Utility: Windows Sidebar/Desktop Gadget

[wayner]

Some suggestions - would it be possible to display the background, banner or poster file rather than the thumbnail? Would it be possible to display the now playing info for multiple clients at once?

One other comment - the timeline doesn't work so well for shows longer than one hour - for a 1h45m show it shows 105 - in other words 2:34 / 105:00. It might be better to show minutes and hours rather than minutes and seconds for longer shows like sporting events.

It might also be nice to display the banner in the Recording Schedule area.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by wayner

Some suggestions - would it be possible to display the background, banner or poster file rather than the thumbnail? Would it be possible to display the now playing info for multiple clients at once?

Look in the first line of the code above where it has "/sagex/media/thumbnail/". You should be able to just replace /thumbnail/ with /poster/, /banner/, or /background/. You might want to play with the height and/or width of the image to get it to look right.

I would hesitate to add Now Playing for multiple clients because it is pretty easy to switch between clients now. I also would never use it but if there are a lot of people wanting it I will consider it.

Originally Posted by wayner

One other comment - the timeline doesn't work so well for shows longer than one hour - for a 1h45m show it shows 105 - in other words 2:34 / 105:00. It might be better to show minutes and hours rather than minutes and seconds for longer shows like sporting events.

I will consider this for a future update.

Originally Posted by wayner

It might also be nice to display the banner in the Recording Schedule area.

It would be possible to have each item in the Recording Schedule area be customizable like the Now Playing area so you could potentially display whatever you want.

[sbeaulieu]

Nice work again!

I'd prefer that once I connect to a client that the Now Playing continues to use that client even when it goes down so I don't have to reselect it when it comes back up.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by sbeaulieu

I'd prefer that once I connect to a client that the Now Playing continues to use that client even when it goes down so I don't have to reselect it when it comes back up.

I contemplated doing this but the problem I ran into is that software clients seem to change their port each time they connect (might be the case for Placeshifter too, but I don't know). This would make "reconnecting" a little messy but still doable. Maybe I will make it an option in a future update.

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by cncb

I use a different port with no problems. Go to the "Installed Plugins" screen in Sage and select the "sagex-services" plugin, choose "Configure Plugin", scroll to the bottom, and make sure you are using the "HTTP Port" listed there in the gadget options.

Suddenly, yesterday afternoon, I get a Recording Schedule of "NA - Check network connection, server, and setting." I don't recall changing anything prior to this happening -- although, I had updated to v7.1.15 but IIRC the Gadget worked fine after that. Everything else (SageTV and the Computer as a whole) is unchanged. I have, also, uninstalled and installed several times with no joy.

How do I troubleshoot this? (I did check your above suggestion.)

[gplasky]

I saw this same behavior this morning. I thought Sage was down but was. A refresh didn't fix it. Everything looked OK. I too had gone to 7.1.5 but on Sat. so this was working fine throughout the day. Maybe the DST time change had something to do with it. As I remoted in and rebooted the Sage server everything showed up properly and continued to work after the reboot. Strange.

Gerry

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by gplasky

As I remoted in and rebooted the Sage server everything showed up properly and continued to work after the reboot. Strange.

I thought I had (a couple times) but rebooted the computer... no joy. Still the same message.

I am amazed at how, in such a short time (less than a week), I have come to consider that utility a "can't live without" part of my life... I NEED to get this fixed.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by RonBoyd

Suddenly, yesterday afternoon, I get a Recording Schedule of "NA - Check network connection, server, and setting." I don't recall changing anything prior to this happening -- although, I had updated to v7.1.15 but IIRC the Gadget worked fine after that. Everything else (SageTV and the Computer as a whole) is unchanged. I have, also, uninstalled and installed several times with no joy.

Are you sure the server's IP address hasn't changed? Also, I see there is a "sagex-services" update. Have you installed this (I haven't tried it yet)?

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by cncb

Are you sure the server's IP address hasn't changed? Also, I see there is a "sagex-services" update. Have you installed this (I haven't tried it yet)?

Oh! No. I forgot about two things.

First, I turned on "Ignore Padding on back to back favorites." This may have been (probably) before the Gadget problem. My notes show that I did it in "Detailed Setup." Unfortunately, I can not find that option now -- please, someone point me in the correct direction.

Secondly, I did do the "sage-ex-services" update. Again, I don't know when but belive it was this morning... after the Gadget problem.

I am unsure of the Server's IP address. I do not have a dedicated (is that the right term) IP address from my ISP so that may be. My Internal IP address (192.168.1.130) has not changed. ... I guess, I don't understand the question. <rooky here>

[cncb]

Originally Posted by RonBoyd

I am unsure of the Server's IP address. I do not have a dedicated (is that the right term) IP address from my ISP so that may be. My Internal IP address (192.168.1.130) has not changed. ... I guess, I don't understand the question. <rooky here>

I was referring to the local network address of the PC running the SageTV server: the value you put in the "server" field for the gadget options. If it is the local PC ("localhost") then this doesn't matter but if it is a networked PC connected to your router it may have changed upon reboot.

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by cncb

I was referring to the local network address of the PC running the SageTV server: the value you put in the "server" field for the gadget options. If it is the local PC ("localhost") then this doesn't matter but if it is a networked PC connected to your router it may have changed upon reboot.

Now, that's interesting. In the Server Field was "server." (I didn't do it...) I changed that to "localhost" and... much joy.

Very interesting indeed.

Thank you.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by RonBoyd

Now, that's interesting. In the Server Field was "server." (I didn't do it...) I changed that to "localhost" and... much joy.

If you never manually changed the "server" field in the options then your PC must just happen to have "server" as its "network name" otherwise it would never connect. Using network names has never worked consistently for me so I would recommend using the actual IP address when connecting to another computer.

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by cncb

If you never manually changed the "server" field in the options then your PC must just happen to have "server" as its "network name" otherwise it would never connect. Using network names has never worked consistently for me so I would recommend using the actual IP address when connecting to another computer.

I did not make any changes... particularly that one since I didn't (at the time) fully understand what was required in that field. Anyway, you are correct "192.168.1.130" works. Now why "localhost" does is another mystery. FWIW, "Main-Vista" (the computer name) also works.

[sleonard]

"localhost' is a standard term for the machine that you're using the command on. For example, if you were to open a DOS window on "Main-Vista" and type "ping localhost" you would be pinging Main-Vista but if you went to a laptop called "My-Laptop" and typed "ping localhost" you would be pinging "My-Laptop" not "Main-Vista".

So for the Gadget "localhost" will only work on "Main-Vista" and not any other machines on your network.

S

[RonBoyd]

Originally Posted by sleonard

"localhost' is a standard term for the machine that you're using the command on.

Got it. Thanks.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by wayner

Would it be possible to display the now playing info for multiple clients at once?

By the way, you can kind of do this already since you can have multiple instances of the gadget open at the same time. So, add the SageTV gadget a second time and connect to a different client. You would still have to show at least one item in the Recording Schedule but I could allow this to be hidden in a future version.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by cncb

By the way, you can kind of do this already since you can have multiple instances of the gadget open at the same time. So, add the SageTV gadget a second time and connect to a different client. You would still have to show at least one item in the Recording Schedule but I could allow this to be hidden in a future version.

That's a good idea, however I have 5 HD-200s and a couple of PC clients that I use, although rarely simultaneously, so that would be a lot of gadgets open. It would be nice if the gadget could determine which clients are active and show the now playing for those clients.

That is just a nice to have - this is grat addition and the most useful features are the recording schedule and the disk space.

[gplasky]

I've noticed since I installed 7.1.5 beta the new channel logos aren't showing up when I've enabled them. I just get the red "X". I don't know if 7.1.5 broke that or if I've missed setting something up.

Gerry

[cncb]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I've noticed since I installed 7.1.5 beta the new channel logos aren't showing up when I've enabled them. I just get the red "X". I don't know if 7.1.5 broke that or if I've missed setting something up.

Are you using the new Zap2It logos in the beta? I think the sagex API is not able to handle them yet.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by cncb

Are you using the new Zap2It logos in the beta? I think the sagex API is not able to handle them yet.

Yes I am. I figured it might be something like that.

Gerry