SageTV HD200 Standalone-Mode STVs/Themes

[Brent]

I haven't had time to try it yet, but wanted to see if anyone has tried to load a custom STV or theme on the HD200 for standalone mode.

Based on a post by Narflex here's the process:

1. Open the XML STV with the SageTV Studio. Then go to File->Save A Copy As... and select a filename that ends with the '.opt.stv' extension. That indicates it needs to be saved in a special binary format which can be loaded by the HD200.
2. Save that .opt.stv file to a USB drive.
3. Plug that USB drive into your HD200 (you could also do this over SMB/CIFS if you wanted)
4. Go to Settings->System Information on the HD200 and type in '5309' on the remote. You'll see a blue dot in the top left corner.
5. Go to Settings->Advanced Setup->Advanced and then load the STV from /tmp/external/sda1/whatever....

As a test you can try the SageTV3.xml file; that one loads after being converted...but of course most of it will not do anything since there's no PVR/EPG features on the HD200 in standalone mode.

If you mess up; then just be sure the STV is inaccessible when the HD200 boots and it'll revert to the original STV (called Cheetah.opt.stv).

So, I'm hoping to find time during my Christmas break to try this out. I'm not good (read terrible) with Studio so far so it probably will be an effort in frustration for me.

Things I'd like to see updated in the current STV or possible added via a custom STV:

• Improved PlayOn browsing. The current interface is awful for this - don't know if this is due to the STV or just the way it is with Playon...
• Custom themes
• Update the music and video browsing to be somewhat more SageMC-like (this would involve custom STV of course)

Any other ideas out there? Has anyone begun trying custom STVs with the HD200 standalone-mode?

[Brent]

I followed the instructions in the first post with no success. It does the "Load New Application Package? and confirmation but in the end I get the same cheetah STV. It's like it doesn't want to load from the USB drive or something.

Can someone give me the cliffnotes on how to manually copy the STV file from the USB drive to the proper folder on the HD200? I know how to telnet into the box, get listings of the menus, switch between folders and read the log files, but basically I'm linux illiterate beyond that...

On another note, anyone know what "standalone" is talking about in the post above this one? Either he's non-english speaking or I'm just not getting it. * referenced post was moved to another topc *

[Narflex]

Whoops....my bad. I edited the instructions in my post(s). It's supposed to be 'Save A Copy As..' - sorry about that.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Narflex

Whoops....my bad. I edited the instructions in my post(s). It's supposed to be 'Save A Copy As..' - sorry about that.

Unfortunately I tried that as well with no luck.

[Brent]

I submitted a bug report for the problem with not being able to load a custom STV in the HD200 as described in this thread.

[Para]

Originally Posted by Brent

I submitted a bug report for the problem with not being able to load a custom STV in the HD200 as described in this thread.

Are you able to get a copy of the Cheetah.opt.stv to use as a baseline for modification instead of using the default sagetv stv?

BTW didn't mean to jack this thread with the flv stuff

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Para

Are you able to get a copy of the Cheetah.opt.stv to use as a baseline for modification instead of using the default sagetv stv?

Haven't tried it yet. Need to figure out how to copy the cheetah STV to my usb drive before I can do that - I'm pretty much a linux newbie so if anyone has suggestions on the steps to do that let me know.

BTW didn't mean to jack this thread with the flv stuff

No problem - I'm pretty interested in that topic as well - I'd LOVE to see native Hulu (and other online video) support.

[QueOnda]

Brent, Have you had any luck on stand-alone themes?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

Brent, Have you had any luck on stand-alone themes?

I've been a bit side-tracked on this one due to a work project out-right killing me....
I am working with SageTV tech support on it though and will get back to it this weekend. As always, I'll report my findings. If anyone else gets the change to try it out please report back - it could just be me doing something wrong (it usually is )

[Brent]

I "think" I have this working now. Anyone know how to copy the cheetah STV to a USB connected drive? I could use telnet or any other way - I"m open to suggestions.

I want to use the cheetah STV as the baseline and make minor modifications to it as a starting point.

Thanks,

[Opus4]

The HD200's STV is found in /sage/STVs/Cheetah. You will need to copy that entire folder tree if you wish to modify & use the STV from a different location, or you will have problems when trying to access the support files it needs (images & so on).

USB drives are mounted as subfolders of /tmp/external. You could copy the STV files to your USB drive's subfolder.

I haven't tried running the STV from a USB drive, but it should work. For development, I load the STV from a network path leading to my dev PC.

I'm not sure what other help you need, so I'll stop there for now.

- Andy

[Brent]

Thanks Andy. I'll play around with it some more and see what I can break

I'm in over my head with anything linux-related, but I'm not afraid to try...

[dbone1026]

Originally Posted by Brent

Thanks Andy. I'll play around with it some more and see what I can break

I'm in over my head with anything linux-related, but I'm not afraid to try...

Hey Brent,

Any luck getting the stvs working in standalone mode?

Also, I just wanted to confirm the difference b/w Standalone and extender mode. If I want to get a custom menu, SageMC, MovieInfo, etc... in extender mode I simply have to do the install where the SageTV server is installed (I have it installed on my MediaSmart Server)? For standalone, I would have to copy to a USB Stick via SageTV Studio and load on the HD200 (or I guess I could do via smb and not use a USB stick). Does this sound correct?

Cheers
Damian (DamianP on Geektonic)

[Brent]

Originally Posted by dbone1026

Hey Brent,

Any luck getting the stvs working in standalone mode?

Well, I was able to at least import a STV, but had some technical difficulties at the next step which seemed to lock up the UI - required rebooting.

This weekend I'm going to try to copy the existing standalone STV and modify that ever so slightly just to make sure it works and I know what I'm doing. I'd LOVE it if some of the guys who work with STVs would give it a try and tell me all the things I'm doing wrong - would definitely speed things up a bit.

Also, I just wanted to confirm the difference b/w Standalone and extender mode. If I want to get a custom menu, SageMC, MovieInfo, etc... in extender mode I simply have to do the install where the SageTV server is installed (I have it installed on my MediaSmart Server)? For standalone, I would have to copy to a USB Stick via SageTV Studio and load on the HD200 (or I guess I could do via smb and not use a USB stick). Does this sound correct?

Keep in mind, SageMC is the STV. Instructions for importing a custom STV like SageMC are at the top of this post although this is what I"ve been struggling with.

NOTE: SageMC probably wouldn't work in standalone mode as it is - it's really designed just for using with SageTV and not standalone mode. What I'm trying to do is use a "scaled down" version of other STV's being used in SageTV.

Other STVi's (plugins) I'm not sure about yet.

[Opus4]

I thought you were just trying to get the standalone's STV working at a point where you could modify it? I haven't tried it, but I would guess that the SageMC STV can't be used as-is in standalone mode.

- Andy

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I thought you were just trying to get the standalone's STV working at a point where you could modify it? I haven't tried it, but I would guess that the SageMC STV can't be used as-is in standalone mode.

- Andy

Well, actually I was trying to do it both ways. Based on Jeff's original post on this I was taking the default STV (whatever that name is *.stv) and use that to import. But since that was not working I have more recently been trying to get the STV used on the HD200, modify it a bit and load it back on the HD200.

Hope that is clearer then my previous post

[Opus4]

Don't start from the default STV that is installed on a PC; start from the Cheetah STV that I mentioned above, first copying its whole directory tree to another location. You can edit the file in Studio on your PC, then save a copy in the .opt.stv format in a location to be used by the HD200.

If you are doing that, what problem are you running into?

- Andy

[Brent]

That is what I was going to try this weekend. I'm still not positive the commands I use to copy the STV files from the HD200 to the usb drive. I can do the "cp" command to get them to the "/tmp/external" directory, but can't get it to the actual USB drive.

Do I need to create a subfolder in the USB drive and then somehow copy it to that subfolder?

I'm probably just need that linux for dummies crash course...

EDIT: By the way, if I ever figure out how to get that STV, is it okay if I upload the Cheetah STV somewhere here for others to "play" with?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Brent

By the way, if I ever figure out how to get that STV, is it okay if I upload the Cheetah STV somewhere here for others to "play" with?

Give me some time & I'll upload the whole thing. I'm not sure if I can get to it tonight, but I should be able to post it within a couple days at the most.

- Andy

[Opus4]

It took longer than I thought it would to get back to this... here's the download:

HD200STVFiles.zip

Edit: also see this new topic:
How to Customize the STP-HD200 Standalone UI

- Andy