Xcard plugin (alpha 0.0.8 - Jan 16)

[jptaz]

Originally Posted by soulprops77

This may be a dumb question, but is there anything other than the Xcard will not be able to display (other than windows obviously)?

I am confused by what you mean by this?

Anything that is being displayed by SageTV (Video and Menus, etc.) should be displayed via the XCard but nothing else.

If when you change the volume on your PC a display comes up and shows the system volume level ( not the one that is part of SageTV) it will not show up on the XCard since it is not part of SageTV.

John

[ErsatzTom]

Well, if it is part of the Sage UI, it'll be displayed on the Xcard but anything else won't. Is there something more specific you are wondering about?

t

EDIT: oops. Didn't see that you had already answered this one.

[soulprops77]

That actually answered my somewhat vague question. I was just wondering if the Xcard would display everything out of Sage. . .

Thanks

[jughead]

Originally Posted by ErsatzTom

I'll try letting it play live tv during a show cutover. If neither of us can figure it out maybe you can get me a copy of one your mpegs and I can see if it gives me a problem too.

ok, let me know how it turns out & i can send a file. i'm about to give up til the next format/reinstall to make sure it's not some weird conflict exclusive to me. i'd hate to have you focus your time on something that's not happening to anyone else when there's other work to do.

[ErsatzTom]

Well, frankly, until last night I was pretty focused on a weird conflict that was exclusive to me. On my dev box I was having some very unusual problems that went away when I uninstalled sage & java and reinstalled. Mine was totally different, though, and happened whether I was running the plugin or not.

t

[7up]

What resolution output are you guys sending out from your Xcard to your display, 720p, 1080i or are you using the S-video output?

[jughead]

Originally Posted by 7up

What resolution output are you guys sending out from your Xcard to your display, 720p, 1080i or are you using the S-video output?

s-video here

[ErsatzTom]

I personally use s-video on my htpc and VGA output on my development system. I don't have an HD set yet. I haven't had a chance to download or test it yet, but the new 2.2.3 beta has an option to set the dimensions of the OSD which will be great for those with 16:9 sets!

t

[chrispy]

OK I will be the first to admit that I cannot get this to work.

I can get the xcard to work without the plugin (tv and DVD), only when I add the required lines to the properties file do I have problems. SageTV comes up fine, but when I go to view live TV it pauses for a second and then the entire program crashes (i.e. completly gone). During this time I get nothing on the screen at all.

If I go back and take out the two lines in the porperties file, I can view tv and dvd just fine, just no UI on the tv, although I get the UI on the computer.

Any thoughts? I have included the log file if that helps.

Thanks,
Chris

[RobDMB]

I know this is probably a stupid question but I just installed an xcard in my pc and I just want to make sure I configure sagetv right to use it. The instructions say to first copy the download to the folder. I did that. Then it says: You will need to modify the appropriate plugin lines in the properties file while Sage is not running:

media_player_plugin_class=org.sagecommunity.xcard.XCardMediaPlayer
osd_rendering_plugin_class=org.sagecommunity.xcard.XCardOSDPlugin

My question is where is the properties file that I need to edit. And exactly what edits do I need to make? Do I just copy the lines into the file or do I modify existing lines. Lastly if I plan to use the svideo out on the xcard and the stereo output do I need to modify anything else. Thanks alot I appreciate it. -Rob

[jptaz]

Originally Posted by 7up

What resolution output are you guys sending out from your Xcard to your display, 720p, 1080i or are you using the S-video output?

I have not tested this pluggin with HDTV yet as it is directly connected to my Procjecotor via Component YUV 480i. I will do a test when I have a chance on my HD TV set.

Previous when I tested with SageTV wihtout the OSD I used 1080i and 720P and did not see much of a difference since my TV converts everything to 1080i. My DVI is fed 720P since I could not get 1080i to work with NVidia and I had no desire to mess with PowerStrip since 720P looks pretty darn good.

The Quality with 1080i over the Component was very good, but I needed to calibrate the Xcard and TV for it. Now that I have an OSD I may play with it more...to bad my Receiver does not have component switching.

John

[jughead]

robdmb, the "Sage.properties" file is in the sagetv folder. open it in notepad and search for "media_player_plugin_class" or "osd_rendering_plugin_class". after the equals sign, just add the "org.sagecommunity..." stuff.

[RobDMB]

Ok I got it working thanks for the help. The plugin is working great. Definitely a bit of delay on my P4 1.4 ghz pc but I can live with it and I'm sure the program will only continue to improve. Thanks again for the hard work you've put into this. -Rob

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Also noted above. To use XMedia Player, exit SageTV. If you use service mode, then SageTV will continue to record w/o the UI visible. You could also use it as a client installation w/o affecting recordings when you exit.

I know DVDs are not able to be played through SAGE yet, but would a call to an external player from the STV work - like the way Cayars has in his STV - or would you have to completely exit SAGE?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

I know DVDs are not able to be played through SAGE yet, but would a call to an external player from the STV work - like the way Cayars has in his STV - or would you have to completely exit SAGE?

Currently, this plugin is always using the Xcard, even while SageTV is sleeping (I like it that way, though), so you would have to exit SageTV in order for some otehr app to use the Xcard. That is why I suggested using it with a client or at least with the UI portion in service mode.

- Andy

[ErsatzTom]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Currently, this plugin is always using the Xcard, even while SageTV is sleeping (I like it that way, though), so you would have to exit SageTV in order for some otehr app to use the Xcard. That is why I suggested using it with a client or at least with the UI portion in service mode.

This is correct. Sage does not close the OSD plugin when sage is sleeping (if it did, you couldn't do a screen saver). Any time the OSD plugin is active, you will not be able to open your Xcard with any other application. This is not something I could work around directly. It would be possible, however, to work in conjunction with an STV author to allow the STV to open and close the OSD, I believe, so that 3rd party apps could be launched. I was going to say that this would be low on my priority list but actually, I don't think I'd have to do anything to make that possible. They would just need to call XCardOSDPlugin.closeOSD() and XCardOSDPlugin.openOSD() when they want it to start again.

t

[ErsatzTom]

Originally Posted by chrispy

I can get the xcard to work without the plugin (tv and DVD), only when I add the required lines to the properties file do I have problems. SageTV comes up fine, but when I go to view live TV it pauses for a second and then the entire program crashes (i.e. completly gone). During this time I get nothing on the screen at all.

I'm guessing that even when you had the plugin lines in your properties file you didn't see the OSD on your tv, right? Because there is no indication in the log file that the OSD ever got opened. Additionally, when you did try to play an mpeg, a resource that should have been allocated by the OSD code was not available. Double check that you are setting the value of the osd plugin correctly. If you still have problems, attach your whole properties file to a reply. Hope this helps!

t

[RobDMB]

Just a quick question in regards to the delay that is experienced due to the dithering of colors to 256. I'm sure future optimization will help this a little but if someone with studio made a stv that only used 256 colors does that mean this program would cause no performance hit on the cpu since no dithering would need to occur and most likely eliminate the lag?

[ErsatzTom]

Originally Posted by RobDMB

Lastly if I plan to use the svideo out on the xcard and the stereo output do I need to modify anything else.

Obviously you got this figured out, but for others benefit let me answer it. Stereo and s-video output are the defaults. You only need to change the other properties if you need something else. Once easy way to get started on that is to run it without customizing the outputs, then edit the file as all the defaults will already be in there.

t

[jughead]

woohoo, kinda off topic but i just read that there's new xcard software/firmware in the works. maybe in march acccording to the post. make sure they know what you want!