Feature request- A must Features for a PVR

[chinna_n]

I was wondering why there is no support for computer wakeup for scheduled recording? Like computer in sleep, and when a scheduled recording is there, computer wakes up and do the recording and go to sleep again. Like any typical PVR/VCR and even basic TV Tuner software.

Also, it must be able to do it from shutdown computer, like it starts the computer based on schedule, do the recording and go to sleep/shutdown.

These features are available in 3-4 years old TV Tuner card software.( For example LeadTek Winfast series) My LeadTek winfast TV 2000 Expert software does it( including silent recording and sleep shutdown cycle). It starts computers from standby as well as from complete shutdown stat, and it is almost 3+ years old software.

This is done with ACPI hardware timer event. Events are registered with ACPI realtime clock, and when the settime is up, it wakes or start the computer. Based on setting we should be able to tell how many minutes in advance the computer should comeback online( 2-3 minutes for example).

here is one such utility for example, look like they even provide source code http://wakeuponstandby.www-dennisbab....qarchive.org/

I think this is real necessary for any PVR software , esp likes of Beyond TV, as today computers suck as much power as 200watts+, some even just at idle. Just to record one 30 minutes show, you need to keep running the computer for 24 hours, even do not need it!!? Not a good idea.


2. Second one needed( I think so) is ability to diable Timeshifting by default, may be based on Tuners( esp for software cards). Irrespective cards, I see lot of quality difference between timeshifted material vs actual live even at the highest quality. Initially I was surprized about the drastic decrease in quality in BeyondTV when compared to my WinFast software, but when I timeshifted in there too, I see the quality loss. But not much worst than hardward card anyways.

[Fonceur]

BTV has been able to wake up the PC and put it back in standby for years... Have you tried it?

[cfaslave]

Originally Posted by chinna_n

2. Second one needed( I think so) is ability to diable Timeshifting by default, may be based on Tuners( esp for software cards). Irrespective cards, I see lot of quality difference between timeshifted material vs actual live even at the highest quality. Initially I was surprized about the drastic decrease in quality in BeyondTV when compared to my WinFast software, but when I timeshifted in there too, I see the quality loss. But not much worst than hardward card anyways.

I kinda see your point, but you can get to very good video quality even with recorded content with the right settings and hardware. Taking the recording out of PVR would make it just a PV instead of a PVR and BTV is definitely a Personal Video Recorder.

[chinna_n]

No, we do not need to completely takeout the feature, just give user option, also it is good idea to enable disable based on tuner. It is unnecessary to keep timeshiting when user do not need it. It is waste of resources( Takes quite a bit CPU with software encoder card, much more than software supplied with card).

And about the quality, noway you can get the quality of live, whatever you do. It the nature of the compression. You may not notice much difference if the hardware card itself it not that great, but if you use something like WinFast XP 2000 expert software player vs winTV PVR150/PVR 1600 you will realize that how much quality you are loosing infact. Infact if you see the video on 32" LCD, it is worst than VCR Live using S-Video output to 32" LCD.

And about the enabling wakeup events, where are the options, pointers would be good, I see a option in advanced settings in web interface to set the time, but where to enable it . Earlier I scheduled recordings and send PC to sleep, BeyondTV did nothing.

Thanks

[dv8ed]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

BTV has been able to wake up the PC and put it back in standby for years... Have you tried it?

i'm new to all of this.. how would you do this? any help would be appreciated.

[Joe The Dude]

Originally Posted by chinna_n

No, we do not need to completely takeout the feature, just give user option, also it is good idea to enable disable based on tuner. It is unnecessary to keep timeshiting when user do not need it. It is waste of resources( Takes quite a bit CPU with software encoder card, much more than software supplied with card).

And about the quality, noway you can get the quality of live, whatever you do. It the nature of the compression. You may not notice much difference if the hardware card itself it not that great, but if you use something like WinFast XP 2000 expert software player vs winTV PVR150/PVR 1600 you will realize that how much quality you are loosing infact. Infact if you see the video on 32" LCD, it is worst than VCR Live using S-Video output to 32" LCD.

And about the enabling wakeup events, where are the options, pointers would be good, I see a option in advanced settings in web interface to set the time, but where to enable it . Earlier I scheduled recordings and send PC to sleep, BeyondTV did nothing.

Thanks

Right-click on your Desktop.
Choose "Properties".
Choose "Screen Saver" tab.
Click the "Power..." Button.
Click on the "System Standby" drop-down box and set it for whatever value you want.

Open BTV.
Choose to "Exit the BTV Viewscape".
DO NOT Close BTV's Icon in the taskbar near the PC Clock.
Go to: Start --> Program Files --> Snapstream --> Beyond TV --> Web Admin.

Find the place in there where you can choose to "Start BTV Minimised" when your PC Starts.
I forgot the exact wording and location, as I'm not home right now and can't look it up, exactly.

So long as the BTV Viewscape is closed, and there is a BTV Icon in the taskbar near your PC's Clock, and you have your PC set up to go into Standby at a predetermined time of inactivity, it should work, provided that your BIOS supports standby.

[myktek]

Originally Posted by Joe The Dude

Right-click on your Desktop.
Choose "Properties".
Choose "Screen Saver" tab.
Click the "Power..." Button.
Click on the "System Standby" drop-down box and set it for whatever value you want.

Open BTV.
Choose to "Exit the BTV Viewscape".
DO NOT Close BTV's Icon in the taskbar near the PC Clock.
Go to: Start --> Program Files --> Snapstream --> Beyond TV --> Web Admin.

Find the place in there where you can choose to "Start BTV Minimised" when your PC Starts.
I forgot the exact wording and location, as I'm not home right now and can't look it up, exactly.

So long as the BTV Viewscape is closed, and there is a BTV Icon in the taskbar near your PC's Clock, and you have your PC set up to go into Standby at a predetermined time of inactivity, it should work, provided that your BIOS supports standby.

To get to Web Admin, right click on the BTV icon in the system tray, choose Advanced Settings, it will open up in your internet browser, then go to Advanced Settings, Miscellaneous Settings then scroll down to Standby Resume Padding.

[pvrguy]

Originally Posted by myktek

To get to Web Admin, right click on the BTV icon in the system tray, choose Advanced Settings, it will open up in your internet browser, then go to Advanced Settings, Miscellaneous Settings then scroll down to Standby Resume Padding.

Does this mean the 50 second wakeup time can be increased?

[chinna_n]

Thanks for the help. Yesterday I created a sample recording to check it again. It did wakeup from sleep( earlier I was pretty sure it did not) and recorded the program, but did not go back to sleep.

And about the option you are talking, I could not find that option ""Start BTV Minimised" .

Only thing I found was resume padding which I mentioned above.

It would be great to know how to send it back to previous state( whatever state it is, if it was in sleep, send it back to sleep, if it was shutdown, shutdown else leave it on.

Thanks once again for all the help.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by chinna_n

Thanks for the help. Yesterday I created a sample recording to check it again. It did wakeup from sleep( earlier I was pretty sure it did not) and recorded the program, but did not go back to sleep.

Your system was probably busy with SmartSkip, ShowSqueeze or something else, otherwise it would have gone back to standby... Did you wait enough for those tasks to complete?

[pvrguy]

Check your Power Options in the Control Panel to see which profile is selected and then see if there is a time set for either Standby or Hibernate.

I use 1 minute - turn off monitor, 5 minutes - turn off hard disk, 10 minutes - hibernate.

[chinna_n]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Your system was probably busy with SmartSkip, ShowSqueeze or something else, otherwise it would have gone back to standby... Did you wait enough for those tasks to complete?

Nope, I did not enable SmartSkip or showsqueeze. Yes, I set the recording at 11:30PM for 1 hour, put the computer to sleep. Today morning when I checked, program is recorded fine, but computer is not sleep mode.

In my power setting, I did not enable automatic/timed standby/sleep, I do it explicityly by pressing sleep button on my keyboard. Generally after use, I simply press sleep button and when I want it back, I simply press powerbutton. It is more convenient for me because, my system has UPS, even when power goes for a while( couple of hours), in sleep mode it won't loose any data as it hardly takes 10watts in sleep mode.

If I set any automode, it turns of monitor while watching video/movie as there is no input. so, I prefer explicit sleep mode.

[myktek]

Originally Posted by pvrguy

Does this mean the 50 second wakeup time can be increased?

Yes, it is in seconds, so just do the math conversion from minutes to seconds and enter it.. I'm surprised no one noticed it until now.

[chinna_n]

Hmm,

I could not figure how to wake it from shutdown state for a recording!!? Waking from standby working fine, but not from Shutdown state.

Also, it does not go the previous state, it simply wakes up records and leaves PC on.

Any pointers? I could not find any info on this subject.

Thanks

[tscales]

I don't know that it will start up from off. Off is off. As for going back to sleep, BTV won't put it to sleep. You have to have your machine setup to sleep if no activity.