4TheRecord vs. 1.2.0b (1 Viewer)

[glenn 1990]

advantages 4TR:
- Argus tuner is rock stable, mp tv server not (epg grabbing bad signal,..).
Every card has it own service, so if one card service crashes (I haven't seen this yet), the rest keeps working and the crashed service will be restarted. (Maybe an idea for the MP2 tv server ).
- If you don't have a signal when a recording is about to start, mp tv server don't record,but argus will keep trying until the
recording should be finished.
- Scanning for schannels, creating groups , sorting channels, creating advanced schedules,... can be done on remote (ftr managment console).

disadvantages 4TR:
- The MP tv plugin is a bit better than the ftr one.

 

[jameson_uk]

Right not on my phone now and have a machine to actually look at.....

the "Episode Management" that is disabled

This is one screen which is a bit odd and does need redesigning. From the guide you can get to a screen that is a list of upcoming episodes of a program (which is what you posted as a screen shot). This has some options to adjust schedules but it is kind of difficult to comprehend what they relate to.

To access the episode management button you need to actually schedule some recording and then this option will become available. This however only sets the number of episodes to keep so you can set it to only keep 6 episodes etc. There is also a keep until option to allow you to say if MP can delete a file (choose from when watched, until space needed, until date, never delete)

There is a scheduled screen (accessible by default from the TV home screen) which lists upcoming recordings. From there you can access "episodes management" from the context menu and it is actually more obvious what it is you are changing.

As regards only new programs, how did Sage identify what is new? (also I presume you have seen the option in TV config app in recording section on general tab to prevent duplicate recordings? This is the option that checks new recordings against ones already in the database)

 

[CadErik]

As for MP what scheduling options are you lacking? Is it just the only new episode functionality?

One would be "asterix" support for serie names.

Just had a look at mp tv server source code. Adding this feature would be very straightforward.

 

[gibman]

advantages 4TR:
- Argus tuner is rock stable, mp tv server not (epg grabbing bad signal,..).
Every card has it own service, so if one card service crashes (I haven't seen this yet), the rest keeps working and the crashed service will be restarted. (Maybe an idea for the MP2 tv server ).

You have to take this with a grain of salt here.

I can mention a few scenarious that could keep any software from using a specific tuner card once it has crashed.

1) the tuner driver has internally gone awol. eg. it keeps resulting in graph errors.
remedy: disable/enable driver (eg. by using devcon). This often works. If it doesn't (graph errors still apparent) then we only have the microsoft-fix-it-all solution (reboot).

2) tuner driver has crashed and the process that uses the card will not end (eg. tvservice, argus). using task manager to end the process => nothing happens, the driver is locked to this process.
remedy: reboot.

What Im trying to say .. the automatic tuner recovery strategy implemented by argus is indeed a good one but dont expect it to perform magic.

I guess it depends on the nature of the crash vs the quality of the driver of the tuner in use.

Some situations simply can't be recovered.

I've had these issues with more or less all dvb-cards that I have had experience with. Some worse than others.

/gibman

 

[Frank-NL]

I quite like Argus as a tuner but the 4TR client is way too simple compared to the MP TV Client. No automatic AC3 settings, that kind of stuff is what I really missed when I tried 4TR and went back to MP TV Client.

Really loved the Android app for 4TR, and the web access for the EPG worked really cool as well.

 

[chrik]

With these two projects, there ends up being lots of functionality duplicated including hardware support, core recording, tv live streaming, EPG support, plugins, etc. MP seems to be quite strong in all TV server features except the scheduling.

These are different products produced by two separate teams that do the same job so yes there will be code duplication. With FTR you have the option to either add a layer between MP and MP tv engine or actually connect MP to the FTR tv engine (Argus). Which you choose is down to choice.

As for MP what scheduling options are you lacking? Is it just the only new episode functionality?

What part exactly do i need to install of 4tr to add the extra layer and from where will i then be able to plan scheduled recordings?

 

[tompa]

Hi!
when you install FTR you can choose if mp-server or Argus (FTR-server) is going to be used.
As I understands it, you only want FTR "logic". Then you select mp-server during installation

You can then do your scheduling from mp or FTR GUI (if installed during installation). All this in the installation guide -http://www.4therecord.eu/files/For%20The%20Record%20Installation%20Guide.pdf

/tompa

 

[chrik]

Thank you I will try it this weekend. I have been running 4TR with Argus until some months ago, but now I have only MP because I had many "No signal" messages in 4TR.

I really miss the scheduling system where I can automate search/recordings.