- Intervideo WinDVR3
Had a request to support WinDVR3 today. In theory it shouldn't be needed because it supports TVPI and acceptes plaintext version of the file. However, the requestor wants to record from the Composite input and it looks like WinDVR3 does not allow the source to be specified in the TVPI file - it assumes that it is the tuner.
Could write to their somewhat complicated Scheduler.xml file - requires inserting a record-set in the right place since it is organised by internal Windows user id.
Looks like the proper way to do it would be to call their Server Proxy DLL - which is what their TitanTV (TVPI) integration module does.

- ChrisTV
Had first input from someone trying to use this new support.
Two issues reported.

• His PC was set for Chinese language and the software failed to run completely.
  
• The Date/Time syntax on the PC affects the way that ChrisTV processes the schedule data
  

My suspicion is that the MS VBScript processor can not handle .vbe files when machine is set to Chinese. Have suggested some things to try to test that.
The date/time syntax is a bit annoying - but made a quick change to allow specification of dd/mm/yy or mm/dd/yy in the output file for ChrisTV. Proper way to do it is to examine and use what is configured for the PC - but will have to wait a bit before I get round to doing that. Looks like it also wants AM/PM for start time if PC configured that way. Backburner stuff for now as user can easily reconfigure the PC for 24-hour clock.

(252b16)
- DVBViewer
First feedback from tester of DVBViewer interface. Largely works - but seems a bit hit and miss. Not sure if it is me, the way it was tested or the DVBViewer software.
Made some suggestions to narrow it down.
Saw the GUI of the commercial version. Basically the same interface for scheduling (including file format) but a few extra options. One is that it can be configured re-encode radio stations (audio) to MP3 so made that configurable by station type.
For now the station type is specified to DABDig on its command line - but ultimately should work out the format of the DVBViewer channels database and determine station type automatically.
Added code to handle the timer group missing from the DVBViewer config file - it looks like it can be removed by DVBViewer on exit if no scheduled events remain.
(252b15)

- DVBViewer
Started to add support for DVBViewer. Using the free one that ships with the Technisat software. Only schedules recording for now. Might not work with the commercial version of their software.
(252b13)

- ATi MMC
Did some more work on supporting alternate recording source. Looks like some versions of the ATi software require that the tuner channel is set to 0 when recoprding from S-Video (and perhaps Composite). Odd because the registry dump that I had of one working had a non-zero number. Anyway - sent it out to test.

- ATi MMC
Had a request to support the ATi card with built-in FM radio.
Made a quick version to prove the principle. Waiting for feedback.
Co-incidently also had a request to be able to schedule recording from S-Video input.
Will be easy once I get to see how it is specified (have done similar thing for another device).
(252b06)

- TwinHan VisionDTV
Follow-up from posting of a few days ago ... have now made a new version that tries to calculate the record size and name offset. Setting the INI fields to 0 (or -ve) will invoke the new code.
(252b02)

- Leadtek
Had a request, via the new support forum, to allow control of the Standby field when scheduling. I did not put it in before because it only really makes sense to use if all future (at least until PC next turned on) scheduled recordings/viewings are already entered into the Leadtek scheduler. In this case this is how the user is doing it.
So added code and defaulted to old way of working.
(252b01)

- TwinHan VisionDTV
It looks like the upgrade by TwinHan to their 2.43 has changed the structure of the channel list file.
If you are having a problem since upgrading then try editing dabdig.ini as follows:
VISIONDTVFILERECORDSIZE=104
VISIONDTVFILENAMEPOSITION=69

If your problem is with the Twin Han software rather than DABDig then perhaps try a total rescan to get the new format file written by their software (and then change the dabdig.ini settings).
Thanks to Bob and Laurie for the info.
I will probably make a new DABDig that tries to adapt itself to the changing structure.

- Nebula DigiTV
I now have a Nebula DigiTV installation (i.e. with hardware) ... and I discovered that the 3.12 beta3 from Nebula does not like the combination of channel specifier and full-screen mode selection on command line at the same time.
Unfortunately I made this the default way of working.
So - when requesting DABDig is initiate live viewing, either renfigure DABDig to go back to the old stop/start method or configure for non-full-screen mode.
i.e. either set
PlayWinStyle=1
or
ViewViaCommandLine=0

- General
Made an external release - 251b20.
Removed the parts that were still in development.
If you were testing/using an earlier 2.51 release and want to keep using it then send me a note and you can have a 2.52 beta with the functionality enabled again.

- ChrisTV
Had a request to add support for ChrisTV.
I looked at this back in December 2003. Back then there was a plan for a future version to include a command line interface, but it looks like it did not happen.
However, there is now a ChrisTV scheduling agent that works of a text file - so made a new version that can write to that file. In theory it should also be possible to support live viewing that way - but it is a bit clumsy. Needs more investigation to improve it. Anyway - first version of DABDig made and passed to requestor to test.
(251b18)

- GB-PVR
Another PVR solution that has UK users suffering from the outage of the XMLTV Radio Times grabber is GB-PVR (from New Zealand).
A user posted a query which I replied to - and as a result I had a look at the database tables that it uses for scheduling recording. Didn't look very hard to add new entries into it ... so added in the basics.
Have hard-coded a few things for now - but fundamentally it looks right.
As always - now need some users to give some feedback to see if what I have done really works in their configuration.
Have also posted a note in the GB-PVR forums - just in case the developer is not happy with such an approach (for example - there could be cleaner and more supportable ways to do it.)
(251b16)

- WebScheduler
There is a problem (short-term) with the XMLTV grabber for the UK (from the Radio Times site). This lead to a user of that to ask if DigiGuide could drive WebScheduler.
WebScheduler is a utility that can drive some DVB cards - some of which are already supported by DABDig but everyone can choose whatever they want of course!
A had a quick look at it and could see that it was pretty likely that it could be driven by DigiGuide directly by using a conventional Marker Alert. Worked out the probable syntax but it turns out that WebScheduler counts months from 0 - so made a quick update to DABDig so that it could fire a modified URL at it.
Yet another hack - but will basically work. Just waiting for the requester to make direct contact so that I can send a copy to try.
(251b15)

- WinTVCap
Had a request for a few things:

• Support multi-board installations
  
• Be able to override recording quality settings per programme
  
• Do not insist on stopping WinTVCap if already running

The last one is now the default operation for DABDig because modern versions of WinTVCap can handle being run twice (for same board) - by closing first recording and starting the new one.
All done (251b12 and 251b13)

- Nebula DigiTV
New facility coming in DigiTV 3.12 which should make switching channels easier.
Available in 2 ways - added the easier one for now (command line)

- General
Had a request to allow an override of the duration of a show while adding a marker.
Could have done it all in the DGMarker file - but decided to make the duration field a simple piece of run-time maths which makes it more flexible.

(2.51b11)

- RitzDVB
Just come across some more DVB software based on DVBCore.
It has a SendMessage interface and more recently, a command line tool to use the SendMessage interface. Add to the background list of things to look at.

- VirtualVCR
Had a request to be able to suppress the "stop" of VirtualVCR if it is already running. This request comes because of a variant of VirtualVCR called "VirtualVCR Max". This stays running as a task in the task bar plus adds a basic scheduling interface (that simply puts events into Windows Scheduler) and interesting has a GUI to allow configuration of scheduled runs of XMLTV.
Done as 251b09

- FusionHDTV
Made some progress on reading/writing the scheduling database that it uses.
Still need to work out how it calculates the channel number (8 bytes of data) and what the extra attributes are that it stores. But basic function appears to work.
Done it using ADO. Made a quick and dirty version to prove the principle and passed it over to someone in Australia to test.
(251b08)

- PostProcess
Had a request to suppress the "waiting in background" pop-up message box.
Easy enough to add - so done it. Implemented it in a more general way so that it could be easy to suppress all such boxes if needed. Ensured that it still writes to the log file though.
(251b07)

- Nebula DigiTV
Had a fault report saying that DABDig reported that it could not access the timer section of the Nebula DigiTV registry - but the scheduled recordings worked fine from the Nebula GUI. My guess is that the recordings (etc) are being stored in local memory of DigiTV and only flushed to the registry on exit. The installation is probably new ... and DigiTV has never being asked to exit while there were still recordings on queue. If that is right - then the easy solution for users is to schedule something in DigiTV and then exit from it (including the sleeping module).
Have now included code to create the "missing" key. The danger is that there really is something queued using and that my entry will overwrite it or not be detected.
Ideally .. Nebula should flush out their settings to the registry a bit more frequently - but that is an old request.
Build new version to create key anyway (251b06).