new way of TV

[dietmarbos]

Hello,

 

first of all, I'm pretty pleased with DVBViewer so far.

 

Actually, the whole DVBT 'project' on my computer is more or less an experiment, which should lead me finally to a totally changed way of watching TV.

 

How should this look like?

 

The idea is highly inspired by a friend of mine, who baught himself a full-fledged TV-Server (really expensive stuff that is...). Not really impressed by this thing in the first place, I envy him this gadget now, seeing how he uses it. Her comes:

 

He does not actually watch any currently running program, nothing that gets aired in that moment. Instead, he has an outstanding recording interface, that allows him to just record all that is interesting to him easily. When he wants to watch, he just picks up anything of the pile of automatically recorded files.

 

What's so special about it?

 

The real pleasure is the beforementioned recording interface. He can program his recorder directly from EPG. Thats fine, but normal too. What it makes it more interesting is, that his EPG system tries to find other channels where there might be a re-run later on, to record this one as well, just in case, he wants to record a show, that has already started (the software does all this automatically, no user-intervention necessary)

 

Aditionally he can enter 'keywords of interest'. This can be anything like the name of a show, or something more general like 'enterprise' <g>. The system outomatically records all shows on all channels that meet the criterias.

 

The latter feature is a real killer. You'll get your HD expectably bloated with stuff only, that probably interstests you. In his keyword list he has things like 'news', 'science fiction', 'docu' and 'comedy'. The resulting list of files he has on his Server-HD contains some files which do not fit, but these are astonishingly rare.

 

So, he does not watch live TV, just from the pile, the system recorded for him and even doing this he is 'up-to-date' informationwise. He gets all this through a brilliant programming interface whic I would discribe by 'intuitive', 'brilliant' and 'enforced least possible keystroke recording'. What impresses me so, is not only the different way of watching TV (you can skip commercials really fast <g>), but the very simple and easy way to get this done as well. No need to studie manuals, no need to fumble crazy menus, all just plain simple and with really few keystrokes on the remote and without a degree in rocket-science or major memorization skills.

 

 

Now, <g> wouldn't it be nice to get DVDViewer, plugin or embedded, into this direction ? I guess that thiis program is the best platform to do that to start with. Who would be willing to do it?

 

 

Thanks for listening.

 

Dietmar

[dietmarbos]

...and what I've forgotten to mention:

 

He can program his Server over the internet. For him, this is really cool, since the Server is not connected to the internet. So the programming information, sent to that TV-Server manufacturer, is 'aired' by using TV-subchannel data onto his machine.

 

This feature would be even easier to implement, since we're mostly dealing with computers here, that do have internet-access already.

 

cheers,

 

Dietmar

[Guest Lars_MQ]

So the programming information, sent to that TV-Server manufacturer, is 'aired' by using TV-subchannel data onto his machine.

Putting on TODO-List: own satellite for the DVBViewer.

 

Some of what you discribed is even now possible. Programming per Internet (remoteplugin/VDRadmin).

 

The search of same interesst stuff was discussed and is on my todo list but later on. Ofcourse you can't expect the same behavior as the tv-server. You only have one card and concurrent recordings on different transponders will never work this way.

 

And I myself have a similar machine like your friend It even premarks the advertisement so you can jump over it with the press of one button

And frankly for me it's an old way of TV having this machine (actually a computer) for 3 years now...

 

Well maybe in time

 

lars

[dietmarbos]

Hey, that is quite fast!

 

>> Some of what you discribed is even now possible. Programming per Internet (remoteplugin/VDRadmin). <<

 

I'm not too familiar with all the available plugin (heck, I'm not really used to the features DVBViewer itself is offering.. )

 

>> The search of same interesst stuff was discussed and is on my todo list but later on. <<

 

This would be REALLLY nice to have. To be honest, this is my personal 'most wanted', since I saw real life, how this changes things generally

 

>> Ofcourse you can't expect the same behavior as the tv-server. You only have one card and concurrent recordings on different transponders will never work this way. <<

 

What? You let yourself block from features just by physical limitations? :-)

 

>> And I myself have a similar machine like your friend It even premarks the advertisement so you can jump over it with the press of one button <<

 

I wouln't expect this any more for TV in germany. There was once a highly noticed and spread project of a fairly good computer mag here (c't), which brought this in hardware. It was working really good, based on the fact, that commercials had no logo of the station in the picture. So they adopted really quickly. The logo did change in shape, size and position occasionally, it even was faded in by putting in lengthy and complicated fading effects, when regular program started again. This broke it all and I can't imagine anything real stable to filter out commercials. Hm, maybe the volume jump when commercials start. Hm, on second tought it would be nice to have a volume normalizer in DVBViewer. I guess I got a bit off track here... :-)

 

And frankly for me it's an old way of TV having this machine (actually a computer) for 3 years now...

 

>> Well maybe in time <<

 

Uhm, doesn't sound promising. But I understand, that you have your hands full of work. I took a look into the beta now and there are some really nice changes in there. So, maybe it is a better way to just finish that beforehand <g>.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Dietmar

[admi-ral]

And I myself have a similar machine like your friend wink.gif It even premarks the advertisement so you can jump over it with the press of one button wink.gif

which prog allows this? linux or windows based? sounds really interesting

[Guest Lars_MQ]

Uhm, doesn't sound promising. But I understand, that you have your hands full of work.

Naa it is promising If you see what big jumps in the devolopment of the DVBViewer in last year have happened, you should nearly expect everything

 

What? You let yourself block from features just by physical limitations? :-)

Oh no, but you know wonders take a little bit longer (but only a little bit of course)

 

which prog allows this? linux or windows based? sounds really interesting

It's linux based and a real pain to costumize to your needs but once running it's nearly as good as the DVBViewer (ok, ok, just joking, it's THE goodfather of all DVB-Applications: VDR )

 

lars