*** Repeats on VMC broken ***

[jm1]

This solution does not work with the automatic scheduler in mythtv. I had set mythtv up to record all episodes of two and half men. Mythtv uses the episode subtitle to determine if a program screening is the same episode. Now because all episodes are subtitled "N/A" this no longer works. It has already recorded the episode "N/A" so does not need to again.

The episodes aren't subtitled "N/A" - They have episode names. Icetv should not be incorrectly subtitling episodes or worse titling them all the same when they definitely are not the same episodes.

[Kirben]

These issues with repeats have been reported long ago, but no action was taken at the time. And it is extremely annoying to see the problem still regularly occurring.

As I mentioned last time, using a date as the episode title would be best, when the episode title is unknown. Since many system won't report the same episode title again, if already recorded once.

[Russell at IceTV]

Hi, thanks for reporting this.  We're aware of the problem and are looking into it.

Russell

[Russell at IceTV]

Hi guys,

Unfortunately this has become quite a complicated problem.

As we've said before, we're limited as to how we compile our guide data for the Nine-related channels, so there are times when the episode information isn't available as quickly as we'd like, and we only know the program name.  For example, we know it's "Two And A Half Men", and we know if it's a repeat or not, but we don't know which episode it is.

For the case when it's a new program, starting today we will begin creating new episodes using the date as the title, as has been suggested here in the forums.  When the episode name is known, we'll change the title to update the guide.

For the case when it's a repeat, it's more complicated because our choices are to either leave the episode information off completely, or to assign them all to one common episode called "N/A".  MCE seems to ignore our repeat flags when we leave off the episode information, and then treats all showings as though they were new -- similar to how it treats a news program, which is also non-episodic.  This means it will record every repeat showing of the program, even if you have the Series Recording set to only record new shows.  Setting all of these repeat showings to the common episode "N/A" fixes that problem, but introduces a new problem, both on MCE and other PVRs.  Since the N/A episodes are all using the same title and ID numbers, if you have the Series Recording set to record new and repeat shows, it only records the N/A episode once, and then never again.

Since using the N/A episodes is causing problems in other PVRs, we're now removing them from our guide, and will go back to the way it was previously, where the program was listed without episode information.  This will unfortunately break MCE's guide, so we'll have to fix it a different way.  We'll modify just the MCE guide, so that it uses the common N/A episode names for repeat showings, but we'll do it in a way that won't affect other PVRs.

Unfortunately this change for MCE's guide will take a bit of work, so please bear with us until we can get that part of the guide system changed.  Hopefully it won't take long, and we'll post another message here when it's done.

Thanks,
Russell

[dJOS]

Russell, im not entirely sure I understand the problem but to solve it would you need to standardise the sub-title and move the episode titles into the descriptions? (for the VMC/MCE feed)

This week im noticing a lot of programs incorrectly recording repeats like 2.5 men, Malaysian F1GP, catalyst and At the movies.

PS. I appreciate you guys taking this seriously.

[dJOS]

Hi Ice guy's and gals, I seem to be getting an aweful lot of repeats that arent repeats scheduled to record atm eg:

F1 Chinese GP repeat
Nascar Nationwide highlights
and the usual massive stack of "Two And A Half Men" repeats.

Can you please let us know what is happening cause im getting a lot of Tuner conflicts as a result?

[Russell at IceTV]

Update:

This problem should hopefully be fixed now.  The XP and Vista MCE guide now uses a format that's similar to the latest format for Windows 7, and should better handle repeats and series recordings for programs without episodes.

Let us know if you're still having problems.

Thanks,
Russell

[dJOS]

Thanks Russell, so what was the solution in the end?

[Russell at IceTV]

Thanks Russell, so what was the solution in the end?

We changed the way we generate the program ID numbers, especially related to when there's no episode information (such as with news programs, or Neighbours, which is a series but doesn't have episodes).  We also found a better way to deal with the "original airdate" information, so that it works better with the way Media Center automatically decides whether or not something is a repeat based on that date (this is also related to my previous post about repeats).

Hopefully the new format we're using now should take care of the problems with series recordings and repeats.

Russell

[dJOS]

I looked thru my next week of programming and it certainly looks good so far! 

[dJOS]

1st problem found:

Catalyst   
"Complex Pain / Eureka Prizes / Dugongs"  (repeat)
Complex Pain - when the pain doesn't go away but gets worse; the six finalists in the Eureka Prizes People's Choice Award; and a medical check-up for dugongs, the 'sirens of the sea'. 
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM  2 ABC1 
(9/07/2009)   Other/Science & Tech   G   

My Media Center is currently recording this repeat despite the series being set to 1st Run only.

[Russell at IceTV]

Catalyst   
"Complex Pain / Eureka Prizes / Dugongs"  (repeat)
Complex Pain - when the pain doesn't go away but gets worse; the six finalists in the Eureka Prizes People's Choice Award; and a medical check-up for dugongs, the 'sirens of the sea'. 
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM  2 ABC1 
(9/07/2009)   Other/Science & Tech   G

My Media Center is currently recording this repeat despite the series being set to 1st Run only.

I think that might be because of the Media Center "feature" I talked about over in the thread on Underbelly, in this post.

The guide data includes an original airdate of 9/07/2009, because that's when that particular episode first aired.  Media Center shows today's showing as a repeat, but since it's within 7 days of the original airdate, it also treats it as a new episode that can be recorded if it hasn't been recorded already.  I don't know if it recorded it on the 9th or not, but the fact that it's showing the correct original airdate, and the Repeat indicator, tells me that it's interpreting the guide data correctly anyway.  Do you know if it was already recorded -- and more importantly, was it recorded after you switched the guide data to the new format?

Thanks,
Russell

[dJOS]

I got both airings - happy to wait and see what happens next week tho.