SlimmGBPVR - replacement for GBPVRTray

[aurora]

Mr Slimm,

Does your application, either the cli or the tray lock the SQL database when it is accessing it? I ask this because I think this might be the source of my issue.

I run the cli every 5 minutes to get information about what GBPVR is doing, post process the results and then display to my LCD. So I run the application a lot. Looks like for some reason, when the GBPVR recording service is trying to update SQL to say a recording is inprogress, it is locked. My assumption is that due to the way I am using the application, this might be the source of the problem.

Your application then queries the database and the return info is that there is no inprogress recording since this is not recorded in the database.

SOmething I saw that supports my theory is that inside GBPVR in the recordings it does not indicate in progress while a recodring is going on.

It would be rare to see this, since you would have to run a slimm access and a recording service update at almost exactly the same time.

Do you think this is possible?

[Mister Slimm]

Mr Slimm,

Does your application, either the cli or the tray lock the SQL database when it is accessing it? I ask this because I think this might be the source of my issue.

Do you think this is possible?

It is very unlikely that this is the problem. SQLite has negated issues to do with concurrency and database bloat.

Both GB-PVR, GBPVRcli and SlimmGBPVR all get the contents of your database the same way.

I suggest running GB-PVR without GBPVRcli or SlimmGBPVR and seeing if the problem disappears.

[aurora]

It is very unlikely that this is the problem. SQLite has negated issues to do with concurrency and database bloat.

Both GB-PVR, GBPVRcli and SlimmGBPVR all get the contents of your database the same way.

OK, thanks for the info. Here is an example of the error I get in the recording service log:

8/7/2006 8:00:00 PM.015 INFO [5] Found new programme requiring recording: Mystery!
8/7/2006 8:00:00 PM.015 VERBOSE [5] Changing to channel (GBPVR.Backend.Common.NullTunerController): 20
8/7/2006 8:00:00 PM.015 VERBOSE [5] Requesting IRecordingSource to start recording: D:\GB-PVR\Mystery!\Mystery!_20060807_20002200.mpg
8/7/2006 8:00:00 PM.015 VERBOSE [5] DirectRecordingSource about to start recording oid:1 channel:20
8/7/2006 8:00:02 PM.187 VERBOSE [5] recording started
8/7/2006 8:00:02 PM.187 VERBOSE [5] Programme is now recording
8/7/2006 8:00:02 PM.187 VERBOSE [5] RecordingFactory.save()
8/7/2006 8:00:33 PM.203 ERROR [5] Unabled to save ScheduledRecording: The database file is locked
database is locked
8/7/2006 8:00:33 PM.203 ERROR [5] at System.Data.SQLite.SQLite3.Reset(SQLiteStatement stmt)
at System.Data.SQLite.SQLite3.Step(SQLiteStatement stmt)
at System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
at GBPVR.Backend.Common.x396614b3dae3b1da.xc979432fcc5a510a(ScheduledRecording xe41d2b9d98dc1269)

I suggest running GB-PVR without GBPVRcli or SlimmGBPVR and seeing if the problem disappears.

Yes, that is the plan. Need to narrow down the source of this.

Again thank you very much for all your help. I appreciate your time on this.

[martynw]

Hello,

I just started using SlimmGBPVR and it's very useful to have all that information available from the tray.

I spotted a tiny bug in that I have 2 recordings that are named "10.5 Apocalypse xxxx" in a folder called "10.5 Apocalypse". The folder displays as "10" in the right click - recordings menu.

My question is whether it's possible to run SlimmGBPVR from a different PC to the one that GBPVR is installed on? My GBPVR machine is in a server rack and I use xboxes with XBMC and PCs to watch stuff and the enhanced web admin to control GBPVR (I very rarely fire up the main GBPVR program).

Thanks

Martyn

[aurora]

Hi Mr. Slimm,

Just wanted to let you know that since disabling the slimm tray, I have gone through 5 recordings without a hitch. I am pretty sure at this point that the interaction between slimm and gbpvr is the source of my problem.

Playing around I realized that not only was the recording status not getting updated correctly, but also that some recordings were not getting logged in the database. Because the SQL database was locked when the recording service tried to update with a completed status, the recording would not show up. There is one daily recording that was getting missed everyday due to this. Since disable it has been recorded twice.

Please let me know if you would like me to try anything else.

[Mister Slimm]

Hi Mr. Slimm,

Just wanted to let you know that since disabling the slimm tray, I have gone through 5 recordings without a hitch. I am pretty sure at this point that the interaction between slimm and gbpvr is the source of my problem.

Playing around I realized that not only was the recording status not getting updated correctly, but also that some recordings were not getting logged in the database. Because the SQL database was locked when the recording service tried to update with a completed status, the recording would not show up. There is one daily recording that was getting missed everyday due to this. Since disable it has been recorded twice.

Please let me know if you would like me to try anything else.

Bizarre. Truly bizarre. I have not had any other reports of this or experienced anything related to it myself. Amazing.

Anyway, to try and find a solution...

Are you not using the tray and not using GBPVRcli? Or not using the tray and using GBPVRcli?

Does the problem return if you start using GBPVRcli again? Or if you use the tray again?

[Mister Slimm]

I spotted a tiny bug in that I have 2 recordings that are named "10.5 Apocalypse xxxx" in a folder called "10.5 Apocalypse". The folder displays as "10" in the right click - recordings menu.

Terrific bug! Is fixed in next version.

My question is whether it's possible to run SlimmGBPVR from a different PC to the one that GBPVR is installed on? My GBPVR machine is in a server rack and I use xboxes with XBMC and PCs to watch stuff and the enhanced web admin to control GBPVR (I very rarely fire up the main GBPVR program).

I don't know. Try it.

[aurora]

Bizarre. Truly bizarre. I have not had any other reports of this or experienced anything related to it myself. Amazing.

Might have a lot to do with how I am running the tool. I am running the cli every 5 minutes, 24/7 to drive a LCD display.

Anyway, to try and find a solution...

Are you not using the tray and not using GBPVRcli? Or not using the tray and using GBPVRcli?

Currently, I am not using either.

Does the problem return if you start using GBPVRcli again? Or if you use the tray again?

I beleive the cli alone causes it. Will have to turn this back on to see for sure. Will not know until Monday or Tuesday. I plan to enable the tray tonight, observe for a day or two then enable the cli alone. If this does not exhibit the problem, I will enable both.

Thanks again for looking into this.

[aurora]

Just a little more background - reasons I might be seeing the problem and not others.

I have a single tuner setup. I often record shows back to back, so have pre an post show padding set to 0. I have the CLI setup in an auto batcher to run exactly on the hour and then in 5 minute intervals. So in my system the the GBPVR recording service and the CLI are targeted to run at exactly the same time. I have a sinlge CPU system, so I realize that it is not possible to run both at the same time, but the OS is going to manage both threads simultaneously.

Again thank you for your time on this and let me know if I can be of any assitance.

[Mister Slimm]

Just a little more background - reasons I might be seeing the problem and not others.

I have a single tuner setup. I often record shows back to back, so have pre an post show padding set to 0. I have the CLI setup in an auto batcher to run exactly on the hour and then in 5 minute intervals. So in my system the the GBPVR recording service and the CLI are targeted to run at exactly the same time. I have a sinlge CPU system, so I realize that it is not possible to run both at the same time, but the OS is going to manage both threads simultaneously.

Again thank you for your time on this and let me know if I can be of any assitance.

Perhaps running GBPVRcli offset by a minute or two would help. It only takes a fraction of a second for GBPVRcli to read the recording schedule out of the database. Also, are you absolutely certain that the GBPVRcli is only being called every five minutes and not end-to-end (couldn't think of the right word!)?

I don't know if you are doing this but other people use GBPVRcli in the batch files called by GBPVR at various times. These batch files are detailed here: Wiki > Manual > Batch Files. When I ran these during testing, I never experienced database locking problems.

Additionally, both GBPVRTray and SlimmGBPVR run RecordingStatus.bat whenever the recording status changes (recording started / finished / live TV started / finished).