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New MythTV add-on using libcmyth - Printable Version

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- orduek - 2011-10-18

thank you very much for this addon and the guide.
I have one question though:
I see that through the menu bar I can pause the watching during liveTv but if I press the pause button of my remote it doesn't work.


- tsp42 - 2011-10-19

I'm trying to reproduce the EPG/Channel crash but not luck so fare. But I did uncover a deadlock in the PVR code.

Dubstar_04: Thanks for the tutorial. I will add it to the first post.
I suspect that the only thing missing for a working time shift(including the pause button) is skin support. Try searching for previous attempt to add time shifting to the confluence skin.


- Jimmer - 2011-10-19

tsp:

Spoke too soon about recordings showing up: sometimes they do (and quite soon afterwards) and sometimes they still haven't shown up 8 hours after they have finished recording.

Jim


- fiveisalive - 2011-10-19

tsp42 Wrote:I'm trying to reproduce the EPG/Channel crash but not luck so fare. But I did uncover a deadlock in the PVR code.

I think I might have only started getting the crashes when I started increasing the number of days in of EPG data to save to 10 or 14 days. (i.e. with the default of 2 days, I didn't see them, at least not as much). I did notice my CPU usage went up considerably while doing the reset EPG and the "save to db" option enabled when I had a larger number of days. Perhaps the problem is at the sqlite level?

Ideally I'd want all 14 days because SchedulesDirect provides the Mythbackend up to 14 days in advance, so I'd want that exposed to the PVR


- robweber - 2011-10-19

fiveisalive Wrote:I think I might have only started getting the crashes when I started increasing the number of days in of EPG data to save to 10 or 14 days. (i.e. with the default of 2 days, I didn't see them, at least not as much). I did notice my CPU usage went up considerably while doing the reset EPG and the "save to db" option enabled when I had a larger number of days. Perhaps the problem is at the sqlite level?

Ideally I'd want all 14 days because SchedulesDirect provides the Mythbackend up to 14 days in advance, so I'd want that exposed to the PVR

Just a question, but what is the point to having all 14 days just because the backend has it? Are you really looking that far ahead in your EPG data? The backend will still calculate all the upcoming recordings and such without XBMC having the guide data.

Just wondering.


- fiveisalive - 2011-10-19

robweber Wrote:Just a question, but what is the point to having all 14 days just because the backend has it? Are you really looking that far ahead in your EPG data? The backend will still calculate all the upcoming recordings and such without XBMC having the guide data.

Just wondering.

Yes, I am. I have found it the past (using mythfrontend) that I'd find programs and schedule recordings at the tail end of the 14 day window. For example, these might be specials , not necessarily recurring programs (or upcoming TV shows, i.e. a couple of weeks before the start of TV season). I should be able to find these from XBMC any time within the window I have guide data for.

Since this is possible in mythfrontend, I'd expect that the XBMC should be able to provide me with the exact same data that I'd see there, otherwise it's not a fully-fledged replacement for mythfrontend. (I understand in practice that it'll take a while before it will have most of the features of mythfrontend, but ideally that should be the ultimate goal).


- robweber - 2011-10-19

fiveisalive Wrote:Yes, I am. I have found it the past (using mythfrontend) that I'd find programs and schedule recordings at the tail end of the 14 day window. For example, these might be specials , not necessarily recurring programs (or upcoming TV shows, i.e. a couple of weeks before the start of TV season). I should be able to find these from XBMC any time within the window I have guide data for.

Since this is possible in mythfrontend, I'd expect that the XBMC should be able to provide me with the exact same data that I'd see there, otherwise it's not a fully-fledged replacement for mythfrontend. (I understand in practice that it'll take a while before it will have most of the features of mythfrontend, but ideally that should be the ultimate goal).

Fair enough. I'm not arguing per say that XBMC should be able to handle the task, I just wanted to see if you were really using the data or if it was a misunderstanding about how the addon really related to the data already stored in the backend.

I've never actually used the mythfrontend exclusively - I've always found it kind of ugly and cumbersome. For me a combination of xbmc (via script or myth:// access) and the mythweb application have always been enough.


- fiveisalive - 2011-10-19

robweber Wrote:Fair enough. I'm not arguing per say that XBMC should be able to handle the task, I just wanted to see if you were really using the data or if it was a misunderstanding about how the addon really related to the data already stored in the backend.

Actually it was good to clarify this for me, because I wasn't exactly sure about that. So thanks! (I figured the backend would still record those later events, but glad to have it confirmed).

Unfortunately scaling back the number of days in the EPG to 2-3 days didn't fix my crashes (although they are less frequent). I also noticed that when I do have more days (like 10-14 days), the "Timeline" EPG view is considerably slower to load (compared with 1-2 days), which leads me to suspect that it's attempting to load the entire 14 days into memory, even though you can only ever see a sliding "window" of about 4-5 hours.

Another difference with respect to mythfrontend (and Mythbox) is that you can't scroll back a few hours from the present to see what was just playing previously: those events are gone. I find it useful when you catch the tail end of an interesting program (let's say you're watching Live TV) to go back and see the program details, and/or schedule subsequent recordings of that program. But once the next hour comes, those events are inaccessible. It would be nice, therefore, to be able to set a window for caching old EPG events (e.g. maybe 4-5 hours or so) before they disappear from display. I'm guessing this might be a PVR-wide issue, not specific to this myth add-on.

Quote:I've never actually used the mythfrontend exclusively - I've always found it kind of ugly and cumbersome. For me a combination of xbmc (via script or myth:// access) and the mythweb application have always been enough.

Actually I don't use mythfrontend much anymore myself. I'm actually fairly happy with the Mythbox add-on for Dharma (which works fine with myth 0.23-fixes) for the moment. But I'll be switching to this add-on once Eden (and by extension dushmaniac's and tsp's PVR branches) gets a bit more stable. Mythbox exposes all the scheduling data in the backend (i.e. 14 days worth), and can be used for scheduling all but the most obscure rules. The only time I really need to go to mythfrontend is to play a particularly cantakerous recording (sometimes xbmc doesn't like fast-forwarding), or to tweak something in the backend like obscure transcoding rules.


- stevellion - 2011-10-19

I too am missing the Pause button.. Actually, I thought just pressing P on my wireless keyboard would work, even if a Skin didn't have it.. but no.

Anyway, what I came here today to report, is a strange EPG problem. It seems as though the "Next" show is either missing, or the time/next syncronisation is wrong.

Best shown with a couple of pics, I think.

See picture 1 : it's 20:56 and the next show is The Body Farm (Correct)
Image

See picture 2 : it's 20:54 (I took it earlier) - but the next show coming up at 21:00 is the News at Ten.. huh, News at ten, at 9pmHuh
And where has The Body Farm gone.. should be a 21:00
Image


- tsp42 - 2011-10-20

I have updated the code. Should improve stability and maybe the recordings will show up now


- fiveisalive - 2011-10-20

tsp42 Wrote:I have updated the code. Should improve stability and maybe the recordings will show up now

Thanks! Unfortunately it didn't fix the loss of EPG data issue. I can reliably reproduce it doing this:

  1. go to "EPG options" in "Live TV". Set the values to: "15 minutes" for update and just choose "1 day" for the amount of data. Then click "Reset database".

  2. EPG is populated as expected. I see information in the channel selector and timeline etc.

  3. Exit XBMC and restart XBMC.

  4. All EPG channel information is gone

Again the proximate cause appears to be incorrect dates for the first and last dates in the EPG, here's the log from when I go to EPG (I inserted extra LOG debugging statements in my build):

Code:
01:03:28 T:139962404095744    INFO: EpgContainer - RemoveOldEntries - removing old EPG entries
01:03:28 T:139962404095744    INFO: EPG - UpdateFirstAndLastDates - UpdateFirstAndLastDates: 01/01/1601 12:00:00 AM
01:03:28 T:139962594801696    INFO: Previous line repeats 49 times.
01:03:28 T:139962594801696   DEBUG: OpenBundle - Opened bundle /home/myth/Documents/tsp/xbmc-installed/share/xbmc/addons/skin.confluence/media/Textures.xbt
01:03:28 T:139962404095744    INFO: EPG - UpdateFirstAndLastDates - UpdateFirstAndLastDates: 01/01/1601 12:00:00 AM
01:03:28 T:139962594801696    INFO: Previous line repeats 38 times.
01:03:28 T:139962594801696   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (Pointer.xml) ------
01:03:28 T:139962393605888   DEBUG: Thread PVR manager start, auto delete: 0
01:03:28 T:139962404095744    INFO: EPG - UpdateFirstAndLastDates - UpdateFirstAndLastDates: 01/01/1601 12:00:00 AM
01:03:28 T:139962594801696    INFO: Previous line repeats 3 times.
01:03:28 T:139962594801696   DEBUG: Alloc resources: 0.11ms (0.00 ms skin load)
01:03:28 T:139962404095744    INFO: EPG - UpdateFirstAndLastDates - UpdateFirstAndLastDates: 01/01/1601 12:00:00 AM
01:03:28 T:139962594801696    INFO: Previous line repeats 3 times.
01:03:28 T:139962594801696    INFO: GL: Disabling VSYNC
01:03:28 T:139962169157376   DEBUG: Thread PVR add-on updater start, auto delete: 0
01:03:28 T:139962404095744    INFO: EPG - UpdateFirstAndLastDates - UpdateFirstAndLastDates: 01/01/1601 12:00:00 AM



- dubstar_04 - 2011-10-20

stevellion Wrote:News at Ten.. huh, News at ten, at 9pmHuh

This is going to make me smile all day!!! Laugh

I get this too. It happens in the channel screen where channels show no current but a valid next recording.

Trying to find the issue, that's a different matter...


- dubstar_04 - 2011-10-20

tsp42 Wrote:I have updated the code. Should improve stability and maybe the recordings will show up now

I just built the latest Git,

Database:

Resetting the database now works as expected, without xbmc crashing.

Recording:

I scheduled a recording, the timer popped up, i let it record for 5 minutes and cancelled the recording. the recording did not appear until i restarted xbmc.

Should recordings appear as soon as they start being written to disc?

Thanks,

Dubstar_04


- fiveisalive - 2011-10-20

dubstar_04 Wrote:I just built the latest Git,

Database:

Resetting the database now works as expected, without xbmc crashing.

dubstar: can you reproduce the loss of EPG information as I describe above? Also, are you (or anybody else on this thread) on IRC at all?

Quote:Recording:

I scheduled a recording, the timer popped up, i let it record for 5 minutes and cancelled the recording. the recording did not appear until i restarted xbmc.

Should recordings appear as soon as they start being written to disc?

Ultimately it should, this is how both mythfrontend and mythbox (as soon as it starts recording it appears in the list of recordings). (In the mythbox case, you sometimes need to hit the "refresh" button, which is a kludge, that hopefully this add-on will not require.


- fiveisalive - 2011-10-20

OK, the EPG issue seems to be somehow related to timezone. When I switch my system time zone to UK and London/Europe timezone (i.e. GMT), then EPG seems to save/load correctly. Is it possible that there is a mismatch in the code between looking for UTC in some cases and local timezones in other cases?

Perhaps the developers are on GMT/UTC, in which case they wouldn't see these issues as much? I am in the US EDT (Eastern Daylight Time).