International DVR

Hi did this fall off the radar? I’m sure I’m not the only one that thought we may have had update now is it time to move on?

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Nothing new to report here, unfortunately. Finding an affordable guide data provider for each international market is proving very challenging. We could build the DVR using DVB guide data, but it would require considerable effort and without images and metadata the experience would still not be up to our standards.

Hi

Please don't give up on your international markets and not develop a DVR / DVB solution.

I'm happy not to use images and metadata but if it is a requirement, have you investigated the following add on?

EPG Collector is a Windows package for collecting the EPG data from DVB or ATSC streams in EIT, MHEG5, OpenTV, MediaHighway, FreeSat and PSIP formats and creating an XMLTV file.

I've used this for many years and the great feature here is you can automatically add images and rich data descriptions from IMDB, etc for show details, etc.

It has active development and I'm sure could easily be used to collect data in the back ground.

This could then be imported or selected as a guide source within channels app?

Please consider this for international markets!
Cheers

https://sourceforge.net/projects/epgcollector/

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This may be fine for personal use, but for a commercial application (and to be approved by the Apple App Store) we must have a proper license agreement in place to use copyrighted images and metadata.

Oh dear look like its a non starter then, its a real shame i love the UI on channels but if its not to be then time to look at plan b

Any suggestions for plan b i don’t have one yet :slight_smile:

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Kodi

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Is it possible to concentrate on countries where you have the highest demand? It seems the UK and Australia are the most represented on the forums. Maybe a poll asking where international users are located would help to focus efforts and resources?

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Bit of a shame really - such a good app.

Not sure if it helps, but this provider seem to have whats required for Australia and UK markets - no idea of cost though

http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/content-syndication/

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Big shame. Channels works great on AppleTV for live Australian TV. Having the DVR function would make it perfect.

Currently, I use Plex DVR for recording TV but the Plex DVR interface is not as slick as Channels and you cannot watch live TV through Plex. You also cannot access the Plex DVR functions to set up a recording through the AppleTV Plex app - you have to use the web app to setup a recording which is not ideal.

Where does Plex DVR get it’s Australian TV guide data? Gracenote? Can Channels use the same EPG data source as Plex DVR?

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ok, thanks for the update and that make sense. You have a ready market internationally of people who would pay for the dvr function to work with DVB in channels app. I appreciate that it potentially wouldn’t have all the same functionality as the current US version but the ability to record and watch is all im really after in one app.

please reconsider DVB version of the DVR as an option!

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I know you will already have looked at this, but what is the issue with Gracenote for UK at least? I get 2 weeks of Gracenote data with images, metadata etc. in the UK with EyeTV and the data quality is generally fine. As others have said, something would be far preferable to nothing for the DVR for international markets.

Another idea - what about a beta version for UK / other international markets where you can set recordings from within whatever guide data you have in that market in the live app (DVB, HDHR, Gracenote / whatever) and you use the channel logo images already used in the live app whenever there is nothing better in the guide data. Surely this should be do-able and could stay in beta until you get guide data ‘fully’ sorted? I would happily pay for DVR features (though perhaps a bit less if you’re not providing extra guide data yet) in beta on this basis.

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Is there any update on this for UK users ? Is it not even possible to utilise the over-air Freeview guide data as a starting point?

We have launched Channels DVR in the UK: Channels DVR is now available in the UK

Australia and New Zealand are the next two biggest markets of Channels users. We are looking into what it will take to bring the DVR there. At the moment, the API we’re using for guide data does not offer any AUS/NZ data, so it’s not as easy as it was for the UK (which was already quite involved and time consuming).

Our guide provider plans to launch a new API later this year which will include AUS/NZ data, so we will revisit later this summer to see what’s possible.

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what about getting Australian support via IceTV guide support?

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Thanks, I will check out IceTV. Do any Channels users in Australia already have an IceTV subscription?

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Wish I could be on this but can’t afford a new NAS. Blew all my money on a new garden shed *sigh

As a NZer, this is great news. Our TiVo service is shutting down this year leaving a very large percentage of TV users with a heavy black brick in their TV cabinet.

If you haven’t already seen an influx of users, you will later in the year (October iirc when the service shuts down).

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The IceTV folks are very friendly and we had a good chat, but unfortunately they don’t have any 4x3 images available so that’s not going to work for us.

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Thanks for trying with IceTV. Have you been able to reach out with http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/content-syndication/#tv ?
They claim to have images

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I don’t understand, I’m using Channels in Australia using the inbuilt Silicon Dust provided EPG that also has images available for many (but sadly not all) shows. Why can’t this be adopted?

I’ve been holding out for the DVR service here in Australia but it seems this may be dead in the water…shame as it would have been my preferred service given it would have integrated Live TV/timeshift and Tivo like recording all in one.

And with the Tivo service shutting down in the whole of Australian and New Zealand by October there would have been many thousands of users looking for a solution…I hope the Channels team finds a way as this is a big market to tap into if they can sort something out really soon…

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