[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's Story</title>
> <description>Dickens' tale of a girl (Sarah Pickering), her father (Alec Guinness) and their benefactor (Derek Jacobi) is seen through the girl'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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