[mythtv-users] using WinTV PVR-350 to play AM/FM radio? (slightly OT)

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Apr 3, 2006, at 5:04 PM, Steven Adeff wrote:

> On 4/3/06, Jeff Simpson <jeffsimpson at alum.wpi.edu> wrote:
>> On 4/3/06, Steven Adeff <adeffs.mythtv at gmail.com > wrote:
>>>
>> On 4/3/06, Jeff Simpson < jeffsimpson at alum.wpi.edu> wrote:
>>>> Yes. I will put the effort into developing it, unless someone  
>>>> else does
>> it
>>> first. There are radio talk shows that I like to listen too...  
>>> and being
>>> able to record them, automatically rip the commercials, and  
>>> encode them to
>>> mp3 would be very desirable. At the moment my plate is pretty  
>>> full, but as
>>> soon as things settle down some I will get going on this....
>>>
>>>
>>> This does sound like a great idea. I would probably listen to a  
>>> lot more
>>> radio if I could pick which shows to listen to and fast-forward
>> commercials.
>>>
>>> I don't think you will be able to automatically commercial-detect  
>>> like you
>>> can with video - a lot of the video commercial detection  
>>> algorithms depend
>>> on the actual frames of video. Worth a shot, though
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I wonder if there is a database somewhere for radio programming?  
>>>> The
>>> database for radio shows might have to be divided up by hour and  
>>> labeled
>> by
>>> the date and time... ie...
>>>>
>>>>         |   8     |  8:30  |   9
>>>> NBC |   earl  | office  |  etc
>>>> 98.5  |  98.5 8-9 4/06| 98.5 9-10 4/06
>>>>
>>>> thus when you go to schedule via mythweb/guide then you would just
>> select
>>> the hours you want to record.
>>>
>>>
>>> Screenscraping the actual stations webpages might be the only  
>>> way. I think
>>> manually recording might be the best way for now, seeing as there  
>>> are SO
>>> many radio stations, and some of them re-use the same frequencies  
>>> if they
>>> are far enough apart. Easier to just know what time to record.
>>
>>> thats the best way I can think, perhaps a plugin system for scraping
>>> specific station webpages?
>>
>> here's a site that lists public radio schedules, looks like a LOT of
>> stations:
>>
>> http://www.publicradiofan.com/cgi-bin/whatson.pl? 
>> when=nowlookahead&lookahead=200&format=grid
>>
>> But to tell you the truth, I think the hardest and most important  
>> part will
>> be integrating the recording and scheduling into myth. Things that  
>> will have
>> to be handled:
>>
>> Adding the radio as a separate tuner would easily give you the  
>> ability to
>> add channels and a separate channel-changing script
>> However, it would get more complicated, since the radio and TV  
>> tuner can't
>> be used at the same time, you'd need a way to handle conflicts  
>> (somehow link
>> the radio tuner to a TV tuner?)
>> How to actually record and store the recordings. Will it record  
>> directly to
>> mp3, or does it need to be piped through an encoder. Can we store  
>> it in the
>> same recordings database myth uses, or is it best to keep them  
>> separate?
>>
>> Sounds like it could potentially be a major change to myth.
>
> perhaps modifying myth to add a second type of channel for radio
> stations that you want to be recorded, a flag that would let mbe know
> that it needs to tune to the radio instead of TV?.
>
> I can think of ways it could present itself to the user, but I have no
> idea what the backend changes required would be...
>
> --
> Steve

That makes more sense to me. Don't add a new tuner since it's the  
same tuner. You just need to flag each channel in the DB so when it  
comes to that channel, it sends an alternate change channel script.  
Then you also need to handle the video differently, too... like not  
at all. instead of displaying video when you hit a radio channel, we  
probably need to display some OSD with info about the station.