STV Import: MovieTimes Movie Listings Import v0.57 Beta

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by Homebuilder

Hi, first time installing this stvi, version .54 I see there is some comment about it auto dowloading, but the install instructions still say to do the windows task scheduler.

Do I still need to do this?

I just installed, set up schedulefor a few hours from now, but I double clicked on mtsa and it says it is now downloading...please wait.

I am waiting, hoping it will all work. Looks like a great plug in!!


Thanks!

The auto-loading of new movie data aperry was referencing is actually refreshing the movie data in the Sage GUI. Previously, after mtsa would run in would put a new xml file with the latest movietimes. However, the Sage GUI would still show the times that were there the last time the GUI was restarted. This fix only made the GUI check the downloaded file date and refreshed the GUI data if it was newer. You do indeed still need to setup the scheduled task but I think aperry is hoping to change that in the future

[mike1961]

mkanet - I mentioned this to aperry a while back. Although it is not "perfect" the latest few versions allow you to "tweak it" to get it to work with a SageClient. You have to first run the Config on the server. Get everything working on the server (run Sage where SageControl resides). Next, just set up a UNC on your SageClient computers (ie: \\server1\SharedZ\movietimes) Now, even though you may have your Z drive mapped to \\server1\SharedZ it doesn't matter with a UNC). It still works.

I even got the trailers working with Nielms Dynamic menu and GermSage.

Mike

[aperry]

I have just posted version 0.55 beta. This release includes:

Basic Trailer Playback - Requires having a separate program to play back the trailers. The PDF instructions have not been updated yet though.

To set up trailer playback, go into the Config area, then navigate to "Trailer Config". Enable the playback, and then select the program you want to use to play the trailers (in my case, that was "C:\Program Files\mplayer\mplayer.exe"). Set the command-line options for your program (in my case, it is "-fs -monitoraspect 16:9"). NOTE that you'll probably need to mess around with those options to get things working properly in your specific configuration. Also note that I don't have any sort of server/client setup, so I don't know what ramifications that may have on the trailer playback.

Note that this version does not fix the problem with the directory browser. I'm still trying to figure out why that's not working. It works when I use the STVI on its own, but as soon as I pull it into the main program, we get the weird labels on the folders. Hopefully, I'll have a resolution to this issue soon.

[aperry]

mkanet, I didn't see anything wrong immediately with your files. I'll try setting up a similar configuration on my machine and see if I can reproduce it.

[mkanet]

Mike, the Z:\ drive is a local drive I dont use Sage Client. But thanks anyway!

Originally Posted by mike1961

mkanet - I mentioned this to aperry a while back. Although it is not "perfect" the latest few versions allow you to "tweak it" to get it to work with a SageClient. You have to first run the Config on the server. Get everything working on the server (run Sage where SageControl resides). Next, just set up a UNC on your SageClient computers (ie: \\server1\SharedZ\movietimes) Now, even though you may have your Z drive mapped to \\server1\SharedZ it doesn't matter with a UNC). It still works.

I even got the trailers working with Nielms Dynamic menu and GermSage.

Mike

[mkanet]

Thanks Aperry. The log file appeared to recognise the user defined directory paths. But for some reason, it just wouldn't pull up any theaters. I also had problems entering the zip code. I had to manually put that in as well in the config file. Thanks for looking into this. I cant wait to get it to work!

Originally Posted by aperry

mkanet, I didn't see anything wrong immediately with your files. I'll try setting up a similar configuration on my machine and see if I can reproduce it.

[aperry]

So, I took a look, and the things that I noticed right away was that your <LocationFile> line should read like this:

<LocationFile>C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\MovieTimes\locations.xml</LocationFile>

You had "config.xml" instead of "locations.xml".

Also, delete the indicated backslash (shown in red) on the <PosterFolder> line:

<PosterFolder>Z:\MovieTimes\Posters\</PosterFolder>

I'm curious, was the reason you went in to edit the actual XML file that you had problems somewhere? I know that there are problems in the folder selection browser, but the file browser (to select a config.xml file and then a locations.xml file) should be working fine.

[mkanet]

Thanks. I got everything to work in custom directories. Set up the scheduler, and trailers.

To my surprise, I got trailers to play the first time along with everything else. I just used mplayer.exe

A couple of issues that hopefully can be addressed:

1) When trailer starts playing, SageTV continues to play TV with sound in the background. Is it possible to have it so when you select to play a trailer, for it to stop sageTV's builtin media player?

2) Is there anyway way to redirect mplayer's video output into a window in sageTV?

One last comment... from a useability standpoint, it would be better (in my opinion) for MovieTimes to display movie showtimes on main Movie Details screen; instead of having to make an extra unecessary click for "showtimes"

Thanks again!!

[aperry]

Originally Posted by mkanet

A couple of issues that hopefully can be addressed:

1) When trailer starts playing, SageTV continues to play TV with sound in the background. Is it possible to have it so when you select to play a trailer, for it to stop sageTV's builtin media player?

I'm not experiencing this behavior in my setup. Are you saying that you have some TV program/recording playing, and then you navigate to the MovieTimes section and play a trailer, and that's when you get overlapping sound? If that's the case, I can probably call a Sage function to stop playback.

2) Is there anyway way to redirect mplayer's video output into a window in sageTV?

I can't think of a way to pull that off. Given that I am calling a separate executable, I don't see how it could do that.

One last comment... from a useability standpoint, it would be better (in my opinion) for MovieTimes to display movie showtimes on main Movie Details screen; instead of having to make an extra unecessary click for "showtimes"

The "extra" click is simply a matter of screen real estate. There is only so much I can get on the screen at once. I can look into having it change to showing showtimes without you actually having to press the select button (it already works similarly to the setup screens). That way, if you just move down and highlight the Showtimes item, it will change the screen. It might get a little tricky to implement that since the "Play Trailer" option will still require a click/select. Anyhow, I'll look into it.

[mkanet]

Originally Posted by aperry

I'm not experiencing this behavior in my setup. Are you saying that you have some TV program/recording playing, and then you navigate to the MovieTimes section and play a trailer, and that's when you get overlapping sound? If that's the case, I can probably call a Sage function to stop playback.

aperry, you can reproduce this behavior by having sagetv video menu options set to:

Display Video on Menus: Always
Video Menu Style: Background

This will play the video all the time in all menus; which is, actually a desirable thing for me. I would love it if you could call a sageTV STOP function when a user plays back a trailer.

The "extra" click is simply a matter of screen real estate. There is only so much I can get on the screen at once. I can look into having it change to showing showtimes without you actually having to press the select button (it already works similarly to the setup screens). That way, if you just move down and highlight the Showtimes item, it will change the screen. It might get a little tricky to implement that since the "Play Trailer" option will still require a click/select. Anyhow, I'll look into it.

Yes, I think having the menu change (showing movie times) when the item "Showtimes" is highlighted.


Lastly, do you know of a clever way to control FF/Rew/STOP of mplayer with my sageTV remote? I think I might have to use a different multimedia player which will respond to hauppauge IR remote's external IRremote.exe app.

Thanks a million!

[aperry]

I know that in mplayer, the default is that pressing the right arrow on the keyboard jumps forward, and pressing the left arrow jumps backward. Beyond that, I'm pretty clueless on mplayer.

[mkanet]

Woohoo! I decided to use Zoomplayer instead. I mapped all my hauppauge remote keys to zoomplayer and now have full control of the video trailers with the remote.

Now, all I need is the command to stop video playback when starting a trailer, and everything should appear very seamless!

[kricker]

Originally Posted by mkanet

...Lastly, do you know of a clever way to control FF/Rew/STOP of mplayer with my sageTV remote? I think I might have to use a different multimedia player which will respond to hauppauge IR remote's external IRremote.exe app.

Thanks a million!

You can add mplayer.exe to your irremote.ini file. The key commands are listed in the mplayer manual. The link seems down right now, but hopefully will be back up soon.

[mike1961]

Everyone...I use HIP with my remote for all my apps which is free. It allows me to easily control Sage, Nero Showtime media player and Mame. The other advantage of HIP is that it allows for multiple key combinations when pressing one button on the remote. So, I can make Sage go to the main menu and then put it to sleep on power down. Also, with nero showtime I can do a right click, Exit. It allows for mouse control as well and works with the USB-UIRT. It's either freeware or shareware (can't recall) but it's nice and easy to setup.

Mike

[Humanzee]

Anybody good with VLC command lines? Im using

--fullscreen --no-playlist-enqueue

but I can't get it to quit after playing the trailer, there is a command vlc:quit but if you put it in, it immediately closes the application after it opens, not after it is done playing.

[mkanet]

Mike, do you have only 1 USB-UIRT on your SageTV PC? Do you have sageTV control it's IR blaster for changing channels to an external receiver AND concurrently have HIP use the URB-UIRT's IR receiver to control any application in windows?

The reason I ask is because Im having some weird issues with IR.exe; so, since I'm not using the IR receiver on the USB-UIRT, I could use that; ONLY if I can also use it for other windows applications 'while' sageTV uses it's IR blaster.

If the USB-UIRT can't be split between two different programs, does anyone know if 2 USB-UIRT's can coexist on the same PC?

Originally Posted by mike1961

Everyone...I use HIP with my remote for all my apps which is free. It allows me to easily control Sage, Nero Showtime media player and Mame. The other advantage of HIP is that it allows for multiple key combinations when pressing one button on the remote. So, I can make Sage go to the main menu and then put it to sleep on power down. Also, with nero showtime I can do a right click, Exit. It allows for mouse control as well and works with the USB-UIRT. It's either freeware or shareware (can't recall) but it's nice and easy to setup.

Mike

[mike1961]

I use SageControl but on my server with SageControl I use serial cables to control four STB's. I use the USB-UIRT on my SageClients. I would do anything to avoid using an IR blaster to change channels; it's just not as reliable as a serial cable. I posted a diagram on how to build and wire your own if you have direcTV.

Mike

Originally Posted by mkanet

Mike, do you have only 1 USB-UIRT on your SageTV PC? Do you have sageTV control it's IR blaster for changing channels to an external receiver AND concurrently have HIP use the URB-UIRT's IR receiver to control any application in windows?

The reason I ask is because Im having some weird issues with IR.exe; so, since I'm not using the IR receiver on the USB-UIRT, I could use that; ONLY if I can also use it for other windows applications 'while' sageTV uses it's IR blaster.

If the USB-UIRT can't be split between two different programs, does anyone know if 2 USB-UIRT's can coexist on the same PC?

[mkanet]

Thanks. I actually went ahead and replaced my Hauppauge IR.exe app with the USB-UIRT + girder. I have to admit, configuring Girder for my 45 button Hauppauge remote was pretty painful; but, now I'm glad I did it. All my strange focusing issues with the Hauppauge IR app (using windows send messages) went away. I can confirm that SageTV can use USB-UIRT's IR blaster AND peacefully work with Girder which controls USB-UIRT's IR receiver.

I realize this is off topic, is it even possible to use a "serial" cable meant for channel changing IF my RCA DirecTV receiver only has a "Low Speed Data Port" RJ-11 port? Also, I only have USB on my PC; NOT serial RS232.

If so, where would I get such a cable?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by mike1961

I use SageControl but on my server with SageControl I use serial cables to control four STB's. I use the USB-UIRT on my SageClients. I would do anything to avoid using an IR blaster to change channels; it's just not as reliable as a serial cable. I posted a diagram on how to build and wire your own if you have direcTV.

Mike

[steingra]

Has anyone made this MovieTimes work with version 4.1.x of sagetv ? I am not ready to upgrade to 5.x yet. But was wondering if I can use this movietimes with my current version?

Thanks

[mkanet]

aperry you've got us sooooo spoiled! Any chance we'll see an update this weekend? The only annoying problem I have is it doesn't send a STOP command to sageTV before starting a trailer.