XMLTV shows all shows as First Run?

[laurenglenn]

Thanks to everyone here (and of course developers and web sites) XMLTV is up and running here. :)

The only problem I'm having is that Sage is showing all the shows as being First Run. Does the XMLTV file indicate FirstRun/Re-Run or is there some setting for the plug-in I can change?

Thanks,
Lauren

[fidget]

Originally posted by laurenglenn
The only problem I'm having is that Sage is showing all the shows as being First Run. Does the XMLTV file indicate FirstRun/Re-Run or is there some setting for the plug-in I can change?


If you look at the XMLTV format (http://membled.com/work/apps/xmltv/) you will see that it doesn't have a field for reruns (I really wish I knew why). They are working on a new file format (http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/*checkout*/xmltv/xmltv/todo/xmltv-0.6.dtd?rev=HEAD&content-type=text/plain) that does have that information. Go to the link and look for 'newness' and you should find it.

Since I am also stuck with using XMLTV for now, I really hope that they get the new file format going soon.

- Jonathan

p.s., I seem to recall (I'm not currently at home so can't check this out) that the stripper sees "(R)" at the end of the program names. Look through the readme files. I was playing with the utility that generated the HTML guide listing and remember seeing the marking. If you know java well enough, you may be able to extract that data (and make many many friends :)).

[corykim]

The XMLTV format does have a field that _nearly_ maps to first-run/re-run status, called "previously-shown". I believe the XML plugin uses this field. I've noticed that the network feeds tend to flag their shows properly, but the channels that run syndicated re-runs do may set 'previously-shown' to false, because they haven't been previously shown on _that_ channel. Kinda sucks, but it's all you have for now.

[fidget]

I never really waded through the XML file before so I didn't notice the "<previously-shown />" field.

[fidget]

I was looking through the plugin interface and can't see how someone could specify a rerun. Is it even possible?

[corykim]

If you look at the documentation for addShowPublic, you'll spot this:

* Call this to add a Show to the database. If a show with this extID is already present, it will be updated
* to this information. You can use null or String[0] for any fields you don't want to specify.
* title - the title of the show (use for reruns)
* primeTitle - the title of the show (use for first runs)

[fidget]

Originally posted by corykim
If you look at the documentation for addShowPublic, you'll spot this:

* Call this to add a Show to the database. If a show with this extID is already present, it will be updated
* to this information. You can use null or String[0] for any fields you don't want to specify.
* title - the title of the show (use for reruns)
* primeTitle - the title of the show (use for first runs)

So, if someone who knew Java (not me, unfortunately) wanted to modify the XMLTV plugin, all they would need to do is provide the data for "title" if they saw the "<previously-shown />" tag, and primeTitle if they didn't?

- Jonathan

[corykim]

Yes, and someone named Lester did that. The feature is currently in the XMLTV plugin. What we can't help, though, is if some local channel is playing a syndicated re-run, without marking the previously-shown field. I looked at my XML files and discovered that to be the case. If they do this, it's still technically accurate, because previously-shown is specific to that broadcaster.

[corykim]

Another note: one thing you _can_ do, if you're a programmer of any scripting language at all, is to write a program that looks for the offending channels, and inserts a date, any date, in that field.