Auto restart recording service utility

[frankmcg]

Have been trying this out for the last few days now and it seems to be restarting the remote pretty reliably which is good! However, one consequence I've noticed is that having the app running in the background seems to be stopping my box from going into hibernate mode after x minutes of inactivity as I've set it up to do. Looking at filemon it's accessing the hd every 30secs or so and this seems to be enough for XP to think the computer should not go into hibernate.

Have you noticed this behaviour before? Any way around it other than killing the frequent ir/gb-pvr detect part of the app such that this is just used as a coming out of hibernate tool?

[gEd]

not sure. I use the hibernator from the green button website which works well for me.

I would use the resume section of code only. this is when ir.exe really needs restarting anyway.

[frankmcg]

Tried out hibernator last night but it seems to only function if you close down GB-PVR after you've finished using it? Otherwise the "screensaver" doesn't kick in it seems. Has that been your experience and are you just closing the app once you're done?

[K.S.]

gEd, you may want to add the following call to the standby func, it fixes the black screen after automatic resume symptom (works like a charm, allready tested). thanks to Nomad101 for digging that way up

Code:

DllCall ("kernel32.dll","long","SetThreadExecutionState","long",0x00000002)

[gEd]

yep - I saw that thread and added it to my version last night to test it out. The blank screen has been bugging me for ages. I haven;t done much testing but if you believe that it fixes the problem, I will add it to the script.

That's another problem knocked on the head then!

[Carlito]

edit:
been a long day... sorry for this useless post...

[gEd]

Uploaded new version of script.

from change log (god I sounds like a programmer):

2.5 Addedt call to SetThreadExecutionState. This fixes the black screen after automatic resume.
*** Thanks to Nomad101 for digging that one up.***
2.5.1 Added boolean variable to enable check_network function. Default = OFF
2.5.2 Added boolean variable to enable Check_IR function. Default = ON
2.5.3 Removed -fse from $GBPVR_launch for pvrx2.exe. I don;t think it is needed.
2.6 Added option to reboot PC if IR.exe will not stay running (i..e you see repeated Ir.exe restarts in the script log file)
This behavior is enabled by setting $Restart_PC_on_IR_Failure = 1. Default = OFF
Delay defined by $Delay_before_checking_IR_running.
Checks included abort if Ir.exe is missing and $Manage_IR_process = 1
WARNING: It does not check to see if recordings are in progress. The reason is: If we have just come out of standby and IR.exe will not run, then the tuner is not working
so recordings will fail anyway. The only risk here is if the tuner 'dies' whilst you are watching a recording and the PC reboots.

[gEd]

Tried out hibernator last night but it seems to only function if you close down GB-PVR after you've finished using it? Otherwise the "screensaver" doesn't kick in it seems. Has that been your experience and are you just closing the app once you're done?

Actually I am now not sure if Hibernator is putting my pc into standby or windows power management but one of them is doing the job for me.
I have Hibernator set as the screensaver but "screensaver" is disabled in Hibernator.

Windows is set to go into standby after 45mins of idle and I leave pvrx2 running all the time.

[frankmcg]

Interesting. It seems to have started working for me now not long after I posted that, despite not changing anything. Isn't windows wonderful!

I also found that the check(ir) function wasn't always restarting the ir.exe after shutting it down in the standby function, so I've added it in twice ie calling check(ir), sleep 300, check(ir), sleep 300 again. Seems to be doing the trick currently.

[gEd]

I noticed that last night. I have added a loop to try and restart ir.exe x times before aborting and an option to display a message box (if not restarting pc) if it can't start it.

2.7 Try and restart IR.exe Loop $IR_retry_count times before aborting.
If $Display_msg_on_IR_fail = 1, will display a message box warning on failure to start IR.exe

Not tested with failing ir.exe yet so any feedback welcome