v0.96.8 (21 February)

[Koenie]

Mayb I stumbled over a bug:

When playing live TV, pushing menu and starting a file in the recordings which has rumepoint. GBPVR shows the start of the video with the resume question overlayed as usual, but then GBPVR will lock-up and needs to be killed.

This does not happen when there is no resume prompt. in that case the live TV is stopped and the recoded file is starated nicely

[icarver]

Sub,

Many thanks for speeding up the recordings UI. Everything I've tried seems to be quite responsive (drastically improved).

One note. I've noticed that my gbpvr.mdb has grown to 94MB in size. Should I be concerned about this?

[sub]

The size of gbpvr.mdb has been discussed several times. This is because I'm using an Access database. This type of database never reclaims space, even when records are deleted. The rate at which it will grow is mostly dependent on the number of channels you receive, and if you use the complete epg reload option.

There are two things in GB-PVR that will 'try' to shrink it:
- When you click 'ok' in the config app
- Automated after the EPG update

It does this by running the included Microsoft JetComp.exe utility. This will only succeed though if there are not connections to the database at the time. GB-PVR takes care of its own connections, but if you've installed plugins or utilities that hold persistent connections, these may be stopping the compaction from occurring.

94MB isnt particularly large. Some poeple have reported much bigger ones.

[icarver]

The size of gbpvr.mdb has been discussed several times. This is because I'm using an Access database. This type of database never reclaims space, even when records are deleted. The rate at which it will grow is mostly dependent on the number of channels you receive, and if you use the complete epg reload option.

There are two things in GB-PVR that will 'try' to shrink it:
- When you click 'ok' in the config app
- Automated after the EPG update

It does this by running the included Microsoft JetComp.exe utility. This will only succeed though if there are not connections to the database at the time. GB-PVR takes care of its own connections, but if you've installed plugins or utilities that hold persistent connections, these may be stopping the compaction from occurring.

94MB isnt particularly large. Some poeple have reported much bigger ones.

Then no problem. I should have mentioned that before the recent update the db size was 20MB and after it jumped to 94MB, so it wasn't just growth. But then I left the complete EPG update turned on (in the update config), so maybe that has something to do with it. I'll keep an eye on it...

[sub]

I should have mentioned that before the recent update the db size was 20MB and after it jumped to 94MB, so it wasn't just growth. But then I left the complete EPG update turned on (in the update config), so maybe that has something to do with it.

It was most likely because you've had an EPG update occur since the update. The version upgrade wont add any data to the database.

[jsteele]

Re: Large Databases
The problems I have seen with a large GBPVR database most often exhibit themselves when using the web interface. In my experience when the database grows to even 10MB opening the web interface while live TV is playing causes the video and audio to "stutter" for several seconds. Any episode searches in the webe interface cause the same "stuttering" in my system. The effect is present even at the minimal size of my database ~4-5MB but becomes pronounced at ~10MB and essentially unusable above ~20 MB or so. But this has nothing to do with this upgrade, this has been true for me since the advent of the web interface.

Just a note on my system configuration. I have a Athlon 3000 XP and one GB of main memory on a Asus A7V880 MB. I have three disks configured:
1. a 250GB 7200 RPM WD PATA drive that has the OS, applications and database (this drive is this large because it used to also have the recorded data but that's been moved. There is only about 25GB in use right now) Default sector size.
2. a 40GB 7200 RPM Maxtor PATA that is used for the TS buffer, temporary space and the swap file. Default sector size
3. a 250GB 7200 RPM WD SATA that is used exclusively for the recorded videos. 64K sector size.
I don't know what more I can do to enhance the performance with existing hardware and/or configuration.

[WerewolfTA]

The size of gbpvr.mdb has been discussed several times. This is because I'm using an Access database. This type of database never reclaims space, even when records are deleted.

sub, may I ask why this database? Why not something like mysql or ms sql server 2005 express, both freebies.

[bolacha]

I've installed the new release and played around a bit with the new MVP dongle. (gbmvp.bin)

I must say i love the new features, i love the performance increase.

But unfortunately i'm also having some problems.

The worst of them being LiveTV not working correctly.
I can watch, but as soon as i change channels in LiveTV Preview Mode, one of the following happens:
- Sometimes the change won't work and i get a stuck piece of the original program (about 0.5 secs) looping until i press back or stop on the MVP (also using dongle.bin, btw), or a message box saying "could not play file" on the PC.
- 20% of the time the change itself works, but the video from the new channel contains short stutters every 1-2 secs.

If i watch the LiveTV Buffer directory i can see the second file appear with 0KB in size, but in some cases it never gets bigger.
This is also written in the PC-logs then, when it waits for 10 secs and then gives up.
I can see the file often starts to grow very late and stops growing very soon (about 100KB f.e.).
I tried increasing the LiveTV delays, but with no success.
I never had LiveTV problems with version 0.95.16. :confused:

Also, using gbmvp.bin, i have the strange problem that the mvp only provides a video signal directly after it was powercycled and downloaded the .bin.
if i turn the mvp off and on again i don't get any picture out of it anymore.
The GBPVR-menu seems to work though, because i can (blindly) start LiveTV and can hear the audio playing, but no video signal at all
I tried this on 3 mvps, all with the same result. (PAL-mvps, connected via Scart-cable)
I tried all available video mode settings (RGB, Composite, S-Video).

And a relatively minor thing:
If watching inset-LiveTV and navigating through the submenus i have to use the "menu"-button to navigate back, otherwise (using "back/exit") the video will stop. but i think that was already mentioned earlier.

Plugins were disabled all the way.

Does anyone have suggestions?

[sub]

sub, may I ask why this database? Why not something like mysql or ms sql server 2005 express, both freebies.

Lots of reasons, mainly around ease of installation and size of distribution etc.

[al1suarez]

Hey sub, when fast forwarding a recorded show why not display x2, x4, x8 back to x1? Just a suggestion.