MlbDude2 - Whats Next?

[Jason]

Originally posted by mlbdude
Updated the first post with the current work-list in case anyone is interested.

Keep the requests coming.

P.S. I am surprised no one took me up om my offer to expose the necessary data for the MVP .

OK... I'm back. After getting a new motherboard (my EPOX took a cr*?) and 'lo and behold I start reading about someone unearthing (exposing, showing, allowing, ...) maybe the wiz.bin file for use with the MVP?????

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ighlight=jason

I thought that this was a dead deal...?

In any case, let's open it up! Having worked on the BTV mod for the MVP, I would love to start the offshoot for Sage!

-Jason

[mlbdude]

Once this current beta is done, I will start to work on that.

Here is what I can expose in XML, let me know if you need more...

Current Sage Recordings (this would include Title, Description, etc. as well as physical file location).

Upcoming recordings list, same details.

Currently recording/watching with details as to what type of recording it is (Favorite, Manual, Etc.).

I can also expose the data from the EPG but output format would probably be flat.

The hardest part will be changing channels from the MVP. However, I think I know a way to do this using HTTP .

[Brett]

suggestion: change it from "weather menu" to just "weather" otherwise looking good.

That Random Guy

[Jason]

Originally posted by mlbdude
Once this current beta is done, I will start to work on that.

Here is what I can expose in XML, let me know if you need more...

Current Sage Recordings (this would include Title, Description, etc. as well as physical file location).

This would be nice as a sub menu to disseminate the Sage recordings from other mpeg/divx files. We can do this now on the MVP (sort of...) by using different directory structures.

Originally posted by mlbdude
Upcoming recordings list, same details.

Again... nice to see, but that is available currently (semi...) in a .txt format. I forget if the details is written in the .txt file. The implementation could be similiar to what is already in your skin on the main menu.

Originally posted by mlbdude
Currently recording/watching with details as to what type of recording it is (Favorite, Manual, Etc.).

Now we start to see the meat! With this info, we can implement the 'LiveTV function with greater ease!

Originally posted by mlbdude
I can also expose the data from the EPG but output format would probably be flat.

This is the difficult part, I'm sure... What we need is the ability to actually schedule upcoming recordings via the EPG... by 'Flat', I'm not sure what you are referring to. If the data is exposed...

Originally posted by mlbdude
The hardest part will be changing channels from the MVP. However, I think I know a way to do this using HTTP .

With an ActiveX applet, we can send the commands via HTTP. In fact, the following post describes a relatively painless (albeit questionable insecure...) method that is pre-written for almost this exact use... and more! Without knowing the commands that can be called from within Studio/Sage, I cannot know.

http://www.shspvr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4676

I am shocked to see that we may be able to proceed on this! Shocked... but happy as hell! Up until this point, I was resigning myself to wait for the Frey bros to code out an app as opposed to allowing us to possible go after a 'mod.'

-Jason

[mlbdude]

by 'Flat', I'm not sure what you are referring to. If the data is exposed...

It would look like something like this...

<Airings>
<Airing>
<Title/>
<Descirption/>
<StartTime/>
<EndTime/
etc...
</Airing>
<Airing>
<Title/>
<Descirption/>
<StartTime/>
<EndTime/
etc...
</Airing>
<Airing>
<Title/>
<Descirption/>
<StartTime/>
<EndTime/
etc...
</Airing>
</Airings>

Might need someone to translate the data into something more usable.

[Jason]

Originally posted by mlbdude
It would look like something like this...

<Airings>
<Airing>
<Title/>
<Descirption/>
<StartTime/>
<EndTime/
etc...
</Airing>
.
.
.

Might need someone to translate the data into something more usable.

Unless I am mistaken (more than likely... ) all you would be doing is moving the relative wiz.bin data to another file format? How is this different from actually utilizing the wiz.bin file? In any case, bring it on! With all the talent here, we can make it happen relatively quickly! By splitting the Sourceforge BTV mod page into a seperate release, we can cut down the time even more!

-Jason

[mlbdude]

It seems pretty close. The only difference it that there is a LOT more in the wiz.bin than just the data that Frey wants to keep secret.

Malore asked about dumping recordings and epg data and we got the OK so we should be good .

[Jason]

Originally posted by mlbdude
It seems pretty close. The only difference it that there is a LOT more in the wiz.bin than just the data that Frey wants to keep secret.

Malore asked about dumping recordings and epg data and we got the OK so we should be good .

Well, I'm waiting on you!

-Jason

[sticky]

I think the next horse to kill would be the folder based music library...

Great work guys.... Sage is shaping up beautifully...

I don't see what the big deal about studio not being out.. These guys are doing the hard work.. ..

Cheers to all the hard working beta testers.

[mlbdude]

That was done for 1.8.6 .

[mikejaner]

I have an idea which is kind of familiar to the Tivo owners out there.

How about implimenting the ability to have a short Mpeg video play in a loop as the video background when nothing is playing, or in the main menu. This might help us 350 owners, who have no problems when video is playing. This way, at the end of a show, there is an immediate switch to this video of an animated background.

Here's a short list of suggestions:

On startup, this video is started in a loop, as long as "Video Background" is enabled.
Upon completion of playback of a file from "Sage Recordings", immediately switch to a looped playback of the background video. Kind of like switching channels in "Live TV".
Enable an option to have the looped background video enabled or disabled for the main menu, for those who would still like to have TV play in the background when on the main menu.

[SprDtyF350]

You guys seem to have a blast writing all of these really cool additions for Sage... Kind of how I enjoy working on cars. I don't know much about computer programming but I sure am glad you folks do. Sage is really becoming a great program and the hard work all of you put into it are what does it. I have been wishing for a client for the MVP since I bought the 2 of them and it sounds like there may be potential for it to happen. That would be awesome.. The additions in MlbDudes skin are great, makes using Sage much more fun.

It's great to be able to check out the forums and find new cool thing to add to Sage.

Thanks again,

Randy

[jazzup]

I would love to be able to sort my recordings by original airdate so that I could easily watch the episodes in a series in the order they were aired.

Thanks for all the great work so far - the skin really adds to sage's usefulness and functionality!

[Opus4]

Originally posted by jazzup
I would love to be able to sort my recordings by original airdate so that I could easily watch the episodes in a series in the order they were aired.

I believe you can do that now in the MlbDude STV -- go to the SageTV Recordings screen & use the Options command (or right mouse click) to choose the sorting style. Original Airdate is in there.

Alternatively, in the malore listings, you can have it sort by ShowID, which should correspond to original airing date. (You can alos us ethe malore listing styles in the MalDude STV.)

- Andy

[jazzup]

Nice - missed that options menu before.

Thanks!

[mlbdude]

Looking for a volunteer for the MPEG4 compression project.....

http://forums.sage.tv/forums/showthr...8526#post48526

[gotuitdan]

Hi mlbdude,

I have a (probably) rather simple and powerful suggestion for your STV...

The ability to select and record an MPEG directly to a normal DVD. Some folks at myHTPC.net have put this together in such a way as to simply run a command line with a target file to burn. It puts a background image in front of the screen and the user simply waits until the file is converted, encrypted, and burned. See:
http://myhtpc.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7030

Ideally, I imagine this could be a simple command-line executing function placed under the media and DVD library menu.
The command line, though, would need to be executed on the list of Sage Recordings available for burning, so I presume the user would select "burn DVD", see a list of recordings, and select one to burn...

For that matter, I could see pretty nice value in having a couple of extra customizable menu options that simply launch a command of the user's choosing. This would be in addition to the external media player, music jukebox or dvd player. The hope would be that the user could name the item anything and attach it to some external software.

just a thought...

Thanks again for the great and extensive work!

dan.

PS (editing here). I just thought another way to implement the burning would be in the left column of the screen after selecting a recording. Somewhere in the list that includes "watch", "set watched", "delete", etc, could be "burn". Burn activates the external program with the file name as the target... THAT would be way, way cool.

[justme]

That would be awesome. There are several SageTV users who are part of that thread and were involved in the apps evolution, so I know it would have a good SageTV following. Also CutterMaran(a free Mpeg2 editor) now supports a CLI interface using XML. So you can even edit out the comercials before burning the DVD if you want. This feature(CutterMaran) has not yet been added by CyberVillian, but he says he plans to. Also, it's amazing how flexable DVDAuthor is considering it's an opensource project. It can do some pretty complex things using XML to designate the DVD menu structure, backgrounds, etc.

I just love it when something can be done by using totally free*, and in this case, mostly opensource applications. About the only downside to this idea is that it does involve chaining ~5 programs together to get the DVD. Still that's just a matter of automating the handoffs. The only other downside is that even with deleting each intermediate stage after it's been passed, still requires a good amount of slack space. ie to burn a 3GB DVD takes about 9GB of free space to get the finished project. Of course all this space can be reclaimed once the DVD is done. I keep a 12GB partition on my system as a temp area for video processing jobs like this. It comes in very handy to always have the free space availiable in a continous segment. It all to easy to fill up your drive otherwise and make this type of process difficult.

*I've donated to almost every app used in that process and so should anyone who uses them. These great resources will only exist as long as we support them.

/justme

[timw]

mlbdude -

Great work! I really enjoy the improvements you have made to the ui.

We live on the coast of Oregon, and it would be great to have a module - similar to the weather module - that displays the tide tables for our area, perhaps in graphical form. I have a program like this for my Palm. It lets me know what the tide at the beach is like when I take my dogs for a walk. The configuration is similar to weather, just enter the zip code, then select from a list of known measurement sites.

[Alex0230]

Originally posted by timw
mlbdude -

Great work! I really enjoy the improvements you have made to the ui.

We live on the coast of Oregon, and it would be great to have a module - similar to the weather module - that displays the tide tables for our area, perhaps in graphical form. I have a program like this for my Palm. It lets me know what the tide at the beach is like when I take my dogs for a walk. The configuration is similar to weather, just enter the zip code, then select from a list of known measurement sites.

Something like this is already possible, it just depends on where the weather data comes from. I know the weather data I got mine from didn't have tide information. Nielm's gets his from weather.com and I tried looking around for tide data, not sure if he has access to that.

It's definitely possible....we'd just have to get a feed from somewhere. It would work now, we would just add these two params to the file we generate:

~DAY~Low Tide~
~DAY~High Tide~