STV: SageMC 16x9 Version 6.x (latest dev build)

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by alleghator

This is going to sound VERY dumb, and I apologize in advance. But to get any new "fixes" in the code, we just re-download this and just reinstall right over everything that's already there?

Thanks,
--Heidi

Hi Heidi,

not dumb at all ... Yes this is correct, and if not noted otherwise it is usually sufficient to just extract the SageMC_169.xml file from the zip file (otherwise you might overwrite any custom icons you installed after the base install).

Dirk

[alleghator]

Fabulous, thanks!

And, while I have a "live one" responding to me. I've dug through the forums, but am receiving mixed signals. Are movie trailers functional in the SageMC Movie Times import, or not? Right now I have mine set to "disabled" as directed in the Movie Times installation instructions.

--Heidi

[dflachbart]

Originally Posted by alleghator

Fabulous, thanks!

And, while I have a "live one" responding to me. I've dug through the forums, but am receiving mixed signals. Are movie trailers functional in the SageMC Movie Times import, or not? Right now I have mine set to "disabled" as directed in the Movie Times installation instructions.

--Heidi

Hey, this is the best part of MovieTimes, and it works great in SageMC . You just have to download mplayer (search the forum for a link), set the correct path, and you are ready to go


Dirk

[Kirby]

Maybe I missed it, so forgive me. But when I switched to using MC, previously used just the default STV, all my favorites were setup with 1 minute early/late start times, and then set to remove padding on back to back recordings.

This setup for my favorites caused all sorts of grief in MC, everything showed as a conflict. So I have had to redo all the favorites to not use padding. Is this normal? Or is it a setting I have wrong, or a bug? I'm guessing its either normal or a setting.

Oh Dirk, on the response I gave above about the shrinking show icons, if its not possible to eliminate for example "Dallas-Ft. Worth" from the channel name, maybe some other options would be to have all show icons shrink uniformly, rather than the right most icon shrinking til it disappears and then moving to the next icon from the right. Or maybe the show icons could appear directly below the channel line, looks like there might be room there (or somewhere else on the page?). Just some ideas (which are flowing rather slow on only 1 cup of java!)

[alleghator]

OK I found the mplayer page, but I'm not sure which of the options I want to use. (edit: OK, figured that part out ... duh(!) do some research before posting stupid questions, Heidi!)

Also, I'm using the Blue Two Blue Steel theme, which is very attractive (thank you to whomever!). Are there additional icons for custom menu items in this theme somewhere(radio and movie times are my concerns, particularly)? Is it an additional download? How do I direct SageMC to use them for those custom menu slots?

--Heidi

[alleghator]

The further I get into this customization, the more I realize I want to customize. It's like a drug.

I have a bunch of imported movies and want to view them by genre, but I don't know how to assign genres to them. I tried right-clicking on the files in Windows, but everything's greyed out. Is this handled within SageMC somewhere? Can movies be assigned to more than 1 genre?

[kricker]

There are not additional icons for download, but there are quite a few already in the folder with the others that are not being used. Look in the images folder within SageMCE. You will find images named 'hover_xxxx.png'. There is a post somewhere describing how to set up 'hover' images for custom menu items.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by alleghator

This is going to sound VERY dumb, and I apologize in advance. But to get any new "fixes" in the code, we just re-download this and just reinstall right over everything that's already there?

Thanks,
--Heidi

Yep, as Dirk said, however, if you have plugin's installed, such as Webradio and MovieTimes, the method that I typically use, is to do the following.

Before getting out of Sage, I switch my STV to the original SageMC 16x9.xml file (you'll notice that this changes with each import you do, to a -1, -2, etc).

Then, once out of Sage, I go in and delete the -1, -2, etc. STV's from the /Program Files/SageTV/SageTV/STVs/SageTV3 directory (because if they already exist, the next time you import something, that number just keeps growing, -3, -4, etc).

Extract the updated SageMC 16x9.xml file (overwrite).

Startup Sage again, and just reimport your MT and WR, and you are set (no more selecting the custom menu settings or anything, after the import, it just works...very easy to upgrade).


I have to admit, one handy thing about using plugins, is that after you have installed at least one, it makes it easy to go back and try something out on an older version of SageMC, such as to find out when a particular problem started occuring! Because you can restore and old version to SageMC 16x9.xml, and keep using the current version, which is SageMC 16x9-1.xml, etc... Just switching between the two, if needed (If I confused you, just ignore that last paragraph...)

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Maybe I missed it, so forgive me. But when I switched to using MC, previously used just the default STV, all my favorites were setup with 1 minute early/late start times, and then set to remove padding on back to back recordings.

This setup for my favorites caused all sorts of grief in MC, everything showed as a conflict. So I have had to redo all the favorites to not use padding. Is this normal? Or is it a setting I have wrong, or a bug? I'm guessing its either normal or a setting.

Oh Dirk, on the response I gave above about the shrinking show icons, if its not possible to eliminate for example "Dallas-Ft. Worth" from the channel name, maybe some other options would be to have all show icons shrink uniformly, rather than the right most icon shrinking til it disappears and then moving to the next icon from the right. Or maybe the show icons could appear directly below the channel line, looks like there might be room there (or somewhere else on the page?). Just some ideas (which are flowing rather slow on only 1 cup of java!)

Like the ideas on the TV coverart.

As far as padding goes. If you have, remove padding on back to back shows (an original SageTV setting--not sure where it's at), then as long as the shows are on the same channel, you shouldn't get a conflict with ONE tuner trying to record them. It's when you have two shows on DIFFERENT channels, that the padding overlaps is where you have a problem. Sage will NOT remove padding between shows on different channels (not sure this is what you would want, if you want padding, then you'd want was is right next to the show to still record, and in this case, you'd miss it if the padding was removed).

I thought we discussed this before, Kirby, the answer is to throw more tuners at the problem.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by alleghator

The further I get into this customization, the more I realize I want to customize. It's like a drug.

I have a bunch of imported movies and want to view them by genre, but I don't know how to assign genres to them. I tried right-clicking on the files in Windows, but everything's greyed out. Is this handled within SageMC somewhere? Can movies be assigned to more than 1 genre?

If you go into the detail page on each movie, you can "Edit Video Info" or something similar, can't remember off-hand. If you go in there, you can do an IMDB lookup on the movie. Select the correct movie, and hit Save, and that should assign a genre to it, as well as a lot of other useful stuff.

Or, if you have a ton movies, and feel like putting all of them into DVD Profiler, that is another option. Once you have your movies in DVD Profiler, it's a one step process to get all the metadata.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by flachbar

East coast time + getting up at 6 am + not 18 any more...

Ah and btw, the channel issue is fixed and uploaded ...


Dirk

LOL, thanks Dirk. I'm not 18 anymore either...

Glad to have that function back. I'll be downloading again tonight!

The STV world must be really interesting. I just find it slightly amusing that things that don't "appear" to be related, end up getting broken on new releases. Is there just a lot of crossfunctional ties to other features that cause this?

Not nagging, just wondering how it works. I guess I should dive into studio at some point!

[alleghator]

Originally Posted by flachbar

for Custom1, add a picture file hover_custom1.png to SageMC/Images, for Custom2 add hover_custom2.png, etc.

OK, I have two images named hover_custom1 and hover_custom2, I exited SageMC and restarted, and even refreshed my menu. But, nothing comes rolling in for my two custom options (web radio and movies times, respectively).

[alleghator]

Originally Posted by geogecko

If you go into the detail page on each movie, you can "Edit Video Info" or something similar, can't remember off-hand. If you go in there, you can do an IMDB lookup on the movie. Select the correct movie, and hit Save, and that should assign a genre to it, as well as a lot of other useful stuff.

Or, if you have a ton movies, and feel like putting all of them into DVD Profiler, that is another option. Once you have your movies in DVD Profiler, it's a one step process to get all the metadata.

Thank you awfully much!

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Like the ideas on the TV coverart.

As far as padding goes. If you have, remove padding on back to back shows (an original SageTV setting--not sure where it's at), then as long as the shows are on the same channel, you shouldn't get a conflict with ONE tuner trying to record them. It's when you have two shows on DIFFERENT channels, that the padding overlaps is where you have a problem. Sage will NOT remove padding between shows on different channels (not sure this is what you would want, if you want padding, then you'd want was is right next to the show to still record, and in this case, you'd miss it if the padding was removed).

I thought we discussed this before, Kirby, the answer is to throw more tuners at the problem.

Planning on more tuners, mainly OTA and another special one () to go with my already existing 2 R5000's and 1 OTA tuner.

Well the padding issue I am getting is coming from 2 back to back recordings on the same channel on my Fusion card. And I know I have that option to remove padding on back to back enabled, or did. I guess I will dig into it more tonight.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by alleghator

OK, I have two images named hover_custom1 and hover_custom2, I exited SageMC and restarted, and even refreshed my menu. But, nothing comes rolling in for my two custom options (web radio and movies times, respectively).

Should they be located in:

/Program Files/SageTV/SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images

?

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Planning on more tuners, mainly OTA and another special one () to go with my already existing 2 R5000's and 1 OTA tuner.

Well the padding issue I am getting is coming from 2 back to back recordings on the same channel on my Fusion card. And I know I have that option to remove padding on back to back enabled, or did. I guess I will dig into it more tonight.

Hmm...that is strange. I know I've seen it work on SD before, and I think even HD, yeah, because last season, I only had one HD tuner.

Haven't checked it recently, now that I have two HD tuners. I'll see if I can coax it into acting up tonight or tomorrow, and get back to you.

[alleghator]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Should they be located in:

/Program Files/SageTV/SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images

?

Thanks! It was the theme folders that messed me up. I named icons in the them folder, rather than the main Images folder.

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Hmm...that is strange. I know I've seen it work on SD before, and I think even HD, yeah, because last season, I only had one HD tuner.

Haven't checked it recently, now that I have two HD tuners. I'll see if I can coax it into acting up tonight or tomorrow, and get back to you.

What I cant be sure of is if the two shows actually recorded or not. I will have to try it again and see. Does the setting in MC for "handle conflicts like default STV" matter? I never looked into this to figure out what was different in the way MC handled conflicts. I think I had it set to use standard STV conflict handling. Maybe that was part of my problem.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Should they be located in:

/Program Files/SageTV/SageTV/STVs/SageTV3/SageMCE/Images

?

Oh, I'm an idiot. I didn't realize Dirk just gave you a shortened path name.

Although he said SageMC/Images, should be SageMCE/Images.

It could be the particular image you have chosen. I'd try a current hover icon, and see if that works. Like, for MovieTimes, I just have the same one for My Videos, and that seems to work.

Sometimes it takes a little detective work to find out which file it is REALLY using! You can search your SageTV directory for the hover icon used by My Videos, and see how many places it turns up... Then it's just a matter of finding out which one is actually being used.

Now, I don't claim this will be the same way with your installation, but my old installation had the same files located in several places. Part of it could have been operator error when unzipping, when I was a newb, but it could be that they just exist in multiple places.

The way the Images_"theme" subfolders work is interesting. When you select a new theme, the images from that theme subfolder are copied into the standard Images directory. The cool thing about this, is if you jack up some of the images in the Images folder by copying and what not, all it takes to fix it, is switching themes, and then back to the theme you were using.

The bad thing, is that if you are using Mike's glassy icons and what not, is that any time you switch themes, you have to reinstall the icons, unless of course, you install the icons in every Images_"theme" folder.

EDIT:
I see you figured it out on your own! Good job! This should help clarify how things work though...

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by Kirby

What I cant be sure of is if the two shows actually recorded or not. I will have to try it again and see. Does the setting in MC for "handle conflicts like default STV" matter? I never looked into this to figure out what was different in the way MC handled conflicts. I think I had it set to use standard STV conflict handling. Maybe that was part of my problem.

This could be interesting. I have also always wondered what the difference was between the two settings.

Interestingly enough, I used to have it set to the Std. Conflict Resolution, but right now, it's set to disabled.

Dirk, do you know what the difference between the way SageTV handles conflicts, and the way SageMC does?