For The Record 1.3.3 Released (2 Viewers)

[waggonerw]

- Web Access set-up consistently fails with a program error (in all FTR releases so far), set-up however continues when I close it (but this is not really a big problem);

There must be a low-level issue with your IIS then. Can you access "http://localhost/IISHelp"? Are you on XP or Vista. If XP, is the IIS version 5.1, the original IIS installed from your XP CD?

I'm running Vista. I will check when I'm home.

- DVB-EPG loses sync after a few days, it stops refreshing, even though MP still has a current DVB-EPG (since MP 1.0/FTR 1.3.1);

This is very interesting and I'd like to be able to reproduce (and obviously) fix this.

I noticed one other person with the same problem, but the majority seems to be using WebEPG.

- Attempts to watch live TV and scheduled recordings still result in failure to allocate the card (since MP1.0/FTR 1.3.1).

Every time? Only in certain cases? We're gonna need a bit more details to be able to determine what is going wrong for you here. Are your shares set up correctly for your card(s)? Most people having issues like this only have a single card that works fine, and the moment the second card is needed they run into problems....

I notice you are only using one DVB-C card, so it must be something else. But does it work sometimes or never for you? Version 1.3.2 has improved share testing, so do check if your Test Shares works correctly.

The shares are set up correctly, they are displayed in green in the administrator utility. With 1.3.1, I occasionally had this problem, but I believed this was due to the timeshift file which was still open. With 1.3.2, I tried several times with live TV, but I couldn't get a picture, and several recordings had failed, so I chose to uninstall.

 

[dvdfreak]

I'm running Vista. I will check when I'm home.

And your IIS7 is installed and configured like described in the installation documentation, with all the necessary options checked on?

The shares are set up correctly, they are displayed in green in the administrator utility. With 1.3.1, I occasionally had this problem, but I believed this was due to the timeshift file which was still open. With 1.3.2, I tried several times with live TV, but I couldn't get a picture, and several recordings had failed, so I chose to uninstall.

It's good they are displayed in green, but you must really test them from the Management Console (use the Test Shares button) before you can say they are certainly OK. Can you please try that?

By the way, perhaps it's not a bad idea to cover and fix your issues in more detail on the For The Record forums. That way other users having similar setup problems can benefit.

 

[waggonerw]

I'm running Vista. I will check when I'm home.

And your IIS7 is installed and configured like described in the installation documentation, with all the necessary options checked on?

It was not, I thought it was. After setting everything according to the manual the installation went OK, cheers for that.

The shares are set up correctly, they are displayed in green in the administrator utility. With 1.3.1, I occasionally had this problem, but I believed this was due to the timeshift file which was still open. With 1.3.2, I tried several times with live TV, but I couldn't get a picture, and several recordings had failed, so I chose to uninstall.

It's good they are displayed in green, but you must really test them from the Management Console (use the Test Shares button) before you can say they are certainly OK. Can you please try that?

Yes, it says "Shares defined on the recorder/tuner MediaPortal TV Server are OK".

BTW the message I get when attempting to switch on live TV is: "Not supported on your recorder/tuner".

After the latest installation attempt however I don't seem to have any problems!

By the way, perhaps it's not a bad idea to cover and fix your issues in more detail on the For The Record forums. That way other users having similar setup problems can benefit.

OK, I wasn't totally sure since this is MediaPortal-specific and I was already registered here

Thanks for the help!

 

[rich110]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I just wished to confirm something (after reading the post at the top of this page)....

I get my EPG data from a mix of DVB (via DVB-S source) and XMLTV (one file). Can I use 4TR, or does all my EPG data need to come from XMLTV?

I have wanted to use 4TR for ages, but this situation has always stopped me.

Cheers
R

 

[sunsetdk]

Sorry if this is a stupid question

I have allways been told that there is no stupid questions only stupid answers.

I get my EPG data from a mix of DVB (via DVB-S source) and XMLTV (one file). Can I use 4TR, or does all my EPG data need to come from XMLTV?

Yes this is possible. You can sync your DVB-epg to 4 the record and import as many XMLTV files as you want at the same time. (you setup which has the priority, the DVB-EPG or XMLTV)

So give 4 the record a go, if you don't like it then you can allways uninstall it, but once installed you will never want to uninstall it again (or atleast that is how it was for me).

 

[poppabk]

A few quick questions
1) Does 4TR work with the schedules direct plug-in?
2) 4TR uses the skin id's of the TV server, does this mean that pressing the TV button on my remote will take me to 4TR without any change in config?

 

[dvdfreak]

1) Does 4TR work with the schedules direct plug-in?

Not yet, but almost: For The Record TvGuideImporter

2) 4TR uses the skin id's of the TV server, does this mean that pressing the TV button on my remote will take me to 4TR without any change in config?

Yes.

 

[poppabk]

Excellent, 4TR seems like a great solution to the scheduling issues that exist in the regular TV server. Once SD is integrated (and I have a couple of days where the HTPC doesn't have to function as an actual HTPC) I am definitely going to give this program a try.

 

[Ernie-c]

Once SD is integrated .....

We plan to extend this importer to also import data from SD. It's on the way ...

 

[jonaskp]

4TR is a great solution. I originally installed it for 2 reasons: 1: The superior Scheduling, 2: The ability to run post-proccesing after a recording, to rename/move files around (havent gotten this to work quite yet with 1.3.2, but sunsetdk is helping out ).
The scheduling is far superior to that of default MP.
Say I want to record a TV-show every wednesday from 20.00-21.00. If for some reason this show does not start until 20.30 (there is an scheduled, extra news due to some big event), MediaPortal will still record 20.00-21.00. 4TR recognizes that the Show has moved airing, and will record at the new time. Also, if the show is cancelled one week (say a big soccer match with the national team is being played at that time instead), MediaPortal will still record from 20.00 to 21.00. 4TR will just not record anything, and instead wait for the show to be aired next week instead.
You can also schedule it to record the TV-show everytime on the channel, but only for new episodes. This means that if the original show is recorded, the reruns two days later will not be. If the original show is not recorded (due to recording conflicts) the rerun will be recorded instead.

I have a couple of schedules where I record Mythbusters, Future Weapons and some other Discovery channel shows. I don't follow these shows religioulsy, I just like to have something to watch. I can tell FTR to record these shows everytime they are aired (new episodes only so nothing gets recorded twice), set the priority to lowest (because I don't mind if I miss a couple of them, I'd rather that I can record movies and stuff) and tell FTR to only keep the 3 most recent recordings. This way I always have something to watch, I don't fill up the recordings folder with endless numbers of episodes, and I make sure that these schedules don't get in the way of "real" recordings, like Movies and my girlfriends TV-shows (god forbid, that she misses an episode of Desperate Housewives or Gilmore Girls ).

Just a brief preview of some of the things that FTR can do.
Also, with the MMC it is very easy to watch recordings and LiveTV on a computer that does not have MediaPortal installed.