SageTV V4.1.9 Beta Is Available - More Placeshifting!

[Narflex]

Howdy all! SageTV 4.1.9 Beta is now available.

SageTV V4.1.9 Release Notes 3/4/06

This is the third release to have Placeshifting. Here's the notes from the first release on it in case it's new to you:

Placeshifting adds a new client program that allows the user to connect to their SageTV system from anywhere on the Internet. The placeshifting client has the full SageTV UI and it can also stream live/recorded audio & video. It will be known as the SageTV Placeshifter.

This release also includes the Locator feature of SageTV which can be used with placeshifting. The Locator feature allows the Placeshifter to find the IP address of your home server automatically. It does this through a 16-digit unique ID that is generated by SageTV. You can find this ID in System Information or in Detailed Setup->Advanced. Information on disabling this feature is in the release notes.

There's a few things you should know about placeshifting:
1. To access your SageTV Server through the Internet with the Placeshifter you will need to open port 31099 on your firewall/router and forward it to the computer that is running the SageTV server.
2. The current Placeshifter is included in the SageTV Client installation. It is called the SageTVPlaceshifter and is in the Start Menu as well as in the SageTV program folder.
3. To enable the placeshifting server in SageTV, simply enable the media extender server in Detailed Setup->Advanced.
4. IMPORTANT: The licensing for the Placeshifter is done on the server. It uses the same licensing as the SageTV Media Extender. They share the same trial period as well. After the trial is up you will need to have a Media Extender license installed on the server for each simultaneous connection you want to have for either a Media Extender or a Placeshifter.
5. The placeshifting server requires a password for any non-local connections. This password can be set in Detailed Setup->Advanced. NOTE: SageTV does utilize strong security (RSA/Blowfish) in order to protect your passwords, but be sure to choose passwords that are not easy to guess or too short in length.


That was the attempt to get you to read some of the more important release notes. And here's the download links:

SageTV
http://download.sage.tv/SageTV_V4_1_9Setup.exe

SageTV Client and SageTV Placeshifter
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVClient_V4_1_9Setup.exe

See this post for info about running just the placeshifter on a Windows PC w/o installing the full client.

Core Updates

1. Corrected a bug in the calculation done for watch probability in the Profiler
2, Significant performance enhancements to the Profiler; should have a major effect on the GC pausing problems.
3. Added WMA media subtype. To playback WMA files on the MVP you'll need to remove and then re-add your music import paths so the type gets changed to this.
4. Fixed bug where thumbnails wouldn't load because SageTV kept trying to regenerate it
5. Fixed bug in network encoder file upload where it would sometimes miss data or drop the connection.
6. Fixed 1:26:44 bug in playback on client
7. Fixed a bug where the network encoder sometimes didn't have its version detected properly.
8. Added a new property "debug_pm" which enables the PowerManagement debug info. This is the constant 'PM state' that was written to the log on every event and was just annoying IMO.
9. Be sure we launch the MediaServer before capture starts in case we're going to setup a network encoder to upload to the MediaServer.
10. If the STV fails to load for a UI it will try to load the default SageTV3.xml file instead.
11. Fixed bug with WMV title import where it wouldn't prepend the folder prefix.
12. Overhauled dynamic table UI component caching system. This is a major performance improvement in things like scrolling the EPG or the recordings list.
13. Fix:SageTV failed work with MSFT's DEM verison PsisRndr.ax
14. FIX:mpeg1 format locks up SageTV.
15. Add:MpegDemux mpeg1 supporting
16. Fix: play wrong DVB-T sound track on some channel (Pass wrong main video/audio track from TS to PS )

Extender Updates
1. Fixed PAL support for transcoding video to the MVP
2. Fixed bug where the last watched media time wasn't getting set while closing an extender session while watching a file.
3, Fixed playback of music files on the Placeshifter and with the MVP

Studio Updates
1, Added support for Menu load/unload hooks in Themes of OptionsMenus & Menus.

Placeshifter Updates
1. Fixed support for Java 1.4 server-side crypto when the client is 1.5.
2. Fixed cleanup of clients when they fail on init
3. Fixed bug where resizing the Placeshifter window while event encryption was enabled would kill the current session.
4, Fixed playback of music files on the Placeshifter and with the MVP
5. Added timestamps to the logging entries
6. Added support for Java 1.4 clients that don't do RSA crypto by using an alternate method
7. Added image cache management support to the Placeshifter client (before it was just letting it grow limitlessly)
8. Added optimization to use uncompressed image transfers between the client and the server when running on a high-speed local network.
9. Updated for server specifying the crypto support to be used.
10. Fixed bug where MPlayer wasn't always killed when the MiniClient shutdown
11. Added media server detection code so it won't try to do pull streaming if it cant make the socket connection.
12. Added support for audio only MPEG2 PS streams.

STV Updates
1) Made NTE setting permanent when changed via the Pause command on any NTE-using screen.
2) Added NTE toggle icon in header, with NTE now toggling between Upper Case -> Lower Case -> Off. (Thanks ToxMox, for the icons)
3) Added new NTE menu header icons to the Menu Header Information help dialog.
4) Fixed System Info to return to "Help Menu" instead of Setup.
5) During playback, only auto-hide OSD if playback speed is normal.
6) Added one-time dialog to the Main Menu, which mentions that the Help menu exists. It uses the "help_was_mentioned" property to determine if the dialog has already been viewed.
7) Added TV Airing Category BG Color viewer/editor in the Interface Guide menu.
8) Added a help screen for the Airing Indicators and Markers in the Interface Guide menu.
9) Changed the ConflictResolved.png to use a green check mark to be more easily distinguished from the red exclamation point for unresolved conflicts. (Thanks Enormous, for this icon update)
10) Added new Help menu to the current Setup Menu. The Help menu currently has choices for: View SageTV PDF Manual (Windows only), Interface Guide, and System Information.
11) Added a help screen for the menu header layout in the Interface Guide menu.


We hope you all enjoy. Please submit any bugs at http://www.sagetv.com/bugs.html

Thanks again for your help!

[cmaffia]

Great work Jeff. I was hoping in this next Beta that you would have given the option to use placeshifter with any port. Is this something that will be made available soon?

Thanks

[Narflex]

The server port's configurable now via the extender_and_placeshifter_server_port property, but we haven't made the changes to the SageTV Placeshifter client that's needed for this. So we're halfway there.

[dbfresh23]

OK, I just installed 4.1.9 and now I have to re-import all of the import STVIs that I use, which brings me to a suggestion. Why not make it so that there's a separate imports.properties or specific_client.imports.properties? A flat text file that contains a list of the imports being used. This way when I upgrade to the newest SageTV STV I can retain my imports being used and still make use of the updates made in the new STV. Or am I just missing something and this or something like it already exists?

[folly12345]

dbfresh23 -

Maybe I am missing something (definitely wouldn't be the first time) , but I just installed 4.1.9 on the server and on my client machines. I went into advanced setup selected my latest stv (sagetv3-14.xml in this case) and all my stvi's I imported appear to be there and working fine.

[Narflex]

dbfresh23,

Something like it already exists but we're just not making use of it yet. You can actually specify multiple XML files for it to load and link together using references. We'll be posting more information on it soon. If you want to talk more about it, start a new thread please since it doesn't have anything to do with the beta.

[Deadbolt]

"Significant performance enhancements to the Profiler; should have a major effect on the GC pausing problems."

Can you please explain this further? What do you mean by "GC pausing problems?" I've been having odd video pausing/stutter problems with 4.18 and am wondering it this is what you mean...or if you mean pause/lagged GUI performance?

EDIT: Also, what does NTE stand for?

Thanks!

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by jeffashland

Maybe I am missing something (definitely wouldn't be the first time) , but I just installed 4.1.9 on the server and on my client machines. I went into advanced setup selected my latest stv (sagetv3-14.xml in this case) and all my stvi's I imported appear to be there and working fine.

Just to clarify: any time you install a new version, only the default STV (SageTV3.xml) is overwritten by the one in the installer. Your other STV files are not affected. So, while the imports will still be in the old STV, the new changes in the default STV will not be in your old one where your imports were loaded previously. You would need to start with the new default STV & load any imports again.

For complete testing of all the changes in the beta, you really should start with the latest default STV.

- Andy

[folly12345]

Andy,

Thanks for the clarification. It was a lot easier to keep up with the latest version when I was ignorant of the proper upgrade process. Oh well, off to start loading imports into my newly upgraded clients.

[Polypro]

I second that! I've been running an older STV for the last couple builds...and didn't know it Andy, Maybe that post should be a sticky here, or in customizations?

P

[thatdude90210]

If I set the streaming rate to manual instead of dynamic, Xvid videos from my imported videos transcode and stream to Placeshifter clients ok. I don't remember that working in previous versions before. Only issue is that the video lags behind the sound by a few seconds, so it's not really usable yet (plus 16x9 videos won't look right without being able to change aspect ratios).

MP3 streams fine, but it's like some background instrument sounds are a little too prominent. I hear it in different songs, from both encoded and downloaded. Anyway, sounds different than when they are playing locally.

[mayamaniac]

Just upgraded from 4.17 and the "100% CPU" bug in 4.18 seems to be gone. Will do further testing.

Just wondering, what is NTE?

[Deadbolt]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

Just upgraded from 4.17 and the "100% CPU" bug in 4.18 seems to be gone. Will do further testing.

Just wondering, what is NTE?

I second that question...and also can we get more explaination on "GC pausing problems?"

Thanks!

[aperry]

NTE, I believe, is Numeric Text Entry. The mode where you get a numeric keypad, and the first press of 2 puts in an "A", next one is a "B", then "C", then "2".

[Opus4]

Yup - NTE = Numeric Text Entry, Numeric Text Input, or whetever it happens to get called today. It can now be used for lower case input too. The Pause command is used to toggle between modes, like before, but now there is an icon in the menu header to help remind people that the NTE mode can be toggled.

BTW: did I mention you can open the manual from within SageTV now? (It will open it in Adobe Reader, externally to SageTV.) Go to the new Help menu, found in the Setup Menu.

There is also an Interface Guide menu there, where you can find out what all those icons, markers, and colors means. You can now edit & set your own category background colors for places like the Program Guide.

- Andy

[Deadbolt]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Yup - NTE = Numeric Text Entry, Numeric Text Input, or whetever it happens to get called today. It can now be used for lower case input too. The Pause command is used to toggle between modes, like before, but now there is an icon in the menu header to help remind people that the NTE mode can be toggled.

BTW: did I mention you can open the manual from within SageTV now? (It will open it in Adobe Reader, externally to SageTV.) Go to the new Help menu, found in the Setup Menu.

There is also an Interface Guide menu there, where you can find out what all those icons, markers, and colors means. You can now edit & set your own category background colors for places like the Program Guide.

- Andy

Andy,

Any idea what the refferenced "GC pausing problems" were that the profiler improvements were supposed to fix?

[Neo]

Originally Posted by Deadbolt

I second that question...and also can we get more explaination on "GC pausing problems?"

Thanks!

I'm guessing GC stands for "Garbage collect". That would be java, I suppose, that needs to do cleanup occasionally.

This might very well be causing the stuttering and pausing I've been noticing. I wonder why sagetv.exe, even with higher process priority, "halts" for a moment when sagetvservice.exe does something on the system disk. (The disk led shows intense activity on the system disk, recordings are on another disk.) It does not help a bit with larger mpegdemux buffer for sagetv. Could it be this garbage collecting issue?

It will be interesting to see if 4.1.9 will handle this without the stuttering.

[Narflex]

The GC pausing problem was when SageTV was doing the profiler calculations and using lots of memory that was being GC'd. These were optimized to reduce that usage by about 95%. This had a more significant effect if you've been using SageTV for a longer time and have a larger Wiz.bin file.

The GC pausing problem can be identified only when using the console window in SageTV. You'll see a message that says 'Full GC' and that it took something like 10-100 seconds to complete.

There may still be other things in SageTV which can lead to GC pauses, but the main cause of it has been eliminated for now (I don't see the pauses anymore at home and I was getting them quite a few times a day).

[Mahoney]

Fixed PAL support for transcoding video to the MVP

Has this fixed the playback issue with DVB-T recorded MPEG2 as well?

Find out tonight I guess!

[batorok]

how about the stuttering with hdtv playback using vmr9 but not overlay bug?