PVRPowerTray for GBPVR - enhanced GBPVR tray application

[Pioneer4x4]

Has anyone else had issues with this app. and CPU usage? On my PC, this app. never exceeds 2% and is usually 0%.

Also, please post any problems, suggestions, etc. - I'd like to start putting together a punch-list for the next release...

- Jim

It was using more CPU and mem. The memory usage varied quite a bit, and the cup usage was in periodic spikes. I'm not running it right now, I was having an intermittent issue, and have several show's I don't want to miss. I'll play with it again later in the week.

[A_Brass]

PVRPowerTray rocks!! Its so close to solving a problem I have had for a while. I'm running my GBPVR in a server/Client setup. Is it possible to tell PVRPower tray where to look for the recording service? If so I could get GBPvr status from another PC without having to fire up the web interface.

For instance in the Config.xml on the GBPvr server, my "Remote client settings" look like this:

<!-- Remote client settings --> <RecordingServiceLocation>tcp://localhost:7968/RecordingRemote</RecordingServiceLocation>

On my client it looks like this:

<!-- Remote client settings -->
<RecordingServiceLocation>tcp://Media-1:7968/RecordingRemote</RecordingServiceLocation>


On the client, GBPvr tray seems to look to the server (it must pick up the path from the config.xml.) But PVRPowerTray does not. Can this be configured? If not can this feature be added in a future version?

Thanks

[jimh]

PVRPowerTray rocks!! Its so close to solving a problem I have had for a while. I'm running my GBPVR in a server/Client setup. Is it possible to tell PVRPower tray where to look for the recording service? If so I could get GBPvr status from another PC without having to fire up the web interface.

For instance in the Config.xml on the GBPvr server, my "Remote client settings" look like this:

<!-- Remote client settings --> <RecordingServiceLocation>tcp://localhost:7968/RecordingRemote</RecordingServiceLocation>

On my client it looks like this:

<!-- Remote client settings -->
<RecordingServiceLocation>tcp://Media-1:7968/RecordingRemote</RecordingServiceLocation>


On the client, GBPvr tray seems to look to the server (it must pick up the path from the config.xml.) But PVRPowerTray does not. Can this be configured? If not can this feature be added in a future version?

Thanks

My app. does not look for the recording service for its info - it pulls everything directly from the gbpvr.mdb database file, which is modified by the recording service as recordings begin, end and are scheduled.

It would be quite easy to allow the user the override the default path (which is taken from the Windows registry), so that you could have PVRPowerTray running on your client yet polling your server. Instead of polling c:\program files\devnz\gbpvr\gbpvr.mdb, it would poll X:\program files\devnz\gbpvr\gbpvr.mdb (assuming X: is the networked drive).

The real question would be: can the polling take place as quickly when it polls across a network instead of a local drive? There is a little bit of "overhead" every time a connection to the database is needed - my concern is whether this "overhead" increases when you're doing it over a network.

I'll run some tests to find out and let you know. BTW, what kind of network are you running (wired, wireless B, wireless G, etc)?

- Jim

[A_Brass]

The real question would be: can the polling take place as quickly when it polls across a network instead of a local drive? There is a little bit of "overhead" every time a connection to the database is needed - my concern is whether this "overhead" increases when you're doing it over a network.

I'll run some tests to find out and let you know. BTW, what kind of network are you running (wired, wireless B, wireless G, etc)?

- Jim

Sounds good. I'm running a wired 100mb network. Let me know what I need to change and I'll be willing to give it a try. How often does it poll the database? One post suggested making it adjustable, so I assume its fairly often.

Let me know what REG values need to be changed.

Thanks.

[kaiger]

Great plugin. I'm working on putting my parallel port LED box together and I thought of another useful parameter. Would it be possible to have an option to light a LED when there is a scheduling conflict? I have no idea if this is feasible, but I would find it very handy to have a red light tell me when I've got a problem (HD space or schedule conflict).
Thanks for your work.

[reefboy]

I am looking forward to putting together a clean looking enclosure to place my LED's and place them in a inconspicuous location in my Entertainment center!

I did install everything but when I try to drag and drop the exe file into the startup folder I get an error saying that it is locked, in use, or something about permissions. Has anyone else had this problem? If I execute it outside of the startup folder it works fine. One other item. When it is in the system tray it is just a black box. Is this normal?

Thanks again!

[jimh]

I am looking forward to putting together a clean looking enclosure to place my LED's and place them in a inconspicuous location in my Entertainment center!

I took an old Sandisk CompactFlash card reader (USB 1.1) that I didn't need and ripped the works out of it and mounted my LED's in that. Or, you can find a plain vanilla project box at RadioShack for a few bucks...

I did install everything but when I try to drag and drop the exe file into the startup folder I get an error saying that it is locked, in use, or something about permissions. Has anyone else had this problem? If I execute it outside of the startup folder it works fine. One other item. When it is in the system tray it is just a black box. Is this normal?

I would suggest that you try placing the .exe file in the GBPVR directory and then add a *shortcut* to it in your startup folder.

Also, when the app. is running, the small system tray icon is either a green TV screen marked "OFF" or a blue one flashing "ON" (to show recording is "ON").

- Jim

[reefboy]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try the shortcut idea.
The icon in the system tray was a solid black box. The only way I could see what was going on was by double clicking on the icon. Any ideas of what might be going on? I placed the dll file in the main windows directory under XP pro.

Thanks again!

[kaiger]

I got my LED box working and it's working great with your powertray. I have one LED assigned to each of my two 150 cards (one MCE). For some reason the first one lights up correctly when recording of 150_1. When recording off of 150_2 the only way to get the second LED to light is to assign it to light when any recording is being made. This does serve the purpose, but I was wondering if it's a bug or something I did wrong. Is anybody else experiencing a similar behavior?
Also is my above request for a recording-conflict light infeasible? thanks

[jimh]

I got my LED box working and it's working great with your powertray. I have one LED assigned to each of my two 150 cards (one MCE). For some reason the first one lights up correctly when recording of 150_1. When recording off of 150_2 the only way to get the second LED to light is to assign it to light when any recording is being made. This does serve the purpose, but I was wondering if it's a bug or something I did wrong. Is anybody else experiencing a similar behavior?
Also is my above request for a recording-conflict light infeasible? thanks

Because I only have one recording source on my system, I was unable to fully debug the LED algorithms with multiple sources. I will look into it and try to identify the bug...

I will also look into the feasiblity of adding "recording conflict" to the list of triggers for the LED's.

- Jim