STB resets on power failure

[waveking]

Hi,
I have TataSky and am planning to hook up PVR via an IR blaster. problem is that if during recording there is a power failure, then it takes about 20 seconds for our power backup to turn on the power. In that time as the STB got off, it reset to default channel on powering on.

In such a scenario how can I ensure that after power is resumed, the IR blaster sets the STB back to the same channel which was being recorded?

[markbb1]

Hi,
I have TataSky and am planning to hook up PVR via an IR blaster. problem is that if during recording there is a power failure, then it takes about 20 seconds for our power backup to turn on the power. In that time as the STB got off, it reset to default channel on powering on.

In such a scenario how can I ensure that after power is resumed, the IR blaster sets the STB back to the same channel which was being recorded?

If it happens frequently, I would suggest putting the STB AND the GBPVR PC on uninteruptible power (UPS).

[pBS]

ditto.. no other way for gbpvr to know when power has gone out..
lots of advantages to having a decent ups on the pvr machine..i have stb and router/modem on it too just in case..

although it should actually re-tune the channel if pvr lost power and it has to restart recording..

[carpeVideo]

Hi,
I have TataSky and am planning to hook up PVR via an IR blaster. problem is that if during recording there is a power failure, then it takes about 20 seconds for our power backup to turn on the power. In that time as the STB got off, it reset to default channel on powering on.

In such a scenario how can I ensure that after power is resumed, the IR blaster sets the STB back to the same channel which was being recorded?

If UPS is not an option (seems like you already have some sort of power backup) then assuming your STB and PC both lose power and you have set the PC to automatically restart you could delay the start of GBPVR by 20 seconds after it reboots. It should do the channel change as soon as it resumes. Your recording will be split into 2 files.

[waveking]

Thanks for the ideas people.

My PC, is actually a laptop so when the power goes, the laptop not really shuts down or reboots. So the gbpvr never knows anything about the power failure.

The building has a power generator which switches on in about 20 seconds of a power failure. When the power goes naturally my STB turns off and when power resumes after 20 seconds, the STB come on again, BUT the channel gets reset after STB got turned on.

So, if GBPVR was already recording, it will now start recording the wrong channel.

Can there be a way for me to tell gbpvr to reset the channel to the channel being recorded?
Maybe by an external application which can update a file to let GBPVR know of the power status?

[pBS]

same advice still stands, get a cheap UPS and put the cable box on it..[and laptop too, to protect it's power input from surge]
smallest one you can find should be fine..[stb doesn't use much juice]
really no other easy way to do it...

[waveking]

same advice still stands, get a cheap UPS and put the cable box on it..[and laptop too, to protect it's power input from surge]
smallest one you can find should be fine..[stb doesn't use much juice]
really no other easy way to do it...

I can code in windows to find when the power supply has come back. Can't I write a plugin or something for GBPVR which can, on reading a file or something, change the STB channel during recording?

[carpeVideo]

How do you change channels? If you are using some sort of external executable to IR blast then you could
a) when starting a recording or on any channel change, write the recording channel to some file so it can be externally found (this can be done by using a bat or cmd file to change channels from GBPVR rather than a native channel change)
b) if you notice the power restart then trigger the external channel change cmd without GBPVR using the saved channel as its arg, twenty seconds after the occurrence
--- This may result in issues if the capture method can't handle the loss of signal at the very least a twenty-thirty second blank in the recording

or even easier but resulting in two files:

a) after seeing the event wait the twenty seconds and simply stop and restart the GBPVR recording service which will cause the channel to change since GBPVR will essentially restart all recordings (this would work with multiple recording sources)

or
UPS as mentioned above

[waveking]

How do you change channels? If you are using some sort of external executable to IR blast then you could
a) when starting a recording or on any channel change, write the recording channel to some file so it can be externally found (this can be done by using a bat or cmd file to change channels from GBPVR rather than a native channel change)
b) if you notice the power restart then trigger the external channel change cmd without GBPVR using the saved channel as its arg, twenty seconds after the occurrence
--- This may result in issues if the capture method can't handle the loss of signal at the very least a twenty-thirty second blank in the recording

or even easier but resulting in two files:

a) after seeing the event wait the twenty seconds and simply stop and restart the GBPVR recording service which will cause the channel to change since GBPVR will essentially restart all recordings (this would work with multiple recording sources)

or
UPS as mentioned above

Thanks, these ideas are close to what I am looking for. Yes, I am using UIRT IR blaster. Your idea to "restart the GBPVR recording service" sounds like it will do the job. But, need to be more clear on how to implement it. By recording service, do you mean a Windows service which GBPVR would have installed? Am I supposed to code my application to somehow use any GBPVR API to restart it or what?

[carpeVideo]

Its one of the commands on your startup menu - just call the short cut and it should do the trick