Not even basic PC client functionality, I give

[ApexHack]

Greetings and Salutations,

Still on 9608 with weather, myvideos plugins and a couple I don't remember.

I'm sure this will end up being my networking ineptness, but I just can't get GBPVR to work on the client at all. I see an hourglass for a bit then nothing.

When I look in the gbpvr.exe.log I see an error re: gbpvr.mdb that says

It is already opened exclusively by another user, or you need permission to view its data.

I've tried like hell to take care of the last part and the first part I don't understand, well I understand, but in my days of researching this before today's implementation I saw no reference to any other modifications.

I think I've got my sharing all good. Can't I share just a directory w/o the whole, say, C: drive? I originally had just the devnz folder and subfolders set as full shared, with read only for sure unchecked. That wasn't helping so I went up and shared the whole damn drive. See, I mentioned I was inept.

I pretty much used the PC Client wiki to guide me, but I also read all of the threads I could find before hand.

My strategy was to use the server IP addy. Wondering if I should try to use names? I can't do the mapping since it's C on the server and I don't want to try that virtual drive thing I read about. And don't want to change the letter for fear of breaking apps.

I have a feeling it has something to do with the changes to logons after the net 1.1 install or who knows at this point. I've been messing with it too long now and I'm getting punchy.

I was most concerned about the server, but I checked it out after the changes and it was working just like before. Oh well, I'll just change everything back if I can't get this working I guess to be safe. Say if the IP addy changed for some whatever reason.

On a sidenote I don't quite understand why the client's config.xml file points to the server's recording service, and I'm assuming the reason I've got the tray icon. This bothers me a bit as I don't really want to be able to change the main config settings from the client.

Last thing. I'm kinda wishing I hadn't ventured into it now as all I really wanted was to view the show info associated with each file. My new lappy streams the native files super dooper. I guess I could try to get that dealie that will change file names to include info., but I'm afraid that it may not work with the old version I'm using, as with so many plugins and such I look at nowadays.

Anyhoo, thanks in advance for any advice anyone offers up.

No offense if I don't respond for a while. I've got to crash for a while. Well, maybe just one Futurama.

Cheers

[fuzzweed]

I'm not going to be able to answer all of this! but here's my own overview, having kind of got it working...

the idea with the client/server set up is that you're really just running two full versions of GBPVR, but all the important info that needs to be shared between the two copies of GBPVR, e.g the EPG data, recordings (and the data to describe them to GBPVR), my videos etc etc etc are all in a single location.

To achieve this you have to make sure that each copy of GBPVR is referencing the file it wants in EXACTLY the same way. Theoretically, if your 'server' copy looks for c:\devnz\gbpvr\abc.xyz then the client also needs to find the same file at location c:\devnz\gbpvr\abc.xyz. But as the 'client' machine is going to look on the network for it's info, this is why you have to modify the config file on the server so that both machines look for (for example) \\1.2.3.4\c$\program files\devnz\gbpvr\gbpvr.mdb

The same is true for the recordings themselves. In my case it was easy because I have them on a seperate physical drive. So on the server its "e:", and I can easily create a mapped drive on my client called "e:" by sharing the root of the server's HDD (ignoring any warnings Mr Gates may suggest against this). As far as I can tell this saves loads of trouble with virtual drives etc. (which I haven't needed...)

Finally the recording service is a bit of a quirk caused by the fact that GBPVR isn't really set up to be a client. No, you shouldn't need it on the client machine but the client may throw up the odd problem. I get the odd error message when config.exe (on the client) tries to restart a service that isn't where it should be.

the one question I can answer is that, no, using server names rather than IP is unlikely to help.

I found the walk-through on the forums was spot on and it worked first time (having ignored all the bit about virtual drives cos i figured i didn't need it). I think the wiki version is really a distilled version of this, but really i still wouldn't call the whole setup 'perfect', because it was never designed to be - so maybe try and get everything back to square 1, follow the steps again - there were only 5 lines i had to alter in the client config file:
1) <RecordingServiceLocation>tcp://192.168.0.8:7968/RecordingRemote</RecordingServiceLocation>
2,3 and 4) Three instances of <DatabaseConnectionString>Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source="\\192.168.0.8\gbpvr\gbpvr.mdb";User Id=admin;Password=</DatabaseConnectionString>
5) setting the automatically remove missing recordings flag to false

Finally, I'd heartily recommend setting up the advanced web admin as an alternative - this gives you almost all the features of a client setup, except for the moment, live TV - it's very slick and much easier to get working....

[ApexHack]

^Thank you for taking the time to help.

3 instances of DatabaseConnectionString? Hrm, I'll have to check that. I only remember one.

It's kinda looking like I should abort. I'm really not good enough to be messing around on this level.

Oh well. Was my question too long? I did use paragraphs. I see other peeps getting help, but when I ask something I don't get much. Don't know where I'm going wrong. Story of my life.

Oh well, don't bother. I think I'm done.

[pBS]

there should only be 1 instance of the database connection string, unless plugins are defining their own..
change the <RecordingServiceLocation> and the <DatabaseConnectionString>Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source="\\SERVER\sharename\dir\etc\etc\devnz\gbpvr\gbpvr.mdb";User Id=admin;Password=</DatabaseConnectionString>
part... don't forget your dir. paths!
and do the other stuff about the drive letters mapping and you're all set..
EDIT: i bet the others are for MyVideos own database...
also you can have a different set of plugins on the net machine..

[if you want a fresh template of config.xml to look at, check out GBPVR\config-master.dont-edit-me.xml]

the server machine will do all recording,timeshifting,etc. and send it over the network...[gigabit recommended]

oh and change your <RecordingsDirectory> and <LiveTVDirectory> locations to be the EXACT same..[and not network paths] [use drive mappings]

i usually just copy the config.xml over from the server for identical settings,and less to edit..
[then you just have to change the recording service loction and database!]
[as long as you use a common drive letter for recordings]

[elite]

Oh well. Was my question too long? I did use paragraphs. I see other peeps getting help, but when I ask something I don't get much. Don't know where I'm going wrong. Story of my life.

Don't be down hearted, I spotted your post - but as I have not run GBPVR as a networked client I didn't feel I was qualified to respond (I'm sure many others did too). The client is a bit of a hack so I suspect there are only a few members who have gbpvr running in this config

Oh well, don't bother. I think I'm done.

Follow pBS's advice - I can see from his sig that he is running the networked client successfuly - Keep with it, I'm sure as more users check the board they will post where they feel they can be of help.

[pBS]

My bad...i forgot about the new strings for db3's,tho i'm pretty sure the second 2 are a comment...
[in between <!--- and --> as examples]
and yea i had a few for Myvids and Mymusic..
worked for me...

it is a bit slow to start playing videos, and change channels,etc. but you get all the plugins and stuff as if you were in the other room... and if you don't have gigabit networking, keep the 'livetv' profile around 2500k or it'll stutter really bad..
[in direct.ini] same for wireless under 100k..

you can safely disable the recording service on client machine...['disable' in services]
and ignore any messages when leaving config about not being able to restart it..
[and just close the window,it's already saved the settings]