FilePlaybackFinished not called in Live TV transition

[redondo_se]

I use R5000 modified Dish Vip211 boxes with Sage. The channel changes take about 15-20 seconds. I want to give some feedback to indicate that the system is loading a show during that wait period.

I have modified my SageMC STV to show an options dialog during this period using the MediaPlayerFileLoadComplete hook. This works well when a show is picked from the guide. The dialog appears immediately and gives good feedback.

However, when watching Live TV, and a transition from one show to another occurs, the MediaPlayerFileLoadComplete hook does not get executed until near the end of that 15-20 second period. So, you see the frozen last image of the show for roughly 12-17 seconds, then my dialog shows for about 3 seconds.

I thought I might be able to use the FilePlaybackFinished hook to be notified when the transition happens, but it does not get called. I have added debug to all occurences of the hook in the STV, i.e. in the OSD menu and the global hook. And, the SageMC STV sets videoframe/always_call_fileplaybackfinished to true and I've verified that it's still set true throughout execution with debug.

The studio documentation says:

This hook will also not be called when SageTV is
capable of automatically switching to the next file for playback (i.e. during playlists,
music and live TV); but that behavior can be overridden with a property setting.

I assume that's talking about videoframe/always_call_fileplaybackfinished, but that doesn't seem to have any affect here. Is there a different setting?

I also tried using the MediaPlayerPlayStateChanged to see if I could use that, but that does not get called at all during the transition.

Is there any way I can make this happen earlier in the process? I'm tired of hearing "something's wrong with the TV."

[Opus4]

One quick question: are you sure that property is true? The default STV always sets it to false, so if you've loaded the default STV since you last set it...

- Andy

[redondo_se]

Originally Posted by Opus4

One quick question: are you sure that property is true? The default STV always sets it to false, so if you've loaded the default STV since you last set it...

- Andy

Yeah, I printed the value in a debug statement in MediaPlayerFileLoadComplete. It's always true there, so unless it's getting set to false and then back to true in between somewhere, it should always be true. The SageMC STV sets it to true in the ApplicationStarted hook, and I'm not loading any part of the default STV during my development/testing. And I've searched through the STV, and it's not referenced anywhere besids the ApplicationStarted hook. I've restarted Sage many times during the process.

[Opus4]

I found out that the Studio docs for that hook are not entirely correct -- the hook won't fire for live TV (as the PDF says) and the property won't override that (not what the PDF says).

It was suggested to me that you consider a forked thread to monitor the status for your customization.

- Andy

[redondo_se]

Originally Posted by Opus4

It was suggested to me that you consider a forked thread to monitor the status for your customization.

- Andy

Ok, thanks for the info. Any idea what property(ies) I can check in my thread to determine when the transition is happening? I noticed in the FilePlaybackFinished hook from the SageMC OSD menu they are checking to see if GetCurrentPlaylist() returns null. Does the Sage core add the next upcoming live show to a playlist when that transition is about to happen?