Problems with ExternalRecorder plugin

[pBS]

if there's command line options for mytheater,then you should be all set, find a 'process killer' program on the net [lots out there,pskill comes to mind] , then make a batch file that first line, kills gbpvr, second line-run mytheater with: start /w mytheater.exe [or whatever it is] the /w will make the batch wait till you close mytheater, third line- start gbpvr again...
[type start /? at cmd prompt for start options in detail]
that should give you the xcard use, cuz gbpvr will be shut down, and crank up gbpvr again after it's done..

[frazer]

that sounds great, thanks; I'll take a look at it later and try and get something going.

thanks again for the advice,

Frazer

[normanr]

how does it stop the recording?

It keep a handle to the process it opened, and kills it when gb-pvr requests the recording to be stopped. Hence why batch files that launch other programs are going to mess with it.

Idealy the plugin needs to take two more commands to run, one just after the recording has been started (so that focus can be shifted back to gb-pvr), and another when gb-pvr requests the recording to be stopped. Would it be of any use to be able to launch a dynamic number of commands?

i'm almost done with my .xgr graph runner..

It sounds like this is an external exe at the moment, any chance that you'll try and make it an integrated plugin for recording? Having it as an external exe, makes it depend on the externalrecorder, and all it's issues, if it was a direct plugin, then it would have more control of what happens.

Of course I'm sure there are tons of people out there that would love to have to functionality as an exe as well.

[frazer]

Hello again,

Just thought I'd update on my progress.

So far I've managed to write a batch file which will use myTheatre to update the programme guide, and can run either in the background whilst still using GBPVR, or can kill GBPVR and bring it back when the process is finished. The only advantage of the second way is that when GBPVR is left open, the updated epg information doesn't quite all make it into the TV guide grid, for reasons I can't fathom. All the info is there somewhere; if you first go into live TV and call up the guide there, it displays properly, and then after when you go into the full TVGuide screen, all the programme details display at the bottom but no programme names. On closing and reopening GBPVR, though, everything is as it should be.

Not satisfied with writing my first batch file though, I decided to have a go at putting one in the External Recorder settings to both open myTheatre to a particular channel, and then get VLC to send this for recording (and possibly viewing) in GBPVR. This hasn't quite worked yet though. The major problem is that from the External Recorder settings, the batch file doesn't seem to run properly, though it does- with exactly the same address and parameters- if I point to it from a custom task button.

It certainly knows where to look, as myTheatre tries to start up, followed by VLC, but myTheatre gets stuck, and hence no video is being sent. Furthermore, no command window appears as it does when it is launched as a custom task, or launched manually. Any ideas why this might be?

For the executable, there didn't seem to be a way of typing in @comspec, so I just pointed it to the com.exe file in Windows\system32 (as works in the custom task). For the parameters, I tried many variables, but what worked in the custom task was simply (where the batch file is called extrec);

/c extrec

Of course eventually I need to add the channel number and file name, but I wanted to get the most basic version working first.

I realised from trying the custom task that the batch file had to be in the GBPVR folder for it to work, which itself brings another problem; that I can't get VLC to run behind GBPVR from there- this despite the fact that it would run behind GBPVR if the batch file was just in the c directory (being started manually), and can always be made to run behind myTheatre by using;

"C:\program files\devnz\gbpvr\gbpvr.exe" -topmost

This is the same problem I was having before running the external recorder plugin normally.

So to sum up, my major problems now seem to be first, getting the batch file to run form the External Recorder settings, and second, getting VLC to stay behind GBPVR so that the keyboard/remote is still usable.

As for the problem of stopping the recording, I wondered if it were possible to get the length of the scheduled recording from GBPVR to use as a variable in a WAIT command in a batch file? This way, after the correct amount of time, the batch file could kill the streaming and recording process. I guessed it probably wouldn't be possible, but it's worth asking!

Whatever, thank you both for all the help you have given me; I do at least now have a usable, and almost perfect way of updating the guide, which only takes about three minutes to run.

Frazer

[normanr]

It sounds like the plugin needs to have the option to run programs at: start record, soon there after, stop record.

[frazer]

It sounds like the plugin needs to have the option to run programs at: start record, soon there after, stop record.

Might this be possible then?

I have made a little progress since my last post; seemingly having the channel changer set for myTheatre as well was causing the problem with it starting up from the external recorder plugin. This isn't really a problem as my batch file tells myTheatre which channel to open anyway.

Still not totally sure why running the batch file from the plugin, it doesn't display the DOS command window, and it doesn't put GBPVR in front of myTheatre either as it does when run from elsewhere; the more I experiment, then more mysterious these things seem to become. I guess the problem of GBPVR losing control of the keyboard/remote could be solved by having a button on the remote assigned to a task which brings GBPVR back to the fore (as suggested elesewhere on this forum), but it would be nice to get the batch file to do it automatically.

I wondered about using the RecordingStatus.bat to run a command which refocuses the computer on GBPVR after the recording has started; I'm making this up as I go along so I don't know if it would work, but I could perhaps add a delay to that batch file which allows enough time for mytheatre and VLC to open in the other batch file before running the command to put GBPVR topmost again. (It wouldn't matter, presumably, that this would run after the recording has ended as well, or when recording from the internal capture source as I always want GBPVR topmost on this computer anyway).

With regards to my suggestion about using the WAIT command to set the length of the recording, I notice that there is mention in the plugin's configuration settings of the recording length being a possible variable in the parameters. Does this apply to scheduled recordings from the TVGuide, or only manually set recordings? I might try and get this to work in a batch file (though I won't have access to my HTPC for a few hours unfortunately) if you think it could be a way round the problem.

Thanks,

Frazer

[normanr]

I think a quick Refocus executable would do the trick.

You can't use a wait/delay approach, because 1) it won't work for LiveTV, 2) there 'used' to be a recording time in minutes, but sub has depricated this (correctly), because of the LiveTV slant.

[frazer]

OK, not sure the WAIT command would have been any use anyway, as the batch file doesn't get beyond the VLC command, because the process is ongoing. I don't know if there is any way around this, as it also stops the batch file running a command to put GBPVR topmost again after opening VLC.

Anyway, had a minor success with using PostProcessing.bat to kill myTheatre when the recording ends (though it doesn't work if I manually stop a recording). Trouble is, pskill refuses to kill VLC, which is a bit frustrating. I could try and find another similar process killer, but I'm not convinced it would make any difference.

Might just give up on the batch files; it's only pride that's keeping me hanging in there now! I did have one other thought though, which was to cut VLC out and have the batch file start myTheatre to record the file directly to the GBPVR directory. This doesn't conquer the refocus problem, as it starts an ongoing task, but the bigger problem was getting it to name the file properly; as {filename} includes the directory and file type, myTheatre would add those in the name of the file, so it wouldn't be added to the recording file GBPVR creates. Am I right in assuming there's no way to get the parameters to include the file name without the directory/file type?

Thanks again,

Frazer

[normanr]

OK, not sure the WAIT command would have been any use anyway, as the batch file doesn't get beyond the VLC command, because the process is ongoing. I don't know if there is any way around this, as it also stops the batch file running a command to put GBPVR topmost again after opening VLC.

You can use `start` to launch a process and not wait for it to exit.

Anyway, had a minor success with using PostProcessing.bat to kill myTheatre when the recording ends (though it doesn't work if I manually stop a recording). Trouble is, pskill refuses to kill VLC, which is a bit frustrating. I could try and find another similar process killer, but I'm not convinced it would make any difference.

What about pv from PrcView?

Might just give up on the batch files; it's only pride that's keeping me hanging in there now! I did have one other thought though, which was to cut VLC out and have the batch file start myTheatre to record the file directly to the GBPVR directory. This doesn't conquer the refocus problem, as it starts an ongoing task, but the bigger problem was getting it to name the file properly; as {filename} includes the directory and file type, myTheatre would add those in the name of the file, so it wouldn't be added to the recording file GBPVR creates. Am I right in assuming there's no way to get the parameters to include the file name without the directory/file type?

A pathless filename parameter could be added to the plugin, but have you tried using the `for` command to strip the path off? eg:

Code:

for %a in ("%filename%") do set filename=%~nxa

where filename is an envionment variable set to %1 or whatever.

[frazer]

Thanks a lot for all this new advice; I've obviously still got a lot to learn! I'll definitely try using the Start command to get it to read beyond the ongoing recording command, though I've still had the problem that starting the batch file automatically from the plugin seems not to initiate the GBPVR topmost command the way it does when I start the batch file manually, for reasons I don't understand.

This now is my only real problem though, as I found that TASKKILL with the /f parameter to force it, does kill VLC, so now the postprocessing.bat file I made can successfully stop the recording at the end of the programmed time. I can also use this at the beginning of the main batch file so that when swapping between channels in timeshift view, it kills the present stream before creating the new one for the new myTheatre channel.

I'll give the "for" command a try as well to see if it would work running the batch file without VLC; would this strip the .mpg off the end as well though, or is there another variable I'd have to use for this? (I'll have a little look on the web for info on this as well). As usual have to wait 'til nighttime for the TV to be free though!

Thanks once more,

Frazer