STV: Display Show logos (May 29, 2005 update)

[ebrizo]

I tested this STV as I was having the end of file bug and it helped but in the tv guide screen the text would overlap as another user had mentioned. You mentioned it shouldn't happen using the tv-out from a 350 but that's what I use and have the same issue. Other STVs don't have that problem.

Also in case this helps others, the end of file didn't start happening until I updated the drivers for the 350 (using the ones available from the Hauppauge site, not from shspvr.com) so I went back to the previous drivers, wiped everything out of Sage except for wiz.bin and reinstalled Sage and I don't have the problem anymore. I used to also have the problem with it locking up when I would ffw a lot but I put a slot fan to cool the 350 and seems that has taken care of that issue. Using the Vantec SP-FC70.

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by ebrizo
I tested this STV as I was having the end of file bug and it helped but in the tv guide screen the text would overlap as another user had mentioned. You mentioned it shouldn't happen using the tv-out from a 350 but that's what I use and have the same issue. Other STVs don't have that problem.

Also in case this helps others, the end of file didn't start happening until I updated the drivers for the 350 (using the ones available from the Hauppauge site, not from shspvr.com) so I went back to the previous drivers, wiped everything out of Sage except for wiz.bin and reinstalled Sage and I don't have the problem anymore. I used to also have the problem with it locking up when I would ffw a lot but I put a slot fan to cool the 350 and seems that has taken care of that issue. Using the Vantec SP-FC70.

Try downloading it now. I changed a few things:

1.. Favorite conflicts now display the episode title in the listing to help you make a proper determination (also the episode description is there too)

2.. A couple of cosmetic changes.

3.. Grid increased to more rows and the text no longer goes over the scrolling arrows.

Lauren

[ebrizo]

Originally posted by laurenglenn
Try downloading it now. I changed a few things:

1.. Favorite conflicts now display the episode title in the listing to help you make a proper determination (also the episode description is there too)

2.. A couple of cosmetic changes.

3.. Grid increased to more rows and the text no longer goes over the scrolling arrows.

Lauren

Unfortunately it still overlaps.

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by ebrizo
Unfortunately it still overlaps.

It overlaps, perhaps, but maybe slightly. There's two things here. If the text doesn't slightly overlap, then the text of the show has to either shrink or be truncated.

I guess I'll have to take out the arrows from the EPG grid. When I used to have DSS, it didn't have arrows on the EPG.

You say that other STVs don't do this and don't do that, but that's why customization is great. Sure, maybe mine doesn't do half of what Malore's or MLBDude's do, but then I have a full time job and don't have a lot of free time to spend on designing this.

This STV does things that I wanted to have Sage do, so I tried to implement them. It was just something that I really wanted to see and I hope that other people will enjoy it too. If not, then everybody got their money's worth. If you did, then you got a bargain.

Lauren

[ebrizo]

Originally posted by laurenglenn
It overlaps, perhaps, but maybe slightly. There's two things here. If the text doesn't slightly overlap, then the text of the show has to either shrink or be truncated.

I guess I'll have to take out the arrows from the EPG grid. When I used to have DSS, it didn't have arrows on the EPG.

You say that other STVs don't do this and don't do that, but that's why customization is great. Sure, maybe mine doesn't do half of what Malore's or MLBDude's do, but then I have a full time job and don't have a lot of free time to spend on designing this.

This STV does things that I wanted to have Sage do, so I tried to implement them. It was just something that I really wanted to see and I hope that other people will enjoy it too. If not, then everybody got their money's worth. If you did, then you got a bargain.

Lauren

Actually I only mentioned the tv guide overlap not happening with other STVs to hopefully rule out a problem with my setup. I actually don't need a lot of the things offered in other STVs, yours sounded appealing because it seemed to correct issues I was having using the 350 tv-out. I appreciate the work you've done but I thought you might want to be informed of any possible bugs.

I'll make this my last post on the issue as I think maybe there's a misunderstanding of the problem. If I'm on the main menu screen and I click the TV guide link, I get all the channel and show info but I can still see the main menu in the background so it makes the text a little hard to read. Same with the episode information, if I go from one show to another, the old show information can still be seen behind the current show info, again making it hard to read.

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by ebrizo
Actually I only mentioned the tv guide overlap not happening with other STVs to hopefully rule out a problem with my setup. I actually don't need a lot of the things offered in other STVs, yours sounded appealing because it seemed to correct issues I was having using the 350 tv-out. I appreciate the work you've done but I thought you might want to be informed of any possible bugs.

I'll make this my last post on the issue as I think maybe there's a misunderstanding of the problem. If I'm on the main menu screen and I click the TV guide link, I get all the channel and show info but I can still see the main menu in the background so it makes the text a little hard to read. Same with the episode information, if I go from one show to another, the old show information can still be seen behind the current show info, again making it hard to read.

OK. I'm sorry..

I wasn't aware that was what the problem was. The transparency was probably set too low for the items. I'll make sure that I take care of that now.

And again, sorry for the miscommunication. I really do appreciate the bug reports and the suggestions. Thank you!

Lauren

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by laurenglenn
OK. I'm sorry..

I wasn't aware that was what the problem was. The transparency was probably set too low for the items. I'll make sure that I take care of that now.

And again, sorry for the miscommunication. I really do appreciate the bug reports and the suggestions. Thank you!

Lauren

OK, I decreased the transparency of the items that overlap the screen (i.e. pop-up windows).

If you are getting "ghosting," as in when you jump from MainMenu to EPG Guide, check to see if the following settings are set under Advanced:

3D Acceleration: DISABLED
Overlay Keying : ENABLED

I don't get any "ghosting" on my end, although I am still looking.

New fixes:

TimeBar at bottom of screen now has properly set "Missing" sections. It is also transparent so that if you like to keep it on during LiveTV like I do.

Also added Mlbdude's weather module (and gave full credit on all menus and screens). -- I believe the Weather java was done by " nielm", so I want to give credit where it's due. I'll make sure to add it to the STV.

Added a "hook" in the title menu to hopefully stop problems with file playback ending when on a different menu.

To download the new STV with Weather, copy the contents of the ZIP file and extract with sub-folders into the same directory as the *laurenglenn.stv* file.

Download at http://download.sage.tv/users/lauren...aurenglenn.zip
Lauren

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by laurenglenn

To download the new STV with Weather, copy the contents of the ZIP file and extract with sub-folders into the same directory as the *laurenglenn.stv* file.

Download at http://download.sage.tv/users/lauren...aurenglenn.zip
Lauren [/B]

Quite a few cosmetic changes in this release:

1) Main menu redesigned from original V2 version. It now is split in two and displays Upcoming Recordings (and ShowLogos) on right side.


2) There is now less transparency in the menus. People have told me that the menus show too much of the text from lower menus and it becomes confusing. So, I made the menus only slightly transparent and with a darker color. This way, even if it is transparent, you can still clearly see the text on the current pop-up.

3) I changed the code in the EOF routine to tell Sage to Stop playback when a file reaches 5 seconds before EOF. Sage will continue to play back the rest of the file, but it should close the file immediately after and keep going without slowdown....

Lauren

P.S. My mini web site for this STV should be up this weekend at http://download.sage.tv/users/laurenglenn

[ebrizo]

Maybe I'll make another post after all. I wasn't sure if the "ghosting" problems were because of something in my setup but the latest version is definitely much better. I can still see it slightly in the background but it doesn't affect readability so the changes definitely helped. Thanks for that.

One thing I found is in the setup menu, the Exit Full Screen section is not centered, set to the left. Everything else is centered. Other than that things look very good. Great job.

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by ebrizo
Maybe I'll make another post after all. I wasn't sure if the "ghosting" problems were because of something in my setup but the latest version is definitely much better. I can still see it slightly in the background but it doesn't affect readability so the changes definitely helped. Thanks for that.

One thing I found is in the setup menu, the Exit Full Screen section is not centered, set to the left. Everything else is centered. Other than that things look very good. Great job.

Thank you.

I'm glad you mentioned it because the changes made do make a noticeable difference in readability. Thanks again.

Also, you may want to download the "STV w/ Weather file" to get Malore's commercial detection with the STV. I'm going to be working on auto-commercial skip this week; it may be working by mid-week.... *fingers crossed*

Lauren

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by laurenglenn
Thank you.

Also, you may want to download the "STV w/ Weather file" to get Malore's commercial detection with the STV. I'm going to be working on auto-commercial skip this week; it may be working by mid-week.... *fingers crossed*

Lauren

Well, I managed to integrate the manual Commercial skip feature. You can use Custom 4 (rew.) and Custom 5 (FF) to jump by commercial breaks. I also mapped the DVD Chapter Previous & DVD Chapter Next to do the same thing, so you don't need to map 2 new buttons on your remote if you already mapped the DVD controls to them.

Lauren

[chrysek]

Originally posted by laurenglenn

If you are getting "ghosting," as in when you jump from MainMenu to EPG Guide, check to see if the following settings are set under Advanced:

3D Acceleration: DISABLED
Overlay Keying : ENABLED

I don't get any "ghosting" on my end, although I am still looking.

It is definitely much better now but I still see it slightly in the LiveTV Guide menu for example. It is not that I cannot read anymore, in the past when I did try it I simply could not read any text unless I did move my mouse pointer up and down few times...

Great work...

[ebrizo]

Not sure if this is intentional but in the Live TV Guide if I'm watching one show and want to change to another I have to first stop the currently watched show before I am able to switch to another channel.

I've also found that my computer will not go to sleep whenever I try using an STV with the weather module. Do you know if it's constantly pulling data? Thanks.

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by ebrizo
Not sure if this is intentional but in the Live TV Guide if I'm watching one show and want to change to another I have to first stop the currently watched show before I am able to switch to another channel.

I've also found that my computer will not go to sleep whenever I try using an STV with the weather module. Do you know if it's constantly pulling data? Thanks.

To my knowledge, it only pulls data when you go to the Weather page. I'll look into it, though. It was written by Nielm; I may just have to ask him.

I went to the LiveTV Guide and tried to change channels. It seemed to let me without incident. I did notice that the dialog box that comes up doesn't always show the "Watch Now" button if the show started an hour or so back. For some reason, it wouldn't show Watch Now if it wasn't showing Commercial Detect. I moved the Commercial Detect button to the bottom and all is fine. Hopefully....

The only time I've had Sage ask if you want to cancel watching a show is if it's in the process of recording the show that you're watching. It's kind of like that Delete Confirmation that Windows gives you. The "hook" installed asks you this because if it didn't, you'd get a cryptic error message that says "User conflict resolution prohibits channel change" or something to that effect.

For both items, give me a little time (probably by Wednesday night I should have an answer). Either way, I'll post the status of the fixes.

Lauren

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by laurenglenn
To my knowledge, it only pulls data when you go to the Weather page. I'll look into it, though. It was written by Nielm; I may just have to ask him.


For both items, give me a little time (probably by Wednesday night I should have an answer). Either way, I'll post the status of the fixes.

Lauren

For the problem with the Weather module with Sleep mode, try deleting the GetWeather.EXE file or renaming it. Sage tries to execute GetWeather.EXE. If it can't find it, then things should go on as normal but it won't invoke the Weather module. Let me know if that helps.

New fixes as of 9/1/2004 1:05am (it's getting late )
1. Commercial Skip now will check the first 5 segments of a file. For example, if your file is broken up into 5 sections (i.e. you changed a channel during recording, your computer crashed on you, etc. -- anything that would have Sage stop recording), it will still do the commercial scans for all the files and it should properly display the Commercial breaks in the time bar for those first 5 segments.

Both the Commercial Skip in Sleep Mode and the manual Commercial detection button will run Comskip in the first 5 segments.

I'll extend that to 30 after work on Wednesday. It does stop when the segment doesn't exist, so the limit can even be set to 2 million and it won't cause a problem.

2. Fixed "Watch Now" button that would not display if Commercial Skip was not shown. "Commercial Skip" button moved to bottom of Pop-up window.


Known issues:
1. While the multiple segment commercial display does show correctly, I haven't gotten around to updating the commercial skip to stop on those segments. It will involve a little more creative solutions to get that to work, but it should be able to be done by Thursday. It will, however, stop on the commercial stops of the last segment of the file, but not any of the previous ones.

2. When doing a manual commercial skip check from the pop-up menu, it will inform you of the segment completion after each segment. It's a little annoying, but this will not happen if Sage processes Comskip during Sleep Mode.

Using Background processing in Sleep mode will cause Sage to search for commercials in files that are to be recorded in the future after the file has completed recording. It's a great option and runs at Low priority, so Windows XP will free up processor time if you start running other programs.

Lauren

[laurenglenn]

New fix (to be uploaded at 11:00EDT (GMT-6):

The Commercial Skip now will accept Commercial Skips for files that are split in multiple segments.

Lauren

[ebrizo]

Downloaded the update from last night and the live tv guide works much better now, thanks. I also deleted getweather.exe and the machine went to sleep as it was supposed so everything is good there. Thanks for the help.

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by ebrizo
Downloaded the update from last night and the live tv guide works much better now, thanks. I also deleted getweather.exe and the machine went to sleep as it was supposed so everything is good there. Thanks for the help.

You're welcome.

I'm glad it worked.

New fixes for 9/2/2004:
Set Show/Actor logos to load dynamically. This means that if you add a new Show or Actor logo while Sage is running, the logo will display instantly.

Lauren

[laurenglenn]

Originally posted by laurenglenn
You're welcome.

I'm glad it worked.

New fixes for 9/2/2004:
Set Show/Actor logos to load dynamically. This means that if you add a new Show or Actor logo while Sage is running, the logo will display instantly.

Lauren

Updates for 9/5/2004:
Minor bug fixes. Turned on debugging on my end and noticed a couple of entries that weren't rendering properly when EOF was hit.

Fixed a minor bug with the commercial background checking that would show up if it encountered a show with multiple segments. Once it did, it would only search for Segment #2 for all other files.

Fixed: Commercial Skip Detection would not start from the first Options menu when watching LiveTV. It would still work if brought up under the Detailed Info or from any other menu.

Also, Show/Actor/DVD logos will dynamically load and if the file is changed, the logo display also changes. Images are now unloaded and loaded to avoid restarts to get Logos to display.

Lauren

[laurenglenn]

Fixes for 9/6/2004:

Starting Commercial Skip will now keep trying to read the TXT files generated by Comskip until commercials are detected. In other words, if you start Commercial Detection, your PVR-350 locks up, and you reopen the file later, Sage will update the commercial breaks when Comskip finishes. It will no longer assume no commercials are present if it finds an incomplete TXT file.

Recording Listings are now shown in 2x2 format to make the logos show up larger. Soon, I will add an entry to Sage.Properties that will customize this and will make it customizable in Sage.

Lauren