For The Record 1.3.3 Released (2 Viewers)

[el_gato]

experienced some small issues while testing the new version. tonight i uninstalled the latest 1.3.2 and installed the new 1.3.3 with ultidev cassini instead of the old ajax/iss combination... works perfect btw

but since this new installation i experience problems with the core service that it is not automatically started (i suppose) when mp is started. after entering my tv i got an error messsage and i started the service manually. then i watched tv, recorded a show, went to bed and the pc went into standby. it should record another show this afternoon but this went wrong, because as i saw later, the 4tr core service was not started again... don't ask me why it was closed after all... any ideas what could have caused this? didn't change anything, just uninstalled the old version...

another small issue: the first time i tried the new version i turned on the tv, ended it a bit later and wanted to watch a recorded show. started the show, audio was there but no video... instead i had a black screen. ended the recording and checked if this recording is damaged and started it in mymovies. there the playback was fine - no problems. returned to mytv and started this recording once more - now everything was fine there, too...

 

[dvdfreak]

experienced some small issues while testing the new version. tonight i uninstalled the latest 1.3.2 and installed the new 1.3.3 with ultidev cassini instead of the old ajax/iss combination... works perfect btw

Cool

but since this new installation i experience problems with the core service that it is not automatically started (i suppose) when mp is started. after entering my tv i got an error messsage and i started the service manually. then i watched tv, recorded a show, went to bed and the pc went into standby. it should record another show this afternoon but this went wrong, because as i saw later, the 4tr core service was not started again... don't ask me why it was closed after all... any ideas what could have caused this? didn't change anything, just uninstalled the old version...

The core service is not started by the MP plugin, it should always be running and should restart the moment your system comes out of standby. Can you check the logs please? Both your ForTheRecord.log and the system's event Application log (eventvwr.exe).

Nothing in 1.3.3's standby code has changed really (compared to 1.3.2), so I'm not quite sure what's going wrong for you here...

another small issue: the first time i tried the new version i turned on the tv, ended it a bit later and wanted to watch a recorded show. started the show, audio was there but no video... instead i had a black screen. ended the recording and checked if this recording is damaged and started it in mymovies. there the playback was fine - no problems. returned to mytv and started this recording once more - now everything was fine there, too...

Try playing with the "use TS file instead of RTSP" option in the MediaPortal client plugin's setup. We've had reports that playing the TS file causes codec issues for some people (not sure why).

 

[joystick]

Hi
I just tested you latest version.
Unfortunately there is no difference as far as performance is concerened (regarding EPG)
At first though when I installed everything and had my channels in groups , the mini epg etc was quite fast,
But
when I added the channel logos and imported the epg data, everything was really slow again, meaning the miniepg takes about 3-5 secs to show up while you have a stopped tv picture.

can I help in testing or something?

cheers

joystick

 

[dvdfreak]

Perhaps I should have added the usual "your mileage may vary" On my system it's a LOT faster (about 30 channels in a group), and several beta users reported back things were quite a bit faster for them too.

But that doesn't solve your problem of course Let's try to figure out why it's slow... Are you using Microsoft SQL Express or MySQL? How many channels in your group?

 

[joystick]

ok,
I have:
MSSQL
6 Groups, the biggest group has all channels but is usually not used
the group I use most has about 40-50 channels
the smallest group has 8 channels (doesnt make a difference btw)
It seems that once you have a large group the perf. is dropping for all ....
And when you add logos and data that might have an influence.

In "usual" MP everything (almost same groups and sizes) works really fast, meaning "klick and play" ->no delay.
(hey a rhyme...)

cheers

joystick

 

[wkwapil]

the biggest group has all channels

well, goto MPConfig-Television-TVClient and check "Hide all channels group". If you have this "all channels group" (which makes no sense) in 4TR then deactivate it.

the group I use most has about 40-50 channels

no offence meant! but that makes no sense. I have six groups and my Prem*-Group is the biggest one and conatains 20-30. I've also TV-Logos and oki, it's a little bit slower than MP(without 4TR) but it never takes 5s.

 

[el_gato]

where to start? i had this problems with the core service since 1.3.3 as mentioned in my previous post... tonight when i came back home, the htpc was on although it should sleep... anything happened again, watching tv was not possible cause of the not running core service... reinstalled 4tr a few times hoping to localize the problem... but it got worse. later this night the tv channels were suddenly lost and i had to put them back in to 4tr which finally had driven me crazy cause some of them were not recognized somehow, so theres no epg data and i cannot tune into them in mp... so i decided to uninstall the 1.3.3 version and go back to the working 1.3.2. at this point the sql database seems to be corrupted in anyway... the mmc tells me this with a nice error message; mmc and mp won't show any epg data...

another thing is that the 4trwindowsservice suddenly starts to stress my hdd and the sqlservr.exe grows bigger and bigger for no reason... cpu usage about 50% all the time... could this be a reason for the corrupted database? i'm not into those database things at all, so be patient pls

problems i don't understand and am not able to comprehend. just wanted you to know that there is anything that seems not to work correctly and that can be a huge problem for a "normal" user like me although i just didn't do anything special - just normal un/installs and tvchannel search in mp tv server config...

i think i'll have to use a backup image of my system to get it running smoothly again, cause i have no idea what to do with this corrupted database thing...

4tr is a really nice plugin, i like it very much. if it works it is nearly perfect

 

[dir]

The title changes, the thread is marked as having unread messages, and the last message gives you all the details.

On top of that For The Record has its own forum with a lot its aspects discussed in a lot more details, all in separate threads.

And to round it off, as just has been pointed out, the Management Console will give you a message box a new version is out and the core services will even e-mail you personally!

Where is the problem?

The main reason for not creating a new thread (apart from the above reasons which makes me even doubt it even makes sense): it's a lot of extra work (layout, all the images,...) and this is free software. So considering I'm not convinced it's needed...

Sorry if I sound a bit harsh but this is real close to splitting hairs if you ask me

No problem. I won't perservere after this message. But I think there's a different perspective here that's causing the disagreement. You said:

The title changes, the thread is marked as having unread messages, and the last message gives you all the details.

But that's totally irrelevant for these reasons:

- "The title changes", yes - but you have to know that the title changed. If you're not frequently reading (i.e. a new user, or a user that hasn't used this plug-in before and thus hasn't paid attention to the fact that it used to be called something else), then you won't know the title's simply updated. You'll have to assume it's new, since it includes things like "New! Version x Released" or similar.

- "The thread is marked as having unread messages" - I don't see how this improves things at all. Any threads listed in the New Posts view has unread messages, and there's no way to know how many unread messages there are. There could be 350 out of the 356 listed that are unread, indicating a really HOT subject. Or there could just be one unread.

- "The last message gives you all the details" - no, it doesn't, once another message has been posted. Normally, you have to go back several messages, if not several pages, to find the post that says a new version has been released.


"For The Record has it's own forum" - yeah, well, ok, true. But it's pretty unlikely that a user will use yet another forum just to track one MediaPortal plugin. I certainly won't, unless I can't find a solution to my problem here and there's no other choice.

And I know that the console will inform of a new version. I'm not arguing that it's difficult to know when a new version is released, I'm arguing that as a forum reader, it's frustrating to have threads that are hundreds of posts long, with 99% of the posts related to previous versions and thus not useful and possibly harmful. It's EXTREMELY frustrating as a user to find a new plugin to try out, install it, have problems, then go to the forum to look for answers, only to find a single post with 300+ messages in it. You start at the beginning of the thread and start reading, hoping to find tidbits that might provide insights into what you're doing wrong. You see a few suggestions, try them out, and keep reading and trying. Since you're trying to be a "good" forum user, you don't immediately post a question asking for help, since it's usually safe to assume that someone has already had the problem already and the answer lies within thread (and you don't want the wrath of the regulars' scorn when they tell you to read the forum; "that questions' been answered 20 times already".

Eventually, you've tried 3 or 4 suggestions/fixes, including installing (old) .dlls, scripts, skins, versions, etc. and get your system so screwed up there's no way to know what's causing what problems. Eventually you work out that all those suggestions were dated 18 months ago and related to an old version that has been updated 3 times already.

I've been there heaps of times, and I've been working on these things for 5 years, so I'm no n00b.

I just don't see the point of keeping a single thread to track numerous versions of something. BUT: this statement kills my argument completely, which is why I'll shut up now:

The main reason for not creating a new thread (apart from the above reasons which makes me even doubt it even makes sense): it's a lot of extra work (layout, all the images,...) and this is free software.

Fair 'nuff!

 

[Ernie-c]

"For The Record has it's own forum" - yeah, well, ok, true. But it's pretty unlikely that a user will use yet another forum just to track one MediaPortal plugin. I certainly won't, unless I can't find a solution to my problem here and there's no other choice.

Don't think that's fair. So you don't even want to check the ForTheRecord forum, but on the other hand you expect us, ForTheRecord developers to check MP, GB-PVR, Dvb Dream etc etc forums to check if we could possibly help somebody with an issue ...

 

[dustybottom]

I just don't see the point of keeping a single thread to track numerous versions of something.

This is true, but on the other hand, if somebody start a new thread, this don't mean, this thread will be dead or closed. A lot of user will continue to answer in this (old) thread. Because nobody check if it is opened a new thread in the meantime. You just klick on "Answer" without checking that. At least I don't check this.
And then you have two or more threads to check for possible answers. That's why I prefer "monster threads", though all its disadvantages.

And I consider the support of 4TR excellent. The response times for answers of "dot-i" are extreme quickly in my eyes. And as far as i can see it is a very small team with limited time. And hopefully they use the main time for developing 4TR and only the necessary time for the news groups.

But I also consider the search function of this forum as not very usefull. Most of the time I use Google. I just add the search term: site:forum.team-mediaportal.com like 4TR site:forum.team-mediaportal.com - Google-Suche

Regards

Mike