PseudoTV for XBMC


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What is it?
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    It's channel-surfing for your media center.  Never again will you have to
actually pick what you want to watch.  Use an electronis program guide (EPG)
to view what's on or select a show to watch.  This script will let you create
your own channels and, you know, watch them.  Doesn't actually sound useful
when I have to write it in a readme.  Eh, try it and decide if it works for
you.


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Features
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    - Automatic channel creation using presets.
    - Optionally customize the channels you want with smart playlists.
    - Use an EPG and view what was on, is on, and will be on.  Would you rather
        see something that will be on later?  Select it and watch it now!
    - Want to pause a channel while you watch another?  And then come back to
        it and have it be paused still?  Sounds like a weird request to me, but
        if you want to do it you certainly can.  It's a feature!
    - An idle-timer makes sure you aren't spinning a hard-drive needlessly all
        night.
    - Discover the other features on your own (so that I don't have to list
        them all...I'm lazy).


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Setup
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    First, install it.  This is self-explanatory (hopefully).  Really, that's
all that is necessary.  Default channels will be created without any
intervention.  You can choose to setup channels (next step) if you wish.
    Instructions to create your own channels.  Each channel is really just a
smart playlist.  The name of the playlist is also the name your channel will
have (that should be a feature...maybe I'll add it at some point).  This part
is important: when it asks you what the filename of the playlist should be,
name it "Channel_x" where 'x' is the number of the channel.  If you have made
channels 1 and 2, though, don't skip to 4.  You must have sequential numbers or
things will not work the way you'd like.
    So when this thing starts up for the first time, it will read your play-
lists and setup everything.  Depending on how many channels you have and how
many items are in each, this may take a couple of minutes.  After the first
time, channels will only be updated occasionally.  Don't worry about when or
why, just trust that it happens sometimes.  If you do care, you can modify the
setting in the configuration.


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Controls
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    There are only a few things you need to know in order to control every-
thing.  First of all, the Stop button ('X') stops the video and exits the
script.  Scroll through channels using the arrow up and down keys, or
alternatively by pressing Page up or down.
    To open the EPG, press the Select key ('Enter').  Move around using
the arrow keys.  Start a program by pressing Select.  Pressing Previous
Menu ('Escape') will close the EPG.
    Press 'I' to display or hide the info window.  When it is displayed,
you can look at the previous and next shows on this channel using arrow left
and right.


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Settings
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    Idle-Timer: The amount of time (in minutes) of idle time before the script
is automatically stopped.

    Info when Changing Channels: Pops up a small window on the bottom of the
screen where the current show information is displayed when changing channels.

    Force Channel Reset: If you want your channels to be reanalyzed then you
can turn this on.

    Time Between Channel Resets: This is how often your channels will be reset.
Generally, this is done automatically based on the duration of the individual
channels and how long they've been watched.  You can change this to reset every
certain time period (day, week, month).

    Fill in Channels with Presets: Try to ensure you have at least 20 active
channels by setting up some using preset playlists.  If you'd prefer to only
use channels that you've defined, you may turn this off.

    Show Channel Logo: Always display the current channel logo.


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Credits
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Developer: Jason102
Code Additions: Sranshaft, TheOddLinguist
Skins: Sranshaft, Zepfan, Steveb
Preset Images: Jtucker1972
Languages: CyberXaz