[addon] PostHaste

[AdmA]

all I did was add posthaste.exe into the custompostprocessing.xml file. Then I opened posthaste.exe and added all of the files, in order that I wanted to execute after a show was finished. I told the "cpt".xmt file to run it immediately and posthaste takes over the rest for you.

[gaines]

Originally Posted by AdmA

By the way, what is wrong with BT's forum search function? When I searched for PostHaste...it does not come up for me, I had to find a link in another thread.

It appears the forum search does not return threads in the downloads section, which is pretty dumb considering that's where the most information is about these plugins and addons.

[bits]

Originally Posted by dzCepheus

Hey, sorry for the vagueness!

PostHaste is designed to be called from BTV. Basically, instead of putting your programs in the CustomPostProcessing.xml file, you put them in PostHaste. Then, you put PostHaste.exe in the CustomPostProcessing.xml file.

BTV will pass the filename of whatever video is to be processed to PostHaste, which will then run each of the programs you configured in PostHaste, passing the filename to each in turn.

The point of this is that PostHaste allows you to hide the UI of the post processing programs (like comskip for example) which might otherwise steal focus or cover up the BTV application. Instead of having BTV run the applications, PostHaste does it for you.

Let me know if you need any more help. Sorry it took so long to post this.

PosteHaste works great!

THANK YOU!!!

[cmcquistion]

How well does PostHaste deal with lots of videos being passed to it, sometimes simultaneously, or just having lots of jobs somewhere in it's queue?

[gaines]

Originally Posted by cmcquistion

How well does PostHaste deal with lots of videos being passed to it, sometimes simultaneously, or just having lots of jobs somewhere in it's queue?

I'm no expert, but I would bet that it never gets multiple videos passed to it. Instead, BTV would kick off multiple instances of PostHaste which would run in parallel.

[geoffstewart]

I have comskip, autoxvid and my own cleanup batch file controlled by PostHaste and have had no problems... Mind you, I only have 2 tuners so there's only so much backlog you can get with that.

Autoxvid ends up queuing things up itself so that's no problem... comskip takes about 7 minutes for a 1 hour show on my setup and my clean up script is just seconds... so I doubt it will ever be a problem for me. However, if your posthaste actions are long running, you may have issues.

Geoff

[AdmA]

can anyone confirm from Snapstream, howCustom post processing is called if their is already an instance of it? IE will two instances of post haste and subsequentyl comskip be running? or is there a queue

[cmcquistion]

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you're asking. If you're asking if BTV queues up CustomPostProcessing tasks and kicks them off one at a time, the answer is yes. If you set the CustomPostProcessing tasks to DeferredImmediate or Deferred, it will kick off only one CustomPostProcessing task at a time, one a single-CPU system. On a dual CPU (or dual-core, or Hyperthreaded) system, it will kick off two jobs (on different videos) at a time. If you set your CustomPostProcessing tasks to Immediate, they will simply kick off immediately, regardless of whether other jobs are running on other videos. If you have multiple CustomPostProcessing tasks, they will each have to complete before going on to the next.

I would be willing to bet that PostHaste, itself, probably doesn't implement a queue. It probably just kicks things off whenever they're posted.

That said, I have a script that I have written to force only a single Comskip batch process to run at a time (too many running at once were slowing down my BTV Link performance). I have another script that basically forces only one Showsqueeze job at a time, even though I have a dual-core CPU. I implemented this for the same reason and since Showsqueeze is now multi-threaded, it can actually use both cores for a single Showsqueeze job. Since Showsqueeze uses a lot of CPU and memory resources, running multiple Showsqueeze jobs doesn't really interest me, especially since there are probably only minor time savings.

If anyone is actually interested, I can post these scripts. I have my CustomPostProcessing to run my waitskip script, then my comskip script, then my waitsqueeze script. All are set to Immediate and basically run one at a time, on every video.

[cmcquistion]

Edited my post, above, because I don't think I read your question, correctly, the first time.

[cmcquistion]

Someone PM-d me and asked for the scripts, so here they are:

Here is my "waitskip.bat". I have this set up to basically just wait and then loop if it finds evidence of a comskip process that is running, OR a showsqueeze job is running. The second part is really optional. On my setup, I place Showsqueeze jobs at the highest priority. I want them to get finished as quickly as possible, so I don't even let comskip run and use up CPU resources if there is a showsqueeze job running. Of course, this may or may not be important to the next guy...

@ECHO OFF
ECHO.
:: Change the FIND string and the tokens/delims
:: parameters for non-US language and settings:
FOR /F "tokens=2 delims=." %%A IN ('VER ^| TIME ^| FIND "current"') DO SET Random=%%A
::
ECHO Sleeping for %Random% seconds
SLEEP %Random%
:10
IF EXIST V:\Video_Folder1\*.txt GOTO 50
IF EXIST V:\Video_Folder2\*.txt GOTO 50
IF EXIST V:\Video_Folder3\*.txt GOTO 50
::
IF EXIST V:\Video_Folder1\*.deleteme.tmp* GOTO 50
IF EXIST V:\Video_Folder2\*.deleteme.tmp* GOTO 50
IF EXIST V:\Video_Folder3\*.deleteme.tmp* GOTO 50
::
ECHO No running jobs found, exiting...
EXIT
::
:50
ECHO Some other job is still running. I will try again in 60 seconds...
ECHO .
SLEEP 60
GOTO 10

Here is my "comskip.bat"

"C:\comskip\comskip.exe" %*
:: clean up log and txt files
del "%~pdn1".log
del "%~pdn1".logo.txt
del "%~pdn1".txt
del "%~pdn1".mpg.index.dat
del "%~pdn1".tp.index.dat

Here is my "waitsqueeze.bat". Waitsqueeze does NOT SLEEP for a random time before starting. I want it to start immediately after comskip finishes. If it finds evidence of a running Showsqueeze job (a *.deleteme.tmp file or *.deleteme.tmp directory, then it SLEEPs for 60 seconds and repeats.

@ECHO OFF
ECHO.
:10
IF EXIST V:\Video_Folder1\*.deleteme.tmp* GOTO 50
IF EXIST V:\Video_Folder2\*.deleteme.tmp* GOTO 50
IF EXIST V:\Video_Folder3\*.deleteme.tmp* GOTO 50
::
ECHO No running jobs found, exiting...
EXIT
::
:50
ECHO Some other job is still running. I will try again in 60 seconds...
ECHO .
SLEEP 60
GOTO 10

For these SLEEP operations to work, you have to install the Windows 2003 Resource Kit which is a free download from Microsoft. The SLEEP operation is there for two reasons. For one, it causes the task to be slightly delayed. This solves some problems with the system stuttering when several recordings finish, several more recordings start, and several post processing tasks, all try to launch at about the same time. Secondly, because I use a random number and not a fixed number, the waiting or exiting process is put in a more ordered form and they don't compete (this probably isn't the best explanation.)

Here is my CustomPostProcessing.xml file, which shows the various steps, which are all set to Immediate. If they were set to Deferred or Deferred Immediate, then only one level of CustomPostProcessing tasks would be completed at a time on the various jobs. This means that if 3 recordings all finished simultaneously, BTV would launch only the first CustomPostProcessing (waitskip.bat) task on all three videos. Only once all of those were completed, would BTV start launching the second step (comskip.bat). I didn't want that. I wanted everything to launch and run as soon as possible, as long as they don't interfere with each other. By having the waitskip.bat and waitsqueeze.bat files, I make an attempt at ensuring that only one comskip and only one showsqueeze job at a time are launched. This keeps system resources in check.

"CustomPostProcessing.xml"

<CustomTasks>
<Task>
<GUID>531E0175-87F4-4d6f-B464-E603BC641DAE</GUID>
<Priority>Immediate</Priority>
<PropertyCollection>
<Property>
<Name>Command</Name>
<Value>C:\comskip\waitskip.bat</Value>
</Property>
</PropertyCollection>
</Task>
<Task>
<GUID>531E0175-87F4-4d6f-B464-E603BC641DAE</GUID>
<Priority>Immediate</Priority>
<PropertyCollection>
<Property>
<Name>Command</Name>
<Value>C:\comskip\comskip.bat</Value>
</Property>
</PropertyCollection>
</Task>
<Task>
<GUID>531E0175-87F4-4d6f-B464-E603BC641DAE</GUID>
<Priority>Immediate</Priority>
<PropertyCollection>
<Property>
<Name>Command</Name>
<Value>C:\comskip\waitsqueeze.bat</Value>
</Property>
</PropertyCollection>
</Task>
</CustomTasks>

[Full Throttle]

I am running BeyondTV 4.4.0. I looked in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SnapStream\Beyond TV" but there is no file called "CustomPostProcessing.xml" in this directory.

How does one use PostHaste with v4.4?

[cmcquistion]

Read this article in the knowledgebase for information about adding Custom Post Processing tasks:

http://snapstream.helpserve.com/inde...d=1254&nav=0,1

[dzCepheus]

Hmm, sorry about neglecting the forum for so long =X I wasn't getting email notifications of replies.

I'm no expert, but I would bet that it never gets multiple videos passed to it. Instead, BTV would kick off multiple instances of PostHaste which would run in parallel.

This is correct. One PostHaste instance will be kicked off for each PostProcessing call that BTV makes - which, if you end up having two or more shows ending on a certain time, means you'll have multiple instances of PostHaste running at once.

I did consider having PostHaste act as a queue, but decided against it due to the additional complexity of passing the values between instances. If there's enough interest in this, perhaps I'll start working on the next version.

[John Sparks]

actually I keep getting errors in posthaste when I am done recording two shows at a time (dual hauppauge tuners). Posthaste will crash on me

The event log in xp shows this:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    .NET Runtime 2.0 Error Reporting
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    5000
Date:        9/28/2006
Time:        11:02:20 PM
User:        N/A
Computer:    SPARKS
Description:
EventType clr20r3, P1 posthaste.exe, P2 1.0.0.0, P3 444aa420, P4 mscorlib, P5 2.0.0.0, P6 4333ab80, P7 32f8, P8 21c, P9 system.io.ioexception, P10 NIL.

the debug.log doesn't show anything happening. in fact, what is not in the log is that it was supposed to process another show. I taped ER and Shark at the same time. It processed ER but crashed on Shark (didn't even make it to the log)
Here it is:

=====
9/28/2006 8:32:08 PM : Loading configuration data from: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Foundry\PostHaste\1.0.0.0\entries.ph
9/28/2006 8:32:08 PM : Sending the following as arguments: "D:\Video\Snapstream\My Name Is Earl-(Jump for Joy)-2006-09-28-0.mpg"
9/28/2006 8:32:08 PM : Starting D:\Video\Comskip\comskip.bat
9/28/2006 8:32:09 PM : All entries executed. Terminating.
9/28/2006 9:02:06 PM : Loading configuration data from: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Foundry\PostHaste\1.0.0.0\entries.ph
9/28/2006 9:02:06 PM : Sending the following as arguments: "D:\Video\Snapstream\Smallville-(Zod)-2006-09-28-0.mpg"
9/28/2006 9:02:06 PM : Starting D:\Video\Comskip\comskip.bat
9/28/2006 9:02:06 PM : All entries executed. Terminating.
9/28/2006 10:00:06 PM : Loading configuration data from: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Foundry\PostHaste\1.0.0.0\entries.ph
9/28/2006 10:00:06 PM : Sending the following as arguments: "D:\Video\Snapstream\CSI_ Crime Scene Investigation (2_2)-(Built to Kill)-2006-09-28-0.mpg"
9/28/2006 10:00:06 PM : Starting D:\Video\Comskip\comskip.bat
9/28/2006 10:00:06 PM : All entries executed. Terminating.
9/28/2006 11:02:10 PM : Loading configuration data from: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Foundry\PostHaste\1.0.0.0\entries.ph
9/28/2006 11:02:10 PM : Sending the following as arguments: "D:\Video\Snapstream\ER-(Graduation Day)-2006-09-28-0.mpg"
9/28/2006 11:02:10 PM : Starting D:\Video\Comskip\comskip.bat
9/28/2006 11:02:10 PM : All entries executed. Terminating.

=====


Edited to add: after reading this thread I checked my CustomPostProcessing.xml file and saw I had the priority set to "Immediate" - I changed just changed it to "DeferredImmediate" and will wait and see if that fixes things. I will report back if it does.

[AdmA]

i would be interested...can anyone confirm this deferredimmediate command?