SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

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bjohnson777
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SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von bjohnson777 »

I got it running easy enough, but new episodes in a series are not highlighted. I can't find anything in the documentation talking about this.

I've also been testing FreeGuide and it will highlight new episodes.

I'm on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with my data source as a SchedulesDirect trial.

Is there a plugin/filter somewhere I missed?

Thanks
Jo
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Re: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von Jo »

No, "new" is missing. I will add it.
Jo
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Re: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von Jo »

If there are missing more attributes SchedulesDirect has, now is your chance to get them added.
bjohnson777
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Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von bjohnson777 »

Something to watch out for: on cable TV, new episodes often air twice in the same evening. The second showings would need to be flagged as new within the first 24 hours of the first showing.

I'm new to SchedulesDirect xmltv, but it seems they have a movie flag. In FreeGuide, movies are automatically colored, so I'm guessing there is a category field in there. TV-Browser also seems to identify movies in:
Tree View / Filter View / Movie
Maybe duplicate most of this code for highlighting to keep things easy?

Another nice feature to have would be to set the highlighting color for the new episode or movie a different user selectable color if it is matched in the favorites list. For general use, I would want something matching in my favorites list to be brighter than the default color so it would stand out more.

When doing the "Add/Remove Channels", there is no channel number listed. SchedulesDirect provides channel numbers, and I understand that other free sources are more generic and don't. While this is convenient for channels that start with the same name prefix for grouping, this makes channel grouped by numbers hard to find. Example: Discovery, Nat Geo, Science, and History are all grouped together by channel number but are scattered in the alphabetical listing. Is it possible to add a "Turn On Channel Numbers" check box that would add the channel numbers and do a human number sort in the "Available Channels" list box? Having the option would be good as I doubt everyone would want channel numbers, or the channel numbers available might not be correct for some other region.

Can I add a few more simple requests here? or do I need to start a new thread for each?

The Favorites filter needs a user selectible highlight color option. I've notied that when highlighting programs, I'd prefer to have some of the lesser programs I don't care as much about in a darker color... and some other programs in another darker color. Maybe just tie it into Settings / Graphical Settings / Highlighting to make it easy?

I really like the "I don't want to see" plugin, but there is a small bug. If a program is blocked, that time slot becomes empty and the preceeding program expands down to fill it. While it is nice to have the extra space for the program description, it makes the program look much longer than what it really is. Example: The Discovery channel will often do a program marathon. If that program is removed from the listing, there could be up to a 5 hour block that becomes the previous program. It looks like if the plugin removes a program, it needs to terminate the previous program somehow. My "Date-Layout" is set to "Calendar (Table)", so this may be more prominent in my listing compared to what others use.

And the last request for tonight...

Can "Tree View / Manage Favorites / Programs" be duplicated into a simple Watch-For List? I use Favorites to highlight on the Program Table, and I have a lot of entries that are getting cluttered. What I'd like to see is a duplicate Favorites I can enter several TV programs I'm keeping an eye out for, but it won't be as cluttered as Favorites. As an example, the various science channels will often air a program in 3-4 week groupings, be off for a couple weeks, then air more episodes in another grouping. With my vision and health problems, I'm likely to miss something in the Program Table or long Favorites list. If I set a smaller filter list, I'll remember to check for it each week. This could also be used to catch an airing of a movie that plays from time to time, but not on a regular basis or at regular air times. Last example I can think of is a series that has a season end but will start up again in several months. The Watch-For List would be an easy way of seeing when these come back and if their air dates have changed.

Thanks for getting back so fast. :-)
ds10
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Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von ds10 »

1. A program is new if the SchedulesDirect data has a new flag for the program. If they flag the same programs within 24h as new, TV-Browser will also show them as new.
2. Highlighting of programs can be done with plugins, the easiest is the Markings plugin. For automatically highlighting you already use the Favorites plugin. The color of the highlighting is priority based, you can change the priority of the Favorite plugin or use the send to other plugins feature on different favorites to send it to different lists of the Markings plugin that have different priorities.
3. Programs will always use all the space they can get, thats conceptual, if you don't want to loose the space of filtered programs of the "I don't want to see!" plugin, disable the automatically usage of it's filter in it's settings and use the minimum program importance for it's filtered programs. You can then change the filter in TV-Browser to All and all programs will be there but the filtered programs will almost be transparent.
4. You can group Favorties with creating folders for it, the folders will be shown in the tree view of the Favorites. Create a folder "very important" and place you important Favorites in that folder and they will be easier found.
5. To simpy list programs use the plugin "Program list", it can show you a list of filtered programs, for example all new programs.

Some general remarks, TV-Browser is plugin based so it's cannot give a plugin control over a value like the highlighting color, there would be conflicts therefor the highlighting is priority based. You can change the priority of a plugin and also the colors of the priorities.

For expert use TV-Browser has filter capacity, with filters you can get mostly anything you want, maybe it's a bit complicated but if you get the hang of it you can also use filters in the Favorites (also flags like new or movie can be searched with filters).
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi
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Jo
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Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von Jo »

The "new" tag at SchedulesDirect doesn't seem to be very accurate. Most of the news programs are "new", but also e.g. the movie "Mrs. Doubtfire" from 1993 on Fox. But this is SchedulesDirect or their sources, TV-Browser can't do anything about it.
But I think about removing the "new" tag from all programs tagged as "news", since I think this is obvious and not helpful for the users.
bjohnson777
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Registriert: 09 Mai 2014, 02:50

Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von bjohnson777 »

ds10 hat geschrieben:2. Highlighting of programs can be done with plugins, the easiest is the Markings plugin. For automatically highlighting you already use the Favorites plugin. The color of the highlighting is priority based, you can change the priority of the Favorite plugin or use the send to other plugins feature on different favorites to send it to different lists of the Markings plugin that have different priorities.
I didn't know this was possible, but I do know. Thanks. I had to disable global transparency as the programs in the listing were unreadable. I'm using the alpha channel at 75 for each priority highlight color.
ds10 hat geschrieben:3. Programs will always use all the space they can get, thats conceptual, if you don't want to loose the space of filtered programs of the "I don't want to see!" plugin, disable the automatically usage of it's filter in it's settings and use the minimum program importance for it's filtered programs. You can then change the filter in TV-Browser to All and all programs will be there but the filtered programs will almost be transparent.
I'm having trouble with this one. Tools / Settings / Plugins / I don't want to see! Turning off "Automatically Activate" disables the plugin. I see the "Program Importance" at the bottom and set it to Minimum. I can sacrifice a color and make Minimum 100% transparent. From the main program: View / Filters / Show All or I don't want to see! just turns it on or off. Right now I don't understand how to do the rest of your instructions.
ds10 hat geschrieben:4. You can group Favorties with creating folders for it, the folders will be shown in the tree view of the Favorites. Create a folder "very important" and place you important Favorites in that folder and they will be easier found.
I had to look for folders. It's in the custom manager window. Got that one, thanks.

In Tree View / Manage Favorites / Programs, can an empty entry be shown with [0] for the number? I thought I lost the filter, but it's still there in manager. Maybe add a check box so everyone has the option?
ds10 hat geschrieben:5. To simpy list programs use the plugin "Program list", it can show you a list of filtered programs, for example all new programs.
Running Tools / Program List, Selected single channel, Filter: Show All. It's only showing the current hour plus the next 2. I tried the "Scroll to next day" arrow buttons, but they don't do anything. I double checked that there's more program data in the main Program table. Is it supposed to do that?

If I do All Channels / New, nothing shows up. Jo is working on fixing the SchedulesDirect problem.
ds10 hat geschrieben:For expert use TV-Browser has filter capacity, with filters you can get mostly anything you want, maybe it's a bit complicated but if you get the hang of it you can also use filters in the Favorites (also flags like new or movie can be searched with filters).
I had a quick look at Views / Filter / Edit Filter / New. "Available Filter Construction" has the usual "and, or, not, (, )". The left side "Filter Construction" panel is empty. The help page seems to indicate something should be there?

Thanks for the help.
bjohnson777
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Registriert: 09 Mai 2014, 02:50

Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von bjohnson777 »

Jo hat geschrieben:The "new" tag at SchedulesDirect doesn't seem to be very accurate. Most of the news programs are "new", but also e.g. the movie "Mrs. Doubtfire" from 1993 on Fox. But this is SchedulesDirect or their sources, TV-Browser can't do anything about it.
But I think about removing the "new" tag from all programs tagged as "news", since I think this is obvious and not helpful for the users.
It's disappointing I have to pay for SchedulesDirect data and it's that sloppy. I would think the industry would want to come together so everyone would have an ACCURATE listing of all programs for free. Otherwise the only way a person would know a program exists is by direct advertising, and that is very limited and extremely expensive. The free SchedulesDirect predecessor seems to have been "over used" and put under. If it's that popular, the industry should sit up and pay attention. That's just my rant, though.

For "new", I have a recommendation: ignore anything flagged "new" with a date older than: 1 week, 1 month, or 1 year. My guess is "1 week" should suffice, but I'm not looking at the data like you are.

I have seen copyright or air dates on "new" Weather Channel documentaries being a few years old, though. I'm not sure what to make of that. Normally when an episode or series is finished, it's immediately aired to recover costs.

A potential hang up would be early January. Most copyright dates (hopefully matching the date at the end of the episode credits) would be the previous year. Maybe if only the year is given without any months or days, subtract 1 for valid time, anything -2 or further gets "new" ignored?

For "new" news programs, that may or may not be desirable. While live news is obvious (is there a "live" flag?), some news stations will do current event documentaries. I've seen Bloomberg do this from time to time. I'm not sure how SchedulesDirect would categorize these.

The "new" flag in a "new what's on right now filter search" might be convenient for news programs.

Thanks for the help
ds10
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Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

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bjohnson777 hat geschrieben:I'm having trouble with this one. Tools / Settings / Plugins / I don't want to see! Turning off "Automatically Activate" disables the plugin. I see the "Program Importance" at the bottom and set it to Minimum. I can sacrifice a color and make Minimum 100% transparent. From the main program: View / Filters / Show All or I don't want to see! just turns it on or off. Right now I don't understand how to do the rest of your instructions.
Settings->Plugins->I don't want to see!
Disable checkbox Automatically activate filter on adding/removing
Set program importance to Minimum importance

Settings->Graphical settings->Program display
The checkbox Allow plugins to set the transparency of a program has to be selected

Set filter to View->Filters->show all

You will get something like this:
program-transparency.png
program-transparency.png (55.02 KiB) 8860 mal betrachtet
bjohnson777 hat geschrieben:In Tree View / Manage Favorites / Programs, can an empty entry be shown with [0] for the number? I thought I lost the filter, but it's still there in manager. Maybe add a check box so everyone has the option?
No that won't be shown, it's simply a useless information. You want to know what runs when? If [0] is shown in the tree view you know what runs not in the available time, how can this be a usefull information?
bjohnson777 hat geschrieben:Running Tools / Program List, Selected single channel, Filter: Show All. It's only showing the current hour plus the next 2. I tried the "Scroll to next day" arrow buttons, but they don't do anything. I double checked that there's more program data in the main Program table. Is it supposed to do that?
Yes if the show all filter is used the number of shown programs is limited because the list would be really long if all program would be shown.
bjohnson777 hat geschrieben:I had a quick look at Views / Filter / Edit Filter / New. "Available Filter Construction" has the usual "and, or, not, (, )". The left side "Filter Construction" panel is empty. The help page seems to indicate something should be there?
You have to create filter components, there are buttons on the right side to create,edit and delete filter components.

An example:
You want to filter programs that are The Simpsons that are running on a Tuesday and have no Bart in the episode title and description and The Simpsons that are running on a Friday and have to do with Lisa or programs of American Dad that have to do with Roger. Seems like a real problem to get this, but now you split it in the search parts for the filter components, you will need filter components of the type keyword:
  • Search for The Simpsons with search only in title, named The_Simpsons
  • Search for Bart with limited search in Episode, Short description and Description, named Bart
  • Search for Lisa with limited search in Episode, Short description and Description, named Lisa
  • Search for American Dad with search only in title, named American_Dad
  • Search for Roger with limited search in Episode, Short description and Description, named Roger
and you will need filter components of the type Day of week:
  • Accepts Tuesday named Tuesday
  • Accepts Friday named Friday
Now you can drag and drop the available filter components from the right side to the left side filter construction and to get what should be filtered in this example you would create:
( The_Simpsons AND ( ( NOT Bart AND Tuesday ) OR ( Lisa AND Friday ) ) ) OR ( American_Dad AND Roger )
name this filter My_First_Filter

Now you can use this filter in the program table or the program list plugin.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi
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bjohnson777
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Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von bjohnson777 »

ds10 hat geschrieben:Settings->Plugins->I don't want to see!
Disable checkbox Automatically activate filter on adding/removing
Set program importance to Minimum importance
Settings->Graphical settings->Program display
The checkbox Allow plugins to set the transparency of a program has to be selected
Set filter to View->Filters->show all
Thanks for the example, this makes more sense now. I've run into a problem, though. Favorites is set to minimum and doesn't seem to have a problem with color or transparency. The Favorites I wanted colored I passed to "Marker" with a higher priority so the color will change (as per previous instructions). Following these steps, anything with "Marker" is now too transparent to read (Highlighting/Alpha Channel in the colors only changes the color transparency). Is there a way to fix that?
ds10 hat geschrieben:You have to create filter components, there are buttons on the right side to create,edit and delete filter components.
Thanks, I missed that, was up too late.
I have a simple filter working:
TypeMovie = Additional Information / Movie
PluginIDontWantToSee = Plugin / I don't want to see
Rule: TypeMovie AND ( NOT PluginIDontWantToSee )
This works fine, but if I change:
TypeMovie = Additional Information / Movie and Theater/Concert
...the filter fails and shows nothing.
Are "Additional Information" check boxes AND'd?

Is there a way to take that filter and color all the matching movies?
ds10 hat geschrieben:An example:
You want to filter programs that are The Simpsons that are running on a Tuesday and have no Bart in the episode title and description and The Simpsons that are running on a Friday and have to do with Lisa or programs of American Dad that have to do with Roger. Seems like a real problem to get this, but now you split it in the search parts for the filter components, you will need filter components of the type keyword:
  • Search for The Simpsons with search only in title, named The_Simpsons
  • Search for Bart with limited search in Episode, Short description and Description, named Bart
  • Search for Lisa with limited search in Episode, Short description and Description, named Lisa
  • Search for American Dad with search only in title, named American_Dad
  • Search for Roger with limited search in Episode, Short description and Description, named Roger
and you will need filter components of the type Day of week:
  • Accepts Tuesday named Tuesday
  • Accepts Friday named Friday
Now you can drag and drop the available filter components from the right side to the left side filter construction and to get what should be filtered in this example you would create:
( The_Simpsons AND ( ( NOT Bart AND Tuesday ) OR ( Lisa AND Friday ) ) ) OR ( American_Dad AND Roger )
name this filter My_First_Filter

Now you can use this filter in the program table or the program list plugin.
Can you copy this into the wiki?

Thanks for a lot of help this time.
ds10
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Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von ds10 »

bjohnson777 hat geschrieben:Is there a way to fix that?
Yes, you have to set the program importance column in the settings of the Marker plugin to maximum for all lists.
bjohnson777 hat geschrieben:Are "Additional Information" check boxes AND'd?
A filter component is always matched against one program, if the filter component says it has to be a movie and a concert you will only get programs that are movies about concerts. But you are not limited to use only one filter component of the same type, create a second one for only concerts and or it with the other in the filter creation and you will get all programs that are movies or concerts.
bjohnson777 hat geschrieben:Is there a way to take that filter and color all the matching movies?
Yes, create a new expert Favorite with search for .* with Regex search and select your filter in the filter selection of the expert Favorite. If you want specific highlighting simply enable the export to the matching Marker list.
bjohnson777 hat geschrieben:Can you copy this into the wiki?
I guess I can do that.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi
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bjohnson777
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Registriert: 09 Mai 2014, 02:50

Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von bjohnson777 »

ds10 hat geschrieben:Yes, create a new expert Favorite with search for .* with Regex search and select your filter in the filter selection of the expert Favorite. If you want specific highlighting simply enable the export to the matching Marker list.
Thanks, almost got it, but for some reason "I don't want to see" isn't removing entries but partially ghosting them. If I right click on the ghosted entry, I get the "I want to see it though!" menu entry. If I select that, the text becomes black. If I try to block it with the "I don't want to see!" menu entry, text goes gray again.

With my filter "TypeMovie and ( not PluginIDontWantToSee )", shouldn't "not PluginIDontWantToSee" remove anything in the "I don't want to see" list, therefore not even coloring a blocked entry? and not even making it to the final movie list?

To unscatter things a bit, here are my settings in a consolidated form:
bjohnson777 hat geschrieben: Tools / Settings / Graphical Settings / Program Display: Allow Plugins to set transparency of a program: On
Tools / Settings / Graphical Settings / Highlighting: Highlight with color: Minimum Priority

Tools / Settings / Plugins / Favorite Programs: Highlighting Color: Minimum Priority

Tools / Settings / Plugins / Markers
"Mark List" is 5 entries: Minimum, Lower Medium, Medium, Higher Medium, Maximum
Eash list name is set to to that "Highlighting Priority".
Each list name "Program Importance" is set to "Maximum".
Each list name "Send To Plugin" is "None".

Tools / Settings / Plugins / I don't want to see!
Automatically activate filter on adding/removing = Off
Program Importance = Minimum Importance

View / Filters / Show All

View / Filters / Edit Filters / "Movie Black List Filtered" (my created filter)
TypeMovie = Additional Information / Movie
PluginIDontWantToSee = Plugin / I don't want to see
Filter Rule: TypeMovie and ( not PluginIDontWantToSee )

Manage Favorites tab / Create a new favorite button / Switch to Expert View
Change Name button: Movie Color
Search Term: .*
Search Where: Only in title
Options: Term is a regular expression
Use Filter: Movie Black List Filtered
Pass Program To: Hit Change button
Select Markers: Add to "Lower Medium"
...noting that the priority has to be +1 higher than the default to change the color.
OK and then OK to save and get out of the filter.

When I've made changes, I noticed the Markers setting sticking. To remove all:
Tools / Markers
Select the priority, hit the "Delete All" button.
If I remove "Markers" from "Pass Program To" and delete all markers, the movies will be highlighted in the minimum color, have the little heart icon, and almost be invisible. Note that the transparency is much less than with "Lower Medium". The issue remains the same, though: it shouldn't be in the list at all.

I tried changing the filter rule to:
TypeMovie and not PluginIDontWantToSee
...removing the parenthesis, but it didn't make any difference... which is what I would kind of expect in hind sight.

Jo: Were you able to get the SchedulesDirect "New" problem solved?

Thanks for the help
ds10
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Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von ds10 »

A filter NOT PluginIDontWantToSee, will show you all programs, that you don't want to see, you have to delete the NOT to get what you want.
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bjohnson777
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Registriert: 09 Mai 2014, 02:50

Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von bjohnson777 »

ds10 hat geschrieben:A filter NOT PluginIDontWantToSee, will show you all programs, that you don't want to see, you have to delete the NOT to get what you want.
In the filter menu it says for Plugin: "Accept all programs marked by plugin"
Wouldn't programs marked by "I don't want to see" be programs I want tagged as blocked? And programs I do want to see remain untouched?

To simplify a little for testing:
I turned off the marker check box in the Favorite for the time being. All movies will show up in the minimum color.
I went into Tools / Markers and deleted all the markers.

I'm looking at:
Program List tab, Channel with a black listed movie playing tomorrow

I changed the filter definition to: TypeMovie AND PluginIDontWantToSee
I changed the Program List filter to my "Movie Black List Filtered".
...and it didn't show anything. Favorites also didn't highlight anything.

Program List tab Filter: I don't want to see
...will show the movies except the black listed one and a couple non-blocked episodes, as expected.

I changed the filter definition back to: TypeMovie AND NOT PluginIDontWantToSee
I changed the Program List filter to my "Movie Black List Filtered".
...will show only movies in the Minimum color (as expected), except the blocked one shows up as ghosted.

I tried the sequence again with File / Restart in there, but the ghosted movies still showed up.

Please help.
ds10
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Re: SchedulesDirect: Missing New Episode Highlighting

Beitrag von ds10 »

You are using the wrong filter component for "I don't want to see", it comes with it's own filter component. To use plugin filter component will not work because "I don't want to see" doesn't mark programs.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mahatma Gandhi
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