Provide watched status, show preview/show info at top

[dinki]

Hi. Thanks for writing this cool plugin. I'm in the process of trying to move from SageTV to NPVR. I'd like to know if it is possible to provide feedback via the guide for programs that were previously watched. I'm unsure if NPVR tracks this or not. If so, would it be possible to mimic what SageTV does in the guide and show the already watched programs titles in italic font? This makes it REALLY easy to tell if you've seen the program or not.

Also, is it possible to move the video overlay (currently playing program) and the detailed show description to the top of the screen rather than at the bottom?

[johnsonx42]

I'll answer what I can since Alibert has reported he's quite busy with other things lately...

I'd like to know if it is possible to provide feedback via the guide for programs that were previously watched. I'm unsure if NPVR tracks this or not. If so, would it be possible to mimic what SageTV does in the guide and show the already watched programs titles in italic font?

If you mean for it to keep track of what you watch in Live TV, then flag future episodes as having been watched, then no, there's nothing in NPVR that could do this. TV Listings would have to implement it's own system to track it, and it sounds like a logistical nightmare. If you mean for it to flag shows in the guide that have been recorded and watched already, yes, that data is available in the NPVR database in several different tables. Running additional queries against those tables for every entry in the EPG might be too slow though, really not sure. Only Alibert can say whether doing this is feasible and something he's interested in doing.

Also, is it possible to move the video overlay (currently playing program) and the detailed show description to the top of the screen rather than at the bottom?

that's determined by the skin. see NPVR\Skin\Default\Players. LiveTV.xml, Video.xml, DVD.xml contain the definitions for the OSD elements of each of those players. The position is determined in the <Elemement Name> line; everything drawn within is positioned relative to the element, so for each item you need to change only one number.
If I were doing it, I'd start with something like:

Code:

    <Element name="Timeline" location="10,[color=#FF0000]5[/color]" size="80,8.5">
...
    <Element name="MetaData" location="0,[color=#FF0000]15[/color]" size="100,43.6">

and see how that looks (same change for each of the 3 files I listed assuming you want the change for all 3 player types)

[mvallevand]

if you mean for it to flag shows in the guide that have been recorded and watched already, yes, that data is available in the NPVR database in several different tables.

In theory a utility could update watched shows in the epg with a new genre for Watched. It would be pretty fast twoo.

Martin

[dinki]

Yes. That is what I was talking about and from using that feature with Sage, I can say that it serves to be very useful. I can't tell you how many times I've almost started to switch to a program but then realized that I had already seen it just by the font face on the program title.

On a side note, it seems that Sage keeps track of all programs watched including live tv (not that NPVR is trying to be SageTV).

[johnsonx42]

In theory a utility could update watched shows in the epg with a new genre for Watched. It would be pretty fast twoo.

Martin

yes, that would be the smarter way to do it.