v0.97.9 Survival Guide

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I've made this sticky (closed) thread to post useful information about problems that may arrise, or to get useful tips out there. I'll add more information to this thread as we start to get feedback from this new release. If anyone has info they feel should be included here, please PM me.

Some important first comments though...

Installing v0.97.9

As always, its recommended that you backup your config.xml and gbpvr.mdb files if you're upgrading from a previous release. Do not copy these back on to the new release though - these are just in case you need to go back to the old version.

This release requires .NET 2.0 to be installed. You must install this before upgrading. You can get it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

I recommend switching back to the default Blue skin until your skin of choice has been updated for compatibility with this new release.

If you encounter problems with anything starting, I recommend the first thing you try is temporarily removing the DLLs from the c:\programfiles\devnz\gbpvr\plugin directory. Some of the original .net 1.1 plugins work fine, but some other will need to updated by their respective authors. Many of the plugins have already been updated, with new versions available on the wiki. Dont just ignore this paragraph - this has resolved most issues that have popped up with v0.97.7 and v0.97.9.

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SQLite...
This version of GB-PVR gives you the option to move away from using the MS Access database. Access had a few problems that were proving a real pain in the arse (infinitely growing, commited changes not being written to disk for some time mean data changes would not appear immediately (deleting recordings etc)). While its likely that several different types of database could be used, the SQLite is my preferred option, and I've included everything you'll need to use SQLite.

How do you switch databases? Run the ChangeDatabase.exe utility installed with GB-PVR.

How can I view/edit data in the database? I encourage people to not manually change the database, but if you really feel the need to have a poke around, SQLiteSpy from http://www.zeitungsjunge.de/delphi/sqlitespy/index.htm is pretty good.

Another good one is SQLite Administrator http://sqliteadmin.orbmu2k.de/

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Recording service crashing
NOD32, Panda Antivirus and Net Limiter are known to be incompatible with .NET 2.0 Remoting, which is used by GB-PVR. If any of these apps are installed on your machine, they will cause the Recording Service crash, so they may need to be uninstalled before installing this update. Its possible you may just be able to set an exclusion of the GBPVRRecordingService.exe process - but this hasnt been tested yet.

If you're using v1.3 of Net Limiter, you're in luck. Normanr, has rolled his sleeves up and got in there with disassembler and hex editor and provided a patch for Net Limiter that corrents the problem. You can find the patch and brief description here: http://norman.rasmussen.co.za/100/net-li...ion-patch/

EDIT: apparently a NOD32 exclusion for the GBPVR Recording Service does work. Confirmation here: http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post117329

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Unable to load external recording plugins
I'm aware of a bug that will make it not possible to use external recording plugins (Software Recorder, SkyStar2 Recorder and DboxRecorder plugins).

A replacement DLL fix can be found here: http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...stcount=56

After installing this updated DLL, the plugins should again function as they are supposed to.

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Using SQLite database, some things seem slower
If you're using the SQLite database, its recommended you run the utility from here: http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...stcount=26. It'll add a couple of indexes to the SQLite database, which will improve the performance in several areas of the app (loading tv guide, changing channels, etc). If you've only got a few channels, you may not notice it, but you definitely will if you've got a larger EPG.

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nvidia screen corruption
If you're using an nvidia card, you may want to apply the patch from http://forums.gbpvr.com/showpost.php?p=1...stcount=90. This patch provides a workaround for a bug in the nvidia drivers that can not handle a non fullframe aspect ratio (0,0,1,1) with hardware accelleration enabled (DXVA) enabled. Without the patch you'll get something like the screenshot below.

You need to configure GB-PVR to use the VMR9 Custom renderer to take advantage of this.

nvidia have been informed of the bug. It affects lots of other apps aswell, not just GB-PVR.