[mythtv-users] Integrating non-traditional program sources into MythTV (won't tell you what it 'was:')

Nick Rout nick.rout at gmail.com
Wed Jul 23 22:46:41 UTC 2008


On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 3:57 AM, Jay R. Ashworth <jra at baylink.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 10:16:03AM -0500, Kevin Kuphal wrote:
>>    The guide is channel/time.  RSS enclosures have no time other than
>>    publication or downloaded time associated with them so they don't lend
>>    themselves well to be displayed in a time based grid that stretches for up
>>    to 14 days into the future.
>
> Perhaps, though I think "fake it" is still an acceptable answer.
>
> But the grid display is not so much what I'm concerned about as the
> search interaction.

I think there are at least two ways in which rss might be used by the end user:

1. there is a vidcast where you know you want to watch every episode,
so you want to tell the system to download it whenever a new one is
added to the feed. There is no real searching going on here, it will
just check the feed periodically and maybe email someone when a new
one is ready to watch.

2. others may prefer to subscribe to a large number of feeds but only
download the episodes that take their fancy, either based on browsing
and selecting, or on seearch parameters (eg the Rob Lowe example given
a few days ago). This is a bit more like using the programme guide.
Put it in a matrix looking like the EPG, with channel corresponding to
feed and the episodes in a grid. No time is needed, just put the most
recent on the left (configurable). Some feeds will have 20 episodes
available, some will have 5. Its no different to the epg when one
channel lhas 10 days data and one has 7 days. Clicking on a episode
will give an option to mark it for download, with prioritisation (see
para below). It may also give an option to always download this feed
(ie type one above).

This could also be done in the RSS newsreader, but a user interface
that is more consistent with the EPG might make for a more consistent
user experience. Especially if you are integrating the watching with
Recorded Programmes. More logical for the user to use similar
interfaces for getting material that ends up in the same place.

On top of this is resource management - don't download at 3.00 pm to
10.00 pm when there is huge network contention, don't choke the net
connection with more than [arbitrary number] of simultaneous
downloads, don't fill the drive more than 95%, expire downloads using
the same logic as TV programmes, whatever.

Anyway, just some thoughts, I am neither a programmer nor a gui expert. :)


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