[BETA] CommunitySkin4 BETA and MVP / NMTs

[McBainUK]

What are people's experiences with the the SkinPlugin on a MVP/NMT?

[ACTCMS]

Firstly the skin looks great on a 22" widescreen LCD through the MVP.

The skinplugin works fine, I can tweak away to my heart's content. The only problem is the need to manually restart the MVP in order to make the changes effective.

[pz1]

As already stated in an other thread, no problem with MVP as station for changing CS4 settings. That is how I did all my experimenting. I used a VNC console to restart Recording Services followed by starting the Emulation mode on the MVP. Due to construction work in the house I only have access to an old CRT 4:3.

Two remarks remaining from the other discussions:
- You have to explicitly set CS4 for MVP. Default does not (yet?) work.
- In this setup I had quite a bit of flicker with standard settings. Changing graphic elements to "matte" cured that bit. I hope the LCD 16:9 will do better with the standard layout.
Pieter

[McBainUK]

The only problem is the need to manually restart the MVP in order to make the changes effective.

By this do you mean power on off using the R/C or restarting some service on the PC?

[McBainUK]

What are you finding happens on the server when you apply changes? I'm thinking it will probably try to restart pvrx2.exe - could this cause problems in a MVP/MNT environment?

Also, what happens if you restart the recording service - does this disconnect the MVP?

[ACTCMS]

Please ignore this post - I must have been hungrier than I thought. I repeated this test. Proper results are here.

By this do you mean power on off using the R/C or restarting some service on the PC?

Starting from a server reboot...
GBPVRRecordingService.exe and one instance of pvrx2.exe running on server.
Switch on MVP - make a Skin Change and Apply it - the original pvrx2.exe drops to 0 cpu and a second instance starts and runs at 99-100% cpu
MVP is still active (although very slow)and the changes I made have been implemented.
If I kill the second instance of pvrx2.exe the system seems to run on normally.

I've attached some logs. I'll do another couple of tests after dinner to verify that this is what always happens.

[gEd]

default theme: cs dark blue
layout, main menu

I can change to centre and right layout but never left.
When you select centre or right, it shows the change * against "main menu" but never if you select left. The * always appears against Left.

(to get left again I have to reload theme.)

[pz1]

Also, what happens if you restart the recording service - does this disconnect the MVP?

Yes, MVP disconnects. I use the mvpmc dongle, so one push on the OK button, which brings me back to the mainmenu in a few seconds. It is not a problem if you don't change the skin too often.

[ACTCMS]

default theme: cs dark blue
layout, main menu

I can change to centre and right layout but never left.
When you select centre or right, it shows the change * against "main menu" but never if you select left. The * always appears against Left.

(to get left again I have to reload theme.)

I think this is a known problem. See this post and after.

[ACTCMS]

Starting from a server reboot...
GBPVRRecordingService.exe and one instance of pvrx2.exe running on server.
Switch on MVP - make a Skin Change and Apply it - the original pvrx2.exe drops to 0 cpu and a second instance starts and runs at 99-100% cpu
MVP is still active (although very slow)and the changes I made have been implemented.
If I kill the second instance of pvrx2.exe the system seems to run on normally.

I've attached some logs. I'll do another couple of tests after dinner to verify that this is what always happens.

Excuse the ravings of a lunatic...

I tried this test again

Starting from a server reboot...
GBPVRRecordingService.exe and one instance of pvrx2.exe running on server.
Switch on MVP - make a Skin Change and Apply it - a second instance of pvrx2.exe starts and runs at 99-100% cpu
MVP is still active on the original instance of pvrx2.exe (although very slow).
The changes I made have not been implemented.
If I kill the second instance of pvrx2.exe the system seems to run on normally.
I put the MVP into standby (green button) and out again - the original instance of pvrx2.exe stops and a third instance starts. Changes have been made.

I repeated this test a few times and the results are consistent.