[0.2.0.0 RC2] Auto-MPEG2 convert problems (1 Viewer)

[Waltz]

Area: Media Portal Program / MyTV
MP Version: 0.2.0.0 RC2
Skin: all
Windows Version: Windows XP Pro SP2 (German)
CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP 2100+
Memory: 512 MB DDR333
Motherboard Chipset: VIA KT333
Video Card: nVidia GeForce FX 5200 128MB
Video Card Driver: newest
Video Card Resolution: PAL (720x576)
Video Render Type: VMR9
Video Codec Type & Version: (MPEG2) Intervideo WinDVD4, MP default codecs
Audio Codec Type & Version: same
TV Card: Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150 MCE
TV Card Type: hardware
TV Card Driver: newest

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The "auto DVR-MS -> MPEG2 convert" feature just doesn't work for me.
I used to think that this problem would be solved with the release of MP 0.2.0.0 with its new TV recording engine, but as I just read on the front page 0.2.0.0 will still use DVR-MS.
That would be fine if MP could just convert every recording to MPEG-2 automatically, but on my machine, it doesn't. If I force MP to compress my recordings to MPEG-2, it works like a charm.

There are two places I can activate this feature: one is found in the settings of the "MyBurner" plugin, another one under "Compress"/"Auto Compress" in the "Recorded TV" section of "MyTV". I don't know if these are related at all?
However, it doesn't matter if I activate this option on one place or on both of them, MP just forgets this setting next time I start the program. It stays checked in the MyBurner config, but it gets unchecked in MyTV after the next restart. Not always, but most of the time. The only safe way to activate this option is to manually edit the Mediaportal.xml file (change the right setting from "no" to "yes"). If I do this, MP remembers the setting correctly even after a restart.

But the problems do not end here. Auto conversion is activated now, but it doesn't work. Whenever I record a show, it just stays a DVR-MS file for hours after the recording is finished. The "Status" section of the "Compress" menue shows the program to be "waiting" for compression - but for how long and why, it won't tell.

Changing the mysterious "hours" setting in the "Auto Compress" menue doesn't help. And nobody seems to know what this really does: there are just rumours in this forum, but I could not find a definite answer. Is this the time MP has to be idle for automatically starting the compression? (That would be quite long even in the lowest setting... Computers use to draw a lot of power even when doing nothing. And I had to disable the great auto-hibernation feature of PowerScheduler if MP needed this much idle time.)
Or is it the minimum length of a TV program for being compressed automatically? That wouldn't make much sense, or would it? Well, everyone seems to "know" something else about this

But that's not all. Activating the "Auto Compress" feature makes MP highly unstable, at least for me. And that's on a rock solid system with all Windows patches and nothing installed but MP. Recording a TV show will make MP just crash to the desktop after some minutes - without any error message and without any log entries. That's the worst thing and clearly hurts the WAF... :/
If I deactivate the feature (unchecking the option in both places AND editing the XML file again) MP is stable like a rock. But I just don't want to manually compress every single TV show before I can burn it to DVD or use ComSkip.

It would be awesome if someone could help me and put an end to all this confusion. Thanks alot in advance!

- Waltz

(Just wanted to add: A big thanks for all the work the developers and this awesome community have done so far. I don't want to complain - I just want to help making this fantastic piece of software even better. )

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Hi Waltz

Yes there is a lot of opinions about the dvrms-mpeg2 conversion if you read the forum posts, a lot of people think it is totally disabled at moment but like yourself i can manually change to mpeg2 using compress from within TV.
Never tried autocompress but the 5 hr preset delay or whatever user specified delay set i thought just meant exactly what it said.
Anyway like xvid and other inhouse conversions (ad removal etc) are on the back burner for now unless anyone wiser knows better as their concentrating on TV and Music at the moment.

8)

 

[Waltz]

Hi Ray,

thanks for your reply!
About the "hours" setting, it's not called "delay" or something, it's just called, well - "hours". Not that clear, or is it?
But I think you're right about its purpose. What would make the Powerscheduler plugin quite useless...

It would be perfect if the conversion would take place while a TV show is being recorded - if this is possible, of course.
But for now, I would be happy about less confusion (ONE place for the auto compress option), more time settings (<1h) with a better name for this "hours" thing - and, of course, more stability.

- Waltz

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Hi Waltz

No i think the idea originates back to the idea of pc on 24/7 and compression being set to idle time working, ie middle of night with nothing to watch, so all compression done by morning.
It will come back fully functional at some time i'm sure, hopefully with built in ad removal, as even todays modern size hard disks fill up rapidly
at 1-2 gb per hour recording as mine testify.
It's a case of it all comes to those that wait. (and ask for reasonable,
achievable and wanted by all, functions).

8)

 

[Waltz]

I hope so. Since the author of the MyBurner plugin seems to have disappeared and all the developers are busy with MyMusic and other features, I just hope this very important feature will get some attention sooner or later. But of course I know we must not ask for too much - after all, nobody gets paid for his great work here.

Oh, by the way: One hour of recorded television eats about 4 GB on my system. Even a large hard drive is full very fast when you have a girlfriend which likes to watch too many different shows
So it would be great if I could burn some programs to DVD or using my own WMV compression method - but MPEG-2 files are needed for both.