npvr 2.0.3 issues and observations

[time_lord]

Thanks Jaggy and mulletback, looks like you've given me the next task to try :-)

[sub]

after mentioning yesterdays hang and I rebooted, now when I go into recordings those two problem ones are deletable and on the parent list (of recordings) each one shows "Recording service not running at recording time".

Set <AllowInProcessRecording> to false in the config.xml and it should fix any repeat occurrances of this. This will be default value in the next release.

[time_lord]

I put in the 'psisdecd.dll' fix and the system was ok for a few recordings. Y'day I came back from a week away and two recurring weekly recordings worked ok and also a one-off recording (via quick record). Great.
Last night I set two 30 minute programs via quick record, both on 'TV3 Plus1' (I should have chosen TV3). Both of them have audio but no video (arrggg), and where I'd expect to see a 2.7(?)GB .ts file I have 1GB.
Sub (or any other NZ user) do you know if TV3 Plus1 uses a different encoding from TV3? (The latter usually works fine for me.) Or any other issues you are aware of?

[sub]

Last night I set two 30 minute programs via quick record, both on 'TV3 Plus1' (I should have chosen TV3). Both of them have audio but no video (arrggg), and where I'd expect to see a 2.7(?)GB .ts file I have 1GB.

I'm not aware of any reported past occurances of a digital recording missing a stream (either video or audio or associated data stream like subtitles etc). You should get everything the broadcaster sent for the channel. Are you sure it's not there? ie, try a player like VLC. It'd be very strange to be missing.

Sub (or any other NZ user) do you know if TV3 Plus1 uses a different encoding from TV3? (The latter usually works fine for me.) Or any other issues you are aware of?

I dont personally use TV3 Plus1. On DVB-T, TV3 is HD with additional AC3 stream, TV3 Plus1 is SD, but its largely the same as other SD channels like prime etc.

[time_lord]

I dont personally use TV3 Plus1. On DVB-T, TV3 is HD with additional AC3 stream, TV3 Plus1 is SD, but its largely the same as other SD channels like prime etc.

Sub, you were spot on! Yes the recordings play ok in VLC. But I get no video (only a black screen) in npvr. I guess npvr needs another codec added or registered somewhere (I'm not sure what codec that'd be!)... hope it doesn't upset my usual setup.
Sorry I hadn't considered that the transmission might be HD on one channel and SD on the other, accounting for the significantly smaller file sizes (when I saw no video and the smaller size I jumped to conclusions).

[time_lord]

I guess npvr needs another codec added or registered somewhere (I'm not sure what codec that'd be!)... hope it doesn't upset my usual setup.

Any ideas where I find out what this extra codec should be? (Or is it just trial & error)?

[sub]

DVB-T here in NZ is H.264 video and HE-AAC audio, so you need to have these decoders configured. I'm personally using the ArcSoft H.264 Video Decoder, and the Monogram AAC Decoder.

[time_lord]

Hi Sub, what I meant earlier was that since you can only choose one codec, I was dreading having to change it just to fix TV3Plus1 (which I don't really need) at the risk of maybe breaking other channels. (It took a wee while to find out what worked for me... a lot of trial & error with gbpvr, thankfully I retained all that for npvr ;-) )

Anyway here's the doozie - I updated my nvidia drivers (maybe 6-9 month old)... and now I can see TV3Plus1 live tv, did a recording and that works too. Dunno if the new driver helped (doubt it) or maybe it was the reboot :S
But now I have a new quirk (probably IS the driver change) - I have a windoze XP screen saver set to come on after one minute. It never used to come on while npvr was running... but now it does, but it seems to be after 5 minutes or so! BTW this is when I'm running in dual screen clone mode (what I always did in the past). I.e my LCD tv (connected to PC via HDMI) is the primary monitor; the PC screen is a clone of the TV. Is there anything in npvr I should reset/initialise so it stops the XP screensaver kicking in?

Found another wee glitch tonight (sorry!!!) - started npvr on the PC, went to the guide and started watching something, decided to pause it so I could go turn on the main tv. Before I did that (while live tv was paused) I maximised the screen (maximised, not alt-enter). npvr went back to showing the guide; would not respond to selecting a program. Pressed escape, back on the main menu with a large black unpainted rectangle in it (the size of the window before it was maximised). It's then possible to click on that area and ctrl-Q to unpause.
It's also a bit quirky if you un-maximise when you first get back to the guide... and at one stage I had playback resumed in a small rectangle above the main menu - and when I right-clicked on it (to bring up the menu), it redrew to the full size of the window.
Jeez Sub, you must hate users... if we can we'll break anything :-D Or maybe it's XP :S

One more thing... sometimes when I go from the guide into watching a channel, the very first time I get audio but no video. If I escape and try again it works. (Like the driver isn't initialised the first time or something.) After that it'll be ok for the rest of the evening...

Cheers

[sub]

Hi Sub, what I meant earlier was that since you can only choose one codec, I was dreading having to change it just to fix TV3Plus1 (which I don't really need) at the risk of maybe breaking other channels. (It took a wee while to find out what worked for me... a lot of trial & error with gbpvr, thankfully I retained all that for npvr ;-) )

I'm not aware of anything different enough about this channel that would require different decoders. When I'm back in NZ next week I'll check it.

But now I have a new quirk (probably IS the driver change) - I have a windoze XP screen saver set to come on after one minute. It never used to come on while npvr was running... but now it does, but it seems to be after 5 minutes or so! BTW this is when I'm running in dual screen clone mode (what I always did in the past). I.e my LCD tv (connected to PC via HDMI) is the primary monitor; the PC screen is a clone of the TV. Is there anything in npvr I should reset/initialise so it stops the XP screensaver kicking in?

Was the application the foreground application (with focus) at the time? Windows only allows the foreground application to request the screen saver does not kick in. Same limitation applied to GBPVR in the past aswell.

Found another wee glitch tonight (sorry!!!) - started npvr on the PC, went to the guide and started watching something, decided to pause it so I could go turn on the main tv. Before I did that (while live tv was paused) I maximised the screen (maximised, not alt-enter). npvr went back to showing the guide; would not respond to selecting a program. Pressed escape, back on the main menu with a large black unpainted rectangle in it (the size of the window before it was maximised). It's then possible to click on that area and ctrl-Q to unpause.

If you remind me next week when I'm back in NZ, I can give this a try.

One more thing... sometimes when I go from the guide into watching a channel, the very first time I get audio but no video. If I escape and try again it works. (Like the driver isn't initialised the first time or something.) After that it'll be ok for the rest of the evening...

I'm sure this will be down to the decoders or video renderer you're using, and these are likely to be the only settings that would have an effect on this type of problem.

[Reddwarf]

Sub, why don't you just remove the maximize/minimize buttons, they seem to create all sorts of trouble and are not really needed (since alt-enter is the proper method of entering/exiting fullscreen).