UbuStream v2.1 Beta finally available

[ubu]

you might be onto something there, they were at the max 512K, but i have "overwite events when needed" selected. in any case i have cleared them and tried again with the same problem.

Not sure if the "overwrite events" flag really works. I also have that option set in the code (so, in theory, the log shouldn't fill up). But your error messages do seem to be pointing in that direction.

This seems to be the "smoking gun":

Code:

Removing EventLog source UbuRecordingService.
An exception occurred during the uninstallation of the System.Diagnostics.EventL
ogInstaller installer.
System.InvalidOperationException: The event log source 'UbuRecordingService' can
not be deleted, because it's equal to the log name.

I've no idea why you're getting this. Not sure what "equal to the log name" means. I'm writing to the regular "Application" log.

Grasping at straws a bit here, but did you try clearing the event log(s), then rebooting, than trying the unininstall again?

and when i try to install it i get this important extracted info:

Don't you just love M$ diagnostic messages?

Here's a couple of links I found that give some general info (although not dealing with your specific error message) about resolving service event log problems:

[B]How to Delete Corrupt Event Viewer Log Files[/B]

Unable uninstall and install windows service application.

So, possibly, cleaning out the registry entries manually might work. (Scary, though :eek: ).

Unfortunately, I'm away from home (and my source code) right now so I can't look for more clues there. I'll check when I get back

EDIT: Just found this item. This might be the problem. I did make minor changes to the recording service for UbuStream v2.1 so it is a different executable than the one distributed with UbuRadio (and than the one distributed with earler versions of the v2.1 beta). So you may find that, if you use the version you originally installed from (just replace the contents of the UbuRecordingService directory with the original files) and try to uninstall the service with that, it may uninstall correctly. Then you can copy the current version back into the directory and do a fresh install of the current version of the service. (Reboot your machine and say a few prayers inbetween, to be on the safe side )

[ralphy]

Well, I'm trying out the ninemsn podcasting feature as described here and noticed the following.

1. When I tried to change the podcast folder in ubuconfig, exit and restart, the section list in the podcasts dynsource group was not updated to reflect the subfolders of the new podcast folder. I manually deleted the dynsource entry in the xml file, so that when ubuconfig started up again, it loaded the subfolders of the new directory.
   
2. I didn't have vlc installed, so when I tried to play the stream, I got a 'player not found' error. Clicking 'ok' doesn't clear the error screen, but 'double clicking' does. I notice that this also appears to happen when clicking a button to play one of the players. Is this the way it is suposed to work?
   
3. I couldn't get the internal vlc player to cycle through all aspect ratios 4:3 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios with F7. Have I got something set up incorrectly, or have I missed the point? The internal WMP seems to cycle ok.

I finally did an upgrade install on my production machine and initially GBPVR failed to start because I did not have the uburecording service running. (Sorry, I've lost the log entry) I had to go into the ubu recording service controller to install. During the install, I chose not to check the 'install/start' the recording service (don't ask me why!), but if GBPVR won't start without it running, why is the option there for the user to choose not to install?

[ubu]

Once again, you've uncovered some key problems. (Do you do QA testing for a living? ).

When I tried to change the podcast folder in ubuconfig, exit and restart, the section list in the podcasts dynsource group was not updated to reflect the subfolders of the new podcast folder. I manually deleted the dynsource entry in the xml file, so that when ubuconfig started up again, it loaded the subfolders of the new directory.

I must admit this is a bit of a kludge but, since I had no feedback at all on the Podcasts dynsource app, I though I was the only one using it. If you already have the Podcasts dynsource installed, to change the podcast directory you have to actually delete the Podcast dynsource first. (ie. From the config app, highlight the dynsource, select Delete to remove it from the database and "disable" the app, then enter your new podcasts directory on the Options panel and close the config app. Then use Explorer to re-enable the app - remove the ".disabled" extension that has been added to the exe file. Then, when you start the config app, it will re-install the dynsource, picking up your new podcasts directory along the way. Phew!!).

Not very friendly but it works. This actually touches on a larger issue that I've been mulling over. It would be nice if DynSource apps could accept parameters to change their behaviour . I played around with adding a "command line arguments" field to the database but it occurred to me that a better way would be to add an optional Setup button to the DynSource panel which would be enabled if the DynSource included a setup app with a form that could be displayed (a bit like the gbpvr config app does for plugins). The dynsource setup app would save the settings the user entered to its own app config file which the actual dynsource app would read before downloading stuff from the target site. So, in the Podcast dynsource case, I could move the podcasts directory to the setup app form and allow it to be changed "on the fly". This could be a very flexible feature that dynsource authors could use for all kinds of things. For instance:

• Many sites offer both WMP and RealPlayer streams. The user could choose their preference on a setup form and the dynsource would download the appropriate links at run time.
  
• SkyNews has zillions of archived video links. Currently I arbitrarily restrict my dynsource download to the links with dates less than 3 days old. A setup form would let users set this value and download as many links as they wanted.
  
• You could let users "design" their own sections. Some sites break their links into very small groups (3 links per group). These could be combined into larger "custom" groups.

EDIT: Also realized that the Podcast dynsource assumes the "station" is an audio one. So, for video podcasts, you have to manually change the station config to video for it to work correctly.

I didn't have vlc installed, so when I tried to play the stream, I got a 'player not found' error. Clicking 'ok' doesn't clear the error screen, but 'double clicking' does. I notice that this also appears to happen when clicking a button to play one of the players. Is this the way it is suposed to work?

By design. All error/info messages share the same dialog and I have this set to require a double click since it's easy to single click by accident. If you click the Delete button, for instance, it's easy to unintentionally have a second click in the buffer which would immediately trigger the OK button on the dialog (causing the user to indulge in a lot of profane language :eek: ).

I couldn't get the internal vlc player to cycle through all aspect ratios 4:3 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios with F7. Have I got something set up incorrectly, or have I missed the point? The internal WMP seems to cycle ok.

I think this is probably the bug I mentioned earlier where VLC keystroke handling behaves differently on different machines. In all the internal players, my code intercepts keystrokes before they get to the player and map them to GB-PVR functionality. On my test machine, this works fine with VLC. On my production machine (functionally identical as far as I can tell) the keystrokes make it through to the player so it responds to "native" VLC key mapping. (For instance, instead of Ctrl-P/Ctrl-Q for Play/Pause, as used by GB-PVR, you may find that the spacebar will toggle Play and Pause, which is the default for VLC). The F7 key is one that only pertains to my code (since I'm adjusting the video display size on your screen, not VLC) so, if the keystrokes are not getting captured, the F7 key wouldn't work. When I get time, I'm going to try a different approach to intercepting the keystrokes and see if that fixes this elusive problem.

I finally did an upgrade install on my production machine and initially GBPVR failed to start because I did not have the uburecording service running. (Sorry, I've lost the log entry) I had to go into the ubu recording service controller to install. During the install, I chose not to check the 'install/start' the recording service (don't ask me why!), but if GBPVR won't start without it running, why is the option there for the user to choose not to install?

Pity you lost the log. At load time, UbuStream checks to see if the service is installed and running. If not, it's supposed to write a message to the log and continue loading. It shouldn't affect the GB-PVR startup. Sounds like I need to test this more.

Good question about the checkbox in the install app. Probably I was spending too much time trying to get the cute little UBU icon to show up on the setup dialogs to worry about whether the options actually made any sense. I guess I was thinking some people might want to do the actual config steps later?

[ralphy]

Do you do QA testing for a living?

No, but I seem to have a habit of being able to 'break programs'. Two weeks ago I found a significant bug in some commercial software giving results that defy the laws of physics - so the company did the right thing and gave us a full refund. Now I have to wait weeks or months for the next release! And today, I managed to crash another program that's been around for many years and now at version 8 costing many ten's of thousands of dollars to licence. I managed to work around the problem, but there's definitely a bug for the vendor to fix. Maybe it's a bit of a case of a dumb user trying to do things that other's don't, or I'm not supposed to:o... or maybe I should read the user manual.

I've changed the initial install to set Preview play to true and I've fixed the bug in the advanced settings panel. So now, the DynSource will be created with Preview play set and will create stations accordingly unless you explicitly change the DynSource to External or Timeshift. The downside to my fix is that now all three play mode radio buttons are enabled, whatever the specified player. So I'm assuming that people will have the sense not to choose Timeshift play if their DynSource is downloading RealPlayer video streams.

I can see this change made to ubuconfig, but I am still having problems with the internal / external player. This time, I can't get the external player to work, even after selecting the default dynsource player to external in ubustream. After clicking on the clip, if preview is displayed as the default button, clicking external plays the internal player. If external is displayed as the default button, clicking preview still plays the external player. Attached is the xml with preview and with external for OzABC.

Does the <Use_Internal_Player>tag need to be the same (ie false or true) for all clips within a dynsource group, as well as in the <Dynamic_Sources> tag?

[ubu]

I can see this change made to ubuconfig, but I am still having problems with the internal / external player. This time, I can't get the external player to work, even after selecting the default dynsource player to external in ubustream. After clicking on the clip, if preview is displayed as the default button, clicking external plays the internal player. If external is displayed as the default button, clicking preview still plays the external player. Attached is the xml with preview and with external for OzABC.

Does the <Use_Internal_Player>tag need to be the same (ie false or true) for all clips within a dynsource group, as well as in the <Dynamic_Sources> tag?

I think one thing that's confusing here is that, although, if you change the play mode of a DynSource, that will determine the play mode of any subsequently downloaded (and created) stations, it won't change the play mode of existing stations. So when UbuStream imports your PLX file, if it sees an item that already exists as a station, it does not replace that station. So any ABC news items that were retrieved in an earlier download won't get re-created with the new play mode.

For DynSource imports this sounds kinda stupid, since it would make more sense to unconditionally replace all the stations each time. But for other kinds of import it avoids wiping out custom data you have added to the station. For instance, if you are importing from the WWMP link, you would want to pick up any new stations but for existing stations, where you may have added a custom description and the URL of a schedule page for the web site field, you don't want that station replaced. Maybe I should revisit this and see if I can detect if I'm importing from a DynSource PLX and, if so, delete all its existing stations before importing, even if they exist in the new PLX file. (EDIT: I just changed the code to do this. So it'll show up in the next version.)

For now, the workaround is, after changing the play mode for a DynSource, unselect all the selected sections (which will delete all the associated groups and their stations) and then select the sections again (which will create new, empty groups). So, the next time the DynSource is run, all the stations will be new ones with the new play mode.

As to your other observation that the external player is being invoked when you press Preview Play and vice versa, I'm unable to see how that could happen. The default play mode for a station determines a) which button is initially highlighted in the dialog and b) which player is called when you use the regular menu (or remote) Play button. It does not affect what happens when you use the dialog's play buttons. The dialog buttons set a switch which pretty much forces the button's player type to be invoked.

So maybe try getting rid of your old DynSource stations, as described above. Then do a fresh download so all the new stations have the new play mode. Then, if you're still getting the wrong player invoked by the dialog play buttons, send me your log.

Sorry if I'm not explaining this clearly. I'm tired and the brain is not firing on all eight cylinders.

EDIT: Different subject - I can't reproduce your experience of GB-PVR failing to start if the UbuRecordingService isn't installed. It starts for me every time. You won't notice the service isn't installed until you try to play a station in Timeshift mode when you'll get a pop-up message telling you the service isn't installed. You can even install it without leaving UbuStream (or GB-PVR) and, the next time you try Timeshift Play, it will work. In fact, if the service is installed but, for whatever reason, hasn't been started, UbuStream will even start it for you when you use Timeshift Play.

[ralphy]

As to your other observation that the external player is being invoked when you press Preview Play and vice versa, I'm unable to see how that could happen. The default play mode for a station determines a) which button is initially highlighted in the dialog and b) which player is called when you use the regular menu (or remote) Play button. It does not affect what happens when you use the dialog's play buttons. The dialog buttons set a switch which pretty much forces the button's player type to be invoked.

So maybe try getting rid of your old DynSource stations, as described above. Then do a fresh download so all the new stations have the new play mode. Then, if you're still getting the wrong player invoked by the dialog play buttons, send me your log.

This didn't work nor did a fresh install , but after a lot of tinkering around, I think the problem is in the mouse clicks. My test machine doens't have a remote control and this machine on which I first noticed the problem. The production machine primarily uses the remote control, and I just found out the that preview/external behaves correctly with the remote control, but not the mouse.

Here's a log extract showing the mouse being clicked on the external button, but loading the internal player, and the remote control being used to choose the external player correctly.

Code:

10/03/2007 2:07:14 PM.468    VERBOSE    [1]    UbuStream: Reading C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\UbuStream.xml
10/03/2007 2:07:14 PM.500    VERBOSE    [1]    UbuStream: >>>>>>>> Stations after refresh read: 206
10/03/2007 2:07:14 PM.500    VERBOSE    [1]    UbuStream: currSelectedGroup: ABC Australia - news
10/03/2007 2:07:14 PM.500    VERBOSE    [1]    UbuStream: webStations.Count 6
10/03/2007 2:07:14 PM.546    VERBOSE    [1]    Skinhelper loading image from file: .\skin\Blue\UbuStream\../main menu/moredown.png
10/03/2007 2:07:15 PM.546    VERBOSE    [1]    controller.OnMouseDown()
10/03/2007 2:07:16 PM.031    VERBOSE    [1]    controller.OnClick()
10/03/2007 2:07:16 PM.031    VERBOSE    [1]    UbuStream: Click {X=343,Y=92}On list: True
10/03/2007 2:07:16 PM.234    VERBOSE    [1]    controller.OnMouseDown()
10/03/2007 2:07:16 PM.500    VERBOSE    [1]    controller.OnClick()
10/03/2007 2:07:16 PM.500    VERBOSE    [1]    UbuStream: Click {X=343,Y=92}On list: True
10/03/2007 2:07:16 PM.546    VERBOSE    [1]    controller.OnMouseDown()
10/03/2007 2:07:17 PM.812    VERBOSE    [1]    controller.OnMouseDown()
10/03/2007 2:07:17 PM.906    VERBOSE    [1]    controller.OnClick()
10/03/2007 2:07:17 PM.906    VERBOSE    [1]    UbuStream: Click {X=424,Y=414}On list: False
10/03/2007 2:07:18 PM.000    VERBOSE    [1]    controller.OnMouseDown()
10/03/2007 2:07:18 PM.218    VERBOSE    [1]    UbuNetStreamPlayer: Internal player Status: wmppsTransitioning
10/03/2007 2:07:18 PM.218    INFO    [1]    UbuStream: Started playing 01: WA Premier inspects cyclone damage: 1:17 using InternalPlayer: Windows Media Player
10/03/2007 2:07:22 PM.734    VERBOSE    [1]    HideMouse ref=-1
10/03/2007 2:07:25 PM.687    VERBOSE    [1]    ShowMouse ref=0
10/03/2007 2:07:27 PM.921    VERBOSE    [1]    No key mapping found for: RETURN
10/03/2007 2:07:29 PM.750    VERBOSE    [1]    No key mapping found for: RIGHT
10/03/2007 2:07:30 PM.156    VERBOSE    [1]    No key mapping found for: RIGHT
10/03/2007 2:07:30 PM.562    VERBOSE    [1]    No key mapping found for: RETURN
10/03/2007 2:07:30 PM.656    INFO    [1]    UbuStream: Started playing 01: WA Premier inspects cyclone damage: 1:17 using ExternalPlayer: Windows Media Player
10/03/2007 2:07:30 PM.734    VERBOSE    [1]    HideMouse ref=-1
10/03/2007 2:07:32 PM.781    VERBOSE    [1]    ShowMouse ref=0
10/03/2007 2:07:38 PM.734    VERBOSE    [1]    HideMouse ref=-1

Hope this points you in the right spot!.

EDIT: Different subject - I can't reproduce your experience of GB-PVR failing to start if the UbuRecordingService isn't installed.

I was hoping the repeating with a fresh install might repeat the problem for me, but alas, it didn't. We'll have to wait until someone else gets the same problem and saves the log!

[ubu]

This didn't work nor did a fresh install , but after a lot of tinkering around, I think the problem is in the mouse clicks. My test machine doens't have a remote control and this machine on which I first noticed the problem. The production machine primarily uses the remote control, and I just found out the that preview/external behaves correctly with the remote control, but not the mouse.

Here's a log extract showing the mouse being clicked on the external button, but loading the internal player, and the remote control being used to choose the external player correctly.
Hope this points you in the right spot!.

Got it! The mouse click wasn't being handled correctly. I try to test everything with both the remote and the mouse but, I must admit to being less rigorous with testing the mouse interface since I use the remote for actually "using" GB-PVR. This one slipped through the cracks.

So, in fact, you uncovered two bugs. This one and the one I described yesterday. Perhaps you hadn't noticed that one, since it was "masked" by this mouse problem, but the xml file you sent me had some of your OzABC stations set to your new DynSource play mode settings and some (the older ones) still set to the old settings.

Anyway both fixes will show up in the next bug fix release. I can't let you have a fixed version now because I everything is in pieces all over the floor (so to speak) while I try to figure out the keystroke problem with the VLC internal player. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Thanks again for your sleuthing.

[ubu]

If you have been unable to get the VLC internal player to respond to keystrokes and remote control buttons (Stop/Ctrl-S, Play/Ctrl-P, Mute/M, VolUp/UpArrow, VolDown/DownArrow, Sub-CC/F7,etc.), here's how to fix the problem. Start VLC, bring up the Preferences window and, on the Video panel, uncheck "Fullscreen video output".

Due to a bug in the VLC Active/X control, fullscreen must be turned OFF. Otherwise, VLC playback will no longer be under the control of the GB-PVR/UbuStream application code. This preference has nothing to do with whether you actually see playback in fullscreen since this is managed by the UbuStream plugin itself (based on the fullscreen setting under Options->General in the UbuStream config app).

I'm trying to figure out how to force the VLC fullscreen preference to be turned off automatically but the VLC control does not make this easy. In the meanwhile, manually changing the VLC preference will fix the problem.

EDIT: If you had the VLC fullscreen preference checked because you use the standalone VLC player for other things, you can still switch it to fullscreen by using the VLC menu or by pressing the "f" key while playing a video.

[happyhammer]

I played around with the registry and have managed to get teh service installed now. Don't think its 100% because the uburecordingservice controller dialog box is not reponding too well but i can stop start usin the normal contol panel/services method.

Found the problem with my MVP stuck on buffering...it did the same on teh PC in timeshift mode. the uburecodingservice log file showed it was looking for VLC.exe in the wrong place, some other software had an registry entry for VLC installdir.

So now, on the MVP when i played CNN, ther stream is not smooth enough, when i slected skynews, that seemed to be much better. any ideas on what i can tweak to get smooth MVP playback on CNN?

[ubu]

I played around with the registry and have managed to get teh service installed now. Don't think its 100% because the uburecordingservice controller dialog box is not reponding too well but i can stop start usin the normal contol panel/services method.

Well, that's good news. At run time, UbuStream will start the service automatically if it's not already running, so the the controller dialog box is a bit of a "nice to have" feature. (Could have used a batch file to install the service). On my systems, I notice that sometimes the service reacts instantly to the start and stop buttons but sometimes there's a noticeable delay. Not sure why.

Found the problem with my MVP stuck on buffering...it did the same on teh PC in timeshift mode. the uburecodingservice log file showed it was looking for VLC.exe in the wrong place, some other software had an registry entry for VLC installdir.

Originally, I took the VLC app location from the player definition in the config app but then I though, since Timeshift Play relies on VLC, I'd do the "elegant thing" and get it from the registry. Who would guess that another app would be using the same entry? You just can't win, I guess.

So now, on the MVP when i played CNN, ther stream is not smooth enough, when i slected skynews, that seemed to be much better. any ideas on what i can tweak to get smooth MVP playback on CNN?

This is where I repeat my standard disclaimer: "the management cannot be responsible for the content". I find the CNN streams a bit problematic also (they also tend to cut off the last few seconds of the stream when played in Timeshift mode). I still haven't 100% figured out all the issues with VLC transcoding. I don't know why some steams that play fine with VLC can't be transcoded (H264 streams such as the AFTV streams, for instance) or why some streams lose quality or audio/video synch as a result of the transcoding process.

I've taken the UbuStream infrastructure for Timeshift Play and MVP support as far as I can in terms of configuration flexibility (allowing the VLC parms to be tweaked for each station) but I'm not a VLC expert. I'm hoping that other users may figure out some of the tricks and share them with the rest of us. If anybody figures out something that I can incorporate in the UbuStream code, I'll be happy to do that.

For MVP use, I find the best thing to do is experiment a bit on the PC (non-MVP) and pick stations that play well with VLC transcoding using Timeshift Play, figure out the right wait times for the MVP and then stick with those stations. (I tend to add them to my Channel mode stations so I can start them from the TV Guide). Timeshift Play works very well on the MVP if the station is reliable. But if the station is a bit iffy it can make for a horrible MVP viewing experience (and can even hang the MVP on occasion).

Some of the streams I find work well on my MVP (both for reliability and picture quality) are the BBC programme streams (Newsnight, Panorama, 10 O'Clock News, etc.), Comcast CN8, Ebru TV, Channel 125, WAM TV, Hyp TV, Information TV, Kulak's Woodshed, NASA TV, EATV and Mania TV. The stream "by which all others are judged" is still the Research Channel which performs flawlessly with the MVP (why can't everybody use the same streaming technology that they do?).