STV: Cayars17 Ultimate STV (Release 17 - Jan 18)

[mbrown3]

Originally Posted by Cayars

You actually don't have to read the entire thread. Us the Search by Thread feature and it will narrow down message pertaining to your searched words.

I already answered some of these in the two PMs we exchanged. To get rid of the "upcoming recording" listings you need to remove all of the "<option></option>" lines in the menu file. There will be one set of these for each menu.

The Sage logo area clicking will not take you back to the main menu. Nothing easy I can do about this, since it has to do with the way the Dynamic Menus are designed. You just need to think differently when using this STV. Think HOME key equals MENU key and it will make more sense.

Speaking of the Malore options, you'll actually find that these functions have been expanded upon and are even better in this STV.

Carlo

Thanks Cayars! I have removed all <option></option> lines in each of the menu sections, but it still shows up (unless I'm missing something, which is likely). I'll try to post menu file contents this evening. I've tried searching the thread but haven't had much luck with results. I'll try again using some different search terms. Just thought it would be easier if someone had tackled what I'm trying to do already, they could give me some more direct suggestions. In any case, thanks for the help.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by Cupra

Just played around with some large compressed AVIs and figured out that I can play them in Media Player Classic without the audio dropouts. So it's not directly ffmpegs problem.

What I could figure out is that the AVI Splitter built into Windows (in the quartz.dll that comes with DirectX) can't handle our recorded, recompressed AVIs properly, leading to audio stopping after a couple of seconds.

But if we choose to install a different AVI Splitter, like the one from here, everything should sound smooth.

Here is a quick link to the file : click
Unzip it and copy the AVISplitter.ax from the Release folder to your \WinNT\System32 folder and run regsvr32 \WinNT\System32\AVISplitter.ax from a command prompt.
The new AVI Splitter by default has a merit of 0x00600001, the builtin one has 0x00600000, so our newly installed splitter should be used by any DirectShow application you have installed - SageTV, Meedio, Windows Media Player, whatever.

I haven't experienced any problems by using the new AVI Splitter so far, so enjoy.

For anyone esle who may be having the problem of not getting sound with your compressed AVIs, I found this in the ffmpeg thread, which looks like it will fix the problem. I will post the results tonight.

[ToxMox]

Originally Posted by mbrown3

Any thoughts on this?

Are you editing cayars-menu.xml or the old menu.xml? You need to edit cayars-menu.xml if you aren't.

[mbrown3]

Originally Posted by ToxMox

Are you editing cayars-menu.xml or the old menu.xml? You need to edit cayars-menu.xml if you aren't.

I don't remember seeing cayars-menu.xml, so that may well be the issue. I just followed the instructions to edit menu.xml. I'll check this evening if there is a cayars-menu in the dir. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll let you know.

Anyone else about the menu ideas? I can't seem to find any posts with specific info as to how to get those items (under what menu heading within the STV).

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by mbrown3

I don't remember seeing cayars-menu.xml, so that may well be the issue. I just followed the instructions to edit menu.xml. I'll check this evening if there is a cayars-menu in the dir. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll let you know.

Anyone else about the menu ideas? I can't seem to find any posts with specific info as to how to get those items (under what menu heading within the STV).

No I think TOXMOX nailed it. You definitely should be editing the cayars-menu.xml. This file showed up a couple relasese back...

[SteveP]

Wowwwwwww! I just installed this STV. It blew me away and my mouth is in a permanent grin (any solutions on correcting grinitis?). The flexibility definitely ranks high on the flex scale. I had been using Malore's for a long time and throughly enjoyed it, but now ... wow!

BTW, I tried Cayars over Sage 2.2.2 just to see if it would work -- it doesn't. Sage gets stuck in some sort of loop using 100% cpu. Cayars does work with the latest Sage 2.1 (as all of you already know).

Thanks Carlo for all your work!
Steve

[ToxMox]

I am using it with 2.2.2 with no problems.

[SteveP]

ToxMox, Did you have 2.1 running with the Cayars 15 and then added 2.2.2 on top? (I had 2.2.2 running and added Cayars on top)

Steve

[ToxMox]

What exactly do you mean by added on top? The stv and its files are completely seperate from any files that get installed by a Sage install. There are no overlaps.
I can freely switch between STVs without a problem.

[SteveP]

I added Cayars after setting up 2.2.2. As soon as I switched the STV to Cayars, the program stopped responding and ran the CPU at 100%. I'll try again this week and see if it works better the second time.

The first time I tried Cayars I had Sage 2.0 with Malore's older STV, moved to 2.2.2 and added Cayars. To get out of the problem I installed 2.1 and downloaded Malare's version for 2.1. Maybe on my next try of installing 2.2.2 the combination of 2.1 with Malore's version for 2.1 might make a difference.

Thanks for the feedback,
Steve

[Cayars]

SteveP, I've suggested doing a couple of "extra" steps to a couple of people who have had similar issues with my STV and others on upgrades. Try this:

1) Install 2.2.2.
2) Reboot
3) Launch 2.2.2. with OriginalV2.stv and test to make sure everything is basicaly working and you have no CPU spikes. Wait 5 minutes or so (libraries refreshed, etc..)
4) Reboot
5) Lauch 2.2.2. and wait for it to get done loading and checking libraires (3 to 5 minutes.
6) Switch to CayarsXX.stv

This has worked everytime thus far. Some of it probably isn't needed but it seems to work.

[CyRex]

Is there any chance of getting an option to add a link to an exe file to the menu that pops up when you are watching something, or to the detailed info menu of a recording? Or is this already possible by editing the xml?

I want to add an option where I can launch VideoRedo for whatever video I am currently watching or have selected. I want to try and configure my remote so that I can fine tune the commercial start / stop points, and then remove them.

I haven't used VideoReDo yet, so I don't even know how plausible it would be to operate via remote, but it would be pretty nice to be able to do everything from my couch...

[mbrown3]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

No I think TOXMOX nailed it. You definitely should be editing the cayars-menu.xml. This file showed up a couple relasese back...

Yep, that was it. Thanks guys. Now I have the upcoming recording item gone, and am on my way with the menu items. Sheesh, if all problems were just a matter of editing the wrong file...

[ToonGal]

After being stuck in v2.0.20 using Nielm's STV (great job N!), I finally took the plunge to v2.1. This was mainly inspired by Nielm's web server. I'm taking my son on vacation for 2 weeks, and wanted to be able to manage Sage via HTML (instead of VNC, in case I don't have my computer).

I really like your STV Cayars! Has most of the things I liked in Nielm's and more! Just a quick 'thank you' note for your hard work.

Some things I'm still not sure of, but most makes sense. Some quick questions:
- What's the "A" graphic in the TV guide data? "Automatic"?
- The matte file I used for Nielm was 'see through'. Yours is dark blue. Changeable? How?
- What version of comskip are you using? The zip one is dated later than the 'official' v0.64, and you didn't label it in your notes like you did on previous versions. I'm guessing it's the bleeding edge v0.65, but unsure. Stable?
- Is v15 stable enough to use for the next two weeks? Leaving on Friday afternoon. Advise: v2.0.20/Nielm? v2.1.10/Cayars15, Orig? Cayars16 soon? Don't think v2.2.2 is a good plan at this point...
- Am using it in 'user mode' instead of 'service mode'. Not sure of the difference and how/what is separated out. Which way is more stable, in general?

[mbrown3]

Originally Posted by Cayars

The Sage logo area clicking will not take you back to the main menu. Nothing easy I can do about this, since it has to do with the way the Dynamic Menus are designed. You just need to think differently when using this STV. Think HOME key equals MENU key and it will make more sense.

I'm not sure about the OriginalV2 STV, but I'm almost positive that Malore's STV has the logo always go to main menu. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I'm 99% sure it does. I'll check this evening.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by ToonGal

I really like your STV Cayars! Has most of the things I liked in Nielm's and more! Just a quick 'thank you' note for your hard work.

Some things I'm still not sure of, but most makes sense. Some quick questions:
- Am using it in 'user mode' instead of 'service mode'. Not sure of the difference and how/what is separated out. Which way is more stable, in general?

ToonGal welcome to this thread. I read your other post from a while ago where you had worked on a movie times plugin for SAGE. Did you ever get this off the ground? Maybe Carlo and you can work together on this? Seemed to work well when ToxMox and Cayars teamed up... just a thought.

The only question that I can kind of answer is about the service. The service is meant to make the environment more stable since even if the gui crashes the service will continue to run and will continue recording your shows. You can also set the service to restart if it fails, which you can't do with the gui. The downside is that you have two separate properties files to edit if you use the service, which can be confusing if you do that sort of thing very often.

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by ToonGal

- What version of comskip are you using? The zip one is dated later than the 'official' v0.64, and you didn't label it in your notes like you did on previous versions. I'm guessing it's the bleeding edge v0.65, but unsure. Stable?

It is version 0.65. It was a special version to allow for better CC checking on the icons. Since comskip can already check for captions, it just outputs a ccyes or ccno file as appropriate. Nothing else. I would call it stable.

Jere

[mrgibbysworth]

Originally Posted by Cayars

Thinking about this RobDMB, I might remove it all together (configurable). I didn't think about all the other setups that have Sage's sound ran through the Home Theater Sound System/Stereo (Umm like me, doh).

Here's a question for anybody interested in this. There are two peices to this. One is just the visual OSD volume panel. The second is the actual code that handles volume. The question I ask is if I make this configurable do I do it just for the visual aspect but leave the code intact that actually controls volume (just in case) or have it ignore this also based on the configurations setting?

If I were to code it so both get ignored then there is the possibility we could use these (up volume, down volume) for other things in the OSD (maybe mini-guide).

Oppinions please.

BTW, this will probably be a 17 release thing.

My thoughts exactly. I use Sage through a HT receiver, so I don't use internal volume at all. The problem for me is that when I set up my Hauppage remote, I recall needing to set the L and R d-pad keys to dual functionality (L,Vol- and R,Vol+) in order to get some of things to work correctly. (I don't remember what that was actually, I will try reverting to L/R functionality only tonight.) I frequently use L key to get back to root menu and eventually it starts decreasing the volume. I really need to just get a better universal remote and configure it for Sage. (cmon santa)

But freeing up those keys for navigating mini-guide might be the way to go. (at least that's my vote)

[Hector]

The more you can remove/change and MOVE any of the osd elements the better. It's a consideration for those of us with screens susceptible to burn in. One good thing about Sage is that you can adjust the overscan settings essentially shifting things a little. Tivo on the other hand stinks and many a screen has that stupid 'Tivo Central' burned into it.

peace . . .

Originally Posted by Cayars

Thinking about this RobDMB, I might remove it all together (configurable). I didn't think about all the other setups that have Sage's sound ran through the Home Theater Sound System/Stereo (Umm like me, doh).

Here's a question for anybody interested in this. There are two peices to this. One is just the visual OSD volume panel. The second is the actual code that handles volume. The question I ask is if I make this configurable do I do it just for the visual aspect but leave the code intact that actually controls volume (just in case) or have it ignore this also based on the configurations setting?

If I were to code it so both get ignored then there is the possibility we could use these (up volume, down volume) for other things in the OSD (maybe mini-guide).

Oppinions please.

BTW, this will probably be a 17 release thing.

[Cayars]

Originally Posted by CyRex

Is there any chance of getting an option to add a link to an exe file to the menu that pops up when you are watching something, or to the detailed info menu of a recording? Or is this already possible by editing the xml?

I want to add an option where I can launch VideoRedo for whatever video I am currently watching or have selected. I want to try and configure my remote so that I can fine tune the commercial start / stop points, and then remove them.

I haven't used VideoReDo yet, so I don't even know how plausible it would be to operate via remote, but it would be pretty nice to be able to do everything from my couch...

You WILL LIKE version 16.