Plugin: External Status Monitor Interface (V1.3, 24-Jan-2006)

[nielm]

This is a plugin for SageTV v2.1 (and later) that provide an external interface to retrieve the current status of SageTV -- what is playing, and what is recording. This can be used to drive a LCD panel, or taskbar icon.

IT IS USELESS BY ITSELF!, but works well with the LCDSmartie plugin by Anders (http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=9086) :)

This plugin only provides the raw data and makes it available over a TCP socket. External applications will be needed to retreive and process the information.

More information here (http://tools.assembla.com/sageplugins/wiki/GetStatusPlugin), including download/install instructions.

Please post any links to external applications here, and add them to the wiki pages...

History:

7-Dec-2004: V1.0
10-Jan-2005: V1.1: Add support for multiple clients, network timeouts and data cache
16-Jan-2005: V1.1: Corrected uploaded V1.1 zipfile
15-Feb-2005: V1.2: Corrected numbering and whitespace problem with multiple tuners
24-Jan-2006: V1.3: Fixed for Sage 4.1+. Use JAR files for packaging.

[ChrisAllenFiz]

This is a plugin for SageTV that provide an external interface to retrieve the current status of SageTV -- what is playing, and what is recording. This can be used to drive a LCD panel, or taskbar icon.

IT IS USELESS BY ITSELF! :)

This plugin only provides the raw data and makes it available over a TCP socket. External applications will be needed to retreive and process the information.

More information here (http://www.sage-community.org/index.cgi/wiki/GetStatusPlugin#preview), including download/install instructions.

Please post any links to external applications here, and add them to the wiki pages...

NeilM, you are a plugin genius! If only I had space in my case for a VFD :( (Maybe I`ll go external)
Once again, thanks for your efforts anyway

Chris

[AndyS]

Wow - cool stuff Neil!

Now I can get some feedback of Sage's current status into my automation system :)

Andy.

[shameiz]

Hey Neil,

Awesome piece of work. I was going to start playing with this but when I connect no updates are shown. It does show me my capture card but nothing else. Here is a sample output

now_playing_type: nothing
now_playing_show:
now_playing_episode:
now_playing_artist:
now_playing_channel:
now_playing_starttime:
now_playing_endtime:
now_playing_currpos:
now_playing_state: stopped
num_recording_devs: 1
recording_1_dev: Hauppauge WinT
recording_1_show:
recording_1_episode:
recording_1_chan:
recording_1_starttime:
recording_1_endtime:

This is while a recorded show is being played. Any thoughts?

[DynamoBen]

I'm experiencing the same problem. When I'm playing a show I get no indication via telnet. Also is there any way to allow multiple connections to this app? The reason being is if someone sets up an LCD and a tray app elsewhere on their network, they will be making multiple requests to the server. Currently if you have the LCD you can't do any type of tray app.

[nielm]

Couple of extra points -- its for SageTV v2.1+
And if you are running the service, this should be configured in SageClient.properties... (the service does not know whats playing where!)

Multiple connections can come later - its a little extra work, but not much!

[DynamoBen]

Cool it was the service that was screwing things up. Thanks!

[broderp]

what other applications are needed for this to work? How does it interface with this little program? (Setup?)

[DynamoBen]

To test it all you need to do is open a telnet connection. At this point there is talk of creating a plug in for an LCD. I would like to see a tray app so all the PCs on my network get info about what is occuring on the server.

[shameiz]

Ok so I should be working but I was bored. So here's a quick hackjob for inspiration for all you hardcore coders.

<hack job>

I have attached a perl script which creates a file called current.info in my sage directory. It polls Neil's service every few seconds.

I have setup smartie to do the following:

$File("C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV\current.info",2) where 2 is the line number to print.

So it's a start. Not sure how to get LCD to only print when a file exists. That way the program can be changed to only have the file exist while valid values are being written. </hack job>

Obviously you'll need perl loaded on your machine. Anyway, should be really easy to do in java and C. You can also run this perl script as a service on windows boot ... somehow!

[broderp]

Ok so I should be working but I was bored. So here's a quick hackjob for inspiration for all you hardcore coders.

<hack job>

I have attached a perl script which creates a file called current.info in my sage directory. It polls Neil's service every few seconds.

I have setup smartie to do the following:

$File("C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV\current.info",2) where 2 is the line number to print.

So it's a start. Not sure how to get LCD to only print when a file exists. That way the program can be changed to only have the file exist while valid values are being written. </hack job>

Obviously you'll need perl loaded on your machine. Anyway, should be really easy to do in java and C. You can also run this perl script as a service on windows boot ... somehow!

I can see this going right over my head......oops...there it goes... :nono: I guess I wont be using this for a while. It was a nice idea :thumb:

[Methius]

Great work!
I'll try and get it running once I finish work on my powermanagement.
(Doesn't seem to want to work correctly even though my htpc supports s3 suspend :S)

again.. BIG THANK YOU

Ps. For the current pos tab, we will need the perl script to update the file every time the tcp outputs new data or poll it every second.

[CyRex]

Unless someone beats me to it, I was planning on coding a small app that will provide a system tray icon that will give information when you hover over it, and also provide .txt file outputs of the data in a variety of formats. The two formats I was going to start with would be compatible with 1) LCD Smartie and 2) jaLCD.

I tried wiring up a spare LCD I had sitting around last night, but those small wires are a real pain in the arse to solder together, so I gave up... (Plus its hard to solder when you're in the garage shivering...) I figure I can at least write the app and then have someone with an LCD test that aspect, although LCD Smartie has the output simulation windows anyway.

Can anyone else think of any features they would be interested in? I'm open for suggestions, and now that I have my Sage box running smoothly (fingers crossed) I am looking for another project to get started on...

[DynamoBen]

The tray software:

I would also like the tray to do an OSD pop up that tells me when a program is starting to record and pop up again when it has ended. The pop up would only last about 8 secs or so then fade out.

It would be awesome if the user could set screen postion, overscan, display interval, fade interval, text transparency, font type, font color, outline text, and test the OSD. I understand this is a lot but might be worth doing.

Please let me know if you want greater detail on any of these things. This is something I am very interested in. :thumb:

NOTE: Lets not forget that this tray app will need to have an area where the user can determine which port to communicate on.

[nielm]

It would be awesome if the user could set screen postion, overscan, display interval, fade interval, text transparency, font type, font color, outline text, and test the OSD. I understand this is a lot but might be worth doing.Sounds like Girder's XP osd :)
In which case it may be possible to do something with Girder, timers, LUA scripts and LUA sockets...
I might have a play when I find a moment!

[Jere_Jones]

Sounds like Girder's XP osd :)
In which case it may be possible to do something with Girder, timers, LUA scripts and LUA sockets...
I might have a play when I find a moment!For those that use Girder, I'm working on extending LCDMaster to incorporate this new functionality.

Thanks nielm!

Jere

[DynamoBen]

I don't like girder for two reasons:

1) its far too complicated to use

2) its not free

What I'm describing is actually a mirror image of callerID sentry. I really think the app should be standalone.

[m1abrams]

I don't like girder for two reasons:

1) its far too complicated to use

2) its not free

What I'm describing is actually a mirror image of callerID sentry. I really think the app should be standalone.

I agree with this. Girder is not really the app that should handle this duty. A simple small tray app that connects to the tcp socket is all that is needed.

course if that is what I want then I should write the damn thing myself huh? :smokin:

[CyRex]

So you want the popup that tells when recordings start/stop, etc to come up on your TV when viewing Sage as opposed to another computer on the network?

I think I will end up using the app on my other computer so I am able to see what Sage is currently recording without having to turn on the TV, etc.

The version that I'm doing right now is just the basics. I'll try and get that working first, then I can add to that as I get more time and more ideas. Right now it has a small popup window that rises from the bottom right corner of the screen and shows the recording / playing information. It can also be set to pop up for a few seconds whenever a new recording starts.

[MixTracks]

For those that use Girder, I'm working on extending LCDMaster to incorporate this new functionality.

Thanks nielm!

Jere

GREAT! Thanks for working on this, I was just thinking about that. Keep us updated!

[DynamoBen]

The tray app would run on other computers on the network. This would not include the sage server per say.

[nielm]

I think I will end up using the app on my other computer so I am able to see what Sage is currently recording without having to turn on the TV, etc..Note that the server is only accepting connections from 127.0.0.1 at the moment... This is partly for security, and partly because I don't have any timeout handling for remote connections... So theoretically, a remote system can connect, be powered off, and the plugin will keep the connection to the non-existant remote system open, which will block any new connections...
(yeah it was a quick and dirty hack job!)

I will put some kind of timeout in there at the same time I handle multiple connections :)

[CyRex]

Oh yeah, kinda forgot about that. I'm putting the programming on hold for now anyway. I don't have the time to finish it up right now, but I may get back to it later. Someone else should be able to churn out an app fairly quickly anyway...

[pdavis]

I have a system tray application written that I am putting the finishing touches on. My setup complicates matters in that I am using one machine to do all the recording and another to do all the playback. I also do not have a second capture card to test multiple recordings, but it is in the app anyway. I will release the code and app once it is in a stable state.

[tybreizh29]

Hi,
Here is a plugin that works with VLSystem LIS 1 & 2 LCD display.
Alpha for now but seems to work.

download at http://www.le-meur.org/liens.php?id=14

It's an exe (Dlg Box) you put on the SageTv PC.
It displays informations received from Sage and send commands to the LCD.
Bzh

[pdavis]

Here is the tray app as promised. It is alpha, it does require the .net runtime, and it is a bit buggy as testing has been limited. Just unzip it into a folder and run the program. It will create a tray icon that you can double click on to bring up the application's dialog box. From there you can go to the configuration tab and configure the server settings. There are additional settings in the SageMon.exe.config.

http://www.webguys.com/pdavis/Programs/SageMon/SageMon.zip

[Methius]

Is there any way to integrate it with Smartie?
(this way a much broader range of VFDs/LCDs are supported)

The way it works now with .txt isn't recommended. (current pos isn't accurate, and when there's no txt available you get irritating file location. :gun: )

But on the other hand, thanks for the apps :thumb:

[pdavis]

I have the second release of the system tray icon Sage Monitor ready. It needs more testing as I have yet to point it to a system that actually plays (just records) but the connection seems stable now. Feedback is always welcome. I have created a wiki for it as well...

http://www.sage-community.org/index.cgi/wiki/SageMon

[DynamoBen]

I am able to bind and see what is playing live on my remote server from telnet but no sagemon tray icon. It is making a connection but is stateing that there is no data. Any ideas? (by the way I restarted sage after testing with telnet) :bang:

[sleonard]

Did you specify a server address in either app? Both use 127.0.0.1 (local system) by default. So if you have getstatus on a remote server you need use the servers actual address and on the local client you also need to set sagemon to use the servers address.

If that is correct, did you quit your telnet session properly? If not, telnet keeps it's connection open and blocks sagemon.

If that is correct then I have noticed that sagemon does return "Data returned from server was empty" if there is nothing playing or it is playing recorded TV.

The data is there in telnet from getstatus when playing recorded TV but Sagemon doesn't seem to understand unless currently playing is live TV.

[nielm]

Did you specify a server address in either app? Both use 127.0.0.1 (local system) by default. So if you have getstatus on a remote server you need use the servers actual address and on the local client you also need to set sagemon to use the servers address.... and update sage.properties to set the status monitor to listen on all IP addresses (0.0.0.0) (see a post above from me!)

[DynamoBen]

Ahhhh I see. I was playing a prerecorded show. That would explain why telnet had something and sagemon didn't. I would assume this is something your working on?

[pdavis]

Ahhhh I see. I was playing a prerecorded show. That would explain why telnet had something and sagemon didn't. I would assume this is something your working on?

It is now :) Also working on keeping the popup on top of the other windows.

[DynamoBen]

BTW during a daily recording today I got no notification that it was occuring with sagemon. Again info was displayed via telnet and I got "Data returned from server was empty" again. Keep in mind I have 2 PVR-250 cards...I don't know if this has any bearing on what is occuring.

[AndersNolberger]

Hello

I have written a plugin for LCD Smartie that uses this status monitor. Check it out at http://www.nolberger.se/Sage/LCDSmartie/Default.htm

Anders Nolberger

[stanger89]

Couple of bugs (maybe:)

Curpos doesn't seem to work right, or at least could work better.
1) When nothing is playing, then it displays "Error"
2) When somehting is playing it displays mm/dd/yy hh:mm:ss (am or PM)

Also, and this is probably directed toward neilm. Can you add recording length so we can do something "current possition / total length"

Oh, and a couple more requests. How about Disk space total/available, next scheduled recording (and time). We need more info to fill the screen when we aren't playing anything :D

And one more question. Is there any way to to conditional stuff? For example, I'd like to configure it so that when it's playing it displays channel - Show - Episode / on line 1 and curposs / recording length on line 2. And then when not playing anything switch to sequencing through time, disk space used/available, next recording, stuff like that.

Looks cool, unfortunately now I need to get a display for my case :bang:

[AndersNolberger]

OK I found the bug with the time functions showing Error when no show was playing.

All the time function (6,7,8) takes a date/time formatting string as second parameter. To get Curpos without (bogus) date type $dll(sage.dll,8,0,h:nn:ss) and to get show length type $dll(sage.dll,7,0,lh:nn:ss) just like in the example on my webpage. The l in the EndTime formatting stands for "show length".
I have also changed the default formatting for CurPos and EndTime to the above.

The new version is at my webpage.

I would also like to know if there is a way to get LCD Smartie to show something else when there is no data available. The actions tab looked promising but I could not get it to work.

As for disk space and other info I leave this to nielm to answer.

Good night (or should I say good morning) it is 03:00 in the night here now and I should go to work tomorrow.

[Wheemer]

I can telnet from another computer on my network into the sage server and it displays the info properly, however sagemon says data returned from server is empty. Any pointers?

[mls]

I can telnet from another computer on my network into the sage server and it displays the info properly, however sagemon says data returned from server is empty. Any pointers?

I'm getting the same here also. Think it may have something to do with me having 4 tuners. I haven't followed this thread close enough to see if they ever actually got it to support a multi-tuner setup or not. Had just tried it once to see how (or if) it worked here. I don't really have a need for it, but was just something new to play with, so I gave it a try.

[lamanmi]

This is great!!!

What about some additional data commands:

availablediskspace
useddiskspace
48hourdiskspace
upcomingrecording_show:
upcomingrecording_episode:
upcomingrecording_chan:
upcomingrecording_starttime:
upcomingrecording_endtime:
* maybe calling upcoming recording multiple times will get 1 after another
recordingconflicts
programguildelastupdate
programguidenextupdate

I am building an external application in vb that interfaces with my home automation (homeseer) and want to make it look and behave like sage, so even though it is a different program, it will act as if it is just another sage option. Adding these other options will allow me to replicate data that I would want to keep on my application (recording status, upcoming, diskspace, etc). I call it my poor-man's Studio.

[samson]

everytime I click on the sageMon.exe plugin I get this error

the application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135).Click on ok to terminate the aplication


any Ideas?

[nielm]

This is great!!!
What about some additional data commands:
[...]
I am building an external application in vb that interfaces with my home automation (homeseer) and want to make it look and behave like sage, so even though it is a different program, it will act as if it is just another sage option. Adding these other options will allow me to replicate data that I would want to keep on my application (recording status, upcoming, diskspace, etc). I call it my poor-man's Studio.You can get this information now from parsing the webserver pages...
I deliberatly don't want to put too much info in this interface because it is meant to be low-overhead: it may have to be updated multiple times per second or so to update an LCD.

[pmyrie]

Hello

I have written a plugin for LCD Smartie that uses this status monitor. Check it out at http://www.nolberger.se/Sage/LCDSmartie/Default.htm

Anders Nolberger
Hi Anders Nolberger

I am trying your smartie plugin but something wrong, i'v followed you instruction on installing and configuring, but when i try to run smartie all i get in the preview window
is a quick flash saying [dll: Access vio
any thoughts on why i'm getting this would be helpfull.

[AndersNolberger]

Hello

I also get the flash with access violation. I dont know where this is comming from and I have contacted the developers of Smartie to see if they can help. But after that first flash everything is working for me.

Have you confirmed that the monitor plugin is working by opening a cmd window and typing "telnet 127.0.0.1 20000"? You should get a list of what currently is playing.

Are you running Smartie on the same computer as Sage? Otherwise check the installation instructions at http://www.sage-community.org/index.cgi/wiki/GetStatusPlugin#preview

(Also is Sage running...?)

/Anders

[pmyrie]

Ok thanks got it working.

keep up the good work

[pmyrie]

Any news on updates ?,
It would be nice see the date and time when not viewing anything.

thanks again
peter

[stanger89]

I think you can get those from Smartie itself.

[AndersNolberger]

A new version of the LCD Smartie plugin is available at http://www.nolberger.se/Sage/LCDSmartie.

Changes:
Access violation mentioned above is fixed.
Don't show Error as starttime when a recorded program is playing.
Experimental support for locking screen in LCD Smartie when Sage is running, makes it possible to show something else when Sage is not running.
Support for getting length of show and pos in seconds from start. Makes it possible to show progress bar.

See my web page for more info.

Enjoy
Anders

[pdavis]

everytime I click on the sageMon.exe plugin I get this error

the application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135).Click on ok to terminate the aplication


Sorry I haven't had a chance to work on this or check the forums recently. Between the holidays and my girl friends graduation (yea!) I have not had a chance to make any changes.

The error message you received occurs when you try to run a .Net program on a computer that doesn't have the .Net Framework installed. Be sure to run Windows update and tell it to install the .Net framework.

[AndersNolberger]

Hello

I have put up a new verison on my web page http://www.nolberger.se/Sage/LCDSmartie. Only a small fix for a memoryleak, but important if you let your computer go for long times and I suppose you do with Sage.

I have talked with the developer of LCD Smartie and there will be a fix for flashing screen when trying to lock to Sage output. It will be in the next release of LCD Smartie.

I think that this plugin is almost ready now. If anybody finds any bugs please let me know. Otherwise I will call it 1.0 right after the next release of LCD Smartie when the lock screen issue is tested.

Merry Christmas
Anders Nolberger

[danward79]

Hi,

Has anyone got this working with Girder yet?

I am just trying to make a simple lua script to get the info, so I can send it to NetRemote.

If anyone has done it I would be interested in hearing any tips you wish to share...

Cheers

Dan

[danward79]

Hi,

I don't know if anyone is interested, but here is a basic LUA script that grabs all of the Data from this plugin. I made it for Girder.

It compiles all the data into a table. which you can do as you wish with.

SageIP = "192.168.0.4"
SagePort = "20000"

function ConnectToSage (SageSocketIP, SageSocketPort)
SageStatusSocket = connect (SageSocketIP, SageSocketPort)
if not SageStatusSocket then
print ("Error Connecting to TCP Server...")
return
else
print ("Connection Successful")
return
end
end

function GetDataFromSage ()
SageStatus = {}
send (SageStatusSocket,"x")
l , e = receive(SageStatusSocket)
for i = 1, 24 do
_, _, Key, Value = strfind (l, "(.*):%s*(.*)")
if Key~= nil then
Key = gsub (Key, "_", "")
end
if Key ~= nil then
SageStatus[Key] = Value
end
l, e = receive(SageStatusSocket)
end
if e then print(e) else print ("Data Collected - No Error's") end
end

function CloseConnectionToSage ()
close (SageStatusSocket)
print ("Connection Closed")
end

function SendSageDataToNR ()

end

ConnectToSage (SageIP, SagePort)
GetDataFromSage ()
CloseConnectionToSage ()
SendSageDataToNR ()
--print ("*****")
--foreach (SageStatus, print)
--print ("******")

All you need to do is set your ip at the top and port.

I am going to use this to send data to my NetRemote rigs.

Thanks again for the plugin.

Cheers

Dan

[DynamoBen]

Is there a new version of Sagemon coming out soon? :D

[nielm]

Just finishing up the next version which will allow mutiple simultaneous connections, and include video disk space statistics...

[k1114]

Man I wish my case had room for a LCD, I don't see any spot and i'm a bit too chicken to hack up brushed aluminum! (Coolermaster ATC-620S)

[danward79]

Just finishing up the next version which will allow mutiple simultaneous connections, and include video disk space statistics...

I was wondering about that. I would find that useful. I can check up from work, while the House has another connection... Cool! :rolleyes2

[stanger89]

Man I wish my case had room for a LCD,
Where there's a will there's a way:
http://www.dremel.com/html/home_fr.html
:D

[danward79]

HAs anyone had any experiences of Sagetv stuttering when the plugin is polled for regular data?

I tried it at 2000ms intervals abd at first it seems ok but, after a minute(ish) the audio starts to stutter, then eventually the video?

Any ideas?

Is this a heavy load for sage, especially at this rate?

Any ideas would be most helpful!. ;-)

[nielm]

HAs anyone had any experiences of Sagetv stuttering when the plugin is polled for regular data?

I tried it at 2000ms intervals abd at first it seems ok but, after a minute(ish) the audio starts to stutter, then eventually the video?
It would be surprising if it was caused by the plugin especially at 2sec intervals, but I was a bit afraid that it might do something like this, especially on remote clients that always have to query the server for the data... I guess if you disconnect whatever tool you are using to query the plugin, and restart playback you get no stuttering at all (with no connected client, the plugin will be idle).

I am putting a cache in the next version to prevent it doing lookups on the server every time it is queried.

For those that want disk space info, I am going to have to disappoint you... I cannot add this without the possibility of long pauses if the video disk space is on network drives, and if the disk is offline.

[danward79]

Thanks for the info, looking forward to the next version

[nielm]

GetStatus plugin version 1.1 (http://www.sage-community.org/~nielm/getstatus/getstatus_1_1.zip) has been uploaded...

This version does not provide any extra infomation, but allows multiple clients to connect, and includes a data cache to reduce the load on Sage.

There is a minor change to the format of the data: a blank line at the end. This can be used by clients to recognise the end of the data... I hope this does not break anything, but if so, version 1.0 (http://www.sage-community.org/~nielm/getstatus/getstatus_1_0.zip) is still available for download.

[danward79]

Thanks, look forward to testing it.

[jwaters]

I'm attempting to setup LCD Smartie to work with the plugin... this is great!

I can get it to display what's playing now, but can't get it to display what's recording. Here's the lines as setup in LCD Smartie:

Watching $dll(sage.dll,5,0,1)-$dll(sage.dll,5,0,2) $dll(sage.dll,2,0,0)-$dll(sage.dll,3,0,0)
Recording $dll(sage.dll,5,1,1)-$dll(sage.dll,5,1,2) $dll(sage.dll,2,1,0)-$dll(sage.dll,3,1,0)

The output on line 2 does not retrieve any data, but line 1 is good.

Here's what I get from telnet:
now_playing_type: tv
now_playing_show: Skiing
now_playing_episode: USSA Women's Slalom
now_playing_artist:
now_playing_channel: 75 - OLN
now_playing_starttime: 1105650000000
now_playing_endtime: 1105653600000
now_playing_currpos: 1105650847384
now_playing_state: play
num_recording_devs: 1
recording_1_dev: Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture
recording_1_show: Skiing
recording_1_episode: USSA Women's Slalom
recording_1_chan: 75 - OLN
recording_1_starttime: 1105650000000
recording_1_endtime: 1105653600000


Thanks for any help, and great job with these plugins!!

[jwaters]

By the way, version 1.1 does not seem to work for me.

It loads, and I can verify that it's listening on port 20000, but I don't get any data when I connect via telnet or via the LCD Smartie plugin.

For the question above, I'm using 1.0

[AndersNolberger]

I will look at this this weekend. Both Recording info and LCDSmartie with v1.1 of the status monitor.

Anders

[brandium]

I also have problems with v1.1. I opened up the sage console, and it looks like the plugin is throwing an exception immediately after accepting the connection:

Sat 1/15 23:00:12.981 GetStatus: accepted connection
Sat 1/15 23:00:12.982 GetStatus: Exception when accepting client20000
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: net/sf/sageplugins/getstatus/GetStatus$Client
Sat 1/15 23:00:12.983 at net.sf.sageplugins.getstatus.GetStatus.run(GetStatus.java:128)
Sat 1/15 23:00:12.984 at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

get the exact same message every time I try to connect, and no data is sent back to the client before the error

v1.0 works fine btw

[nielm]

Thanks for the log -- looks like I screwed up the upload and missed a couple of .class files... Sorry about that...

Try downloading 1.1. again

[AndersNolberger]

I have put up a new verison on my web page http://www.nolberger.se/Sage/LCDSmartie. A bug where the recording number was not working. If you specified 1 as second parameter to get values for recorder 1 you instead got data for the 2:nd recorder.

There also is something wrong with my plugin when used in beta 5.3 of LCDSmartie. LCDSmartie hangs on exit when my plugin is loaded. For best result use beta 5.1 until I have found the problem.

[silkshadow]

I am a bit lost here, but is there anyway to use this plugin so that Meedio's feedme plugin can send the information to an information module?

[zubblwump]

...For best result use beta 5.1 until I have found the problem.
Just want to make sure this is correct. Do you mean version 5.1 or beta 5.3, release 1? Looks to me that 5.1 is an "official" release, and not a beta. Just want to clarify

[AndersNolberger]

I mean beta 5.3, release 1. Sorry about that, I was in a hurry when I wrote the message.

[zubblwump]

No problem, that's what I assumed.

Excellent job, by the way. I've been looking for this for over a year now, so I have no reservations about switching from CrystalControl to Smartie (which is what I used before switching to CrystalControl). Got it up and running and works great! Just wish I had a 4 line display so I could see more info.

One question: Is it possible to show time remaining in a show rather than time in?

[AndersNolberger]

I will look at remaining time the next time I work on the plugin in the next couple of days.

[Wheemer]

I would still really like to use SageMon, however I was never able to overcome the "Data returned from server was empty" error... Is there a way around this or should I just give up?

[DynamoBen]

I'm in the same spot. I have never been able to get it to work. I've tried everything.

[AndersNolberger]

Which part is not working? Can you connect to the plugin with Telnet and get a list of programs with the commands "start->run" "telnet localhost 20000"?

[Wheemer]

yes although it not running on localhost for me, if I telnet into my server it lists the appropriate information. But I receive the above mentioned error from the taskbar icon.

[DynamoBen]

Ditto for me.

[DynamoBen]

AndersNolberger I've been useing your smartielcd plugin for the last week now and love it! I'm also using yac and the callerid plugin.

After receving a call the other day it got me wondering. Could you alter the sage smartie plugin code to allow for the callerid info to be diplayed on the lcd? This "new" plugin would be independant from sage version but would be cool!

http://sunflowerhead.com/software/yac/

[DynamoBen]

I think I may have found an odd bug with lcdsmartie.

I downloaded and installed the latest release the other day. Everything seemed normal until yesterday. Every time I played a file I would get no remote response via my USB-UIRT. After a fair amount of troubleshooting, I found that the remote was OK and the USB-UIRT was okay. Something was causing the codes to get trashed on the way to sage.

I reinstalled the last stable release of Smartie and rebooted. At this point everything is stable. I will go through and reinstall the sagetv plug-in and see if everything remains stable.

The only changes to lcd smartie were the upgrade to the new version and I altered the lcd refresh rate.

Just a heads up for anyone that may be having problems.

[cipher]

nielm,

Any chance you could add some info about clients to the output? SageTV allows the computer to go into standy even if there are clients connected (even if they are watching a recorded show). I have a simple app that uses your GetStatus output to display on my LC10 iMon VFD and if there was some info about clients in the output of GetStatus, I could deny the suspend request in my VFD app. GetStatus currently returns no info when a client is watching a recording so...
A) include info about recordings being viewed regardless if it's local or a client
or
B) include number of clients via "GetConnectedClients" (returns String[] of client ips)

I currently solved the problem by creating a simple plugin that writes the client ips to a textfile every so often and my VFD app just checks for the existance of that file. However, it would be a much cleaner solution if that info was in the GetStatus output :)

Either way, thanks for all the work on GetStatus!

[nielm]

You should report this as a bug -- The server should not allow suspend when it is active...

In any case there is no way of obtaining that information... Sorry... The API in the server instance has no info about connected clients and what they are watching...

(you could hack something by reading the output of netstat -aon or OpenPorts (http://www.diamondcs.com.au/openports/index.php?page=download) to see if something is connected to the sagetv port..)

[cipher]

Actually it does have information about the clients connected and it is easily obtained just like the info your GetStatus plugin gets.

String strClients[] = (String[])SageApi("GetConnectedClients",null);

This returns an array of client ip addresses. If there are no clients, it returns an array of length 0.

BTW, where do I submit bug reports for SageTV?

[nielm]

I stand corrected :) (I checked earlier and it gave me an error: Must have mis-typed it!) I will put it in the next versions of this and the webserver plugins...
There is no API though for 'Get what connected clients are watching'..

Bugreports should go via Sages web page Support request (http://www.sage.tv/request.html)

[danward79]

Nielm,

Would there be any chance of adding the disk space used and remaining, into the data returned by this?

It would be great addition for my NetRemote Interface. Currently it displays the Recorder and playing status, it also used this to control the state of the play / pause button.

Cheers

Dan

[silkshadow]

Danward79 or anyone, how does one use this with Girder? I found your script Danward79 but I am not sure how to call those variables in LCDmaster. Has anyone got this working or can offer some advice? Thanks!

[danward79]

Danward79 or anyone, how does one use this with Girder? I found your script Danward79 but I am not sure how to call those variables in LCDmaster. Has anyone got this working or can offer some advice? Thanks!

See my reply to your post on the Girder forum, Sorry for the delay I have been away for a while, but I am sure we can sort it out over there.

[silkshadow]

Thanks alot danward79! However :blush: I gave up and switched over to jaLCD. Girder's LCD stuff was just a bit too much trouble and a bit too inflexible. Thanks alot though!

[Wheemer]

Is there anyway we can get SageMon to work? I would really benifit from having this information available on another machine... I've asked about it in the past, but there was never a solution for "Data returned from server was empty"

[DynamoBen]

silkshadow, I see youring using jaLCD. How are you interfacing with sagemon to get information?

I have been using lcdsmartie but have been running into conflicts with my USB-UIRT. I want to try switching to jaLCD to see if my issues clear up.

[Grasshopper]

Nielm,

Would there be any chance of adding the disk space used and remaining, into the data returned by this?

It would be great addition for my NetRemote Interface. Currently it displays the Recorder and playing status, it also used this to control the state of the play / pause button.

Cheers

Dan

Dan,

You've gotten the Girder interface to work, then? Are you using NetRemote to send different commands to Sage with the same button press, depending on what Sage is doing at the time?

Don

[danward79]

Dan,

You've gotten the Girder interface to work, then? Are you using NetRemote to send different commands to Sage with the same button press, depending on what Sage is doing at the time?

Don
Yep
:dance:

[sundansx]

I am using the Sage status monitor successfully with Sage 2.2. When Sage 3 comes out (looking like it might be pretty soon) I want to switch to it. Does this status monitor work with Sage 3, RC2?
thanks.

[sundansx]

bump...version 4?

[danward79]

bump...version 4?
Works for me with version 3, not tried 4 yet

[AndersNolberger]

Yes it works in version 4.

Anders

[pdavis]

Is there anyway we can get SageMon to work? I would really benifit from having this information available on another machine... I've asked about it in the past, but there was never a solution for "Data returned from server was empty"

Sorry for the long delay. Not sure why I have let this go this long. My intentions were to post the source code so that others could continue to work on SageMon. I also notice that I didn't include any contact info (opps) At any rate, I will pick it back up and see what is going wrong with it.

[danward79]

Hi,

I noticed I was missing the now playing info in this from sage, so investigated and have found that for some reason. It is missing from the sagetv data returned from the plugin.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is it know about? Anyideas?

See the screenshot below.

Cheers

Dan

[nielm]

I noticed I was missing the now playing info in this from sage, so investigated and have found that for some reason. It is missing from the sagetv data returned from the plugin.
Now-playing info has to come from the client instance doing the playback - so if you are using SageTV in service mode, you need to install the plugin into the local SageTV client (SageClient.properties)...

[danward79]

Thanks, I think I am using it in service mode.

[Wheemer]

Sorry for the long delay. Not sure why I have let this go this long. My intentions were to post the source code so that others could continue to work on SageMon. I also notice that I didn't include any contact info (opps) At any rate, I will pick it back up and see what is going wrong with it.

Cool, keep us updated!

[nielm]

just a FYI, the 'now playing' information may not work with Sage 4.1 (for the same reasons that it doesnt work in the webserver)... I will have to look into it after my holidays...

[jlabrue]

nielm

Have you had a chance to see what changes took place to break the GetStatus functionality in SageTV 4.1.x? I hadn't noticed until I sent Jeff some logs about MVP issues and he mentioned it.


Hate to seem like a nag posting on all your threads. It just happens that you have some really useful plugins and I think I have almost all of them installed! :goodjob:

[danward79]

I have the same issue to. I use this to display info in netremote. Would love to see it working again :thumb:

[nielm]

Fixed...
uploaded v1.3 which should have support for Sage 4.1+ (shows now playing for Local UI only, no SageExtender support).

Note that the installtion now uses JAR files -- make sure you delete the old directory tree:net/sf/sageplugins/getstatusfrom the SageTV program directory.

[jlabrue]

Sweet, I'll give a try tonight!

[jlabrue]

nielm,

The download link is still pointing to 1.2. I was able to change it in the url to get 1.3. I'll let you know how it works

[nielm]

fixed link -thanks

[jlabrue]

Nielm,

Got it installed and it appears that everything is working! I'll let you know if anything changes

Thanks! :goodjob:

[mightyt]

I had this link saved, but ... Am I missing something or has this plugin dropped off the list of Nielm customizations?? Is its use no longer suggested? Did Nielm drop it? Does it work with Sage 4.1x? :confused:

Thanks, T.

[gplasky]

I had this link saved, but ... Am I missing something or has this plugin dropped off the list of Nielm customizations?? Is its use no longer suggested? Did Nielm drop it? Does it work with Sage 4.1x? :confused:

Thanks, T.
Did you look here? SageTV Community Downloads (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=27)

:cool:

Gerry

[mightyt]

Did you look here? SageTV Community Downloads (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=27)

:cool:

Gerry

Oh ... Thanks a lot Gerry ... Sometimes gets confusing ... downloads are in so many places ...


Individual Threads
The Customizations Sticky (where I usually look stuff to show up)
The Download Page and even
Wiki


Interesting thing is the first post on this thread shows v.1.3 and the Download Page shows v.1.2?? But, the download link takes you back to Wiki where 1.3 is anyway??? Oh well ... it's all good ... :p

Not seeing it in the Sticky, I was wondering if it was abandoned or if it worked with 4.1.x or not.

Thanks, T.

[Opus4]

Not seeing it in the Sticky, I was wondering if it was abandoned or if it worked with 4.1.x or not.I went to see if it hadn't been added to the customization sticky & saw that is is listed there already. Following the link in the sticky led to this exact thread, where the very first post links to the download & states that it was updated for v4.1. I'm not sure what info could be missing about it.

I realize that the customizations sticky is quite long, but there are a lot of things to list there. (If you are wondering why this isn't listed among the import modules for v4: this isn't an import, so you have to look further down for other customizations.)

- Andy

[mightyt]

I went to see if it hadn't been added to the customization sticky & saw that is is listed there already. Following the link in the sticky led to this exact thread, where the very first post links to the download & states that it was updated for v4.1. I'm not sure what info could be missing about it.

I realize that the customizations sticky is quite long, but there are a lot of things to list there. (If you are wondering why this isn't listed among the import modules for v4: this isn't an import, so you have to look further down for other customizations.)

- Andy

You are absolutely right !!! I screwed up ... in "two" ways ... One ... I looked for it with all of Nielms other imports up top and forgot that it was considered external. And two ... the really stupid one is I was really looking for Nielm's CPU, Memory and Hard Drive Monitor! and somehow confused it with his External Status Monitor ... :(

Sorry for mixing this up, but appreciate the navigation tip ... :thumb:

Thanks, T.

[Madcoder]

Hi Nielm. I really like the pluggin, and use it to enable some LCDs already. It would be VERY VERY helpful if you could add just too more bits of data to do some other things too!

Additional data needed:
1. Currently active Sage screen. So this would indicate, Main Menu, My TV, etc., whatever the active screen name is. This COULD be shown on an LCD, but MORE importantly at least for me is that I can tell when someone has gone "back" to the main menu, and thus invoke another application (I am integrating a few Media products here).

2. Currently playing - from what encoder/tuner!!! This is less important than number 1, but still a good idea for the following reason. I use DVB encoders, that each have a MyTheatre interface. If I send the correct Sendmessage to MyTheatre, it will pop up the Teletext screen, and I can have Teletext from within Sage (ok, not from INSIDE Sage, but it looks like it to the end user). The problem is that I have multiple tuners and multiple Sage instances, so I need to activate Teletext for the correct encoder/tuner. To do this, I need to know which tuner is currently being shown/played, since both of my tuners might actually be active (one tuning, one watching, etc.) and teletext pages are channel specific from the providers. Since your plugin shows other information about what is playing, I was hoping you could also fish out the associated encoder/tuner data.

I hope I gave good enough descriptions of what I am trying to do to entice you to help me! :D Thanks in advance.

[FormatC:]

Heres is the data watching News 12 CT
now_playing_type: tv
now_playing_show: News 12 Connecticut
now_playing_episode:
now_playing_artist:
now_playing_channel: 12 - N12CT
now_playing_starttime: 1160132400000
now_playing_endtime: 1160136000000
now_playing_currpos: 1160134618069
now_playing_state: play
num_recording_devs: 1
recording_1_dev: Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture
recording_1_show: News 12 Connecticut
recording_1_episode:
recording_1_chan: 12 - N12CT
recording_1_starttime: 1160132400000
recording_1_endtime: 1160136000000

And Here is the data recording the same channel

now_playing_type: nothing
now_playing_show:
now_playing_episode:
now_playing_artist:
now_playing_channel:
now_playing_starttime:
now_playing_endtime:
now_playing_currpos:
now_playing_state: stopped
num_recording_devs: 1
recording_1_dev: Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture
recording_1_show: News 12 Connecticut
recording_1_episode:
recording_1_chan: 12 - N12CT
recording_1_starttime: 1160132400000
recording_1_endtime: 1160136000000

Is there anyway to get the "now_playing_state: stopped" To say recording ? or something and get my cursor bar back? I'm using Sage TV Version 5.0.4 and Windows XP Pro

[elaw]

Is anyone using the plugin yet with V6? I just installed it on my V6 system and can't get any info. I can connect via telnet, and the plugin responds, but it never indicates anything is playing, whether I'm watching live TV, recorded TV, or an imported file.

Interestingly, it *does* show that something is recording when I watch live TV.

[Jere_Jones]

Is anyone using the plugin yet with V6? I just installed it on my V6 system and can't get any info. I can connect via telnet, and the plugin responds, but it never indicates anything is playing, whether I'm watching live TV, recorded TV, or an imported file.

Interestingly, it *does* show that something is recording when I watch live TV.
This is probably caused by the wrong "instance" of sage running the plugin.

Think of it like this: There is the server and the client. The server doesn't know what the clients are watching so it can't report a now playing for them. If you aren't running SageTV as a service then the client and server are the same, but if you are then they aren't and there's your problem. (Did that make sense?)

Solution: Remove the "load at startup" settings from Sage.properties and put it in SageClient.properties.

Jere

[elaw]

Solution: Remove the "load at startup" settings from Sage.properties and put it in SageClient.properties.
Jere

You're right - at first I had it in sage.properties then moved it to sageclient.properties. But now that I think about it, I may not have cycled the sage service afterward. I'll give that a try and report the results!

[elaw]

Jere,

You hit the nail right on the head!:clap:

I had forgotten that editing sage.properties while the service is running is a no-no, basically my changes did not get saved and the status monitor was still running attached to the service.

In the process of fixing it I had an interesting idea which might be useful for your interface (and other things?). What I did is left the status monitor in sage.properties but set the binding port to 20002. So now I've got the status monitor running twice - once attached to the service which could be used to monitor recording even if the client isn't running. The other is attached to the client, which can be used to monitor what is being watched.

[peterras]

Hi,

I am new at SageTV coming from TVedia (should have done it along time ago)

When a device is not recording, I would like to see when and what is to been recorded next. Is this possible or will it be added to the plug-in at sometime.

I am planning to make a small program for a PDA with WiFi to connect to GetStatus and show the info.

Yours hopefully

Peter

[koelec]

Hi,

I am new at SageTV coming from TVedia (should have done it along time ago)

When a device is not recording, I would like to see when and what is to been recorded next. Is this possible or will it be added to the plug-in at sometime.

I am planning to make a small program for a PDA with WiFi to connect to GetStatus and show the info.

Yours hopefully

Peter
Alternatively you could install Nielm's web plugin (which gives you nearly everything you can do with the SageTV GUI via a web browser) and use the browser on your PDA.

- Chris

[peterras]

I have see the WebSerber, but I was looking for a more simple layout, and when the PC with SageTV is on Standby, I what the PDA to still show current time, and time to next record.

[geogecko]

peterras

I'm not sure that anything could monitor the time to next recording, when the information needed is on a PC that is in Standby? Maybe I'm not following you, perhaps.

As for the Webserver, there is a simpler layout, which is what I use when viewing the Webserver on my cell phone.

Instead of using the below URL (what I use when using the internet, say at work):

www.user.dyndns.tv:8080/sage/Home

I use:

www.user.dyndns.tv:8080/sage/menu.html

It's an all text based main menu, however, it still links to the same internal menus, from what I've seen just now.

However, Opera on my cell phone had problems selecting from the drop down menus on the main menu, so using this text based main menu corrected that problem. Not sure what browser you are using...

[FidgetyRat]

i noticed i'm getting no "now playing" information using sageMC's audio player. Is this a known problem or something that could be fixed?

Sage 6
MC6.3.2

[Grasshopper]

Is there any chance that the external status plugin causes playback exception errors? I was positively festooned with Sage playback exception errors telling me to install the latest version of DirectX or reinstall it (when of course I was up to date). Fed up, I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows and Sage Client yesterday. When I tested the install, it worked fine (no errors), until I installed the status JAR's, at which point I got another exception. It could be a coincidence, but I took the JAR's back out and reverted back to the old sageclient.properties file, and haven't seen a playback exception since.

[knarfishness]

Had this working rather well in Default STV 6.1, but after upgrading/changing over to SageMC, it doesn't give any more output. Is there a change in the output from Default STV to SageMC? I was under the impression that SageMC was more of an interface overhaul than a codebase re-write. :confused:

[cslatt]

Works fine for me in SageMC. Maybe something else has changed? Make sure the line is still there in the Properties file, that you have an exception setup in any person firewalls on the machine, etc.

[knarfishness]

The line's still there, along with the one put there by the Web-Interface intstaller, so that hasn't changed. Still shows it's listening on 20000, but telnet doesn't give any output. Gonna try replacing the JAR's and a full reboot. Finally have a gap in my recording schedule :D

[grbsaaber]

Is there an additional download area for the getstatus plugin. Seems the site is down.

THanks

[visiontim]

Is this still current? I'm having problems getting it going.

[pdavis]

Arg! The sage-community.org is gone. I really hate forums... I always forget about them.

[nielm]

Fixed link in first post...

[Mtlca401]

I have built a program, in vb.net, that retrieves this now playing and recording info and my question is how do I convert the values now_playing_starttime, endtime and currpos to a time format. For instance for the starttime for a particular recording I have 1206131400000 and I know that this value should be 3:30 pm. How can I convert this?

[cslatt]

I have built a program, in vb.net, that retrieves this now playing and recording info and my question is how do I convert the values now_playing_starttime, endtime and currpos to a time format. For instance for the starttime for a particular recording I have 1206131400000 and I know that this value should be 3:30 pm. How can I convert this?

That value is the number milliseconds since the Unix epoch (Jan 1, 1970) so I just do:

Dim nowPlayingDate as dateTime = New dateTime(1970, 1, 1).AddMilliseconds(valueFromGetStatusPlugin)

BUT, if you want to save yourself even more trouble, I already wrote a VB.NET class that handles all of the parsing for the Sage GetStatus plugin (I used it for the MizookLCD LCDSmartie Plugin) and I can compile it as a DLL and send it your way when I get home from work tonight if you'd like.

[Mtlca401]

That value is the number milliseconds since the Unix epoch (Jan 1, 1970) so I just do:

Dim nowPlayingDate as dateTime = New dateTime(1970, 1, 1).AddMilliseconds(valueFromGetStatusPlugin)

BUT, if you want to save yourself even more trouble, I already wrote a VB.NET class that handles all of the parsing for the Sage GetStatus plugin (I used it for the MizookLCD LCDSmartie Plugin) and I can compile it as a DLL and send it your way when I get home from work tonight if you'd like.

Thanks for the reply. I did manage to get it to work yesterday and have my program already up and running. I would have just used the LCDSmartie plugins that are out there, but I do not have an LED LCD screen. I have an actual LCD 7" widescreen computer screen that hooks up VGA as a secondary monitor. I could not find any programs out there for an actual computer screen so I built one my self to show what is playing and recording.

thanks

[shadeblue.com]

Is it possible to use this plugin to obtain the 'now playing show' on a HD Extender?

[babgvant]

Is there a way to get recording status when the client is closed (have the server load it maybe)? I'd rather not leave the client open all the time.

[shadeblue.com]

Is there a way to get recording status when the client is closed (have the server load it maybe)? I'd rather not leave the client open all the time.

Hi babgvant,

I was able to add this plugin to the sage.properties file and get it to load up with the service rather than with the client. I also pulled the source from sourceforge and modified a private copy to include support for listing the playing now status for my HD extenders :blush:

[babgvant]

I ended up using the webserver for recording information and this pluggin for playback.

Can you recommend a good, free Java IDE?

[shadeblue.com]

Eclipse is probably one of the most popular; it is the one I am using.
http://www.eclipse.org/


Thanks, shadeBlue

[babgvant]

I will check it out. Thank you.

[babgvant]

Should the duration of DVD playback always be 0? I was looking through the code and it does get set, but in my writer the value is always 0.

[Slingshot72]

Should the duration of DVD playback always be 0? I was looking through the code and it does get set, but in my writer the value is always 0.

Ive been setting up the VFD on my client this weekend (Antec fusion v2 case) and also found out that the duration reported for any of my archived dvds from the SageTV server were being reported as 0. I grabbed Neilm's source from sourceforge and after a bit of digging around it looks like it may be a cache issue. Basically as soon as you start a DVD you'll briefly see the SageTV spinning circle (Im assuming this is while the video is buffering). The DVDs details get cached by the plugin at this point but a valid duration isnt available until the DVD starts playback on the client (i.e. you see some video). I made a little alteration to the code which updates the cached duration value when it becomes valid and (so far) it seems to be working fine. If its still not causing any issues in the next couple of days I'll send Neilm the details.

[babgvant]

Thanks

[Slingshot72]

After testing all last week things seemed to be good. That was until Mrs. Slingshot wanted to watch a DVD rip over the weekend and typically, the first one she tried showed a bug (DVD played fine, VFD im driving didnt fair so well). Looks like more debugging needed on my part :(

[ToonGal]

Is the new v2.25 version of the JAR file in the webserver compatible with the GetStatus JAR file included here? I've used the 9/11/09 version of nielm_sageutls.jar, but it is significantly smaller than the one in the download in this thread. Backwards compatible?

I've recently reinstalled, and while everything is generally functional now, this utility is not. SageMon shows no data at any point while displaying the telnet info, as per the wiki.

Any help greatly appreciated, as I try to rebuild my SageTV server. Thanks! :)

[jreichen]

Is the new v2.25 version of the JAR file in the webserver compatible with the GetStatus JAR file included here? I've used the 9/11/09 version of nielm_sageutls.jar, but it is significantly smaller than the one in the download in this thread. Backwards compatible?As of v2.25 nielm is no longer building his web interface. I'm building it using an automated Ant script I created. I checked the contents of the jars to make sure they'd be compatible. If you find any incompatibilities I'll do what I can to fix them.

I think the source was being delivered in previous versions and I saw no need for it so that could explain the difference in size (I don't have copies of the old and new versions handy right now).

[Nightrader_]

The Wiki page is blank??

I would like to play with this again.:D

[FidgetyRat]

I've been using this plugin for a few years now with my LCD, but in the past few months i've started to have a problem with it.

The plugin itself seems to get hung up randomly and the only fix is a restart of sage or a reboot of the machine itself.

I use the plugin to get info about what tuner is recording, what show is on, etc. and occasionally it will be in the middle of a recording, and just freeze that information infinitely. So a day later, my LCD will show that it is still recording the same show, and sometimes the timeline is 40 hours into a 30 minute show, even though sage really isn't recording.

Not sure what is causing the lock up, maybe a change in the java runtime since that updates fairly regularly.

I'm pretty sure I used telnet to confirm that the plug-in was reporting the problem and not the LCD interface.


Any idea what I could do to fix this?

[Podmodder]

i can get mine to show what is playing when i watch live tv but if i watch something that is recorded the screen goes blank. any ideas how to set it up so that it shows what is now playing all the time? thats all i want.