uglyned Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 Hi, I notice that the Recording Service now has some PDC functionality. I know that Freeview and Freesat do both broadcast PDC data but don't know much more than that. Does anyone know if the current Recording Service PDC features support Freesat or Freeview, and if they do, how to configure it to use them? Thank you. Link to comment
Lars_MQ Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 The PDC function depends on two things: The PDC/PIL descriptor in the EIT EPG and the PDC "signal" in the videotext (teletext). The recording service shows the PDC options in the webinterface timer editor if you create a timer from a EPG entry with a PDC/PIL. I don't know if freesat/view uses it and don't have access to it, so I can't check it with transedit/analyzer... Link to comment
Griga Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 PDC/PIL descriptor in the EIT EPG and the PDC "signal" in the videotext (teletext). I don't see it on Astra 28° East, neither in the teletext nor in the EIT, not even private descriptors. Maybe some proprietary PDC hidden somewhere else, dunno... Link to comment
Lars_MQ Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 I found it after some searching: it's the CRID - Descriptor 0x76 - CRIDType 0x31 is the program ID and 0x32 is the series ID. Unfortunatly those are no simple numeric values, so the existing PDC system can't be used for this.. Link to comment
uglyned Posted December 29, 2011 Author Share Posted December 29, 2011 Thanks for looking guys. Link to comment
QBox User Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 As mentioned in other thread on "MHEG" (green button), CRIDs are used in Freeview+ for trailer-booking - related to "TV Anytime" specifications. Are they stored in epg.dat? If so, they could provide a key to the EventName, which in turn could be used for EPG search (or Auto-Record for series). CRID is being sent in Freeview DVB-T EIT but I don't see the Descriptor 0x76 on sample 28.2E transponders. The examples I see have the format "/" followed by 5 or 6 alphanumeric characters (upper-case letters). This doesn't seem to be dynamic, so I don't see how it could be used for recording control. RunningStatus is used on 28.2E, and on Freeview. Many Freeview PVRs use Now and Next information to control recording - I assume these are using RunningStatus. PDC is/was available on UK analogue Teletext, but this was not carried over to DVB-T services. Link to comment
Lars_MQ Posted December 29, 2011 Share Posted December 29, 2011 Are they stored in epg.dat? No, they are not stored (for now). Now and Next information to control recording You can use the now/next EIT EPG together with a PDC. But it is not recommended, because most channel are not very reliable with this data. Maybe I can add support for the program CRID but there is no guarantie the recording start/end will be as accurate as it is with the PDC monitoring. But this will have to wait until after the next release... Link to comment
QBox User Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Reliability of Now/Next was not good when it was first introduced on Freeview, but it has improved greatly as PVR users put pressure on the broadcasters. Certainly this is true for my own Humax PVR. Accuracy is good for the channels I regularly record from. I don't have a Freesat PVR, but I believe the same feature is part of the "Freesat+" spec. CRIDs seem to be used to relate dynamic content (in PMTs) to EIT Events. I don't know if they can be used for PDC. I just discovered today my PC clock has been several minutes slow, causing some mistimed recordings, so PDC would be a useful feature! Link to comment
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