Bounties for new features

[pastro]

Here are my list of basics that aren't there. Not a long list:


2. Eliminate duplicates and ignore shows that have already been recorded. You can do this without the use of ZAP2It, but it really relies on the quality of the XMLTV source. I don't use the ZAP2IT format, but the XMLTV format through the North American grabber (which gets it's info from Zap2It). I use a combination of RecTracker and CDK Scheduler to eliminate and not record duplicates. It gets about 98% of the shows, but not 100%. The key is the Title, Sub Title and Description checks. If these are different it's considered a new episode. Also, shows that have been already recorded are tracked in a seperate database or table. This is checked to when scheduling to determine if it should be scheduled or recorded. Again, this relies on the quality of the data provided by the guide, not reliant on special features of ZAP2IT. This should also be enabled as it is now on a recording by recording basis.

4. Diskspace management, not just show management.

#2 really strikes home at my house. The kids record everything on a channel and then delete the shows when they are done. With all the repeats I spend quite a bit of time just re-deleting recordings they have already watched. It is a pain and fairly slow. It might be nice to select a few recordings and delete all at once.

Since I am a pvr150 user in the States, I don't think closed captions are a possibility but they are sorely missed in our house.

Thought I would throw my 2 cents on the committee idea.
If the program were open source and there were multiple programmers, one could see the benefit of an committee to set goals. For a program that is written by one person, I can't see any motivation for the programmer to have a group of people telling someone what they want coded in his volunteer time.
I think we get really cool features in almost every release, and the system today seems to work pretty well.

[K.S.]

sub, can you check that please?
- is it possible to make a thread/poll sticky, after some time close it & make it "un-sticky"? it would be fine if it is not possible to vote for a closed thread any longer... feel free to use that here http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=24011 for playing

ok, some basics which we have to accept/decide:

- there is a limit of 10 choices in polling
- only one option or multiple choice?
- duration: i would not tend to limit it but close the thread/poll after each release
- after each release start again with a new sticky poll with different choices, depending upon "wished features implemented" / "unwanted features"
- the 5 most wanted features not implemented remaining on the poll, the other 5+ slots (of the "unwanted features") to be decided in preliminary polls
- give the "unwanted features" again a chance in the preliminary polls
- build a initial list (we'll definitely have more than 10 ) & decide how to split that list in different polls, somehow we have to get the first list & after each release add at least 5 items to the list (if sub has to much time we'll have the trouble to add 10 features after each release )
- for getting an initial list we should start only one sticky thread & limit each posting to 5 wishes, try to not repeat items & use some key words for each wish
- while a poll is active, build the next initial list, again use key words & a short descrition, link to a separate thread where all have the possibility to discuss that particular wish, no comments/remarks to a particular wish on the initial list, that's not helpfull in brainstorming

cheers,
K.S.

ps: try to come up with really new features, "me too" features that other progs have are nice to have & could make a difference for the choice of potential new users if a feature missed is regarded as a show stopper, but there is nothing better than USP, let's give sub some new ideas

[kayak4ever]

I really like the program and the ability to have plugins. As someone who couldn't write a program if her life depended on it, I like being able to choose what features I want to give priority to. Thus, I like the idea that sub can add the features that are his priorities and that he wants to work on, while I can use plugin A or B because it has a higher priority for me. Some plugins might work better than others, some might be easier to use than others; in the end, I get to try them out and decide if they will work for me. For each one I have tried, I have received tremendous support in making it work and I appreciate that.

With respect to the suggestions above and particularly the "don't record duplicates" and what it should mean, I would like to post my vote for allowing the ability to not record duplicates but still record reruns. Because of network show shuffling, computer downtime and other problems, I may have missed an episode. As I understand it, the current internal "don't record duplicates" means don't record shows that are still in the recorded section and not don't record repeats. The current way allows me to have don't record duplicates but still get that episode I missed last fall. Which is all to say what works best for some isn't the best for all. One of the many things I like about GB_PVR is that there are so many options which allow us to each get the best of what we each want.

However, I am looking forward to that CDK scheduler logic. From what I have read, it seems that this plugin requires a better understanding of computers than I have to get it working correctly.

[sub]

sub, can you check that please?
- is it possible to make a thread/poll sticky, after some time close it & make it "un-sticky"? it would be fine if it is not possible to vote for a closed thread any longer... feel free to use that here http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=24011 for playing

Yes, I can stick/unstick, open/close a poll at any time.

You'll probably find multi-select polls are better suited to this task, since users are bound to desire more than one feature you've listed.

[fbachofner]

If you create the poll, I'll mark it as sticky.

Thanks! I am headed out of town for a couple days tomorrow. I'll think about this and try to post as soon as I am back.

Further down in this thread "K.S." makes some good comments about polls. I was thinking about many of the same issues and though one way to deal with some of them would be to have separate polls for different areas of GBPVR.

For example: scheduling and recording; live-tv; playback (recorded TV, music, photos), configuration, etc. Each of these could be a separate poll limiting each users choice to ONE (within each poll) so you get a good idea of what is considered most important by a majority of (forum participating) users in each polled area of GBPVR.

"K.S." has a good idea in closing the poll when a new version is released. I would like to think that "new/enhanced feature request polls" would also NOT be released for at least a week after a new release to give the pollster a chance to discover new capabilities.

On that topic, 0.99.5 has been out about a month. Based on your (historic) release timetable there might be a new release imminent. Maybe I should wait a couple more days to post a features poll? :o

Sorry, I didnt provide the correct link. It was supposed to be: http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...stcount=10. Basically I'm not very keen on zap2it only features - since majority of downloads, and forum users, are outside of the US.

I fully agree with you on this issue (although I use zap2it). In some instances where you use zap2it's enhance functionality, there may, however, be other relatively simple alternate methods. Can I infer you would be willing to hear suggestions on how to implement these? [The duplicate recordings issue is a good example in my opinion.]

Thanks again.

[sub]

On that topic, 0.99.5 has been out about a month. Based on your (historic) release timetable there might be a new release imminent. Maybe I should wait a couple more days to post a features poll? :o

No, there is no new release about to happen. I've been working through bug fixes and a few changes, but its not likely to be public soon.

[Ton]

Thanks - good feedback. Hopefully we'll see similar from other users.
This one is on my list of things to do.

From what I've seen of the various EPG source, Title + Sub Title + Description are not good enough to be used for this task. The US zap2it sourced data is much better and more complete than you can expect anywhere else in the world. I think any solution (outside of the US) relying on this would be too hands-on to maintain, and the user would have to know too much about the quality of their data.

Well, speaking as someone from a non-zap country, I beg to disagree. Allthough it's not 100% in actuality the worst thing that happens is that a show DOES get recorded twice... An exact match on (lowercase) title and sub-title is quite rare, and that's the only case where the program won't get recorded. Also, if this is a "per season-recording" setting, if in doubt, you can always select to keep all shows... I've been running CDK Scheduler (rectracker) for quite some time, and am currently in the process of writing/testing another one that does the above by only touching the XML-file...
What I'm trying to do is to rename the show-name in the XMLTV-File (i.e. from "Mythbusters" to "R_Mythbusters") giving the user a choice to either record all duplicates (specifiy a season-recording for "R_Mythbusters" and "Mythbusters") or to skip duplicates (only recording "Mythbusters"). I started this because I want to tie in episode-naming (it's also caching data from epguides.com to do episode numbering) and because I never liked it that rectracker (CDK Scheduler) had to actually go in and touch the GBPVR database).....

That said, I have been thinking of extending the existing zap2it duplicate detection. Currently it wont schedule a show recording if another show of the same identifier exists in the 'ready' or 'pending' status. I'm considering modifying the database to hold the history of show identifiers even after a show has been deleted, but there are some complications like whether a screen is needed for the user to maintain this info, ie user wants to record a show they deleted recently (why is nothing ever simple?).

That's nice, but without zap2it, it won't help me any....

BTW, GB-PVR also pulls in the zap2it show identifier info from XMLTV, so there users can be using zap2it via xmltv. Also, if users in other countries have good episode info, they can populate their XMLTV files with this info in the zap2it format, and GB-PVR will provide them the same functionality (it doesnt expect it to be available on all channels or all shows).

That was my original idea, but then I would have to generate (and keep track of) both episode/show numbers and title/subtitle.... The way I have it now, I only have to keep track of title/subtitle.... Also, I wanted the ability to do this on a per-season recording basis (so I didn't mess with any of the wife's favourite medical shows), and hesitated to add a system-wide setting...

I am intending to add the ability to schedule 'any channel' recordings.

I would also consider the keyword suggestion, but in the past when I've thought about it I havnt been able to think of a nice clean place to integrate it into the user interface. I'm open to suggestions on this. I want to keep things pretty simple and easy to use.

Hmmmm... In your shoes I would consider another type of recording... "season recording" being what it currently is, and adding something like "wildcard recording" or "keyword recording" for this one...

What is missing in this list in my opinion (looking at the plugins I have running and without any experience with myth, sage, MCE or any other program), is the ability to rename shows based on their episode-name... I recently patched "renamerecodings.exe" to run with the SQLite database, and was suprised at the amount of users using this tool.... I think a lot of users (like me) tend to watch shows through other means as GBPVR....

There are other area's that (imho) could be better, and I fully support the priority recording one from King (and am anctiously awaiting your Picasa-like "star-rating"), but I think these are more a matter of personal taste then something else..... Only other thing I can think of is the ability to always use both up- and down-keys when navigating a list (every time I have to hit the "down" key 20 times to reach my "StarGate" recordings, I am wishing for a way to press the "up" key and it would reach the last item in the list)...

[sub]

Well, speaking as someone from a non-zap country, I beg to disagree. Allthough it's not 100% in actuality the worst thing that happens is that a show DOES get recorded twice...

Actually - no, what would happen is the show wouldnt be recorded by the app would think they're a duplicate. This would be a bit of disaster.

An exact match on (lowercase) title and sub-title is quite rare, and that's the only case where the program won't get recorded

Trust me, its pretty common to just get some generic description shows. Sometimes whole channels do this, so you'll see generic stuff like the Simpsons having a subtitle or description saying stuff like 'the hilarious antics of the whacky simpson family. Even in countries with better listing, you'll often have generic descriptions for News and Current Affairs types of shows. Zap2it's codes takes the guess work out of this.

[smeghead]

1. Ability to set or arrange the priority of recordings, regardless if you have more than a single tuner or not. Myth, BeyondTV, Sage, Media Portal, etc all have this in the base system. Plus this almost eliminates the manual conflict handling (with CDK I've had as many as 60 programs to be scheduled and it's handled all the conflicts without having to manually intervene and this is on one tuner).

3. A wider selection of recording options, ability to schedule a show on any channel, not just specific channels. Ability to set keyword searches and recordings. (All options should give the option to be priority based). Ability to search Title, SubTitle, Description for particular shows to record. Again no reliance on ZAP2It data.

These get my vote, especially 1.
Also:
a. Incorporate "community skin" into core release
b. ability to search in music
c. Have a "mode" button in "recordings" like "music library" to change display
d. I've mentioned this before but without 1 above, up/down buttons in the config app to easily change the order of recording sources

Thank's for the hard work

Smeghead

[sub]

That said, I have been thinking of extending the existing zap2it duplicate detection. Currently it wont schedule a show recording if another show of the same identifier exists in the 'ready' or 'pending' status. I'm considering modifying the database to hold the history of show identifiers even after a show has been deleted, but there are some complications like whether a screen is needed for the user to maintain this info, ie user wants to record a show they deleted recently (why is nothing ever simple?).

That's nice, but without zap2it, it won't help me any....

BTW, GB-PVR also pulls in the zap2it show identifier info from XMLTV, so there users can be using zap2it via xmltv. Also, if users in other countries have good episode info, they can populate their XMLTV files with this info in the zap2it format, and GB-PVR will provide them the same functionality (it doesnt expect it to be available on all channels or all shows).

That was my original idea, but then I would have to generate (and keep track of) both episode/show numbers and title/subtitle.... The way I have it now, I only have to keep track of title/subtitle.... Also, I wanted the ability to do this on a per-season recording basis (so I didn't mess with any of the wife's favourite medical shows), and hesitated to add a system-wide setting...

You wouldnt need to keep track of generated show numbers or anything like if you wanted to add this sort of coding to your xmltv files. You could add some pre-processing logic generate an MD5 hash code of the title+subtitle+description on shows or channels where you're confident this data is good enough to be used for this purpose.