DVBViewer Recorder: Network encoder

[willplaice]

UPDATE...

might be working, have issues with video on server, just gonna fire up an extender to see... but look to have video in sage !!!

[willplaice]

I do have it sort of working !!

I'll try the multi encoder version now... just a point, If i use channel numbers higher than 100 the scan doesn't see them, i'd like to start my channel numbers from 101, is there a way this can be supported ?

looks like it's set to scan 1-100.

thanks again... Will

[Bacon2002]

Hi,

Can anyone confirm if they have got this to work with Vista 64?

I tried (lots) several months ago but it couldn't even find the correct SageTV folder etc.

Thanks,

David

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by willplaice

If i use channel numbers higher than 100 the scan doesn't see them, i'd like to start my channel numbers from 101, is there a way this can be supported ?

SageTV is doing the scan, and yes it stops at 100. I don't know if we can specify a range, I'll see this with SageTV.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[StephaneM]

Hi David,

Originally Posted by Bacon2002

Can anyone confirm if they have got this to work with Vista 64?

It will work with Vista 64. Where the program might fail is when you click to "Add to SageTV" because it can't find the sage.properties file. For preventing this: close SageTV (UI and Service) and copy the sage.properties file from C:\Program Files(x32)\SageTV\SageTV to C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV, this way you are sure it will find it (the Program Files directory (64 bits) is where it looks by default).

Once added, you can move back the sage.properties file to the SageTV working directory (the "Add to SageTV" is a one time operation, you don't need to repeat it unless you change IP / Port or Recording Transport Stream)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Bacon2002]

Hi,

I know I must be doing something wrong because I can not get the plugin to work but I can't seem to work it out.

I have set up DVBViewer and completed a channel scaning.

I have set up a corresponding XMLTV channel line up.

I have set set up the DVBViewer in Sage (using 127.0.0.1:9191) and all the DVBViewer channels appear to be present as per the XMLTV line up.

When I try to play a DVBViewer plugin channel (Sci-Fi) in Sage I do not get a picture on the HD200 (or if I try on the actual Sage PC).

Although what I have noticed is that a video ts (or MPEG depending on which I was trying) file gets created in the DVBViewer's recording folder but the little plugin icon does not go red.

When subsiquently I try to exit the monitor program the program crashes (program not responding) and when I try to restart DVBViewer manualy it appear to still be running (in service mode) so I have to ctrl+alt+del to stop it running.

I'd really like to get this plugin working.

Any idea what I could be doing wrong?

Many thanks,

David

[StephaneM]

Hi David,

Originally Posted by Bacon2002

When I try to play a DVBViewer plugin channel (Sci-Fi) in Sage I do not get a picture on the HD200 (or if I try on the actual Sage PC).

My first advice would be to use the standalone recorder first and when all is well switch to the service mode.

Usual configuration issues are :

* channel number in the DVBViewer Recorder lineup doesn't match those used in SageTV / XMLTV Lineup (if you use my Importer you can create a lineup from the DVBViewer Recorder lineup)

* permission issue on the folder where the recorder is supposed to create the recordings.

To test the plugin: launch the DVBViewer Recorder Monitor, start to watch a channel on SageTV (on the same machine it's more practical) wait a few seconds (15s) and stop the recording. Now look a the monitor content or paste it here. (The 15s test is enough and will limit the number of "GET SIZE" trace in the monitor that will make it not responding if you stay on the channel)

Although what I have noticed is that a video ts (or MPEG depending on which I was trying) file gets created in the DVBViewer's recording folder but the little plugin icon does not go red.

SageTV will alway create the file first (and the DVBViewer Recorder delete it so that DVBViewer can create the real recording). So even when the recorder plugin rejects the tuning request, the video file will be created.

When subsiquently I try to exit the monitor program the program crashes (program not responding) and when I try to restart DVBViewer manualy it appear to still be running (in service mode) so I have to ctrl+alt+del to stop it running.

If the monitor doesn't respond it's because it is overwhelmed with "GET SIZE" message. Usually if you stop the recording in SageTV, it will settle down and you'll be able to stop the monitor (the monitor only collect trace coming from the recorder, if you kill it the recorder will still be running).

When you use service mode, you cannot launch DVBViewer (it is already running in the service session), so you have to stop the DVBViewer Recorder Service, it will stop DVBViewer, and you'll be able to launch it (also if you use the standalone recorder instead, DVBViewer will run in your session, much easier to troobleshoot issues this way)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Bacon2002]

Hi,

Thanks for the super quick reply.

For information I am using DVBViewer version 3.9.4, I will try to download the new version 4.0.xx but I need to send the DVBViewer forum a message about logging onto the members area as that is not working for me. I'm not having a lot of luck with this.

I have now switched to the Standalone method.

So far I have only added 6 or so channels and all the channel numbers look fine, I am using your brilliant XMLTV plugin and everything looks good on that side of things.

The only potential problem is that my channel numbers start at 101 and mirror the Sky UK channel numbers, I had read in a previous post something about channel numbers being upto 100?

When I try to view one of the Network encoders TV channels I have had two different results:-

1) Whilst trying to watch Sci-Fi and Sci-Fi +1 I get an egg timer on Sage and the following DVBViewer plugin log -

Standalone - 18:04:49.631 - Verbose - BlackGold Dev-1 - START BlackGold Dev-1 Digital TV Tuner|129|2482222179334|F:\SageTV Recordings\Psych-NineLives-1100022-0.ts|Great

If I restart the network encoder I get -

Standalone - 18:26:04.077 - Verbose - BlackGold Dev-1 - START BlackGold Dev-1 Digital TV Tuner|130|2482224728228|F:\SageTV Recordings\QuantumLeap-TheLeapHomePart2-1087667-0.ts|Great
Standalone - 18:26:44.588 - Verbose - BlackGold Dev-1 - current recording = 'F:\SageTV Recordings\QuantumLeap-TheLeapHomePart2-1087667-0.ts'
Standalone - 18:26:44.601 - Verbose - BlackGold Dev-1 - '' is the current recording, stopping...
Standalone - 18:26:44.615 - Info - BlackGold Dev-1 - Recording stopped: F:\SageTV Recordings\QuantumLeap-TheLeapHomePart2-1087667-0.ts
Standalone - 18:26:44.636 - Info - Recorder 'BlackGold Dev-1' listening on 127.0.0.1:9191
Standalone - 18:26:45.084 - Verbose - BlackGold Dev-1 - STOP
Standalone - 18:26:45.104 - Warning - BlackGold Dev-1 - Unable to stop the recording ''
Standalone - 18:26:45.133 - Warning - BlackGold Dev-1 - Not currently recording, nothing to stop
Standalone - 18:26:45.163 - Verbose - BlackGold Dev-1 - STOP = ERROR
Standalone - 18:26:45.190 - Verbose - BlackGold Dev-1 - GET_FILE_SIZE F:\SageTV Recordings\QuantumLeap-TheLeapHomePart2-1087667-0.ts
Standalone - 18:26:45.222 - Verbose - BlackGold Dev-1 - GET_FILE_SIZE = 0


2) Whilst trying to watch Disney Channel I get a sage pop up message saying ERROR (-10): No encoders can tune the selected station

I hope this helps,

Thanks again,

David

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Bacon2002

For information I am using DVBViewer version 3.9.4, I will try to download the new version 4.0.xx

There is a bug in 3.9.4, that force you to add the SageTV recording folder to DVBViewer. If you don't do this, DVBViewer will record in the wrong directory and my plugin will not now about it (it will not be able to stop the recording) and SageTV will not be able to play the file.

So shut down everything, open DVBViewer, go to "Settings" / "Options" / "Recorders" and add your SageTV recording directory to the directory list, then restart DVBViewer Recorder and SageTV.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Bacon2002]

Stephane,

I upgraded DVBViewer to 4.0.0 and checked the recording path which is the same as SageTV.

It still won't work though, but I seem to be getting a little further, on one attempt the Monitor icon kept going red then green but would not record or show a picture in SageTV.

When looking in the recording directory there is a file called BlackGold Dev-1..... but it is 0kbs in size.

What else can I try.

Thanks,

David

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Bacon2002

on one attempt the Monitor icon kept going red then green but would not record or show a picture in SageTV.

This show that the recorder restarted the recording because it hasn't grown during the last xx sec (where xx is the restart delay you can set in the recorder)

What else can I try.

In the DVBViewer Recoder Configuration, uncheck "disable Audio/Video in DVBViewer" and check "run DVBViewer in debug mode". Then stop the recorder service / standalon and launch the standalone recorder (DVBViewer should also be launched so that you can see what is happening in DVBViewer).

Launch SageTV and start a recording. What is happening in the monitor, what is happening in DVBViewer ?

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Bacon2002]

Stephane,

Uncheck "disable Audio/Video in DVBViewer"
Check "run DVBViewer in debug mode"
Launch the standalone recorder

Also set delay to 10

Launched SageTV and start a recording.

Wow it worked.........

So feeling like I had achieved something I thought I would switch to service mode.

All stopped working, could not get a picture, everything locked up.

cntrl+Alt+del turn the DVBViewer program off.

I set the plugin back to standalone recorder mode, but now I keep getting a messages about "timeshift" being active and then "no hardware available"?

Any idea how to turn off the timeshift function in DVBViewer, as I think this is grabbing the tuner and stopping the plugin from changing channels etc?


Thanks,

David

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Bacon2002

Wow it worked......... So feeling like I had achieved something I thought I would switch to service mode. All stopped working, could not get a picture, everything locked up.

This indicate you have permissions issues when using the service. The service by default run with the Local System account. This account must be able to write into the SageTV recording folder and in the DVBViewer Recorder config & log folder (should be ok, as the permission are set during DVBViewer Recorder installation)

I set the plugin back to standalone recorder mode, but now I keep getting a messages about "timeshift" being active and then "no hardware available"?

In DVBViewer go to the "DVBViewer" / "Timer" menu and remove all timers.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Bacon2002]

Stephane,

Success, so far so good.

Set to standalone
Cleared the timers

Still seemed to have problems so I tried a different IP and port number (127.0.0.1:9001)

Tried again.

It worked, but only after I changed channels form the originally requested DVBViewer channel to another DVBViewer channel.

Next I tried setting the plugin to "use as a service".

Tried it again.

It worked, as above I still had to change channels before it would work.

This is great and thanks for all your help.

A couple of things are concerning me though:-

Firstly when I first tune to a channel it does not work, if I then change channels to another DVBViewer channel then after say 5 -10 seconds it works.

Secondly I would prefer to run DVBViewer in MPEG so that I can use the recordings, is this likely to cause problems?

Thanks again,

David

[Bacon2002]

Stephane,

One other thing, is there any chance that in your next update you could include an option to automatically remove any existing timer events within DVBViewer.

I do not use DVBViewer other than for your plugin and occassionally for checking channels and hardware, so an option to automatically remove any existing timer events would save any chance of this causeing a problem.

Thanks,

David

[Bacon2002]

Stephane,

I have trouble restarting the plugin after a reboot etc, from my observations it appear the only way to get the plugin to run is:-

Close down SageTV
Close down the plugin
Check if the DVBViewer service is running - it often is even though it was asked to shut down
Check and remove event timer entries from within DVBViewer - this often has entries in it which stop DVBViewer from lauching properly
Start the plugin
Start the service
Start SageTV
Tune to a plugin channel - This does not work and the monitor fills up with entries about file size 0
Tune to another plugin channel - Then after about 10 seconds the picture of the channel comes through

The main problem areas are:-
The service running
Timer entries
The order you start SageTV and the plugin
The biggest problem is having to change the channel before the plugin sends audio and video

Is this just me that has these problems, let me know what you think

Thanks,

David

[StephaneM]

Hi David,

Originally Posted by Bacon2002

The main problem areas are:-
The service running
Timer entries
The order you start SageTV and the plugin
The biggest problem is having to change the channel before the plugin sends audio and video

Is this just me that has these problems, let me know what you think

Your configuration does indeed have issues that you shouldn't have.

The timers are created when a recording start and gets distroyed when the recording ends (or in case of PC crash / SageTV crash / DVBViewer crash, when DVBViewer Recorder is started). So you shouldn't have any timers left at all.

The DVBViewer Recorder service should always start, even if you choose to use the standalone recorder, but in this case the service stops right after starting.

When you stop the service it should also stop all ongoing recordings. If a recording couldn't be stopped for some reasons (the main reason is because DVBViewer is not recording in the right folder and as such my plugin isn't able to stop the recording because it believes it is not his recording) then DVBViewer prevents the service from stopping.

You can start SageTV / DVBViewer Recorder Service in any order (logical order is DVBViewer Recorder first, then SageTV). However, if you start SageTV first, it will take some time before SageTV notice that the encoder is available (5 min I think). You can also stop SageTV / DVBViewer Recorder in any order (logical order is SageTV first, then DVBViewer Recorder)

If you don't get any video when you watch the first channel, this is a DVBViewer issue (you'll have to review the DVBViewer debug log as well as DVBViewer recorder logs). Though, if my plugin notice that the recording don't start, it will restart it. Be careful to set the restart delay to the correct value: in your case, you should use 20 sec (rules of thumb is to have a restart delay that is larger than the time needed to DVBViewer and your CAM to descramble the video, it seems that in your case 5 to 10 sec. is needed. If you set it too low, then DVBViewer Recorder will endelessly restart the recording before he get a chance to actuall begin)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Bacon2002

Secondly I would prefer to run DVBViewer in MPEG so that I can use the recordings, is this likely to cause problems?

If you choose MPEG over TS, the only limitation is that you will loose the TTX subtitles extraction feature and the MPEG4 comskip prevention.

[rickgillyon]

Trying this out again (failed dismally to get it working last time). I've set up the channels in DVBViewer, they all view perfectly well. I have added to SageTV, set my encoder and set it up. Set up only two channels (Comedy Central) on a new lineup. Using standalone recorder to try and get it working, never see any video. The dvbviewer log shows:

17.05.09 14:02:03 TRecording Allocate TechnoTrend BDA/DVB-C Tuner (11)
17.05.09 14:02:03 StartRecording   TechnoTrend BDA/DVB-C Tuner (11)
17.05.09 14:02:03 TDVBHardware.SetTuner PMT: 2046 - SID: 1089
17.05.09 14:02:04 StartRecording:  Comedy Central (eng)
17.05.09 14:02:04 VCR-Internal     Recordingstart.
17.05.09 14:02:06 TRecording Release TechnoTrend BDA/DVB-C Tuner (11)
17.05.09 14:02:06 TRecording Destroy TechnoTrend BDA/DVB-C Tuner (11)

The monitor show it starting the recording, but filesize always returns zero. Trace shows:

20090517 18:32:48.421 - Info - Recorder 'TT' listening on 127.0.0.1:9665
20090517 18:34:48.859 - Info - TT - Recording started: V:\pvr\TwoandaHalfMen-S3Ep18TheSpitCoveredCobbler-558950-0.mpg
20090517 18:35:14.859 - Info - TT - Recording stopped: V:\pvr\TwoandaHalfMen-S3Ep18TheSpitCoveredCobbler-558950-0.mpg

Any ideas?

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

The monitor show it starting the recording, but filesize always returns zero. Trace shows:

20090517 18:32:48.421 - Info - Recorder 'TT' listening on 127.0.0.1:9665
20090517 18:34:48.859 - Info - TT - Recording started: V:\pvr\TwoandaHalfMen-S3Ep18TheSpitCoveredCobbler-558950-0.mpg
20090517 18:35:14.859 - Info - TT - Recording stopped: V:\pvr\TwoandaHalfMen-S3Ep18TheSpitCoveredCobbler-558950-0.mpg

What version of DVBViewer are you running?

Open DVBViewer and check that in the Settings\Options\Recorder the V:\pvr path was added.

Also be sure to use the latest version of the recorder (v 2.1)

Regards,
Stéphane.