Understanding Future Schedule, Refresh Cache, Exclude Programmes

[dinkypumpkin]

On 25/03/2012 13:55, MrArtist wrote:
> 1. I have a longish list of comma separated programmes that I exclude
> from my web page view. When I look at the PVR list, that long list takes
> up a lot of space on the page view. Is there any real need for that
> exclusion list to be carried over into the PVR list? I have solved the
> visual problem by manually editing each PVR Search name and removing
> that line so now my PVR list view is a lot more compact, but I wonder
> why it's needed, or if there can be an option to turn it off? Same could
> be said for the Exclude Channel which also doesn't seem to be useful in
> the PVR list.

If you want your results to be the same in the PVR list as when doing an 
ad hoc search, it seems reasonable that your search and filter criteria 
should be the same in both.   Are your search terms so broad that you 
need so many exclusions?  If so, perhaps turn the problem on its head 
and make your PVR searches more targeted.  I grant you that the 
formatting could be improved - there is your chance for glory.

> 2. Regarding the Refresh Future Schedule, when I activate this, I now
> get about 1,200 programmes showing in my Search list, without it I'm
> down to a manageable 300 (after using my choice of Exclude Programmes).
> I see Channel entries for all regional areas such as BBC One Channel
> Islands, BBC Two Northern Island, etc., and also BBC HD. - Also there
> seems to be lots of programmes that I might not normally see (I might be
> wrong there) such as Family Guy which has loads of entries, presumably
> all upcoming (future) and none when I look without Future Schedules
> activated.

What you see is an amalgamation of all programs available via iPlayer 
along with schedules for both the current and following weeks.  The 
schedule data combines separate feeds for 19 regional BBC One services, 
4 national BBC Two services, and all the other BBC TV channels.  That's 
why it takes so long to refresh future schedule data.

> What I'm wondering is, by not selecting and looking at the Future
> Schedules, am I potentially missing out on ever seeing some programmes
> come up? i.e. will there be things listed regionally that won't come up

If you check the iPlayer listings via get_iplayer at least once in every 
7 days, you won't miss anything even without the future schedules.  If 
you happen to miss the first episode of a series, queue up a one-time 
download of that episode and add a pvr search to get the rest of the 
series.  The future schedules only show listings 14 days or less into 
the future, so they're not tremendously useful unless you'll be unable 
to check listings during the upcoming week, or you just want to be 
conscientious about keeping your pvr list up to date.

> via the standard view of BBC One, Two, Three, Four? - Or is it usually
> the case that only the first showing instance of a program is shown and
> sometimes that will be listed regionally as opposed to the more general

As noted above, the schedules for all regional and national services are 
superimposed.  There isn't a single BBC One or BBC Two as far as the 
schedule data is concerned, so the listings will usually appear with the 
first channel where the programme is encountered during processing of 
the schedule data.  But you can ignore that.  get_iplayer will find 
programmes under just BBC One or BBC Two regardless of whether they're 
regional or national programmes.  That's how they are catalogued in the 
iPlayer data feeds.

> BBC One type listings? e.g. I see the odd few BBC HD listings in Future
> Schedules, but none in the non-Future Schedule listing, is this because
> it is shown on BBC HD first?

BBC HD isn't catalogued as a separate channel per se for programmes on 
the iPlayer site.  I presume that's because it doesn't have unique 
content - all its programmes are broadcast on other channels as well. 
But it does have its own schedule, thus the appearance of BBC HD 
listings in the future schedule.

> Lastly, I also note that for the regional listings (e.g. BBC Wales, NI,
> West, etc), the Categories area is blank. - is this normal? In
> non-Future view, I always get a category specified.

The schedule data doesn't include category information.