Problem recording programs...

[joshley]

I have a Samsung NTL STB, which gets very hot.. and I can't ask people to leave it on at all times because of its heat... and I scheduled a few recordings this evening whilst everyone was out...... and they turned it off! So recording 'failed'. If the recording knows it 'failed' then it must know that it is getting no signal, so is there a way to get GB-PVR to send the 'on' IR code for my STB when it tries to record and gets no signal?
Does anyone know any clever Girder trick to accomplish this? In fact, it would be even better if a Girder trick was known, because I'd probably need it to turn the amp off aswell so if I schedule a recording for 3am the sound doesn't suddenly come blaring on (people turn off the STB, realise the sound has gone and (fair enough) leave the amp on because they have no reason to do otherwise!.

Sub, is an event message sent (i.e. no signal?) that would enable me to write my own plugin to fix what may be a very specific problem to me (anyone else?)?

Thanks!
josh

[sub]

You might be out of luck. I'm sure you could use girder to send the "Power", but there is no way you could currently identify the end of a recording.

It also worth noting that not many STBs have discrete IR codes for ON & OFF. Instead they usually only have a "standby toggle" option, but to use this you'd obviously need to be able to predicate what state it's in initially.

[joshley]

I checked last night if the box had seperate IR codes for ON and OFF and it didn't....
One thought is that people ONLY turn off the box via remote so I could have a toggle in Girder, but I don't know how to set it up so that if the toggle is on OFF and someone tries to do something it goes to ON, but if it is on ON and someone tries to do something it doesn't do anything.

One thing though.. I wouldn't need at all to identify the END of the recording, just the beginning to turn it on. ALL I would need to be able to do is have GB-PVR realise it isn't getting any signal (which surely it must do as it knows when a recording fails??) and getting it to send the power button if no signal is being received at the START of a recording.
The only problem with the first Girder toggle option is that sometimes it may be turned off at the box, thus confusing the whole matter! Just being able to send the POWER button if GB-PVR is not receiving anything surely must be simple? Surely someone else must need the box turned on occassionally..??
Arg!
I so wanted to watch Most Haunted last night
joshley

[jeffcora]

Hi joshley,

On the discrete On/Off code issue, you can usually find alternative ways to turn things on and off without knowing the previous state or have a discrete code. This is a common problem on a lot of equipment but can usually be worked round. For example, on many Amps selecting a source will usually turn equipment on. So for example:

To turn on: press 'DVD' for example
To turn off: press 'DVD' then On/Off (This will turn the equipment on if already off and then off. If it's already on will select 'DVD' then turn off. Either way you know it will then be off).

I've noticed on UK Sky boxes the 'Sky' button turns the receiver on if it's off, but won't turn the box off. Therefore

To turn on: Press 'Sky'
To turn off: Press 'Sky' then press on/off

Turn your box off and press each key to see it something will always turn the box on (other than the on/off key). You may get lucky

Make sense?

Rob

[joshley]

Rob, thankyou!!

If I press 'OK', my STB comes on and 'OK' (in Live TV) is redundant, so I can just set it to always send OK before every key send and voila!

I shall have a play with Girder and hopefully you've solved my problem!

josh

[joshley]

Ok.. I've fixed the channel sending so no matter what if the box is off it turns it on again and then sends the right channel numbers. I've tested this extensively, BUT, 3 scheduled recordings last night failed and the box was stlill off in the morning??

My question is to Sub:
Does the Recording Service attempt to change channels BEFORE establishing the recording has failed, or does it see that there is no signal and thus not send the channel changes?

josh