Looking for beta testers for v1.6.0.0

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garyan2

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Looking for beta testers for v1.6.0.0

#1

Post by garyan2 » Fri Nov 20, 2020 5:47 pm

All,

I'm looking for some beta testers to test out the new client. I've done a pretty big rewrite of the client to change how and when the WMC database is accessed. The whole purpose of this rewrite is to try and make the experience more reliable with less database recoveries or lost WMC configurations. The client should also be quicker in populating the merged channels as well as quicker sorting and filtering.

The client will by default run a verification of the MXF load and make changes to the listings to match the incoming MXF file. If you don't want to perform that action then you will need to add "-noverify" to the task action in Task Scheduler. If you want to see what the changes being made are during verification you will need to add "-verbose" to the task action. With this version, the verification should complete without any issue and the client should not be killed/interrupted due to a WMC PVR task being run.

If you are a beta tester, please send me an email to support@garyan2.net letting me know what kind of tuners (cable/OTA/DVB-?) you use and on what OS. This will let me know what kind of coverage I have.

Version 1.6.0.0 can be downloaded from here.

Thank you,
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#2

Post by Space » Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:24 pm

I'll probably be trying this out. I have a question and a suggestion.

Does the -nogc option still work in this version?

Can you allow the ability to adjust how big you want the log file to get before it is archived? I've found when having the -verbose option enabled, it archives the log before even two full runs are logged which is a bit too aggressive. In general, I would just like to maintain a larger log, even without the -verbose option enabled (which after everything is working, I will probably disable) so that it is easier to look back several days, as well as search for things several days back).

Also, I am not sure how it is currently archived, but it seems to split the logs randomly. Is it possible to make sure each execution is fully contained in the same log and not split between two logs?

Thanks

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#3

Post by garyan2 » Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:42 pm

The -nogc option still works. I don't intend on removing that.

For this version, I reduced the verbose to just the entries that were changed. I'm not logging each and every service that is being checked so that should significantly reduce the number of entries in the log. I don't think I'm going to make the log file sizes adjustable. Without the verbose you will get a lot of days in a single file. For those that don't, without verbose, it is typically due to downloading a lot of foreign channels with movies that have no coverart and trying TMDB. Come to think of it, I can probably stop logging all the TMDB requests. I don't see much benefit in it anymore.

I split the file at 1024KB. I might be able to do what you ask with a simple flag... I'll take a look. You can understand it is not really a high priority.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#4

Post by kkingsto » Fri Nov 20, 2020 8:16 pm

One thing I notice: When opening 1.6.0, I see "UPDATE AVAILABLE (v1.5.1).

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#5

Post by garyan2 » Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:02 pm

Since I haven't publicly released it, v1.6.0.0 will say that because the current released version is v1.5.1. Because the versions are different, it assumes what is available is an upgrade. It can be ignored.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#6

Post by garyan2 » Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:48 pm

Heads up: If you were running v1.5.1 with the "-verify" option, you will have to delete that parameter in order for the client to run... "-verify" is no longer a valid option.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#7

Post by Space » Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:32 am

I just ran v1.6.0.0 using the GUI (Save & Execute) and it appeard to run fine. However:

Code: Select all

[11/21/2020 1:21:23 AM] Entering VerifyLoad()
[11/21/2020 1:21:43 AM] [ INFO] Service HSTRYHD has a time discontinuity. Skipping verification of this station's schedule entries.
[11/21/2020 1:22:05 AM] [ INFO] Checked 143375 entries and corrected 0 of them.
[11/21/2020 1:22:05 AM] Exiting VerifyLoad()
Since I installed the version of EPG123 that had the Verify function, I haven't had a single run without the VerifyLoad correcting multiple entries, so it seems unusual that it would have found 0 things to correct.

I assume that when I run through the GUI, the -verbose option is not enabled, although I assume the "corrected 0 of them" would still display a non-zero value if any were corrected (even if it did not display the details of what was corrected).

Note that this IS the second time I have run EPG123 today (the old version automatically ran earlier), and although EPG123 did download some new stuff during this run, it might not have been a lot, so may not have generate many things that needed to be fixed. I will see how the auto run goes tomorrow (I have disabled the -verify option that I had in there from the previous version).

Note that I am using an HDHomerun Prime with a CableCard on FiOS, let me know if you need any more info on my setup.

EDIT:

Correction:
Even though it did download some items, it was just artwork. No schedules had been updated since the last update, so I'll just wait until tomorrow to see how it goes.

Code: Select all

[11/21/2020 1:16:17 AM] [ INFO] Downloaded 0 daily schedules.

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#8

Post by StinkyImp » Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:13 pm

Space wrote: Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:24 pmCan you allow the ability to adjust how big you want the log file to get before it is archived? I've found when having the -verbose option enabled, it archives the log before even two full runs are logged which is a bit too aggressive. In general, I would just like to maintain a larger log, even without the -verbose option enabled (which after everything is working, I will probably disable) so that it is easier to look back several days, as well as search for things several days back).

Also, I am not sure how it is currently archived, but it seems to split the logs randomly. Is it possible to make sure each execution is fully contained in the same log and not split between two logs?
I used to ask for this every few months, but like Gary said... it's not a priority. That's why I built the "EPG123 Log Parser". The most recent version is 1.7.6 and it's freeware.

Its primary feature is to allow me to select one (or ALL) log files and merge them into one big log file that allows me to "look back several days, as well as search for things several days back".

If you think it would be helpful, please feel free to give it a try.

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#9

Post by garyan2 » Sat Nov 21, 2020 4:16 pm

^^^this. Sorry StinkyImp. I had planned on plugging your EPG123 Log Parser as an option but I was doing a very poor job at multitasking at the time and rushed my response.

Absolutely agree that for any perceived short-comings of the EPG123 logging, EPG123 Log Parser takes care of it and much more with the searching/filtering ability.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Space

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#10

Post by Space » Sat Nov 21, 2020 5:04 pm

Does the log parser work if I am viewing the logs from a remote machine via file sharing? Because that is the primary way I view the logs, almost never on the HTPC itself.

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#11

Post by garyan2 » Sat Nov 21, 2020 7:59 pm

I haven't had a problem over the network. One thing to be aware of is if you need to change the source location of the log files, you first need to delete/modify the parser's configuration file to point to the new location. That is unless StinkyImp has a method for that that I am not aware of.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#12

Post by Space » Sun Nov 22, 2020 5:20 am

Hmmm, this doesn't seem right....

It logs the message every minute, indicating that it is delaying the import, then does the import 5 minutes before the recording is about to start (at 8pm).

Also, the import only takes a little over 5 minutes, which I think is unusual, as it normally takes 6-15 minutes, but I suppose it's possible it went that fast. I'll have to see what it does over time.

Code: Select all

[11/21/2020 7:43:59 PM] ===============================================================================
[11/21/2020 7:43:59 PM]  Beginning epg123 client execution. version 1.6.0.0
[11/21/2020 7:43:59 PM] ===============================================================================
[11/21/2020 7:43:59 PM] [ INFO] Beginning epg123 client execution. 2020-11-22 00:43:59Z
[11/21/2020 7:43:59 PM] [ INFO] Import: True , Match: True , NoLogo: False , Force: False , ShowProgress: False
[11/21/2020 7:44:00 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:45:00 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:46:01 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:47:02 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:48:03 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:49:03 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:50:04 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:51:05 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:52:05 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:53:06 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:54:06 PM] [ INFO] There is a recording in progress or the next scheduled recording is within 15 minutes. Delaying garbage collection and/or import.
[11/21/2020 7:55:02 PM] Entering ImportMxfFile() for file "c:\programdata\garyan2\epg123\output\epg123.mxf".
[11/21/2020 8:00:44 PM] [ INFO] Successfully imported .mxf file into Media Center database. Exit code: 0
[11/21/2020 8:00:44 PM] Exiting ImportMxfFile(). SUCCESS.

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#13

Post by garyan2 » Sun Nov 22, 2020 5:39 am

No, that's not what was intended. It should create a log entry once every hour if the recording is still in progress while it checks every 5 minutes for the recording status to change.

A very strange thing is the 5 minutes is hardcoded... I don't know how it is logging anything every minute. I'll figure this out.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#14

Post by garyan2 » Sun Nov 22, 2020 5:48 am

Well that's embarrassing. My hardcoded 5 minutes is actually 5 seconds. That is why it is logging every minute instead of every hour. More to come for the kick-off. I'm thinking WMC clears that registry entry prior to enabling the task....
Last edited by garyan2 on Sun Nov 22, 2020 6:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
- Gary
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#15

Post by garyan2 » Sun Nov 22, 2020 6:00 am

It worked here (other than logging every minute). Looks like there is a small window from when it clears the NextRecordingAt registry to when it enables the RecordingRestart task. I'll do some more tests and figure out what to do. I'll probably have to buffer the status to have 2 in a row that does not register a recording in progress or upcoming.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#16

Post by Space » Sun Nov 22, 2020 6:02 am

Yeah, I figured the registry gets cleared 5 minutes before the recording, or maybe gets set to the date/time of the next recording.

How do you check if there is a recording currently in progress? Same as the old version, or is there also a registry entry for recordings in progress?

EDIT: You posted before I posted this, looks like you use the RecordingRestart task being enabled to determine if there is a current recording...

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#17

Post by garyan2 » Sun Nov 22, 2020 6:26 am

My messup for doing seconds instead of minutes was actually a good thing, looks like. The registry get cleared and the task gets enabled 10 minutes before the program starts (without pre-padding so 11:20pm for a 11:30pm program regardless of pre-pad). Looks like you got lucky and captured it in a transition phase where the registry was cleared but the task was not yet enabled.

I now have the recording status buffered so it has to register no recordings in progress twice with a 30 second delay for the second check. I'll post the next version shortly.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#18

Post by garyan2 » Sun Nov 22, 2020 6:37 am

New version to address recording in progress excessive logging and risk of false pass. Download v1.6.0.2 here.

This also changes the minimum time to next recording from 15 minutes to 10 minutes.
The trace.log file will be allowed to exceed 1024KB during an active update so last run will always be in a single file.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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#19

Post by Space » Sun Nov 22, 2020 7:22 am

Nice. I updated to the latest. Will see how it goes from here...

That false pass bug is probably not something that would have been discovered so soon if you didn't also have the 5 second bug.

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#20

Post by StinkyImp » Sun Nov 22, 2020 2:20 pm

Space wrote: Sat Nov 21, 2020 5:04 pm Does the log parser work if I am viewing the logs from a remote machine via file sharing? Because that is the primary way I view the logs, almost never on the HTPC itself.
Upon initial execution it will ask for the location of your trace.log file. It uses this information to make a copy of the log files and analyze the date format for use in the parser. Even though I haven't used it remotely, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be able to pull a copy of the logs from a mapped drive or UNC share even if you install it on a remote machine. Maybe I'll give that a try later and see what happens.

If EPG123 is currently running and you use the "Select New Logs" button, it will retrieve a new copy of the logs on the fly so you can incorporate the most recent entries.

NOTE: I emphasize the word COPY because it will only work with copies of the "trace*.log" files, never with the live logs.

garyan2 wrote: Sat Nov 21, 2020 4:16 pm ^^^this. Sorry StinkyImp. I had planned on plugging your EPG123 Log Parser as an option but I was doing a very poor job at multitasking at the time and rushed my response.

Absolutely agree that for any perceived short-comings of the EPG123 logging, EPG123 Log Parser takes care of it and much more with the searching/filtering ability.
I usually don't mention it but Space's situation fit perfectly to its intended purpose. Thank you for your endorsement! :D

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