[Kwintv] Channel format plugins questions

[Zsolt Rizsanyi]

On Wednesday 30 July 2003 11.23, Dirk Ziegelmeier wrote:
> > > - I think the channel storage shouldn't be a plugin. We should use XML,
> > > it
> >
> > I dont see the reason why it shouldn't be a plugin. Plugins are most
> > suited for functionality like this.
>
> What does a user with less knowledge do? Hmm, I don't know all this, but
> xawtv/zapping sounds good. If I choose this (just tried it) qtvision always
> looses its channels and reimports the standart channels at startup.
> I played around trying to import xawtv or zapping files, but no success.
> Maybe I'm too stupid, but can anyone explain how to import xawtv or
> zapping? If not, it seems to me that the channel support is completely
> broken for files other than xml and csv. Besides, if I choose csv qtvision
> saves csv format to channels.xml file...

Yes. That is very confusing. I also had problems to understand how that works.
When you use Channels->Open... you change the file from where the channels 
loaded AND saved.
So if you want only to load some channels you should use one of the entries of 
Channels->Import

> > Channel file import is very important feature. I hope you dont deny that
> > :)
>
> I completely agree! This is why I said we need to have
> Channels->Import->[format list].

We have Channels->Import->Other Channels... which allows you to pick a file, 
and qtvision tries to load it using the first plugin which works.

> > Export is hopefully not that important, but we need to have them to be
> > fair with our users...
>
> Sounds good, but let's do it by "Channels->Export->[format list]". This is
> much less confusing and prevents the user from doing wrong choices in the

Yes. It should be done the way you said. Just we need somebody to implement it 
:)

> channel plugins tab. But I seriously doubt that anybody needs it. And it's
> a pain to maintain since we always have to keep track of what x other TV
> apps do.

Currently only three formats work for export: xml, csv and kwintv.  Those 
should be maintained. The others are not important for export.

> Zapping stores much more info for each channel. Does zapping act gracefully
> if we write incomplete config files since we don't have the other
> properties? In all cases?

No :)
Zapping is a read only plugin, and it should stay that way :)

> > That is: it would be enough to only add read support for xawtv format
> > (because it is read only anyway).
>
> Since it doesn't even work (see above) I have no interest in patching the
> format. I can't even try it, and I'm not intrested in the xawtv import, so
> I also don't want to fix the complete plugin.

xawtv is an important format as that is a reference implementation for 
video4linux apps.
But we can leave without using the norm and source information form the xawtv 
format.

> > And read write support for kwintv. If that is a problem for you than
> > hopefully somebody will help you out :)
>
> It is, kwintv (as distributed by SuSE) doesn't work on my box and can't
> compile it from CVS (I don't have the messages available, but I tried some
> weeks ago). And once again, who uses TWO TV apps???
>
> My personal opinion is: Move all formats except XML to the attic until
> someone writes an Import/Export submenu for the channels. The formats
> should remain plugins, but there shouldn't be a channel plugins tab in the
> config dialog. We always read and write XML, and if someone needs it, we
> import (and sometimes export) csv, xawtv, zapping and old kwintv.

The plugins should stay, since there is gui for using them.
The GUI interface for them should be seriously cleaned up tough (including 
that only xml is used for storing channels).

Regards
Zsolt


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