BBC Iplayer Downloader Plugin - Beta + Support

[Society]

D'oh!

I'd picked up the Easy Install instead of the latest - despite having seen mention of that somewhere. I should have learned by now to make full notes.

Using the latter version allows config to start. Currently recording so I won't chance my arm by doing anything else just yet.

A better-targetted link to mencoder might be worthwhile for some of us.

Thanks.

[smiler]

It is easy to get the wrong version.

The mencoder link should be directly linked from the Wiki should people need it. Hopefully that should fix the problem for you.

[McBainUK]

As anticipated, I had to revert to Blue skin to get Highlights and Most Watched to appear.

Try the attached skin for the Community Skin v4.

[JEF]

Try the attached skin for the Community Skin v4.

I've just tried the skin -- it works fine -- Thanks

[Society]

Thanks for the help in getting this impressive plugin working here.

1.
Single item chosen from "Search" completed as expected. Great!

I then chose an item from the "Most Watched" which started downloading and I then chose an item from "Highlights". The first item completed as expected but the second item just continued to sit on the "Download Status" as "Download Pending".

Exiting and re-starting PVRX2 cleared it from the Status list and re-selecting it as a highlight caused it, as a single item, to download and complete as expected (using mencoder). I'm currently keeping downloaded files as one way to watch what's happening.

Is there anything I can do to get queuing to work?

2.
I've done the above using PVRX2 directly on my server but, given that we tend to "turn off" an MVP to auto-revert to the default input of each TV, it seems to be the case that if I select an item using a MediaMVP then "turning off" the MVP will prevent even the download completing. I guess we'll lose a few before re-educating the household but perhaps a mention in the wiki might be in order to caution others.

3.
Minor text editing? The config GUI refers to the mencoder executable in the "ffMpeg Transcoding Settings" panel. It also specifically refers to mencoder (only) in the "Http iPlayer download Settings" panel which may all be a little confusing.

4.
Download status reports "Transcoding 100%" waaaay before it is complete (mencoder - High Quality). The error is vastly more than 10%. Perhaps that's not a big deal as one would have to wait until it shows in Recordings before ever turning off a MediaMVP so perhaps a displayed percentage of 100 (whether misleading or not) is redundant.

[smiler]

Thanks for the help in getting this impressive plugin working here.

No probs glad you like it

Single item chosen from "Search" completed as expected. Great!

I then chose an item from the "Most Watched" which started downloading and I then chose an item from "Highlights". The first item completed as expected but the second item just continued to sit on the "Download Status" as "Download Pending".

Exiting and re-starting PVRX2 cleared it from the Status list and re-selecting it as a highlight caused it, as a single item, to download and complete as expected (using mencoder). I'm currently keeping downloaded files as one way to watch what's happening.

Is there anything I can do to get queuing to work?

Sounds like an interesting bug just a few questions, what did the finished download show say as a status?
Was this running on an MVP or on the main pc?
If you still have the logs, post them and I will take a look.

I've done the above using PVRX2 directly on my server but, given that we tend to "turn off" an MVP to auto-revert to the default input of each TV, it seems to be the case that if I select an item using a MediaMVP then "turning off" the MVP will prevent even the download completing. I guess we'll lose a few before re-educating the household but perhaps a mention in the wiki might be in order to caution others.

I have thought about this issue, when i get a minute i will update the wiki. The easiest way to deal with this is to use a resume behaviour, where although MVP was switched off, if the main PC is switched on or the MVP is switched back on the previous state is restarted. It is pretty complicated though so it will be a while before I get around to look at it.

Minor text editing? The config GUI refers to the mencoder executable in the "ffMpeg Transcoding Settings" panel. It also specifically refers to mencoder (only) in the "Http iPlayer download Settings" panel which may all be a little confusing.

I'll add it to the bug list for the next version.

Download status reports "Transcoding 100%" waaaay before it is complete (mencoder - High Quality). The error is vastly more than 10%. Perhaps that's not a big deal as one would have to wait until it shows in Recordings before ever turning off a MediaMVP so perhaps a displayed percentage of 100 (whether misleading or not) is redundant.

This is a known issue, i think i will actually remove the estimation code in the next build, there is none for the FFMPEG transcoder, the problem is that the MP4 container that is used in the download is not a strict standard and therefore mencoder does not know the size of the file before processing. This means that the % estimation can be wildly out.

[gEd]

Try the attached skin for the Community Skin v4.

perfect - thank you!

[smiler]

Just to let you guys know. I have been away from the development of the plugin for a few weeks, i will try to fix a few bugs that have appeared due to the BBC iplayer website changing. I am going to see if i can think of a way to make a more generic site parser, this might make it more reslilient to changes.

I will update this thread when i have fixed the bugs

[bgowland]

Originally Posted by Smiler

Originally Posted by Society
I've done the above using PVRX2 directly on my server but, given that we tend to "turn off" an MVP to auto-revert to the default input of each TV, it seems to be the case that if I select an item using a MediaMVP then "turning off" the MVP will prevent even the download completing. I guess we'll lose a few before re-educating the household but perhaps a mention in the wiki might be in order to caution others.

I have thought about this issue, when i get a minute i will update the wiki. The easiest way to deal with this is to use a resume behaviour, where although MVP was switched off, if the main PC is switched on or the MVP is switched back on the previous state is restarted. It is pretty complicated though so it will be a while before I get around to look at it.

Is this behaviour because it's the individual MVP's pvrx2.exe process which is handling the download?

Have you thought about using a download service? I can give you some skeleton code for a windows service and also code to communicate with it using .NET remoting if you're interested.

It's still pretty complicated (but in a different way ) but it would have the advantage of a central queuing / download service for all clients.

Cheers,
Brian

[smiler]

Is this behaviour because it's the individual MVP's pvrx2.exe process which is handling the download?

Have you thought about using a download service? I can give you some skeleton code for a windows service and also code to communicate with it using .NET remoting if you're interested.

Interesting idea Brian, Yes the download is run as a seperate thread inside the currently running process. There is a posibility that there may be a solution and this would work as a thread pool running in the service process space, this would allow the download/transcode to continue while mvp clients were switched off etc. This would also possibly allow pc clients to operate.

I am certainly interested in the skeleton code if you have it to hand, however it will be a while before I get round to looking at this behaviour, I need to try to find a way to stop constant changes to the Iplayer website causing issues with the site parser first . Thanks