SageTV V6.4.5 Beta is Ready!

[Narflex]

Howdy all!

NOTE: New SageTV/SageTVClient for Windows installers were posted on 7/11 @ 11am PST. These fix the error message about registering Psisdecd.dll in the installer.

NOTE: Mac builds were posted at 2pm PST on 7/11

Time for another beta update.

Some of the major additions (for V6.4, not specific to this build):

-Support for the Hauppauge HD PVR
-Automatic STVI Generation in the SageTV Studio
-EXIF metadata/thumbnail support for JPEGs
-new file system & network browser
-H.264 videos from YouTube
-High definition photo display on the STX-HD100
-File transfers to/from Placeshifter clients
-editing of aspect ratios on the fly for the STX-HD100
-lots of bugs fixes & performance enhancements

Submit any bugs you find to here please: http://sagetv.com/bugs.html

Here's the links:

SageTV for Windows
http://download.sage.tv/SageTV_V6_4_5Setup.exe

SageTVClient for Windows
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVClient_V6_4_5Setup.exe

SageTVPlaceshifter for Windows
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVPlaces...6_4_5Setup.exe

SageTV for Windows Home Server
http://download.sage.tv/SageTV_V6_4_5Setup-WHS.msi

SageTV Media Center for Macintosh
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVMac_V6_4_5.dmg

SageTV Client for Macintosh
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVMacClient_V6_4_5.dmg

SageTV Placeshifter for Macintosh
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVMacPla...ter_V6_4_5.dmg

SageTV Media Center for Linux
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/server_6.4.5.tar.gz

SageTV Placeshifter for Linux
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/mi...t_6.4.5.tar.gz

SageTV Media Center for Linux - Debian Package Installer
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/sa...6.4.5_i386.deb

SageTV Placeshifter for Linux - Debian Package Installer
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/sa...6.4.5_i386.deb

And here's the detailed release notes for you all.

SageTV V6.4.5 Beta 7/10/08

Core Updates
1. Optimized scheduling algorithms when choosing between multiple channels for the same favorite so that shows on higher quality tuners are preferred over shows on lower quality tuners (this solves the problem of SageTV recording shows with SDTV tuners instead of HDTV tuners when the shows were on two different channels and the show wasn't marked as 'HDTV' specifically)
2. Reduced file system access required when browing menus w/ thumbnails
3. Optimized file system access for loading of thumbnails
4. Fixed bug where we didn't stop EPG data scanning on a capture device before freeing it if we were going into standby
5. Fixed bug with switching between certain types of transport stream files during playback
6. Optimized going to the next/prev song when not in a music playlist
7. Fixed bug where if you selected a single song to play (which plays through the now playing playlist) that you couldn't go track up/down
8. Fixed bug where the UI didn't re-render itself correctly if 3D failed to load
9. Fixed bug where we didn't track mouse dragging properly when it went outside of our component's bounds
10. Expression evaluator optimization for constants, variable lookups and simple assignments
11. Fixed parsing of duration in RSS feeds when it's specified as 'x sec'
12. Fixed bug where we didn't properly strip solitary \n characters from XML descriptions in RSS feeds
13. Fixed language detection of audio streams for the MPEG parser

Mac Updates
1. Added support for forced DirecTV serial fast channel changing on Linux/Mac; it's done by creating a file called 'DTVSERIAL_FAST' in the working directory for the SageTV server component
2. Fixed 720p HD playback on Mac Mini Core Duo so it no longer stutters

Linux Updates
1. Added support for forced DirecTV serial fast channel changing on Linux/Mac; it's done by creating a file called 'DTVSERIAL_FAST' in the working directory for the SageTV server component

Windows Updates
1. Fixed bug on Windows Vista where digital TV tuning would no longer work in V6.4 but it did work in V6.3.10
2. Added experimental property for capture device inputs 'delay_to_wait_after_tuning' which will cause a capture device to wait for that many milliseconds after doing a tune request before it actually starts capturing video. This delay is synchronous and may cause temporary hangups in the UI if used.
3. Fixed initialization of 'media_player_uses_system_volume' property setting on Vista
4. Fixed SageTVPlayer volume control on Windows so that it's more linear
5. Fix HDHR tuner clear QAM channel 68 limit
6. Fix HD HomeRun QAM channel scan crashing
7. Fix: drop DVB-S channel as duplicated channel during channel scanning
8. Fixed bug in Windows DVD playback that could cause the application to hang
9. Increased JVM heap size default to be 256MB instead of 192MB

Extender Updates
1. HD Extender CRASH BUG IS FIXED!!! Update your firmware!!
2. Fixed bug playing back MPEG2 files on the extender where the PTS rolled over during the file
3. Added property 'miniclient/disabled_audio_codecs' which allows disabling of specific audio codecs for an extender/placeshifter which will then require the server to transcode that format (i.e. you want to disable DTS pass-through)
4. Fixed bug where the Audio button didn't switch audio tracks on the extender for MPEG files that were not DVDs

Placeshifter Updates
1. Fixed bug where HD PVR recordings played w/ the Mac placeshifter wouldn't display at the proper size

Studio Updates
1. Added auto cleanup feature for STVI imports. SageTV will automatically delete the 'STVImported' hook and all of its children if the STVImported hook sets the 'ReturnValue' variable to be the string "AutoCleanupSTVImportedHook" This is done by default when using the 'Generate STVI' feature now.
2. Added 'Mouse Transparency' option for Text & Image widgets
3. Added EXPERIMENTAL (as in unsupported, but we've been using it internally and think it's nifty) "3-way" diff technique for STVs. If you hold 'Ctrl' when selecting the UID diff option; then it'll give you 2 file dialogs. The first one is for the 'old' file. The second one is for 'their' 'new' file. The STV open in the Studio should be 'your' 'new' file. Your and their new file should both be derived from the 'old' file. The diff list will show the diffs between the two selected files and then you can selectively apply those diffs to the loaded STV.
4. Added ability to have mouse dragging on a UI component move around the window. To enable this add an Attribute to that UI component that evaluates to true named: MouseMovementControlsWindow
5. Added Global API call: SetEmbeddedPanelBounds which takes relative positions/sizes as its arguments
6. Fixed bug where you could import an STVI and end up with duplicate symbols
7. Bug fix for not saving symbols correctly when files are exported

STV Updates
1. Removed the Detailed Setup -> Video/Audio tab on Macs, since no settings there apply to Mac installs.
2. Added use of gCustomSTVInit and gCustomSTVInitParams when a custom STV calls the default STV, to enable calling a custom initialization method.
3. For online video feed content, show description for individual items when the title is the same for all items in the feed.
4. Use the screen_saver_wait_time/backup property to save the current screen saver timeout setting & then always restore using that property if it still exists.
5. Modified playback screen to reduce possibility of showing a different video when stopping/deleting the current playback.
6. System Info: Added info saying whether auto-online updates are enabled.
7. Fixed slow-down issue for HDTV category in the Browse by Category menu.
8. Fixed handling of DVB-S LNB filename and creation of file contents.
9. Write automatic online video feed names using UTF-8 encoding for easier conversion using Java's native2ascii tool.
10. Added ability to use single Google, YouTube Video, or YouTube Channel feeds as individual podcast feeds.
11. Fixed issue where Favorites Manager was not able to re-order Favs.
12. Renamed icons for transcode formats so they'll display on Linux

SageTV V6.4.4 Beta 6/13/08

Core Updates
1. Fixed bug in SageTV Transcoder where H.264 encoding no longer worked (broke iPhone/AppleTV profiles)
2. Added DVBC region frequencies for 'Belgium-Voo Brussels'
3. Add frequnecy entry "Netherlands-Amsterdam"
4. Optimized refreshing of UI components after images are asynchronously loaded
5. Fixed bug where we'd incorreclty associate channels from an EPG data scan to ones that were no longer in the database
6. Fixed channel coalescing for EPG data scan for DVB tuners
7. Fixed bug where the 'xvid' encoding profile no longer worked with the transcoder
8. Enhanced Quicktime detection to detect older types of Quicktime files in the FileDownloader
9. Added core support for handling download of circular files and playback of circular downloaded files through the MediaServer
10. Fixed bug where we didn't always get the subnet mask of the right network adapter
11. Fixed bug in MPlayer plugin where we weren't forcing circular files to go through the MediaServer
12. Fixed bug with recurring manual records where they no longer worked for multiple days
13. Added delayed loading for URL images (before it was just asynchronous with no delay)
14. Fixed NPE errors when trying to load an image from a null source
15. Fixed bug where the image caching system would think images were loaded for fast rendering when they were not (it happened if they got loaded and then cleared)
16. Changed logic for offline file detection so that we just check the status of the import directory root itself. We used to try to find the filesystem root and then determine that status of that; but that didn't work very well on Linux.
17. Fixed bug where you could use 'Back' forever on the main menu
18. Optimized album cache generation so that it re-uses objects that it already created
19. Fixed bug where lineups removed from the server didn't propogate to the SageTV Client
20. Fixed case sensitivity issues when trying to match metadata tags from imported files to the databse
21. Fix: drop DVB-S channel as duplicated channel during channel scanning
22. Use program id to name QAM channel "DTVnnn.yy" nnn is a physical channel, yy is program id, if there is major and minor number in QAM stream during channel scanning
23. FIX: Missing QAM channel in scanning and failed tuning some of channels
24. Fix: A regression bug in Main audio pick up, whick locks up parser
25. Fix: pick up a wrong sound track (privated data stream 0xc3).
26. Fix: a channel carring two video streams screwes up PTSFIX, this kind of stream comes from QAM channel.
27. Improve encrypted channel checking to not lost clear QAM channel
28. Fix: LNB initialize bug
29. Fix: Frequency setup bug in DVB-S

Mac Updates
1. Changed loading method for playing files when using UNC paths
2. Enable playback of WMV9 files on the Mac client
3. Integrated new QuickTime player for the Macintosh (QuickTime is now used to playback files it can handle)

Linux Updates
1. Fixed bug where we didn't detect the Tuner input on the Hauppauge PVR-USB2 under Linux

Windows Updates
1. Fix: Lost 5 minutes recording on HDHomeRun tuner after tuner long idle , because HDHomeRun losts memory after sleeping.
2. Fixed bug where we'd create properties: video_frame/_video_decoder_filter & video_frame/_audio_decoder_filter
3. Introduced a delay when coming out of standby that SageTV will wait before signaling that it is OK to reload the capture devices. This is configurable with the property "pm_resume_load_delay" and defaults to 15 seconds.
4. Fixed bug where the wakup time for the PC wasn't getting set properly because of the capture devices being unloaded before power down
5. Updated power management code so that we act like we're headless if we're in the system tray.
6. Always use AC3Filter if the SageTV MPEG Audio Decoder is specified (can be disabled in registry; this fixes a lot of audio issues for people)

Extender Updates
1. Fixed various bugs related to playing transport stream files on the media extender
2. Fixed bug where changing the advanced aspect ratio property for the HD extender didn't always propogate the change immediately
3. Changed the high-resolution surface max size on the STX-HD100 to be 2048. This works around a new bug where some photos are displayed corrupted while animated (the max display resolution is 1920x1080 anyways; so this change should not visually degrade quality)
4. Fixed bug where we'd release a high-res display surface while it was still in use
5. Added support for changing the properties of custom advanced aspect ratio modes on the fly
6. Fixed bug where playing back a DVD after viewing pictures w/out first playing another type of file on the STX-HD100 would cause a failure in the player
7. Fixed bug where AC3 audio didn't work properly when using the STX-HD100 as a placeshifter
8. Fixed bug where smooth rwding to the beginning of a file on the HD extender would sometimes reset the timeline to the end of the file and stop playback
9. Fixed bug where closing an options menu on the STX-HD100 while a picture was being displayed in the background caused an improper animation rendering

Placeshifter Updates
1. Fixed bug where seeking in transcoded AVI files that were being sent to the placeshifter didn't work
2. Fixed bug in the Placeshifter on Windows w/out 3D acceleration where the blending in the EPG and main menu w/ video background caused the focus bar to be hidden
3. Fixed bug in Placeshifter where it could crash when video was played

Studio Updates
1. Regression fix for loading Albums from non-Image UI elements
2. Regression fix for loading thumbnails from non-Image UI elements
3. Added optimized java_util_Vector_add method
4. Hide the error related to the process of looking up a static field unless the lookup fails completely.
5. Optimized lookup of static field variables so there's 50% as much reflection involved.
6. Added new Global API call: StartCircularFileDownload(ServerAddress, SourceFile, DestFile) which can be used to download to a circular file buffer instead of downloading the complete file. This has the advantage of being able to seek anywhere in the stream if it's an MP4 file; and it also enables the ability to playback files w/out completely downloading them that before would have needed a complete download. The disadvantage vs. the regular StartFileDownload call is that the resultant file cannot be saved to the library.
7. Fixed bug where when we copied a directory using the FileTransfer API; the top level directory wasn't included as part of the destination path
8. Added new GetMediaFiles(mask) API call to allow for quicker retrieval of a subset of all the media files
9. Added new Database API call: GetFilesWithImportPrefix(MediaMask, IncludeFiles, IncludeFolders, GroupFolders) which allows for more efficient querying of MediaFile objects based on their import hierarchy
10. Added Widget API call: GetDefaultSTVFile()

STV Updates
1. Channel Setup: fix a channel association issue with DVB scans.
2. Updated recommended HD100 firmware to version "20080604 0"
3. All TV file deletion confirmation dialogs should now display all the deletion options, and the Delete listener has been added to the Program Guide grid cells.
4. Added interactive custom Aspect ratio editor for use on the HD100.
5. Fixed potential infinite wait for channel lineup to download during source setup.
6. Don't display the track count portion of "Track n of N" if the song's track number is greater than its album's track count. (When the track count is not known or for other metadata issues.)
7. Fixed issue where remapping a scanned channel to itself deleted it.
8. System Info displays the firmware version when using an HD extender.
9. After STV update, added note that another update is available, if the user should check for updates again.
10. Channel setup: during channel scan for digital tuner, only add a channel if it wasn't found or was found but isn't already part of the lineup.
11. Modifed STV's unzip code to copy existing files to create backups rather than rename the files because Windows Vista doesn't like attempts to rename the existing files.
12. Updated some code for saving & restoring screen saver timeouts when the timeout is temporarily set to a very long time.
13. Removed unnecessary refresh of change indicator icon during photo viewer tranistion to next image.
14. Video Browser: added HD icons for imported videos recognized as HD.
15. Updated online video properties file auto-update code to work on Windows Vista by copying files instead of renaming them when making backups.
16. Added podcast feeds for Showtime shows, Moving Rushmore, Dan Rather Reports, EPSN The Masters.
17. Recognize .m4a online items as audio-only.
18. Fixed issue for recording menu's thumb transition when the thumb animations were disabled. Also allowed thumb transitions to be completely turned off via the new 'ui/thumbnail_transitions/skip' property (default: false).
19. Fixed the Online Services menu to not display any online content options if Online Video Access has been disabled completely in Detailed Setup -> Advanced.
20. Added more podcast feeds, including many CBS news feeds, Ted Talks, a few YouTube Channels, and several others.
21. Enabled use of the "DirecTV Serial Channel Changing Mode" option on remote clients, since they can change the setting on the server PC.
22. Modified file unzip code to unzip into a temp file before renaming the existing file and renaming the new one into its place.
23. Added File Browser icons for the Refresh and jump to the file-system-chooser buttons.
24. STV file set updates can use install path offsets from SageTV's current working dir.
25. Added Fade to dialog zoom in/out animations.
26. Modified detection of audio feeds for online content.
27. Added Custom STV Mode: custom STVs can use the default STV in Custom STV Mode by setting the gCurCustomSTVFilePath global variable, then calling LoadSTVFile() to load the default STV. When done, the user can choose the "Exit Setup Mode" button to return to the custom STV.
28. If the global variable "gReloadCustomSTVWithoutConfirm" is set to true, Custom STV Mode will allow returning to the custom STV w/o getting confirmation from the user.
29. If the global variable "gTargetMenuName" is set to the name of a Menu widget, Custom STV Mode will jump to that menu when the default STV is loaded. Removed use of gInSetupMode variable. Set gReloadCustomSTVOnHome to true to return to custom STV via Home command.
30. Added more podcast feeds, inlcuding Andrew Zimmern, Cool Mom, Dilbert, ESPN NBA Dish, and Baz Luhrmann.

[Opus4]

Note that there is also a new beta version of the STX-HD100 firmware: version "20080710 0".

- Andy