Underbelly - Sunday night repeats not flagged, sub-titles MIA for VMC

Started by dJOS, March 10, 2009, 04:47:36 PM

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marcusstringer

This is still not fixed...

For other reasons (expired service) I had to re do Guide and yada yada yada...

Anyway last night I thought I'd check and Lo and behold there is still no REPEAT Flag on this series. SUNDAY NIGHTs

once again... VMC

Can someone please tell me this is being sorted out so I can stop posting, to let you know that it's still not fixed.
Marcus
Twitter: @MarcusStringer
www.midlandtypsetters.com.au

marcusstringer

Underbelly has been fixed for Sunday 29th.
It is now showing the (Repeat) flag


Good job
Thanks guys...
Marcus
Twitter: @MarcusStringer
www.midlandtypsetters.com.au

dJOS

My Home Theatre Project

Quad Tuner 7MC box now replaced by 2x TiVo's HD's by order of the Wife!

dJOS

And now it's broken again - sunday night is back and showing as a first run.  ???
My Home Theatre Project

Quad Tuner 7MC box now replaced by 2x TiVo's HD's by order of the Wife!

marcusstringer

This is what I see in the interactive website, so... it's ok from the IceTV Website



It's ok in the  iPhone app...

So there must be something wrong with the information from IceTV's website to our VMC boxes...

I really think, judging by the amount of threads about the interactive not working/guide update data not working, that they a problem.

I would be nice if this was confirmed or denied, so we can all stop posting about it.

Marcus
Twitter: @MarcusStringer
www.midlandtypsetters.com.au

Russell at IceTV

We're aware of the problem you guys are reporting, and are looking into it.  I'll let you know as soon as we have something.

Thanks,
Russell

marcusstringer

Marcus
Twitter: @MarcusStringer
www.midlandtypsetters.com.au

Russell at IceTV

Ok guys, I've spent some time looking into this, and I think I understand now what's happening.

When you create a series recording in MCE, and tell it to only record new shows (and not repeats), it does just that, but it also tries to outsmart the guide data and record what it thinks you really want.  I'll explain...

In this case, new episodes of Underbelly are on Monday nights and repeated the following Sunday.  Everything in the MCE guide data looks correct, just like it does on the web site.  Monday is new, Sunday is a repeat.  But when I look at it in MCE, it's not what you might expect.

Looking at the episode on Sunday, 29/03, it shows an "Original air date" below the description of "23/03/2009", which is correct -- this episode, "Diamonds" originally aired the Monday before, on 23/03.  But up at the top, it doesn't show "Repeat" next to the episode name.  And when I create a series recording for this program and tell it to only record new episodes, it schedules this episode to be recorded as well.  So the question is, why?

The answer is because of the way MCE does its scheduling when a new episode is repeated a few days later.  If for some reason it couldn't record the new episode on the original air date (last Monday), because maybe there was a scheduling conflict or something, it records the repeated one on Sunday to help you out.  It considers the repeated one on Sunday as a "new" showing, since it's only a few days later.  When I changed the original air date to "01/01/1900" as a test, it suddenly showed "Repeat" next to the episode name, and unscheduled that episode.

Take a look at the two attached screenshots below, one with the original air date set to "23/03/2009" (scheduled to record, and without the word "Repeat") and the other with the original air date set to "01/01/1900" (not scheduled to record, with "Repeat").

Now, I don't know exactly what you guys are seeing, or what got recorded on your machine last week, but my gut feeling is that this is what's causing the problem.  One solution would be to stop using original air dates completely, but that would disable MCE's "feature" of outsmarting the guide and recording a repeat because it knows it's actually just a repeat of a new episode that was recently aired.  That doesn't seem like a great idea.  So with all this info in mind, take a look at your guide again, compare your screens to my screenshots below, check to see what's scheduled for recording, as well as what was recorded the previous week, and let me know.  I'm sure we can figure this out somehow.

Thanks,
Russell

marcusstringer

Close but not quite right Russell, for me anyway.

Give me a minute, as I'm at work and need to doctor up some images for you, because I'm not series recording this...
Marcus
Twitter: @MarcusStringer
www.midlandtypsetters.com.au

marcusstringer

Ok this is what I'm seeing:



This is what I should be seeing:



I think that's how it's displayed, from memory...

And this is what I see from IceTV's website guide listing:



I don't series record, so it's a but of an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a brown paper bag
Marcus
Twitter: @MarcusStringer
www.midlandtypsetters.com.au

Russell at IceTV

Right, that's pretty much what I'm seeing too.  The original air date is 23/03/2009, but it doesn't mark it as a repeat, and it doesn't show "Repeat" next to the episode name.

Whether you're using a series recording or not, I think it's the same problem and the same thing causing it: when the original air date is "fairly close" to the date it's being repeated on, MCE overrides the normal repeat status and treats it as new.  If you're using a series recording, it records it unless it was recorded the previous Monday (when it was new).  And if you're not using a series recording, it makes it hard to figure out if it's a repeat or not because it doesn't show the word "Repeat".

Since MCE doesn't show the original air date in the guide view, the only way I know of to figure out if it's a repeat or not is to click the program name and look for an original air date on the details screen.  If there's any original air date at all, even if it's 01/01/1900 (meaning, we know it's a repeat, but we don't have the exact original air date in our database), then it's a repeat.  If there's no original air date at all, it's new.

I feel your pain on this one, but I'm not sure what we can do.  As I said before, we could remove the original air date from episodes of Underbelly, but it'd also be removing a feature in MCE.  And some people might actually be using the feature, especially if they only have one tuner, and rely on the second airing the following week, but don't want the "real repeats" (like episodes from 2 years ago).

I'm open to suggestions on how to deal with this problem/feature tho...

Thanks,
Russell

marcusstringer

So, just to understand this:

The Guide goes off the Title wording of "Underbelly: The tale of two cites"
And not the Episode name?

So even though there is 6 days between the first showing and the repeat, it still won't pick up because it's too close to the of the monday night screening, different episode, but same title.

Can you change it to read truncated Title then episode i.e

Underbelly: Dimonds

instead of title, subtitle
Underbelly: A tale of two cities
Marcus
Twitter: @MarcusStringer
www.midlandtypsetters.com.au

Russell at IceTV

Quote from: marcusstringer on March 27, 2009, 10:07:47 AM
The Guide goes off the Title wording of "Underbelly: The tale of two cites" and not the Episode name?

Actually it goes by the ID numbers in the MCE guide data, but for discussion purposes, we can say that it goes by both the series and episode names together.  So for example the series name "Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities" and the episode name "Diamonds".  If a series doesn't have any episodes, then it just goes by the series name.

One catch here is that sometimes you may see a series with no episode, even though it should have one -- this happens with shows on channel Nine (like Underbelly) a bit more often because of the restricted method we use in creating the guide for those channels (the court case, etc.).  So sometimes you might see it listed as just "Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities" with no episode, and that might be throwing things off here as well, because MCE treats it differently.  Hopefully the episode is filled in before air time, and optimally it's filled in quite a bit in advance so you have a chance to see which episode it is and whether or not it's a repeat, and can decide if you want to record it or not.

If you're not seeing the episode name yet, and you know it should have one, your best bet might be to just wait a bit until the episode name shows up.  Then things might work better with the repeat flag.  It seems to me that when the episode is missing, MCE tends to treat it like a news program (i.e. non-episodic) and thinks it's always new content.  I think this is the problem with "Two and a Half Men" (another show on Nine, so similar guide restrictions) right now, because that series normally has episodes, but I see that the guide hasn't had episodes for it very often lately.  I think MCE is treating it like a news program, and just assuming that every airing is new.

Quote
So even though there is 6 days between the first showing and the repeat, it still won't pick up because it's too close to the of the monday night screening, different episode, but same title.

It's not that it's too close to the Monday following, it's that it's too close to the Monday before.  So if the episode "Diamonds" was originally aired on Monday 23/3, and repeated 6 days later on Sunday 29/3, MCE sees both of them in the guide at the same time and treats the second one as new also, in case there was a scheduling conflict when it first aired.  I believe this only happens when the original airing and the repeat airing are in the guide at the same time.  If it was, say, a year between airings, it would mark the second one with "Repeat" and truly treat it as such.

That help?

Russell

marcusstringer

Oh yeah...I see what your saying it's because they are both within the same 7 day schedule.

And if it were on the Eighth day then it would flagged as a repeat.

That makes sense.

I'll live with that, considering it doesn't happen often...

And I don't expect you to manually change this, every week.

As for Two and Half Men or series's without Episode name from channel nien.
I don't know where you get you guide information from But there are many different souces which list all episodes in order and episode names of upcoming shows.
e.g tvtorrents dot com and/or official websites etc.

That is unless of course channel nien don't stuff everyone around and actually show episodes in order...


Marcus
Twitter: @MarcusStringer
www.midlandtypsetters.com.au

Russell at IceTV

I've talked to the guide team about the situation with "Two And A Half Men", and I think we've come up with a plan.  When they come across a series like this that is normally episodic, but the episode isn't known yet, they'll assign an episode of "N/A".  This should cause MCE to treat it as an episodic series, and show the word "Repeat" when it's truly a repeat.  When they find out the real episode name, they'll change it in the guide.  You should start seeing this happen later today.

Russell