When I set Neighbours to record series on Channel Ten the first one shows that it will record but the all next week it shows "Another airing will be recorded on 2/03/2009"
Same thing if I try to series record National Nine News.
Am I doing something wrong here? Anyone else with this issue? ???
(oh, and I'm in Perth)
Hi there,
Thanks for reporting this. Looks like you're right, we have an issue with recording shows that are serial but not episodic -- like news programs, or shows like Neighbours that don't have episodes. We're looking into it now and I'll post something back to this board when I know more.
Thanks,
Russell
Hi, sorry for the delay on this.
I'm waiting to hear back from Microsoft as to how this type of program should best be handled in the guide. As soon as I get more info I'll update the guide for Win7 and get the problem fixed. I've tried everything in their documentation but nothing so far seems to do the trick.
Thanks,
Russell
i think it's because you only have one entry for neighbours in the <program> listing, and then repeat it in the Schedule entries in order to fill the 5 day schedule. Mediacentre just thinks they're the same episode as aired previously.
If you maybe duplicated Neighbours five times in the program listings , with unique uid's
<Program id="520" uid="!Program!125-090301" title="Neighbours" description="The residents of Ramsay Street have been opening their homes to us for many years whilst we've witnessed the dramas, loves, hilarity and tragedies that unite this community and so continue to ensure that good neighbours...become good friends." mpaaRating="1" keywords="k767,k7" series="si317" isSeries="1"/>
<Program id="521" uid="!Program!125-090302" title="Neighbours" description="The residents of Ramsay Street have been opening their homes to us for many years whilst we've witnessed the dramas, loves, hilarity and tragedies that unite this community and so continue to ensure that good neighbours...become good friends." mpaaRating="1" keywords="k767,k7" series="si317" isSeries="1"/>
<Program id="522]" uid="!Program!125-090303" title="Neighbours" description="The residents of Ramsay Street have been opening their homes to us for many years whilst we've witnessed the dramas, loves, hilarity and tragedies that unite this community and so continue to ensure that good neighbours...become good friends." mpaaRating="1" keywords="k767,k7" series="si317" isSeries="1"/>
<Program id="523]" uid="!Program!125-090304" title="Neighbours" description="The residents of Ramsay Street have been opening their homes to us for many years whilst we've witnessed the dramas, loves, hilarity and tragedies that unite this community and so continue to ensure that good neighbours...become good friends." mpaaRating="1" keywords="k767,k7" series="si317" isSeries="1"/>
<Program id="524" uid="!Program!125-090305" title="Neighbours" description="The residents of Ramsay Street have been opening their homes to us for many years whilst we've witnessed the dramas, loves, hilarity and tragedies that unite this community and so continue to ensure that good neighbours...become good friends." mpaaRating="1" keywords="k767,k7" series="si317" isSeries="1"/>
<Program id="525" uid="!Program!125-090306" title="Neighbours" description="The residents of Ramsay Street have been opening their homes to us for many years whilst we've witnessed the dramas, loves, hilarity and tragedies that unite this community and so continue to ensure that good neighbours...become good friends." mpaaRating="1" keywords="k767,k7" series="si317" isSeries="1"/>
That should work (I think), in identifying each individual episode to the guide (the uids are based on the air date). Alternatively, you could deal with it the same way as you have with The Simpsons, each episode of The Simpsons has it's own Program ID, as well as uid.
It's an interesting idea, and I think you're right, it would probably solve the problem. But I don't think that's what Microsoft intended actually (altho I could be wrong). The docs indicate that it should be possible to do it with just one program element, with attributes that tell how it should be handled. The program element can have flags for isSeries and isSerial, plus the originalAirDate and series values, so I think those should be enough, but none of the combinations I tried seemed to work. I hope we don't have to repeat the same program for each time it's aired, because that'd be a real pain. If someone figures it out before I hear back from Microsoft, I'd love to hear the solution.
Thanks,
Russell
Yep, I've been looking at the docs. The way I read it, the episodes should be listed individually in the program element.
Quote
"A Program element defines a unique piece of content. For example a particular episode of the tv series."
If there is only one program element, but it's added in 5 times to the schedule entry, I think the way Win7 is currently handling it is an expected behaviour.
Because there are really 5 episodes listed per week, even if they're not readily identifiable by episode name or content, they should be defined as 5 episodes. I think isSeries & isSerial (not sure what the difference between them) is there to make advanced recording options available through the UI.
I hope I'm wrong, but that's my interpretation of that bit of the documentation.
Is there any progress on this issue?
If not, is there any reason you can't do as dgaust suggests until you hear of the propper way to handle it from from MS?
Sorry, I'm afraid I haven't heard back from Microsoft yet, but I'll try again and see if I can get a response soon.
My feeling at the moment is that there should be a way to do this without having to repeat the program element for every showing during the week. This would be a real pain for us to have to do, or I'd just do it temporarily until we had the real answer. The reason I think it should be possible is that the MCE guide has always just listed the program once, even back to the original XP and Vista version. In that version, the program element had a "program attribute" value, which I think worked like the isSeries and isSerial flags (and maybe originalAirdate and maybe the SeriesInfo element) in the Win7 version. For the news programs in the old version, we set the program attribute to indicate that it's not a series, and it's not episodic. MCE is then able to handle the series recordings correctly. I think we either don't have the right combination of flags and elements yet, or maybe there's just a bug in Win7.
I'll try Microsoft again and see what I can find.
Russell
Thank you for the update regarding this issue Russell. I appreciate the extra work you are putting in on, especailly since it's for a unreleased operating system.
Lets hope you get a good answer from microsoft.
Dear Russell
Thanks for your response. Does this mean (heaven forbid) that I would not experience the problem if I switched to the EIT data?
Regards
Stuart
Has this issue been sorted yet? I have just installed Win7 and IceTV and it still appears to be an issue?
IceFragmatic
(no relative of IceTV)
me too ..
it's good there's a beta ... but a bit of an annoying issue ...
Hi guys, just an update on this...
Well, unfortunately we're not getting anywhere with Microsoft as to a better way to solve the problem, so it looks like it'll have to be the hard way. The fix is definitely on our To Do list, but at the moment it's being pushed aside by some major changes we're making to the Interactive web site. We're hoping to release those in the very near future, so as soon as that's done I'll hopefully be able to look at this problem again.
Thanks for the patience, I know it's frustrating that it's not working right, even though it is a beta.
Russell
I suggest if this is a problem look at the link below.
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/big-screen-software/35139-big-screen-epg-0-1-beta-discussion-support-thread-29.html#post251719
Hi,
Just wondering if there is any update on this issue - the WAF is diminishing on a daily basis.. I understand it's beta software etc, but would appreciate an idea of when this is likely to be fixed.
Alternatively, can you give an overview of what needs to happen to the XML to make it work - I'll then try to throw together something quick to fudge the XML before importing it into Media Center. At least this should mean I can get the few shows having this issue to record
Thanks
Kane
Yes, beta or no beta, a lot of people are using Win7 for production machines and this deserves attention if for no other reason that ppl will not renew their subscriptions (nor buy one at a discounted rate!)
Quote from: hamping on June 02, 2009, 04:39:01 PM
Yes, beta or no beta, a lot of people are using Win7 for production machines and this deserves attention if for no other reason that ppl will not renew their subscriptions (nor buy one at a discounted rate!)
yeah, my problem is that I'm a sucker for a deal, and twice added another year to my subscription when a good offer came out...
So I've still got 2.3 years to run! :)
Yes, some more details on the beta schedule would be great. As previously mentioned the Windows 7 RC's are being used in a production type environment (impossible to run as a beta without splitting your self away from the family to watch TV!), and the guide and scheduling is a key factor to the acceptance of Win7 as a platform for the wife. So it would be nice to have some dates on when there will be some improvements to the icetv beta, otherwise in my case, I will need to revert back to the Win7 EPG or boot back to Vista. Neither at this point in time is an attractive path, given that my tuners had become unstable after some patching in Mar2009 and reverting back to Win7's EPG brings along the effort of setting up the recordings again.
Thanks.
OK - this issue is driving me nuts. The main shows I record are ABC News, 7.30 Report, Four Corners and Foreign Correspondent - all of which seems to be afflicted with this issue.
When I first converted to Win7 I used the FREE over the air guide. I only bothered to install the ICE-TV guide because the FREE guide only gives a couple of days of advance schedule on ABC (other channels still provide a week). The limit of two days of advance scheduling was a bit annoying but at least I could record a series with no hassle.
The lack of decent series recording on ICE is a major pain.
I know it's still beta but if all the early adopters start turning away from ICE because a FREE product is better it's going to quickly undermine the business model.
Can we at least have an ETA on the fix?
Quote from: kirlam on June 06, 2009, 07:49:31 AM
The lack of decent series recording on ICE is a major pain.
I know it's still beta but if all the early adopters start turning away from ICE because a FREE product is better it's going to quickly undermine the business model.
Can we at least have an ETA on the fix?
As a workaround, I've installed Big Screen EPG (http://www.bigscreenglobal.com/ (http://www.bigscreenglobal.com/)), which fixes up the Ice data when importing (I believe it just uses the standard ICE data and has it's own import routine). This has solved the issue for me. It does take a bit of setting up (I had to start my media center setup from scratch), but this issue is a show stopper for me, so it was worth it.
It's currently in beta (current version will only last until July 1)
Cheers
Kane
Thanks for the suggestion Kane
The thought of adding yet another filter between the data and the EPG fills me with dread - just another point for the data to get out of alignment.
In the mean time it dawned on me that all of the shows I am having problems with are on at the same time every day/week. I've set up a manual record based on the channel and the time - feel kind of like I've taken a step back to the days of the VCR. At least I now have the full EPG info from ICE and I'm still getting regular recordings of the main shows I want to capture. Should have thought of the work around sooner - it's simple but effective.
Kev
Update posted here: Windows 7 EPG Beta Readme: 09/06/2009 (http://www.icetv.com.au/iceforum/index.php?topic=1864).
Thanks,
Russell