BTV-Externinator - Alpha release

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by genehsu

something very strange happened this morning.. last night, prison break, heroes and 24 all recorded perfectly... i even watched heroes last night. this morning when i woke up and looked at my recorded shows, the .tps have been deleted! all that is left in the directory is the xml smart chapters.. has anyone heard of this happening??

One thing that I did notice last night was that all of the new tp files in my btv directory were still hidden.

It's not just you, this has now happened to me twice. Did it the other night and I thought it was a fluke, but I just looked and one of my recordings from last night is gone too. Lately I've been watching things like a hawk to make sure shows record, else I'll kick off an analog recording, so I know the recording was there last night.

Frustrating...

Z

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by nanook105

Well, since my setup with Divco FusionHDTV is working well, I decided to bite the bullet and ordered an HDHomeRun this morning. Has anyone got both working on a single BTV server or should I just install on one of my other servers ?

I have both in my server but the Dvico is controlled by BTV since it's OTA. Haven't tried it with BTVE yet, since I needed some capture devices that were relatively stable.

Z

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by nanook105

Well, since my setup with Divco FusionHDTV is working well, I decided to bite the bullet and ordered an HDHomeRun this morning. Has anyone got both working on a single BTV server or should I just install on one of my other servers ?

I think that Howard is running Dvico + HDHomeRun on the BTV server, with an extra DVICO on another pc...

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by genehsu

this morning when i woke up and looked at my recorded shows, the .tps have been deleted! all that is left in the directory is the xml smart chapters.. has anyone heard of this happening??

Originally Posted by Zogg

It's not just you, this has now happened to me twice.

Hmm, check to see the BTV logs and showsqueeze reports on the web admin... Maybe the showsqueeze ate the file or something...

[mlomker]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Maybe the showsqueeze ate the file or something...

Ah, that could be why I haven't had the problem. I don't use showsqueeze.

[genehsu]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Hmm, check to see the BTV logs and showsqueeze reports on the web admin... Maybe the showsqueeze ate the file or something...

Here the BTV log.. looks ok.. i'll try turning showsqueeze off

edit: i apologize for the mix up.. when i say showsqueeze, i mean smartchapters.. i get the two mixed up because they're under the same menu in btv.
the log doesn't say anything about the three smartchapter jobs completing successfully.. does it usualyl say that?

[2007/1/22 20:00:03] Library detected new media: D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Prison Break-(John Doe)-2007-01-22-1.tp
[2007/1/22 20:00:03] Library detected new media: D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Prison Break-(John Doe)-2007-01-22-1.tp.inprogress.xml
[2007/1/22 20:00:38] Setting system wakeup time: 1/22 8:59 PM
[2007/1/22 21:00:01] Library detected new media: D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Heroes-(Godsend)-2007-01-22-2.tp.inprogress.xml
[2007/1/22 21:00:01] Library detected new media: D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Heroes-(Godsend)-2007-01-22-2.tp
[2007/1/22 21:00:03] Library detected new media: D:\Beyond TV Recordings\24-(Day 6_ 10_00AM - 11_00AM)-2007-01-22-1.tp.inprogress.xml
[2007/1/22 21:00:03] Library detected new media: D:\Beyond TV Recordings\24-(Day 6_ 10_00AM - 11_00AM)-2007-01-22-1.tp
[2007/1/22 21:00:37] Setting system wakeup time: 1/23 7:59 PM
[2007/1/22 21:01:54] SmartChapter generation for D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Prison Break-(John Doe)-2007-01-22-1.tp successfully submitted.
[2007/1/22 21:02:02] Tagging of D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Prison Break-(John Doe)-2007-01-22-1.tp completed.
[2007/1/22 22:01:54] SmartChapter generation for D:\Beyond TV Recordings\24-(Day 6_ 10_00AM - 11_00AM)-2007-01-22-1.tp successfully submitted.
[2007/1/22 22:02:00] Tagging of D:\Beyond TV Recordings\24-(Day 6_ 10_00AM - 11_00AM)-2007-01-22-1.tp completed.
[2007/1/22 22:02:54] SmartChapter generation for D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Heroes-(Godsend)-2007-01-22-2.tp successfully submitted.
[2007/1/22 22:02:59] Tagging of D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Heroes-(Godsend)-2007-01-22-2.tp completed.
[2007/1/22 22:35:44] Using NVIDIA Video Decoder.
[2007/1/22 22:35:44] Using SnapStream Audio Decoder.
[2007/1/22 22:35:44] Using default filters for playback
[2007/1/22 22:35:44] Using default video renderer for playback
[2007/1/22 22:35:48] ViewScape using default renderer for file playback.
[2007/1/22 22:55:18] Using NVIDIA Video Decoder.
[2007/1/22 22:55:18] Using SnapStream Audio Decoder.
[2007/1/22 22:55:19] Using default filters for playback
[2007/1/22 22:55:19] Using default video renderer for playback
[2007/1/22 22:55:21] ViewScape using default renderer for file playback.
[2007/1/22 23:45:28] The Beyond TV ViewScape is closing itself due to a close message.
[2007/1/23 03:55:05] Version 4.6.0 (Build 3728)
[2007/1/23 03:55:05] SmartChapter Generator - Chapter generation completed for D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Prison Break-(John Doe)-2007-01-22-1.tp.
[2007/1/23 04:49:04] SmartChapter Generator - Chapter generation completed for D:\Beyond TV Recordings\24-(Day 6_ 10_00AM - 11_00AM)-2007-01-22-1.tp.
[2007/1/23 05:52:32] SmartChapter Generator - Chapter generation completed for D:\Beyond TV Recordings\Heroes-(Godsend)-2007-01-22-2.tp.
[2007/1/23 07:14:34] The Beyond TV ViewScape is closing itself due to a close message.

[mlomker]

Originally Posted by genehsu

the log doesn't say anything about the three smartchapter jobs completing successfully.. does it usualyl say that?

It said that chapter generation completed. Looks normal to me.

You could download a copy of Process Monitor and set a filter for TP/MPG files in the recording directory. That generates an awful lot of data to sort through but it'd definitely show what process deleted the file. I'd just leave it running overnight and sort through the logged information the next time that it happens.

[cat6man]

Originally Posted by nanook105

Well, since my setup with Divco FusionHDTV is working well, I decided to bite the bullet and ordered an HDHomeRun this morning. Has anyone got both working on a single BTV server or should I just install on one of my other servers ?

no problem...i have 2 dvico fusion tuners on ota (BTV controlled) as well as an hdhr (soon to be 2 hdhr) and one pvr-usb2 for stb output

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by genehsu

the log doesn't say anything about the three smartchapter jobs completing successfully.. does it usualyl say that?

The end of the log does say that they completed... I am not seeing anything in regard to showsqueeze, so you probably haven't enabled the HD showsqueeze... Did you make sure that the file were really deleted and not just hidden? Nothing funny on the ShowSqueeze page of the web admin? You didn't run out of space and BTV started to purge, or you don't have an anti-virus program that decided to delete those files for some strange reason?

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Hmm, check to see the BTV logs and showsqueeze reports on the web admin... Maybe the showsqueeze ate the file or something...

I can't tell from my logs. For one of the shows, BTVE scheduled Smart Skip and Showsqueeze jobs, but when it was time there was a 'file not found' error, so the file was already gone.

On the other job, BTVE again did it's thing, but there is a gap in the BTV log file for that night (one log ends at like 9:30PM and the next log starts at 1:30AM) and no SS or SQ entries for that recording.

I think I'll disable HD SQ within BTVE and see what happens.

Z

Update: Crap, just discovered a 3rd show that disappeared. Again, SS and SQ jobs were submitted by BTVE, then later when BTV tries to do SS and then later SQ the file wasn't found. Crap!

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by cat6man

no problem...i have 2 dvico fusion tuners on ota (BTV controlled) as well as an hdhr (soon to be 2 hdhr) and one pvr-usb2 for stb output

I'm looking a little different because I want BTVE to control the Divco Fusion and the HDHR. Making matters even more interesting - I also have a PVRUSB2 and a WinTVGO FM, which is that magical mix of HW & SW tuners not "officially" supported by BTV.

[Fonceur]

Version .63 (alpha) is available.

- The creation of the .inprogress.xml file is now off by default, but this can be changed on the Parameters sub-tab.

- Delete original file for HD ShowSqueeze is now off, regardless of the user's settings.


Hopefully those should prevent BTV from deleting the recorded files for no reason, assuming the problem is indeed with BTV...

[HowardGilbert]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

I think that Howard is running Dvico + HDHomeRun on the BTV server, with an extra DVICO on another pc...

Yes you can run an HDHR and one DVICO on the same machine. There is a problem running two DVICOs on the same machine because of the requirement to shutdown and recycle the program between recordings. That said, to be honest I have been experiencing unreliability in the hardware of the second (Lite) DVICO card and have pulled it out of the rotation but that has nothing to do with BTVE or the software.

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by HowardGilbert

Yes you can run an HDHR and one DVICO on the same machine. There is a problem running two DVICOs on the same machine because of the requirement to shutdown and recycle the program between recordings. That said, to be honest I have been experiencing unreliability in the hardware of the second (Lite) DVICO card and have pulled it out of the rotation but that has nothing to do with BTVE or the software.

Interesting. If all are using the same source/QAM lineup, does BTVE use the same methods to determine which tuner records first, second, third (based on the order of the tuners in the sources list) or is BTV actually assigning the tuners when multiple shows are being recorded at the same time ?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by nanook105

If all are using the same source/QAM lineup, does BTVE use the same methods to determine which tuner records first, second, third (based on the order of the tuners in the sources list) or is BTV actually assigning the tuners when multiple shows are being recorded at the same time ?

All the schedulling is done by BTV, for that case, on 3 virtual capture devices... Which also leads to some rechedulling as BTV is not aware of what is going on with the external recordings...

As it has been suggested before, it would be better to pool all that together (evn for a single HDHomeRun unit) and dispatch/reschedul in BTVE, but that's not exactly trivial and would require major changes...