STV: Cayars17 Ultimate STV (Release 17 - Jan 18)

[glbrown]

No dot NET installed. Java version is 1.4.2.06 and no updates since.

[Cayars]

You need to have NET installed. This is actually now required by SageTV also.

[Drazi]

I noticed this morning that several shows recorded overnight didn't have comskip automatically applied which I have set to run in the background at anytime.

I shut down Sage and restarted it and comskip just started up.

This is 17B.

[Deano]

jzaman....

I changed the file to add the "%1" and now the PowerDVD starts in fullscreen and begins playing. Thanks for the help....

[Cayars]

Seemed like it took "forever" to release 17 B but now that I've got the DVDBurner pretty well under control I've been making tremendous progress on C already.

I just noticed I never posted the updates to B so here they are:
Version 17 Test B

• Hotkey shortcuts in OSD now work correctly.
• Removed duplicate "Back" button in Picture library.
• Removed pause at end of show in OSD before delete screen popup.
• Made changes to internal DVDBurner code.

EDIT: Here is what I have for Version 18 Test A (so far)

• Changed Processing mechanism for Comskip. It will now process all Manual Recordings first, then all Favorites, then all Archived shows and then all other files (depends on Enabled/Disabled status in Detailed Setup).
• CC Captions are now automatically turned on when OSD is Muted.
• Changed/fixed functionality of "Watch Now" button in Detailed Screens.
• Renamed "Recording Detail Menus" to "Detail Menu Buttons" in Detailed Setup-Enhancements.
• Added a new SubMenu under Detailed Setup->Enhancements called "Manage Shortcuts".
• Moved "Recording", "Schedule", "TV Guide" & "Upcoming Movie" Shortcut Options to the new "Manage Shortcuts" SubMenu.
• Added new Detailed Setting called "Use Enhanced Delete" and it's set to ENABLED by default. If set to DISABLED when deleting files you'll get only a "Yes/No" option.
• Fixed DVD Commercial cutting setting so it is being passed to the DVD Burner application correctly now.
• Added new Detailed Setup->External Setup option for Management of Plugins. This will manage the following plugins: Nielm's MP3 VBR Fix, Nielm's WebServer, Nielm's External Status Montitor, and ErsatzTom's Xcard.
• Added native support (bundled with ZIP file) for "External Status Monitor Interface", "MP3 VBR Fix", "WebServer", & "Xcard"

[glbrown]

I installed net 1.1 and have the same problem with 17b.

[aberson]

Carlo
Another suggestion for you:

I was wondering if it would be possible to have wish lists like tivo/myth, for stuff that isn't yet in the guide. For example, last night my girlfriend told me she'd never seen "High Fidelity", which is on TV from time to time - it would be great if I could just program it in to record it the next time it airs.

I saw this thread saying it is a future feature, but I was wondering if it's possible to do in Studio.

I don't know how Sage stores favorites (show ID?), but if I have a favorite, and the show is not in the guide anytime in the next 2 weeks, the favorite still exists in my favorite list, right? Really what we need is a mechanism for adding a favorite for a show that's not currently in the guide. Not sure if that's possible, or if we'd need to know the showID.

Adam

[greggerm]

Amazingly enough, it's a good one for me... Here's the walkthrough...

• Reformat (System Drive Only)
• WinXP Pro - Vanilla Install (as opposed to SP2 slipstreamed)
  - SP1 Installed
  - DirectX9c Installed from non-altered redist. package
  - Latest Device Drivers installed, including recent PVR-250 drivers
• SageTV 2.2.3 Beta Installed
  - Sage's choice of Java installed - Autoupdate turned OFF to keep it.
• Cayars v16 installed
  - Including all core files and Java library files
• Cayars beta v17b overlaid on top of that.
• Tweaked menu XML to my tastes... (LOVE that feature)
• Nero and Zoomplayer installed
  - For MP4/AVC support

So far, I have yet to see any stutter. This may be a false positive, as I know that stutters sometimes just "appear" at random times.

I am aware that I have lost my database, IR info, and favorites - I wanted to start fully from scratch to insure no possible pollution from old data. Luckily, there are only a handful of recordings I want to save, so I am xferring them to my desktop for editing and reprocessing. They will be assimilated.

Use external video player for non-native file works! I placed a XviD AVI and a NeroDigital-created AVC MP4 in my import directory. After telling Sage that .mp4 was a legit extension, I restarted Sage (to apply the directory change), refreshed the library and tried it out. The XviD AVI played back in Sage, no problems at all. The MP4 launched the default external player (WMP10) without a problem! (I'll customize this to Zoomplayer later on). Then, I attempted to view LiveTV. Sage was used as the player. Following that, I attempted to view a program which was recording, but in a timeshifted sense (from the beginning). Sage was the player. Looks as though the hiccup that DVD_Maniac saw relating to the external player has been repaired.

I am not a comskip user, nor do I plan on doing any DVD's, so I think this is the cat's meow.

Oh - just noticed - when I have a video window present on the menus, my menu items and labels seem to have some odd artifacts. It looks like I can see the bounding boxes that Studio uses for the items, and a diagonal line crossing through them in the background. Additionally, when scrolling the menu while video is present the menu structure seems to go through a quick redraw (quick quick flicker). When there is no video playing in a window, these artifacts and the redraw is not present. I am using OVERLAY as my method for video presentation, and I selected the Sonic MPEG2 video/audio decoders to work with all my MPEG2's.

Not bad for a morning's work - time for lunch.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: Afternoon Update
Wow. So this is how a HTPC is designed to work...

I just tweaked the external video player to point to Zoom Player, and using the remote control guidance from Opus4's signature AND some assistance that DVD_Maniac sent my way, was able to configure my Hauppauge! remote control to work in Zoom Player. I had already done some irremote.ini configurations in the past, so once I figured out what needed to be entered, VOILA! For those reading along, the irremote.ini Zoom Player "application" name {Zoom} worked for me. Figuring that out was a trial-and-error sort of thing, and I couldn't find it ANYwhere online.

Now we wait until the recording begins in earnest tonight to see if stutters are still here.

-Greg

[aberson]

Originally Posted by aberson

1. 30 minute Timeslots
I noticed you have Howard Stern in your screen shots - I'd love to be able to record the 2-2:30 (or 11-11:30) airing without recording the 2nd airing, which is usually a repeat [but I think E! doens't release the proper guide data and they are all repeats]. With the 1 hour timeslots as they are right now, that's not doable. Any chance for 30 minute slots?

Originally Posted by Cayers

Funny that you mention it because I WAS going to do this for the same show/timeslot issue you mentioned. BUT then I noticed that E now gives proper EPG data to Zap2It. If you look at the EPG the shows are now marked correctly as First Run or Re-Run. So now you can pick the 11 or 2 AM timslot and FirstRun and be done with it.

Carlo -
My guide data isn't reflecting first run info for the the stern show - I can't imagine why we'd have different data, but regardless, this might be a nice feature for your to-do list somewhere down the line obviously not the most pressing issue, but I'm sure it applies to other shows besides stern. [I was always under the imperssion that E! didn't put the guide data because they only decide what to air a few days before it airs]

Adam

[abasu2003]

Originally Posted by aberson

I was wondering if it would be possible to have wish lists like tivo/myth, for stuff that isn't yet in the guide. For example, last night my girlfriend told me she'd never seen "High Fidelity", which is on TV from time to time - it would be great if I could just program it in to record it the next time it airs.

You can do this now. Go to Favorites by Keyword and type in High Fidelity.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by aberson

I was wondering if it would be possible to have wish lists like tivo/myth, for stuff that isn't yet in the guide. For example, last night my girlfriend told me she'd never seen "High Fidelity", which is on TV from time to time - it would be great if I could just program it in to record it the next time it airs.

I saw this thread saying it is a future feature

The future is now. You are quoting a very old thread from last April. Try looking at something a little more current, like perhaps the v2.1 manual, where Keyword Favorites are part of the Favorites Manager on p. 56. (P.S.: The manual is already in your SageTV directory.)

- Andy

[Stuntman]

Has anybody been able to find a command line entry to open DVD's using the X-card's player from the STV? If so, could you share it?? Pretty please!!

Thank you!

[Cayars]

aberson, Looks like they got you covered with the "Favorites by Keyword" so I won't elaborate. Also, I'll take another look at 1/2 hour timeslots for you.

greggerm, I'm glad everything is working well for you now, especially the external video player stuff. What a pain it was... I did notice a problem in one place but have already corrected it for "C". The diagonal line thing is something I've never been able to reproduce until last night. I can now reproduce it about 20% of the time which is better then 0% of the time, so hopefully I'll be able to find a solution for this.

Stuntman, you might get better help on this one if you were to ask this question in the Xcard plugin thread as more people with an Xcard will probably be reading that thread.

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by Cayars

aberson, Looks like they got you covered with the "Favorites by Keyword" so I won't elaborate. Also, I'll take another look at 1/2 hour timeslots for you.

greggerm, I'm glad everything is working well for you now, especially the external video player stuff. What a pain it was... I did notice a problem in one place but have already corrected it for "C". The diagonal line thing is something I've never been able to reproduce until last night. I can now reproduce it about 20% of the time which is better then 0% of the time, so hopefully I'll be able to find a solution for this.

Stuntman, you might get better help on this one if you were to ask this question in the Xcard plugin thread as more people with an Xcard will probably be reading that thread.

Will do.. saw you bundled support for the x-card now, thought maybe somebody here would know how to launch the DVD via your STV.. I'll repost down in Hardware. Thanks!

[broderp]

Originally Posted by abasu2003

broderp,

I would make sure that comskip actually failed, because depending on the version you have, that pass/fail flag might be messed up.

However, if it did fail, i think all you have to do is delete the txt file associated with that show and it shoudl start over. What's odd is that if it truly failed, I don't think it's supposed to write a txt file to begin with.

i would stop the show after you get the pop up dialog and then restart it to see if it loads the comskip data or it is actually failed.

Well I think it did. Most 1/2 hour shows have 4 commercials, pretty evenly spaced out. These if they have any parts marked, have 3 and are random, and ususally blatenly in the wrong spot.

Cayars, good to see this will be addressed soon.

[Blue]

Nice STV Carlo!

I just wanted to let you know that I have the same problem broderp posted here, regarding LiveTV being paused when the Guide is activated (with Video Menu Style set to Background).

I would be happy to test this issue with the latest Release 17 beta if you need a volunteer...

[rsagetv99]

Carlo, here's a quick (I think) feature request. For the ignored channels in the External=>Comskip settings can you add the option to list a block of channels? I have a lot of Movie channels that I want to exclude and the channel numbers happen to be back to back, so can you add the option to exclude like 200-210, 215-222, 308, 370. Right now you have to type in each channel separated by commas.

Also, if I remember it righ I think the Movie Channel listing in Detailed setup is the same.

[Cayars]

ComSkip previously didn't write out a TXT file until it was complete. But since Jere added the "Real-time" settings to it, the TXT file is created as soon as it is started.

What I'm doing is taking advantage of the fact that my STV/comskip settings also have ComSkip generate a .VPrj file for VideoReDo. The .VPrj gets created also as soon as ComSkip starts but remains 0 length until it is done processing the mpg file and then gets updated.

So in my new module, what I do is look for any Comskip related file and compare it to the .VPrj file for the show/movie. If the .VPrj file is 0 length I "assume" ComSkip hasn't finished the processing correctly and remove these files.

It's not perfect, but's it's fast and works well as long as you haven't disabled the .VPrj file output.

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by Blue

Nice STV Carlo!

I just wanted to let you know that I have the same problem broderp posted here, regarding LiveTV being paused when the Guide is activated (with Video Menu Style set to Background).

I would be happy to test this issue with the latest Release 17 beta if you need a volunteer...

This is already fixed and working well in 17.

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

Carlo, here's a quick (I think) feature request. For the ignored channels in the External=>Comskip settings can you add the option to list a block of channels? I have a lot of Movie channels that I want to exclude and the channel numbers happen to be back to back, so can you add the option to exclude like 200-210, 215-222, 308, 370. Right now you have to type in each channel separated by commas.

Also, if I remember it righ I think the Movie Channel listing in Detailed setup is the same.

Talk about your lazy SageTV operator.