myGBPVR: use XMBC as GBPVR FrontEnd

[dljones8053]

Ton

For some reason their is a date mismatch now, the now time does not match my server or client. Any ideas?

2010-05-01 20:31:54.288 INFO [4] Checking credential timestamp....
2010-05-01 20:31:54.288 INFO [4] nowTime = 5/2/2010 12:31:54 AM
2010-05-01 20:31:54.288 INFO [4] Credential time string = 05/01/2010 20:31:00
2010-05-01 20:31:54.288 INFO [4] Credential time converted = 5/1/2010 8:31:00 PM

DJ

[carpeVideo]

capeVideo

I have a question while setting up the XBMC Library for some reason it will not pick up the recordings the the format GBPVR writes them out, just wondering if you have seen this as well.

thanks
DJ

XBMC expects series and movies to be in separate parent directories that is likely causing the issue.

I have found a few things at this point - basically XBMC does its own scraping and it does it fairly well for movies and only works for series if you have a series and episode number in the title. The caveat is that tv series and movies have to be in separate parent directories so they can be separate sources. If there is an .nfo file for a show then it won't scrape and it will use that plot information. So initially I had vidImport generate .nfos pretending each was an episode of an unknown series. This works but only in the directory not library view. None of the other cool stuff XBMC does in library mode will work (like grouping series, having both a series and episode description and downloading thumbs and fan out). So now I am experimenting with doing something like Ton does and moving series and movies into different directories after they are recorded. Ton copies them, I am having them moved and then altering gbpvr's database to point to the correct file so I don't have two copies. That seems to work fairly well but some of XBMC's series scrapes are wrong. So I am working further on that. If Ton's play button gets to be functional it may not be necessary but I do like the library mode when it is working (its also faster than web access).

[Ton]

Hi,

The second (datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:00") ) returns this:

Code:

ret_soap = client.service.getChannelListObject(soapheaders=authObj)
                                            WebFault: Server raised fault: 'Unauthorized - Timeout'

However removing the T : datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:00") seems to make it work.

As far as I can see, the initial error wa raised because of a timeout in the WebService... This sometimes happens (when EWA is too slow to respond, or there is too much time passed between two requests)...

The freeze part seems to be due to a file error:

Code:

08:41:33 T:5260 M:1962680320    INFO: Skin version is: 2.1
08:41:33 T:5260 M:1962672128    INFO: Loading skin includes from D:\programs\XBMC\scripts\myGBPVR\resources\skins\Default\720p\includes.xml
08:41:33 T:5260 M:1962668032    INFO: Error loading includes.xml file (D:\programs\XBMC\scripts\myGBPVR\resources\skins\Default\720p\includes.xml): Failed to open file (row=0, col=0)
08:41:33 T:4540 M:1962643456   DEBUG: ------ Window Init (D:\programs\XBMC\scripts\myGBPVR\resources\skins\Default\720p\gbpvr_details.xml) ------
08:41:33 T:4540 M:1962643456    INFO: Loading skin file: D:\programs\XBMC\scripts\myGBPVR\resources\skins\Default\720p\gbpvr_details.xml
08:41:33 T:4540 M:1962467328   DEBUG: Load D:\programs\XBMC\scripts\myGBPVR\resources\skins\Default\720p\gbpvr_details.xml: 8.12ms
08:41:33 T:4540 M:1962500096   DEBUG: Alloc resources: 10.85ms (8.25 ms skin load)
08:41:33 T:4540 M:1962496000   DEBUG: CGUIMediaWindow::GetDirectory (?)

includes.xml - was that in the update for the "play" button?

No, this has not een present. And also, 11 ms for loading the skin doesn't seem to have anyting to do with "freezing"....

Could be related to date/time mismatches between the servers. I would recommend setting the format of the date-time to: "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:00" and possibly checking time-zone settings between XBMC and the server....

[Ton]

Hi,

Ton

For some reason their is a date mismatch now, the now time does not match my server or client. Any ideas?

2010-05-01 20:31:54.288 INFO [4] Checking credential timestamp....
2010-05-01 20:31:54.288 INFO [4] nowTime = 5/2/2010 12:31:54 AM
2010-05-01 20:31:54.288 INFO [4] Credential time string = 05/01/2010 20:31:00
2010-05-01 20:31:54.288 INFO [4] Credential time converted = 5/1/2010 8:31:00 PM

DJ

Could you check the time-zones on the server and the client...

Also, which of the times is "correct" (i.e. matching the entry in the XBMC log?

Again, I would recommend using the "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:00" format (that's ISO format and should allow for correct conversion of hours (no PM/AM converion issues). Could you just do a quick check and post the following (for one failed login request):
- The actual time
- The time-zone of the gbpvr server
- The timestring used for myGBPVR
- The time used in the EWA log

That should give us a clue what's going on....

[Ton]

Hi,

XBMC expects series and movies to be in separate parent directories that is likely causing the issue.

I have found a few things at this point - basically XBMC does its own scraping and it does it fairly well for movies and only works for series if you have a series and episode number in the title. The caveat is that tv series and movies have to be in separate parent directories so they can be separate sources. If there is an .nfo file for a show then it won't scrape and it will use that plot information. So initially I had vidImport generate .nfos pretending each was an episode of an unknown series. This works but only in the directory not library view. None of the other cool stuff XBMC does in library mode will work (like grouping series, having both a series and episode description and downloading thumbs and fan out). So now I am experimenting with doing something like Ton does and moving series and movies into different directories after they are recorded. Ton copies them, I am having them moved and then altering gbpvr's database to point to the correct file so I don't have two copies. That seems to work fairly well but some of XBMC's series scrapes are wrong. So I am working further on that. If Ton's play button gets to be functional it may not be necessary but I do like the library mode when it is working (its also faster than web access).

There seems to be an option in XBMC to set the regex that is used for filtering the recordings... I haven't had more then a quick look, but maybe there's something there....
Look here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Advancedsettings.xml under "<tvshowmatching>".

[carpeVideo]

It looks like the timeout is caused because the URL is hardcoded in the play section, it also does not have the port included, I hardcode my url and play worked so getting closer.

The next big question is going to be why is EWA so slow in responding and how do we go about fixing that.

[carpeVideo]

Hi,

There seems to be an option in XBMC to set the regex that is used for filtering the recordings... I haven't had more then a quick look, but maybe there's something there....
Look here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Advancedsettings.xml under "<tvshowmatching>".

Go find - it looks like a good method for GBPVR would be to then
a) set both the tv series and movies directories to the gbpvr recordings dir
b) make sure shows have the season episode string using one of the renamers
c) set the exclude from scan to be a regular expression for the series format you are using (this should exclude series from movie searches:
<video>
<excludefromscan>
<regexp>seriesRegularExpression</regexp>
</excludefromscan>
</video>)
d) set the exclude from series scan to be anything not with the series syntax you use:
<excludetvshowsfromscan> the opposite of the above
</excludetvshowsfromscan>

EDIT: this does not work as XBMC sets the content for the directory only once even if multiple copies are included as sources

[Ton]

Hi,

It looks like the timeout is caused because the URL is hardcoded in the play section, it also does not have the port included, I hardcode my url and play worked so getting closer.

You're right! If you change the code in "details.py" to:

Code:

theUrl = "http://" self.settings.GBPVR_HOST+ ":" + self.settings.GBPVR_PORT + "/gbpvr/"

it should work.
I also may have a (temporary) workaround for the extension (using a small hack in the EWA code), that will allow playing files of any extension...

The next big question is going to be why is EWA so slow in responding and how do we go about fixing that.

I think it has to do with the issue you posted before. It seems that there is (sometimes) a tiiming mismatch between the XBMC date/time and what EWA things the time is...
Maybe if we include the time-zone in the timestring that will take care of the issue. I'll have a quick look at the time-formats .NET accepts (and if there's one with a timezone included) and get back to you on that one....

[carpeVideo]

I tried :

timeString = datetime.utcnow().strftime("%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:00")

and it seems to work ok.

[Ton]

Hi,

I tried :

timeString = datetime.utcnow().strftime("%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:00")

and it seems to work ok.

Problem is that these settings won't work in most European countries... I'm trying to find a setting that works on each locale (US, European etc.), that's why I'm trying to get the "Year-Month-Day" format to work. I think it's working okay, just that .Net is interpreting it as UTC (GMT). That would explain the offset you see in the times (assuming you're on GMT + 4). This is not happening when you give the data as "month/day/year" since this is being interpreted as the current locale....

I have found the following format in .Net that should be fine: "''yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH': 'mm': 'ss.fffffff'zzz' " where "zzz" should be the offset from GMT(in hours/minutes). I will be able to specify that from Python, so I'm hoping that will be fine....

Could you give me the TZ and regional settings for youre GBPVR machine? I can then configure my own server that way and see if the above would work....

With regards to the fix for the extensions, on your GBPVR server go to the "gbpvr\web\app_code" directory and locate the file: "download.aspx".

Find the first occuence of:

Code:

Response.Write("#EXTINF:" + seconds + "," + Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fileName) + "\r\n");

and replace it with:

Code:

Response.Write("#EXTINF:" + seconds + "," + Path.GetFileName(fileName) + "\r\n");

Then open up your "details.py" and make the following change to the "goPlay" function:
Change this line:

Code:

smbPath = smbPath + "/" + theFile + "." + self.settings.GBPVR_EXTENSION

to this:

Code:

smbPath = smbPath + "/" + theFile

Then it should be taking the extension from EWA (who knows the file), so it should be able to get the right extension for the file-name....