Topics

Currently IceTV are imo treating 7MC like a dumb PVR (one with no intelligent features, 7MC is more like a TiVo than a Toppy etc) and as a result Ice Interactive doesn't work nearly as well as it should!

I realise this is a big ask but can you guy's please rewrite Ice Interactive so it supports the following Win7 Media Center Features properly:

*uses the built in series functions (merely maintains the list of shows/series to record - creating individual shows is a poor hack!)
*supports hard padding and other 7MC advanced options (how many recordings to keep, when to delete, tighter recording parameters etc)
*supports extra win7 meta-data with show thumbnails
*supports channel logo's

I currently use the excellent IceTV EPG Data via BigScreenEPG + BSE by Remote instead as this gives me everything I believe ICE TV should - the only thing this combo doesn't give me is the ability to use the excellent ICE TV iPhone app and have my series/show record list backed up to my ICE TV account.

My Media Center didn't record Underbelly on sunday night, was it flagged a a repeat?

I ask as my Series Record is still in place and working and having 4 tuners I have no congestion issues?

I cant remember if it was last year or the one prior but I think had to set a single record event as it wasn't part of the series.

Considering you guy's dont change from "AFL Season" to "Grand Final" for the last game of the season i'm hoping you'll be consitent this year with the NFL?

I was around my dad's house tonight resetting up his Toppy with IceGuide + TEDS + IceBox1 as he has been moaning about not having the new channels in TEDS+ but I couldn't for the life of me figure it out as I haven't been near it in 2 years.

Can anyone assist, im in Adelaide if that helps?

Hi Ice Guy's & Gal's, the Repeat flags dont seem to be working properly in Win7MC via BigScreen EPG - eg Family Guy (ch7) on tonight (atm) has "(repeat)" in the info but 7MC is still recording it despite my series having only "New" episodes set to record - this seems to be the case with some other shows too (not all tho).

I personally think it is a bit silly seeing as other forms of Sport have pre-race shows that aren't listed as seperate Guide entries. eg V8 Supercars, NASCAR NationWide Races etc.

Because I use hard padding on my media center it also wastes an extra tuner in the overlap period which I set to 1 hour for F1 series records (you never know with motorsport if it'll run late due to weather etc) which is another reason i'd prefer a single guide entry for the F1 race.

So what does everyone else think - 1 Guide entry or 2 for each F1 Race?

[extent]

Fantastic win against the evil predatory & anti-competetive Nein organisation.  ;D

For those not wanting to read the entire verdict, Pete from the DTV Forums has produced this excellent summary:

Copyright legislation strikes a balance of competing interests and competing policy considerations[15]. Relevantly, it is concerned with rewarding authors of original literary works with commercial benefits having regard to the fact that literary works in turn benefit the reading public.

Copyright does not protect facts or information. Copyright protects the particular form of expression of the information. That facts are not protected is a crucial part of the balancing of competing policy considerations in copyright legislation

In 'brief':

Nine argued their EPG database was copyright protected. ICE agreed that it was from the outset, so no judgment has been made as to Nine's claim (as its irrelevant)

Nine also had no problems with ICE watching TV for 4 weeks and then extrapolating out future shows for their EPG.

The issue boiled down to when ICE having predicted 97% of the next weeks programming, used Nine's own guide to fix up the last 3% (say for a new premiere event)

Nine argued that this 3% represented a 'substantial part' of their EPG document. The court agreed that it is necessary to consider not only the extent of what is copied but also the quality of what is copied is critical.

Nine also argued that the 'systemic' copying covered a large period of time, but the court decided each weekly EPG was a seperate document and the merits of Nine's case could be decided on a single week's publication.

The court found that the form of time and title information as published was not 'original' enough to enable it to constitute a substantial part of the EPG. Essentially title was something provided by the shows makers not the broadcaster and time could only ever be expressed in a time format. <= This finding essentially awarded the case to ICETV.

Nine also argued that the decision making process that lead to a certain show airing at a certain time was a big part of the creative process. This was a very wide ranging interpretation of copyright law and having been previously held as correct was IMO probably the reason the High Court acted to revist this case. As they mention

The error is of a kind which might enable copyright law to be employed to achieve anti-competitive behaviour of a sort not contemplated by the balance struck in the Act between the rights of authors and the entitlements of the reading public.

The court agreed that Nine expanded considerable effort and skill creating their schedule, however they found that the level of skill and labour required to express the time and title information was minimal. It is the expression of this information that is the subject not the fact of it.

The High Court found fully in favour of ICETV as nothing substatial was ever copied. We can anticipate no more "N/A Channel Nine" entries. Yay ICE and well done  :)

[NASCAR Sprint Cup:]

Hi Ice Guy's,
after some research I have some corrections to ONE HD/Digital in the Ice Guide for you:
(only the new stuff, not bothering with repeats)

NASCAR Sprint Cup:
Sprint Cup Qualifying - Sunday 1:30am - 2:30am
Sprint Cup Final practice - Sunday 2:30am - 4:00am

NASCAR NationWide:
NationWide Race - Sunday 4am - 7:30am

Formula One Grand Prix:
Qualifying - Saturday 10:00pm - 11:30pm
Race - Sunday 5:30pm - 8:30pm (includes 1 hour pre-race show)

PS. Im in Adelaide  8)

Hi Guy's, not sure what happened but for the last 2 weeks I've had Sunday night repeats of "Underbelly: tale of two cities" recorded as the repeat flag has been missing and I noticed that last night's (monday) screening had the usual episode title missing.

Im using Vista media Center.

GF loves this show but I think it is a waste of bad actors and HDD space.  ;D

anyway, the Catch-Up Episodes’ are not marked as repeats (eg todays)

Cheers Derek.

[Dakar Rally 2009]

C'mon ICE Guy's and Gal's, we were promised that all sports series would be properly titled so that Series Recording's would last more than one year and now the Dakar Series has been ballsed up!!!

There are (so far) 2 series available to record:

Dakar Rally 2009 and Dakar Rally Preview 2009

Can you please remove the YEAR from all series as promised 18 months ago to make it consitent with other Sports?



It is Seriously disappointing that you guy's aren't following common sense guidelines and applying them consistently for ALL Sports across the otherwise excellent ICE TV Guide! :(


PS. I do hope that NASCAR will get sorted for the 2009 season so we can use ICE Guide for its intended purpose (ie recording series)?

Hi Ice Guy's, just wondering if you can tell us if you have a plan to deal with the broadcasters "freeview" initiative or if you guy's even know what their plans are? (just sounds like multi-channelling to me?)

Hi Guy's, I realsise with the "Nein Case" ongoing this is a tricky one, but is it possbile to more accurately identify which of these are repeats as my MC is currently getting flooded with the mostly the early season/episodes atm and wasting alot of HDD space!

[Title:]

Ok Ice Guy's, the NASCAR fans suffered through an entire season without the ability to set "Series Recordings" for the 2 NASCAR series (over 40 Races!!!) - my question is, can you please, please fix it before the 2009 season?

FWIW, here is how the 2 NASCAR series need to be configured to render them "Series Recording" freindly:

Title: Motor Sport: NASCAR Nationwide Series
Subtitle:  2008 Camping World 300 at Daytona International Speedway
Description: NASCAR Nationwide Series for 2008 starts in Daytona for the Camping World 300.

and

Title: Motor Sport: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Subtitle: 2008 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway
Description: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for 2008 starts with the classic Daytona 500.

TenHD also play weekly "highlights packages", can I suggest that you make these 2 totally different series (eg "Motor Sport: NASCAR Nationwide Series - Highlights") because some races aren't shown that weekend so the highlights package the next week is in fact the 1st showing of that race?

ICE Guys', are we going to be able to record by event type (eg weight lifting) and have Olympics as the sub-title or will we only be able to create a single series recording for the entire thing (title being "Olympics" and sub-title being "the event")?

Ice guy's recently several of the NASCAR Nationwide brodacasts (eg the one just past) have been split into 2 segments in the guide incorrectly - they were labeled "saturday race" and "sunday race" when there is only ever a single nation wide race on only 1 day of any given weekend (sprint cup can sometimes have 2 races during a weekend but this isn't the norm). This is usually Saturday US time unless it is a standalone race (not paired with a "Sprint Cup" race) like the Mexico Race was.

The Race last weekend (and i've seen this at least once before) was listed as 2 consecutive timeslots, the first was 4:00am-5:00am, and the second was 5:00am - 6:30am IIRC.

If you guys at ICE are un-sure of a race format, can you please check the Marcos Ambrose (Aussie racer who moved to the USA to compete in NASCAR) website as he usually lists the next race and some details on his site (www.marcosambrose.com) or even Wikipedia which has tons of info on NASCAR?



I realise im not the most popular ICE customer here (due to my willingness to to call things as I see them) but I'd really appreciate it if you guy's would remember that i am a long-time paying customer who would like to get what he pays for (an accurate EPG for the purpose of easily recording TV series) and I have been a vocal proponent of your EPG service across the Aussie DTV, Topfield & other TV related forums.

I realise you guy's dont have the easiest of jobs and so on, but I only point out issues with the ICE Guide to help ICE improve the service. As a former Service Management Consultant I believe that the first priortity of managing customer issues is to communicate with the customer in a timely and honest manner even if you are unable assist them at the time. Silence and in-action is the fastest way to frustrate and anger a customer - this will rapidly undo hard earned goodwill.

Sincerely Derek.

[Soft Padding:]

Hi Ice Folk,

Can we please get Ice Remote to allow Selectable Padding Type? (ie: Soft Padding or Hard Padding)

Currently ICE Remote uses "Soft Padding" (global setting) to extend the record length etc - this is fine for most ppl who only have 1 or 2 tuners but for folks with 3+ Tuners (tons of us over at the aus media center forums) its limitations are a pest. eg:

Soft Padding: means that if you have 2 back-to-back shows on the same channel both programmed to record and both with "soft padding", you will get the end of the first show in the recording of the second show as VMC/MCE will use a single tuner to record both shows.

This means that if someone in your household watches the second show and deletes it when done you will loose then end of the first show, as the 2nd recording will start on time as per the published schedule. (thanks to the networks being morons and deliberately not sticking to schedules!  >:( )


If using Hard Padding instead it means that if you have 2 back-to-back shows on the same channel both programmed to record and both with "Hard Padding" (via advanced record), you will get both shows recorded using 2 tuners and both shows will be 100% intact as per the specified padding.

This means that if someone in your household watches the second show and deletes it when done, you will NOT loose then end of the first show as the both recordings use your specified start finish times (padding).

WebGuide does this currently, which is why i use it (+ ICE Guide) for sheduing "series records", but I would love to go back to using Ice Remote to take advantage of the new "recomentation" feature and others.

[Title:]

ICE Guy's, can you please fix the NASCAR listings as media Center owners cant set series recordings!

I, and im sure many other paying ICE customers, would like to be able to set series recordings for either 1 or both of the 2 NASCAR series and until ICE start titling NASCAR events properly (eg just like any other series ICE have previously shown in their guide) paying ICE customers cant do this!

eg:

Title: Motor Sport: NASCAR Nationwide Series
Subtitle:  2008 Camping World 300 at Daytona International Speedway
Description: NASCAR Nationwide Series for 2008 starts in Daytona for the Orbitz 300.

and

Title: Motor Sport: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Subtitle: 2008 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway
Description: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for 2008 starts with the classic Daytona 500.

and

Title:Motor Sport: NASCAR - Nationwide Series
Subtitle:Stater Brothers 300
Description: Once again, California Speedway hosts the second race of the NASCAR Nationwide Series, the Stater Brothers 300. This year it's being held on the same day as the San Bernardino County 200 Craftsman Truck races. Last year's winner Matt Kenseth is sitting 5th on the table after just one race with Tony Stewart leading the series from his Toyota teammate Kyle Busch.


It took me 1 Google search on "Stater Brothers 300" to find that is was part of the Nationwide Series!

Seriously guy's im only asking for changes that will improve the ICE TV service for Media Center users who dont have the luxury of TED/S for the Toppy 5000 which can have series records based on keywords combined with logic algorithms.

I really cant imagine why this wasn't done in the first place?

["Cricket: One Day Cricket International"]

Pretty Simple Poll folks, If you would like more info please see this Topic I started:

http://www.icetv.com.au/iceforum/index.php?topic=945.0

Essentially tho I see the problem as this, the practice of putting the year in the main title of sports series forces us to create year by year series recordings and having to keep an eye out for them in the guide, this defeats the point series recordings.

ICE dont do it for the "Cricket: One Day Cricket International" or "Extreme Sport: Planet X Summer Games", but they do it to other sports series like Motor Sports, Cycling, Soccer and so on.

["Cricket: One Day Cricket International"]

If you look at the 2 screen shots attached you will see 3 Nascar events, these are all part of the "Sprint Cup Series" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASCAR_Sprint_Cup there is also the "Nationwide Series" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_Series and the "Craftsman Truck Series" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craftsman_Truck_Series.

Can we please have all Nascar races correctly titled by series so we can set a "series" timer using Remote or WebGuide or whatever? We should be able to record by series just like the V8 SuperCars, Fujitsu V8 Supercars (feeder category), V8 Utes, Formula One etc.

As you can see from my first screen shot I cant set a series timer for these because they are titles by event, not series.

I (and im sure many others) would also appreciate it if you would stop the practice of putting the year in the main title of sports series! you dont do it for the "Cricket: One Day Cricket International" or "Extreme Sport: Planet X Summer Games" so why is it being done to other sports series? This forces us to create year by year series recordings and having to keep an eye out for them in the guide, this defeats the point series recordings.

Can we please have a standard of and putting the year in the sub-title instead?