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

[Blue]

Originally Posted by Cayars

Hey blue, I was just thinking. I don't know/remember what version of the STV you are running but if it's not at least version 17 do an upgrade (only 3rd file needed if you are running 16 now) since I did made some fixes and changes to that part of the code.

Carlo - installing DirectX9.0c fixed the pausing problem for me (with v17). Thanks for your help!

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by mdmint

Almost but not quite, that would say put Mpeg2 Max Quality third worst!

I didn't see that one at first glance. Good catch!

[ToonGal]

Great job on v17! Finally took the time to install it this morning, and life is MUCH better with the major OSD portions restored. Not enough usage for any bug feedback yet, but have a couple of things I've always wanted to suggest, so here it goes:

1) When deleting, offered {cancel,not|watched,not|like}. There are certain shows that I'd simply like to "delete, without bias", pretend as if it never recorded. Possible addition? (WHY I'd like it: "Tilt", ESPN's new show, airs tons of times, but the first airings happened after some sporting event, and delay the start by significant times. I want to delete it, without "like" bias, so it records the next instance.)

2) On the recorded shows display, you show the episode ID and the title. There are certain shows that have episode titles, and are displayed, but others in the same show that have an episode ID -WITHOUT- a title. Could you possibly display the episode number and "<no title>" if this case occurs? (WHY I'd like it: "The Wiggles", Disney Channel, have two sets of episodes. The first 45 episodes have titles, but the new ones, from 46 to present (74), don't display any episode ID information.)

3) Rating information is occasionally shown on the EPG listing in the text section. Is it possible to have a graphic showing the TV/Movie rating? For my own watching, I generally don't care, but for my son, it matters. I can go into the detail section to get the information, but it's annoying that the data is there but not available during browsing. I think it can fit alongside the other icons, but don't care where located. I'd love the information shown everywhere (EPG, recorded shows, OSD, etc.) you're willing to program it.
- TV rating logos - USA: http://www.tvguidelines.org/ratings.asp
- TV rating logos - Canadian: http://newmedia.cgu.edu/nardi/projects/c1/tvratings.htm
- MPAA rating logos - small - http://i.imdb.com/images/showtimes/pg-13.gif (IMDB has a graphic for G, PG, PG-13, R, X, unrated, each adding the .gif)
- MPAA rating logos - full - http://www.mpaa.org/movieratings (large, but maybe cutting out the rating portion)

4) Mouse functions currently suck. Most people want their HTPC to minimize the computer look / feel, but I'm happy to have these things added to maximize possible functionality. I bought a wireless k/b and mouse so I have them as an option along with my remote on my server, and use SageTVClient on my laptop while programming. Anyway, the features I'd like. The mouse wheel seems to change the channel when scrolled during live TV. YUCK! Constantly ruins my recordings when I do this accidentally. I'd like the wheel, as long as many other buttons (my Logitech MX-700 has LOTS of buttons) to be configurable (in my case, mouse wheel = volume) or disabled (to prevent doing the wrong thing, like change channel / ruin recording).

5) Mouse functions used to be in there too. The v1.4 release had LOTS of mouse buttons. I liked the OSD icons that allowed me to 1-click {home, toggle full screen, EPG, recordings, etc.}. Before people start complaining how I'm filling up their screen w/ "junk", feel free to add this as a configurable item.

As a quick aside question from the requests, will this version help me w/ my matte issues? Haven't tried yet, and son now awake.

Thanks as always for the great release. Really do like the STV, and enjoy the feature set you've provided. To give you full disclosure, I have -NOT- donated, and absolutely can't for the short/long term. My finances are being watched doggedly, but will donate if/when I am "free"...

Keep up the good work!

[mdmint]

Originally Posted by hchucky

Just upgraded to 2.2.4., Cayars18TestB, and J2SE 5.0 Update 1 and now auto com skip quit working. Anyone else having this issue?

EDIT: I went back to 17B and it works fine. Was a bug introduced in 18B?

HC

Comskip is processing last night's recordings with my workstation Client in systray v18B as we speak. FWIW I'm running v2.1.10 not beta.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by ToonGal

3) Rating information is occasionally shown on the EPG listing in the text section. Is it possible to have a graphic showing the TV/Movie rating? For my own watching, I generally don't care, but for my son, it matters. I can go into the detail section to get the information, but it's annoying that the data is there but not available during browsing. I think it can fit alongside the other icons, but don't care where located. I'd love the information shown everywhere (EPG, recorded shows, OSD, etc.) you're willing to program it.

This is a good one. It also got me thinking about a Replay feature that was pretty cool. Would it be possible to add a search function based on critic rating (3 stars, 4 stars, etc)? I think Replay also uses Zap2it data so I'm pretty sure they include these ratings in the EPG data.

[rsagetv99]

Also, what about adding a category filter to your favorites? One example where this would be helpful is when doing a keyword search on an actor, but you only want to see "Movies" by that actor. Without this filter you get interviews, biographies, etc.

[rsagetv99]

Carlo, can you make it where the play bar (not sure what else to call it) displays the time and date at the far right when you have the volume box disabled?

[abasu2003]

i am using 18B and I am still not seeing comskip work on any of my programs while sleeping

[Cayars]

I'll come back later and address some of the wish list items later in the day. I'm in a good coding session and something I thought would take a little while is coming together very quickly.

I'm looking for a few people willing to do some testing. This will be used to move ComSkip processing outside the STV.

i'm actually looking for two extreme different camps for the test. One group I would like to have is those with powerful machines that can already run ComSkip at the same time they are using/watching shows. For this group, the external processor will be able to monitor your libraries and kick off ComSkip as soon as it sees a new MPG file being written. This will provide for real-time detection without user intervention.

The second group I'm looking for our those who have problems with ComSkip when they are viewing shows due to the high CPU/IO. What I'm going to try and do for this group is allow ComSkip to suck up 100% of the CPU to process your shows but have it completely halt (not terminate) when you go into the OSD. When you're done viewing the show it will resume ComSkip processing on the show it was already working on.

Now that I read what I just typed I guess everyone would probably fit into one of those two groups.

Let me know if you're interested.

Carlo

[Crashless]

Originally Posted by Cayars

PVR-350 users:

Feedback needed. I'd like to know how things work with:
1) The latest drivers installed from here http://www.shspvr.com/pvr2_drv-apps.html.
2) SageTV Beta 2.2.4.
3) Cayars18TestB

No joy...

bluescreen, reset on EOF.

[Cayars]

Thanks Crashless.

"bluescreen, reset" aka CRASH

Maybe we should change your name to "Crash" instead.

[bgorrell]

Originally Posted by Cayars

What outstanding features requests have you asked for that haven't been implemented?

I only have a couple on my list. I know there were a few and some of these aren't able to be done. I probably didn't communicate that so I'd like to build a fresh list and also address any that can't be done so you don't keep checking to see if it's there.

An example of one of the top of my head. 1/2 hour timeslots for Favorites. This can't be done. The core only supports 1 hour timeslots.

Carlo

My top feature request is automatically exporting recorded show information to an XML file or whatever and then automatically importing it to wiz.bin if it is not already in there. It would make it possible to do clean installs, recover from corrupted wiz.bin, make copies for friends, etc. without losing this vital (in my mind) information. I really don't understand why this isn't in the core. Better yet, give us a wiz.bin "browser" with import, export, add and delete functions.

[glbrown]

Carlo can you offer any suggestions on how to get past the SageMenuReader load failure? I am really missing your stv.

[aberson]

man this thread is impossible to keep up with!

for anyone trying to do the TASKKILL batch script in XP home [don't ask me why I'm using it], you might have to use "TSKILL" instead, and it doesn't like the .exe at the end of the filename... so, something to the effect of:

TSKILL SageTV /V
TSKILL comskip /V
start c:\sagetv.exe.lnk
exit

I linked mine to the GRNPOWER button on the remote, and it is making life much easier everytime I hit the pvr350 EOF bug - BUT, for some reason when sage restarts it does not have focus, and i haven't fixed my IRremote to work without focus, so I still end up having to VNC in after sage restarts. Anyone have any ideas how to force sage to get focus when it starts?

also, be careful about using "start" because if you put whatever you're trying to start in quotes (e.g. start "c:\program files...") then it just starts a command prompt with the title being "c:\program files..." So, you might need to revert to c:\progra~1\freyte~1\...

adam

[insomniac]

Sigh me up for group 1.

Other things to consider:

Personally, although I have 3.0g processor on my client machine, I would prefer to not run compskip on that machine(at least for now) while the OSD is displaying. Of course I would be more than willing to run any test configuration you need help with.

5 machines at your disposal

sage server= 3.0g 512ram
sage client= 3.0g 512ram
random networked machine= 500mhz 512ram
my workstation=3.2g 1024ram
my womans workstation=2.6g 512ram

what sounds cool to me:
sage server running fulltime
my workstation running when im not working on it
my wifes workstation running when shes not on it
random networked workstation running when were not on it
sage client running when not viewing OSD

I.

Originally Posted by Cayars

I'll come back later and address some of the wish list items later in the day. I'm in a good coding session and something I thought would take a little while is coming together very quickly.

I'm looking for a few people willing to do some testing. This will be used to move ComSkip processing outside the STV.

i'm actually looking for two extreme different camps for the test. One group I would like to have is those with powerful machines that can already run ComSkip at the same time they are using/watching shows. For this group, the external processor will be able to monitor your libraries and kick off ComSkip as soon as it sees a new MPG file being written. This will provide for real-time detection without user intervention.

The second group I'm looking for our those who have problems with ComSkip when they are viewing shows due to the high CPU/IO. What I'm going to try and do for this group is allow ComSkip to suck up 100% of the CPU to process your shows but have it completely halt (not terminate) when you go into the OSD. When you're done viewing the show it will resume ComSkip processing on the show it was already working on.

Now that I read what I just typed I guess everyone would probably fit into one of those two groups.

Let me know if you're interested.

Carlo

[Crashless]

Originally Posted by Cayars

Thanks Crashless.

"bluescreen, reset" aka CRASH

Maybe we should change your name to "Crash" instead.

Be careful, I just might.

[aberson]

Originally Posted by Cayars[*

Fixed background video issue in LiveTV Guide screen and other screens using the same theme.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned -

Carlo
I notice that in v17 in the "TV recordings" screen, if I have background video turned on, I don't get all the program info at the top half of the screen like I do when I'm in windowed video mode - the top half of the menu is 100% transparent and video showing through.

See the attached screenshot... (I donno why it's recording Sesame Street and Barney... IR must have gone nuts on me!). I don't how to embed an image, but hopefully it links to the attachment

[note that the screenshot was taken with hardware decode only turned on, hence the black background]

[mdmint]

I'll play!
I can probably test both group methods.

Main HTPC Client AMD 2400+ connect gigabit

My workstation Client AMD 3200+ connect gigabit

Wif's workstation Client AMD 1600+ connect 802.11g

Old Laptop P3 300Mhz shared Client key with Wif connect 802.11g (lost company P4 2Ghz laptop when outsourced) Only put Client on this slug to see if it even could!

(Server AMD 2100+ but I won't use my Sage Server for testing )

Originally Posted by Cayars

I'm looking for a few people willing to do some testing. This will be used to move ComSkip processing outside the STV.

i'm actually looking for two extreme different camps for the test. One group I would like to have is those with powerful machines that can already run ComSkip at the same time they are using/watching shows. For this group, the external processor will be able to monitor your libraries and kick off ComSkip as soon as it sees a new MPG file being written. This will provide for real-time detection without user intervention.

The second group I'm looking for our those who have problems with ComSkip when they are viewing shows due to the high CPU/IO. What I'm going to try and do for this group is allow ComSkip to suck up 100% of the CPU to process your shows but have it completely halt (not terminate) when you go into the OSD. When you're done viewing the show it will resume ComSkip processing on the show it was already working on.

Now that I read what I just typed I guess everyone would probably fit into one of those two groups.

Let me know if you're interested.

Carlo

[Trepidati0n]

Could you do me a favaor and change the "screen captures" you have. The current images make it "not safe for work".

-tReP

[insomniac]

You only have to view them one time...pervert!

Originally Posted by Trepidati0n

Could you do me a favaor and change the "screen captures" you have. The current images make it "not safe for work".

-tReP