[mythtv-users] Inconsistent treatment of starttime/endtime vs runtime

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Tue Apr 21 04:11:44 UTC 2009


On 04/12/2009 12:07 AM, f-myth-users at media.mit.edu wrote:
> [Should this be on -dev?]
>   

Now I've done some research.  I will say, "Definitely, no!"

> I've been burned a few times by the following inconsistency.  I'm
> running a very old Myth, but it appears that the relevant code is
> essentially unchanged (except for formatting changes) all the way
> up to at least 0.21.  Can someone tell me what Myth is -supposed-
> to be doing here?  Or maybe this is already fixed in SVN?
>
> Check out the following data from SD:
>
>     <schedule program='MV000273580000' station='12852' time='2009-04-11T13:00:00Z' duration='PT03H00M'/>
>
>     <program id='MV000273580000'>
>     <title>Little Dorrit Part Two: Little Dorrit&apos;s Story</title>
>     <description>Dickens&apos; tale of a girl (Sarah Pickering), her father (Alec Guinness) and their benefactor (Derek Jacobi) is seen through the girl&apos;s eyes.</description>
>     <mpaaRating>G</mpaaRating>
>     <starRating>***+</starRating>
>     <runTime>PT03H03M</runTime>
>     <year>1988</year>
>     </program>
>
> Note carefully that the duration in the "schedule" tag is exactly 3
> hours, but the one listed in the runTime tag is 3 hours and 3 minutes.
> (The TCM website currently claims that this is actually 184 minutes,
> or 3 hours and -4- minutes, but -also- that the showing starts at
> 9am and ends at noon.)
>
> Obviously this data is inconsistent.

Wrong.  Facts:

a) The <runTime> element is only included in MV* (movie) <program> elements.
b) The same <program> element is referenced in multiple <schedule> 
elements--regardless of the starttime and duration of those scheduled 
airings of the movie.

And--though I have not yet confirmed this by having someone with access 
to the data definition for the TMS DD-format raw data--I'm almost 100% 
positive that the <runTime> is the original runtime of the movie as 
released.  It does /not/ take into account the "This movie has been 
edited to fit your screen *and to run in the time allotted*."

<title>I Still Know What You Did Last Summer</title>
<runTime>PT01H41M</runTime>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130018/ states Runtime: 100min

<title>The Magnificent Seven</title>
<runTime>PT02H06M</runTime>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054047/ states Runtime: 128min

<title>The Angry Red Planet</title>
<runTime>PT01H23M</runTime>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052564/ states Runtime: 83min

<title>Amityville II: The Possession</title>
<runTime>PT01H44M</runTime>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083550/ states Runtime: 100min

<title>Dances With Wolves</title>
<runTime>PT03H00M</runTime>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099348/ states Runtime: 180min

<title>Rocky IV</title>
<runTime>PT01H31M</runTime>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089927/ states Runtime: 91min

Yeah, they're not all exact, but it's enough to convince me (especially 
considering that the imdb data is just contributed by users).  I can 
keep going, if you need more proof--and, of course, if you need me to 
continue doing the research you should have done yourself before riling 
up the -users and getting the mob to cry out for implementing these 
changes to fix a "bug" in Myth.

Note, also, that these same <program> elements that contain the 
<runTime> element list "<advisory>Nudity</advisory>" for many of the 
movies shown in my listings.  However, as I get /only/ OTA broadcasts in 
the US, none of them actually contain any nudity.  The runTime--just 
like the Nudity advisory--is /meaningless/ in the context of the 
schedule, as it's just information about the /original/ program, not 
what's actually airing.

Now, I know you have no reason to believe anything I said.  I know I'm 
not a -developer-, so my opinion is meaningless to you.  But--here's my 
theory--the actual -developer-s have far better things to do than waste 
literally hours of their time trying to quell the dissidence when 
someone throws up an idea--without doing the research--and convinces a 
bunch of other people that the idea has merit so they start arguing for 
its implementation.  They're probably actually using the free time they 
devote to MythTV to -develop- code rather than doing the research that 
the person who threw up the idea should have done.

Mike "Not a -developer-" Dean

...I wonder how much code I could have written (not -developed-, you 
see, because I'm "not a -developer-") for MythTV had I not wasted all 
those hours on this thread...


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