Remote Control Button Timeout (1 Viewer)

CyberSimian

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  • June 10, 2013
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    This is the scenario: I am watching live TV and want to switch to channel 24. But the channel that I am currently watching is a long way from channel 24. So I do not want to press the channel up/down buttons repeatedly, or press the EPG page up/down buttons repeatedly. Instead what I want to do is press the "2" button, and then the "4" button. So I press the "2" button, and I am just about the press the "4" button when MP switches to channel 2. Since my finger is already in motion, I press the "4" button anyway, and MP then switches to channel 4.

    The problem is the timeout that MP uses to decide whether the button presses are separate or "composite". I currently use Windows Media Center, and the timeout that WMC uses is around 3 seconds, whereas MP's timeout seems to be about 2 seconds. The optimum timeout will vary by person, but for me 3 seconds is just about right -- I do not get annoyed waiting for the channel to change, but neither do I have to rush to press all of the number buttons before MP's timeout expires.

    Can this timeout be adjusted? I looked in both of the MP Config Utilities, and the nearest setting seemed to be the ZAP settings, but the Wiki description of them suggests that they do not do what I want (and this is confirmed by setting both of them to 10 seconds; the 2-second timeout between consecutive number buttons is not altered).

    I am using MP 1.4pre on 32-bit Windows Vista. Thanks for any help.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    mm1352000

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    Hello

    Can this timeout be adjusted? I looked in both of the MP Config Utilities, and the nearest setting seemed to be the ZAP settings, but the Wiki description of them suggests that they do not do what I want (and this is confirmed by setting both of them to 10 seconds; the 2-second timeout between consecutive number buttons is not altered).
    Yes it should be possible, and the zap settings should do it. In particular, adjusting the zap delay (which you might notice is 2 seconds by default) should give you what you're asking for. You have to close and reopen MediaPortal for the settings to come into effect.

    The other thing you need to make sure of is that you've configured your channel numbers and/or the "select channel by index" setting appropriately.
    To go back to your example...
    If you're selecting the channel by its position in your channel group (ie. it's the 24th channel from the top) then you should have "select channel by index" ticked, and the channel numbers configured in TV Server configuration will be ignored.

    Otherwise, if you're expecting to select the channel with the number it is normally associated with [which might not be consecutive] (ie. channel 24 is a particular channel, and channel 23 might not exist) then you should untick "select channel by index" and ensure the channel numbers in TV Server are configured correctly.

    The "select channel by index" setting referred to above can be found here:
    http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...Configuration/22_TV/TV_Client#Channel_numbers

    To check your channel numbers in TV Server configuration, go to the TV Channels section and increase the size of the window until you can see the "channel number" column. If the channel number is not correct you can edit it by editing the channel details:
    http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_...or_Edit_a_Channel#Editing_an_existing_channel


    If you knew all of the above and it didn't help, please post log files to demonstrate the problem.
    http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/16_Support/3_Forums/2_Log_Files

    mm
     

    CyberSimian

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    Yes it should be possible, and the zap settings should do it. In particular, adjusting the zap delay (which you might notice is 2 seconds by default) should give you what you're asking for. You have to close and reopen MediaPortal for the settings to come into effect.
    Thanks for replying. I tried this again. I set both of the zap values to 10 seconds, closed MP Config, rebooted, re-opened MP Config to check that the values were still set at 10 seconds (they were), and then I exited MP Config and started MP. But the new zap values have not changed the problem behaviour.

    What I have noticed is that when watching live TV, if I now press the channel up/down button, the mini-guide appears on the screen and there is now a 10-second delay before the channel changes. If I press a number button, the channel still changes within 1.5 seconds (a bit smaller than I had previously estimated), but after the change the mini-guide now remains on the screen for 10 seconds. These are the two zap values in action I think (admittedly confused by the fact that I had set them to the same value!).

    I have not had to generate logs before, so I will look into that tomorrow. Thanks.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK

    PS: I had already set the channel numbers to be the "logical channel number" (as published in the weekly printed programme guides), and not the list ordinal number.
     

    CyberSimian

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    If you knew all of the above and it didn't help, please post log files to demonstrate the problem.

    I have attached the log files. I hope that I have created them correctly. I had a quick look through some of them, but did not see anything that might be relevant (but then I do not know what I am looking for!).
     

    CyberSimian

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    I had a quick look through some of them, but did not see anything that might be relevant.
    I have had another look through the log files, and the following lines seem to be relevant; the file "MediaPortal.xml" contains these lines:
    Code:
    <entry name="osdtimeout">0</entry>
    <entry name="zapdelay">10</entry>
    <entry name="zaptimeout">10</entry>
    which show that the two zap timeouts are both set to 10 seconds. Meanwhile the file "MediaPortal.log" contains these lines:
    Code:
    [2014-08-05 15:56:11,732] [Log ] [MPMain ] [DEBUG] - ChangeChannelNr()
    ...
    [2014-08-05 15:56:11,745] [Log ] [MPMain ] [DEBUG] - ChannelNavigator.ZapToChannel BBC TWO - zapdelay False
    ...
    ...
    [2014-08-05 15:56:13,992] [Log ] [MPMain ] [DEBUG] - ChangeChannelNr()
    ...
    [2014-08-05 15:56:14,003] [Log ] [MPMain ] [DEBUG] - ChannelNavigator.ZapToChannel Channel 4 - zapdelay False
    which show that MP changes to channel "BBC TWO", and then 2.2 seconds later changes to "Channel 4". So the 10 second zap timeouts are not being used.

    My reading of the Wiki suggests that neither zap timeout applies in this situation, and that there is some third timeout that is controlling the behaviour, causing button "2" followed by button "4" to be interpreted as two separate channel changes instead of one channel change (to channel 24).

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

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