SageTV V6.5.12 Beta is Here!

[Narflex]

Howdy all!

NOTE: There's an updated JAR posted for Win/Linux that fixes a bug SageMC exposed. Please replace this file after installing. The updated file can be downloaded here:
http://download.sage.tv/v6.5.12jarfix/Sage.jar

Time for another beta update.

Drum roll please...

Subtitle Support!

It's been sorely missing for quite some time; so we figured it was due. There's a LOT of different subtitle formats; and we're very interested to know what other formats people are using which we don't currently support. So if something doesn't work that should according to the release notes; please submit a bug report on it. And if you've got a subtitle format that we don't support; please let us know as well through a bug report.

There will also be an updated firmware out shortly which is needed for embedded subtitles and VobSub support to work on the HD200. Update: the new HD200 beta firmware is here: version "20090313 2".

Highlighted changes are in Bold in the release notes below.

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_5_12Setup.exe

SageTVClient for Windows
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVClient_V6_5_12Setup.exe

SageTVPlaceshifter for Windows
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVPlaces..._5_12Setup.exe

SageTV for Windows Home Server
http://download.sage.tv/SageTV_V6_5_12Setup-WHS.msi

SageTV Media Center for Macintosh
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVMac_V6_5_12.dmg

SageTV Client for Macintosh
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVMacClient_V6_5_12.dmg

SageTV Placeshifter for Macintosh
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVMacPla...er_V6_5_12.dmg

SageTV Media Center for Linux
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/server_6.5.12.tar.gz

SageTV Placeshifter for Linux
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/mi..._6.5.12.tar.gz

SageTV Media Center for Linux - Debian Package Installer
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/sa....5.12_i386.deb

SageTV Placeshifter for Linux - Debian Package Installer
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/sa....5.12_i386.deb

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

SageTV V6.5.12 Beta 3/13/2009

Core Updates
1. Added support for external text based subtitle files in all media players with formats SRT, SUB (MicroDVD or SubViewer), SAMI/SMI, SSA/ASS
2. Added support for embedded text based subtitles when played back with the HD200
3. Added support for external IDX/VOB (VobSub) subtitle files when played back with the HD200
4. Added check for external subtitle files whenever a file is played back
5. Added psuedo-outlining to text that is rendered as subtitles (it's not a *real* outline; it's just four text shadows, one done in each corner's direction; much faster than calculating a real outline though and doesn't require additional glyph storage)
6. Added audio & subtitle track selection to SageTVPlayer. Audio tracks should work in all cases; subtitle selection is still limited though (this is in addition to the core support for external text-based subtitle files)
7. Memory allocation optimizations
8. Fixed error message relating to creating a timed recording that conflicted and then cancelling it due to the conflict
9. Changed default value for "delay_to_wait_after_tuning" to be 4000 for the HDPVR on Win/Linux since so many people seem to need this setting to stabilize the HDPVR due to its tendency to lockup during channel changes.
10. Fixed bug where you couldn't cancel recurring time based recordings during the week before the spring DST change
11. Added TIFF picture support
12. Fixed bug where replacing an existing recording with a converted one wouldn't always correct the timestamp on the file
13. Added .tp file extension to default imported video file extensions
14. Performance enhancement to library scanning process
15. Added property videoframe/start_playlist_items_from_beginning which defaults to true; and controls if when playing a playlist; whether or not each item should always be started from the beginning
16. Added support for selecting DVDs for playback from the Media File Browser. Selecting the VIDEO_TS.VOB file will now play the DVD instead of just that one file.
17. Fixed bug where regeneration of non-JPEG thumbnails did not work properly

Placeshifter Updates
1. Increased JVM heap size used by the Placeshifter on Windows

Windows Updates
1. Added registry setting HKLM\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\DSFilters\MpegEnc\TopFieldFirst as a DWORD. It defaults to 1 and controls field ordering when using software encoding.

Linux Updates
1. Fixed issue where the activation key could be come invalid due to enumeration order changes in the hardware (if you had this problem; then you should re-activate your key before using this version by running keygen.sh)

Mac Updates
1. Prefs panel allows users to select port speed for DirecTV serial ports
2. Prefs code can allow for selection of DirecTV serial cu/tty devices
3. Fixed DirecTV serial support on the Mac

Media Extender Updates
1. Fixed bug with BluRay BDMV playback on HD200 where we'd lose audio on cell transitions sometimes
2. Fixed bug where we mis-detected the main movie file in BluRay BDMV playback if it had a very long looping playlist (like in a menu background)
3. Fixed bug where MP3 playback no longer worked on the MVP

Studio Updates
1. Added MediaFile API call GetMediaFileMetadata which can be used to retrieve 'extra' metadata properties attached to a MediaFile's format
2. Added property "custom_metadata_properties" which is a comma/semicolon delimited list of 'extra' metadata properties that should be retained in the DB when importing a MediaFile; they can be retrieved using the GetMediaFileMetadata API call
3. Optimized the GroupByMethod API call when used with GetAlbumForFile, GetShowCategory or GetShowYear
4. Optimized the GroupByArrayMethod API call when used with GetPeopleListInShowInRoles
5. Optimized the SortLexical API call when used with GetMediaTitle
6. Updated MediaFile API call GetMediaFileFormatDescription so that if it has an optional second argument which is true, the external subtitle check is re-run before returning the format information

STV Updates
1. Changed default choice after selecting an individual song to Add to Now Playing Queue or Play the Song Now if music isn't already playing instead of View Album/Song Detail.
2. Improved file browser's handling of DVD file objects.
3. Fixed issue where the focused item changes after a media browser updates after a library refresh when using the Folder view.
4. Video playback: Made subtitle on/off toggle dependant on whether any subtitles exist and extended the option to videos instead of only DVDs.

SageTV V6.5.11 Beta 2/25/2009

Core Updates
1. Fixed issue when creating a channel limited Favorite, it wouldn't have the channel limits applied until the Favorite was updated (this was not possible to do in our standard UI since you can't create a Favorite initially with a channel limit, you have to create one and then modify the channel limit)
2. Added support for importing BluRay BDMV folder structures. These are now recognized as a single MediaFile. They currently will appear along with DVDs so STVs won't need modifications yet to show them. The ONLY playback mechanism for these currently is the HD media extender (firmware update required). This only plays the main movie of the BluRay; it does not support any menus or other interactive features currently. It does support multiple audio tracks, chapter selection and all the standard playback controls. Subtitle support is in progress.
3. Fixed issues with downloading files from SageTV servers that had unicode characters in the pathname
4. Added property "include_blurays_as_dvds" which includes BluRays with all API calls that would normally just return DVD objects (this property must be set at startup, and defaults to true)
5. Fixed bug where we would think we ran out of diskspace due to an asyncronicity with the calculation (only affected Mac/Linux)
6. HE-AAC audio should now be properly supported for transcoding
7. Added property "dump_bluray_info" for dumping the info about a BluRay to the log file when its imported into SageTV
8. Add two new frequency entries for "Norway-CanalDigital"
9. Various format detection issues fixed
10. Fixed issues with photos with unicode pathnames not showing up

Placeshifter Updates
1. Disable automatically popping up the 'Add Server' dialog in the Placeshifter since this is confusing to some users and also happens when the discovery process is slow sometimes.

Windows Updates
1. New MPEG demux w/ accurate seeking is included again

Mac Updates
1. Fixed A/V sync issues with playback
2. Added Control-Click as right mouse click for Mac OS X
3. Allows the user to disable Apple IR remote in the prefs now
4. Improved HDHomeRun support

Linux Updates
1. Improved HDHomeRun support

Media Extender Updates
1. Added support for BluRary BDMV folder playback on the HD media extender. This only plays the main movie of the BluRay; it does not support any menus or other interactive features currently. It does support multiple audio tracks, chapter selection and all the standard playback controls. Subtitle support is in progress.
2. Fixed bug where we didn't properly detect MPEG1 streams
3. Added support for HDMI hotplug mode changes for HD extenders
4. Updated native resolution switching code so that it'll match on the horizontal dimension or the vertical instead of just the vertical (i.e. things like 1280x600 would play at 720p)
5. HE-AAC audio should now be properly supported (firmware update required)

Studio Updates
1. Added MediaFile API call CreateTempMediaFile which can be used to create a temporary MediaFile object for wrapping around a file/network path (allows updating metadata before playback begins)
2. Added MediaFile API call IsBluRay which returns true for BluRay MediaFile objects
3. BluRays are represented by a new MediaMask which is 'B'. This will automatically be added to any MediaMask with a 'D' if the property "include_blurays_as_dvds" is set (which is the default currently)
4. Updated IsCurrentMediaFileDVD API call to also return true for BluRays if the "include_blurays_as_dvds" property is set (which is the default for now)
5. Updated ShowAPI call GetRoleTypes so that it clones the array before it returns it since that array is used by the core for other purposes

STV Updates
1. Various performance optimizations
2. Updated thumbnail button overlay graphic & title text layout
3. Changed spinning circle wait animation to progress bar, and changed % progress indicators to use the enlarging progress bar.
4. Custom STVs can call the default STV and jump to a menu by specifying the menu widget's symbol ID in the gTargetMenuName variable. If the symbol lookup fails, it searches for the menu widget name, as it did before.