LISTINGS!

[nwgatwcfan]

Good news:

I figured out how to get the EPG Jr. software to register up to 64 channels (which seems to be its built-in limit) with almost no problem whatsoever. I also figured out how to get it to highlight channels like we can do on the Amiga software. The Amiga software seems to only allow up to 6 channels to be highlighted, but the Atari doesn't appear to have a limit.

Also, I have some good news for all of you Windows folks, which is that over the next little while I'm going to be putting up a centralized listing server on prevueguide.com and I'll be figuring out a solution for Windows users to be able to receive listings on their emulated Ataris and Amigas, provided they can forward their ports to allow some UDP packets to be forwarded straight to their computer. Also, hopefully I'll have time to start documenting these newer commands pretty soon.

I've been trying to figure out how you were able to set the alternate highlighting and channels above 9 on the EPG jr. Where would I insert the color selection and extra channel numbers? Also, in the channel lineup and listings data example, I noticed that there is only one byte of data showing for the julian date in the example listings (15 in the example). How are days after number 255 treated, since a second byte would be needed to get Julian days 256 and greater? Would it accept a second byte of data for julian date?

Thanks,
Steven

[AriX]

I've been trying to figure out how you were able to set the alternate highlighting and channels above 9 on the EPG jr. Where would I insert the color selection and extra channel numbers? Also, in the channel lineup and listings data example, I noticed that there is only one byte of data showing for the julian date in the example listings (15 in the example). How are days after number 255 treated, since a second byte would be needed to get Julian days 256 and greater? Would it accept a second byte of data for julian date?

Thanks,
Steven

Hi Steven,

I'm really sorry I haven't had time to document these commands more in-depth. I've been really busy for the past few weeks, with little time to work on this stuff. Julian days after 255 just start over... so day 256 should be represented as day 00 or 01 (I don't remember which). For extra channel numbers, just add another byte where the channel number goes... The numbers are sent in ASCII, so instead of $39 (9), you can have $31 then $30 (10). As far as the color selection, instead of of using $12 $01 before the channel, use $12 $02. This will cause the channel to show up as highlighted.

[nwgatwcfan]

Hi Steven,

I'm really sorry I haven't had time to document these commands more in-depth. I've been really busy for the past few weeks, with little time to work on this stuff. Julian days after 255 just start over... so day 256 should be represented as day 00 or 01 (I don't remember which). For extra channel numbers, just add another byte where the channel number goes... The numbers are sent in ASCII, so instead of $39 (9), you can have $31 then $30 (10). As far as the color selection, instead of of using $12 $01 before the channel, use $12 $02. This will cause the channel to show up as highlighted.

You're okay. I know what you mean about not having any time lately. I have been working crazy hours myself, sometimes 10 to 11 hours a day for the past two months. I will try these out and have some fun with the software.

Thanks again,
Steven

[AriX]

Does anyone here feel like they fully understand the timeslot/day/timezone thing? It's REALLY confusing me. I just can't get listings to show up in the right timeslots.

From what I understand
Timeslot 01 is 5AM. 4:30 is represented by timeslot 48 with the day as 1 day less than it should be.

And... that's about it. Are timeslots interpreted based on local time or central time? (local time being the time that's displayed, while central time means the one that is sent out over the satellite in time commands) Plus, I'm not convinced I understand the timezone thing completely. I thought that the central time would be GMT, but I'm not convinced that that's correct. Also, is UAE's time that's obtained from the host operating system treated by the Prevue software as display time or central time?

[tin]

Does anyone here feel like they fully understand the timeslot/day/timezone thing? It's REALLY confusing me. I just can't get listings to show up in the right timeslots.

From what I understand
Timeslot 01 is 5AM. 4:30 is represented by timeslot 48 with the day as 1 day less than it should be.

And... that's about it. Are timeslots interpreted based on local time or central time? (local time being the time that's displayed, while central time means the one that is sent out over the satellite in time commands) Plus, I'm not convinced I understand the timezone thing completely. I thought that the central time would be GMT, but I'm not convinced that that's correct. Also, is UAE's time that's obtained from the host operating system treated by the Prevue software as display time or central time?

As I understand it:

- I thought timeslot 1 was 5:30am, but it appears that you are probably right and it's 5am. I'll check the atari code again when I get chance.
- No-offset time (if I may call it that?) is -6
- The config works like this: The ASCII value of the timezone sent in the config with mode F gets $36 taken from it, and it's that value that's added to the times. Therefore timezone sent as "6" (ascii $36) works out at offset zero. Timezone sent as "7" is offset +1, which is actually GMT-5 (which is odd!) but this method allows you to do + or - 24 hours by sending just one char in the config. Our prevue disk appears to have come from a place that is offset "4" which figures as times come out as -2 from the clock setting.
- I believe therefore that the listings need to be sent out with the correct times as if they are in timezone GMT-6 with no DST applied. However the bit I don't understand, is that some of the listings have times in them (for example if they start 5 mins after the hour) and these don't change.
- I think the Amiga clock is set in the same way, assumed to be -6 and then added to or subtracted from before display on screen.

[AriX]

As I understand it:

- I thought timeslot 1 was 5:30am, but it appears that you are probably right and it's 5am. I'll check the atari code again when I get chance.
- No-offset time (if I may call it that?) is -6
- The config works like this: The ASCII value of the timezone sent in the config with mode F gets $36 taken from it, and it's that value that's added to the times. Therefore timezone sent as "6" (ascii $36) works out at offset zero. Timezone sent as "7" is offset +1, which is actually GMT-5 (which is odd!) but this method allows you to do + or - 24 hours by sending just one char in the config. Our prevue disk appears to have come from a place that is offset "4" which figures as times come out as -2 from the clock setting.
- I believe therefore that the listings need to be sent out with the correct times as if they are in timezone GMT-6 with no DST applied. However the bit I don't understand, is that some of the listings have times in them (for example if they start 5 mins after the hour) and these don't change.
- I think the Amiga clock is set in the same way, assumed to be -6 and then added to or subtracted from before display on screen.

Great, thanks! That makes sense... I was convinced the time started out as GMT for some reason. Hopefully I'll be able to fix my code tomorrow.

By the way, thanks for adding all of that information to the wiki the other day. I switched it around a bit into a table and added some more checksums and info that I have figured out along the way, but please correct it if I screwed something up. What do you think things like M, N, and O do? Also, I'd love to get R working, it'd be cool to be able to remotely reset the unit.

[usotsuki]

TV Guide considers 5 AM the start of a program day, or did when I read it.

[tin]

By the way, thanks for adding all of that information to the wiki the other day. I switched it around a bit into a table and added some more checksums and info that I have figured out along the way, but please correct it if I screwed something up. What do you think things like M, N, and O do? Also, I'd love to get R working, it'd be cool to be able to remotely reset the unit.

No problems! Happy to add to the wiki when I can. Usually when I get several notepads full of information and think "I need these collating in one place!". I saw the formatting, makes it look a lot better.

I figured reset it's BOXON, 55 AA 52 00 AD, then BOXOFF optionally of course, cos the box resets

No clues at the moment on the other atari ones, I don't have an awful lot of time available at the moment to get back into the reverse-engineering, but I will do asap.

[AriX]

No problems! Happy to add to the wiki when I can. Usually when I get several notepads full of information and think "I need these collating in one place!". I saw the formatting, makes it look a lot better.

I figured reset it's BOXON, 55 AA 52 00 AD, then BOXOFF optionally of course, cos the box resets

No clues at the moment on the other atari ones, I don't have an awful lot of time available at the moment to get back into the reverse-engineering, but I will do asap.

Awesome! It works on the Amiga too
One more question: Have you figured out any more of the values of the F command?

[tin]

This is what I know so far. I'll wiki-ise tomorrow.

Code: Select all

 1 - half hours that defines start of day?		[BCK]	A,B 		(ASCII A = 0, B = 1)
 2 - hours that defines start of day?			[FWD]	C,D,E,I		(ASCII C = 3, D = 4, E = 5)
 3 - transmitted scroll speed (in ascii) 		[SSPD]	1,2,3
 4 - # adverts (in ascii) 10's 				[#AD]	3
 5 - # adverts (in ascii) 1's  				[#AD]	6
 6 - lines in advert (in ascii) 			[LINE]	6,8
 7 - 								N
 8 - something to do with adverts shown, or how often?		$02,$01
 9 - something to do with adverts shown, or how often?		$00,$03
 A - timezone (expressed as ascii where ascii 6 = 0)	[TZ]    3,4,5,6
 B - obey DST 						[DST]	Y,N
 C - 								Y
 D - keyboard enabled						Y,N
 E -								Y,N		not used in atari
 F -								Y,N		not used in atari
10 -								Y,N		not used in atari
11 -								N		not used in atari
12 -							[GRPH]	N,E,L		not used in atari
13 - 							[VIN]	X,L,N		not used in atari
14 - 								X		not used in atari