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Number of minor issues noticed in Live TV recordings


Guest virtualtinker

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Guest virtualtinker

I've noticed a few minor things I wanted to bring up.  None of them are in any way breaking of the core functionality, but just the same, it would probably be good to bring them to light as I have not seen them mentioned as far as I know.  I am currently running MBS version 3.0.5171.19958 and Version: 1.0.0.24, build: 1126 of ServerWMC.

 

1.  This is something more quirky than anything, but when I am looking at my scheduled recordings, if I simply click one directly, the following page opens up with the pertinent details (air time, HD, epsiode description.  However, if I choose to instead of clicking the show for a description, right click and open the description of the scheduled recording in a new tab, the following page is blank.  I have only tested this in Chrome (version 33.0.1750.117 m) so far.

 

53134c89980ca_open_link_in_new_tab.png.

 

53134a8094b31_blank_description.png

 

2.  I haven't seen this on all of the recordings, but when I click to view my recorded series', if I clock a series and go to schedule, the schedule is blank.  This doesn't seem to impact the actual recordings as far as I know, because I can path to the show in the guide and see the recorded sign next to it.  I've tried deleting and re-adding the series, and the scheduled recordings is still not populating.

 

53134b3a53668_scheduled_recording.png

 

3.  This issue has occurred since the first official release.  After I have already setup a series recording, if I try and change any of the variables, like what days it records, or whether to record all shows or only new ones, when I click save, I am given a ServerWMC backend error.  I can delete and recreate the series with my new preferred settings just fine; it only seems to happen when modifying an existing.

 

53134bcc0d005_serverwmc_backend_error.pn

 

I've attached logs of both MBS and ServerWMC.  I don't think it will really help anything other than the ServerWMC backend error, but figured I would rather give you too much than too little.

 

 

server-63529346729.log

ServerWMC.log

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krustyreturns

I was able to reproduce all three.  One and two are likely mbs issues, or at least I will assume they are until they tell me differently :).  Three is all mine.  I see what's up and let you know when I have a fix.

 

Thanks for these, the're very helpful.  Keep them coming.

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krustyreturns

I fixed number 3.  It requires an update of serverwmc.  I have some other minor changes to fold into that program before I update, but I will try to do it soon.  

 

FYI, even though a serverwmc won't usually require an update of the plugin, I will up the rev of plugin just to let users know there is a newer (but not required) serverwmc version.  That will be true in general, unless I can figure out a better way to handle it.

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#1 I actually can't repro, interestingly enough.

 

Krusty, for #2, can you just double check that TimerInfos are coming back with a SeriesTimerId? Thanks.

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Guest virtualtinker

Thanks for these, the're very helpful.  Keep them coming.

 

I have one other thing to mention since you want me to keep them coming.

 

4.  So this may have always been occurring since the official release, but I only noticed it with the last major release.  Prior, I was able to set ServerWMC to pull 2 weeks worth of guide data.  Since then, it is only pulling 7 at the max.  However, what's interesting is that on the backend, WMC is still pulling 2 weeks worth of data.  What ends up occurring is, when you look at scheduled recordings, I can see what WMC is scheduled to record 2 weeks out.  However, only the first week populates with icons and any of the guide data for the later week is empty.

 

531383db423af_incomplete_guide.png

 

531383ee73583_empty_synopsis.png

 

Thanks for looking into these things.  If there's anything else you need me to try on my end, let me know.

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krustyreturns

@virtualthinker

 

Interesting, that is a good catch too.  Your analysis is exactly right, when mbs pulls guide data they are now (typically) only asking for 7 days (dashboard>live tv>settings), but when they ask for timers (scheduled recordings) I am giving them all wmc has without regards to date.  I guess I don't know if this is a bug or not.  I can filter out scheduled recordings beyond the guide request dates if that's what people want.

 

@@Luke,

 

What do you think about the above?  Also I will double check the IDs.

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in the current release i changed the cap from 14 to 7. it can be reevaluated later.

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Guest virtualtinker

@@krustyreturns

 

So what actually occurs when MBS kicks off a 'Refresh Guide' job?  Is that kicking off a Refresh inside of WMC then parsing that data, or is this an MBS only task?

 

If I am only showing 7 days worth of data, which is the current maximum, how hard is it to filter out the 2nd week's worth of guide data with the exception of the recorded series?  That way, I could still see a ways out for the shows I have set to record, but am keeping the overhead from the refresh guide job and loading up the guide down to a minimum?

 

Just thinking out loud, the current way it is now, it doesn't look as polished with that 2nd week missing the icons and episode data.  However, if you put in that general filter like you mentioned earlier, I would think then that anything less than a week's worth of episode guide data would hamper the usefulness of the feature as a whole.  Think of if you were only pulling 2 days of episode guide data.  You'd then show 2 days out for your recorded series.

 

Does that all make sense?  Without having a better idea of what you can and can't do and the level of effort involved, as well as its impact on the refresh guide job and loading up the guide, it's really hard to say any more.

 

Anyway, my 2 cents.

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krustyreturns

The number of timers swmc transferred to mbs shouldn't impact how long it takes mbs to do a guide refresh, if that's what you are asking.  To answer your question, when mbs does a guide refresh it tells swmc it wants 7 days of worth of guide data for channel x.   Then sbmc gueries this data directly from the wmc database and gives it back to mbs.

 

However timers (or scheduled programs) are different.  When mbs requests these it doesn't provide a date range, so currently swmc gives it back all it has, which usually goes out a couple of weeks.

 

I agree the look is less polished, but I think I would rather see as many of the upcoming scheduled recordings as possible.  

 

Question:  Suppose you have a series with a timer inside the guide range and one outside the guide range.  Does the first have an icon, but the second not, even though they are the same series?

 

BTW thanks for the reminder that Walking Dead is starting up again.

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Guest virtualtinker

@@krustyreturns

 

Yes, anything outside of the guide's range has no icon, nor any kind of data regarding whether it's a new episode, HD, the episode name, a description, or anything.  That screenshot above doesn't show it, but had I gotten Monday as well, Daniel Tiger which looked fine on Friday's recording would have been pretty much an empty container for Monday's recording.

 

Okay, so MBS pulls X days worth of data from SWMC which in turn grabs X days from WMC's guide.  But with scheduled recordings, MBS ends up getting the full 2 weeks worth of data.  And it sounds like what is shown in the scheduled section is the 2 weeks worth of recordings.  However, the show icon, as well as all of the data when you drill into that recording are tied to the data that MBS pulled from the episode guide which would explain why it's a pretty bare record.

 

If that's the case, do you have the granularity to be able to pass on from WMC to MBS guide info from the shows being recorded?  I am thinking either when MBS does the Refresh Guide task and it currently asks for the 7 days of data, SWMC can query and retrieve both the 7 days worth of guide data, and the data for the shows being recorded for the following week.  Either that, or maybe the guide data can be passed on to MBS in addition to the timers when MBS is requesting the scheduled programs.

 

Both of those ideas are predicated on your ability to query and pass individual episode guide data back to MBS.  If that weren't possible, the only thing I could see was you give 2 weeks worth of episode guide data on the Refresh Guide task regardless of how many days worth of guide data is presented inside the GUI.  That would ensure all of the scheduled recordings are properly displayed at the expense of doubling the time taken to finish the Refresh Guide task.  I'm also not sure if that would impact how long opening up the Guide inside of the GUI would take.  At the very least, we're talking about more read and write IOPs against both WMC and MBS each time the job is run as well as more space taken up although I'm guessing that both should be pretty marginal.

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krustyreturns

@@Luke,

 

For problem #2, I double checked and the SeriesTimerId's are being sent back in the TimerInfo object.  I just did a quick test on my devel machine with one series that has an episode everyday.  The series ids are correct (i.e. they match SeriesTimerInfo.Id) and they were transferred to the plugin correctly.  But hitting the 'schedule' button in series detail still brought up no timers.  

 

@@virtualtinker  and Luke

 

The fix I prefer is for the transferred timers to include some basic data that mbs can display if it can't get info from the guide.  It looks to me like the only one it needs is the icon and maybe the show flags (IsRepeat, IsHD, etc).  Strangely, we already send back the 'Overview' (plot outline) in each timer, but mbs seems to be ignoring it.

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krustyreturns

I spent some more time looking at problem #2 today.  It doesn't always fail, for instance I set it to record the new cosmos series premiering this Sunday.  When I go to Series>Schedule I see the correct info.  Once I found that I tried other series, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, I could not find a pattern.  In all the cases I checked (working and not working) the series ID seems to be correct.

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Guest virtualtinker

@@krustyreturns

 

That was what I noticed too; not every show was missing the scheduled recordings, although in my case at least, the vast majority did.  If a show was not showing the scheduled recordings, then no amount of deleting and re-adding would make them appear.  On the other hand, with shows that did show the scheduled recordings, if I deleted and re-added, then the scheduled recordings would still show after the fact.  This was pretty consistent across the board from what I tested.  However, I haven't been able to find the commonality of what does and doesn't work.

 

If it helps, here's the series I have set to record and whether they do or don't work.  Maybe you can test and see if you get the exact same results as I do or if they differ?

 

Almost Human, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Elementary, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and Rake don't work.

 

The Talking Dead, The Following, and The Walking Dead all work.

 

P.S.  I tested shows with 'The' preceding the show by trying The Cosby Show and that one didn't work either just to potentially stop you there, as silly as my testing that sounds.

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krustyreturns

That is what I have noticed too, if a show works it always works.

 

I will try those.  See if Cosmos (this Sunday on FOX) works for you.

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Guest virtualtinker

I added Cosmos and that one seems to work as I see the Sunday series premiere in the schedule.

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krustyreturns

@@virtualtinker

 

From your list these are the ones I tried:

 

Worked:

  Almost Human

  Agents of Shield

 

Didn't work:

  Daniel Tiger 

  Rake

  Walking Dead

 

Interesting, we don't get the same results

 

Edit:

Also interesting Cosmos does NOT work today.  

 

I was hoping to get this sorted out before I did another serverwmc release but, short of looking at the mbs code, I can't figure out why this sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

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Guest virtualtinker

@@krustyreturns

 

I rechecked all of mine just now, and neither Cosmos, Talking Dead, or Walking Dead work; only the Following works now.  That doesn't make any sense at all.  I never did any kind of MBS restart since then either, so I'm not sure what could have changed.  Are there any kind of variables or guids or anything associated with a series or timer that could arbitrarily change for whatever reason?  Does XBMC use similar code for scheduled shows as MBS does or is this unique to MBS?  I'm just wondering if XBMC is doing anything similar.

 

Let me know if there's any other testing you need me to do or if it'd help in any way, we can do a teamviewer session or whatever.

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krustyreturns

@@virtualtinker,

 

I released the serverwmc (1129) and new plugin for mb3 that fixes problem 3, check it out when you can and see if it solves your problem.  I thought about putting the timer filter into this version of serverwmc to take care of problem 4 but decided to wait on that and see if we can update the timerinfo object instead.

 

As for the tenacious problem 2, I really can't think of what to do on my end to debug it further.  It might be a problem with plugin/serverwmc but I can't find it.  I am hoping @@Luke can find time to check out what is happening on the mbs side to resolve this, or point me in the right direction to look.  

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Guest virtualtinker

Sorry for the delay in getting things tested; they killed external RDP at work so I haven't had as much time to check this out.  As best I can tell, the newest version of SWMC fixed the timer issue when modifying a series.  Thanks for fixing that!

 

Any progress on #2?

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krustyreturns

I am waiting to get some ideas from @@Luke on #2.  I am out of ammo currently.  Thanks for the update.

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