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Recordingservice Beta


Lars_MQ

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Process Timer

Allows you to execute external programs like TVInfo, tvxml import etc. The timer uses the existing process task.

IMPORTANT: if a program should be used with this timer, make sure it does shut-down itself after it finishes and it can't show any message boxes. The programs do run in the user context of the recording service and have no possibility for any user interaction.

 

I have tried this with the Xepg (version 0.3.0.1+ is a must), but have a problem. I get this one o:)

 

http://www.a123.dk/forum/justintime.jpg

 

my settings are

 

http://www.a123.dk/forum/taskeditor.jpg

 

http://www.a123.dk/forum/web.jpg

 

 

If I call

 

"C:\Programmer\Xepg\Xepg.exe" -xImport

 

from within a .BAT file everything works fine.

 

From svcdebug.log:

12.02.2009 04:32:45 Recording service shutdown 
12.02.2009 04:34:24 Start App		-----------------------------------
12.02.2009 04:34:24 thread		   service started
12.02.2009 04:34:24 StartService	 start timer
12.02.2009 04:34:24 StartService	 create plugin list
12.02.2009 04:34:24 StartService	 loadchannellist
12.02.2009 04:34:24 TDVBDevice.InitDevice FireDTV BDA Tuner DVBC
12.02.2009 04:34:24 Device		   Check present
12.02.2009 04:34:24 CheckDevicespresent start
12.02.2009 04:34:24 loadsetup		load vcr
12.02.2009 04:34:24 StartService	 load setup
12.02.2009 04:34:24 Recorderservice  Enabled
12.02.2009 04:46:24 Proctimer		started
12.02.2009 04:46:24 Proctimer		finished

 

http://www.a123.dk/forum/support.zip

 

 

Any clue?

 

EDIT: At least I now can avoid the first exception message. At program startup I read the Config.ini file from the Xepg Data folder (Xepg --> Options --> Install). Seems that I have problems accessing the Xepg Data Folder when called from the Recording Service. So it does not work ;)

@Lars

I will PM you with the problematic unit source.

 

EDIT2: I still get the first exception message. Forgot to set the date of the timer to Today when I tested :huh:

 

EDIT3: Found the bug: A Process Task is not allowed to display a Tray Icon!!!

Edited by Delphi
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1. The service didn't appear to make any attempt to stop the standby from occuring. Can it not/Should it not signal the OS to stop going into standby, and stay awake as DVBViewer/service is configured in my setup to stop shutdown/standby if recording is within next 5 minutes?

 

2. At 22:28, when the OS put the computer into standby, the service set the next wake up time. This is the crucial bit - the service has set the wakeup time as 22:26 which already passed 2 minutes ago!!

That's a real mean one. Brought to you thanks to Vista :huh:

Took me quite some time and several tries to set the whole thing up to replicate it...

 

1. It can't. Vista doesn't allow it. Nothing new here.

 

2. That's the problem. When designing the whole stuff under XP this was not possible, because the service could stop standby/Hibernate. And then came Vista. ;)

 

You really need a lot of bad luck and a perfect sense for bad timing to hit this tiny timewindow where this can happen o:)

 

Anyway, thanks to your very good analysis and explanation I was able to reproduce and fix it.

I can't prevent vista from going standby, but now I make sure the service sets a timer in the very near future which will wake up the computer.

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Maybe it's "bad practice", but could you mark the computer as in-use (ES_SYSTEM_REQUIRED?) 5 minutes before a recording is due to start? It won't prevent somebody from manually choosing to put the machine into standby by pressing the power button (Due to no longer being able to veto a suspend on Vista), but it should at least prevent idle timer timeouts from causing the computer to enter standby.

 

By the way, keep up the great work on the Recording Service. It knocks the socks off every other DVB app out there, especially since the latest version can effectively be a "Server" for the DVBViewer "Client". I think another licence purchase will be on the cards, because all of these upgrades for about £10 is a bargain.

Edited by CX23882-19
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Thanx fot new service beta i find the server integration very good but i have a little bug (same on vista 32 or window 7 32).I have 2 DvbS2 card one Tevii S460 and one TT S2 3600.If i run DVBViewer on the computer who is the service(computer1)(card select is unicast in DVBViewer option) and after start DVBViewer client on a different computer(computer 2) on the LAN the picture go black on the computer 1, one second after all is ok until i close the client on computer then the picture go black on computer 1 until i switch to another channel.If i start first DVBViewer on the computer 2 and next on the computer 1 no black screen on computer 2 and if i stop the viewer on computer 1 no black screen on computer 2.The problem is only on the computer who is the service, it is not a cpu power problem (q6600@3.4 ghz)

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That's a real mean one. Brought to you thanks to Vista ;)

I can't prevent vista from going standby, but now I make sure the service sets a timer in the very near future which will wake up the computer.

 

That's great! That will put my mind at rest once a fixed release is out and installed. Thankfully, the UK TV channels are such that I've managed to get most of what I missed on repeat showings thanks to everything being re-broadcast at least 3-4 times in a week! :-)

 

I did spot that I can create a "Standby" task within the configuration for the Recording Service, but don't seem to be able to trigger that task from the GUI. Not sure what the tasks are for actually as you can't even yet select them in the timer section, so I'm waiting patiently to see what happens with that and if there will be an ability to switch the PC into standby after waking it to use the GUI! ;-)

 

In the meantime, I should report another issue I've had which I believe may be a bug with the hardware detection - or rather a combination of a certain model perhaps?

 

I've recently given DVBViewer control of the 2 x DVB-T tuners in the PC as well as the single DVB-S tuner that it has been controlling since I purchased a license.

 

Everything seemed okay, the hardware is all detected (1xHauppauge Nova-HD-DVB-S2 Tuner and 2x Hauppauge Nova-T DVB-T Tuner). I tried various recordings and all seemed well... until I used it for real!

 

I found I could only do one of the following. Either recording a DVB-S recording OR record up to two DVB-T recordings (on different muxes) at the same time. If I tried to record from DVB-S while DVB-T was in use, it would fail due to "no hardware available" (this was also what was logged into the svcdebug.log). The same happened the other way (i.e. if I tried to record DVB-T while DVB-S was in use, it would fail for the same reason).

 

In the end, after a complete re-install after clearing all files and registry entries!) I found a solution by changing some parameters in the svchardware.xml file.

 

My support.zip is attached to posting #360.

 

When the hardware is first detected, all three devices are created with a parameter:

 

<entry name="DeviceNr">1</entry>

 

I couldn't find out what this DeviceNr parameter did, or if it was correct that all three devices were set to 1, but on the off-chance I set them to 1, 2 and 3 (as you will see in the current *hardware.xml files) and hey presto, I can now record DVB-S AND DVB-T at the same time!

 

I'm concerned my change may be incorrect - and of course if it is a detection bug I'm sure there are other users that may benefit from a fix!

 

Am I correct to number them 1, 2 and 3 to fix this, or should I be setting them such that the DVB-S is numbered 1 and the DVB-T devices are numbered 1 and 2 or something?!?

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Not sure what the tasks are for actually as you can't even yet select them in the timer section, so I'm waiting patiently to see what happens with that and if there will be an ability to switch the PC into standby after waking it to use the GUI! ;-)

have a look at the timer page of the webinterface there at the top is a link called tasks.

 

Am I correct to number them 1, 2 and 3 to fix this, or should I be setting them such that the DVB-S is numbered 1 and the DVB-T devices are numbered 1 and 2 or something?!?

The service should do it automatically. Something is not right there, I'll take a look.

 

I'm concerned my change may be incorrect - and of course if it is a detection bug I'm sure there are other users that may benefit from a fix!

Let's test it. please stop the service and rename the svchardware.xml in the config subfolder of the userdata folder. the start the service again. Now please just post the svchardware.xml without any changes.

 

BTW: Hands of the channelgroups! -T and -S channel are detected by tunertype. you don't need to assign them to different groups. ;)

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have a look at the timer page of the webinterface there at the top is a link called tasks.

 

You can't begin to imagine how embarrased I am! I think, because most of the rest of the site uses form buttons for things, I hadn't noticed it was a link and had subconciously decided it was just some text above the timer list saying "Here are the tasks that the timer current has set"! :-S

 

Must admit I haven't found the equivalent link on the mobile version? I assume it's work-in-progress or might be added later. I'll just use the full site on my mobile for the moment so I can use an "invoke standby" task to put the machine to sleep after using the GUI (it just manages okay in my Nokia's browser).

 

This will let me switch off the troublesome auto-idle-standby in Vista for the moment! :-)

 

The service should do it automatically. Something is not right there, I'll take a look.

Let's test it. please stop the service and rename the svchardware.xml in the config subfolder of the userdata folder. the start the service again. Now please just post the svchardware.xml without any changes.

 

I'll get onto this tonight when I have a break in recordings and get it to you asap.

 

BTW: Hands of the channelgroups! -T and -S channel are detected by tunertype. you don't need to assign them to different groups. :blink:

 

Hehe... yes. This was one of my futile attempts to fix the problem of it claiming no hardware was available for my tuner type! I thought if I separated the channels into two groups then it might "fix" something. It's still like this because I'd got to the stage of "it's working now, I'm not touching anything now it's working, I'll leave it alone now!" ;-)

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The service should do it automatically. Something is not right there, I'll take a look.

Let's test it. please stop the service and rename the svchardware.xml in the config subfolder of the userdata folder. the start the service again. Now please just post the svchardware.xml without any changes.

 

BTW: Hands of the channelgroups! -T and -S channel are detected by tunertype. you don't need to assign them to different groups. :blink:

 

As promised earlier, I've attached a new svchardware xml file. To produce this, I shut down the service, moved my altered svchardware.xml out of of the way, and started up the service so the attached svchardware.xml was created.

 

You'll be pleased to hear I've also re-enabled all channel groups and changed everything in the channel editor to be in channel group A. ;-)

svchardwarenew.xml

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OK, thank you, I go bug hunting. Please move your old svchardware back into place.

 

If BDA devices with different tunertypes have the same Devicenumber they are handlled as hybrid devices this means you can only receive channels of one tunertype at a time. There must somewhere be a bug in these detection routines... :blink:

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Good luck! If you need me to run something else, or extract any other information for you, then let me know and I'll try my best to oblige.

 

There is definitely nothing hybrid about the devices in my machine by the way - the three tuners are three separate PCI cards in the machine (2 of which are exactly the same make/model of course for DVB-T)).

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Thanks to your help and with your posted svchardware.xml I was able to locate and fix this bug. Hotfix is in the membersarea.

If you could verify the detection now works correctly with your setup (means devicenumbers from 1..3), it would be very helpful. :blink:

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Hello!

 

I have an issue with recordingservice. The computer crashed some time a ago. And after that I had problem with recording service. Unistalled recordingservice and DVBViewer and reinstalled it again. Recordingservice 1.4.7.10. The problem with that version is the service don't start again after I exit DVBViewer. I installed the new version 1.4.7.51 and also now 1.4.7.52. Now is the other way around. It don't stop when I start DVBViewer, with the problem I can't see any channels that use the Cam.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

/Patrik

support.zip

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The Cam don't work when the recordingservice is running when i watch tv in DVBViewer. Then I have to exit DVBViewer and stop the recordingservice and start DVBViewer again.

 

With the new recordingservice should it stop when i start DVBViewer or should is always be running?

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Is there going to be any way to highlight programmes in the Timeline view by their "genre"? For example, to display all "movie/drama (general)" in a certain colour.

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should not be too hard. we define a css style for each genre and I simply assign the genre name as class in the html.

OK this would look very colorful and most probably very confusing. :blink: I need to think a little more about it.

Would be also a nice to have feature in the TVGuide... (my preferred view :wacko: )

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If you could verify the detection now works correctly with your setup (means devicenumbers from 1..3), it would be very helpful. :wacko:

 

Both hardware config files are attached. These were generated by a fresh detection by DVBViewer v4.0.1.11 and the DVB Recording Service v1.4.7.52. All appears correct, and DeviceNr now appears as 1..3 without me having to go fiddling with it! :blink:

 

I see from the latest change logs that you have already found my third bug, the problem with editing timers in the webgui - so I have now run out of bug reports for the moment! ;)

hardware.xml

svchardware.xml

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please read this explanation no need to repeat it all over again ;)

 

Sometimes I'm blind. :wacko:

 

Now I got the new recordingservice to work. :blink:

 

One issue that I have is in the configure Recorder to change where I save my recordings didn't work.

I want to use c:\recordings instead of c:\users\public\video.

1 Add c:\recordings

2 delete c:\users\public\video. This step don't work it happens nothing, if I try to delete c:\recordings then it changes to c:\users\public\video

 

I tried even to exit recordingservice and start it again, but same issue.

 

My work around was that I edit the configfolder\config\service.xml and changed it. So I think it works not tried it.

 

Question: Have I got i right that I can use the web epg search to set up auto search that adds timers, instead of using EPGPlus? (Maybee even have to with the latest version?)

support.zip

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I've picked up a couple of very minor bugs in the Web GUI templates.

 

I connect to the Web GUI through a server running Apache with a proxy pass-through as I already host a website on my broadband's external IP, and as a consequence of this I can see any errors of missing pages/images/scripts/etc in the DVBViewer Web GUI.

 

A file named "epoch_styles.css" is being called from the "epg_search.html" template. There is no such file in the installation.

 

A file named "globals.css" is being called from the "timeline.html" template. This appears to be a typo of global.css (non-plural)?

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Hi Lars

 

I have a problem with Recordingservice ver 1.4.7.52

Streaming to DVDViewer works fine, but as soon as I start a recording the web server stop responding,

But I can see that it continues to record (the file growings in size).

 

The streams to DVBViewer works fine until I change the channel then it stops to work.

 

The server takes no extra cpu power (around 1-2%)

 

Recordingservice do not respond "net stop" dont work and can´t kill it.

it will stick in position Stopping

 

Version upp to 1.4.7.10 works fine.

 

(I´m running Windows 7)

 

/aTENEr.

Edited by Lars_MQ
post support.zip NOT supporttool.zip...
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Just suffered another loss of a timer recording - really strange one this time as the computer was awake and the service seemed to be running, but the debug log says otherwise!

 

I've attached a fresh support.zip (I've removed everything before the 14th from the debug log to keep the size down a bit!).

 

Main points are:

 

- the computer woke at 21:56 to start a recording at 21:59.

- a tuner allocated to the recording is logged as starting at 21:59:00 (according to the debug)

- at 21:59:01, the debug log says the thread for the service ended!?!?

 

I checked the computer at around 23:16 and I found the following:

 

- the 21:59 recording never took place, there was no file(s) saved

- a recording set for 22:19 on BBC HD never started

- the computer never went back to sleep after the failed recording at 21:59 - something was keeping it awake

- the web gui was unreachable and not responding on both 127.0.0.1 and the proper IP of the computer

- the system tray icon for the service control was showing a normal coloured "service is running" icon

 

To get everything working again, I did a stop service then start service at 23:17:52. The web gui started responding again, and the recording that was meant to start at 22:19, started from this point instead. I cancelled the recording manually as it was missing 95% of the show. (I'll catch a repeat... again!) :-(

 

While I'm at it, when I originally installed the latest versions of the Viewer + Service, I had the "write log file" ticked in the recording settings on both viewer and service. I have since unticked this, the xml config files show that these are unset, I've rebooted the machine a couple of times, yet intermittently the .log files are still being written!?!?

support.zip

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I can't seem to edit the posting above (assume I can only do this within a certain time period)...

 

Anyway, I have some further information about the problem I just reported!

 

I tried to record something off a similar "sister" channel "FIVER" this morning. The exact same problem occured (no recording, computer stuck awake, no web gui, service had to be restarted).

 

I loaded up DVBViewer and hey presto, I pretty quickly noticed the problem. The two channels that had resulted in this problem had gone!?! I found them pretty quickly though, they were under "Audio" instead of "Video" in the channel list.

 

The channels are "part time" - something that a lot of the channels on Freeview in the UK are. Somehow, the channel has auto-updated its settings at some point, cleared its Video and Audio PIDs and fallen into the Audio section of the channel list. This is somewhat of a mystery as I specifically switch off the "Auto-Update" Channel feature from the menu in DVBViewer. The "auto-update" feature is quite dangerous on Freeview - is there any way this could be adjusted so that if, when DVBViewer goes to auto-update the channel, it finds that both the video AND audio PID are blank that it ignores the change and assume it is a "part time" channel!?

 

So, in summary:

 

1. There may be a bug (not sure - perhaps it was human error some time ago!) that causes the channel to auto-update itself and re-save itself without video/audio PIDs while it is off-air. Does the service auto-update channels, or was it when I was streaming to the Popcorn Hour yesterday and tried to view these channels while they weren't broadcasting? I vaguely remember trying to visit at least a couple of the channels that I found in the Audio section just now.

 

2. There is a definite bug where if there is no Video/Audio PIDs, the service will attempt to start the recording but partially "die" and become unusable. The result is no more recordings, no GUI and no sleeping for the computer until such time as the service is manually restarted.

 

I will try to re-create the whole problem (I'll try browsing on the Popcorn Hour etc when channels are off-air)... but unfortunately I'm already running late for work so will need to try this another time! :-)

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I will investigate this today.

The service itself does not make any autoupdate and/or changes to the channels list.

 

Grinding this badly to a halt (no gui/web etc) means something goes really wrong. It could be related to the driver of the card which takes the tuning to a non existing channel badly but that's just a guess for now.

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Like all recent versions the service is recording nicely using vista and a TT s-2400. No problems with wake-up or sleeping.

 

The integrated DVBServer (Unicast) doesn't work fully. The client is getting EPG data and the channel tunes but no audio or video (radio or TV). I haven't tried any buffer changes since they're the same setting I use with DVBServer and it works.

 

And what am I missing about the "Search presets" to make it work? I enter a string in "Search for:" and get results. And I see I can enter a "Search preset:" and save it but I'm missing the sequence to join these two things.

support.zip

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I tried edit my post to correct my idiocity...On the last comment if one simply completes the search parameters, enters something in the "Save" field and clicks Save then you save the search - of course.

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Hello Lars

 

I have done a little more testing now,

The unicast server works great, I have using it for the last 24 hours and no problem at all :angry:

I have used it as my streaming server for my HTPC and I did also start a local instants of DVBViewer (that used Unicast) and I did let that one record a lot of shows. Up to 4 simultaneous + my stream to the HTCP and it is working great :biggrin:

 

The I did try to add a recording and the RecService web interface did locked up again :angry:

 

 

/aTENEr

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Grinding this badly to a halt (no gui/web etc) means something goes really wrong. It could be related to the driver of the card which takes the tuning to a non existing channel badly but that's just a guess for now.

 

Hi Lars,

 

I've carried out a bit more testing using the CNN channel which was also in a state of having Video/Audio PIDs of 0.

 

I was easily able to replicate the problem by setting a timer to start recording CNN using the web gui. As soon as it was set the web gui, etc locked up. I was able to get into the "Control" option when right-clicking the service control icon, and was able to untick the "Enabled" box against the CNN recording, however it wouldn't commit this change as even after updating the timers and reloading them, as soon as I restarted the service, the timer was enabled again! I actually had to shut down the service and change the timers.xml manually to remove the CNN timer so that I could get using the system again! :-(

 

I tried viewing CNN via streaming to the Popcorn Hour. The Popcorn Hour just sat with a message "Buffering..." and had to be restarted eventually. Interestingly though, the recording service was still running and functional after this - so it appears this hanging problem only affects recordings, not streaming. It was not necessary to restart the service after trying to use the "broken" channel with the Popcorn.

 

The recording service works fine with a part-time channel as long as it knows a video and audio PID - so I've just made sure that all the channels have PIDs and have removed any that don't/aren't necessary to keep so there are hopefully no "accidents" again (accidently enabling the auto-update channel feature). :-)

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They are indeed. I've just re-scanned the mux right now (it doesn't broadcast until 9pm-1am tonight) and I've exported the CNN channel and attached the .ini file below. You'll see it has a Service ID, etc, but no A/V PIDs.

 

It is a bit of a pain as to ensure I have a complete channel tuning, I have to tune at different points during the day to ensure I get all the Audio/Video PIDs. Nothing that can be done about that though. :-(

 

And now I'd been scanning DVB-T muxes again, it's reminded me of another issue/bug! I'll post that on the Viewer beta thread though! ;-)

CNN.ini

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They are indeed.

oh dear, who on earth would do such a stupid thing? Ok, rhetoric question :angry:

I've taken a look at the autoupdate stuff in the viewer and I'm sure a A/V PID = 0 will not be taken in account (it wasn't before but now I made it extra safe :biggrin: ) I'll look at the update channel scan procedures also.

 

I check the stuff with the service tomorrow morning because today the service on my main server is quite busy. :angry:

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Hi,

 

I have two firedtv DVB-C and using 1.14.7.52, the problem is that when watching from PCH I can only see the channels from the first DVB-C. If I try to watch channels that is on the other DVB-C the PCH says BUFFERING for a 15 sec and then Audio but there no picture or sound.

 

If I for example look on a channel from the first DVB-C I can watch the other DVB-C channels from Web-interface/Streaming or XBMC so it seems to work that way.

 

Any clues ?

support.zip

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They are indeed. I've just re-scanned the mux right now (it doesn't broadcast until 9pm-1am tonight) and I've exported the CNN channel and attached the .ini file below. You'll see it has a Service ID, etc, but no A/V PIDs.

 

It is a bit of a pain as to ensure I have a complete channel tuning, I have to tune at different points during the day to ensure I get all the Audio/Video PIDs. Nothing that can be done about that though. :-(

Found it.

Well, short workaround: Record as TS. It won't record anything meaningfull but at least the service won't crash hard.

 

I now changed the following:

If AudioPID AND VideoPID are 0 and recording format=mpeg then change recordingformat to TS. Only this way we can get this thing to work, because in TS I can add PIDs dynamically.

 

The TS format recording will check the PMT for changes and if it finds channel.audioPID = 0 then it tries to add all audiochannels found in the new PMT Table.

The same goes for VideoPID. This way we can save the recording in a valid way (if possible) and we can make sure the next recordings will start...

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Excellent!

 

The main thing is it won't crash the service, and that's the most important thing when it comes down to a recording service. It needs to work 100% 24/7 and if it does fail, it can pick itself back up again without human intervention. :-)

 

In my case, it probably won't rescue a recording for me though, but will keep it going so that the next recordings won't be missed. I say this because I'm specifically using mpeg format (PS) as I was having problems with the TS format when playing back on the PS3. My media PC is now a "dumb" system that just runs the DVBViewer recordingservice (hence why I'm so keen on the service + web gui!) ;-)

 

I'll have another look though as I might have been using mpeg for some other weird reason, and forgotten why.

 

I assume you're saying this would only affect my Standard Definition recordings as High Definition recordings seem to automatically switch to TS format anyway?

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I assume you're saying this would only affect my Standard Definition recordings as High Definition recordings seem to automatically switch to TS format anyway?

h.264 encoded recordings (HD or SD) are only allowed in TS because there is no definition for h.264 in MPEG. And you don't loose anything (with my fix). A MPEG TS Recording can be converted in a MPEG (PS) file with the tsplayer in very short time...

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Finally got i working with two firedtv.

 

My fault I think,

Did a new channelsearch and select Group A with the first DVB-C (FireDTV)

Did another channelsearch and selected Group B and that scanned the other DVB-C (FireDTV 2)

 

After that I can select and watch all channels from PCH ;);)

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The main thing is it won't crash the service, and that's the most important thing when it comes down to a recording service. It needs to work 100% 24/7 and if it does fail, it can pick itself back up again without human intervention. :-)

 

I use vista and there is very good service control. Automatic service restart and many other things.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=447

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