ServerWMC and pvr.wmc Wiki Pages
#16
Got it. Wasn't trying to 1-up the teacher, just wanted to throw it out there as a possibility. Wink It has been added to troubleshooting.
The XBMC team, plug-in devs, skinners, etc. do this for us for FREE in their spare time because they want to. Think about that for a second before you start bitching...
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#17
Great job on the wiki. It's nice to see such good documentation on such young software

One note I'd make is regarding the "All Linux clients need credentials even if the directory is shared with everyone"

That happens to be incorrect, as I don't have any credentials entered and still have access to all windows shares from my server (W8) in both OpenELEC and my android phone/tablet
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#18
That's interesting. There have been many issues directly related to the lack of credentials SWMC and Nix based clients not being able to access the 'Recorded TV' folder. I wonder if there is a difference between Win 7 and Win 8 in the way that's handled? I'll check into it a bit more. Unfortunately I don't have any Win 8 boxes so I can't side-by-side compare the two. It certainly doesn't hurt to have it in there. I'll modify the wording accordingly.

Thanks for the info. That's exactly what this thread is for!

Thanks for the kind words as well. It's not where I want it yet but it's getting there. It's really nice to know people are finding it useful!
The XBMC team, plug-in devs, skinners, etc. do this for us for FREE in their spare time because they want to. Think about that for a second before you start bitching...
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#19
No problem, and no it's not specific to W8. I have it working this way with our W7 machines as well.

On the windows box, the main settings that are needed can be found under Control Panel -> Network and Sharing Center -> Advanced Sharing Settings

Need Network Discovery and File/Printer Sharing On
Farther down, need Password Protected Sharing Off. I leave 128 bit and Homegroup on without issue, the main setting is password protected sharing

This isn't a secure way to go if you leave a bunch of ports forwarded out of your router, but I don't so I live with router security for my LAN
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#20
Add something for

OPENELEC clients on APPLE TV 1. About $50 on eBay.

XBMC running on OUYA client. About $100 on AMAZON.

These are the two functional cheapest clients for XBMC.

Raspberry Pi is a platform that is somewhere in price between these two systems. But requires more additional components of wifi and memory and infrared remote.
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#21
Activated network sharing fully. Hope this causes everything to start behaving correct. Having the PVR client disabled automatically every start of XBMC.
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#22
(2013-11-17, 01:28)spinnaker Wrote:
(2013-11-17, 00:50)krustyreturns Wrote:
(2013-11-17, 00:45)spinnaker Wrote: No need for a Channel Manager Logo fix right now,. The is a work around. Here is what to do:

1. Set your Channel display format to {1}-{0} instead of {1}/{0}

2. Rename your logos to call sign-number.extension. Example KDKADT2-2.1.jpg.

3. Restart the server.

4. Set your default folder for PVR thumbnails to where your logos are stores (Settings/Live TV/Menu-OSD)

5. If you add new logos, you will need to restart XMBC. or scan for missing channels under (Settings/Live TV/Menu-OSD.

Awesome spinnaker, thank you. I guess the '/' in the channel name was a bad idea on my part huh? lol. Good stuff for the wiki, I'm sure techlife can use it.

Please Add to the wiki for #5. To see logo while watching Live TV, you will need to restart XBMC.
The XBMC team, plug-in devs, skinners, etc. do this for us for FREE in their spare time because they want to. Think about that for a second before you start bitching...
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#23
Hi techlife,

Here is some info about the instant record feature in stream of consciousness mode:

Say you are watching a live-tv show and part way through you decide you want to record it (maybe its a really good episode of Dr Oz - if such a thing exists). When you do that, serverwmc does what xbmc calls an 'instant record' - it records the current show you are watching, it also places another pointer to this show in your recordings list in xbmc so that you or others could watch it there while its recording. The recording is set to end when the show ends per the epg schedule (including what ever post padding you have set). Note that xbmc has a default length for instant record that is settable in xbmc, this is total ignored by serverwmc. If you keep watching the live stream beyond the point where the recorded show ends, the recording will continue for as long as you keep watching that channel, unless you terminate the instant record directly (more on how to do that later).

The normal way to start an instant record is to hit the record button on your remote, or hit the record button in xbmc's on-screen display, or hit your record key on your keyboard. All the of these, with the exception of the on screen display, require that you map the record button of choice to the xbmc command:
XBMC.PlayerControl(Record)

for instance, I map the control-r key to record using this line in keymaps.xml
<r mod="ctrl">XBMC.PlayerControl(Record)</r>

Other ways to start an instant record are to select the channel you are viewing in the channel list and choosing record from the context menu or finding the episode you are watching in the epg view and choosing record. Note if you do the later, it will ask if you want to record the series (provided it is an episode of a series), if you choose to record the series, it will do a normal series record request to the service and NOT do an instant record.

Instant record as implemented by serverwmc, has the nice feature that once started, it records the show from the time you started watching the channel, not from when you hit the record button. So you know you have a lot of time to decide if that dr oz was worth keeping or not (it wasn't btw).

An important point to keep in mind about the way we implemented this is that it is serverwmc that is dong the recording, not the windows service. Therefore if you terminate serverwmc before the recording is over the recording will be cut short (I planed on posting a warning when this happens but didn't get to it in this rev). Also related to this, is that currently timers set in the recording service have priority over instant records. So if there is a conflict and the tuner you are watching is needed to do a service recording, your instant record will terminate early to use the tuner for the scheduled recording. Serverwmc will detect if this is going to be a problem and tell you there are conflicts when you start the recording.

I didn't know what to do if the user starts an instant record and then hits the record button again, so I decide to increase the end time by a fixed amount for each press of the record button - you can set the increase amount in the 'record' tab in serverwmc. If others have good ideas on what to do with multiple record presses I am open to suggestions for future versions.

You can terminate an instant record early by deleting its timer or by deleting its recording in the recordings list (note that the second method also deletes the recording permanently). Interestingly if you decide to delete the timer or recording, keep watching the live stream, and then decide you really did want to record it, just start the record again, it will be like you never stopped it.

That's all I can think of for now. Obviously ask questions if you have them.
Windows Media Center PVR addon (pvr.wmc) and server backend (ServerWMC)
http://bit.ly/serverwmc
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#24
Cool. Thanks man. I'll dig into this tomorrow and let you know if I have any questions.
The XBMC team, plug-in devs, skinners, etc. do this for us for FREE in their spare time because they want to. Think about that for a second before you start bitching...
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#25
(2013-11-12, 15:28)ktjensen Wrote: Add something for
XBMC running on OUYA client. About $100 on AMAZON.

Ouya at reasonably high level is aware of ServerWMC and is considering adding support but has some concerns about accessing EPG data. All that's needed is for someone to compile plug-in for Android XBMC from existing source code but thus far no Android developer has shown any interest Sad
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#26
kr - when you have a minute, a couple more things I need details on:

Ignore Recording images from wmc url -
Ignore Epg images from wmc url -
Remux the playback of all WTV files -
Log all WTV headers - Is this only for troubleshooting or does it have any effect on normal use?

Also, to clarify one thing on stream of consciousness: Say I start watching the Simpsons at 7. The new Bones is on at 8. I have not set a scheduled recording for Bones. My padding is set for 5 mins pre and post. The baby starts screaming at 8:15. I press record and leave it on in the background. She keeps me busy for an hour so I get back to the TV at 9:15 and press stop. If I understand correctly, I will have a recording that goes from 7-9:15 as opposed to 7:55-8:05 correct?

Thanks man. Again, no rush.
The XBMC team, plug-in devs, skinners, etc. do this for us for FREE in their spare time because they want to. Think about that for a second before you start bitching...
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#27
(2013-11-30, 03:59)TechLife Wrote: kr - when you have a minute, a couple more things I need details on:

Ignore Recording images from wmc url -
Ignore Epg images from wmc url -
Remux the playback of all WTV files -
Log all WTV headers - Is this only for troubleshooting or does it have any effect on normal use?

Also, to clarify one thing on stream of consciousness: Say I start watching the Simpsons at 7. The new Bones is on at 8. I have not set a scheduled recording for Bones. My padding is set for 5 mins pre and post. The baby starts screaming at 8:15. I press record and leave it on in the background. She keeps me busy for an hour so I get back to the TV at 9:15 and press stop. If I understand correctly, I will have a recording that goes from 7-9:15 as opposed to 7:55-8:05 correct?

Thanks man. Again, no rush.

For the first two, the wmc database sometimes has image urls for the first two items. By default, if images are found, serverwmc sends these image urls over to xbmc in the thumbnails and icons field. If you turn on 'ignore' above, these images will be ignored by serverwmc - so no images are sent to xbmc for these fields

For item 3, you need to recall that we only remux to 'ts' format for active wtv files (i.e. live tv). However if you turn on this option, even playing a pre-recorded wtv file will be remuxed to ts, making xbmc play this on-the-fly ts file instead of the wtv. It was originally there (and hidden) just as a debugging tool, but there is a bug with some pi systems (all pi systems?) that makes it so they can't play large wtv files (note: not a bug with serverwmc/pvr.wmc). So for a workaround, they can turn on this option so that serverwmc converts the large wtv to a ts stream. Its also handy to see just how fast the remux to ts really is by taking the tuner and channel switch out of the equation, but that's more a vanity thing on my part. For this to actually take effect, xbmc needs to be restarted after the setting change.

for item 4: it is purely a debugging tool and should only be used if a developer requests you turn it on. Its only downside is it makes your log file grow more quickly.

For item 5: Your question sounds like one of these problems from grade school math about trains leaving stations at different times... I sill can't do those. Assuming you pressed record at 8:15, then your analysis is correct. In the future we may do some post trimming of the recording in cases like this, but for now this behavior was simpler to code and safer. Its in keeping with my controversial disk-space-is-cheap philosophy that I have used throughout this design. Cheaper than babies anyway.
Windows Media Center PVR addon (pvr.wmc) and server backend (ServerWMC)
http://bit.ly/serverwmc
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#28
Ain't that the truth. I'm rocking 19.9TB currently and yes, it was WAY cheaper lol. I've added all of the info above to the wiki. Thanks for the explanations! I'll try to keep the word problems to a minimum in the future. Wink
The XBMC team, plug-in devs, skinners, etc. do this for us for FREE in their spare time because they want to. Think about that for a second before you start bitching...
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#29
Hey TechLife,

Here are some details for the Advanced section of the wiki about running ServerWMC as a service (as of the latest build just released). Don't feel that you have to post it up verbatim, it's a bit rambly so hopefully you can clean it up to more fit into your wiki style Smile

Background:
Basic support for running ServerWMC as a woindows service has been provided, for advanced users who dont mind getting their hands dirty. In the future we will address some of the limitations but for now at least this option is available to those who need it.

Limitations:
- Service must be manually installed
- Service must be restarted if any settings are changed
- Standalone app must be configured to not clash with the service
- Standalone app is not aware of what the service is doing (you dont see current streams, channels transferred/loaded, etc)

Installation Steps:

- Stop ServerWMC app from the system tray if it is running.

- Install ServerWMC_Service by running InstallService.bat (in the installed program directory) as administrator.

- Edit the ServerWMC config file (%ProgramData%\VDSoftware\ServerWMC\config.xml) and change RunAsService=false to RunAsService=true

- Start/Stop the ServerWMC service from the Windows Services admin interface.

- Use the ServerWMC app (now aware that you are running the service) to maintain settings.

- Restart the service whenever you make a change to settings via the UI or editing the config.xml manually


Further Information:

Service Info:
The service is called "ServerWMC XBMC PVR Backend" (the shortname for the service is ServerWMC_Service).
Currently, the service is not automatically installed by the program installer, instead there is a batch file in the install directory to do this. This only needs to be done once and wont need to be done again for future releases.
The service is installed as manual startup by default. If users want the service to start automatically when windows starts, then they should choose Automatic or possibly Automatic (Delayed Start) if there are problems with it accessing the WMC services if it starts too early.

Settings:
The service shares the settings with the standalone app, which are stored in config.xml in the ProgramData directory.
NOTE that any changes to these settings are not picked up by the service automatically. You must RESTART the service after making any settings changes to this file directly or via the ServerWMC UI.

Standalone ServerWMC App:
You must set the standalone ServerWMC app to know that you are running the service, otherwise they will both try and bind to the listen port and accept client requests (causing one or both to fail).
This is done by setting the RunAsService parameter in the config.xml file to true while tha app is not running.
The app no longer needs to be running, it is only used for editing settings.
The app does not show information about current streams, current connected clients etc. It has no knowledge of what the service is doing, it is purely used to maintain the settings file.

Log:
The service has it's own log file, called ServerWMC_Service.log in the same directory as the normal log (%ProgramData%\VDSoftware\ServerWMC)
If you are posting for help/support and are running in service mode, you will need to provide this log instead of the ServerWMC.log
pvr.wmc TV addon and ServerWMC Backend Development Team
http://bit.ly/ServerWMC
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#30
Great! Thanks Scarecrow. With all the changes, I have my work cut out for me. I love it!! I'll have it up by tomorrow night if not before.


Notes for myself: (changelog)
Build 1101, assembly version 1.0.0.20
- Play position ‘resume’ point is now shared between multiple clients for recordings – gotham clients only
- Preferred tuner order set in wmc for viewing a channel with multiple sources is now imported for use with live-tv
- When a second client starts watching a live stream in progress, it starts at the current time , not at time the stream was originally started
- Fixed remux bug that could cause it to crash when packets are ignored
- Signal status can be scanned (note requires enabling in pvr.wmc addon configuration) – gotham clients only
- Send updated server version to client
- Fixed bug in initial drm logging
- Added option to view active recording file instead of remuxing (only gotham clients allow for resume)
- Run-as-Service implemented (first cut only for advanced users, requires setup instructions)
- Removed balloon text when minimized to system tray
The XBMC team, plug-in devs, skinners, etc. do this for us for FREE in their spare time because they want to. Think about that for a second before you start bitching...
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