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Automatic record/Season pass type facility - how would that work - how do-able?
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On the lighter side of things, I notice that season pass/link/automatic record is within the top 10 wishlist, but how would that work? I have one suggestion for how it might look on the Humax by using the timer entry/edit screen.
The drop down box for repeat timers (once, daily, weekly) will need to include an extra one called 'all' or 'any'. That way, if in the name field you put in Coronation Street or a keyword like 'Earl' (for My Name Is Earl) the machine will automatically record all or any programmes of the same name that show up in its EPG.
What about repeats? I was thinking that with something like for example Coronation Street you get the repeats on ITV2, so you may end up with Coronation Streets in your playlist that you want to delete because its already been recorded/watched. To get around this better I thought that in the timer screen again, the channel drop down list it should include an 'any' entry. That way, when setting up an automatic record of Corronation Street you can specify from the channel drop down list ITV1 to ovoid the repeats on ITV2 or select 'any' from the channel drop down list to record all instances of Coronation Street that may come up on any channel in the EPG.
So in summary slightly change the timer entry/edit screen to add 'all' to the list of repeat timers in the drop down list/ Then whatever is in the name field and which comes up in the EPG will be recorded. Adding an 'any' entry to the drop down list of channels will add facility to specify whether to record any chosen programme name or keyword only on a specific channel or from any channel.
The drop down box for repeat timers (once, daily, weekly) will need to include an extra one called 'all' or 'any'. That way, if in the name field you put in Coronation Street or a keyword like 'Earl' (for My Name Is Earl) the machine will automatically record all or any programmes of the same name that show up in its EPG.
What about repeats? I was thinking that with something like for example Coronation Street you get the repeats on ITV2, so you may end up with Coronation Streets in your playlist that you want to delete because its already been recorded/watched. To get around this better I thought that in the timer screen again, the channel drop down list it should include an 'any' entry. That way, when setting up an automatic record of Corronation Street you can specify from the channel drop down list ITV1 to ovoid the repeats on ITV2 or select 'any' from the channel drop down list to record all instances of Coronation Street that may come up on any channel in the EPG.
So in summary slightly change the timer entry/edit screen to add 'all' to the list of repeat timers in the drop down list/ Then whatever is in the name field and which comes up in the EPG will be recorded. Adding an 'any' entry to the drop down list of channels will add facility to specify whether to record any chosen programme name or keyword only on a specific channel or from any channel.
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Additional to what I suggested, you could also have the following options...
For controlling when to end the repeat timer
"repeat '_' times"
"between hours '__:__' and '__:__'"
(as the repeats are often on at 00:00 or later).
"exact match" / "partial match"
(LOST is always called LOST but COLUMBO is often appended with some text).
Don't want to over complicate this, but we need flexibility to fine tune this option. I think some mock screen shots showing how this might work would be useful.
I hope we get this!
And my other 11!
You may be right but there have been posts in the recent past around DS to suggest that freeview are pushing a framework out to industry for this sort of thing at the moment. If it doesnt happen say because TIVO will stick their nose in, I dont see how Humax doing their own thing will be a problem. I.e. all the machine is doing is recording based on a search of programmes listed on its internal EPG. He says... :eek:
cool. I would like to suggest this as something that might be doable one day (as its in the peoples top 10 wishlist) but it would be easier if it could be presented in as basic and easy way as possible.
The series link info is broadcast via the Sky EPG, i'm not sure whether broadcasters do this or Sky themselves but either way it is not in the specification for the freeview EPG. What you suggest would require a satellite dish and tuner plugging into the PVR!
Something like that on the Hummy would be very nice indeed.
With Freeview the only 'info' service is the Freeview EPG which is free and hence less maintained and has less useful info. If Humax was to implement the Season Pass/Series Link facility on the Hummy then it would be less than ideal and might not work as well as TiVo's and Sky+'s - so people will be disappointed...
I feel that this might be a lost cause... but... something about being a rebel...
Snail
There are two possibilities I see for the hummy.
a) Freeview agree a way of doing this/implementing this without infringing TIVO patents or settling on agreement with TIVO somehow.
b) Humax do their own thing, which is very much a posibility, where they just implement a repeat timer function that basically records anything that matches a keyword or programme name that comes up in the EPG stored on the machine. Its not series link or season pass because it will not record 'only' a specific and correct season - just anything that matches the criteria - and also it has no way of tracking whether programmes have started earlier or later than scheduled; just whatever the official start and end times in the EPG table.
b) some of the Toppy TAPS already do this so it's quite feasible. In fact when we first started to read about and discuss the 9200 and found that it had "keyword searches" in the EPG I remember hoping that this would do the same as those Toppy taps but was then was mildly disappointed to find that it was just a static rather than a dynamic search
Cliff
If it had something like that, my Fusion would be going back...
A) thats a shame - I thought it would be something that would be adopted earlier by the way I was reading things. Ho hum. But good news never the less for the whole freeview PVR thing; a nice little addition to capability. How it will work, the cost of it, and commitment from broadcasters will be the tough parts. At least TIVO have regular subscriptions coming in (continual streamof money) to fund theirs on an ongoing basis and SKY have the that too with additional clout no doubt to get broadcasters on its system to adopt/commit to it.
b) This was in the top 10 wishlist from people and is still coming up now so I am hopeful that Humax can be persuaded that on the wishlist side of things its something they can look at. For whats already there in the machine its still usable from the point of view you key in a programme name of keyword and it gives you results by searching the EPG stored on it. But you then have to press OK on any of the results you want it to automatically record. With this sort of search functionality built in and the user interface method I described in the first post I am hoping this sort of timer can be implemented. Humax initially didnt think its a real problem for them but warned me it will not be able to react to last minute schedule changes and so dont know if its stil worth it. I think it is.
Unfortunately, it won't be very reliable; take a look, for example, at some of the shows on channels like More 4, or E4, where there are repeats of the same episode during the week, or one night on one channel and another night on a different one.
Very often, the repeat showings have a different synopsis.
You really do need some unique tag to do this sort of thing reliably.
Nigel.
I too think it is worth making an effort. However two factors need to be resolved before attempting it or releasing it.
1. We/users/Humax must disassociate this feature/facility with the Season Pass/Series Link concepts and function. Just term it Keyword Recordings or something. Doing this will make users be less disappointed (as it won't be quite as comparable as TiVo and Sky+) when released and also avoid patent issues with TiVo/Sky (in the future).
2. Humax to build into the 9200T housekeeping routines/options for recorded programmes (like some suggestions in the wish list/software issues stickies). I can foresee that Keyword Recordings will consume space like no other monster, and that not to annoy users housekeeping routines to delete old recordings (based on some rules/markers), etc must be included in or before this feature release...
Marc, if you started a thread with "Keyword Recordings...", then your ideas in this thread will work and you will get other ideas and comments from users and avoid the TiVo/Sky debate diverting your cause
GG:)
1) I agree with this. It isnt a season pass or season link and no provision is there for taking into acount slight last minute scheduling deviations. This is really another timer option for keywork auto-record.
2) If the automatic house keeping suggestion you made to be built into this whole thing is a bridge too far, I would make things just a tad easier to manage quickly recordings you dont want by introducing multiple select for one touch delete and the same thing from the playlist.
Hopefully I will be receiving different softare to evaluate within a month or two that will include things such as check boxes next to item numbers on playlist and the recordings menu. With this one button delete for checked listings it would save time for long playlists, and to deal with cluttered playlists there is also an option to move selected items into a new playlist (like a folder) which I think is orderable by date, name or manually as you like, and can be played out one after the other in one go for VCR scart archiving. I have some screen shots to give you an idea. All good fun but I start to digress. Anything to manage recordings easier or an auto-housekeeping capability would acompany well a keywork autorecord timer.
1. Full name of program
2. Channel
3. Day
If there happened to be a program by any chance being shown on the same channel that day, with the same name, (highly unlikely but still) then the PVR could just ask the user 'all instances' or something equivalent, and the user would choose which one.
Why do they continue to use the times of programs for setting recordings is beyond me, when this is so unreliable.
GG
http://www.europe.guideplus.com/ you will see a demonstration, and note that this epg now includes a feature called 'my choice' where you input your choice of progs and the epg finds all instances. then after the demo, go to
http:// www.europe.guideplus.com/En/news.html to see Gemstars plans regarding Freeview (terrestrial digital)
I was wondering, how would the humax know when a programme name was starting or finishing?
Interesting links for alernative EPGs. The only alternative that PVRs have gone for so far are for the 4TV based ones. I wonder if there have been any PVR or STB manufacturers signed up to GUIDE+ for Freeview EPG based systems. The press release as dated last year so I guess its too early to see them. But it certainly seems like an improvement. Often third part stuff is better.
GG:)
I know this is a bit of a fatuous example but I hope you get the point that string pattern matching is not always as easy as it may first appear.
If however the PVR new that the film Big had ID number #23678433 while all the episodes of Big Brother had the ID #87634246 and these numbers were "hidden" in the program stream along with data such as "#23678433 starts in 2 minutes", "#23678433 starting now", "#23678433 just ended", "#23678433 ended two minutes ago" - THAT would make the PVR software writers job a LOT easier. It might even have (though there'd be advertiser outrage!) "#23678433 starting advert break", "#23678433 ending advert break"
That kind of "hidden" data, (often called "metadata"), that is more machine readable than human readable is what would make for a foolproof system
This is the reason that Sky boxes don't rely on plain DVB-SI for this kind of stuff but have an extended format of programme information data.
Cliff
GG:(
Once, Record Season (all episodes on this channel), Record Season (all in this weekly timeslot, same channel), Record Season (all in this daily timeslot, this channel)
It then has another option which allows you to;
keep all recordings, Keep 1 recording, 2 recordings, 3 recordings, etc.
It also allows you to override the default time padding settings in the same dialog box.
It seems to work pretty well and is probably the feature I miss most on the Humax.
The big problem right now, of course, is that some of the broadcasters simply don't give a toss about the quality of their EPG information; they're only obliged to provide now and next, and for some it seems that even updating that in a timely manner to indicate that a programme is running just doesn't have enough shareholder value to be worth doing right.
Nigel.
Cliff