Plugin: Dynamic Skip Times

[tmiranda]

Do your favorite sporting events or shows usually have commercial breaks that are always the same length? (For example, Football TV timeouts are almost always 2 minutes long and Hockey TV timeouts are usually 1 minute or 90 seconds long.) This plugin allows you to set the skip times that vary with the show you are watching.

After installation the options dialog that appears when you are browsing a show (or a group of shows) will contain a new selection, "Dynamic Skip Times".

Post comments, questions and bugs here.

[wayner]

Great idea. I have never actually changed the skip times but I always thought that it would be great to have an easy way to do this. I don't know if this is possible but it might be nice to also do the following:

• Set skip times based on the show title. To use your example then the SkipFwdX2 for football would be 120 seconds and for hockey it would be 90 seconds.
  
• Have more than two Skips, especially SkipFwds. I use Harmony remotes at all of my TVs so I could easily use the custom buttons for this new functionality. It might be nice to have a 17min skip so which entirely skips a hockey intermission in one press.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

Great idea. I have never actually changed the skip times but I always thought that it would be great to have an easy way to do this. I don't know if this is possible but it might be nice to also do the following:

• Set skip times based on the show title. To use your example then the SkipFwdX2 for football would be 120 seconds and for hockey it would be 90 seconds.
  
• Have more than two Skips, especially SkipFwds. I use Harmony remotes at all of my TVs so I could easily use the custom buttons for this new functionality. It might be nice to have a 17min skip so which entirely skips a hockey intermission in one press.

It does allow you to set the skip times based on show title - That's really the main function of it.

There are two skip forwards and two skip backwards defined in Sage. Maybe in a next iteration I can add more, but that will be a while. I'm finishing up one other thing, then I have the holidays and another plugin I'm working on so my time will be very limited.

[wayner]

Awesome - thanks for developing this. It is great to see that some folks are continuing to push forward with new plugins.

[panteragstk]

Sounds awesome. I'll give it a go when I get home.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

Awesome - thanks for developing this. It is great to see that some folks are continuing to push forward with new plugins.

Slugger gets credit for the idea. We were working on something else and he suggested this functionality would be useful. Now that it's Football and Hockey season I'm using the feature quite a bit myself.

Tom

[wayner]

Awesome - I installed it last night. Now I have to decide whether to change the SkipFwd from 10 secs to 20 secs for hockey games. Normally 20 secs is the time between a whistle and a faceoff. But occasionally it goes to thirty seconds or so on an icing call. Perhaps I am better off staying with 10 seconds and using 2-3 presses.

[tmiranda]

I normally don't skip between a whistle and the faceoff. Sometimes it's nice to hear a little commentary

I set FF1 to 30 seconds and FF2 to 90 seconds so if there is a break in play I want to skp I press FF1 and if there is a commercial I press FF2. I set Rew1 to -7 seconds (so I can backup a little if I overshoot) and Rew2 to -30 seconds.

[bigbill]

I installed this plugin today and setup all four fields for custom timed skips. I had to disable the plugin as the skips that were supposed to rewind 5 and 30 seconds went forward 5 and 30 seconds... sort of like the two forward fields. And I could not figure out how to put "Default" back into the two rewind fields.

I cannot see how to put a "-" into those fields either.

Any idea's? The forward settings seemed to work just fine.

-Bill

[tmiranda]

I'll look at it but I think the problem is that you need to enter a "-" using a keyboard on a SageClient. I need to change it so the rewind times are negative even if the "-" is not entered. Probably after Christmas.

[bigbill]

Ouch.... I'm using an hd200. No keyboard. Is there an entry in a prop file i could edit?

[tmiranda]

Yes, but I'll have to look at the code to see what it is. If you browse the properties file it should be fairly obvious, I usually start the property with an abbreviation for the plugin. I'm thinking I used "dst/" for this one. IIRC there a "small_skip" and "big_skip". Going from memory on this.....

There is a way to enter "-" from an HD300, I know I've done it before.

[wayner]

I think the Sage extenders recognize keyboards so you could plug in a USB keyboard and give it a try - either a wired or wireless keyboard.

[Fuzzy]

Isn't this what Comskip is for.. :-)

[wayner]

Not for sports - even if you do Comskip them, and I don't bother, you still have all of the dead time. In hockey it is 20 seconds between a whistle and a faceoff. Change the skip button from 10 to 20 seconds and it is one press and you are back to action. Not that there has been much hockey to watch, at least not until Dec 26.

Same for football, basketball, baseball, golf etc. SageTV is a great productivity enhancer for a sports fan as, depending on how aggressive you are, you can reduce the time required to watch a game by up to 80%. With regular shows you don't gain much more than 10-15%.

And Dynamic Skip Times greatly enhances this! Thanks tmiranda!

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by wayner

Not for sports - even if you do Comskip them, and I don't bother, you still have all of the dead time. In hockey it is 20 seconds between a whistle and a faceoff. Change the skip button from 10 to 20 seconds and it is one press and you are back to action. Not that there has been much hockey to watch, at least not until Dec 26.

Same for football, basketball, baseball, golf etc. SageTV is a great productivity enhancer for a sports fan as, depending on how aggressive you are, you can reduce the time required to watch a game by up to 80%. With regular shows you don't gain much more than 10-15%.

And Dynamic Skip Times greatly enhances this! Thanks tmiranda!

I'm not saying it isn't gong to be useful for some - I just can't imagine myself skipping through a snap count during a football game - ruins the timing and feel of the game.. now, if you watch a sport with more true 'dead time' that's you're own problem.. :-)

[bigbill]

LOL... when your team is playing as well as the Chargers this year it's great to be able to skip from the end of the play right till the next snap..

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by bigbill

LOL... when your team is playing as well as the Chargers this year it's great to be able to skip from the end of the play right till the next snap..

Well, the Chargers ARE my team - but lucky for me, I live in Riverside, which never gets to watch them anyway... Even when it's NOT blacked out (when is qualcomm going to adjust the prices to coincide with the facility quality and what's on the field? - Tampa is a better stadium, and better team, and their tickets are half the price), LA is a secondary market, and isn't required to show inter-conference games.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Yes, but I'll have to look at the code to see what it is. If you browse the properties file it should be fairly obvious....

I just looked at the code and the values are not stored in the .properties file. I will try to get an update for this.

[tmiranda]

The fix was easy so I made the changes. You should see version 0.05 in the repository now. Merry Christmas.