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[imugli]

I've just updated to .97 and will post an update once the guide updates.

Without seeing it in action yet, just want to say Thanks to Yaobing for his work on this.

Now if only MC worked with the full IceTV API 

[imugli]

UPDATE: Is it just me or is the cover art for movies not working? TV series seem to be OK, but movies are missing.

[jmone]

I also see that.  It may be worth asking in the main IceTV thread.  A quick scan of their EPG info shows Coverart art links for TV Series etc but not for Movies.

[imugli]

One for the IceTV guys -

It seems there are no coverart links for movies in the xml data. Is there a reason for this?

Cheers,
J.

[Hendrik]

If they provide an IMDb Id for movies, our metadata lookup should be able to gather some.

[imugli]

I've posted the question in the main IceTV thread.

[imugli]

Couple of comments (some are probably also for ICETV):
- You don't get the channel logos if you can not reach their server (eg they are loaded dynamically each time).
- The originals are PNG and the transparency causes an issue on some channels where the logo is the same colour as the background Black and the Background is dark, eg like this one : http://images.icetv.com.au/channels/sbs-one-v3.png .  I'm not sure how we do the Thumbs in other parts of MC but I've not seen any other stuff disappear like this one into the background
- when doing a Copy to clipboard (first file) > Paste from clipboard (image or URL) you lose transparency (original is a PNG, the copy is a JPG)

According to the changelog, v.82

1. Fixed: Television channel logos' transparency was not retained.

However JM is correct - If I create my own .png logo and import this as the channel logo manually, the transparency is not being kept, however it IS if the file is coming from the icetv URL.

[Yaobing]

However JM is correct - If I create my own .png logo and import this as the channel logo manually, the transparency is not being kept, however it IS if the file is coming from the icetv URL.

The important thing is to use the original image, which is the case for IceTV data because we just use the URL and download the image on the fly.  If you have a local png image, and use Channel Logo > Add From File, make sure you select "No", when asked about saving the file in coverart folder.  The entire Channel Logo submenu is part of coverart tool and I believe it only saves images in jpg format.  So choosing "No" will prevent MC from converting the format, and preserve the original external image.

[colinoice]

We're working on it and it should be in place within a couple of weeks. Apologies but we're on to it.

[jmone]

If they provide an IMDb Id for movies, our metadata lookup should be able to gather some.

Not yet it seems for Movies (they posted in the other thread they hope to add it).  Currently for Movies you get the following (example) from their XML:

Code: [Select]

<programme airingID="131417115" mediaID="44633-0" start="20170412103000 +0000" stop="20170412122500 +0000" channel="2614">
  <title lang="en"> Veronica Mars</title>
  <desc lang="en">After nine years on the opposite side of the country where she settled into a new, stable life with Piz, Veronica gets pulled back in. It's a phone call from Logan Echols that gets her going - and back to Neptune she heads, since Logan has been accused of murder.</desc>
  <credits>
   <director>Rob Thomas</director>
   <actor>Kristen Bell</actor>
   <actor>Jason Dohring</actor>
   <actor>Enrico Colantoni</actor>
  </credits>
  <date>2014</date>
  <category lang="en">Movie</category>
  <language lang="en">English</language>
  <country lang="en">United States</country>
  <video>
   <present>yes</present>
   <colour>yes</colour>
   <aspect>16:9</aspect>
   <quality>SDTV</quality>
  </video>
  <previously-shown start="2016-10-15" />
  <rating system="ACMA">
   <value>M</value>
  </rating>
 </programme>
So we currently know that an entry is a Movie and have the Name, and Year.  So a simple search for Veronica Mars 2014 on IMDb works.

[imugli]

The important thing is to use the original image, which is the case for IceTV data because we just use the URL and download the image on the fly.  If you have a local png image, and use Channel Logo > Add From File, make sure you select "No", when asked about saving the file in coverart folder.  The entire Channel Logo submenu is part of coverart tool and I believe it only saves images in jpg format.  So choosing "No" will prevent MC from converting the format, and preserve the original external image.

Fantastic! Thanks for that Yaobing. I'm using the icetv logos for most of the channels, but as JM said, some of them are black, which didn't really work in theatre view, so I've inverted the colours on those ones.

BTW, I'm really liking how this is integrating now. Thanks for your work, Yaobing.

[imugli]

No need to apologise - it's great to see you guys on the way back after the debacle of last year. Keep up the good work 😊

[rpalmer68]

I've jumped on board, having being using free scrapers for many years, initial results look excellent.

Thank you to the IceTV guys and Yaobing for the great work.

[imugli]

Yaobing, am I missing something? When I add a cover art from a file, I don't get the option of whether or not to save to cover art folder...

[Yaobing]

Yaobing, am I missing something? When I add a cover art from a file, I don't get the option of whether or not to save to cover art folder...

Had you checked "don't show this again" checkbox previously?

[imugli]

Yep. Reset it and all is good. Thanks Yaobing.

JM, I suggest you invert the colours of the SBS and SBS Food logos and import these manually.

This is looking great! Now I'm thinking about more improvements - like perhaps the option to use the channel logo instead of the channel name on the OSD? The cover art to the side of the description on the info OSD? Just thinking out loud here 😊

[belgarion]

One for the IceTV guys -

It seems there are no coverart links for movies in the xml data. Is there a reason for this?

Cheers,
J.

As an addition to Colin's timeline, with the movie images we will also be adding another episode-num scheme for the moviedb similar to the current tvdb one with ID's for the moviedb.

[jmone]

FYI - I've merged the thread from the Beta Forum now V97 is out.

[Dantos]

Just started using IceTV EPG in Australia. I find it much better than OTA EPG,

Just a couple questions:

IceTV does not fill in all the channels. Not a big deal since they are channels I do not watch. It got me wondering tho - firstly, could I fill in those channels via OTA EPG (without wiping out the IceTV data) and more importantly, could meta data like missing series/episodes be somehow supplemented from other sources.

MC has an option not to record duplicates or reruns etc based on a field like name, description or series/episode. If those fields are blank or default/generic values that MC has previously recorded, will MC see all such future instances as "this is the same value as a previous recording" and therefore NOT record? Is it better to choose multiple fields or just one?

Thanks
David

[RoderickGI]

firstly, could I fill in those channels via OTA EPG (without wiping out the IceTV data)

Yes. You can run IceTV for all the channels they support, and then the MC OTA EPG collection for only the remaining channels. You can manage that in MC TV Setup using two processes, with an IceTV XML file import and a separate MC OTA EPG Collection.

Someone has written about that previously around here somewhere.

and more importantly, could meta data like missing series/episodes be somehow supplemented from other sources.

Yes. You could run EPGCollector for the remaining channels instead of the MC OTA EPG collection, then use the built-in Metadata lookup in EPGCollector to add data. However, if the OTA EIT data is really rubbish, neither EPGCollector or any other tool is going to improve the metadata much. You may find another source for the EPG for the missing channels, but that isn't likely in Australia. There a some still available I think, but they are a lot of work.

Then you just run two XMLTV file imports. One for IceTV and one for EPGCollector.

You can also pass the XMLTV file to EPGCollector as part of its run, where it collects just for the missing channels. I think you could also run the additional metadata lookup for all data that way, but it probably won't improve the IceTV data, and may break it. You would have to try it if you wanted to.

I haven't implemented IceTV since their revival, so I haven't implemented the above solutions. YMMV.

Note: I read somewhere that MHEG5 data is still available OTA, but I haven't tested that. It may have just been for New Zealand. If MHEG5 data is available in Australia that is much better than EIT, and gets improved a lot by the EPGCollector lookup process.

MC has an option not to record duplicates or reruns etc based on a field like name, description or series/episode. If those fields are blank or default/generic values that MC has previously recorded, will MC see all such future instances as "this is the same value as a previous recording" and therefore NOT record?

No. The metadata selected must match.

Is it better to choose multiple fields or just one?

Less is better when using the option not to record duplicates. Series, Season and Episode are best. Series and Name are next best. Using the Description is bad at any time, as it varies too much. Broadcasters deliberately obfuscate repeat shows all the time. Even out beloved ABC doesn't give Season and Episode metadata at the moment for most programs, and all repeats have generic names, often for the Series and Name. i.e. Doctor Who just gets the Series and (Episode) Name for new programs, which is enough for EPGCollector to find additional metadata. But for repeats both Series and Name are just set to "Doctor Who". Often the Description as well. @#!&^%@)*&

[Dantos]

Okay and thank you Roderick very much for the detailed reply

No. The metadata selected must match. Less is better when using the option not to record duplicates. Series, Season and Episode are best. Series and Name are next best. Using the Description is bad at any time, as it varies too much. Broadcasters deliberately obfuscate repeat shows all the time. Even out beloved ABC doesn't give Season and Episode metadata at the moment for most programs, and all repeats have generic names, often for the Series and Name. i.e. Doctor Who just gets the Series and (Episode) Name for new programs, which is enough for EPGCollector to find additional metadata. But for repeats both Series and Name are just set to "Doctor Who". Often the Description as well. @#!&^%@)*&

If you always had Series, season and episode metadata its a no brainer to choose this data as the basis for preventing duplicates. If Series, Season and Episode is selected to prevent duplicates and the EPG just shows "Series name" like "Frasier" for every showing but not a name for the particular episode and shows season = -1 and episode = -1 , will MC record all broadcasts, or no broadcasts if it sees every Frasier Season -1 and  episode  -1 as a match = duplicate ?

[RoderickGI]

If the fields selected aren't an exact match, the duplicate program will be recorded. Better to get more and redundant recordings than to miss some.

I pretty much only use Name and Series Name now, with the poor quality OTA EIT data. Even then I get duplicates, and sometimes miss shows because all showings just have the Name and Series Name are always just the Series name. Then I turn off the duplicate part of the rule and record everything.

I've never seen Season and Episode set to -1 that I can remember, but if you had Series = Frasier, Season= -1, and Epsiode= -1 for every showing, and used those fields for the duplicate rule, then only the first showing would be recorded.

[Dantos]

If the fields selected aren't an exact match, the duplicate program will be recorded. Better to get more and redundant recordings than to miss some.

I pretty much only use Name and Series Name now, with the poor quality OTA EIT data. Even then I get duplicates, and sometimes miss shows because all showings just have the Name and Series Name are always just the Series name. Then I turn off the duplicate part of the rule and record everything.

I've never seen Season and Episode set to -1 that I can remember, but if you had Series = Frasier, Season= -1, and Epsiode= -1 for every showing, and used those fields for the duplicate rule, then only the first showing would be recorded.

Okay thank you very much for this.

ICeTV appears to be doing a good job getting Season and episode info. For those shows where such info is not available, at least I now understand how MC will work with potential duplicates. Thanks again