ExternalDisplay - Beta Testers Wanted

[ralphy]

I tried this with my HD44780, but did not work with PVRx2 v1.2.9.

But had the same problem with media portal when using John Dalton HD44780 driver. I got around this by configuring the output to the ClipBoard and then I wrote an application which then displays the ClipBoard to the HD44780. Works well for me.

Just need to tweak the app a little for GBPVR.

Having read your post CornStopper, I looked at the MP forums and notice there have been some posts on the HD44780 reporting some problems, but there are others that seem to suggest that folks have got the display working fine.

Did you try increasing the Comm Delay parameter in the configuration? Up to 40 has been recommended by some MP users.
When you say 'doesn't work' what do you mean? Nothing displayed? System locks up? Something displayed but doesn't change?

If you post some debug logs with extensive logging, I can look at the issue further if you like.


I refer users to this page for settings for various displays, and also here for other documentation on ExternalDisplay

[CornStopper]

ralphy, played well around with the comm delay settings etc, but with not no luck. I found this with with Media Portal and John Dalton's HD44780 driver.

This was add a bit of flexibility.

When GBPVR is not doing anything the the date and time are shown on the 2 tops rows. When playing or recording the date and time are not shown. My app detects this and displays the date and time on row 3. On row 4 I display the free space available for C and D drive in MB.

Works well.

[iwan]

It appear to also work with the LCDHype drivers available from the MP installation, although I have not been able to test this personally. iwan, for example, uses the Noritake T Series LCDHype driver.

Quite successfully, I should say.
The stuttering I reported earlier has vanished. This might be due to the new version of GBPVR (1.2.9) that's up and running since a couple of days.

[iwan]

I'm not sure whether this has been discussed before:

Currently, when idling my display shows a scheduled recording even when it's due next sunday.
I'd like to be able to define a threshold value, so only recordings whithin the next e.g. two hours are displayed.
Can this be done ?

[iwan]

While I'm at it:

Are there any options to change the date format ?
Currently, #time in ExternalDisplay.xml yields something like Apr 02, 09:23.
Can I change this to e.g. 2. Apr 09:23 ?

[ralphy]

Quite successfully, I should say.
The stuttering I reported earlier has vanished.

Excellent! Thanks for this update

I'd like to be able to define a threshold value, so only recordings whithin the next e.g. two hours are displayed.
Can this be done ?

Not in this release I'm afraid - perhaps the next update.

Are there any options to change the date format ?

The intention was to use the same date/time format as the user defined Windows default. However, I know this is not implemented consistently and should be on the todo list.

[Barsk]

The intention was to use the same date/time format as the user defined Windows default. However, I know this is not implemented consistently and should be on the todo list.

Another feature request.

I would like to have separate #date and #time fields. I would like to have the time to always be present in the display while for instance viewing live tv. The time would preferably be on the far right hand of the first line and channel name on the the far left hand side. The current #time field is too wide to accomodate this so I get scrolling...

The feature that IMONVFD has, i.e to display the number of current recordings in process as an inverted number would also be nice to display somewhere. I have three tuners and it is nice to see how many free tuners I have to schedule stuff on presently.

Two thumbs up for this plugin!

/Barsk

[Barsk]

A possible bug report.

I got some instability problems (crashes) and occasional stutter in live tv when installing the plugin. The stutter would indicate that (perhaps) some blocking I/O was taking place instead of interrupt driven. Well just a thought anyway. I *think* the plugin was causing these problems however I am not sure. PVRX2 actually crashed sometimes when starting a recording or a video. I removed the plugin and the problem seems to have gone away.

As said, this is not fully confirmed as I have to test it a little bit more.

I have a Soundgraph IMON VFD which runs with the external driver (not the LCD/VFD integrated one). That driver just created garbled characters on the display. What driver should I use for the IMON VFD and what settings? comm delay perhaps?

/Barsk

[ralphy]

Another feature request.

I would like to have separate #date and #time fields. I would like to have the time to always be present in the display while for instance viewing live tv. The time would preferably be on the far right hand of the first line and channel name on the the far left hand side. The current #time field is too wide to accomodate this so I get scrolling...

Separate #date and #time fields are possible - I need to think about how to give users some flexibility in the formatting to use, since I think the windows local settings is not perfect.

Having a channel name, left justified and time right justified is more complex and I'm afraid, is unlikely to be implemented soon.

The feature that IMONVFD has, i.e to display the number of current recordings in process as an inverted number would also be nice to display somewhere. I have three tuners and it is nice to see how many free tuners I have to schedule stuff on presently.
/Barsk

Watch this space - relatively easy to add properties for the number of recordings pending, inprogress and ready, for users to then customize their display via the xml file. There is also a known limitation with multiple tuners, in that only the details of the last recording in progress retrieved are displayed.

A possible bug report.

I got some instability problems (crashes) and occasional stutter in live tv when installing the plugin. The stutter would indicate that (perhaps) some blocking I/O was taking place instead of interrupt driven. Well just a thought anyway. I *think* the plugin was causing these problems however I am not sure. PVRX2 actually crashed sometimes when starting a recording or a video. I removed the plugin and the problem seems to have gone away.

As said, this is not fully confirmed as I have to test it a little bit more.

Please post the logs if this is confirmed. I wasn't aware of stuttering being an issue with the VFD.

I have a Soundgraph IMON VFD which runs with the external driver (not the LCD/VFD integrated one). That driver just created garbled characters on the display. What driver should I use for the IMON VFD and what settings? comm delay perhaps?

/Barsk

Use the 'external' driver, not the integrated one. I think comm delay of 1 is ok for the Soundgraph VFD.

[ralphy]

Had a bit of spare time today, so here's a new installer that adds some new properties that might address some of the requests of Iwan and Barsk.

• #date (user defined format in config app and xml)
  
• #shorttime (user defined format)
  
• #TV.Record.InProgress
  
• #TV.Record.Ready
  
• #TV.Scheduled.Count
  

Here's some examples for use

Code:

<Message Status="Idle">
    <Line Alignment="Centered">
[color=red]      <Parse Value="#date, #shorttime" />[/color]
    </Line>
    <Line Alignment="Centered">
      <Parse Value="GBPVR">
        <And>
          <IsNull Value="#TV.Record.title" />
          <IsNull Value="#TV.Scheduled.Title" />
        </And>
      </Parse>
[COLOR="red"]      <Parse Value="NOW RECORDING: #TV.Record.InProgress Programs ">
        <NotNull Value="#TV.Record.InProgress" />
      </Parse>[/COLOR]
[COLOR="Red"]      <Parse Value="#TV.Scheduled.Count Scheduled Recordings ">
        <NotNull Value="#TV.Scheduled.Count" />
      </Parse>
      <Parse Value="#TV.Record.Ready Recordings Ready ">
        <NotNull Value="#TV.Record.Ready" />
      </Parse>[/COLOR]
      <Parse Value="NEXT RECORDING: #TV.Scheduled.Title">
        <NotNull Value="#TV.Scheduled.Title" />
      </Parse>
      <Parse Value=" on #TV.Scheduled.Channel">
        <NotNull Value="#TV.Scheduled.Channel" />
      </Parse>
      <Parse Value=" starting #TV.Scheduled.Time ">
        <NotNull Value="#TV.Scheduled.Time" />
      </Parse>
    </Line>
  </Message>

Sorry Iwan, did not include a threshold on the recording time.


Barsk, an alternative to the Channel Number on the left, and time on the right might be:

Code:

<Message Status="PlayingTV">
    <Line Alignment="Left">
      <Parse Value="[color=Red]#shorttime [/color]#TV.View.channel" />
    </Line>
    <Line Alignment="Left">
      <Parse Value="#TV.View.title (#TV.View.start-&gt;#TV.View.stop)">
        <NotNull Value="#TV.View.title" />
      </Parse>
      <Text Value="No data available">
        <IsNull Value="#TV.View.title" />
      </Text>
    </Line>
  </Message>

This might be short enough to not scroll the first line.


Oh, and on the instabilty issues you mentioned Barsk, ensure the the extensive logging is disabled in the ExternalDisplay configuration. You could also disable the property browser also, as really this is a debugging tool.