SageTV V6.0.12 Beta is Now Available

[Narflex]

Howdy again, here's the latest beta we've got ready for you.

Information on the first beta for V6 is available here: http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=20298

IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO READ THE POST ABOUT THE FIRST V6 BETA IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY

All bug reports should be submitted to http://sagetv.com/bugs.html

Downloads:

SageTV
http://download.sage.tv/SageTV_V6_0_12Setup.exe

SageTVClient
http://download.sage.tv./SageTVClient_V6_0_12Setup.exe

SageTVPlaceshifter
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVPlaces..._0_12Setup.exe

And here's the release notes:

SageTV V6.0.12 Release Notes 10/13/2006

Core Updates
1. Fixed bug parsing FLAC files with ID3 tags
2. Fixed bug where transcoding a file with AC3 audio failed most of the time
3. Fixed bugs where the EPG description wasn't parsed correctly when extracting it from the TS data stream.
4. Worked around rare bug where the screensaver could turn on while SageTV was switching from one program to the next
5. Fixed bug detecting the subnet mask when there's multiple network adapters
6. Added current media time guess after seek for the MPlayer plugin
7. Fixed bug relating to not properly detecting the thumbnail image for an imported DVD.
8. Fixed bug where we couldn't generate a thumbnail for a video file if we didn't know it's source dimensions
9. Put back support for the Windows 2000 title bar style. This is now the default for Win2K and for Linux. It can be forced by setting the property: ui/window_title_style (1=WinXP,2=Win2K,3=MacOSX)
10. Fixed bug where Airings could still exist in a schedule after they'd had their channel disabled on the encoder they were scheduled on.
11. Optimized scheduler so that when there's a large number of manual records that are on unviewable stations, it can still complete the scheduling task quickly.
12. Fixed bug where SageTV wasn't re-checking for thumbnails when a manual library scan was requested.
13. Removed default importing of .bmp files since Java 1.4 can't handle them.
14. Added support for resolving recorded TV files back to their correct airing if the old file is still in the DB
15. Fixed bug where DVB region selection wasn't showing for the Netherlands even though it was in the config file.
16. Added ui/cursor_image property which allows setting of a custom cursor to use within SageTV.
17. Fix Mpeg2 Frame rate detect bug where it detected PAL videos as 35fps instead of 25fps

Windows Updates
1. Added DVB-T frequency support for Denmark
2. Changed default use of MPlayer for MPEG4 content to be false on Windows
3. Disabled use of DShowPlayer by default for H.264 MPEG2-TS recordings.
4. Use of SageTVPlayer.exe for playing back content can be completely disabled on Windows by setting the property: always_use_dshow_player=true
5. Fix PCI mutiple card detection regression bug
6. FIX TechnoTrend CAM/CI doesn't tune its first command.
7. Updated DVB-S implementation
8. Fixed bug where MP3 files with bad tagging could be detected as MPEG2-TS files.
9. FireDVB-T/C CAM/CI module supported
10. Disabled GC optimizations for JVM 1.4 since they were having a negative effect in some circumstances

Linux Updates
1. Fixed OpenGL rendering bug for NVidia 6150 GPUs on Linux

Placeshifter Updates
1. Fixed bug where the transcoder didn't select the right audio stream for extender or placeshifter transcoding

Extender Updtaes
1. Fixed bug where the transcoder didn't select the right audio stream for extender or placeshifter transcoding
2. Added support for playing back MPEG2 files with multiple audio streams on an extender

Studio Updates
1. Fixed bug in layout when using any of the grid layouts and a child was a background component
2. Fixed bug in Sort and SortLexical Database API calls where it wouldn't use the right object type for the return array if there were differences in the classes of the elements of the passed in array.

STV Updates
1. Added initial version of combined video folder browser.
2. The Video Conversions menu automatically cancels any jobs where the source file no longer exists.
3. Before clearing the Now Playing playlist in the video's pop-up Add to Playlist dialog, stop playback first if the Now Playing list is currently playing. Similarly, stop & clear the list before adding a video from that dialog if music is currently playing via the NP list.
4. When playing a playlist, the OSD info is displayed when the track changes.
5. Fixed Favorite Day limitation to work properly when using a language other than English.
6. Fixed Delete command during OSD playback so that a response of 'Yes' will properly leave the OSD screen.
7. Hidden Feature Bug Fix: Added conditionals to the FocusGained hook in the custom malore menus to prevent infinite refreshes.
8. Playlist Details: don't allow conversion of segment to its individual components when it shouldn't be done. And, check for permission to modify segments before offering the user the option to do so.
9. Detailed Setup -> Customize now has an option for configuring access to the Google Video menu: Always Enabled, Always Disabled, or Determined by Parental Controls.
10. Imported video's Video Detail now displays the Description, Genre, and Year, if those details are available for the video.
11. When adjusting Start/End times for Manual Recordings, can now use the Options command to close the time adjustment dialog w/o accepting the changes.
12. Adjusting the start/end times for a Manual Recording could cause a conflict with another MR & then cause the MR adjustment dialog to show incorrect times. This is now fixed.


See the additional note below about a device with QAM support in V6.0.12.

[blade]

The service was hanging on startup pretty regularly for quite a few people with the last beta. Was this fixed or has it even been reported? I didn't see any mention of it.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by blade

The service was hanging on startup pretty regularly for quite a few people with the last beta. Was this fixed or has it even been reported? I didn't see any mention of it.

I don't think it was hanging, but that it took some time to update the wiz.bin with the new parsing info, and people didn't give it enough time to finish. Yes, it could take a long time to parse, and without any reporting info of status in service mode, it could appear to be hung.

I usually start Sage the first time after an update, normally, not in service mode, so I can see the reporting info that is at the bottom of the splash screen.

[Narflex]

We had no reports of that being an issue aside from the delay associated with doing an upgrade from a pre-V6 version to V6 when the user has a large DB.

[mike1961]

Interesting minor bug in first release of 6. Just discovered it. When converting Videos if I go to my C drive on my workstation it is actually going to the mapped C drive on the file server. So in other words, it's impossible to save a converted file to my C drive on my local workstation. If I go up to the top (like when selecting the media folders in Setup) I should be able to see my \\server1 mapping but all I see is C which is really C on my server and not C on my workstation.

Nothing major but I thought I would point it out.

Mike

[blade]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

I don't think it was hanging, but that it took some time to update the wiz.bin with the new parsing info, and people didn't give it enough time to finish. Yes, it could take a long time to parse, and without any reporting info of status in service mode, it could appear to be hung.

I usually start Sage the first time after an update, normally, not in service mode, so I can see the reporting info that is at the bottom of the splash screen.

No it is actually hanging. The first time I launched v6 it didn't take but a few minutes. A couple of days later when I rebooted and had the service launch at startup all hell broke loose. I left it for 3 hours and it was still sitting there doing nothing. The service could not be stopped with ctrl alt delete, the Sage control panel, or from the admin panel. Also it was impossible to disable it from launching at startup in windows because it would hang as soon as windows booted and was totally unresponsive. At times I couldn't even connect to the box with VNC or browse network shares. Oddly cpu usage was nearly 0%.

I fooled with it for the better part of two days and finally gave up. I have to boot the server then launch it manually and even then I'm scared to restart the server for fear I can't get the service to launch again. I've heard of people having to boot into safe mode to disable it from launching at startup because it screwed windows so badly. I didn't report it because I thought I had read that others had already reported it. If I still have problems with the newest version I'll report it.

[Necro]

Where does the information for...

10. Imported video's Video Detail now displays the Description, Genre, and Year, if those details are available for the video.

...come from?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Necro

Where does the information for...

10. Imported video's Video Detail now displays the Description, Genre, and Year, if those details are available for the video.

...come from?

Some videos can have tagged info, like songs can have. If that tagged info is available for an imported video, it should be shown on the Video Detail screen.

- Andy

[michelkenny]

Originally Posted by blade

No it is actually hanging. The first time I launched v6 it didn't take but a few minutes. A couple of days later when I rebooted and had the service launch at startup all hell broke loose. I left it for 3 hours and it was still sitting there doing nothing. The service could not be stopped with ctrl alt delete, the Sage control panel, or from the admin panel. Also it was impossible to disable it from launching at startup in windows because it would hang as soon as windows booted and was totally unresponsive. At times I couldn't even connect to the box with VNC or browse network shares. Oddly cpu usage was nearly 0%.

I fooled with it for the better part of two days and finally gave up. I have to boot the server then launch it manually and even then I'm scared to restart the server for fear I can't get the service to launch again. I've heard of people having to boot into safe mode to disable it from launching at startup because it screwed windows so badly. I didn't report it because I thought I had read that others had already reported it. If I still have problems with the newest version I'll report it.

My sage service has also been hanging. I've been needing to restart it every couple of days (clients, mvps wouldn't connect anymore). I've been too busy to try to diagnose the problem... I'll try to do it when I install this new beta. I have 3 MVPs acting as a client, and sometimes connect using a Placeshifter from another house. I leave the MVPs on 24/7. I think the problem would happen when an MVP wouldn't be used for a little while (a day). You would press something on the remote and it would try to reconnect, but fails. Then if you unplug/replug any of the other MVPs (including the broken one) nothing connects anymore until you restart the service... at least that's what I remember hapening.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Narflex

9. Put back support for the Windows 2000 title bar style. This is now the default for Win2K and for Linux. It can be forced by setting the property: ui/window_title_style (1=WinXP,2=Win2K,3=MacOSX)

Any plans to implement this for Placeshifter as well? (Or is it already implemented and I'm just not editing the right properties file?)

[Necro]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Some videos can have tagged info, like songs can have. If that tagged info is available for an imported video, it should be shown on the Video Detail screen.

- Andy

Wha-huh? Uhm...if possible, could you point to somewhere that details this? I'd like to use it...without question I'd like to use it. And it would make things 100x easier for media center programs...I wasn't aware this was even possible with any current (common) formats.

Lots o' potential with this.

[ke6guj]

I found out that some videos could have "ID3" style tagging during the Sage V4 and V5 days. Specifically that .wmv and .mpg files could be tagged. I haven't found a way to tag .avi files yet, or if they are taggable at all.

The program I used is Tag&Rename, http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm to insert/edit tags. I don't know if it is the proper way, but it does work. The tag menu is geared for audio, so I don't know if all the fields work or not in a video file.

[pmcguire]

Originally Posted by Narflex

Windows Updates
1. Added DVB-T frequency support for Denmark

Quite basic but could you consider adding that for Finland also, I can't even get started with this because I can't find any channels and all the links (that I know of) for frequencys are dead.

Also an example of a working frequencyscanSAT.FRQ file would be appreciated, there are lots of variables and no real logical input method.

I really want to buy SageTV as a believe it will be the PVR software that does what I need it too (2 different sources, 2 different channel lists) but I can't even get my foot in the door at the moment.

[nielm]

Originally Posted by Necro

Wha-huh? Uhm...if possible, could you point to somewhere that details this? I'd like to use it...without question I'd like to use it.

Avi tag editor: http://abcavi.kibi.ru/index.htm
(Found with a google search)
Have not tested it with Sage yet...

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Narflex

2. Changed default use of MPlayer for MPEG4 content to be false on Windows
3. Disabled use of DShowPlayer by default for H.264 MPEG2-TS recordings.
4. Use of SageTVPlayer.exe for playing back content can be completely disabled on Windows by setting the property: always_use_dshow_player=true

Maybe it's just me but I feel I lost a couple of episodes somewhere....
So what's the best and most efficient way to setup the play back of
a) SDTV MPEG2 Recordings
b) DVDs
c) MPEG2 TS files
d) AVI Files
e) H.264 MPEG2-TS

In effect what are the differences between Mplayer, DShowplayer and SageTVPlayer.exe...

Originally Posted by Narflex

7. Updated DVB-S implementation
9. FireDVB-T/C CAM/CI module supported

This sounds like very good news....
What does FireDVB-T/C CAM/CI module support mean for us European Users....?

Will firedtv now be integrated in SageTV as it was in MCE and BTV?

[blade]

Originally Posted by michelkenny

My sage service has also been hanging. I've been needing to restart it every couple of days (clients, mvps wouldn't connect anymore).

Mine is rock solid once it's running. The only problem I've had is when trying to have the service launch at startup. If I don't use the service it starts fine when launching at startup.

[nielm]

Originally Posted by Lucas

In effect what are the differences between Mplayer, DShowplayer and SageTVPlayer.exe...

SageTVPlayer.exe==Mplayer
DShowplayer==DirectShow filters such as Xvid, DivX etc... (as used by most other media players apart from Mplayer and VLC)

[Mahoney]

Would using DShowPlayer solve the GeForce 6150 grid issues, I wonder?

[Mark SS]

Having only just switched to the beta full-time, I'm not entirely familiar with the setup yet so excuse me if this is obvious.

Are we able to configure codecs for h.264 etc in the same we as we do for mpeg2?

[jreichen]

When is the second beta going to be available for Linux? http://download.sagetv.com/linuxbeta still has 6.0.11.1.