What are the Best plugins to get?

[jimmy_is_great]

I have been using GBPVR for over 6 months now and would like to add/improve some of its features with plugins and using batchfiles.

First a little about my GBPVR setup
I live in the UK
OS winXP pro
GBPVR 9709
AMD Barton @2.2Ghz
1GB 400Mhz ddr
2x250gb HDD
using the MS DVR demuxer
3 Nova-T UK DVB (conneted to a 3 way spliter from a high gain mast amp)

Areas of GBPVR id like to improve or add to are;

Compressing recordings to xvid of h.264 in realtime or at a scheduled time and then writing them onto DVD
Improving the recorded programs libary
Improving the program guide
being able to use the interactive services like the red button


Also is there a plugin that can accuratly start recording programs when they start like the PDC on terrestial video recorders?

[gEd]

>Compressing recordings to xvid of h.264 in realtime or at a scheduled time and

realtime is not possible. I think several people run batch conversions. Search the forum for the dirmon utility. It can monitor folders and detect when they have finished (by looking for presence of comskip files) and then run a batch file to convert them.

here's one popular thread
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=10606

>then writing them onto DVD
Here's a thread on a new add-on from pBS
http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=16057

>Improving the recorded programs libary
How? The videoarchive plugin might be a candidate.

>Improving the program guide
Again, how?
The only alternative (that I know of) is to use Enhanced Web Admin, which I use all the time from a remote laptop.

>being able to use the interactive services like the red button
I don;t think that there is any software currently available that can handle the mheg stream used by the interactive services.

>Also is there a plugin that can accuratly start recording programs when they start like the PDC on terrestial video recorders?

For me that one big improvement would be if I could grab 100% of the recordings with nothing either side of it. Unfortunately I have to use 2 and 4 minute padding to make sure I get everything and even then, I occasionally get slight clipping with back to back shows.

[stefan]

>Improving the program guide
Again, how?
The only alternative (that I know of) is to use Enhanced Web Admin, which I use all the time from a remote laptop.

XRecord could be an alternative.

[stevenjwilson]

Re: recording shows & pgm guide - I just started using
http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utili...percharger
along with enhanced web admin.
This gives you a browser interface to the guide for scheduling and searching for shows, etc. I have only just starting playing with it, but its alot better than the default capability.

Also: re padding, I dont know how you can nail the start and end perfectly...technically I mean. (I wonder if "Tivo" can?)

For something I want to "keep" I use a seperate editor to cut the ends off (and sometimes remove commercials). Using Pegasys tools its very fast....

[stevenjwilson]

also highly recommend My Videos plugin, but its not ready for 97.7 yet.

[murphotronic]

After parting out and selling off my previous All-in-blunder attempt at an HTPC, I found GB-PVR and was encouraged to try again. So far the basic GB-PVR (97.09) install and setup has been a breeze (thanks to everyone working on this!).

I would like to add some plugins with better library browsing features, especially an MP3 library (preferably with the ability to make playlists while browsing).

I initially went for the MyMusic/MyVideo/MyEtc. suite but ran into troubles right away. After wiping clean and reinstalling GB-PVR (works great), I've tried MusicLibrary2 and again run into troubles. I'm not expecting to get through this without some trouble shooting and reviewing of logs, but, being an ME rather than CS I'd like to know which plugins/skins are most up-to-date and most compatible with v.97.09 before I dive in...

Any suggestions/recomendations?


HTPC Setup:
AMD 64 3000
MSI K8NMG2-FID (nice!)
1024 MB Corsair Value Ram** :confused:
40 GB IDE with XP OS and program dir.
160GB SATA storage
PVR-150 (will add second once I'm happy with GB-PVR config)


** - BIOS and XP 'System' show 960MB, took me a bit of headscratching to figure out they're not counting what's set aside for onboard video (64MB in this case). Seems obvious now, but MSI should really document this better.