[mythtv-users] Myth Recording Extender (MRE) v1.0.0 Released

[Derek Battams]

Quoting Jean-Yves Avenard <jyavenard at gmail.com>:

> Hi
>
> On 8/14/06, Derek Battams <derek at battams.ca> wrote:
>> What is MRE?  MRE is a PHP5 application that will monitor (certain)
>> active recordings and automatically extend the length of the recording
>
> Out of interest...
>
> How does it work?
> How can it detect that a show is still running ?
> JY

By parsing web pages that contain (near) realtime updates about the  
event being monitored.  For the 4 major sports that it currently  
supports (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA), I simply parse the live scoreboard  
pages at ESPN.com.  During the last 30 minutes of the scheduled  
recording time MRE reads and parses the scoreboard page every 5  
minutes.  If the game ends early MRE can optionally stop the recording  
early, if MRE detects the game is running late then it will extend the  
recording until it detects the game is over.

Naturally, live sports recordings are the motivation behind this, but  
it's not limited just to sports.  Anything that can be monitored via  
the web can be used to control the recording time of a program.  Off  
the top of my head, live awards shows could be monitored and extended  
if there were a way to get the status of the show on the web during  
the broadcast (don't the Oscars always run late?).  I doubt there's a  
web source one could monitor for this, but it's just another example  
of the possibilities.

   - Derek