NPVR 2.x recordings metadata and timing.info

[whurlston]

I'm working on a utility class that will read/write the metadata.xml ADS on recordings but I have a few questions:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<recording>
  <filename>R:\American Ninja Warrior\American Ninja Warrior_20120723_21002300.ts</filename>
  <channel>WAVEDT</channel>
  <status>READY</status>
  <startTime>2012-07-23 21:00:00</startTime>
  <endTime>2012-07-23 23:00:00</endTime>
  <title>American Ninja Warrior *</title>
  <subtitle>Finals</subtitle>
  <description>The top finishers compete on a four stage course in Las Vegas.</description>
  <uid></uid>
</recording>

1. Am I missing any fields (that might be used in the rest of the world)?
   
2. Can I use a <channel> that doesn't exist in the database (eg: <channel>YouTube</channel>)?
   
3. If I add extra fields will it break the built in NPVR parsing of the metadata stream (eg: <url>)?
   
4. Does the Video Library check for metadata.xml as an ADS or only as a separate file?
   
5. For completeness, I may as well include timing.info in the class. Am I correct in assuming that the fields in timing.info are "timestamp,byteOffset"?
   

[mvallevand]

Are you planning on actually calculating abd creating the Timing.Info file for your YouTube files? I already have a utility that does that (writeTime) and although it isn't .NET or Microsoft, I might be able to package a .dll for you.

Martin

[whurlston]

I wasn't going to bother with that, I think they skip pretty good now. Adding the Timing.Info to the utility was really just for completeness in case you (or someone else) found it usefull to be able to read/write the file.

If there are issues with YouTube skipping of which I'm not aware, I could add that functionality though.

[sub]

I'm working on a utility class that will read/write the metadata.xml ADS on recordings but I have a few questions:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<recording>
  <filename>R:\American Ninja Warrior\American Ninja Warrior_20120723_21002300.ts</filename>
  <channel>WAVEDT</channel>
  <status>READY</status>
  <startTime>2012-07-23 21:00:00</startTime>
  <endTime>2012-07-23 23:00:00</endTime>
  <title>American Ninja Warrior *</title>
  <subtitle>Finals</subtitle>
  <description>The top finishers compete on a four stage course in Las Vegas.</description>
  <uid></uid>
</recording>

[*]Am I missing any fields (that might be used in the rest of the world)?

There is several other option fields. You can also get <firstrun>, <original_air_date>, <season>, <episode>, <rating>, <start_rating>, <audio>, <aspect>, <quality> and <genres>.

[*]Can I use a <channel> that doesn't exist in the database (eg: <channel>YouTube</channel>)?

Yes.

[*]If I add extra fields will it break the built in NPVR parsing of the metadata stream (eg: <url>)?

No, extra fields will be ignored, and not cause any problem (as long as they're valid xml).

[*]Does the Video Library check for metadata.xml as an ADS or only as a separate file?

It'll look for ADS, then separate file.

[*]For completeness, I may as well include timing.info in the class. Am I correct in assuming that the fields in timing.info are "timestamp,byteOffset"?

Yes, that is the correct format.

[whurlston]

Awesome! Thanks sub.