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

[gotuitdan]

Hi Carlo,

I don't have time at the moment to check if this was found by someone else, but in the latest version, if my recordings are organized in folders by show name, I can't "select" and play things in the folders. I can "right-arrow" and select "watch now" successfully when in a folder. I can press "Select" to watch a show in the root recordings menu (i.e. only one of the show exists, so it isn't in a folder).

Possibly a bug?

thanks!

[mls]

I pointed that problem out to him several posts back and think he is working on fixing it in the next release, but glad you brought it up again to remind him (just in case) since he is working on a large number of other things and might forget about it.

[Cayars]

This issue is on my ToDo list. I've been side tracked with another new feature for CC users and it took a lot longer to implement then I thought it would. It ended up being very, very easy to implement but took a long time figuring out how to do it.

Anyway, I'm back to doing some fixes. You will probably see a new release later today or tomorrow. This will be an "F" release and not a patch because of the new functionality.

[Deadbolt]

Cayars,

Several questions about your STV:
- Any way to allow for renaming dynamic menu items (with on screen virtual keyboard a la "search by title"), moving dynamic menu items up/down?
- Return remote control to SageTV after selecting "Rip DVD"
- Is there a way to add a "Close" choice to the OSD Options so that those of us with only remotes don't get trapped in the menu?

...oh yeah, almost forgot, what is this new functionality for CC users?????

Thanks!

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by Deadbolt

Cayars,

Several questions about your STV:
- Any way to allow for renaming dynamic menu items (with on screen virtual keyboard a la "search by title"), moving dynamic menu items up/down?
- Return remote control to SageTV after selecting "Rip DVD"
- Is there a way to add a "Close" choice to the OSD Options so that those of us with only remotes don't get trapped in the menu?

...oh yeah, almost forgot, what is this new functionality for CC users?????

Thanks!

You can rename the menus anything you want and move them around BUT you can't do it from inside SageTV at the moment. You would need to edit the menu.xml file with notepad or other editor. You can do this while Sage is running. If you do it while it's running you can right click and select re-load menu to have it use the new menus.

There is a "Close" choice in the OSD options only it's at the top instead of the bottom and it's called "Cancel" instead of "Close". In the "F" version I'm moving it to the bottom so it's where you would normally assume it to be and it will be called "Close" instead of "Cancel".

You can have the DVD stuff work in the background and immediately get control back to SageTV if you want to. At least you should be able to do this. Try doing a search here in the forums. I believe Nielm has covered this somewhere.

[Cayars]

Version "F" has been released.

[DFA]

Thank you. We do appreciate ya.

DFA

[Cayars]

I've taken care of all bugs I remembed to log for version "E" in the release of "F". Let me know if I missed any or if any new bugs pop up. One area in particular I assume I'll get feedback on and need to make some tweeks is in the new CC support I've added for Overlay users with Overlay Color Keying turned on.

If you're one of these users, go to Detailed Setup->Interface->OSD Options and Enable the new properties "Closed Caption Support" and "Auto Overlay CC Support". Then go back to Detailed Setup->Advanced and Enabled Overlay Color Keying. Normally you can't have Overlay Color Keying turned on for CC support in Overlay mode. Without Overlay Color Keying Enabled much of the cool stuff I've added to the STV doesn't work.

Previously, you had to decide if CC was important enough to forgo Overlay Color Keying. If not then you had to use Malore's custom CC support which doesn't work on "Live TV" and needed additional processing time to generate .smi files used to diplay CC data. This "alternate" CC ability also caused problems for SageClient users since they would have to have drive mappings to the server for the client to read the additional .smi files. Now you don't have to do any of this. You can have CC in live TV as well as on your SageClient machines without these extra steps and still have Semi-Transparent Overlays!

BTW, even if you don't want to watch CCs but you do use commercial skip I'd recommend turning on CC support Detailed Setup->Interface->OSD Options and Enable the new properties "Closed Caption Support" because the current version of the ComSkip utility (61) makes use of the embedded CC in the file.

If you want to be able to diplay the CC in the OSD bring up the options panel and change the "Captions" to "CC1" or "CC2". Most embedded CC data is in "CC1".

Here's a list of things I haven't done that either I want to do or have been asked:
* Look into foreign language problems with parts of the STV.
* Add new sorting method to "default" recordings which would allow sorting by "Air Date" like it is done in mlbdude's recordings.
* Sort shows in "Default" recordings by 1. recorded favorites, 2. ir recordings, 3. all recordings.
* Add navigation sounds to menus.
* Ability to take an "Archived" show and make it "Non-Archived" again.
* Add a CPU/Network bandwidth meter.
* Show only "Season Premiere?" This would only catch first episodes of a seasonal show. (might wait till a later version for this request since we're pretty much past season premiers for this year).

Let me know if you have any additional requests.

[gotuitdan]

Hi Carlo,

First, this STV is great! I had three requests, two that I posted about earlier.

1. I asked if it's possible to change the music library a bit:
What are the odds you might be able to add a simple "play album" function to the built-in music library or some way to play an album (or even an entire artist library) without being forced to create a playlist, add stuff, and play the playlist. I would personally really like an easy way to just play whatever strikes my mood. My understanding is that mlbdude has something like this in this Media Center look-alike, so that might give you an idea, but I don't want to give up the flexibity in your STV for now... Also, on a related note, Sage 1.4 had a genre listing. Is that still in the "core"? If so, could it reappear? My dream: play an artist, album, track, or genre without creating a playlist. :-)

2. I asked about the possibility of making the DVD decrypter window hidden from the user when selecting "Rip DVD". Can DVD decrypter could be hidden upon launch?

3. An optional "burn DVD" item in the recording detail menu on the left that will call a specified executable with the filename.mpg as the only command line parameter. I'm trying to integrate the DVD burning function from myHTPC into Sage, and I have had trouble with the current option for executing from the detail menu... Of course, if someone else figured this out, please let me know! :-)

thanks!

[abasu2003]

3. An optional "burn DVD" item in the recording detail menu on the left that will call a specified executable with the filename.mpg as the only command line parameter. I'm trying to integrate the DVD burning function from myHTPC into Sage, and I have had trouble with the current option for executing from the detail menu... Of course, if someone else figured this out, please let me know! :-)

I think you can use Nielm's Custom Commands for this if I understand what you are saying. If you define the custom command as your executable, it will use the specified file as the parameter

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by gotuitdan

Hi Carlo,

First, this STV is great! I had three requests, two that I posted about earlier.

1. I asked if it's possible to change the music library a bit:
What are the odds you might be able to add a simple "play album" function to the built-in music library or some way to play an album (or even an entire artist library) without being forced to create a playlist, add stuff, and play the playlist. I would personally really like an easy way to just play whatever strikes my mood. My understanding is that mlbdude has something like this in this Media Center look-alike, so that might give you an idea, but I don't want to give up the flexibity in your STV for now... Also, on a related note, Sage 1.4 had a genre listing. Is that still in the "core"? If so, could it reappear? My dream: play an artist, album, track, or genre without creating a playlist. :-)

I'm not a music library user, so music stuff is way down on my list. I know I surely won't spend much time re-coding stuff for it. IMHO, the whole things needs to be re-done. It needs to catch up to other Media Software packages. You can play a whole album from my understanding by selecting the first song only.

2. I asked about the possibility of making the DVD decrypter window hidden from the user when selecting "Rip DVD". Can DVD decrypter could be hidden upon launch?

I did answer this in a previous message more or less. Depending on how you want it to function, you may be able to adjust the menu.xml file to do this.

3. An optional "burn DVD" item in the recording detail menu on the left that will call a specified executable with the filename.mpg as the only command line parameter. I'm trying to integrate the DVD burning function from myHTPC into Sage, and I have had trouble with the current option for executing from the detail menu... Of course, if someone else figured this out, please let me know! :-)

thanks!

I wouldn't mind this either! I'm really hoping someone else can help select a few good utilities that I could integrate with easily.

Presently looking for:
A good CD to MP3 ripper that can be called from the command line.
A good DVD burner tool that can be called from the command line (should be able to auto generate a menu system for the files based on a pre-created theme.

Any other usefull "utility" type programs that run externally.

[Pumpkinhead]

* Add navigation sounds to menus.

I hope this is something that we will be able to disable also.

[briands]

Originally Posted by Cayars

Version "F" has been released.

Great work!!! I just upgraded to 2.1 and your STV file. Of course I spent most of this evening tweaking the menu and finally got it set up. My question for you as I didn't see it as I skimmed the thread... What is the best way to upgrade to your latest version without overwriting the stuff I've already tweaked.

Is it safe to NOT overwrite my menu.xml, comskip.inf and weatherconfig.xml? Are there any changes that would break these files?

Do the things in THINGS YOU MUST MANUALY ADJUST (from post 1) need to be redone?

Sorry if this has been answered...

Thanks!

[Deadbolt]

I have video enabled in the background when the OSD is up...is the weather and news reader supposed to not show the video in the background? The rest of the GUI does...and in Neilm's old 2.0 version the weather and news worked correctly. Am I doing something wrong or is this just how Cayars decided to do this?

Thanks!

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by Pumpkinhead

I hope this is something that we will be able to disable also.

You haven't figured out by now that I like to make things configurable???
Let's just say I won't be using the sounds either when they're implemented.

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by briands

Great work!!! I just upgraded to 2.1 and your STV file. Of course I spent most of this evening tweaking the menu and finally got it set up. My question for you as I didn't see it as I skimmed the thread... What is the best way to upgrade to your latest version without overwriting the stuff I've already tweaked.

Is it safe to NOT overwrite my menu.xml, comskip.inf and weatherconfig.xml? Are there any changes that would break these files?

Do the things in THINGS YOU MUST MANUALY ADJUST (from post 1) need to be redone?

Sorry if this has been answered...

Thanks!

The Java and CoreFile zips don't really change anymore. Really the only things that changes NOW are the STV file itself and the menu file. At present the menu file isn't changing much and even when it does, you may not want to use the new version. If I add something new that does require a new menu choice you can copy this part out of the menu.xml file and paste it into your own.

If the THINGS YOU MUST MANUALLY ADJUST already work on your system then NO don't touch them. My STV will read the same property settings that other STVs write so if any of these were previously setup when you were using another STV then they should normally continue to work just fine in this STV also.

Carlo

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by Deadbolt

I have video enabled in the background when the OSD is up...is the weather and news reader supposed to not show the video in the background? The rest of the GUI does...and in Neilm's old 2.0 version the weather and news worked correctly. Am I doing something wrong or is this just how Cayars decided to do this?

Thanks!

I don't think they ever worked in my STV now that I think about it. I normally run "Windowed" and only use the background for testing. I'll take a look and see about getting background video working in these.

[abasu2003]

Adjusted size of "REC" at top of windows.

I can't see any difference in teh Recording Icon. Is it supposed to be bigger or smaller?

Also, from now on could you make a specific note about what screens you added or what screens changed names. I think, for the most part, you already do this but just wanted to make sure. It will make it easier for someone like me who has his menu.xml just right.

[Cayars]

You probably won't notice a sizing difference on the "REC" icon. However, if you were to run SageTV at a higher resolution like 1600x1200 then the "REC" icon was very tiny and didn't use the equiv. space it should have.

Yes, I normally do make note of internal page names when they change or when a new item is added. In the early stages there were many pages renamed but that is pretty much behind us now. The whole STV package is pretty stable now and won't be chaning much from a configuration standpoint. 95% of the user changes now are pretty much dropping in a new STV to take advantage of new features/fixes.

Of course if something like a CD ripper were added and you wanted this type of functionality then there would be more involved, etc...

[mls]

You did the fix for the single and group recording playback reversed (at least for a remote). Here's before (last release) and after now;

Before: Selecting (hitting OK) on remote of a single recording would start playback. Selecting a file in a group would bring up the Info screen (where would have to select Watch).

After: Selecting either a single or a file in a group now brings up the Info screen for both.

While this would be correct behavior for mouse use, it's still not as it should be for use with a remote. Can always get to the Info screen from the remote with the Info button. So, if you can put the single back as it was last time and then change the qroup side to work the same then it should be same behavior as in OriginalV2.stv.

Follow what I mean? Reverse the fix the other way around.

BTW: This all worked correctly back in releases before "D".