System Plugin for nPVR - Early Beta

[johnsonx42]

lol, I didn't need your source code, I believe you that it doesn't use NEWA . I was just tossing out a thought to pBS about why it might not work right with NRecord not running; I had a similar sort of problem when I was running without NRecord for a couple weeks due to a high-cpu usage bug (which actually turned out to be related to the NPVR Tray icon, now patched), and I found to my dismay that SearchLite didn't work due to the lack of NEWA.

[imilne]

Yes, but being able to see the code might allow someone else who understands the APIs better to spot a reason why it might not like the recording service running.

Iain

[johnsonx42]

you mean this isn't a private conversation for just me and you? lol, me so funny.

not having looked at the code nor understanding the API's anyway, I'll just wonder aloud if when running on an NPVR client shouldn't you try to talk to the recording service on the server rather than the one that may or may not be running on localhost?

[pBS]

so true...there is some method to do this i'm pretty sure..[detect cleint mode and route rec service accordingly]

thanx for the net paths...will try to see what errors come up if any when path isn't reachable..

[pBS]

it throws an error after about a minute and plugin won't start if path isn't available.......
i'd do a 'if file exists(path\.) then get freespace' kinda thing to get around it..[tho there may be better ways]
the same would happen with usb drives that aren't attached/asleep..

[imilne]

so true...there is some method to do this i'm pretty sure..[detect cleint mode and route rec service accordingly]

As far as I can tell (sub can correct me if I'm wrong), it's the NPVR API that deals with this. My code just asks for information from the recording service; it doesn't know (or care) whether it's local or not. I'm pretty sure I tested a client-server setup a while ago and it was fine. Running a client with *its* local service turned off though obviously changes the game.

thanx for the net paths...will try to see what errors come up if any when path isn't reachable..

I tried a few made-up paths, and there was a slight hang while Windows decided they didn't exist, but it was no more than 5 seconds or so. The plugin then continued fine, and displayed "no drive found" messages (which come up in response to the exception handling around the attempt to connect to the mapped drive). Can you give me a little more details on what it is you're trying?

As for USB drives, they have proper drive letters, so the standard code for a drive not existing should be fine there (and again I think I tested this). The plugin uses WMI to gather information from real drives, whereas the new net path code has had to fall back on unmanaged win32 code because you can't use UNC with WMI.

There's at least one other bug in the new code anyway (see if you can spot it in the screenshots on the wiki ) so I'll be taking another look at it soon.

Iain

[pBS]

i just put the machine with the path to sleep...which doesn't remove it from network lists, just doesn't return any info but still looks to network like it's there...
i think it's cuz when asleep, the network card is still on and connected technically...just not servicing requests..

[imilne]

Is this version any better?

Part of the problem is just down to the way Windows works. It can take it 20-30s to realise a remote system isn't there, and there's nothing you can do during that time (note XP and how it would hang if you moved the mouse over the recent documents list on the start menu and the list contained shortcuts to files on another (offline) PC).

There might be some trick involving threads that could help, but I don't want to go there if at all necessary.

[pBS]

better still get the pause [but that's unavoidable] but the plugin comes up after
'drive empty' for the mapped and 'no drive found' for the net path...
that'll do...cuz at least it lets me see the other stuff in plugin if a machine is asleep....

and get this, if still in plugin when other machine is woke, the plugin adjust on the fly and starts showing info for that drive as soon as it's available!
sweet, thanx

[systemshark]

Morning,

Spotted an interesting Bug with system plugin to do with Tuners....

I've just added a hauppauge HVR1700 to my machine which in addition to existing BlackGold and Nova T500 tuner....

The Rename Tuners Tab has not spotted the new tuners.... I'm only looking at the old layout eg :- as per the screen shots....