External Recordings Manager

[KingArgyle]

Okay, so to duplicate this I need to find three programs that are scheduled at the same time.

1. That is scheduled through GBPVR or the Web Admin.
2. Two that are in the priority recordings that need to be scheduled, but with differenet priority levels.

You sure find the odd ones.

I'll see what I can do.

[KingArgyle]

Hmmm...just tried to duplicate the problem and can't get it to happen with version 0.0.3. Here is how I'm setting it up, let me know if I'm wrong on this:

I setup something similar to your situation:

1. GBPVR recording through Web Admin, The Oprah Winfrey show from 4-5pm on Tuesday the 28th.
2. In the Priority XML file, I setup Judge Mathis to record at a priority of 1.
3. In the Priority XML file, I setup Arthur to record at a priority of 2.

When I run this scenario through the scheduler, I get the following.

1. Oprah Winfrey stays recorded because it doesn't have an entry in the XML file, and thus gets priority 0.
2. Judge Mathis is not scheduled on Tuesday the 28th, at 4pm because Oprah Winfrey has the priority being treated as a manual recording.
3. Arthur is never scheduled at 4pm, but does get scheduled other times of the day when there isn't a conflict.

So the result is that Oprah Winfrey is scheduled (because we all know she rules the air waves. ), and Judge Mathis is scheduled on the times he doesn't conflict with Oprah, and Arthur is never scheduled at 4 because it always conflicts with Judge Mathis in that time slot.

The PriorityRecordings.xml is as follows:
<GBPVR xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://localhost:7647/gbpvr/PriorityReco...">
<Recording type="Season" priority="1">
<Channel>4</Channel>
<ProgramName>Judge Mathis</ProgramName>
<RecordingType>All Episodes</RecordingType>
<Quality>High</Quality>
<CaptureSource>1</CaptureSource>
</Recording>
<Recording type="Season" priority="2">
<Channel>9</Channel>
<ProgramName>Arthur</ProgramName>
<RecordingType>All Episodes</RecordingType>
<Quality>High</Quality>
<CaptureSource>1</CaptureSource>
</Recording>
</GBPVR>

If you can redirect your Stdout to a text file and send it to me at d_a_carver@yahoo.com, I'd like to see what the program is spitting out.

[jrockintuitive]

I'm using the PriorityRecording.exe dated 12/27 at 2:20.
I have confirmed the error.

In your example below--
Record Oprah (and don't try to pretend like it is not already recorded)
Then record Arthur (this will be in the conflict status - I don't know about the web admin, but in the app this will now be in the conflict status)

I recorded both of the above as season records in the app.

If you use the xml file as described below, you will see some funny stuff when you run PriorityRecording.exe.

I have sent the output to you via your e-mail.

I can usually look at design specs and find a few things that could go wrong.
If you update your steps after incorporating these fixes I will attempt to find more issues.

[jrockintuitive]

Tipstir,

My understanding of this program it will eventually do the following:
1. Prioritze recording so if there is a conflict by default, the show with the better priority will be recorded.
2. If there is a conflict the system will find that exact episode at a different time and attempt to schedule it
3. Will ensure that the same eposide will not be recorded if you already have that episode recorded or going to record that episode at an earlier time.
4. Will ensure that the same episode will not be recorded if you have recorded that episode in the past (optional flag)
5. Can choose to only record New Episode of a series only

[KingArgyle]

Quote[/b] ]
Do we really need this program and why?

Doesn't Default Record, Web Admin Record, XRecord do all of this already? What does your program do different than these record programs do?

Tipstir, it really depends on your needs for scheduling recordings. Jrock pretty much hit the features of this program. If you have many, many different programs that you want to record, and want to make sure that certain shows always get recorded, and that others you don't really care if they get recorded as soon as they air, then this program is for you.

The methods you describe currently are all manual intervention in setting recordings. Right now GBPVR alwasys records based on First In, First Out. All recordings are treated as equal, and the first one that gets that time slot is the one that gets recorded. The problem with this is you have to manually resolve the conflicts if there are any.

Another nice feature is say you have had a program recording on Monday's at 9pm, and another program recording on Tuesday's at 9pm (different programs). Neither of these programs repeat during the week. All of a sudden the network that aired Monday's at 9pm gets moved to Tuesday's at 9pm to compete in ratings with the other program. Now you have a conflict. Which one gets recorded and which one doesn't. In GBPVR it'll be the first one in the recording list that gets recorded. Which may be all well and good, but not necessarily what you want. By setting a priority on each of these recordings, you can tell the system which one gets preference in recording so you always get the one you want to watch or archive.

I have many recordings, and many of them conflict at the same time, but air at later dates and times. However these later times may conflict with other programs I want to record. So instead of having to manually correct each conflict, the priority recordings can take care of many of these.

Also, GBPVR doesn't currently keep track of episodes that have already been recorded, so you end up getting repeats of all episodes. Once this is stable, it'll give greater control over which episodes get recorded and when.


Hope that answers the question. Again, your situation may not need this functionality, but there are several of us that do. Also, you'll find this feature on BTV and SageTV as well. It is one of the things I did like about BTV, just didn't like too much else about it.

[KingArgyle]

Updates on the External Recording Manager are going to slow down over the next several weeks, as my day job sucks me back into the real world. (I.e. Little time for fun hobby stuff). I'll still keep work on stablizing the program and making sure we catch as many possible scenarios as we can

[KingArgyle]

Quote[/b] ]
For Example
The People's Court is scheduled for 4-5 (not in the priority recording xml)
Oprah Winfrey is confilct status at the time of 4-5 and in priority recording xml with a priority of 7
Judge Judy is not scheduled and is in the priority recording xml with a priority of 2

I think I found what the problem was here. I'm not checking the current status of the recording, other than to ignore items that are already in a status code of 4.

Since GBPVR puts any reoccuring recordings that it can't schedule in a specified time slot into a Conflict status and leaves them in the Recordings Database, I'm getting those recordings when I'm pulling in the list of scheduled recordings. There are a couple of different ways to handle this situation.

1. Change my code so that it only brings in recordings that are not in a status code of 4 or 5. This will leave the recordings in the database, but the Recording manager won't know about them for processing the recordings. You'll still see the recordings in the Conflict screen.

2. Prior to doing any scheduling. Delete all scheduled Recordings that are in a conflict status. Esentially doing the same as 1 but actually removing them from the table all together. Disadvantage is that the Standard Recording Manager, and Jorms XRecord will no longer show shows that GBPVR couldn't schedule in the Conflict screen.

If you do not use the GBPVR recording manager, and just use the External Recording Manager with a clean recording schedule table, you shouldn't run into this problem. As, when a conflict is found, it is immediately deleted from the database, and the new show rescheduled. So there will only ever be one show in that time slot. Now this will currently only work if you have one tuner in your system. I haven't added any code to handle multiple tuners (I only have one), so this will need to be worked once I get to the multituner support.

[KingArgyle]

I should have an update by this weekend that will fix the problem with a show being in the Scheduler in conflict status, causing two shows to be scheduled at the same time. Next version will also keep shows in the database that were in a conflict status. This way you can better determine your show priorities. You may also manually resolve your conflicts as you do now with the standard GBPVR or XRecord conflict managers.

[KingArgyle]

Okay, version 0.0.4 Alpha. Fixes problem with scheduled programs that are already in conflict status causing two recordings to be scheduled at the same time. Conflicts now remain in the database for manual conflict resolution. Manual Resolution should be done either with XRecord or the standard GBPVR recording manager.

[KingArgyle]

Here is the attachment.