Plugin: PodcastRecorder

[cat6man]

or only get ones dated today? (equivalent to recording favorites only when the episodes are first run............which is not available, but ones uploaded 'today' should take care of that)

[jpaddock3000]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

updated version just posted to the repository. Changes:

- Can now record single Episodes from PlayOn. Recording multiple Episodes and selecting PlayOn items as a Favorite is not supported.

When you say not supported, are you saying not currently supported or will never be supported? I can't wait to try this out when I get home.

Thanks

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by cat6man

or only get ones dated today? (equivalent to recording favorites only when the episodes are first run............which is not available, but ones uploaded 'today' should take care of that)

I'm working on adding the ability to mark one, or a whole group, of episodes as "recorded". So if you do that and then setup the favorite it will only download new episodes.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jpaddock3000

When you say not supported, are you saying not currently supported or will never be supported? I can't wait to try this out when I get home.

Thanks

I think I'm skating on thin ice allowing PlayOn stuff to be recorded so I'll plead the 5th on that one.

Don't get your hopes too high. This plugin has been buggy and problematic from day one because it was actually the first plugin I wrote using Java. I finally know enough Java that I recently figured out why it's been unstable and am currently working on some major internal improvements. No ETA but I'm pretty confident that the next version will be a lot better.

Tom

[jpaddock3000]

So I tried multiple times to record a video in my Hulu queue, but I see in the info screen that a podcast failed to record. I went ahead and wrote the database to the file hoping that might help as well.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jpaddock3000

So I tried multiple times to record a video in my Hulu queue, but I see in the info screen that a podcast failed to record. I went ahead and wrote the database to the file hoping that might help as well.

The problem is due to the issue I mentioned in the previous post. I finally know what's going wrong but it will take me a bit of time to fix it.

The database file has a bad entry in it. The next time you stop Sage go to the install directory and delete the PodcastRecorder database files. They are called PodcastRecorderFavorites.DB and PodcastRecorderFavorites.bak (or something close to that.)

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I'm working on adding the ability to mark one, or a whole group, of episodes as "recorded". So if you do that and then setup the favorite it will only download new episodes.

thanks......sounds like that would work

[jpaddock3000]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

The problem is due to the issue I mentioned in the previous post. I finally know what's going wrong but it will take me a bit of time to fix it.

The database file has a bad entry in it. The next time you stop Sage go to the install directory and delete the PodcastRecorder database files. They are called PodcastRecorderFavorites.DB and PodcastRecorderFavorites.bak (or something close to that.)

I deleted those database files so I will try tonight and see if I can record something in the Hulu queue. I was able to record a show by browsing tv networks and going down that path instead. I love the way it appears to be working so far with automatically putting the video in my recordings. One suggestion, and this may be more for the PlayOn plugin, but when you browse a Hulu -> TV Networks -> USA -> Popular Titles -> White Collar -> Full Episodes, the podcast recorder wants to have the show title as Full Episodes instead of White Collar. Would that be a fairly easy fix to pull the previous name in those cases of browsing for the video?

Thanks and keep up the great work! I love all the plugins you are putting out. You are really making SageTV AWESOME!!!!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jpaddock3000

One suggestion, and this may be more for the PlayOn plugin, but when you browse a Hulu -> TV Networks -> USA -> Popular Titles -> White Collar -> Full Episodes, the podcast recorder wants to have the show title as Full Episodes instead of White Collar. Would that be a fairly easy fix to pull the previous name in those cases of browsing for the video?

I've already noticed that.

[jpaddock3000]

I'm sure you already noticed this as well, but when I add a lot of videos (5+) to the queue, not all the videos get saved. For example, last night around 11:30pm PT I added Season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter which has 11 or 12 episodes. Only 2, 4, 6, and 7 recorded. I then added the rest of the videos to the queue this morning around 10:30am PT and only, 1, 5, and 9 recorded. I'm not sure which Sage debug file will show you want you want, so I'm giving you everything since yesterday. My times of setting up recordings are guesses, but it should be pretty close to the actual time.

Files are too large for the forum upload:
http://jpaddockcomputers.com/SageTVDebugPodcast.zip

Feature request: Podcast failed to record = send system message (option) Ideally, you would be able to click retry in the system messages. I'm hoping you can do something similar to plug-ins giving you the option to update from within system messages.

BTW, where is your donate button??? The products you are releasing are things I have wanted to have within Sage for a very long time and you have made a dream come into a reality.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jpaddock3000

I'm sure you already noticed this as well, but when I add a lot of videos (5+) to the queue, not all the videos get saved. For example, last night around 11:30pm PT I added Season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter which has 11 or 12 episodes. Only 2, 4, 6, and 7 recorded. I then added the rest of the videos to the queue this morning around 10:30am PT and only, 1, 5, and 9 recorded. I'm not sure which Sage debug file will show you want you want, so I'm giving you everything since yesterday. My times of setting up recordings are guesses, but it should be pretty close to the actual time.

Files are too large for the forum upload:
http://jpaddockcomputers.com/SageTVDebugPodcast.zip

Feature request: Podcast failed to record = send system message (option) Ideally, you would be able to click retry in the system messages. I'm hoping you can do something similar to plug-ins giving you the option to update from within system messages.

BTW, where is your donate button??? The products you are releasing are things I have wanted to have within Sage for a very long time and you have made a dream come into a reality.

I actually hadn't noticed that issue. I'll have a look when I can.

I can easily send a system message when a recording fails. I'll add that to the to do list.

If you want to make a donation you can give the money to either the American Cancer society http://www.cancer.org/ or the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation http://www.cff.org/

Thanks for all of the useful feedback.

Edit: I see that the Ultimate Fighter is from PlayOn. That's not supported at the moment (nor is Channels.com) so it's not surprising that it didn't work properly.

[jpaddock3000]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Edit: I see that the Ultimate Fighter is from PlayOn. That's not supported at the moment (nor is Channels.com) so it's not surprising that it didn't work properly.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

updated version just posted to the repository. Changes:

- Add support for Channels.com.
- Can now record single Episodes from PlayOn. Recording multiple Episodes and selecting PlayOn items as a Favorite is not supported.
- If in Recorded TV menu add Favorite icon next to Podcasts that are Favorites. If using the malore menus the icon will only show up if using double rows on the right side.
- If in Online Menu add RSS icon next to Podcasts that have been recorded.
- Add ability to jump to Online Favorite Manager from recording option menus.
- Add ability to record more than the default number of displayed items (usually 20) for Podcasts such as YouTube Channels.
- Fix bug that prevented Favorite Podcast from being removed from the Online Favorite Manager after it was removed as a favorite.
- Fix bug that allowed pressing Favorite and Record on non Podcasts items such as Back, Next and Previous.
- Fix bug that caused Favorite Options dialog to not use default values set by user.
- Fix bug that would cause the Favorite status of recorded Episodes to remain the same even though the user changed the Favorite status of the Podcast.
- Fix bug that prevented MediaFile metadata from getting the correct Favorite status.
- Improve error message that is displayed if adding a Favorite fails.

Am I missing something?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jpaddock3000

Am I missing something?

Maybe. As I've previously stated recording PlayOn is skating on the thin ice. I thought it would work because of some changes I put in to support Channels.com (which is probably still broken.) I've been trying to get Channels.com to work but it presents some unique challenges. PlayOn happens to have the same challenges so I think when Channels.com works reliably PlayOn might work also. So if PlayOn works, consider it a nice side effect.

[jpaddock3000]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Maybe. As I've previously stated recording PlayOn is skating on the thin ice. I thought it would work because of some changes I put in to support Channels.com (which is probably still broken.) I've been trying to get Channels.com to work but it presents some unique challenges. PlayOn happens to have the same challenges so I think when Channels.com works reliably PlayOn might work also. So if PlayOn works, consider it a nice side effect.

Tom,
That is a great way to put it, "a nice side effect". Next question, are you planning on getting favorites to work for channels.com?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jpaddock3000

Tom,
That is a great way to put it, "a nice side effect". Next question, are you planning on getting favorites to work for channels.com?

I'm working on it. No promises.

[vikingisson]

I hope you get some help with this. It is sorely needed even if the user only uses it to discover content without recording. The online part of sagetv is very weak so bringing customization by favouriting the feeds would go a long way to making it more enjoyable with much higher WAF. Once you've picked through the online mess and setup your favourites then it becomes almost as easy as the tv side. Bonus if recording works just as well.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by vikingisson

I hope you get some help with this. It is sorely needed even if the user only uses it to discover content without recording. The online part of sagetv is very weak so bringing customization by favouriting the feeds would go a long way to making it more enjoyable with much higher WAF. Once you've picked through the online mess and setup your favourites then it becomes almost as easy as the tv side. Bonus if recording works just as well.

I took a break for a few days but will continue to work on this as time permits. As far as I know the currently released version should be working properly for normal podcasts. The problems I'm working on now have to do with Channels.com and YouTube which are different animals from normal podcasts.

I've been using the released version on my production machine to record normal podcasts and have not had any issues. Let me know if you find any.

[vikingisson]

I decided to reinstall the whole box under win7 64 bit. The podcast recorder was working fine so I then decided to enter my license codes which then prompted me for the sagetv setup screens again. Everything is working except for the podcast recorder. Same problem as before, all the options are there but nothing records and the favourites disappear whenever I restart the client.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by vikingisson

I decided to reinstall the whole box under win7 64 bit. The podcast recorder was working fine so I then decided to enter my license codes which then prompted me for the sagetv setup screens again. Everything is working except for the podcast recorder. Same problem as before, all the options are there but nothing records and the favourites disappear whenever I restart the client.

Did you install the PodcastRecorder UI (same version) on both the Client and the Server? I know when you first install a new version of PodcastRecorder it will delete the existing database (which causes the Favorites to disappear) but this should not happen every time the client is started. Note that I made some recent changes that will prevent the database from being deleted when you upgrade in the future.

Send me the logfiles to look at. If that doesn't tell me anything I'll send you a private build that has a "database browser" that will allow you to inspect the database so I can tell what's going on.

[vikingisson]

I typically use the server as the client under the full UI. One tv and tiny apartment.

Something interesting that I just noticed, if I use a client such as placeshifter on a laptop the podcaster works. In fact the favourites that I setup and no longer see at the server is there and as soon as I flagged a new podcast for recording it downloaded as well as the original podcast that I had flagged earlier. So that's a clue, kicking off an action from a remote client started the service.

The server/client still doesn't show the UI bits but the recordings show up where they should.