STV Import: Remember play position of imported videos

[Xsabre]

After converting a few dvds to divx I thought I would give this plugin a try.

Followed the instructions as stated. Rebooted system. Played divx file for a few mins than stopped it and tried to play again started from the beginning again. Tried it a few times no luck. Check the text videolibrary file and nothing was written to it.

Does this work with divx files?

FYI: I am running SageTV 4.x. SageMC.(Did change file name to import) One other thing I notice was that the time scroll reading are strange. i.e. 120 mins show as 500 mins. This was happening before the plugin. Is this common?

[popechild]

Xsabre, I'm not sure how to tell you to debug this specifically, but I can confirm that the plugin does work with xvid and divx for me.

[dflachbart]

Hi Xsabre,

Originally Posted by Xsabre

A
FYI: I am running SageTV 4.x. SageMC.

which version of SageMC are you running ? Go to the "Settings" screen and look on the right-hand side, is there a 'SageMC STV Version" info ?

Dirk

[mkanet]

This is probably the most requested missing feature for SageTV... I think Dirk actually tried pretty hard, but couldn't find a way to do it. My personal opionin is that "DVD remember position" is a much more needed/desired feature than remember play position of imported videos..

Originally Posted by Halstead

Will this work for DVD playback?

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by mkanet

I think Dirk actually tried pretty hard, but couldn't find a way to do it.

Well, I haven't completely given up on the idea to use Greg's WMP COM/java interface for this, I just haven't had the time yet ...

Dirk

[Xsabre]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Hi Xsabre,


which version of SageMC are you running ? Go to the "Settings" screen and look on the right-hand side, is there a 'SageMC STV Version" info ?

Dirk

Here is the info that you requested:

Version: SageTV 4.1.6.75
Java: 1.5.0_06
STV: SageMC 6.8a

I think that it may have to do with the scroll bar reading in correctly. Every time I play some imported video file it reads 5xx:xx _________ 0:00 and not 0:00_________1:00 like the recorded shows do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance..

[dflachbart]

I just uploaded v0.5. Major changes include:

Reset time:

The saved time will get automatically reset if you stop the playback within the last 5 minutes of the show (or if playback stops at the end). This time is configurable and can be changed with the property plugins/df/videolib_times/reset_time, the default is 5 minutes

DVD content:

Finally, hope this will make a lot of people happy :
The time tracking should now also work for playback of DVDs in the DVD drive as well as ripped DVDs in the Video Library. For tracking of the DVD drive, you will have to specify your DVD drive letter in the property file, e.g.: plugins/df/videolib_times/dvd_drive=J\:

Since the Sage Mediaplayer API does not seem to allow playback of a specific title on the DVD (I always got playback exceptions), resuming from the saved position works a little different: you first have to start playback of the main movie from the DVD root menu, and then (while the movie starts playing) press 'Play' again, this will skip to the last saved position. Note that this will only work for DVDs with a single movie (e.g. not for DVDs with multiple episodes).

Thanks again to GKusnick for letting me use his WMP libraries for this purpose (which are now included in the package), without them this would have not been possible.

Other changes:

- due to changes in SageMC v6.8 the plugin did not work any more, this has been fixed
- times will now also be tracked on 'Pause'

Dirk

[Morgan111]

Originally Posted by flachbar

DVD content:

Finally, hope this will make a lot of people happy :

Absolutely! I haven't tried it before, but that makes it all worth it...

[mkanet]

no way! Thanks!! This is enough to make anyone happy!

- time now gets also tracked on 'Pause'
- plugin now works also for DVD content (DVD drive and ripped)

[mkanet]

Okay, I just tried it for the first time. Maybe I'm missing something very basic. So far, anything I've tried doesn't work.

DVD playback:
1) Imported STVI into STV
2) Added:

plugins/df/videolib_times/dvd_drive=G\:
plugins/df/videolib_times/property_dir=C\:\\Program Files\\SageTV\\SageTV

to both Properties files.

3) Restarted SageTV/SageTVservice
4) Started Watching DVD movie
5) Plushed Play/Pause
6) Play a TV recording
7) Started DVD again from DVD Main Menu
8) Pushed the play/pause button and the movie just paused. Nothing different.

Imported Videos:
1) Play imported video
2) Push play/pause
3) Play any TV recording
4) Play same imported video.. it starts at the begining.

PS: The only entries I see in, "VideoLibraryTimes.properties" is:

#Library files times
#Sun Jul 30 12:04:31 PDT 2006

PPS: I even imported it via studio as an XML.


What am I doing wrong?

-Michael

[Xsabre]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Okay, I just tried it for the first time. Maybe I'm missing something very basic. So far, anything I've tried doesn't work.

DVD playback:
1) Imported STVI into STV
2) Added:

plugins/df/videolib_times/dvd_drive=G\:
plugins/df/videolib_times/property_dir=C\:\\Program Files\\SageTV\\SageTV

to both Properties files.

3) Restarted SageTV/SageTVservice
4) Started Watching DVD movie
5) Plushed Play/Pause
6) Play a TV recording
7) Started DVD again from DVD Main Menu
8) Pushed the play/pause button and the movie just paused. Nothing different.

Imported Videos:
1) Play imported video
2) Push play/pause
3) Play any TV recording
4) Play same imported video.. it starts at the begining.

PS: The only entries I see in, "VideoLibraryTimes.properties" is:

#Library files times
#Sun Jul 30 12:04:31 PDT 2006

PPS: I even imported it via studio as an XML.


What am I doing wrong?

-Michael

Same issue here. I even started with a clean SageMC.xml. Still experiencing the same issues as previous post.

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Imported Videos:
1) Play imported video
2) Push play/pause
3) Play any TV recording
4) Play same imported video.. it starts at the begining.

PS: The only entries I see in, "VideoLibraryTimes.properties" is:

#Library files times
#Sun Jul 30 12:04:31 PDT 2006

PPS: I even imported it via studio as an XML.


What am I doing wrong?

-Michael

Ok, once again I did not think about those who use Play/Pause instead of separate Play and Pause ... Just to make sure that this indeed the cause of the problem you are seeing, would it be possible for you try it with the 'Pause' button and see if it works ? I will then fix it for the video library files right away.

For DVD content, I just noticed that in this case the "Resume on Play" wouldnt make sense, unless you don't mind loosing the ability to pause a DVD ... So I guess we need an additional key mapping for people who use 'Play/Pause' to trigger the resume, any suggestions ?

Dirk

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by Xsabre

Same issue here. I even started with a clean SageMC.xml. Still experiencing the same issues as previous post.

Did you check your PM ?

Dirk

[mkanet]

I tried using the STOP in the sageTV gui (instead of my Play/pause on the remote) and it produced the same results.. I tried this with imported videos.

Originally Posted by flachbar

Ok, once again I did not think about those who use Play/Pause instead of separate Play and Pause ... Just to make sure that this indeed the cause of the problem you are seeing, would it be possible for you try it with the 'Pause' button and see if it works ? I will then fix it for the video library files right away.

For DVD content, I just noticed that in this case the "Resume on Play" wouldnt make sense, unless you don't mind loosing the ability to pause a DVD ... So I guess we need an additional key mapping for people who use 'Play/Pause' to trigger the resume, any suggestions ?

Dirk

[spclbp]

It would be nice if we could add a filter to our properties file that we could use to customize whether or not an imported file was recorded or not.

For example.. My wife and I want our video locations remembered. But when select a home movie of our kid we don't want it to start where we last left off. Or, when playing a cartoon for the kid, these should always start at the beginning.

I store the files in seperate directories, so I could filter on the directory name, if the feature was available.

Also, there seems to be a problem using my MVP to play VOB files, when remember times jumps to my last location, the playback fails. I would like to turn off all .VOB file location storage.

[dflachbart]

A minor update v0.6 is now available:

- added support for Play/Pause buttons
- added filter setting to exclude VOB files
- added filter setting to exclude certain directories and titles

To exclude one or more directories, specify the paths (separated by ';') in the following property:

plugins/df/videolib_times/exclude_dirs=c\:\\tmp;d\:\\video\\tmp

To exclude videos whose title match one or more regular expressions, specify the regexprs (separated by ';') in the following property:

plugins/df/videolib_times/exclude_titles=Another.*;Vacation?

To exclude VOB files, specify

plugins/df/videolib_times/exclude_vobs=true

Dirk

[JREkiwi]

Dirk, One of the problems I have run into, is that the Default STV does not close the media file at the end of file. This is a bit of a pain for a number of reasons, but it means that the reset of the times doesn't work if you watch a show all the way to the end.

I see that SageMCE does close the mediafile at the end of playback. I knocked up a tiny stvi for the Default STV that closes the media file at the end of playback which fixes this for me. It uses these incredible import libraries from a guy who hangs around here a bit. Thanks

John

[spclbp]

Hey Dirk, excellent work on the directory filter. Thank you.

It's not clear from your comments, but I was wondering if any of the files in folders below the specified directory would also be filtered.
It makes sense for me, if you would consider that for a future version.

Thanks again, Chris

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

Dirk, One of the problems I have run into, is that the Default STV does not close the media file at the end of file. This is a bit of a pain for a number of reasons, but it means that the reset of the times doesn't work if you watch a show all the way to the end.

I see that SageMCE does close the mediafile at the end of playback. I knocked up a tiny stvi for the Default STV that closes the media file at the end of playback which fixes this for me.

Cool ...
Do you want me to include your stvi in my download, or should I add your changes to my import ?

Since I don't use the default STV, what other issues does not closing the mediafile have ? And any known side effects if it is getting closed ? Just wondering if this had been coded that way for a purpose, or if closing the file simply has been forgotten ...

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

It uses these incredible import libraries from a guy who hangs around here a bit. Thanks

John

Nice to see they are put to good use ...


Dirk

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by flachbar

Since I don't use the default STV, what other issues does not closing the mediafile have ? And any known side effects if it is getting closed ? Just wondering if this had been coded that way for a purpose, or if closing the file simply has been forgotten ...

It was done on purpose. For one thing, if the video is open, it makes it easier to return to the end of it instead of having to start from the beginning & scroll back to the end.

Maybe an option to close all videos when done will be added, but I won't guarantee that.

- Andy