[mythtv-users] Re: MythTV core structure.

[Joseph A. Caputo]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org
> [mailto:mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org]On Behalf Of Jeff Rowe
> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 6:31 PM
> To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> Subject: [mythtv-users] Re: MythTV core structure.
>
>
> In Reply to "Steele Price" <steele at xtcp.net>
> Subject: [mythtv-users] MythTV core structure.
> Message-ID: <HIEILPHPMPFGKOADDEIFGEAIKBAA.steele at xtcp.net>
>
> I am new to the list and have been trying to decide... or figure out if
> certain ideas I had were possible under the code as they are... and you
> message has made it clear that they might not yet be possible...
>
> I too think the TV option, both to watch and record, should be a
> module/modules. I would love to eventually be able to have 1 or more
> backends, with multiple frontends, and limit the abilities of the
> frontends according to thier locations...

You can already have multiple backends & frontends, and each frontend can
have its own custom theme and/or menu setup.  So, for instance, you could
remove the "TV" and "Weather" buttons from the kids' frontend, and only
allow them to listen to music or watch videos with MythVideo.  Currently,
though, this is a (simple) manual process that involves editing the menu
files.

> a good example would be a frontend for the kids room. Being limited to
> playback only certain 'rated' programs, music, and such... this would
> require more XMLTV data for the official ratings setup... plus a
> limitation of the tv section to disallow recordings or only allow
> recordings according to the ratings system of the program... also limit
> thew channels they can watch, and even the timeframe they are allowed to
> watch tv (hey why not? allow a remote admin of these subfrontends on the
> master frontend to adjust the ratings/limitations/etc...)

Well, MythVideo already has a ratings system that allows you to define
ratings levels and lock out anything below (above?) a certain level.  If
this setting is not already host-specific, it can easily be made so.

The problem with ratings for recorded TV programs is that we're limited to
the information we get from the listings provider.  It may not be up to the
XMLTV project, as the XMLTV feed can only report as much data as it gets
from the listings feed (Zap2It.com, for tv_grab_na).  My understanding is
that some of the non-North American XMLTV listings sources do provide more
information like ratings or actors' names, but it's not consistent.  If we
had the information, implementing a ratings level lock for the TV module
similar to MythVideo wouldn't be all that hard.


-JAC