STV: SageMC 16x9 Version 6.x (latest dev build)

[dflachbart]

Ok, I give in to the mob ...

Note : This version 6.13 will be the last version supporting SageTv 5.x, since the STV format and, more importantly, the Sage core functionality of SageTV 6.0 will not be compatible with earlier versions. New features of SageMC will only appear in the new 6.0 compatible branch, but if any bugs will be found in the current version, I will update the old 5.x branch too.

Installation: unzip all files (jar, STV, and diskbar icons)



Ok, here are the goodies:


Text edit field

I improved the new text edit widget further by adding the ability to position the cursor at any position in the text string (by using the cursor keys/buttons while the edit field has the focus), so now you can scroll back and forth and add/delete characters anywhere you want. The Home/End keys (skip back/fwd buttons) move the cursor to the beginning/end of the string, and ctrl-v (no button equivalent) inserts the current windows clipboard contents into the dialog.




Picture library

If you have a folder which only contains other folders, you can drop a 'folder.jpg' image into the folder which will get displayed as the thumbnail for the folder icon


Video Library

I added functionality to remember separate "View By List/Folder" settings for the categories and the contained videos, so now you can have your catgeories displayed as a list and the videos as folders, or vice versa. I also added the functionality to add/remove new categories to the category selection list, so no need to manually edit the genres.txt file any more


Glassy Diskbar

Mike cooked up a great new diskbar which is now part of the STV. The functionality changed and is now more intuitive, here is Mike's explanation:

The entirebar will be one color: green, yellow, or red. The required space for future recordings is more transparent than the used space. If the total required space including upcoming recordings is less than the property threshold (95% by default) then the bar is green. If the required space is between the threshold and 100% the bar turns yellow. Lastly, if the space required by future recording exceeds the available space, then the bar turns red.




Weather Maps

Merged Morgan's awesome Weather Maps into this release. I hooked up the configuration with my new text edit, the new copy/paste from the clipboard should come in handy for configuring the image URL's




Shortcuts

Added two shortcut buttons to the 'Settings' menu: 'Import' for importing plugins, and 'Hardware Setup' which will load the default STV. This one replaces the buttons 'Config Wizard' and 'Setup Tuners', since any hardware configuration should really be done with the stock STV


File dialog

I improved the file selection dialog (e.g. used in 'Play Other File') to show the full path/filename of the currently selected file.


Auto-comskip configuration

Added the functionality to disable auto-comskip for a specific show (based on show title). You can access this feature (Enable/Disable Auto-comskip) from the options menu of a selected airing in any recording list, or from the options menu in the Program Info menu




Automatic Series Genre Icon

One of the highlights ... Kirby's idea, and heavily promoted by Mike. You noticed the generic 'Series' icon in Mike's newest downloads ? Well, if you assign the show title as the main category to your episodes, and the category 'Series' as the subcategory, SageMC will automatically look up the downloaded show cover art from the IMDB cache (or the associated jpg file from a movie IMDB search) and overlay it with the series icon, so that you you get series icons 'on-the-fly'. The 'Series' category will automatically be added to the genre selection list, no need to add it manually


Other changes include:

- fixed issue with channel digits not showing up in info on channel change
- fixed dvd ffwd operation
- added option to specify destination for pressing 'Delete' in the Stop dialog ('Back On Delete')
- updated themes of RSS feed menus
- fixed missing pic folders on 'Sort By Date' if they had the same time stamps
- added settings for some font sizes
- movies by year are now grouped by title, eliminating multiple entries

Thanks to all who contributed with ideas / suggestions / hard work to this new release.







Hmmm ...


well .....


I remember there was something ...


ah, right, I added a zip file with an additional goodie in the download. If I remember correctly it's an STV, almost identical to v6.13, but you need SageTV 6.0 for this. I think the only difference is that I added one lame menu screen (you can link to it with the dynamic menus), what's it called, 'Google' or something ...









Enjoy,

Dirk

[Kirby]

Thanks Dirk!!!

Now are you ready for a bug?

Trying to add a custom genre, in the text entry for that genre, if the cursor remains up in the text entry field, pressing any number keys results in no letters. So to enter words, you have to move down and select each number on the screen the number of times you want to get the proper letter. I think its not supposed to be like this?

Is it a side effect from that new text entry in v6, where you can key in '843' for "The" instead of "84433"?

[MeInMaui]

Thanks Dirk!

BTW for anyone who cares, the solution to my riddle was 'glassy diskbar'.

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

"Great lessons are supposedly simple. Yet diligence in seeking knowledge bestows ample rewards."
-Anonymous

[Kirby]

Wow, had 2 full crashes since installing this already... Hmmmm.

[briands]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Wow, had 2 full crashes since installing this already... Hmmmm.

Are you using the V5 or V6 version?

[Kirby]

V6. One crash was while I was updating some shows to a custom genre/series sub genre. The other crash was while Sage was just sitting on the text entry screen for the new genres (it crashed while I was typing the above bug report).

[evilpenguin]

Wow, you've really outdone yourself this time! Thanks SOOO much to everyone involved

[Morgan111]

Thanks for the update Dirk!

[ke6guj]

Nice Improvements there Dirk.

Love the new weather goodies, shortcut additions, then new Glassy Diskbar.

Could the diskbar be enlarged any? The new glassyness is nice, but the transparantness makes it harder to read.


Also found a couple bugs with the sleep timer and anti-favorites plugins.

The selector icon in the sleep timer doesn't move when selecting a time, but it does seem to work if you count the movements.

The anti-favorites options screen doesn't work, and when I access the anti-favorites screen, I can only access the log and trigger a scan, but can't "Add New", it just locks up.

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Could the diskbar be enlarged any? The new glassyness is nice, but the transparantness makes it harder to read.

I'll check into that ...

Also found a couple bugs with the sleep timer and anti-favorites plugins.

The selector icon in the sleep timer doesn't move when selecting a time, but it does seem to work if you count the movements.

The anti-favorites options screen doesn't work, and when I access the anti-favorites screen, I can only access the log and trigger a scan, but can't "Add New", it just locks up.

Yeah, I neglected my other plugins, this time I released the STV without testing them for compatibility. Wonder how this could have happened ...

Will fix this asap on the weekend


Dirk

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Thanks Dirk!!!

Now are you ready for a bug?

Trying to add a custom genre, in the text entry for that genre, if the cursor remains up in the text entry field, pressing any number keys results in no letters. So to enter words, you have to move down and select each number on the screen the number of times you want to get the proper letter. I think its not supposed to be like this?

Is it a side effect from that new text entry in v6, where you can key in '843' for "The" instead of "84433"?

No, it's not v6's fault, I simply didn't test the new text entry with NTE ... Well, actually I did (and it works in general), just not while the edit field has the focus. Will provide a fix tomorrow

Dirk

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by Kirby

V6. One crash was while I was updating some shows to a custom genre/series sub genre. The other crash was while Sage was just sitting on the text entry screen for the new genres (it crashed while I was typing the above bug report).

Anyone else on v6 seeing this ? I haven't had a single crash yet... If you post the java dumps I can have a look, though I'm not sure if it will tell me anything...

Dirk

[MeInMaui]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Could the diskbar be enlarged any? The new glassyness is nice, but the transparantness makes it harder to read.

Sounds like a good excuse to get a bigger TV!

Dirk,

Sorry about participating in beating the drums for this release. It was all in fun. I'll be more patient next time....promise.

Mike

[geogecko]

Thanks Dirk. Look forward to installing it!!!

[ellweber]

Looking great, thanks for the hard work. The new disk bar is really classy looking! Any way it could be right justified as an option? As it is it partially overlaps the screen title graphics and a rightward shift would remedy that.

But, where are my photos? They are all there with the standard STV but nothing shows with SageMC. I tried reimporting them and removing and reinstalling the folder (on another computer) both as a mapped drive and with UNC path. They are gone with SageMC but my imported videos (ripped DVDs) are on the same drive and are present with SageMC or the stock STV.

***New info: no thumbnails or folders show up but if I start a slideshow I get the first pix starting to show***

***More new info: A complete shutdown and restart of Sage Client solved the photo problem. Sorry for the false alarm.***

Looks like you have removed the last impediment to trying Sage v6 now, busy, busy, busy.

Lynn

ps: my previous problem with photos (large Nikon generated jpegs not advancing) was finally resolved by changing a Sage property (ui/image_cache_min_num_allowance) from 4 to 2. I don't completely understand why this helped but it seems like a buffering issue. George at Sage was very helpful in working through this.

[JUC]

Asesome release! So much to see. One question--how do i find the google videos? Can I only add it by the dynamic menus? So far I have avoided using them because I either 1. don't understand how it works, or 2. do understand and don't like it. I'm guessing number 1. Anyway, i probably just want to add a button in the my videos section. Is there a way to do this? I 'think' i added the movie theater list in there a while back so any help would be great.
thanks
JUC

[ke6guj]

I linked to the google videos via the Custom Menu options in the main menu. If you bring up 'options' in the the main menu, you can enable up to 3 custom menus. then in SageMC options in the setup area, you can name the custom menu and then specify the menu screen to access, 'google video menu'.

Works just fine, custom menus are an easy way to add menus without Studio or dynamic menus. I just wish there were more than 3.

[domc]

I installed v6 of sage for a short time and found the the google video quality SUCKS on a 27inch Sdtv. Can't imagin what it would look like on a quality 42 inch plasma. <grin>

Is there anyway in v6 of sage to shrink the video down to a smaller size instead of filling the whole screen thus making the quality seem better?

Of course the video's are in all sizes and quality but I think the smaller screen would help unless I'm missing somethere here.

Originally Posted by JUC

Asesome release! So much to see. One question--how do i find the google videos?
JUC

[JUC]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

I linked to the google videos via the Custom Menu options in the main menu. If you bring up 'options' in the the main menu, you can enable up to 3 custom menus. then in SageMC options in the setup area, you can name the custom menu and then specify the menu screen to access, 'google video menu'.

Works just fine, custom menus are an easy way to add menus without Studio or dynamic menus. I just wish there were more than 3.

Forgot all about the custom menus and their configurability!! Great-thanks.
JUC

[JUC]

Ok-I'm not seeing the Google videos option when i try to select a custom menu screen. Anyone know what number it is? Or is there something else I need to do?
THanks,
JUC