Possible Scheduling Problem with SDEPG and v9

[rickgillyon]

Okay, I have a favourite set up for "Insert Name Now". Season 3 Premiere is tonight, but Sage hasn't scheduled it. It's scheduled for the Saturday screening instead:


This isn't the first time this has happened, the other time was a premiere too. There is no day/time specified on the favourite, so it should record tonight. There are plenty of tuners too. Is the SDEPG data for Premiere confusing the scheduling in v9? Not flagged as HD either, which it should be.

Data for today:

Category: Game show / Comedy - First Run
Original Air Date: Monday, November 20, 2017
Season 3 Episode 1
Stereo, Series Premiere, Letterbox
Show ID: EP023292000013

Data for Saturday:

Category: Game show / Comedy - First Run
Original Air Date: Monday, November 20, 2017
Season 3 Episode 1
HDTV, Letterbox
Show ID: EP023292000013

[wayner]

I am guessing that the guide data is incorrectly omitting the HD flag for tonight's airing. Therefore it will record on Saturday where HD=True. I think by default, or by an option that you may have set, SageTV prefers HD recordings to non-HD recordings.

[Taddeusz]

Wayner is right, SageTV always prefers an airing flagged as HD over earlier airings without an HD flag.

[rickgillyon]

Thanks. So it's either a guide data problem or a SDEPG problem. No idea how to check...

[rickgillyon]

See thread here:
https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65207

Some programs in HD are showing in Sage without the HD flag, but I'm only seeing this on season premieres. How can I check if it's a data problem or a SDEPG problem?

[wayner]

You can trying contacting SD - they seem to be very proactive. Or you can try to find other online listings and see if you spot the same errors.

rkulagow is active on these forums and he is with SD. Try PM'ing him in these forums.

In the meantime, just set it up as a Manual recording.

[rickgillyon]

Thanks, I've reported issues in the past. Really was trying to find if we can see the raw data to check it without involving them.

[wayner]

I think you can download the raw XML or JSON data if you go to their web site: http://www.schedulesdirect.org/getdata

But it may be messy to sort through it.

[rickgillyon]

That only works for the legacy service, not the JSON service.

[wayner]

ok - it gave me data when I logged in. You will have to speak to them directly. Maybe there is some limitation that they can't flag a show as both a premier and HD simultaneously.

[rkulagow]

It's entirely possible for shows to have multiple flags. This is an upstream issue; the raw data didn't include the HDTV flag. The OP opened a ticket with us and I took it back to Gracenote. The initial response that I got back was that just because a channel is "HD" doesn't mean that the program is in HD, but because the same content is tagged as HD later in the week on the same channel (correct?), this seems like it was an error.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by rkulagow

It's entirely possible for shows to have multiple flags. This is an upstream issue; the raw data didn't include the HDTV flag. The OP opened a ticket with us and I took it back to Gracenote. The initial response that I got back was that just because a channel is "HD" doesn't mean that the program is in HD, but because the same content is tagged as HD later in the week on the same channel (correct?), this seems like it was an error.

Yeah, the show was in HD, and was flagged as HD in other EPG sources (e.g. Radio Times). That it happened twice in one night on premieres indicates that they might have a bug.
Edit: other show it happened to is below.

Would I Lie to You?
Aired: Nov 20, 2017 8:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Channel: 101-BBC1HD
Category: Comedy / Game Show - First Run
Original Air Date: Monday, November 20, 2017
Season 11 Episode 1
Stereo, Series Premiere, Letterbox

Also happening later in the week for other programs, not all flagged as premieres. Lots of HD stuff not being flagged as HD. Can get more examples if you think it's worth it.

[wayner]

Do we still really need a HD flag in 2017? Isn't new content produced in (at least) HD? Shouldn't we even be going to UHD flags? And aren't pretty much all channels are in HD now, or at least we can force all channels to be in HD in SageTV by not enabling SD channels.

By the way, could this problem be solved on the SageTV side by turning off the prefer HD option?

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

Do we still really need a HD flag in 2017? Isn't new content produced in (at least) HD? Shouldn't we even be going to UHD flags? And aren't pretty much all channels are in HD now, or at least we can force all channels to be in HD in SageTV by not enabling SD channels.

By the way, could this problem be solved on the SageTV side by turning off the prefer HD option?

Yes, we still need an HD flag. Just because the broadcast is digital doesn't mean it's HD. There are plenty of OTA 480i/p channels. The PBS station here in OKC is an example. The main channel is 1080i but they have 3 sub-channels that are all 480i. So you could have the same program broadcast in HD on the main channel or letter-boxed on one of the 480i channels.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Yes, we still need an HD flag. Just because the broadcast is digital doesn't mean it's HD. There are plenty of OTA 480i/p channels. The PBS station here in OKC is an example. The main channel is 1080i but they have 3 sub-channels that are all 480i. So you could have the same program broadcast in HD on the main channel or letter-boxed on one of the 480i channels.

Yes, I think I have that with the local PBS channel here from Buffalo. 17-1 is HD, 17-2 is SD and 17-3 is another sub-channel with different content. But then this is pretty easy to deal with - don't enable 17-2 which is the SD sub-channel. What's the downside to that?

I haven't bothered to check but my cable feed probably still has SD and HD channels but I don't bother enabling the SD channels on my HD-PVR tuners.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

Yes, I think I have that with the local PBS channel here from Buffalo. 17-1 is HD, 17-2 is SD and 17-3 is another sub-channel with different content. But then this is pretty easy to deal with - don't enable 17-2 which is the SD sub-channel. What's the downside to that?

We have wee ones so if we disable those channels then we won't be able to watch the children's programming that they have on one of the sub-channels.

[rickgillyon]

All completely irrelevant if the EPG data were correct...

[wayner]

I thought it was the exact same content, but now I see that there is different content on the SD sub-channel. Sometimes the same shows on the sub-channels but different content.

[wnjj]

On the sage side we could force the HD flag on if series premiere is on since that seems to be the specific bug here. Obviously upstream should get this sorted out but in case they don't.

[Tiki]

This has been a pretty common problem for many years (not specific to Schedules Direct and not specific to airings marked as premieres). Seems to happen a lot with certain networks (syfy, USA, TNT). What's worse is when Sage skips the first few opportunities to record a show because it's waiting for the HD airing later in the week, but then the guide data updates and that show suddenly vanishes so nothing gets recorded at all.

Unfortunately Sage relies on the HD flag attached to each airing in the EPG and doesn't have a mechanism for tracking HD channels. Would be nice if you could tell Sage that a given channel was HD and it should treat everything on that channel as HD regardless of the EPG flag.