Plugin: Sage Recording Extender (SRE)

[Shield]

This is working as advertised; the only down size is how time is displayed in Sage. For example, if I record a 3 hour baseball game it still displays as 3 hours, even if the game runs for 3.5 hours. If that makes any sense.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Shield

This is working as advertised; the only down size is how time is displayed in Sage. For example, if I record a 3 hour baseball game it still displays as 3 hours, even if the game runs for 3.5 hours. If that makes any sense.

The time shown for a recording is its airing time w/o padding. During playback, the default STV displays the padding as part of the time bar. As I recall, you are using SageMC; I'm not sure what it does with the time bar during playback.

- Andy

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by Shield

This is working as advertised; the only down size is how time is displayed in Sage. For example, if I record a 3 hour baseball game it still displays as 3 hours, even if the game runs for 3.5 hours. If that makes any sense.

I know exactly what you're talking about. Basically, what's being described here is the timeline that displays on screen for a recording is based on the scheduled length of the airing in the EPG. So if a baseball game is listed as running from 19:00 - 22:00 in the EPG then when you play back the recording the timeline on screen shows 3 hours. If the recording was padded/extended, etc. to 3.5 hours then the timeline just stops after 3 hours and you don't see anything for the last 30 minutes of the recording.

My guess as to what's happening is that Sage builds this time line based on calls to GetAiringStartTime()/GetAiringEndTime() or GetAiringDuration() instead of using GetScheduleStartTime()/GetScheduleEndTime()/GetScheduleDuration(). I'm not sure if the fix is as easy as changing these calls or not, but it would certainly be nice if it were fixed.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Slugger

I know exactly what you're talking about. Basically, what's being described here is the timeline that displays on screen for a recording is based on the scheduled length of the airing in the EPG. So if a baseball game is listed as running from 19:00 - 22:00 in the EPG then when you play back the recording the timeline on screen shows 3 hours. If the recording was padded/extended, etc. to 3.5 hours then the timeline just stops after 3 hours and you don't see anything for the last 30 minutes of the recording.

You were probably typing your reply at the same time I was, but again: the default STV shows the padding as part of the playback time bar.

- Andy

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by Opus4

The time shown for a recording is its airing time w/o padding. During playback, the default STV displays the padding as part of the time bar. As I recall, you are using SageMC; I'm not sure what it does with the time bar during playback.

- Andy

Seems as if we were typing at the same time.

I do use SageMC as well and I just tried this on the default STV and the bar does show it extending beyond the airing time, but it still shows the wrong numbers. For example, I pad Letterman with 1 minute at the end. It airs from 23:35-00:37. With the padding, the recording is 1h03m. The bar shows a yellow marking denoting the end of the 1h02m schedule then it extends for an extra minute, but the numbers on the bar still show 0:00 and 1:02:00. It, imho, should also show 0:00 and 1:03:00.

In SageMC, it just shows the 1:02:00 on the bar and the bar just stops after 1:02:00 and does nothing for the extra minute padding, though it does play back just fine.

[Shield]

Well, SRE isn't quite working out. For some reason, my TV shows are not recording properly. A one hour show will record for like 34 minutes. I've seen in stop at random times. For example, last night Law & Order was supposed to record from 1:00 A.M. to 2:00 A.M., but it stopped cold at 1:34 A.M. - Here's some interesting information in my server.properties file:

Thu 8/30 1:31:30.133 Seeker waiting for 23 mins.
Thu 8/30 1:33:15.801 Carny waiting for awhile...
Thu 8/30 1:33:20.801 Ministry is waiting for 180 sec
Thu 8/30 1:34:00.081 SRE: Found 1 active recordings.
Thu 8/30 1:34:00.082 SRE: No monitor due to orig air date violation
Thu 8/30 1:34:00.082 SRE: Original air date violation ignored for test monitor
Thu 8/30 1:34:00.083 SRE: Law & Order --> Event is over; recording stopped.

[Shield]

"The Bronx is Burning" was supposed to record from 2:00 to 3:00 A.M. It stopped at 2:04

Thu 8/30 2:00:01.432 Record was enabled on what's already being recorded; update status.
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.432 Keeping record just the way it is.
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.433 MARK 1 currRecord=null enc=NVIDIA DualTV Capture 2 clients=[] ir=false
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.433 Seeker in AUTOMATIC mode nextRecord=A[921764,921639,"Law & Order",11164@0830.14:00,60] nextTTA=43198570
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.433 newRecord=null
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.433 NOTHING TO RECORD FOR NOW...
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.434 RootFile=\\mce\e$ fstype=null fileLength=344064
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.434 Checking video directories for new files
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.457 Diskspace checking is running
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.457 Verifying existence of all TV media files in database fixDurs=false avoidArchive=true
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.524 Enforcing keep at most limits for the files...
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.525 Seeker clearing unwanted and partial files...
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.536 needFreeSize = 0.45 GB currFreeSize=201.079975936 GB
Thu 8/30 2:00:01.536 Seeker waiting for 59 mins.
Thu 8/30 2:00:21.427 Ministry is waiting for 180 sec
Thu 8/30 2:03:21.557 Ministry is waiting for 180 sec
Thu 8/30 2:04:00.194 SRE: Found 1 active recordings.
Thu 8/30 2:04:00.194 SRE: The Bronx Is Burning --> Event is over; recording stopped.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by Shield

"The Bronx is Burning" was supposed to record from 2:00 to 3:00 A.M. It stopped at 2:04

Thu 8/30 2:04:00.194 SRE: Found 1 active recordings.
Thu 8/30 2:04:00.194 SRE: The Bronx Is Burning --> Event is over; recording stopped.

Somehow, you've managed to enable test mode in SRE. If you've installed and configured the servlet then load the servlet and turn off test mode. If you haven't installed the servlet and don't plan to then you can disable test mode by doing the following:

• Stop SageTV (all instance of clients and server)
• Open the Sage.properties file (or SageClient.properties file if you installed SRE on a client) and look for the following setting: slugger/SRETestMode
• Set it to false and save the file
• Restart your SageTV service and clients

SRE only stops arbitrary recordings iff test mode is enabled, I promise.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by Shield

Thu 8/30 1:34:00.081 SRE: Found 1 active recordings.
Thu 8/30 1:34:00.082 SRE: No monitor due to orig air date violation
Thu 8/30 1:34:00.082 SRE: Original air date violation ignored for test monitor
Thu 8/30 1:34:00.083 SRE: Law & Order --> Event is over; recording stopped.

This chunk from your debug output also confirms that SRE has gotten itself into test mode. Disable test mode and you fix this problem. Please report back.

[Shield]

Thanks, Slugger. For whatever reason I followed the directions and the test monitor was on by default.
Shawn

[Shield]

This is Shawn, reporting back in. Turning off test mode fixed the problem!

[Slugger]

SRE v1.4.0 is now available.

This is the v1.4.0 release of the SRE plugin. SRE will monitor and modify recording times automatically for live events. Please see the online documentation for the changelog, installation instructions and other details.

The major highlights of the 1.4.0 release are:

• Allow overriding of event details (tell SRE to monitor a different event other than the one listed in the EPG)
• Major overhaul of the web servlet (now a Web 2.0 application)

[Sparhawk6]

Whenever I add "servlet./sage/SRE.code=slugger.sagetv.sre.SREServlet" to my "servlets.properties" file, the entire web interface gives me a 404. Any idea why this happens? I just installed 1.4.0.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk6

Whenever I add "servlet./sage/SRE.code=slugger.sagetv.sre.SREServlet" to my "servlets.properties" file, the entire web interface gives me a 404. Any idea why this happens? I just installed 1.4.0.

The line looks right to me. The only thing I can think of is did you restart sage/webserver after editing the file? You will definitely need to restart the web server before the servlet will load.

[Sparhawk6]

Originally Posted by Slugger

The line looks right to me. The only thing I can think of is did you restart sage/webserver after editing the file? You will definitely need to restart the web server before the servlet will load.

I did restart both.

*EDIT* It seems to have worked this time. Don't know what I did differently, but I'll take it! Thanks for the plugin.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk6

I did restart both.

You'll want to enable debugging and see if the web server gives a hint as to what's going on when you make a request to /Sage/SRE. I'd look for a ClassNotFoundException as the likely culprit. If that's the case then ensure the zip was unzipped with the directory structure in tact. Confirm the plugin jar exists in C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\JARs (make sure slugger_sage-recording-extender.jar exists in this directory). If this isn't the issue then I'm starting to run low on ideas.

You said before that adding the line to servlets.properties causes a 404. It's just a 404 when requesting /Sage/SRE, right? The other core servlets still load up?

[Sparhawk6]

Originally Posted by Slugger

You'll want to enable debugging and see if the web server gives a hint as to what's going on when you make a request to /Sage/SRE. I'd look for a ClassNotFoundException as the likely culprit. If that's the case then ensure the zip was unzipped with the directory structure in tact. Confirm the plugin jar exists in C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\JARs (make sure slugger_sage-recording-extender.jar exists in this directory). If this isn't the issue then I'm starting to run low on ideas.

You said before that adding the line to servlets.properties causes a 404. It's just a 404 when requesting /Sage/SRE, right? The other core servlets still load up?

None of the other servlets were loading up, but as I said in my post above, it seems to be fixed. Loaded up fine this time. Don't know what I did.

[Sparhawk6]

How does the override work? I have a game coming up that is listed right now as "Teams TBA." It's on a sports channel that broadcasts a college football game every Saturday at the same time, but they pick the teams in the days leading up to gameday. If I want SRE to monitor this event, do I use override and simply type in the two teams? Like "Arizona at California?" I assume the game is defined by the title, "College Football."

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by Sparhawk6

How does the override work? I have a game coming up that is listed right now as "Teams TBA." It's on a sports channel that broadcasts a college football game every Saturday at the same time, but they pick the teams in the days leading up to gameday. If I want SRE to monitor this event, do I use override and simply type in the two teams? Like "Arizona at California?" I assume the game is defined by the title, "College Football."

You are correct. Keep the title of the program as 'College Football' - this is the key that tells SRE where to look for game info. And to tell SRE who's actually playing in the game simply click on the subtitle and replace it. For college games it's important to only use the school names and not the team nicknames. To be extra sure, go to the ESPN.com scoreboard and see how it's listed on there then use the same names in your override (minus the ranking, if listed). For example, ESPN likes to use 'USC' for the Trojans, but most listings in the EPG will use 'Southern California at xxx'. It's usually ok because their opponent is usually listed the same as ESPN and therefore SRE is able to find the game anyway.

So using your Arizona at California example, you would not use 'Arizona Wildcats at California Golden Bears' since you can't use team nicknames for NCAA otherwise SRE will not find the game info. If you go to the ESPN scoreboard page you'll see they have the game listed as:

Arizona
(6) California

Therefore, for the override text use 'Arizona at California'. You must also always drop any top 25 ranking listed for teams.

The pro sports (MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL) are more forgiving in determining team info from the subtitle and so you can use full team names ('Edmonton Oilers at San Jose Sharks' or even 'Edmonton at Anaheim Ducks' and so on) and SRE will be fine. NCAA is different because I don't have a master list to compare with as it's just too big to maintain and prone to errors so I have to scan the teams from the subtitle using a rather strict regular expression.

I will update the override docs on my web site to better explain the requirements for overrides. Hopefully this addresses your question.

[Sparhawk6]

Originally Posted by Slugger

You are correct. Keep the title of the program as 'College Football' - this is the key that tells SRE where to look for game info. And to tell SRE who's actually playing in the game simply click on the subtitle and replace it. For college games it's important to only use the school names and not the team nicknames. To be extra sure, go to the ESPN.com scoreboard and see how it's listed on there then use the same names in your override (minus the ranking, if listed). For example, ESPN likes to use 'USC' for the Trojans, but most listings in the EPG will use 'Southern California at xxx'. It's usually ok because their opponent is usually listed the same as ESPN and therefore SRE is able to find the game anyway.

So using your Arizona at California example, you would not use 'Arizona Wildcats at California Golden Bears' since you can't use team nicknames for NCAA otherwise SRE will not find the game info. If you go to the ESPN scoreboard page you'll see they have the game listed as:

Arizona
(6) California

Therefore, for the override text use 'Arizona at California'. You must also always drop any top 25 ranking listed for teams.

The pro sports (MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL) are more forgiving in determining team info from the subtitle and so you can use full team names ('Edmonton Oilers at San Jose Sharks' or even 'Edmonton at Anaheim Ducks' and so on) and SRE will be fine. NCAA is different because I don't have a master list to compare with as it's just too big to maintain and prone to errors so I have to scan the teams from the subtitle using a rather strict regular expression.

I will update the override docs on my web site to better explain the requirements for overrides. Hopefully this addresses your question.

Yes, that answered my question. It would be great if you put that in the documentation like you said.

This plugin is excellent. I tried it last night and it worked perfectly. Thank you for spending your free time in creating it!

[rsagetv99]

Wondering if this is expected behavior. What I would like, is for the extender to record my NFL game, plus 15 minutes for the closing commentary.

I have the default padding in SRE set to 15 minutes, but I also have "SRE Ends Recording Early" set to true. What I think should happen is once the game ends, whether it is before or after the 3 hour alloted time in the guide, SRE should end the recording 15 minutes later.

Instead, what happened was the game ended, and 4 minutes later the recording ended.

Also, does the padding in the favorite matter?

Thanks for your help.