Plugin: PodcastRecorder

[peternm22]

A couple feature requests:

1) A "Check Now" button which forces a check of the feeds (instead of having to wait for the timer to go).
2) Ability to put the downloaded podcasts automatically into the regular SageTV recordings (not the imports). This way, it will be treated more like an actual favourite recording. Optional of course.

A questions about the "timer" as well. Does the timer start counting from zero as soon as the SageTV service starts? Or does it have a "target" time for checking, like the SageTV EPG does?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by peternm22

A couple feature requests:

1) A "Check Now" button which forces a check of the feeds (instead of having to wait for the timer to go).
2) Ability to put the downloaded podcasts automatically into the regular SageTV recordings (not the imports). This way, it will be treated more like an actual favourite recording. Optional of course.

A questions about the "timer" as well. Does the timer start counting from zero as soon as the SageTV service starts? Or does it have a "target" time for checking, like the SageTV EPG does?

1) Good idea. You can currently force a check by bringing up the favorite options menu and selecting Change Favorite. Even if you didn't change a thing it will check for new episodes.

2) That's on the drawing board but I wanted to first get all of the basic functionality working. Importing videos is fairly painless and the probability of me screwing up the wiz.bin is minimal. Adding the videos as a regular recording needs to be done much more carefully to avoid borking the wiz.bin.

[pjpjpjpj]

FWIW, I give a +1 to the idea of having them show up in the Recordings list. I don't check my videos list much and I'd end up with massive amounts of disk space being used, but the wife and I see the Recordings list daily, and I'd stay much more on top of things.

[skyeclad]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I plead the 5th. If it happens to work in a future version it will just be dumb luck, and I'm pretty dumb.

Hey don't be hard on yourself. If it happens that you code something like this into the plugin by accident then we'll work through the bug.

[tmiranda]

FYI. I just found another thing to add to my to-do list, the plugin uses a more java heap space than it should.

[pedz25]

I recently upgraded to 7.0.23 beta from an earlier beta (not sure which version, 7.0.16 maybe). I had this plugin working in that earlier version, but after the upgrade, I no longer have the Online Favorites menu listed.
Besides the SageTV upgrade, the only other plugin I've installed since I noticed this behavior was my Podcast View plugin. But removing that one, didn't fix it.

Is anyone else seeing this with the latest beta?

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

FYI. I just found another thing to add to my to-do list, the plugin uses a more java heap space than it should.

That explains why my system grinds to a halt when this plugin is installed.

[tmiranda]

This plugin is currently on "hold" due to time constraints. The good news is that it's my favorite "pet project" so I will get back to fixing it up. I have an internal version that is progressing nicely and fixes most of the problems in the current public version.

Don't expect anything soon, in October, November, and December my family has 6 birthdays, 2 anniversaries, 3 Holidays and whatever normal "crisises" that pop-up.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

This plugin is currently on "hold" due to time constraints. The good news is that it's my favorite "pet project" so I will get back to fixing it up. I have an internal version that is progressing nicely and fixes most of the problems in the current public version.

Don't expect anything soon, in October, November, and December my family has 6 birthdays, 2 anniversaries, 3 Holidays and whatever normal "crisises" that pop-up.

I don't want to hear excuses...in all seriousness this plugin has awesome potential. I can't wait for your update.

[michaeldjcox]

Hi Tom,

I noticed that SageTV will only let you save a podcast when it is completely downloaded and if you hit back when partly downloaded it abandons the download.

Am I right in assuming then that this plugin improves on this by letting you download a podcast in background?

Every podcast I try fails to download

Is there a log file where I can find more information about why it fails?

Michael

[sacrament055]

Might want to keep an eye on the Java heap usage with this plugin as I seem to remember it has a memory leak or issue that causes it to consume more memory than it should.

[michaeldjcox]

Tom,

Happy to assist in testing and code review if you think another pair of eyes might help.

Michael

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by michaeldjcox

Tom,

Happy to assist in testing and code review if you think another pair of eyes might help.

Michael

Michael,

Thanks for the offer. I pretty much know why it's broken but just have not had the desire to fix it. I got about halfway through making the changes and then put it down to work on other things. If you want to pick it up I can commit what I have to google code and you can have a go of it.

The main problem is that it was the first Java code I wrote so it's a bit messy. As I've learned more Java I've been making improvements but it still needs work.

I'm probably going to remove the Plugin from the repository because the memory leak is severe.

[SimonH]

Any update or replacement plugin for podcasts?

I would love to have video podcasts downloaded and displayed in the Recordings list.

[tmiranda]

No updates. It's still low on the priority list.

[uncledig]

i saw that you updated this plugin, so i installed again to try it out.

after setting up a few favorites and letting the plugin download the episodes, even if i (1) mark them as watched and (2) delete them - they are re-downloaded the next time i check for new episodes.

i have the parameter for "re-record episodes even if they are deleted" set to "false".

any hints?

[tmiranda]

Are the Favorites regular podcasts, YouTube, or Channels.com?

Zip up your server logfile and attach it to a post so I can check it out. It's been a while since I've worked on this plugin so it needs some dusting off.

[uncledig]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Are the Favorites regular podcasts, YouTube, or Channels.com?

Zip up your server logfile and attach it to a post so I can check it out. It's been a while since I've worked on this plugin so it needs some dusting off.

I'd really love for this plugin to get the last little bit of help it needs to be great

logs attached, here's what I did:

- installed UI plugin, set default options as mentioned. set plugin logging to Maximum.

added favorites from Channels.com (CNET Top 5), from YouTube (BBC) and regular feeds (HD Nation).

- let the plugin download content. it downloaded 16 CNET vids, 4 HD Nation vids, and 0 BBC vids (even though it reports it "found" 20 BBC vids).

- it only imported the HD Nation vids into my Recordings. the CNET vids are shown in Imported videos. the plugin seems to count these downloads as "failed to record" in the download status summary screen.

- let the plugin completely finish all downloads

- then deleted 2 (of 4) HD Nation videos from the Recordings screen (delete and set to watched).

- went to download screen and selected "Check for New Episodes"

- plugin re-downloaded all of the CNET videos (none had been deleted) the HD Nation vids (what had been deleted, plus some new ones not previously downloaded). Thus, duplicates as well as re-downloads of the deletes..

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by uncledig

I'd really love for this plugin to get the last little bit of help it needs to be great

logs attached, here's what I did:

The plugin is getting better but it still needs a lot of love. Thanks for the logs and the detailed description, I'll take a look and see what I can find.

[uncledig]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

The plugin is getting better but it still needs a lot of love. Thanks for the logs and the detailed description, I'll take a look and see what I can find.

Thanks for taking a look. Maybe it's just a few tweaks to get the behavior right (or maybe I've done something wrong in install/setup)

Let me know what I can do to encourage a little love for this plugin Paypal donation included. I don't know why more people aren't screaming for this, but I see it as one of the most important gaps to be filled in Sage. The ability to pull down video podcasts in a way that automatically integrates them into My Recordings opens up a whole set of internet-based channels with a lot of quality programming. Being able to download them into Recordings on a schedule eliminates a whole lot of browsing, streaming, and management issues and makes the content just like another TV channel. Love it.

Other external options (like iTunes or Juice, etc) just don't get there, for various reasons.

Thanks again!