STV Import: Remember play position of imported videos

[popechild]

Flachbar,
This is a fantastic plugin and something that really should have been in the official Sage, but I digress...

However, I can crash SageMC at will with this installed by not switching between videos the way this import wants me to.

Steps to recreate:
1) Start playing a video. Hit stop. (It only seems to crash when there's already a "stop" point written for the particular video.)
2) Navigate to Recorded TV and start playing a video there.
3) Without stopping Recorded show, navigate back to original imported video and hit play. It should start playing from the last "stop" point with no problems right now, the way it should.
4) This time WITHOUT pressing stop on the imported video, navigate back to Recorded TV and start playing one of the recorded files.
5) Again WITHOUT hitting stop, navigate back to the imported video and hit play.
CRASH.

I don't know how many of these steps are necessary to make it crash, but this is what's reproducable for me. It doesn't seem to mind until there's already a stop point written for a file, then if you start playing it again, navigate to a recorded file (could happen with other imports but I haven't tested that) and back to the imported file it will crash it for me every time.

I can try to remember to hit stop every time, but I'll probably forget at times since that's not the way I typically do it. Anyway, thought you might want to know.

Keep up the good work!

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by popechild

However, I can crash SageMC at will with this installed by not switching between videos the way this import wants me to.

Hi popechild,

I'll try to look at this tomorrow, or on the weekend the latest. If I can recreate the error, I'll fix this for sure.

What do you mean by "CRASH", is the whole Sage application crashing to the desktop ?


Dirk

[popechild]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Hi popechild,

I'll try to look at this tomorrow, or on the weekend the latest. If I can recreate the error, I'll fix this for sure.

What do you mean by "CRASH", is the whole Sage application crashing to the desktop ?


Dirk

I mean that Sage actually uninstalls itself, gets up out of the htpc and into my car, and actually crashes itself into a wall outside my condo.
No, it just completely locks up Sage and freezes so that it's unresponsive and has to be CTL-ALT-DEL'ed out of. Doesn't bring down the entire computer.

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by popechild

I mean that Sage actually uninstalls itself, gets up out of the htpc and into my car, and actually crashes itself into a wall outside my condo.

Ah ok, I was wondering if it is odd that my Sage does weird stuff like this and whether I should tell anyone, but I guess not ...

[mkanet]

Dirk, this is the only thing stopping me from installing this plugin.. Currently, it's not that usable for me. I dont even use the STOP command in sage... I only only use pause or switch to another media to play. In fact, I use the stop button on my remote control to do searches.

PS: Were you able to figure out how to do this for DVD playback?

Thanks in advance!


Quote:
Originally Posted by mkanet
Actually, I wasn't asking for specific support for "previous channel", but something more useful than just detecting when STOP is pressed by the sageTV user.

More accurately, I think it would be better to look for when SageTV integrated media player is stopped (not necessarily when STOP is pressed by the user). For example in typicial scenerios... when switching to liveTV while Imported Videos are being played with the remote control, or when switching to playing a DVD while Imported Videos are being played...

Thanks!
-Michael


That acually makes a lot of sense. I'll consider it ...

Dirk
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[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Dirk, this is the only thing stopping me from installing this plugin.. Currently, it's not that usable for me. I dont even use the STOP command in sage... I only only use pause or switch to another media to play. In fact, I use the stop button on my remote control to do searches.

Hi mkanet, don't know if you missed that post, but I already looked into this, couldn't find a solution:

Originally Posted by flachbar

I spent some time on this and tried to get it into the new version, but this doesnt seem to be possible at the moment. The only hook SageTV provides for this purpose seems to be 'MediaPlayerStateChanged()", but I found that it only fires on pause and play, but not on stop ...

Dirk

I could add functionality to the Pause button, if that would help ...

Originally Posted by mkanet

PS: Were you able to figure out how to do this for DVD playback?

Well, this is not possible with the Sage API, I'd need to use JNI and COM to get the DVD info from outside. Greg has included a Java-COM library for the WMP interfaces in his WMP plugin, which might ease this task a little. Will be a little while until I can have a look at this though ...

Dirk

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by popechild

Steps to recreate:
1) Start playing a video. Hit stop. (It only seems to crash when there's already a "stop" point written for the particular video.)
2) Navigate to Recorded TV and start playing a video there.
3) Without stopping Recorded show, navigate back to original imported video and hit play. It should start playing from the last "stop" point with no problems right now, the way it should.
4) This time WITHOUT pressing stop on the imported video, navigate back to Recorded TV and start playing one of the recorded files.
5) Again WITHOUT hitting stop, navigate back to the imported video and hit play.
CRASH.

Hi popechild,

I finally had the time to check this out. Unfortunately, even when I follow the exact steps above I don't get any crash, it works perfectly fine for me ... Where do you use it on, server, client, MVP, or Placeshifter ?

Dirk

[popechild]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Hi popechild,

I finally had the time to check this out. Unfortunately, even when I follow the exact steps above I don't get any crash, it works perfectly fine for me ... Where do you use it on, server, client, MVP, or Placeshifter ?

Dirk

Hmm...maybe I just got "lucky?" It's on the latest version 5 of the server, not running as a service.

[spclbp]

This works great for me from the Sage client on the server, but not from my MVP. Stopping an imported video does not update the VideoLibraryTimes.properties file. Any ideas?

[spclbp]

Whoops, my bad. Didn't realize that I had to import the STV from each client. Thanks for putting this together.

[spclbp]

I really like the way this works, but my video locks up occasionally, since I imported this on my MVP client. Anyone else notice this behavior or have any ideas what could be causing it?

[Gaurav]

flachbar - i had tried your import a few months back and it had not worked for me. I tried again today and it works like champ - thanks.

One question - is there a quick way to "forget" the position ? What if i watch a movie for an hour and then the wife shows up and wants to watch from the beginning ?

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by Gaurav

flachbar - i had tried your import a few months back and it had not worked for me. I tried again today and it works like champ - thanks.

One question - is there a quick way to "forget" the position ? What if i watch a movie for an hour and then the wife shows up and wants to watch from the beginning ?

Nice to hear it now works for you...

Regarding your question: not within the utility itself. I use SageMC, and if I run into this situation I just stop the recording, and SageMC shows a dialog which allows to restart from the beginning. Other than that, the only way to reset it is to delete the corresponding line from the VideoLibraryTimes.properties - seems not really practical though ...

Dirk

[Gaurav]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Nice to hear it now works for you...

Regarding your question: not within the utility itself. I use SageMC, and if I run into this situation I just stop the recording, and SageMC shows a dialog which allows to restart from the beginning. Other than that, the only way to reset it is to delete the corresponding line from the VideoLibraryTimes.properties - seems not really practical though ...

Dirk

i prefer to use the stock stv. and editing the file is not an option coz i use MVPs exclusively. It would be so convenient if i could set the file "not watched" just like a regular recording.

i'm not complaining. i think you have filled a major gap. i expect Sage to incorporate the functionality soon. until then..."not forgetting" is better than not remembering at all.

[MeInMaui]

Hi Dirk,

I just ran into an issue with this plugin this morning, so I thought I'd pass it along. I have some mpg shows in my video library for my son, which I converted from our TiVo using VideoRedo. This morning I tried to play one of those shows for him, which had previously been watched to completion once. It started within a minute of the end of the program. This normally wouldn't be a problem except I have disabled the stop popup window because it was causing my system to hang at 1920x1080 for some reason. So now there is no way to restart the program from the beginning. I have two thoughts for possible solutions. First, is it possible to add some logic to this plugin so that if the play position is within 5 minutes of the end of the program when stopped, that it would just delete the time entry from the text file? (Essentially disabling the position memory within a few minutes of the end. Maybe the number of minutes could be user configurable?) The second thought is could a 'Play From Beginning' button possibly be added to the program details screen in SageMC? That way if you know you just want to start from the beginning, regardless of the remembered position, you could easily do that with a minimum of steps. I'm just thinking out loud. I may try to add the 'Play From Beginning' button myself if I ever get the chance. Thanks Dirk!

Aloha,
Mike

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Hi Dirk,

I just ran into an issue with this plugin this morning, so I thought I'd pass it along. I have some mpg shows in my video library for my son, which I converted from our TiVo using VideoRedo. This morning I tried to play one of those shows for him, which had previously been watched to completion once. It started within a minute of the end of the program. This normally wouldn't be a problem except I have disabled the stop popup window because it was causing my system to hang at 1920x1080 for some reason. So now there is no way to restart the program from the beginning.

In the regular STV I just fast forward until the video stops at the very end of the program. Then I press stop and the next time I play it is at the begining again. Don't know if the same thing would apply to SageMC or not however.

BobP.

[MeInMaui]

BobPhoenix,

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you actually have to press stop, or will the remembered time reset when the file stops by itself at the end? With these files, the UI returns to the detailed info screen immediately at the end of playback, so there is no opportunity to press stop. If I press stop at all before the end, the remembered position does not reset. I'll have to play with it more later.

Mike

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

BobPhoenix,

Thanks for the suggestion. Do you actually have to press stop, or will the remembered time reset when the file stops by itself at the end? With these files, the UI returns to the detailed info screen immediately at the end of playback, so there is no opportunity to press stop. If I press stop at all before the end, the remembered position does not reset. I'll have to play with it more later.

Mike

The reason I press stop is that I have my MVP setup with video in the background and I see the last frame of the video unless I hit stop. I haven't tried without hitting stop as far as I can remember - sorry.

[dflachbart]

Hi Mike,

Originally Posted by MeInMaui

Hi Dirk,
First, is it possible to add some logic to this plugin so that if the play position is within 5 minutes of the end of the program when stopped, that it would just delete the time entry from the text file? (Essentially disabling the position memory within a few minutes of the end. Maybe the number of minutes could be user configurable?) The second thought is could a 'Play From Beginning' button possibly be added to the program details screen in SageMC? That way if you know you just want to start from the beginning, regardless of the remembered position, you could easily do that with a minimum of steps. I'm just thinking out loud. I may try to add the 'Play From Beginning' button myself if I ever get the chance. Thanks Dirk!

I'd prefer the first idea, and think this would be doable. Yell if you still want this feature , don't know when I'll get to it though ...

Dirk

[MeInMaui]

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!