why are HTPC's so hard???

[SomeWhatLost]

ok, story so far:
I have 3 perfectly working HDx00's extenders.
I have 3 "Must Have" 'client pluggins'(or whatever you call them) that oddly enough, I must have...

• Diamond
• Commskip
• MyMovies

all three install easily and just work on my HDx00's, no issues, just work, always work... I really like my HDx00's...

trying to setup a HTPC as HDx00's are somewhat hard to come by these days for some unknown reason... (insert evil glare in google's general direction)

Diamond wont install... there is no install option... it says it already is installed (on the server, and it is so that is true...) but yet there is no way to get my beloved UI to actually show up...

Commskip installs on the HTPC just fine, but doesn't actually do anything... no skipping, doesn't even show the skip marks... config says it is configed to auto skip, and to show the skip marks in progress bar... why no skipping???

MyMovies claims to install, but the SageMyMoviesAPI thingy wont install, not sure why I even need that on a client, but still, it insists it needs it and wont work without it...

please help... why are HTPC's so hard? why cant they more like the extenders that always just work?

[nyplayer]

Are you talking about a client PC connecting to the server if that is the case then you must Install Diamond comskip etc... on the client. And in order for comskip to work on a client you need to use UNC paths. Or find a way to map the drives on the client.

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by SomeWhatLost

Diamond wont install... there is no install option... it says it already is installed (on the server, and it is so that is true...) but yet there is no way to get my beloved UI to actually show up...

Make sure you're looking in the Clients Plugin list (Setup>>SageTV Plugins>>Installed Client Plugins)

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Are you talking about a client PC connecting to the server if that is the case then you must Install Diamond comskip etc... on the client. And in order for comskip to work on a client you need to use UNC paths. Or find a way to map the drives on the client.

yes, I am just talking about a sage client.
no sure about paths? what paths? aren't those all set up on the server?

[SomeWhatLost]

[bleep][censored]
accidentally just uninstalled diamond from my server...
pressed wrong button at wrong time..
client seems to be doing the client install now though... server is doing the server install too... maybe it will work?


hopefully it didn't mess up any of my extenders though...

why cant clients be more like extenders and just work????

[SomeWhatLost]

woo hoo! diamond now works...
guess in order to install the client you need to uninstall and then reinstall the server first?
anyway it works...well diamond at least...

but now I am getting this error on my server:
Sun Aug 12 16:03:40 GMT-500 2012 - Phoenix Error

Error in VFS File: .\STVs\Phoenix\vfs\x-vfs.xml; .\STVs\Phoenix\vfs\vfs.dtd (The system cannot find the file specified)

now, I am not really using Phoenix, but I do think it is quite cool and fun to play with from time to time, so having it happy would be nice... do I now need to uninstall and rei8nstall Phoenix now too?

[darcilicious]

The error looks like it's coming from the server but in my case I discovered it was coming from a client. Delete the xml file on the client and you should be fine.

(http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57731)

[SomeWhatLost]

ok, so in the now working category we have:

• Diamond
• Commskip

thanks to you who helped me so far get this going. (and to the plug in authors, assuming they are still around, as well, I would have a lot more trouble installing them if they didn't exist...)
you know, I really like the diamond serenity blue theme... its easy to get used to something like that and not truly appreciate it until you cant have it and you are stuck with the stock sage theme for a while...

so still no worky is SageMyMovies.... (or is it SageMediaManager?)
it seems to just be the SageMyMovies-API that keeps failing...
do I need to have MyMovies installed and running on the client?
anyone have any ideas?

[SomeWhatLost]

damn...
was planning on playing with the MyMovies 4.0.3 for WMC on my new HTPC, just to see what is was like...
but the moment it popped up a screen saying 'your database is out of date/blah blah would you like to update?' I clicked hell no... pretty sure SMM hasn't been updated in a while, and new updates seem somewhat unlikely given the state of things... pretty sure SMM wont like an updated DB...

anyway, despite the fact that I clicked "hell no", MM 4.03 was kind enough(?) to update it anyway...wtf, now none of my MyMovies work... they all get to the loading DB part and crap out... maybe that is why SMM is failing?

stupid MyMovies people with their scorched earth/break everything polices...

[panteragstk]

The SMM api can be somewhat picky. When I had issues getting it to install properly then enable itself I unstalled ALL other plugins and dependencies and installed the api by itself. Then restart sage. After that install the SMM ui and restart. If it is working at that point you should be good to go. From what others have said 4.03 seems to work just fine with smm.

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

The SMM api can be somewhat picky.

somewhat picky?!?!? that is an understatement...
I am starting to believe Plucky may have specifically designed it to cause me pain and suffering...
but SMM when its working is oh so nice...
maybe it is plucky's version of carrot & the stick? SMM is the carrot, very nice, and it keeps you coming back for more, it is a very tasty carrot... and then there is SMM-API,aka the stick, which Plucky uses to beat us all mercilessly...
but I keep going back for more...

Originally Posted by panteragstk

When I had issues getting it to install properly then enable itself I unstalled ALL other plugins and dependencies and installed the api by itself. Then restart sage. After that install the SMM ui and restart. If it is working at that point you should be good to go.

on the server or just on the client?
I really don't want to mess with the server if I don't have too... I have 3 extenders hooked up and they all work just fine... not sure I want to mess that up...

Originally Posted by panteragstk

From what others have said 4.03 seems to work just fine with smm.

I thought I saw somewhere the 4.0.3 was evil?
but regardless, I would just rather attempt to fix one issue before I go updating things/adding new issues...

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by SomeWhatLost

on the server or just on the client?
I really don't want to mess with the server if I don't have too... I have 3 extenders hooked up and they all work just fine... not sure I want to mess that up...

Where is the API failing? Wherever that is is where you have to do what I said above.

I thought I saw somewhere the 4.0.3 was evil?
but regardless, I would just rather attempt to fix one issue before I go updating things/adding new issues...

Didn't you say you already updated? If you did, the DB may not be backward compatible. If not, I'd stick with 4.02 as that is the stable version that I'm on, and it is also required to continue getting data from my movies.

[SomeWhatLost]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Didn't you say you already updated? If you did, the DB may not be backward compatible. If not, I'd stick with 4.02 as that is the stable version that I'm on, and it is also required to continue getting data from my movies.

the DB is not backward compatible...
I accidentally updated my DB...
I completely uninstalled MyMovies from my server, completely uninstalled MSQL (killing off the DB)...
then reinstalled fresh... creating new 4.0.2 DB...
now everything (except potential new HTPC) is back up and running SMM happily...

[SomeWhatLost]

woo hoo... everything is working sort of...
fanart seems to be a bit iffy... seems I needed to load BMT (client), why? should the Sage client just get all that stuff from the server as needed?
also, BMT now seems to think all my metadata is missing... but BMT used to be all happy? probably something I did...

fwiw, I have no clue why SageMM-api started working, my best guess is that it is black magic/proper waving of hands (or mice?)/while the planets were aligned just so...

anyway, now I guess I should move on to actually making sure it can really play TV/DVD/BR... but that's not a topic for the plugin area...

[darcilicious]

Re: fanart: IIRC you do install on the client and in the settings>>detailed setup>>diamond fanart, you can specify a single common fanart folder.

(I think I have that right)

As far as BMT goes, I don't think that gets installed on clients... but I'd have to some more poking around to make sure (it's been soooo long since I've looked at this stuff)

[gplasky]

Extender uses the BMT install on the server. The PC Client requires BMT to be installed on that PC. That same rule applies to a lot of the plugins. Remember that the PC install of SageTV is basically a full blown installation (like the server). So you would install things like Diamond, BMT, etc on the client.

Gerry

[panteragstk]

BMT doesn't need to be installed on the client, but phoenix fan art does. Then choose the fanart folder on your server so you don't have duplicate fanart.

[SomeWhatLost]

oh, that makes sense...

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Extender uses the BMT install on the server. The PC Client requires BMT to be installed on that PC. That same rule applies to a lot of the plugins. Remember that the PC install of SageTV is basically a full blown installation (like the server). So you would install things like Diamond, BMT, etc on the client.

Gerry

Originally Posted by panteragstk

BMT doesn't need to be installed on the client, but phoenix fan art does. Then choose the fanart folder on your server so you don't have duplicate fanart.

Right-my bad. It is Phoenix. ANother one is Commercial skip and needing to have the same paths on the server and the client to the recordings.

Gerry

[PLUCKYHD]

Oh this thread gave me a good laugh.

In all seriousness the API issues started when I started branching off the code to implement default SageTV into the SMM interface. The code was done quickly and messy and then shortly after SageTV died as did my time. I never got around to solving or finding it.