[diddle]

Hi folks,

I'm quite new to XBMC. However, I would like to setup a TV backend on my little linux server an plan to access it using XBMC PVR.

I would be interested in how XBMC (or the currently available PVR plugins) handle temp. unavailable channels. A channel would be "temp. unavailable" if no tuner is currently available to serve it (because of recordings or other client's reqeusts).

My idea would be that the backend notifies XBMC ablout the currently available channels whenever a tuner allocation changes... and then XBMC would "disable" this channels in the current list, e.g. simply grey out the entry. Channel up/down navigation would then skip to the next available channel instead of hitting an error condition on the disabled/hidden one.

It such a scenario possible currently? Or is something similar planned?

I would guess that such feature would really increase (not only) the WAF.


Best regards

Dietmar.

[FernetMenta]

Hi,

PVR clients can set a "hidden" flag for channels. They also have the chance to trigger a channel update. From a XBMC perspective this scenario is possible but AFAIK none of the pvr clients make use of this.

EDIT: maybe myth does, at least it is the only client which sets the flag not hardcoded to false.

[diddle]

Hi FernetMenta,

thanks for that info... sounds reasonable.

Just had a look at the code... actually the backend needs to notify its plugin that some channels are changed, e.g. need to be hidden. It then sets bIsHidden in the corresponding PVR_CHANNEL structs and calls TriggerChannelUpdate() to make XBMC reload the list?

These "hidden" channel state needs to be reflected in XBMC. I guess, currently "hidden" means complete gone... e.g. no EPG access. We would need a state that only prevents tuning to it (and skipping during +/-). Aller other stuff like accessing the EPG and planning new recordings should be working. So what do you think, is bIsHidden sufficient or would we need a new flag (API extension)?


Best regards
Dietmar.