[Powerhouse]

Ok, just got home and tested recording Wheel of Fortune (WAF), and again, it recorded the show twice (just over 41 minutes each). So I believe I have WMC set to record 2 minutes fast and 10 minutes over, but I don't think that would cause it to record twice.

I'm open to suggestions. 8)

Also, It appears that the ACE skin has now released 1.0.8 which made all kinds of changes to EPG and TV Recordings.

[Powerhouse]

Another update, regarding the duplicate TV recordings. When I delete 1, they both go away. So it looks like I am just seeing two copies of the single recording.

[scarecrow420]

lol no it is the US Brady Bunch, it's just what happens to be on at the moment, honest!!!

Anyway yeah the Epg.GetEntriesbyChannel(ch, start, end) call doesnt seem to return for a show where the start time was prior to the passed in start. I was thinking if the goal is to grab the current in progress show then perhaps passing in Now-8 hours as the start, and Now as the end, then taking the LAST item (as opposed to start=now end=now+8 and taking FIRST) might work better.

So you are saying on your tuner/EPG/country/setup, when you pass in NOW and NOW+8 to Epg.GetEntriesbyChannel() the first item IS the current show? weird.

if we have to we can always check for instant records, that the selected item start and end do fall on either side of NOW and if not, loop through more GetEntries calls until we find the correct one. Shame there isnt a PreviousEntry and NextEntry call. Or is there?

One thing to add to the recording list scarecrow. I found that if you are actually watching a live channel and you switch to the epg timeline to record it (the only current way I can record what is live), then the show starts to record but it crashes the stream you are already watching. If you then switch to recordings you can continue to watch it like any in-progress recording, but it is a bit messy obviously. Even worse, I managed to crash the ehRecvr.exe service doing this (I think when I tried to start the channel again rather than going to the in-progress recording after the stream crash). I didn't notice this in my earlier post as I simply tested starting a current show recording from the epg timeline to ensure it got the correct show, I wasn't actually viewing that channel at the time.

Sorry to pile the issues on, but I'm trying to test all the main use cases I can think of

I've fixed the Instant record bug so that it now records the current show and not the NEXT show. I believe Krusty already fixed the issue where the stream crashes if you are watching it when the recording starts, but I will test that later

Another update, regarding the duplicate TV recordings. When I delete 1, they both go away. So it looks like I am just seeing two copies of the single recording.

Can you post some server logs?

what does your EPG look like in both the fullscreen EPG view and also the single channel EPG view? does it show the show once or twice? I once ended up in a state (been unable to reproduce) where my Epg stuff was duplicated so in the channel lineup it actually showed each show twice and things like that. once I cleared the EPG database it hasnt ever happened again

Try clearing the EPG database under System->Settings->TV area. I also set the option in there for XBMC not to keep EPG info in it's database, so that XBMC always grabs it from the ServerWMC backend on startup rather than only getting it every 2 hours or whatever it does when it has it stored in its own database.

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Been playing around with the Series Recording in Amber. Nice Skin by the way. Anyways, when I select to record a series and mark "New Only" it still records re-runs. This also happens when I schedule in WMC. Is this a known bug?

If it happens in WMC natively then there isnt anything we can do to fix it, since we just tell the WMC service to perform the recording (with the various series link options set etc). I guess this works on show metadata having "IDs" for each episode etc, perhaps the metadata isnt up to scratch on this channel/series... or it could be a bug in WMC. I dont do much recording, and even less series link recordings sorry

[smacrae]

When I was testing this I started channel 7 recording in WMC (not xbmc) and then verified I could play that in xbmc while it was recording. So I thought it might have worked because maybe wmc was now using another (working) tuner to do this recording if wmcserver had already spun up the dud tuner? Or does "spun up" not mean it is exclusive to wmcserver?

Ah I see. If you have multiple tuners in the same tuning space I don't know of a way to 'pick' the tuner, it just takes whichever tuner is available. One way to force it, is to start a recording on one of them, then live-tv can only use the other one.

Sorry for not being clear Krusty, what scarecrow says above is what is basically happening to me - right clicking the current channel-list channel (which is on the left for me) and pressing start recording schedules the next show, instead of immediately recording the current show. I don't know any other way to record actually (I'm still new to xbmc)

hope this all makes sense

I never start recordings this way, so this morning I tried it a lot and I can't reproduce it, it always seems to work. Even when there is only 5 minutes left in the show that is currently on it records those 5 minutes. Does this happen to you consistently or just sometimes? Try this, using the 'timeline' view of the guide, set it to record a half hour show that is not on now and see if it selects the correct show, or the show that comes after. Do this by right clicking on the show in the time line view. Let me know.

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Guys, here's the links for the xml files modified to work with the Arctic skin
(Use the steps listed above)


DeleteTimer.xml -- http://ubuntuone.com/7Ou9fHEtA4cM6Gll63IxNQ
RecordPrefs.xml -- http://ubuntuone.com/2IBsH0yJ0g7MzcWvuOyoK9

On the next Arctic update the conditions will be added.

That is so cool Hoops, thanks for making this happen. How do they look? And does navigation to the 'ok' and 'cancel' buttons work using the remote?

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Everything works like a charm, looks great. And yes you can access "ok" and "Cancel" using the remote.

I highly recommend this skin.

I wish this Skin had support for Plex (PleXMBC)....this would make it the perfect skin....

[krustyreturns]

With regards to root issue with tuner, I tend to agree with you. Its like there is something specific about seven network, otherwise I would expect it to be more transitory, not totally off or on like it seems to be atm. Maybe by starting a 7 recording in wmc first, we have cleared some DRM hurdle or something that is not addressed if wmcserver is just started by itself.

For example, after I shut down xbmc last night and started my 360 extender, I still could not get channel 7. This was in my event log:

Windows Media Center Extender encountered a DRM failure.
Area: 1
Error: Unknown HResult Error code: 0x8004b822

After I came and switched off wmcserver I could then tune 7 network on the 360 extender successfully. So it seems there is some sort of interaction going on....

Yeah, I am very interested if there is an interaction. Let me test my understanding:

1) if you try to watch live tv on channel 7, xbmc fails
2) but if you start a recording on channel 7 using wmc (or xbmc - really the same thing) and use the other tuner to view the channel in xbmc it works consistently?

It would seem to me you can settle the dodgy tuner question by just recording two episodes at the same time, if the recordings work then both tuners are fine.

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Another update, regarding the duplicate TV recordings. When I delete 1, they both go away. So it looks like I am just seeing two copies of the single recording.

Besides clearing the database that scarecrow suggested. When you start the server and then start the client right after, look at the server status tab and look at the number of 'Recordings' that were sent to the client. Is it the correct number or 2x the correct number of wtv files?

Also, in xbmc you are viewing these recordings from inside of 'live tv' in the 'Recordings' section right?

[krustyreturns]

One thing to add to the recording list scarecrow. I found that if you are actually watching a live channel and you switch to the epg timeline to record it (the only current way I can record what is live), then the show starts to record but it crashes the stream you are already watching. If you then switch to recordings you can continue to watch it like any in-progress recording, but it is a bit messy obviously. Even worse, I managed to crash the ehRecvr.exe service doing this (I think when I tried to start the channel again rather than going to the in-progress recording after the stream crash). I didn't notice this in my earlier post as I simply tested starting a current show recording from the epg timeline to ensure it got the correct show, I wasn't actually viewing that channel at the time.

Sorry to pile the issues on, but I'm trying to test all the main use cases I can think of

Pile on, we love the pain.

Its true that I have fixed the freeze type crash that happens when you are viewing a channel and then the tuner is stolen from it to do a recording - this only happens of course if there is no other tuner available. What happens now is live-tv stops and xbmc displays a message saying the tuner was needed for a recording.

But in the case where you are watching live-tv and then you hit the record button (or any other way xbmc gives you to say - 'record what I am watching''). IF THERE IS NO OTHER tuner available, the same thing will happen as described above - the live tv stream will stop and the recording will begin. If you want to watch the recording you have to go to the 'recordings' section and play it.

As you point out, this is ugly, we just haven't had time to implement this feature. Its been a lower priority because we have bugs to fix first and because I have a lot of tuners . When we do implement it, we want the whole viewing time to be recorded, not just from the time you hit 'record' - which we can do because of the way we do live-tv - which wmc doesn't do.

[stven]

Hi Krusty

many thanks for this great PVR.
However I have a problem when watching HD channels the image is jerky.
No problem with SD channels.

Any idea to solve this?

Also all chanels work fine with the backend ArgusTV.

[hoopsdavis]

Hi Krusty

many thanks for this great PVR.
However I have a problem when watching HD channels the image is jerky.
No problem with SD channels.

Any idea to solve this?

Also all chanels work fine with the backend ArgusTV.

Which xbmc build are you running?

[stven]

I'm using Frodo 12.2 (the latest stable version)

[hoopsdavis]

I'm using Frodo 12.2 (the latest stable version)

OK, and you're not running the margo build?

Also are you watching these HD channels on the server PC or on a remote client? Just trying to get details because I've been through this also.
Also are your channels via digital cable (set-top-box) or are the HD qam channels?

[stven]

OK the server is on a remote client but my LAN is gigabit (i don't think it's the problem).
The server runs Win 8 64bit and use a Hauppauge Nova T 500 (it's not a STB)

[krustyreturns]

OK the server is on a remote client but my LAN is gigabit (i don't think it's the problem).
The server runs Win 8 64bit and use a Hauppauge Nova T 500 (it's not a STB)

I don't think the network should be the problem either. But can you test if the video is smooth running the xbmc client on the server?

[hoopsdavis]

OK the server is on a remote client but my LAN is gigabit (i don't think it's the problem).
The server runs Win 8 64bit and use a Hauppauge Nova T 500 (it's not a STB)

OK, have you tried the HD channels on the server PC?

My LAN is also gigabit but some of my qam HD channels jump a little, not all but some, and I couldn't find a resolution.
Normally its when a show is broadcast in 1080, but anything else on the same channel will run fine.

I haven't figured it out yet either. If you can try the same channels on your server.

I have HD qam, I also have the same HD qam channels configured to run from the set-top-box just as digital so I can always just tune to the digital on my remote HTPC.

[stven]

When running WMC on the server, all is smooth.
In my living room the problem occurs on every HD channels.

I will try tomorow to install the xbmc addon on the server.



Thanks for your help

[krustyreturns]

When running WMC on the server, all is smooth.
In my living room the problem occurs on every HD channels.

I will try tomorow to install the xbmc addon on the server.



Thanks for your help

Ok. Another thing to test is to record a wtv file on one of these 'problem' channels and then play the file in xbmc and see if it is smooth. Another use found that xbmc cannot play wtv files smoothly that are recorded on some european channels.