MLB game info - home vs. away?

[cat6man]

Now that MLB games are often shown in both home and away game versions, I have not found a way to identify which broadcast is which and the favorites scheduling presumably picks the first one when there are two. I do see that they have the exact same game code, which is good to prevent recording of both.

Anyone have a method of identifying the home vs. away game?

[jchiso]

This probably isn't something that you can apply to automated scheduling, but (with DirecTV, at least) the home broadcast is listed on the higher-numbered channel. I'm not sure about the Schedules Direct listings, but DirecTV indicates which broadcast is being aired on each channel ...

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by jchiso

This probably isn't something that you can apply to automated scheduling, but (with DirecTV, at least) the home broadcast is listed on the higher-numbered channel. I'm not sure about the Schedules Direct listings, but DirecTV indicates which broadcast is being aired on each channel ...

thanks for the suggestion.

if that is true universally, then i think you could list the possible channels in inverse order since i think the scheduler looks at the first channel that meets the criterion.

i'll have to check and see if i find a pattern.

if so, i could have favorites for 'at boston red sox' and use inverse channel order and 'boston red sox at' with descending channel order.

next weekend they are supposed to start adding a bunch of new HD MLB game channels to FiOS so i'm guessing they will be broadcasting a lot more home and away simultaneously.

ideally, fios and schedulesdirect will start tagging the games with (H) and (A)

[EnterNoEscape]

Schedules Direct does provide this kind of information. I can work it into the guide data if we can all agree on how we would like it displayed.

Edit: I'm not a sports person myself so I don't have very good perspective on what one might want.

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

Schedules Direct does provide this kind of information. I can work it into the guide data if we can all agree on how we would like it displayed.

Edit: I'm not a sports person myself so I don't have very good perspective on what one might want.

superb!

i think we could get by fine with just a (H) or (A) after each game listing, when that info exists. we would need the default of nothing for the cases where they are not identified and only one version of the game is broadcast.

so the desired guide data would say one of the following, as applicable:

Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays (H)
Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays (A)
Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays


anyone else with suggestions?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by cat6man

superb!

i think we could get by fine with just a (H) or (A) after each game listing, when that info exists. we would need the default of nothing for the cases where they are not identified and only one version of the game is broadcast.

so the desired guide data would say one of the following, as applicable:

Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays (H)
Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays (A)
Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays


anyone else with suggestions?

My only real concern is that the way the event data is provided I can tell which team is home, which team is away and even the venue name. It sounds like we would need to parse the description and match that with the event information provided by Schedules Direct to come up with (H) or (A) and if there's a vs. in the title, don't add anything. Alternatively we could create the description based on the event data, but some people might not like that since it might at some point override a more desirable description of the event.

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

My only real concern is that the way the event data is provided I can tell which team is home, which team is away and even the venue name. It sounds like we would need to parse the description and match that with the event information provided by Schedules Direct to come up with (H) or (A) and if there's a vs. in the title, don't add anything. Alternatively we could create the description based on the event data, but some people might not like that since it might at some point override a more desirable description of the event.

What about favorites based on team name? I just put in Detroit Tigers and things work. If I had a plan that had multiple streams for away and home I guess I'd rather have home recorded and have that show up in the EPG. But isn't the title like Detroit Tigers at Boston Red Sox (Tigers away) or Boston Red Socks at Detroit Tigers (Tigers home)? So in a favorite you'd have to put the "home" team to get the "home" recording but how would that work in the EPG unless you tell it what the "home" team is?

[Steve20A]

Originally Posted by cat6man

Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays (H)
Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays (A)
Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays

Isn't it customary to have the home team be the "at" team? So, in "Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays," Tampa Bay is the home team. If the Sox were the home team, it would be written "Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox" or sometimes "Tampa Bay at Boston." It's only when you write Tampa Bay vs Boston that you don't know who the home team is.

I'm not a sports guy, but that was my understanding. Or am I totally caught off base?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by KarylFStein

What about favorites based on team name? I just put in Detroit Tigers and things work. If I had a plan that had multiple streams for away and home I guess I'd rather have home recorded and have that show up in the EPG. But isn't the title like Detroit Tigers at Boston Red Sox (Tigers away) or Boston Red Socks at Detroit Tigers (Tigers home)? So in a favorite you'd have to put the "home" team to get the "home" recording but how would that work in the EPG unless you tell it what the "home" team is?

The teams are basically actors. So when you create a favorite for a team, it's the same as when you create a favorite for an actor. If one were to go this route, the easiest approach would be to just add "team (Home)" or "team (Away)" to the actors along with just "team". This would enable you to be more specific or just record anything for a specific team. There are a few downsides to doing this. The first one is that when you look at actors, it might look a little clumsy with the duplicates (but I think teams are already filtered from that view). The second one is that when we don't know if it's home or away for some reason, you won't get a recording.

Originally Posted by Steve20A

Isn't it customary to have the home team be the "at" team? So, in "Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays," Tampa Bay is the home team. If the Sox were the home team, it would be written "Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox" or sometimes "Tampa Bay at Boston." It's only when you write Tampa Bay vs Boston that you don't know who the home team is.

I'm not a sports guy, but that was my understanding. Or am I totally caught off base?

I have no idea what's customary. I've seen it both ways and I don't know why one is chosen over the other.

[Tiki]

There are two customary ways to show teams, either:
Away_Team at Home_Team
Or
Home_Team vs. Away_Team

If they use "at" it's pretty clear who the home team is. If they use "vs." you can't know for sure, but it is typically like I showed above.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by Steve20A

Isn't it customary to have the home team be the "at" team? So, in "Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays," Tampa Bay is the home team. If the Sox were the home team, it would be written "Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox" or sometimes "Tampa Bay at Boston." .... Or am I totally caught off base?

The issue that the original poster was trying to resolve was related to recording the home or away broadcasts for a single team; not just all of a team's broadcasts. DirecTV shows the broadcast designation in its guide, so the data have to be there somewhere ...

[wayner]

I think we are getting confused here - this issue isn't determining which team is at home for a given game. The issue is recording the broadcast that has the commentators for the home (or away) team. This is primarily due to the fact that the premium services available from the major league sports leagues give you access to home and away versions of every game if you are willing to sign up for a premium package that costs $100+.

So if Boston is playing the New York Yankees there will be two broadcasts available. The non-sports person may say who cares as long as you get a recording of the game. But for the hardcore fans the issue is that you will have one broadcast with commentary from the Boston announcers who will spend the whole game favoring the Red Sox and saying that the Yankees are all a bunch of degenerate wankers and one broadcast with commentary from the Yankees announces who will spend the whole game favoring the Yankees and saying that the Red Sox are all a bunch of degenerate wankers (slight exaggeration for effect).

So how do we determine which is the home team broadcast and which is the away team broadcast and then set this up as a favorite in SageTV? Or, perhaps even better, how do we determine which is the Boston broadcast and which is the NY broadcast and only set up the Boston broadcast as the favorite.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by wayner

I think we are getting confused here - this issue isn't determining which team is at home for a given game. The issue is recording the broadcast that has the commentators for the home (or away) team. This is primarily due to the fact that the premium services available from the major league sports leagues give you access to home and away versions of every game if you are willing to sign up for a premium package that costs $100+.

So if Boston is playing the New York Yankees there will be two broadcasts available. The non-sports person may say who cares as long as you get a recording of the game. But for the hardcore fans the issue is that you will have one broadcast with commentary from the Boston announcers who will spend the whole game favoring the Red Sox and saying that the Yankees are all a bunch of degenerate wankers and one broadcast with commentary from the Yankees announces who will spend the whole game favoring the Yankees and saying that the Red Sox are all a bunch of degenerate wankers (slight exaggeration for effect).

So how do we determine which is the home team broadcast and which is the away team broadcast and then set this up as a favorite in SageTV? Or, perhaps even better, how do we determine which is the Boston broadcast and which is the NY broadcast and only set up the Boston broadcast as the favorite.

Thanks for the clarification. Based on what you're describing, I do not think Schedules Direct has any data that will help you.

[will]

Originally Posted by wayner

This is primarily due to the fact that the premium services available from the major league sports leagues give you access to home and away versions of every game if you are willing to sign up for a premium package that costs $100+.

So if you signup for the package what game is on what channel (home vs away)? Is it just random, it seems like it would have to be because what is home to one viewer is not home to another viewer when talking about national services like DirectTV.

Is the guide data the same for both channels? For example, the Yankees vs Red Sox game on 7/14/17 has the same title (New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox) on multiple channels with Time Warner Cable. There is no obvious way to know which one to watch without manually checking.

What about looking at the commentators in the guide data, assuming they have the same commentators for each game. If they are listed perhaps you could make a favorite based on their name so you get the game you want.

[jchiso]

Originally Posted by jchiso

The issue that the original poster was trying to resolve was related to recording the home or away broadcasts for a single team; not just all of a team's broadcasts ...

Originally Posted by wayner

I think we are getting confused here - this issue isn't determining which team is at home for a given game. The issue is recording the broadcast that has the commentators for the home (or away) team...

That's what I said ...

[wayner]

Originally Posted by will

So if you signup for the package what game is on what channel (home vs away)? Is it just random, it seems like it would have to be because what is home to one viewer is not home to another viewer when talking about national services like DirectTV.

Is the guide data the same for both channels? For example, the Yankees vs Red Sox game on 7/14/17 has the same title (New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox) on multiple channels with Time Warner Cable. There is no obvious way to know which one to watch without manually checking.

What about looking at the commentators in the guide data, assuming they have the same commentators for each game. If they are listed perhaps you could make a favorite based on their name so you get the game you want.

For these packages I believe that in most instances it isn't random which feed you get, you get both feeds so that you can choose which one to watch. It seems that the guide data is the same for both the home commentary and away commentary. But presumably MLBtv knows which channel has which commentary and they could (and perhaps do) make this information available to the listings data services. But that information does not appear available to the end user. Perhaps we should see if rkugalow from SD can help and look into the situation.

The MLB.tv listings do show this info on their web page - at least for their streaming service. For the July 14 NYY-BOS game the web site shows: (Away) NYY: YES-HD (Home) BOS: NESN-HD. But that info doesn't seem to be getting to SD.

[jchiso]

Here's what appears on DirecTV's guide. Note: this is for the Extra Innings package, so games on ESPN, FoxSports 1, TBS, and MLB Network will not appear here. MLB Network occasionally airs local broadcasts of games (with MLB graphics and commercials), but does not indicate which team's broadcast will be used ...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2...TNva0lIcHo0X0E

[rkulagow]

Originally Posted by wayner

But presumably MLBtv knows which channel has which commentary and they could (and perhaps do) make this information available to the listings data services. But that information does not appear available to the end user. Perhaps we should see if rkugalow from SD can help and look into the situation.

I'm not a sports person. What's the question?

[wayner]

Originally Posted by rkulagow

I'm not a sports person. What's the question?

In this instance it would be could you ensure that the SD EPG data for MLB Extra Innings includes the info that you can see in the parenthesis in the image below - signifying which Broadcast the channel contains.

That would allow SageTV users to set up a keyword Favorite for "(Yankees Broadcast)" to ensure that they record the correct broadcast of the baseball game. This would also be true for NHL hockey and NBA basketball (I think).

(apologies for the wide image - I don't know how to resize it)

[rkulagow]

I've opened a ticket with our upstream.