Re: [Xmltv-devel] Extend XMLTV DVD to allow URLs to video recordings and unique recording ID?

[Ben B. <lin...@bu...>]

  On 31.01.2010 23:38, Robert Eden wrote:
> Further confusing things, XMLTV.PM comments and variables refer to 
> "ROLE" as the "director","actor", etc.  But the "role" in the DTD as 
> an attribute of actor seems to be what you're looking for.
>
> <!ATTLIST actor role  CDATA #IMPLIED>

Ah, great. Thanks.

>> You mean<episode-num>  or<id>? Is the latter in the DTD now? I didn't
>> see it in the DTD.
>>
>> <episode-num>  with just system attribute is not sufficient, because
>> XMLTV-data-using apps need to rely on it across grabbers. If the content
>> is up to arbitrary definition, it's useless for apps.
>>    
> How do you propose various grabbers know what the same program is so 
> they can share an ID?  I can't see this happening between grabbers.

No, I didn't meant that. That would be unrealistic indeed.
I expect "stability" within one grabber only.

What I meant above is that if tv_grab_de_tvmovie uses <episode-num 
system="tvmovie"> and tv_grab_it_sky uses <episode-num system="sky-it">, 
both providing proper and useful IDs (each for themselves), I can't use 
any of these, because my application cannot hardcode system "tvmovie", 
system "sky-it", system "epgdata" etc.pp. as usable "system"s.
I'm saying that <episode-num system="foo"> is basically a freeform field 
with no meaning for the app.

<episode-num> simply doesn't cut it, because it was meant for something 
entirely different (episode numbers within a series, and mostly for humans).

> I think the best hope for an app is to hard code in trust for 
> well-known  episode-num "systems".  I thnk that's what MythTV does.

Yes, and that's extremely ugly, and breaks all the time, and prevents 
people from using grabbers other than those officially supported by 
MythTV. I had to patch my MythTV all the time. I think that's 
unacceptable. I am trying to rectify this situation.

> As I clarified when I redid the XMLTV.ORG homepage a while back, I 
> consider the XMLTV file format (xmltv.dtd) separate from the XMLTV SF 
> project.  Many non-SF apps use the format and I don't like the idea of 
> holding back another app just because we don't implement something in 
> the SF project.

Good.