Caveat: I'm an amateur in this area who knows a bit because I run a MythTV system. Be polite if you correct me.
Brian Butterworth wrote: > > I am saying that if the BBC knows that a programme is scheduled at > 2202-2232 > > then it should deliver that data correctly to the EPG providers. Doesn't the EPG offer an advance 'target schedule' (as per Radio Times/TV Times of old) to the nearest 5 minutes and a supplemental 'as broadcast' delivered via the EIT (or whatever the OTA/OTC technology is). Maybe an EIT/HTTP gateway would appear to be useful but I don't think it's that simple. Should an EPG even include 'as broadcast' information? I'd say not. >From a UI point of view I see an EPG as being a coarse grained forward planning system for use by humans. The EIT can fine-tune a system to interpret an EPG but not 'change' it. Say I ask my PVR to record Dr Who on Thursday night at 7pm (1) - if a plane crashes at Heathrow at 6:30pm and there is live coverage; Dr Who is cancelled. So when I go and look at the EPG I see Dr Who has gone - what's up with that then? Am I an idiot? I'm sure it was there... Actually I still want to see the original EPG data supplemented with broadcast data. A different scenario is that the storyline in a show shows events that are deemed inappropriate (eg showing 'Airplane' the week of 9/11) so the schedule is changed a couple of days in advance - the EPG should change and may make mention in the comments of replacing previously scheduled programmes. (1) OK, for the record: I actually say 'record Dr Who whenever it's on and just get one copy of each episode - go sort it out' and watch it when it appears in my list. That's the benefit of geeky OSS for you though. > The BBC - and all the other broadcasters - don't publish the exact > start times of programmes anywhere. As I mentioned, the way your > Freeview box knows that Newsnight has started at 2232 is because at > 2232, a flag goes up somewhere saying "oh, hey, you know that > programme that we said was on at 2230? It's starting in a few seconds, > so if you want to record it, now would be a good time to start." It's > how things worked in the damp string days of analogue with PDC, and > it's how it continues to work with DVB Event Information Tables. > > > "broadcasters - don't publish the exact start times of programmes > anywhere", which is not quite So they don't publish it - they broadcast it - for free!! Using the same technology you use to pick up the TV signal. In a well defined manner. The buggers! > Your beef seems to be with the fact that your media player of choice > is using a listings guide that's based on the same information that's > provided to the newspapers for their listings pages, rather than a > service with live-updating cues, such as the one provided over the air > with DTT. > > > That seems quite like trying to have it both ways. See above - I think there are 2 ways for 2 different things. > In summary: blame Microsoft, not the BBC. Always good. > I'm not trying to BLAME anyone here, I'm trying to find out where the > EPG information gets nobbled and make an attempt to get some to > "acknowledge mistakes" and provide "accuracy" in the data. The data isn't any more of a mistake than any Gantt chart in existence. It's an estimate with well bounded error bars (+/- 5 minutes). Surely you don't go back and lie about the estimates you gave people do you? > As far as I can tell with the Media Center, the DVB-T reception (or > DVB-S as an alternative) is too abstracted from the PVR functions. ***WHAT*** So basically: My PVR is too brain-dead to pick up information from a different software component and would all broadcasters, all over the world stop broadcasting changes live, over the air with the programmes and move to a centralised, polled. unicast model so we don't have to change our code? Although that does sound like Microsoft software "engineers". Whilst speaking to them wrt a major UK Telco they would often seem to wonder if we could just change the PSTN to fit the way their instant messenger application worked... Can you feel the sympathy? <grin> David - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
