Retain some history in xmltv

[thepcnerdonline]

I am randomly seeing "Unknown Airing" in the EPG guide for shows that have expired. Not really sure if this is a bug or by design but figured I would report it. I am so still digging this thing Dan. Been using it non-stop for 2 days now and its mostly flawless.

[powdermilkman]

What do you mean by "shows that have expired"?

[thepcnerdonline]

in the timeline it shows the past tv show or movie that was on prior to the current one (channel) for a bit till the timeline moves forward enough past it for it to disappear. Until it does, there is a random "Unknown Airing" listed. Its not every time but thought I'd report. I can try to drop a pic of it next time I see it if you want?

[powdermilkman]

That would be helpful, thank you!

[Wolfie713]

I've seen this happening too. I think when the XML file is updated, it's updating from the current time, vs padding four previous hours, so that Plex can fill in the time.

To reproduce the issue, go to settings, and on the XMLTV tab, click "Update." You'll see the update go through, then refresh the Live TV page on Plex. (Might need to update the EPG within Plex.)

[thepcnerdonline]

I think youre right Wolfie. I haven't had it happen on my FireTV yet but I can't go backwards more than 20-30 mins on it but on the Browser interface I can go backwards for previous shows quite a ways and the "Unknown Airing" shows there. In the FireTV app it shows if I go forward in time past the next EPG update (guessing either 4 hours or 12 hours). Not sure there is really anything that can be done unless some sort of pre and post guess-timate scheduling can be done or maybe, if its not a plex issue, put something other than "Unknown Airing". Maybe more like "To Be Announced" or "Not Scheduled" ... See attached.

[powdermilkman]

I haven’t taken a look at the code but it’s probably culling past episodes to keep the XMLTV as small as possible. Bloated XMLTV files will lead to longer EPG load times.

[thepcnerdonline]

Sounds like it makes sense to be that way to me. Just wanted to make sure. Do what you will with this. Considering how well this thing works and we have been wanting it for more than 5 years ... I will just about put up with anything. :)

[powdermilkman]

Might make sense to keep a little of the past showings in the XMLTV if there is a use case for it. Anyone have a reason they would want to keep past data in XMLTV and how much past would you need?

[Wolfie713]

I think 12 hours should suffice. TVGuide let's you go back to the previous day, even when it's 11PM at night, but that's a bit overkill. If someone wants to see if something played while they were asleep or at work or something, 12 hours should be more than enough. If it isn't, then they should just load up the channel in PseudoTV webapp and figure it out from there.

[thepcnerdonline]

I even think just a couple, maybe 4 hours back should be sufficient. No need to muddy the xml guide like Powder was saying earlier. Kinda brings me to a possible feature request that I don't know can even be done. It would be nice to either view back however many hours or ahead however many hours and if theres a show scheduled thats not on yet or has already played and peaks my interest, it would be nice to be able to select it and have an option to get out of the EPG and go direct to that show in my library. Again, not sure how that can work in case it would be more of a plex issue but I have already had that thought a couple times. Now of course I could just exit EPG, go to my library, search the show out and then play it but if I can do it straight from EPG it would be a nice feature. Is that a possible feature request I should throw in or is it more in a Plex dev realm?

[Wolfie713]

Someone could want to go back 6 hours, which isn't an unreasonable amount of time, which would make 4 hours useless to them. I was saying 12 to actually give people roughly 10 hours, with the other two hours being a buffer so they won't see the "Unknown Airing" listings.

As for the other request, I believe a simple way to think of it is like this. If it's dealing with GUI functionality on the Plex side, then it's going to be a Plex issue. All PseudoTV is doing is offering the data for the guide, and streaming the content requested. It's not touching the library at all other than to pull information, and doesn't change how anything else works.

[thepcnerdonline]

Its neither her nor there for me Wolfie as far as time back goes. Honestly I think I'm the only one seeing it aside from you and it doesn't bother me much. Just didn't know if it was bug or if I should report it or not.

Got it on the GUI bro. Makes sense. Just didn't know how far Dan had gone and what other API's he might be able to get access to in Plex.

Again, take this report/request/bug wherever you'd like. I'm just plain happy as a pig in slop right now with what I can get at the moment with this thing. I don't think I have channel surfed this much in my life.

[Wolfie713]

With API's, he might be able to provide more functionality, but I try to view it in the manner I described, so as to keep bugs/requests in the proper area.

As more and more people start using this, some are eventually going to come across this issue when trying to scroll back (in time) and report it themselves. I just know some are going to request extreme time periods like a week or something, so if it's nailed early on with a reasonable amount of time, it could help in turning down requests for more time. Of course, the alternative is to allow the 'admin' the option of how many hours to add to the front, so if someone has a super powerful server running everything, they could have it going for a few days of scheduling, but a weak server could have like maybe two hours max.