SageTV V6.5.4 Beta is Ready

[Narflex]

Howdy all!

Time for the next 6.5 beta. This should be the last beta before we go ReleaseCandidate for V6.5.

Highlighted changes are in Bold in the release notes below.

Submit any bugs you find to here please: http://sagetv.com/bugs.html

Here's the links:

SageTV for Windows
http://download.sage.tv/SageTV_V6_5_4Setup.exe

SageTVClient for Windows
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVClient_V6_5_4Setup.exe

SageTVPlaceshifter for Windows
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVPlaces...6_5_4Setup.exe

SageTV for Windows Home Server
http://download.sage.tv/SageTV_V6_5_4Setup-WHS.msi

SageTV Media Center for Macintosh
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVMac_V6_5_4.dmg

SageTV Client for Macintosh
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVMacClient_V6_5_4.dmg

SageTV Placeshifter for Macintosh
http://download.sage.tv/SageTVMacPla...ter_V6_5_4.dmg

SageTV Media Center for Linux
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/server_6.5.4.tar.gz

SageTV Placeshifter for Linux
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/mi...t_6.5.4.tar.gz

SageTV Media Center for Linux - Debian Package Installer
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/sa...6.5.4_i386.deb

SageTV Placeshifter for Linux - Debian Package Installer
http://download.sage.tv/linuxbeta/sa...6.5.4_i386.deb

And here's the detailed release notes for you all.

SageTV V6.5.4 Beta 12/17/2008

Core Updates
1. Remove the change where movie Premieres are marked as first runs because this interferes with Intelligent Recording historical data
2. Fixed bug where if user input occurred *just* before an interruptible background animation was about to start; the animation would complete before the event response was rendered
3. Fixed bug in dynamic transcoder where the highest initial quality setting needed an initial bandwidth of 9Mbps instead of 900Kbps (900k is the right value)
4. Fixed buffering issue on the server for placeshifting which caused underflow even though there was enough bandwidth to send the video data
5. Optimized font texture loading so that we deal with fonts that have a large number of glyphs efficiently (i.e. Unicode text)
6. Fixed deadlock bug that could occur when we re-generate a thumbnail due to its source file being changed (very rare)
7. Fixed issue with user activity not keeping the system alive long enough for power management (controlled by the property power_management_idle_timeout, default is 2 minutes)
8. Fixed issue with not checking language_country code for whether or not localization exists in the default locale
9. When we're doing a 'reload' of a media file; completely rebuild the player if it's a plugin-based player since they don't necessarily support re-use of their object
10. Text widgets now notice if their dynamic font sizing is mis-aligned from their cache value in the rendering stage rather than relying on the global update mechanism for this
11. Added property ui/fallback_on_2d_renderer which defaults to true; and if set to false will then cause SageTV to never give up on trying to load the 3D renderer even if it errors out (it'll just wait 5 seconds and try again).
12. update Sweden-Malmö DVB frequency, which has been changed a few month ago, thanks for Stefan Olofsson.
13. Fix:Mpeg2 video format detection code, (missing mpeg2 header between boundary)

Windows Updates
1. Optimized DirectX9 text rendering texture ordering algorithm so we don't have a big performance penalty if there's a large number of glyphs in the font
2. Added temp file generation for passing Unicode pathnames to FFMPEG properly (Fixes old bug with format detection/transcoding/placeshifting failing on files with Unicode characters in them if the OS isn't set to English as the system language)
3. When closing down the 3D renderer before entering standby; make sure it's completely closed before we allow standby to start
4. Added property tvtv/use_default_targets which if set to true will cause the default country list for TVTV to be shown instead of querying their server
5. Disabled new network encoder optimizations by default. They can be enabled with the reg setting HKLM\Software\Frey Technologies\Common\DSFilters\MpegMux\OptimizeNetTransfers=1 (as a DWORD)
6. FIX MPEG seeking lockup
7. Optimize MPEG seeking performance
8. Add DTS MPEG Demux support
9. Fix: broken code supporting KWord USB dual tuner.

Mac Updates
1. Improved playback of H.264 transport stream files
2. Support for HD-PVR capture (this feature on the Mac will remain in beta even when V6.5 releases)

Linux Updates
1. Improved support for HD-PVR capture

Extender Updates
1. When changing the default aspect ratio for the HD100/HD200 the setting will now take effect when the next file is loaded instead of requiring a restart

Placeshifter updates
1. Improved playback of H.264 transport stream files

Studio Updates
1. Added SAGEEXCEPTION core variable which can be access if an API call generates an internal exception
2. Fixed bug where making the API call "CancelRecord(null)" would crash the core recording engine

STV Updates
1. Fixed bug in Photo Browser's Separate viewing style where no pictures could be listed (thanks SHS)
2. Added Detailed Setup -> Customize option Display OSD between Playlist Segments, to control whether the OSD is shown after playlist segment changes.
3. Added imported video's Date & Time stamp to the Video Detail screen.
4. Disabled code to seek to the beginning of video if only a few seconds remain when playback is started because the core now handles it.
5. If using VMR9 and FSE mode, only allow song info display as the music visualization.
6. Added Now Playing panel to bottom of file browser menu.
7. Fixed use of Play, Pause, and Play/Pause on the file browser.
8. Updated Play listeners to play video/music regardless of whether the item is the same as the currently playing item.

SageTV V6.5.3 Beta 12/3/2008

Core Updates
1. Various improvements to SageTVTranscoder and SageTVPlayer (for HDPVR support and other bugs encountered in 6.5.1/2)
2. Movies that have the 'Premiere' attribute are now indicated as First Runs
3. Fixed issue with not starting at the beginning if the file was already marked Watched
4. Always use stereo audio when transcoding for the placeshifter now (mono audio didn't work well enough in the transcoder all the time)
5. When importing DVDs, call the metadata parsing plugins (we didn't before)
6. Updated the pusher reply handler so that all replies are read asynchronously to maximize bandwidth usage (used with placeshifter & extender)
7. Fixed bug in async pusher reply where it wasn't accounting for buffers we've already pushed when reading the reply (main cause of MVP issues in 6.5 also would affect HD extender; but that wasn't too noticable)
8. SageTV will now try to record HD airings of a show over SD airings even if that means the recording will occur at a later time. This can be disabled by setting the property prefer_hdtv_recordings_over_sdtv=false.
9. Add "Switzerland" frequency for DVB

Windows Updates
1. Fixed bug where VMR9 wasn't being used if the system didn't support EVR
2. Added the Microsoft MPEG video/audio decoders that are included in Vista to the decoder selection list
3. Updated DirectX9 UI renderer so that when it sees an unidentified glyph in the cache in a string it'll render it using a native text method instead that should then automatically fix Unicode glyph rendering problems (assuming the font supports the glyph)
4. Set timeout longer for Hauppauge tuner to lock a QAM channel
5. Fix: one kind of stream that multiple PMT share one PID has a trouble decrypting in CAM/CI.
6. Adjust main audio track picking priority for multiple sound tracks
7. Fix: Sending wrong HDHomeRun frequency multiplier 1000 and sending tuning twice.
8. Rollback code to support Twinhan DVB-C tuner
9. Changed default number of input pins on EVR for Vista so CC and DVD subs are supported by default. The registry value for this was changed to now be EVRInputPins instead of NumEVRInputPins

Extender Updates
1. Fixed bug where timeline would reset on some files with the HD extender partway through

Studio Updates
1. Updated Image widgets so that they only perform their default action on the left mouse click instead of any mouse click.

STV Updates
1. Fixed input timeout issue on Search menu.
2. Fixed issues on search results menu where Search icon jumped to TV search and focus item had no highlight image.
3. Search menu: added item for "All Results" at top of each column for Video searches. (Other search types already had that option.)
4. Changed HD100 recommended firmware version to "20080812 0".
5. Favorites channel limit dialog: changed channel selections to use checkboxes rather than radio buttons.
6. Added support for 720p YouTube videos when they exist.
7. If 720p YouTube video download can't keep up with playback speed, warn user & ask whether to disable 720p YT videos. Only show warning if bandwidth is too low, playback is not paused, and current time is within 5 seconds of the end of the downloaded portion.
8. Added Detailed Setup -> Customize option to control default YouTube video resolution to try first.

SageTV V6.5.2 Beta 11/21/2008

Core Updates
1. Enabled multi-threading for the transcoder. The property xcode_process_num_threads controls this. 1 means single threaded; 0 means use the # of CPUs plus one; and all other positive settings mean use that # of threads.
2. Fixed bug where the bandwidth calculation for the extender client would sometimes go bad and cause it to transcode on a LAN
3. Put the 'debug_logging' setting in the properties file by default; and allow 'true' as well to set it instead of just 'TRUE'
4. Fixed issue with the circular file size not being right for digital TV input when using the service
5. Fixed bug where playlist items of TV recordings wouldn't account for the start padding
6. Fixed rendering issue related to enabling variable sized row/cols in tables
7. Added property "ui/require_focus_for_mouse_selection" which defaults to false; and if set to true will require extra clicking to select items if focus_follows_mouse is false

Windows Updates
1. Fixed COM registration issue with EVR support
2. Fixed DXVA2 support with EVR on Vista
3. Fixed aspect ratio issues with EVR
4. Fixed A/V sync issue with EVR by adding frame dropping. The threshold for dropping is controlled by a DWORD reg setting at: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\SageTV\DirectX9\EVRFrameDropThreshold
5. Fixed regression bug where we broke the Green Button on the MCE remote
6. Added CC support for EVR. To enable it; the follow registry setting must be done as a DWORD: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Frey Technologies\SageTV\DirectX9\NumEVRInputPins=2
7. Changed the default max VRAM limit for DX9 to be 150MB instead of 120MB (but it's a property setting so old configs will use the old value)
8. Disabled use of the new USER_ACTIVITY flag in PowerManagement because it was resetting all of the timers instead of just the selected one on Windows
9. Fixed setup of default import directories on Vista
10. Added common media to default import directories for initial Windows setups
11. Fixed crash bugs in MSVCR80.DLL that were introduced in 6.5.1
12. Fixed error dialogs that would popup during tuning plugin selection on Windows

Studio Updates
1. Hooks are now inherited from a Themed widget source if 'Ignore Theme Properties' is set (since it's not actually a property)
2. SetSyncSystemClockWithServerEnabled API call has been fixed so it works properly with the local client in service mode
3. Fixed Database API calls GetMediaFilesWithImportPrefix and GetFilesWithImportPrefix so that they exclude TV recordings

STV Updates
1. Filtered archived TV shows out of the video browser's Titles view.

SageTV V6.5.1 Beta 11/14/2008

Core Updates
1. Fixed bug where an invalid regex expression in a keyword Favorite could crash SageTV on load
2. Fixed bug where sorting Favorites by priority wasn't always correct
3. Added property to force the PAR (pixel aspect ratio) instead of basing it on the DAR (display aspect ratio): ui/forced_pixel_aspect_ratio
4. Fixed bug where Favorites that had their Favorite status removed would temporarily be ranked as the most 'deletable' file. This could cause them to get removed accidentally if modifying a favorites settings and a temporary mistake is made.
5. Added property xcode_disable_mp3_encoder which defaults to true and swaps the mp2 encoder whenever the mp3 encoder is requested (due to the lack of an mp3 encoder in the transcoder)
6. Added HTTP timeout calls to the downloader (they're only in 1.5 and higher; so we try/catch them for compatability)
7. Increased wait for SageTVPlayer startup from 5 seconds to 30 seconds
8. Fixed bug with SageTVPlayer volume control where sometimes it wouldn't allow it to increase properly
9. Fixed issue with having a period in the name for a DVD folder which affects finding the thumbnail correctly
10. Enable the SageTV server by default (we already did this for service modes)
11. Fixed timeout bug in scheduler where the start time wasn't getting reset when the first timeout occurred which would sometimes cause an incomplete schedule to be built (so once it had a timeout it would timeout on all other operations and not complete its scheduling)
12. Fixed bug where we'd constantly be doing library import scans if they took longer than 5 minutes to complete
13. Fixed bug with retaining partial recordings of Favorites that won't air again (it should actually work now)
14. Fixed NPE bug when there wasn't a valid default quality for a tuner
15. Fixed bug where files were marked as incomplete after being replaced by an externally transcoded version
16. Refresh the user activity timeout if any client is playing video or connected to the MediaServer
17. Added 'ignore_window_close' property which can disable the standard window closing events from having any effect if set to true
18. Only save the last window position if it's not full screen or maximized (before we didn't check maximized)
19. Fixed bug where the previous channel command didn't always work properly
20. When going through a playlist always start each file at the beginning
21. Fixed bug where doing a unit up/down in a vertical scrolling area of very short height would actually scroll in the opposite direction
22. Changed the way 'focus_follows_mouse' works when its disabled so the first click sets focus to the item and the second click actually selects it. This won't apply if there's a 'MouseClick' listener since that will receive both of the events. This only applies to the default action chain that is the child of the item.
23. Refresh UI components even if their image load fails so that we can update properly in that situation as well
24. Language descriptors for audio tracks now always include the format name (before it was only included if it was AC3)
25. Cleanup whitespace better in RSS descriptions
26. Merged with latest versions for SageTVTranscoder and SageTVPlayer
27. HDPVR transcoding should now function correctly in SageTVTranscoder
28. Fixed bug where playback of FLAC files with thumbnails largers than 64k would crash the player
29. Added PID filtering for the HDHomeRun on all platforms
30. DVB Frequencies: Add entries of cable Netherlands-Casema (Thanks for Pascal Scheffers), "Finland-Helsinki" DVB-C frequency, "Canal Digital on Thor 3/5 at 0.8°W", new frequency entries for Italian DVB-T, DVB-T frequency for Albania, New Zealand DVB-T frequency
31. Added VC-1 & DivX format detection support for MPEG2 files

Extender Updates
1. Fixed bug where we'd seek to live sometimes when we shouldn't upon resuming playback when playing back MPEG2 files on the media extender
2. Fixed bug where rewinding at x256 of an MPEG2 file would sometimes cause the timestamps to go to the end of the file and stop playback on the HD media extender

Windows Updates
1. Added support for the Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR) (it's an option if SageTV detects that it exists on the system)
2. Add Kword DVB-T PCI-160-2T dual tuner support. ( it's faked as USB tuners, two tuner share a USB device entry ).
3. Disable fast mux switching for devices named: Hauppauge WinTV-7164 Analog Capture
4. Don't add HDHR tuners to ignore encoders on Windows
5. Updated DShow DVD player to respond properly to native STOP events
6. Moved directshow video renderer filter setting into a single property (videoframe/video_render_filter)
7. Fixed NPE bug where we'd have a black screen render when recovering from a D3D device loss
8. Added property mplayer/use_for_online_content (defaults to true) which will allow use of SageTVPlayer for all online videos even if always_use_dshow_player=true is set
9. Added property 'mplayer/use_for_mkv_playback' which defaults to true and tells SageTV to use 'SageTVPlayer' for all MKV playback on Windows
10. Updated included JRE to be Java 6 Update 10
11. Fixed transcoding to AppleTV/iPhone formats
12. Fix Mpeg2Dump crashing on M780 (Randomly crash, or waking up from deep sleep)
13. New Mpeg 2 Demultiplexor with accurate seeking (same one that's been in beta for a few months)
14. Fix: a QAM channel that its QAM modulation is not set in scn and frq file has a trouble to tune, we use the QAM 256 as a default QAM modulation.
15. Fix: HVR-2200 and HVR-2250 can't record on its duel analog tuner at the same time.
16. Increased quality of native D3D rendered fonts
17. Updated to handle Unicode taskbar tooltips properly

Linux Updates
1. Added property 'linux/enable_progressive_deletes' which if set to true will progressively delete files instead of deleting the whole thing at one. Very useful for filesystems with slow deletion like ext2/ext3 on Linux.
2. Fixed bug where we weren't setting the broadcast standard correctly when using the HDHR on Linux
3. Adding 'delay_to_wait_after_tuning' property for Linux as well (very useful with HDPVR if it's crashing right after tuning)
4. Added support for HDPVR S/PDIF input
5. Improved compatability with HDPVR IR blaster

Mac Updates
1. HDPVR playback is now supported (recording is still experimental, and not in the builds yet)

Placeshifter Updates
1. Fixed bug where we'd drop keystrokes sometimes over placeshifter connections
2. MAJOR improvement to bandwidth utilization for placeshifter streaming
3. Optimized initial bandwidth detection in the placeshifter so it does multiple tests with more advanced statistics to try to get a better initial bandwidth estimate.
4. MAJOR reduction in placeshifter connection setup time
5. Updated bandwidth detection code for Placeshifter to force transcoding if we're under 10Mbps and we're also not on the same LAN. (the standard limit is 2Mbps, but many people have connections beyond this now)
6. HDPVR playback is now supported

Studio Updates
1. Added option for Image widgets to specify a 'Hover' image which is shown when the mouse is over that image
2. Added implied java.io.File->Show and java.io.File->Channel conversions in the SageTV API now
3. Added methods for getting the cursor position on Windows. sage.UIManager.getCursorPosX() and getCursorPosY()
4. Fixed bug where StartPlaylistAt wouldn't start where requested if random play was enabled
5. Enable variable sized row/height tables (experimental)
6. Updated Pressed and Hover image properties of the Image Widget to by dynamically modifiable
7. Added paging variables for Panels of NumPagesF, NumHPagesF and NumVPagesF (these are floating point equivalents of the integer ones that already existed)
8. Added Configuration API call 'HasEVRSupport' which indicates the presence of the Enhanced Video Renderer on Windows
9. Added Configuration API calls SetVideoRendererToEVR and IsVideoRendererEVR
10. Added Database API call: GetMediaFilesWithImportPrefix

STV Updates
1. Added EVR configuration options on Windows if EVR is supported
2. Search menu: added item for "All Results" at top of each column for TV & Video searches. (Other search types already had that option.)
3. Prevented preloading the next image while one is sliding into place while viewing photos.
4. Folder view is the default Video Browser view; Album view is the default Music Browser view.
5. Video Browser: optimized folder view to use new GetMediaFilesWithImportPrefix() call.
6. When adding network import paths, always use the SMB path name.
7. Channel Setup: added ability to clear all channel remaps on a lineup.
8. Weather location config: removed reference to Postal Code since it no longer seems to accept postal codes.
9. Added some information dialogs shown after using the Play command in the File Browser menu.
10. Updated calls to GetMediaFiles() to use media masks instead of filtering all media files.
11. When starting playback of a TV recording that is not still recording, restart playback and reset watched status if only a few seconds of playback remain.
12. Don't allow the default recording quality for a tuner to be cleared if the overall default recording quality is not valid for the tuner.
13. Fixed class cast error when loading video & photo browser folder info
14. Fixed online video properties update issue on Vista.
15. Remove BuzzOutLoud feed