Distributed recording/processing, when to reprocess

[Reddwarf]

I needed a third capture card to be able to record all the shows I wanted (good shows/documentarys tend to show up at the same time), but was out of free PCI-slots in my HTPC. But I had a (mostly) vacant pc, so I got a new card (ATI-550Pro) and istalled it and gbpvr in one of my "kitchen machines". I use WEB-admin from my htpc in the living room to schedule recordings on that system, and, after hours of head-scratching, I came up with a system that process and transfer the recordings to my htpc as well as import them to gbpvr's database automatically. (If anyone is interested in the setup I can post a how-to here).

The processing runs in the early morning hours when no recording normally is scheduled. But if the recording (on the kitchen machine) is finished early and there is no more recordings until next day, why wait until 04:30AM to process?

So my question is: Is there a way to obtaining information of when the next recording is due from a .bat file? If there is, simple math can be used to see if there is enough time to finish post-processing before the next recording kicks in.

[sub]

There is nothing built in that tell you this info, but I seem to remember someone else posted a batch file that does this in the past. From memory it was executing a SQLite database query from a command line database utility.

[ACTCMS]

If anyone is interested in the setup I can post a how-to here

I run two GBPVR servers - I'd be interested in seeing how you do it...

[zehd]

I needed a third capture card to be able to record all the shows I wanted (good shows/documentarys tend to show up at the same time), but was out of free PCI-slots in my HTPC. But I had a (mostly) vacant pc, so I got a new card (ATI-550Pro) and istalled it and gbpvr in one of my "kitchen machines". I use WEB-admin from my htpc in the living room to schedule recordings on that system, and, after hours of head-scratching, I came up with a system that process and transfer the recordings to my htpc as well as import them to gbpvr's database automatically. (If anyone is interested in the setup I can post a how-to here).

The processing runs in the early morning hours when no recording normally is scheduled. But if the recording (on the kitchen machine) is finished early and there is no more recordings until next day, why wait until 04:30AM to process?

So my question is: Is there a way to obtaining information of when the next recording is due from a .bat file? If there is, simple math can be used to see if there is enough time to finish post-processing before the next recording kicks in.

Yeah, and that's an Idea I've been kicking around for a while.

A service running on all machines that talks to the other machines. When computer A records a new show, it send the path of the file (with other info) to the computers B (and C,D). Those computers then create a new entry in their local database, which actually point to the file across a network)

I've been toying with this code for a little while, but haven't had time to actually start writing...

[Reddwarf]

Actually the "slave" pc has very limited harddisk space, so after converting the recording to XviD (in a two-pass encoding, not enough power for h264 within a resonable time) it delets the .mpg file, writes a batch-file and transfers this to the master htpc. Using PsExec it starts the batch-file on the master htpc and the bat uses VidImport to insert the new recording into gbpvr's database. Finally it delets the local copy on the recording and all files belonging to it.

I guess the .avi could very well reside on a network pc (is it so sub?), but I'v done it this way due to lack of harddisk space on the slave pc.

I'm about to compile a how-to which will include the .bat-files and a bit of explanation, needed to get PsExec running. Will post it in a couple of days, I belive.

[JavaWiz]

So my question is: Is there a way to obtaining information of when the next recording is due from a .bat file? If there is, simple math can be used to see if there is enough time to finish post-processing before the next recording kicks in.

This will do close to what you want.

It creates a report of:

o Recordings in conflict
o Scheduled Recordings (today and tomorrow)
o Failed Recordings
o Season recordings

Outputs into a log file and mails it to your email address.

You could probably model your batch file off the SQL commands to pull what you need out of the db.

[Reddwarf]

Thanks! I'll have a look.