SageTV V4.1.11 Beta Is Available - Better Placeshifting!

[Lester Jacobs]

How about this for a (partial) solution to the "playback entire DVD" issue? Obviously it's a lot of work to get the MVP to do DVD navigation. Instead, how about getting Sage to automatically create a video playlist of all VOBs in the VIDEO_TS directory and play this playlist when such a directory is selected for playback? In most cases, this should pretty much playback the entire movie (except for those few movies that do seamless branching and such). All the functionality to implement this change is already present in SageTV. It's just a matter of automating it so that the user doesn't manaully have to create the video playlist. This way, playing a DVD on the MVP would require exactly the same steps as palyback on a regular Sage client.

This solution is not as good as implementing a real DVD navigator but it is certainly better than having to merge individual VOBs or creating playlist manually and it hopefully doesn't require too much effort on the part of Sage development.

I for one would love to have this feature since it would enable me to keep my DVDs ripped as they are for playback on "regular" clients while giving me the ability to still watch them on the MVP (albeit not quite as nicely).

Cheers
Lester

[Keith]

In my opinion any resources devoted to MVP only detract from core development. Personally I'd like to all the core bugs squashed and the music functionality brought up to par before even one more line of code is written or changed for MVP. But that's just my personal bias stemming from using an MVP and finding it totally unsuitable for video at all.

[michelkenny]

Originally Posted by Keith

In my opinion any resources devoted to MVP only detract from core development. Personally I'd like to all the core bugs squashed and the music functionality brought up to par before even one more line of code is written or changed for MVP. But that's just my personal bias stemming from using an MVP and finding it totally unsuitable for video at all.

I'd rather them work on both (core and mvp). I find the MVPs so great that I bought 2 to replace 2 full client PCs I was using. They're so much less work than maintaining the client PCs since all I use them is to watch live/recorded TV.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Lester Jacobs

How about this for a (partial) solution to the "playback entire DVD" issue? Obviously it's a lot of work to get the MVP to do DVD navigation. Instead, how about getting Sage to automatically create a video playlist of all VOBs in the VIDEO_TS directory and play this playlist when such a directory is selected for playback? In most cases, this should pretty much playback the entire movie (except for those few movies that do seamless branching and such). All the functionality to implement this change is already present in SageTV. It's just a matter of automating it so that the user doesn't manaully have to create the video playlist. This way, playing a DVD on the MVP would require exactly the same steps as palyback on a regular Sage client.

This solution is not as good as implementing a real DVD navigator but it is certainly better than having to merge individual VOBs or creating playlist manually and it hopefully doesn't require too much effort on the part of Sage development.

I for one would love to have this feature since it would enable me to keep my DVDs ripped as they are for playback on "regular" clients while giving me the ability to still watch them on the MVP (albeit not quite as nicely).

Cheers
Lester

Something along these lines would be great. Even if we know from this point on it would be best to rip just the movie (no menus-I do this already).

Gerry

[JUC]

Hi, i came back over the weekend and realized one of my tuners wasn't working (i upgraded on friday to the curent beta). So, i deleted the video source and went to add it back but i can't get past the part where i input my zipcode so it can download my lineup!! It says there was an error connecting to sage servers and to check my connection or there might be a problem at the server. Well, I can acces the internet just fine. I don't know if this is a beta problem or not so i will post it here first. Now i'm down to one tuner so any help would be appreciated.
JUC


edit: i also noticed my guide data is only going out a week--so maybe it hasn't been able to connect for a little while
edit 2: okay-i was able to get the second tuner working by using a backup properties file i had from thursday--the guide still only goes out 1 week--is that the default? if so i'm all set i guess. thanks

[Opus4]

Double check that SageTV can access the EPG servers via port 7760. If you gave access to SageTV.exe in your firewall, but switched to service mode, make sure SageTVService.exe is allowed through. Some firewalls check the exe to make sure it is still the same one you allowed through previously, so you may need to allow it access again.

Edit: the guide should go out about 12-14 days.

- Andy

[MrD]

I am trying to get vob transcoding to work on my 1.0 MVP.

I run sage in service mode on the PC.

I have added VOB files to the media library.

I can play the vob files through a PC client.

However, when I play the VOB files through the MVP, I get a black screen and no sound. I *am* able to seek through the file, and the timeline reports the correct amount of total time.

What are some of the things I can troubleshoot? Are there properties files settings I should double check?

Thanks!

-MrD

[Para]

Originally Posted by Lester Jacobs

How about this for a (partial) solution to the "playback entire DVD" issue? Obviously it's a lot of work to get the MVP to do DVD navigation. Instead, how about getting Sage to automatically create a video playlist of all VOBs in the VIDEO_TS directory and play this playlist when such a directory is selected for playback? In most cases, this should pretty much playback the entire movie (except for those few movies that do seamless branching and such). All the functionality to implement this change is already present in SageTV. It's just a matter of automating it so that the user doesn't manaully have to create the video playlist. This way, playing a DVD on the MVP would require exactly the same steps as palyback on a regular Sage client.

This solution is not as good as implementing a real DVD navigator but it is certainly better than having to merge individual VOBs or creating playlist manually and it hopefully doesn't require too much effort on the part of Sage development.

I for one would love to have this feature since it would enable me to keep my DVDs ripped as they are for playback on "regular" clients while giving me the ability to still watch them on the MVP (albeit not quite as nicely).

Based on what I tried earlier, it will still limit "rewinding" to the beginning of the current VOB being played in the playlist. That is not a big deal, but it is certainly one that will become a little irritating to some people (and I am sure we will be able to read all about it ). Maybe that is something that could be changed in the way playlists are handled.

Another issue is menus. If you have a menu included in the rip, you will see it as part of the playlist. To cope, new ifo files can be created for the existing rips with the menus removed, and future rips would need to be movie-only. Of course, future rips could also be made as one VOB instead of multiple.

[Para]

Originally Posted by MrD

I am trying to get vob transcoding to work on my 1.0 MVP.

I run sage in service mode on the PC.

I have added VOB files to the media library.

I can play the vob files through a PC client.

However, when I play the VOB files through the MVP, I get a black screen and no sound. I *am* able to seek through the file, and the timeline reports the correct amount of total time.

What are some of the things I can troubleshoot? Are there properties files settings I should double check?

Thanks!

-MrD

I don't know for sure what the problem is, but here is something to check:
It sounds like how some of my experiments in transcoding looked before 4.1.11 came out. Take a look at the task manager while playing one of the VOB files on the MVP. Check to see that the SageTVTranscoder is running (under processes tab) and also check to see what your server's network usage is when streaming the file (under networking tab). The usage should be bouncing somewhere between 4% and 10% on a 100Mbps connection. When I previously saw what you describe, my network reported a 20% stream (the MVP couldn't handle that).

Also look to see that you have the transcoding enabled and that you don't have any experimental transcode settings still in your properties files (even in your MVP client properties files).

[MrD]

What would the correct transcoding settings be?

I reset my client properties (removed with backup) and rebooted the MVP. No joy.

The SageTVTranscoder is not running, but it is installed

The only trancoding properties I have are:

enable_transcode_streaming=true
media_server/transcode_quality/DVD=-f dvd -b 4000 -s 720x480 -acodec mp2 -ab 384
media_server/transcode_quality/MPEG4-128K=-f mpegts -vcodec mpeg4 -b 96 -s 352x240 -ac 1 -g 300 -bf 2 -deinterlace -r 15 -ar 22050 -ab 32
media_server/transcode_quality/MPEG4-256K=-f mpegts -vcodec mpeg4 -b 192 -s 352x240 -ac 1 -g 300 -bf 2 -deinterlace -r 15 -ar 22050 -ab 64
media_server/transcode_quality/MPEG4-384K=-f mpegts -vcodec mpeg4 -b 320 -s 352x240 -ac 1 -g 300 -bf 2 -deinterlace -r 15 -ar 22050 -ab 64
media_server/transcode_quality/MPEG4-Full-384K=-vcodec copy -ac 2 -acodec mp2 -ab 320
media_server/transcode_quality/music=-f dvd -vn -acodec mp2 -ab 64 -ac 2

seeker/check_all_files_for_transcode=true

here is part of the log (looks ok, no obvious errors)

Mon 4/3 22:43:51.074 MiniPlayer got an estimate from the UI on bandwidth of 5089Kbps
Mon 4/3 22:43:51.075 MiniPlayer is using Push mode playback
Mon 4/3 22:43:51.075 initDriver0()
Mon 4/3 22:43:51.075 MiniPlayer established for 000dfe00075e
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.056 MiniPlayer is using the MPEG2 pusher
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.057 MPEG2 file pack size=2048
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.066 Opened MPEG-2 PS file: \\pompei\dvd\MiamiVice\Season1\Disc4\VIDEO\VTS_01_1.VOB firstPTS=25257 durationMsec=1544512
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.066 Mpeg2Reader seeking to pos=0
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.066 openURL0()
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.067 Sigma video dim=java.awt.Dimension[width=720,height=480]
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.067 pausePush0()
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.108 setMute0()
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.109 getDuration : 1544512
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.110 VideoFrame.timeSelected2(Sun 8/28 3:05:28.456, true) currFile=MediaFile[id=7480566 A[7480569,7480567,"MiamiVice/Season1/Disc4/VIDEO/VTS_01_1",0@0828.03:05,25] host=neptune encodedBy= \\pompei\dvd\MiamiVice\Season1\Disc4\VIDEO\VTS_01_1.VOB, Seg0[Sun 8/28 3:05:28.456-Sun 8/28 3:31:13.000]] realDur=1544512
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.110 seeking numpushbuffers=0 seekTime=0
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.110 Mpeg2Reader seeking to pos=0
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.110 flushPush0()
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.112 Creating new push thread
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.113 VF processing job null nPlayin=true
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.117 setUI(sage.bw@1efc379[MediaPlayer OSD]) histIdx=3 uiHistory=[sage.bw@b48c3a[Main Menu], sage.bw@c5e60d[Library], sage.bw@1112ca9[Video Library Folder View], sage.bw@1efc379[MediaPlayer OSD]]
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.123 isRec=false rd=1544512 base=0
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.133 VF thread is now waiting for 0:25:44.262
Mon 4/3 22:43:52.207 playPush0()
Mon 4/3 22:44:30.186 Ministry is waiting for 180 sec
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.276 Seeker awoken
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.276 MARK 1 currRecord=null enc=Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture clients=[] ir=true
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.277 defaultRecord=A[7448203,7448128,"My Wife and Kids",11450@0403.22:30,30]
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.278 Seeker in AUTOMATIC mode nextRecord=A[7446109,7425187,"Teachers",10057@0403.23:00,30] nextTTA=806724
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.279 newRecord=null
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.279 NOTHING TO RECORD FOR NOW...
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.282 VF processing job null nPlayin=true
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.283 isRec=false rd=1544512 base=160891
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.284 VF thread is now waiting for 0:23:03.371
Mon 4/3 22:46:33.502 Seeker waiting for 10 mins.
Mon 4/3 22:47:30.185 Ministry is waiting for 180 sec
Mon 4/3 22:50:30.184 Ministry is waiting for 180 sec
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.501 Seeker awoken
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.501 MARK 1 currRecord=null enc=Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II Capture clients=[] ir=true
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.501 defaultRecord=A[7448203,7448128,"My Wife and Kids",11450@0403.22:30,30]
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.502 Seeker in AUTOMATIC mode nextRecord=A[7446109,7425187,"Teachers",10057@0403.23:00,30] nextTTA=506499
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.502 newRecord=null
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.502 NOTHING TO RECORD FOR NOW...
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.503 VF processing job null nPlayin=true
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.521 isRec=false rd=1544512 base=461129
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.522 VF thread is now waiting for 0:18:03.133
Mon 4/3 22:51:33.675 Seeker waiting for 5 mins.
Mon 4/3 22:53:30.183 Ministry is waiting for 180 sec

[ChePazzo]

Originally Posted by Lester Jacobs

How about this for a (partial) solution to the "playback entire DVD" issue? Instead, how about getting Sage to automatically create a video playlist of all VOBs in the VIDEO_TS directory and play this playlist when such a directory is selected for playback?

I would love to see this for all imported videos, not just VOBs!

If my kids want to watch back-to-back-to-back Elmo, or I want to watch a Simpson's marathon, I have to either keep selecting the next video in the list after the current one finishes (not completely finish, btw, always cuts off the last few seconds), or watch them in another room where I have a Prismiq that treats all video dirs as playlists by default.

[Para]

Originally Posted by MrD

What would the correct transcoding settings be?

The ones you posted look like mine

The SageTVTranscoder is not running, but it is installed

The transcoder should be running for a VOB to be played on the MVP. I don't know why it would not be running. You could try forcing the transcoder to run for everything sent to the MVP and see if it will transcode the VOB for you. I believe you can do this by using the following in your MVP properties file (in the clients directory):

miniclient/always_transcode=true

Normally this setting is "false" but I think if you set it to true, it will force the transcode.

As far as the log file is concerned, I don't see anything I recognize .

Also, just another idea/thought/question: are you playing back an encrypted VOB? If your client is using a codec capable of playing back CSS encrypted VOB files, it should play them (no problem - just like watching a DVD from the DVD drive). BUT the same VOB may not play back on the MVP through the transcoder (just a guess, I don't know for certain since I have not tried to do it). Again, just a thought.

[srothwell]

Originally Posted by JUC

Hi, i came back over the weekend and realized one of my tuners wasn't working (i upgraded on friday to the curent beta). So, i deleted the video source and went to add it back but i can't get past the part where i input my zipcode so it can download my lineup!! It says there was an error connecting to sage servers and to check my connection or there might be a problem at the server. Well, I can acces the internet just fine. I don't know if this is a beta problem or not so i will post it here first. Now i'm down to one tuner so any help would be appreciated.
JUC


edit: i also noticed my guide data is only going out a week--so maybe it hasn't been able to connect for a little while
edit 2: okay-i was able to get the second tuner working by using a backup properties file i had from thursday--the guide still only goes out 1 week--is that the default? if so i'm all set i guess. thanks

I had the same exact thing happen. Then all of a sudden it started working normally again.

[JUC]

i was able to get the guide data back by resetting my router. Not sure why I lost the tuner in the first place but all is okay now.
JUC

[nigfink]

My MVPs keep setting themselves back to the default STV. I have checked the properties files and they are set right, but when you start the MVP it goes to the default and then I have to change it again. Any ideas?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by nigfink

My MVPs keep setting themselves back to the default STV. I have checked the properties files and they are set right, but when you start the MVP it goes to the default and then I have to change it again. Any ideas?

Yes -- please enable debug logging & submit the logs to SageTV so they can try to get a reproducible case for it. See the info in another thread: V4.1.10 MVP - stv selection not surviving power cycle.

- Andy

[Deacon Crusher]

Subject says it all.

Just upgraded to 4.1.11 and set up my mvp for the first time to use as a sage extender and after a couple missteps it's working great. Immediately bought a license and love it.

Now trying to get place shifter to work and as the subject says I can connect (from work over the 'net) and get menus, can choose a show and play it. Get a black screen with the words trial moving around the screen and get lowish fidelity audio.

Troubleshooting tips?

Thanks

[mikejaner]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Subject says it all.

Just upgraded to 4.1.11 and set up my mvp for the first time to use as a sage extender and after a couple missteps it's working great. Immediately bought a license and love it.

Now trying to get place shifter to work and as the subject says I can connect (from work over the 'net) and get menus, can choose a show and play it. Get a black screen with the words trial moving around the screen and get lowish fidelity audio.

Troubleshooting tips?

Thanks

Are you playing with the placeshifter on a dual monitor setup? If so you may be playing it back on your secondary monitor, which would give you a black screen due to Overlay only working on the primary monitor.

[rickgillyon]

If you only have one licence and your MVP is still connected, that would explain the TRIAL...

[amg]

Originally Posted by Deacon Crusher

Get a black screen with the words trial moving around the screen and get lowish fidelity audio.

I had a similar problem. Make sure that your color quality in your Display Properties is 32 bit. That fixed the black screen for me. The low fidelity audio I cannot explain.