Feature Request: Narflex Please!!

[rsagetv99]

I writing this request from XMLTV hell, please Mr Narflex consider the following request.

Allow any encoder (including network encoders) to be configured multiple times in the Video Source setup, and allow those multiple instances to each contain a different provider, with the option of using the built-in EPG data for some instances and an XMLTV importer for some of the other instances.

The reason this is needed is because the built in EPG provides the richest EPG data, but it is missing some info (E.G. PPV data). There is a MyTheater utility that can extract that data from MyTheater and put it in XMLTV format.

This would allow people who are using the MyTheater network encoder plugin to use the built in Sage guide data for some channels, and to fill in the gaps in that data with EPG data supplied from MyTheater.

Also, other utilities could be written to provide missing EPG data from other sources through scrapers etc., so this is not just for the MyTheater folks.

[xred]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

I writing this request from XMLTV hell, please Mr Narflex consider the following request.

Allow any encoder (including network encoders) to be configured multiple times in the Video Source setup, and allow those multiple instances to each contain a different provider, with the option of using the built-in EPG data for some instances and an XMLTV importer for some of the other instances.

The reason this is needed is because the built in EPG provides the richest EPG data, but it is missing some info (E.G. PPV data). There is a MyTheater utility that can extract that data from MyTheater and put it in XMLTV format.

This would allow people who are using the MyTheater network encoder plugin to use the built in Sage guide data for some channels, and to fill in the gaps in that data with EPG data supplied from MyTheater.

Also, other utilities could be written to provide missing EPG data from other sources through scrapers etc., so this is not just for the MyTheater folks.

I second the motion! Please let us use xmltv _AND_ internal EPG data for the same tuner.

[Motofreak75]

why dont we ask for seprate epg data sources for each tuner ? The Tv_cat command works pretty good if all the data is in order

it would be much easier on both ends asking for that type of setup.

[Humanzee]

Originally Posted by Motofreak75

why dont we ask for seprate epg data sources for each tuner ?

Why not for each channel. Have it default to zap2it or what ever, then give the option to over ride the default and select another programing source in what ever form.

[xred]

Originally Posted by Motofreak75

why dont we ask for seprate epg data sources for each tuner ? The Tv_cat command works pretty good if all the data is in order

hmm not sure what you mean by sources for "each tuner".

What I believe would work is adding the same tuner twice, but using different data sources for it.. e.g;

MT-Tuner1: Internal EPG Data w/ Channels 100-399 enabled for regular channel data

MT-Tuner1: XMLTV data w/ Channels 400-599 enabled for PPV data

This is already supported, but not with XMLTV and Built in EPG data since you must use on or the other exclusively.

[Motofreak75]

have each tuner or network encoder in sage, to have the option to pick the epgdata source either from Zapit (sage default) or xmltv source.

Because right now I have

tuner#1 OTA A180 with No data in the epg
tuner#2 MT plugin with lots of data
tuner#3 UHF local with no data.


and having a source for each tunner will help you and me and many others in this issue. Even if you have two mt plugins running, you can choose the source.

as a side note, I working with DOM right now and prehaps in the next day or so, they're will be a update to the xml exporter that adds News,sports and movies catagory. Also there will be also a a working ratings for it aswell. if everything works right I'll post here aswell look for Dom's update at dvbcore support site.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by xred

This is already supported, but not with XMLTV and Built in EPG data since you must use on or the other exclusively.

Originally Posted by Motofreak75

have each tuner or network encoder in sage, to have the option to pick the epgdata source either from Zapit (sage default) or xmltv source.

Because right now I have

tuner#1 OTA A180 with No data in the epg
tuner#2 MT plugin with lots of data
tuner#3 UHF local with no data.

and having a source for each tunner will help you and me and many others in this issue. Even if you have two mt plugins running, you can choose the source.

Actually, I think you can trick Sage into doing this already Moto, I found it by accident when I switched to XMLTV format. I left one tuner configured with the internal Sage EPG and deleted the other tuner and configured it to use the XMLTV data. So I had two tuners configured with two different EPG sources.

The downside was that duplicate channels did not merge togehter in the guide, so I saw like 2 of everthing. Even though the channel name/number was the same - this may have been due to different channel-ids but I am just speculating.

Moto, the reason two different data sources on the same tuner would be beneficial is so you could have the best of both worlds. As good as Cory and Demedius' importers are, they still are not as good as the Sage EPG. Especially with all of their quirks like HD and first-run flag not being set, etc. I can live with the quirks for the missing EPG data, but not for the 80% of the other channels that I watch.

[CarlG]

Me Too Please

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

Allow any encoder (including network encoders) to be configured multiple times in the Video Source setup, and allow those multiple instances to each contain a different provider, with the option of using the built-in EPG data for some instances and an XMLTV importer for some of the other instances.

This would obviously bring you into conflict hell as you'd have tuners trying to record 2 different things at the same time - If I'm understanding your request correctly.

The better suggestion IMO would be an open db that SageTV stores it's guide data in that can be altered or easily exported to XMLTV to merge them and get the best of both worlds. Obviously standalone is key, so a setup like MythTV uses mysql is unlikely, but even saving the data in XML format to begin with wouldn't be bad.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

This would obviously bring you into conflict hell as you'd have tuners trying to record 2 different things at the same time - If I'm understanding your request correctly.

Not really, you would not configure both copies of the tuner with the same channels, and Sage would still see it as one tuner so it wouldn't try to record two shows at once on the same tuner.

[xred]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

This would obviously bring you into conflict hell as you'd have tuners trying to record 2 different things at the same time - If I'm understanding your request correctly.

The better suggestion IMO would be an open db that SageTV stores it's guide data in that can be altered or easily exported to XMLTV to merge them and get the best of both worlds. Obviously standalone is key, so a setup like MythTV uses mysql is unlikely, but even saving the data in XML format to begin with wouldn't be bad.

Sage already supports adding a single tuner multiple times with different EPG sources. There should be no conflict as long as the channel #'s don't overlap, as in the example where:

MT-Tuner1 -> Channels 100-399 using internal EPG
MT-Tuner1 -> Channels 400-599 using XMLTV

So there is no conflict between the data sources.

So to summarize, what we are really asking for is that Sage support using it's Internal EPG AND XMLTV and simultaneous sources. As it stands currently it only supports using internal EPG _or_ XMLTV.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by xred

Sage already supports adding a single tuner multiple times with different EPG sources. There should be no conflict as long as the channel #'s don't overlap, as in the example where:

MT-Tuner1 -> Channels 100-399 using internal EPG
MT-Tuner1 -> Channels 400-599 using XMLTV

So there is no conflict between the data sources.

Also, Sage recognizes that, even when a tuner is configured twice, it is still the same tuner and can only tune one channel at a time. Hence, Sage will not try to tune both channels on the same tuner if two different favorites are available during the same timeslot.

[xred]

Bumping this topic... RSage is trying hard to write a bunch of different scripts to try and work around what at least seems to be a basic feature missing in Sage.... the ability to use EPG data from the Internal EPG and XMLTV sources.

Any chance we'll see this feature in an upcoming beta?

[CarlG]

Originally Posted by xred

Bumping this topic... RSage is trying hard to write a bunch of different scripts to try and work around what at least seems to be a basic feature missing in Sage.... the ability to use EPG data from the Internal EPG and XMLTV sources.

Originally Posted by xred

Any chance we'll see this feature in an upcoming beta?

We can always hope.

[rsagetv99]

I know placeshifting seems to be the focus of the SageTV coders right now, but could someone from Sage chime in on this and let us know if this is a possibility.

[rsagetv99]

Bump until we get a response.

[Opus4]

I've commented before that the forum is not an official place for feature requests, so there is no guarantee it will ever get seen by SageTV. While forum posts may be seen, your best bet in getting any sort of hearing about it from SageTV is to contact them directly. "Bump" posts on the forum may be removed (though I often leave them for unanswered questions), and probably will be removed if the point is just to see if it will get a response from SageTV.

- Andy

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I've commented before that the forum is not an official place for feature requests, so there is no guarantee it will ever get seen by SageTV. While forum posts may be seen, your best bet in getting any sort of hearing about it from SageTV is to contact them directly. "Bump" posts on the forum may be removed (though I often leave them for unanswered questions), and probably will be removed if the point is just to see if it will get a response from SageTV.

- Andy

What method of contact do you suggest?

[Opus4]

I used to send suggestions by either contacting tech support or submitting a bug report.

- Andy

[rsagetv99]

Great news!! Sage support responded to my request and will be releasing a fix to part of this equation.

They are going to add a property allowing you to specify the EPG source (E.G. XMLTV OR Internal EPG) for each encoder!!!

This will allow you to use the internal Zap2it data provided by Sage on one tuner, and XMLTV data on another tuner.

Also, I believe this means that if you are using a "non-networked" encoder, then you could add the encoder a second time, enable different channels for each instance of that encoder, and then configure separate EPG data for each.

The "missing link" for those of us using MyTheatre, is that you cannot add the network encoder more than once. I was thinking of asking Peter to see if he could create a version of his plugin that would allow two sets of MyTheatre favorites from the same DVB card to be served up on different TCP ports. This would almost solve our problem, except if you had two shows programmed at the same time Sage would think that it had two tuners, instead of one, and would try to tune that channel causing one show to not record. I don't remember for sure, but I don't think this was an issue with the "non-networked" encoder, because Sage seemed to know that even though the encoder was listed twice, it was still only one tuner.