Wednesday, December 31, 2003

- AverTV DVB
The "correction" to the spelling mistake that I made in 2.45b42 was wrong.
It was AVerMedia who spelt it wrong and my correction of their spelling in my code meant that my automatic detection failed!
Modifed the code to allow for their current spelling and what I think is correct and therefore what they might change to in the future.
More importantly - a tester for the AVerTV stuff now on board. So chance to finish things off. I had made a mistake in one of the routines for copying modified records .. used ChrB instead of Chr. I thought I was being safe by using ChrB but, even though there was no error returned, there was no data copied either. Meant that the crucial record was not being inserted.
Corrected and made 2.45b44

Saturday, December 27, 2003

- VirtualVCR
I did not have support for PLAY with Virtual VCR (i thought that it was only Capture software).
Following a question on myHTPC forum ... I added support (2.45b43). Possible that the command line is not quite right - so waiting for feedback. I could imagine problem with the Duration. I have hard-coded including the duration but there might not be one.
Also noticed that the VirtualVCR site has moved so changed the link from the web site.

- AVerTV DVB
2.45b42 just corrected a spelling mistake that would have effected automatic detection of AVerTV DVB device.

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

- Technotrend
Added code (2.45b41) to parse the channel list file. Made it as configurable as possible in case they change the order of the fields in future.
Still need to work out how to support switching channels for live viewing.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

- Technotrend
The very early days code for the Technotrend DVB card via their own software had some testing today in Germany.
The calculation of the internal channel number from the EPG number was the right idea, but there was a different registry prefix for this user. So - made the prefix selectable via a new field (Type).
Need to work out how to full automate this - must be able to get a clue from elsewhere in the configuration data.
Also - possible that the EPG number does not really match the channel number, so try parsing the channel line-up data file.
Still need to work out how to support switching channels for live viewing.
- Nebula DigiTV
Made a new 2.44 (2.44b15) release. Just copied over one of the existing 2.45 changes.
DId it because Nebula seem to have made an official 3.10 now and they have left in the change to the way that Last Channel details are stored. So made this new bahaviour the default because I expect new downloaders of DABDig to also have latest official Nebula code. The way that it works is configurable in DABDig anyway.

Thursday, December 11, 2003

- WinTVCap
Viewing was not working for one user with WinTVCap enabled. He tried to get it going by also enabling WinTVPVR but (as expected) this resulted in problems since both would be competing for same resource when recording.
DABDig already knew that WinTVCap could not do live recording, so it launched WinTV anyway. Problem was that the user had WinTVCap and WinTV2K in different directories so DABDig could not launch it.
Easy change for user - copy WinTVCap to the WinTV directory.
Changed software anyway to add a new optional configuration item to specify where WinTV2K is when using WinTVCap. Also added a FAQ entry to cover it just in case someone else hits same issue. Build 2.45B39 but not released.

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

- TiVo
Problem with doing things too quickly ... I realised soon afterwards that the channel number that I use for Recording is probably not the same as the one used for Viewing, because it is to go in via a different interface ... so made the different numbers selectable with optional "/" divider ... 2.45b38
- TiVo
Saw a request to intiative live viewing on TiVo .. so made quick speculative update ... 2.45b37
- TVPI/TVVI
Had a request to make configurable the time delay before sending the keystokes. I presume that the TVPI handler is loading very quickly and he wants to save a second of the display on the screen, but could also be a benefit for people who either have it loading very slowly or who want to study the on-screen dialogue box before continuing (especially when trying for the first time).
Done as 2.45b36 - just replaced a hard-coded 3000 (milliseconds) with a new INI file setting which defaults to 3000.

Monday, December 08, 2003

- Nebula DigiTV
Feedback - the changes that I made for handling View/Record differences in channel numbering worked fine ... although I put the wrong version in the zip file initially which confused things for a while.

Sunday, December 07, 2003

- General
Looks like there are some users in Germany - a HTPC community around http://htpc-board.henriks-home.com/ has some questions posed on using DABDig with ProgDVB and DVBsVCR2. I offered some help in my best English.

Saturday, December 06, 2003

- Technotrend
Back in March I did some brief investigation into what was then a new release of teh Technotrend software that allowed the cards to be driven to make recording via command line.
There were reports that the software was not stable and no-one specifically asked for it ... so I did not persue it further.
However, request came up yesterday on myHTPC ... so I dug out the old material and put a quick version together and declared it available to people who ask by email. What I don't know yet is the syntax for the channel ids and exactly how to convert meaningful channel numbers into the syntax that Technotrend require ... but basics work.
Someone with one of the devices is trying it out.

- Nebula DigiTV
Looks like things might have slightly changed again in the 3.10 Beta concerning how I force it to tune to a particular channel. Modified the code to add a new configuration item so that both old and new way can be used and waiting for feedback from a Nebula user ... although my testing implies that it will work fine.

Friday, December 05, 2003

- Leadtek WinFast
Feedback from the Leadtek WinFast PVR user ... looks like 2.45b31 worked for him.

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

- Leadtek WinFast
Made a new build (2.45b31) with updated Leadtek WinFast code ... to support the curretn PVR software from Leadtek.
Not finished yet - still need to do work on the profile handling .. but I reckon basics are OK.
Sent it to the requestor. I also verified that the TVPI mechanism still seems to work, so highlighted that as a fallback.

- General
Made a few icons for use with the multi-device enabled DABDig.dgmarker ... radio/sat dish/TV enough to show the principle.
Will have to write some words to explain it in the web page. Enabling it by default is harder though because not foudn icons put up the warning triangle in DG and I cannot test for file existance in pure JavaScript.

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

- Nebula DigiTV
New facility in Nebula DigiTV to "sleep" on start-up - so added option to use that when restarting after scheduling a recording. Put it into 2.45b30 (internal) and 2.44b14 (public).
- TiVo
Had a request to be able to drive 2 TiVo boxes. Quickest way to add this was to make a TiVoWeb2 like the existing Stream and Stream2. Was easy enough. Pushed it out as 2.45b29.

- Leadtek WinFast
The writing out of schedule data is working with WinFast PVR. Now have to handle the profile data that moved from registry to file.

- General
Have a think about supporting multiple instances of same device - perhaps through different INI file per instance. Reflecting the capability in the EPG GUI in a good way would be a bit of a challenge ... the day of writing my own GUI seems to be looming.