just some community/anybody.

When I describe the genre feature it really goes hand in hand with the bouquet and channel organisation features.
Many channels appear in an EPG provided by BSkyB but also in an EPG provided by Freesat. So if we have a bouquet for BSkyB and also a bouquet for Freesat, and then also want to breakdown channels to genre within the bouquet, currently we can add markers, however I'd like to suggest a sort of sub-bouquet.

Bouquet         |  Genre         |  Channel

===================================================

Freeview  (DTT) -> Entertainment ->   1) BBC One

                                  >   7) BBC Three

                 > News          ->  80) BBC News

                                  >  81) Sky News



BSkyB   (28.2E) -> Entertainment -> 101) BBC 1 E Mids

                                  > 106) Sky 1

                -> Movies        -> 301) Sky Movies Premiere

                                  > 315) Film 4

                -> News          -> 501) Sky News

                                  > 503) BBC News



Freesat (28.2E) -> Entertainment -> 101) BBC 1 E Mids

                                  > 106) BBC Three

                -> News          -> 200) BBC News

                -> Movies        -> 300) Film 4

                                  > 302) True Movies

The data for these genres/sub-bouquet are in the EPG data for the platform in the case of Freesat and BSkyB and separated by the channel number in the logical channel descriptor in the case of Freeview.

Really I am after advice from other developers (core or third party) as to where to start.EG. There is no documentation as to how the EPG data is cached so I don't know where to start to expand it for storing CRID data.

[mirakels]

if you check the commit logs for the last couple of months on my you will see entries for Genre and parental ratings. From that it should be easy include an extra descriptor.

But 'sub bouquets' can als be added as mrkers in the bouquet lists. The bouquet is still a flat list but the markers could devide the list based on genres. Thsi is used i many bouqeuts created by the 'settings-makers'

[silid]

Thanks. It seems to get it into the cache I only need edit lib/dvb/epgcache.cpp which seems fairly straight forward. I'll give it a go.