EtiVo: Automatic Re-encoding and catalogging of TiVo shows - 1.0.1924.0

[Masnark]

New version 1.0.1924.0

Main site is at http://prish.com/etivo - you can find installation guides there.

Forums can be found at http://active.prish.com/prishforum

Downloads are at http://prish.com/etivo/downloads.htm

Change lists can be found at http://prish.com/EtiVo/EtiVo_ChangeList.htm

New version post (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44564)

[jasch]

Great work. Not no be harsh or anything, but what advantages do I have over having my videos on WMV instead of the readily-available MPG's or TY's (using TyTool).

[Masnark]

Well.. It all depends on what you need/want.

They main reason I wanned to hack my TIVO was to enable my sister over-seas to download shows she wants.

Things that might or might not be useful - these were the things I was interested in:
1. I can store 1000 hours / 100Gb of decent quality (to me) shows - I wont need to stream or download things I want to see from my TiVo.
2. The files are downloadable over a slow uplink connection (My DSL out is only about 128kbit - downloading 1GB over it would take forever).
3. You can have multi-bitrate WMVs - which basically means that if you want to stream movies from your house to some external target, it will be pretty easy to do by using Windows Encoding Server (or even Windows Media Encoder, which is free).
4. I got to write a multi-threaded communication layer. I haven't done that in a very long while.

[jasch]

The only reason I can think off, is the smaller file size... What would be so great. I'll give your app a try, and see how much space can I gain over the extracted videos.

[jasch]

What runtimes do I need? It says unable to locate mscoree.dll, so I guess I am missing some support libraries... :o

[Masnark]

You need the .net runtime. I keep forgetting most people are not Mirosoftophiles like me.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/technologyinfo/howtoget/default.aspx

I am adding a "Requirements" section to my post.

The easiest way is just to download it from http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp

[jasch]

Yeah. I am not installing a 24mb framework, just for a couple of DLL's. I am very anti-MS as it is...

Sorry.

[Masnark]

Most people are. :) (anti-MS)

[Barrett]

This sounds like a cool tool, would be useful for pocketPC users, I may give it a shot when I move out and leave my DirecTivo at home

[Masnark]

I have a new, much much much more stable version.

You can find it here:
http://prish.com/etivo/downloads.htm

And you can find much more usage info in http://prish.com/EtiVo.

[sanderton]

Very tidy!

[malfunct]

Yeah. I am not installing a 24mb framework, just for a couple of DLL's. I am very anti-MS as it is...

Sorry.

You don't need the entire framework, only the redistributable which is much smaller. Also you need more than a "couple dlls", think java VM.

[Masnark]

Does anyone have any idea how I can see what my FTP Client is doing wrong by enabling logging on mfsFtp or something?

I am getting the following problems:
* Sometimes I will try opening connections and it will just downright fail.
* I sometimes have problems with MfsFtp crashing completely. It's probably something that my client is sending wrong.

Thanks

[sanderton]

You can start mfs_ftp in the foreground and watch its activity via telnet, or change the info(dbl) varable to some high number to see more in the regular log.

[Masnark]

You can start mfs_ftp in the foreground and watch its activity via telnet, or change the info(dbl) varable to some high number to see more in the regular log.

Hrrm...

How do I run it in the foreground? When I execute it from telnet (mfsftp.tcl) it automatically runs itself in the background. Is there any switch I can use?

Thanks.

[Masnark]

I put out a new version. This one includes a web-interface and a lot of improvements.

Note that you may want to clear the directory that was created by previous versions.

http://www.prish.com/EtiVo

For downloads: http://www.prish.com/EtiVo/downloads.htm

[cmylxgo]

I've been testing this app for almost a week now and IT ROCKS! This makes it very easy to share your recordings over broadband. I find this app especially useful when I am traveling. The hotels usually have broadband and a very limited TV channel line up so my tivo is a necessity. My home connection lets me stream the video in real-time with the default encoder settings. I have a 500k upstream connection.

Thanks for a great app!

[Abone9]

This looks very promising. I am a Mac guy but this might give me an excuse to use my pc for something other than games. I will give this a shot and see how it works.

Aaron

[Abone9]

Okay, I have all the requirments running on my WinXP pro machine IIS, WM9 Encoder, .net framework, etc... But I am having problems getting the etivoweb and service components working properly. I am new to IIS so I might be doing something wrong. I set a virtual directory called EtiVoWeb in the wwwroot folder and set that in the web installation on port 6969. I also installed the service part but needed to go to properties In IIS and set it to listen to port 6969 before it would let me install. My problem is that I can only rune the etivo server or the IIS server not both. I know I am making a simple mistake here. After I run the Etivo service I can telnet to it fine but the IIS server stops so then I can't reach the webpage. Actually I have never been ablet to access the etivoweb page at all in any configuration. Any help would be appreciated. Let me know if you need more from my side.

Aaron

[Abone9]

Allright, I have been mucking around with a few things and the etivoservice seems to work just fine it connects to the Tivo and it is automatically pulling shows and re-encoding them. The problem now is whenever I try to access the etivoweb via http://localhost/etivoweb it just displays the etivostatus.aspx in text. Again I am probably overlooking something simple.

Thanks

[cmylxgo]

Okay, I have all the requirments running on my WinXP pro machine IIS, WM9 Encoder, .net framework, etc... But I am having problems getting the etivoweb and service components working properly. I am new to IIS so I might be doing something wrong. I set a virtual directory called EtiVoWeb in the wwwroot folder and set that in the web installation on port 6969. I also installed the service part but needed to go to properties In IIS and set it to listen to port 6969 before it would let me install. My problem is that I can only rune the etivo server or the IIS server not both. I know I am making a simple mistake here. After I run the Etivo service I can telnet to it fine but the IIS server stops so then I can't reach the webpage. Actually I have never been ablet to access the etivoweb page at all in any configuration. Any help would be appreciated. Let me know if you need more from my side.

Aaron

Ok...sounds like you are mixing up what your real problem is...Lets try backing up to the begining...uninstall everything and follow my addational steps to the normal instructions.

1. Install the etivosrv.
2. For testing purposes I removed the authentication for the web page. To do this...
a. open 'Internet Information Services' under Control Panal/Administrative Tools
b. Expand to your Default Web Site and right click on EtiVoWeb and click on properties.
c. Select the Directory Security Tab and then click edit.
d. Place a check mark in Anonymous access and click OK and then click Apply and close.

Now would also be a good time to add the virtual directory for the download/encoded recordings. To do this...

1. Right click on Default Web Site and click New/Virtual Directory
2. Name it 'movies' and click next browse to where your data directory is going to be and click 'next' and then 'next' again and then finally click 'Finish'

Now make sure you have edited your EtivoSrv.exe.config file to reflect the above. You may have to change it from a read-only file. After you have confirmed your EtivoSrv.exe.config file is setup properly install the EtivoWeb. Once installed you will have to manually run EtivoSrv.exe the first time to intialize the service. That is in C:\Program Files\EtiVoServer. Once you have started the service you can open a browser and point to http://localhost/etivoweb that should pop up your web page.

By default EtivoSrv looks for IIS on port 80, which is the default http port. Hope this helps.

[cmylxgo]

Allright, I have been mucking around with a few things and the etivoservice seems to work just fine it connects to the Tivo and it is automatically pulling shows and re-encoding them. The problem now is whenever I try to access the etivoweb via http://localhost/etivoweb it just displays the etivostatus.aspx in text. Again I am probably overlooking something simple.

Thanks

Restart the service. Wait a few seconds and reload the page. Make sure your EtivoSrv.exe.config file is setup properlly.

[Abone9]

First off I want to thank you for all your help. I followed your instructions to a T and I am still just getting the etivostaus.aspx. I am starting to think I might have an ASP problem. I installed the ASP components via the technical article listed on the etivo site. One problem I am having is after I reboot the etivo service will start but IIS will hang, If I quit the etivo service I can sart IIS and then restart etivo and it connects and resumes download. Any Ideas?

Aaron

Update: I tried accessing the page from My mac and I get the Default.css source listed in text and not the etivostatus.

[dogo]

Ok i was having this problem i was able to fix this by visting this page
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=306005

hope it helps

dogo

Allright, I have been mucking around with a few things and the etivoservice seems to work just fine it connects to the Tivo and it is automatically pulling shows and re-encoding them. The problem now is whenever I try to access the etivoweb via http://localhost/etivoweb it just displays the etivostatus.aspx in text. Again I am probably overlooking something simple.

Thanks

[Masnark]

First off I want to thank you for all your help. I followed your instructions to a T and I am still just getting the etivostaus.aspx. I am starting to think I might have an ASP problem. I installed the ASP components via the technical article listed on the etivo site. One problem I am having is after I reboot the etivo service will start but IIS will hang, If I quit the etivo service I can sart IIS and then restart etivo and it connects and resumes download. Any Ideas?

Aaron

Update: I tried accessing the page from My mac and I get the Default.css source listed in text and not the etivostatus.

Abone9:
Hi,

You said that you set IIS to work on port 6969, is it still configured to work that way?

If it is, try resetting it back to 80.

If this and the link the previous guy posted do not help you, just post here again, and I will try to walk you through it.

[dogo]

Hi after running this program for the first time. I have managed to retrieve the file successfully but I then got the following error whilst using the TiVo web interface

Any Ideas?


Dogo

DataBinder.Eval: 'EtiVo.Service.Api.ShowQueueItem' does not contain a property with the name Title.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: DataBinder.Eval: 'EtiVo.Service.Api.ShowQueueItem' does not contain a property with the name Title.

Source Error:


Line 13: <ItemTemplate>
Line 14: <tr>
Line 15: <td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Title") %></td>
Line 16: <td>
Line 17: <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "FailReason") %>


Source File: c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb\FailedShows.ascx Line: 15

Stack Trace:


[HttpException (0x80004005): DataBinder.Eval: 'EtiVo.Service.Api.ShowQueueItem' does not contain a property with the name Title.]
System.Web.UI.DataBinder.GetPropertyValue(Object container, String propName) +143
System.Web.UI.DataBinder.Eval(Object container, String[] expressionParts) +71
System.Web.UI.DataBinder.Eval(Object container, String expression) +82
ASP.FailedShows_ascx.__DataBind__control4(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb\FailedShows.ascx:15
System.Web.UI.Control.OnDataBinding(EventArgs e) +66
System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind() +26
System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind() +86
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.CreateItem(Int32 itemIndex, ListItemType itemType, Boolean dataBind, Object dataItem) +127
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.CreateControlHierarchy(Boolean useDataSource) +475
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.OnDataBinding(EventArgs e) +49
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.DataBind() +23
EtiVo.Web.FailedShows.BindList(ArrayList list) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb\FailedShows.ascx.cs:28
EtiVo.Web.EtiVoStatus.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb\EtiVoStatus.aspx.cs:89
System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +67
System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +35
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() +731

[Abone9]

Allright I am making progress here. I tried Dogo's suggestion and that fixed the webpage problem and changing it back to port 80 fixed the problem of only having one of the services run at a time. I am assuming I can change the web address to any port other than 6969 so that I can access my tivo server from outside my firewall as my ISP blocks port 80. Now my problem is I don't get a list of shows that are queued. I have had 3 shows download but I don't see any encoded shows. If I browse to my data directory the ty's are there and they play but they have not been converted to wmv. If I go to status it lists my uptime and the other settings are blank. I noticed that the etivoservice is reporting EtiVo.Service.Queueserverlistener.ThreadStartListening() in C:\Documents and settings\Shahar\My Documents\visual studio projects\etivo\etivosrv\queueserverlistener.cs:line 24 This doesn't seem right as I assume this is a path on your machine.

Any Suggestions?

Aaron

[Masnark]

DataBinder.Eval: 'EtiVo.Service.Api.ShowQueueItem' does not contain a property with the name Title.


Yeah.. Oh boy..

This is a bug. You can just edit the FailedShows.ascx file and change the following line:

<td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Title") %></td>

To:

<td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "ShowName") %></td>

This should do the trick for that bug.

As for your second problem:

If you have the TY files, it means they have not been ecoded yet, so you will not see them in the Encoded Shows page. Look to see if you have a QueueItem.xml file in there. If you do, the files should be queued again next time you boot up the service, if you dont have that file, it means that EtiVo decided to fail the show and not enqueue it again. This should not happen. Just delete the directories, and let it go through the motions of downloading the show again.

You said your encoding failed. I need you to tell me two things:
1. Does the account under which you installed the service have administrative rights?
2. Can you quote here the contents of your EtiVoSrv.exe.config?

I am trying to get a (much) more stable version out. It's working flawlesly on my encoding machine (that's a different machine than my dev machine) for a while now, with the help of a lot of testing from cmylxgo. Hopefuly in the following few days the 0501 build will be ready to consume.

[Abone9]

Looks like everything is working fine. I made that change and rebooted my system and it is working. One thing I noticed is that if you view the status page with the Mozilla firefox browser the highlighted percentage bleeds all the way down the page overshadowing anything in that area of the screen. It did it on both the Mac and Pc versions of firefox but Safari on the mac works fine as well as IE on the PC. Just thought I would give you a little feedback. If there is anything I can do to help support this project let me know.

Aaron

[Masnark]

Looks like everything is working fine. I made that change and rebooted my system and it is working. One thing I noticed is that if you view the status page with the Mozilla firefox browser the highlighted percentage bleeds all the way down the page overshadowing anything in that area of the screen. It did it on both the Mac and Pc versions of firefox but Safari on the mac works fine as well as IE on the PC. Just thought I would give you a little feedback. If there is anything I can do to help support this project let me know.

Aaron

Glad it works for you.

Hmm.. Any such feedback is good. What's firefox? A version of Netscape? I would hate to write DHTML that will fit multiple browsers. I think I will just detect if it's IE I am connected to and not show advanced DHTML stuffs if it's not.

Any bugs you find, or ideas for improvements will be greatly appreciated. Just send them to me in an email, or post them here.

[Abone9]

Here is the link to the firefox webpage. It is a pretty slimmed down browser that I use because of the tabbed browsing capabilities and it's speed. http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ I also noticed that the percentage status isn't highlighted at all in Safari for the Mac but that isn't an issue as much as it is just eyecandy. Thanks for all your help.

Aaron

[dogo]

Hi,

1) Fixed the bug thing as you suggested :-)

2) The QueueItem.xml file was indeed in that directory, so i deleted the directory and starting again!

3) yes the account does indeed have administrative rights

here is a copy of my EtiVoSrv.exe.config file, the only thing i have changed is the TiVo host bit

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<!-- For more information on these settings, go to http://www.prish.com/EtiVo -->
<appSettings>
<add key="listenPort" value="6969"/> <!-- What port the EtiVo service should listen on. -->
<add key="tivoHost" value="192.168.0.2"/> <!-- The name of the TiVo on the network. -->
<add key="mfsFtpPort" value="3105"/> <!-- The port on which EtiVo will try to connect to MfsFtp on.-->
<add key="dataDir" value="c:\data"/> <!-- The directory that is used to store the filles. -->
<add key="wmeFile" value="WmvLow.wme"/> <!-- The file that will be used to encode the show. This file can be created and edited easily by using Windows Media Encoder. -->
<add key="simulate" value="false"/> <!-- -->
<add key="autoTivo" value="false"/> <!-- This sets the default state of the auto tivo feature when the service boots up. -->
<add key="waitTime" value="20000"/> <!-- -->
<add key="encoderClass" value="EtiVo.Service.OutOfProcEncoder"/> <!-- -->
<add key="logToFile" value="true"/> <!-- This will cause EtiVo to create a log file. -->
</appSettings>
</configuration>



Yeah.. Oh boy..

This is a bug. You can just edit the FailedShows.ascx file and change the following line:

<td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Title") %></td>

To:

<td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "ShowName") %></td>

This should do the trick for that bug.

As for your second problem:

If you have the TY files, it means they have not been ecoded yet, so you will not see them in the Encoded Shows page. Look to see if you have a QueueItem.xml file in there. If you do, the files should be queued again next time you boot up the service, if you dont have that file, it means that EtiVo decided to fail the show and not enqueue it again. This should not happen. Just delete the directories, and let it go through the motions of downloading the show again.

You said your encoding failed. I need you to tell me two things:
1. Does the account under which you installed the service have administrative rights?
2. Can you quote here the contents of your EtiVoSrv.exe.config?

I am trying to get a (much) more stable version out. It's working flawlesly on my encoding machine (that's a different machine than my dev machine) for a while now, with the help of a lot of testing from cmylxgo. Hopefuly in the following few days the 0501 build will be ready to consume.

[FredThompson]

Here's a CSS compliance filter for IE.

[dogo]

Masnark
I just tried running it all again and it failed on encoding again!

I have just shut the window down with the error message Damm!

It was somethink to do with no response from the encoder?

any help

[Masnark]

dogo :

Edit: If it was something with no response from the slave encoder, try doing the thing I described below, with the WM9Encoder. Tell me if it works or not.

Edit2: Also, try checking if your encoder works properly - run it from the Start/Programs/Windows Media (I think) /Encoder.

Are all encoding failing all the time, or is it just a one time thing? If it just happened for one file, or only sporadically, can you find that in the log and send me a snippet of it?

Also, if you want, try this: See that place in the config file where it says encoderClass? Try changing it to:

<add key="encoderClass" value="EtiVo.Service.WM9Encoder"/>

This will run the encoder in the same process as the main EtiVoService. This has the bonus of not having to run another process, but has the disadvantage of hogging the CPU on a "Normal" priority process (basically, things will work slowly for no good reason).

If this works consistently and the OutOfProc one does not then.. Umm.. I will need to think about what's going on wrong there. :)

[Abone9]

Okay my first few shows are encoded and available to stream or download :) It works nice in my own network for streaming but for obvious reasons external systems get a much slower transfer. I am curious how hard it would be to use a divx encoder instead of Windows Media. Is this something that would be as simple as changing the encoder and a few config remarks or a more detailed switch?

Aaron

[Abone9]

After a few more of my shows were encoded I started getting parsing errors and the download links just lead to unavailable pages. The titles were very long so I am wondering if this has anything to do with it. Is there an easy way to change the title and have etivoweb still recognize the show for download?

Aaron

[Abone9]

Sorry about going nuts with the posts here but I noticed that etivoweb stalled on a show at 43% for over an hour so I restarted mfs_ftp and etivoserver and it started downloading the show from the beginning again. Now all my completed shows are gone from the list but are still in my Data share. What would cause all my status for encoded shows to disappear?

[SteveJenkins]

I notice your requirements say Windows XP Pro or Windows Server 2003. Will it work on Win2K Server if the .NET libraries are properly installed?

[Masnark]

Sorry about going nuts with the posts here but I noticed that etivoweb stalled on a show at 43% for over an hour so I restarted mfs_ftp and etivoserver and it started downloading the show from the beginning again. Now all my completed shows are gone from the list but are still in my Data share. What would cause all my status for encoded shows to disappear?

Quite alright. It's still very shaky, and it can be quite annoying. Surprisingly, it's working on my machine for over 3 days now and it's completely stable.

As for why they all disapeared - did you you try to restart your service? It SHOULD be able to reload them and know which ones are ok.

As for DivX, it all depends on what tools are available. At worst, if there's a DivX command-line encoder available, you should be able to use that with no progress bar. I made EtiVo in such a way that it would be easy for me to accomodate such requests. If you are a .net coder, I can write the hooks that will allow you to make it. Otherwise, I have a few other things I want to finish before I take extension requests. :)

I notice your requirements say Windows XP Pro or Windows Server 2003. Will it work on Win2K Server if the .NET libraries are properly installed?

It should work perfectly on 2k. Dunno why I forgot to list it.

[Masnark]

Hey,

I am mainly working on stabilizing the next small update so that we have less of the problems you guys have been experiencing. I am working with cmylxgo, and he has been finding lots of bugs. :)

Hopefuly in a day or two, I will have a far more stable version for you guys to use.

Edit: I added some known issues at the top post.

[Abone9]

I figured out the shows were just moved to the available shows section and no longer were on the front page, no problem there. I am not sure if you saw my question about the parsing errors. So far only the chappelle show is affected as they tend to have really long titles. Everytime I try to click on download it says page not available. I look at the xml file with the wmv and it says something about a parsing error. If there is a simple way to rename the wmv files to a shorter name and have them be available to download via etivoweb that would be really nice.

[Masnark]

I figured out the shows were just moved to the available shows section and no longer were on the front page, no problem there. I am not sure if you saw my question about the parsing errors. So far only the chappelle show is affected as they tend to have really long titles. Everytime I try to click on download it says page not available. I look at the xml file with the wmv and it says something about a parsing error. If there is a simple way to rename the wmv files to a shorter name and have them be available to download via etivoweb that would be really nice.

Oh oh.. Now I get it.. Yeah. The completed shows are just for the current run of EtiVo.

As for parsing - yeah. I know about it. Pissed me off. Thought it was .net being a mean !#$#, but it was mostly my fault. The 0501 version (should) solve most if not all those problems. If you want to beta it, send me an email to shahar@prish.com, I will send you a PR.

[dogo]

Hi,

The error message is: Remote encoder did not call back to us.

as for recordings all faill to encorde, i cant seem to be able to encode a thing even using the GUI on Windows Media encoder.

any ideas?

dogo :

Edit: If it was something with no response from the slave encoder, try doing the thing I described below, with the WM9Encoder. Tell me if it works or not.

Edit2: Also, try checking if your encoder works properly - run it from the Start/Programs/Windows Media (I think) /Encoder.

Are all encoding failing all the time, or is it just a one time thing? If it just happened for one file, or only sporadically, can you find that in the log and send me a snippet of it?

Also, if you want, try this: See that place in the config file where it says encoderClass? Try changing it to:

<add key="encoderClass" value="EtiVo.Service.WM9Encoder"/>

This will run the encoder in the same process as the main EtiVoService. This has the bonus of not having to run another process, but has the disadvantage of hogging the CPU on a "Normal" priority process (basically, things will work slowly for no good reason).

If this works consistently and the OutOfProc one does not then.. Umm.. I will need to think about what's going on wrong there. :)

[Masnark]

Hi,

The error message is: Remote encoder did not call back to us.

as for recordings all faill to encorde, i cant seem to be able to encode a thing even using the GUI on Windows Media encoder.

any ideas?


Do you have TyShow installed and working on that machine?

It's one of the requirements.

[dogo]

Masnark,

Yes TyShow is installed, and i am able to watch the files that end in ty.

[Masnark]

Masnark,

Yes TyShow is installed, and i am able to watch the files that end in ty.

Hmmmmm...

That's incredibly strange. And you are saying Windows Media Encoder 9 fails to transform them? Does it do anything, or does it just choke from the get-go?

Can you post the time-stamp of your Windows Media Encoder 9 exe file? Should be named wmenc.exe under your Program Files/Windows Media Components/Encoder I think.

[dogo]

Ok here goes

File Version: 9.0.02980
Created: 11 December 2002, 19:38:52
Modified: 11 December 2002, 19:38:52
Size: 599KB (613,88bytes)
Size on Disk 600KB (614,400bytes)

When i run the encoder on its own, it did the first pass ok then failed! once again i forgot the error message
Hope this helps track down the problem

here is the error message no for the media player

You've encountered error message 8004020A while using Windows Media Player. You might be able to find a solution for this error by using one of the following support resources:



Oh here's another thing :-) if i play the TY files in media player they do work, but i get the error "No sample buffer allocator is available" when i stop the playing Not sure if this is related or not! but i cant find what the error is

Dogo


Hmmmmm...

That's incredibly strange. And you are saying Windows Media Encoder 9 fails to transform them? Does it do anything, or does it just choke from the get-go?

Can you post the time-stamp of your Windows Media Encoder 9 exe file? Should be named wmenc.exe under your Program Files/Windows Media Components/Encoder I think.

[Masnark]

Ah yes.

2 pass encoding.. Currently TyShow seems to be having a problem with that. It's on my list of things to check, but it's still in the future. Since the author of TyShow is pretty much not updating it anymore, I doubt he will have time to look into it.

I will be checking it once I have the time (it's open source I think) and see if I can fix it.

Try single-pass encoding and tell me if that works out better for you.

[mavrcksd]

i have version 0428 installed, and it connects to mfs-ftp and goes into PASV mode, and then nothing.

I can see the web page, (after the microsoft .net fix) at their website.

What is the timeout to start downloading shows?

There are approx 8 shows on my tivo... and i have downloaded using mfsftp in the past..

Thanks

[Masnark]

Hmm..

It usually takes it a minute or two to start downloading.

Did you set the config file to point to your TiVo? Does your MfsFtp work on a port other than 3105? Both these are configurable through the config file.

Also, try the following:

1. Make sure AutoTivo is off.
2. Connect to it via telnet (telnet localhost 6969). (Make sure you get "Welcome to EtiVo!")
3. Type in at the ">" prompt: list
4. Wait for a minute or two at most.
5. Tell me what you get back, if anything.

[mavrcksd]

i get
<Queuelist>
</Queuelist>
>

[Masnark]

i get
<Queuelist>
</Queuelist>
>

1. Just to make sure - you are getting:
<QueueList>
</QueueList>
right? Not <Queuelist>?

2. Do the following:
Same thing, type in:
resautotivo
list

Tell me what you get.

If you still get an empty list, tell me if using an FTP client from the same computer also fails.

If an FTP client works, please make sure that the port and host names are correct.

If it all still seems ok, please turn on file logging thru the config file (change it to true if it's false) and post a snippet of the log (it has an obvious entry each time the process loads) after doing the aforementioned "list".

[mavrcksd]

Info: Session: Session created.
Info: FtpFetcher: Opening connection to mflo-tivo
Info: FtpFetcher: 220 Mfs_Ftp ver 1.2.9p - {sock19} from "129.46.89.78:1287"
Info: FtpFetcher: USER anonymous
Info: FtpFetcher: 331 User name okay, need password.
Info: FtpFetcher: PASS anonymous@anonymous.net
Info: FtpFetcher: 230 Running in TiVo Mode.
Info: FtpFetcher: Connected to mflo-tivo
Info: FtpFetcher: CWD /ty
Info: FtpFetcher: 250 Directory change successful.
Info: FtpFetcher: PWD
Info: FtpFetcher: 257 "/ty" is current directory.
Info: FtpFetcher: Current directory is /ty
Info: FtpFetcher: PASV
Info: FtpFetcher: 227 Entering Passive Mode (129,46,89,190,12,32).
Info: FtpFetcher: LIST -aL
Info: FtpFetcher: 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list.
Info: FtpFetcher: 226 Transfer complete.
Info: FtpFetcher: Closing connection to mflo-tivo
Info: FtpFetcher: QUIT
Info: FtpFetcher: 221 Server Closing Control Connection by client request

[mavrcksd]

i received the same empty queuelist - the previous post is my log

[mavrcksd]

yes.. the L is cap.

[mavrcksd]

Server Error in '/EtiVoWeb' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DataBinder.Eval: 'EtiVo.Service.Api.ShowQueueItem' does not contain a property with the name Title.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: DataBinder.Eval: 'EtiVo.Service.Api.ShowQueueItem' does not contain a property with the name Title.

Source Error:


Line 13: <ItemTemplate>
Line 14: <tr>
Line 15: <td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Title") %></td>
Line 16: <td>
Line 17: <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "FailReason") %>


Source File: c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtivoWeb\FailedShows.ascx Line: 15

Stack Trace:


[HttpException (0x80004005): DataBinder.Eval: 'EtiVo.Service.Api.ShowQueueItem' does not contain a property with the name Title.]
System.Web.UI.DataBinder.GetPropertyValue(Object container, String propName) +144
System.Web.UI.DataBinder.Eval(Object container, String[] expressionParts) +71
System.Web.UI.DataBinder.Eval(Object container, String expression) +82
ASP.FailedShows_ascx.__DataBind__control4(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtivoWeb\FailedShows.ascx:15
System.Web.UI.Control.OnDataBinding(EventArgs e) +66
System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind() +26
System.Web.UI.Control.DataBind() +86
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.CreateItem(Int32 itemIndex, ListItemType itemType, Boolean dataBind, Object dataItem) +127
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.CreateControlHierarchy(Boolean useDataSource) +475
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.OnDataBinding(EventArgs e) +49
System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.DataBind() +23
EtiVo.Web.FailedShows.BindList(ArrayList list) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb\FailedShows.ascx.cs:28
EtiVo.Web.EtiVoStatus.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb\EtiVoStatus.aspx.cs:89
System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +67
System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +35
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() +731




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:1.1.4322.573; ASP.NET Version:1.1.4322.573

[Masnark]

Info: Session: Session created.
Info: FtpFetcher: Opening connection to mflo-tivo
Info: FtpFetcher: 220 Mfs_Ftp ver 1.2.9p - {sock19} from "129.46.89.78:1287"
Info: FtpFetcher: USER anonymous
[...]
Info: FtpFetcher: 221 Server Closing Control Connection by client request

I'm stumpped.

You didnt answer - did you try using a real ftp client with it?

Also, I (think) I am using the Q version of it. Maybe that's the problem?

I will take a look at it when I get home.

[mavrcksd]

is this a configuration in MFS_FTP - to spawn a new control socket??

[Masnark]

Server Error in '/EtiVoWeb' Application.


I updated the information at the first post, about Known Issues. There is one that solves this problem you are seeing.

[d7o]

Ah yes.

2 pass encoding.. Currently TyShow seems to be having a problem with that. It's on my list of things to check, but it's still in the future. Since the author of TyShow is pretty much not updating it anymore, I doubt he will have time to look into it.

I will be checking it once I have the time (it's open source I think) and see if I can fix it.

Try single-pass encoding and tell me if that works out better for you.

Actually, I've begun work on TyShow again. I'm aware of this bug and I'll try and have it fixed in the next release.

d7o

[Masnark]

Most excellent news!!!

[d7o]

I haven't played with this a whole lot yet so excuse me if this feature is already there.

It would be really cool if you could download the Season Pass list from the tivo so that the end user could select which Season Passes to automatically transfer and transcode. That way, I can have it archive all of my shows and not the kid's shows.

Just a request though...

[Masnark]

I haven't played with this a whole lot yet so excuse me if this feature is already there.

It would be really cool if you could download the Season Pass list from the tivo so that the end user could select which Season Passes to automatically transfer and transcode. That way, I can have it archive all of my shows and not the kid's shows.

Just a request though...

What I am working on now (except for stabalizing the next revision) is the scheduling and notification feature.

You (should) be able to select a show in the future (or that has already happened) and ask EtiVo to record whenever that show is encountered. As part of that, you will be able to choose a season pass to automatically record (kind'a like an on-going schedule request). Basically, TiVoing the TiVo.

[Abone9]

you will be able to choose a season pass to automatically record (kind'a like an on-going schedule request). Basically, TiVoing the TiVo.

Very Nice!

[Masnark]

I have gotten a few questions about using this program w/o IIS. So just to make it clear:

1. EtiVoServer, that's the heart of the system. It has zero need for IIS. It works (when bugs do not plague it) as a service or as a console application. It only needs a windows based system and .NET (which is free) installed.
2. EtiVoWeb - this is the web front-end - this guy needs an IIS Web server with ASP+ runtime installed (the ASP+ runtime is free).

Since EtiVoWeb just uses the protocol EtiVoServer defines, it should be no problem doing the same exact thing that it's doing in a non-IIS environment. I wrote it specifically not to use any special .NET protocols just so that people who want to write a non-IIS version of the web-interface, can.

If nobody writes one, at some point, I might add a very simple HTML generator that is executed by EtiVoServer and just writes the list of ready-shows. But I wont be writing any real non-IIS web-servers.

Also, if all you need is control over EtiVoServer and you dont care about security or it's in your internal network, I will be writing at some point a Win32 client that will interface with it.

I hope this answers these questions.

[dogo]

Hi Masnark,

Just to keep you updated! I have reinstalled everythink, and things work much better but it is still a 50/50 rate of failure/Success, it still fails with
"Remote encoder did not call back to us.", It would seem to start to encoded the file then fail, but all my copies of the failed programs are 137kb, no more no less!

I can run the GUI of the encoder a produce a file with no problems!

cheers for any info

Dogo

[Masnark]

Hi Masnark,

Just to keep you updated! I have reinstalled everythink, and things work much better but it is still a 50/50 rate of failure/Success, it still fails with
"Remote encoder did not call back to us.", It would seem to start to encoded the file then fail, but all my copies of the failed programs are 137kb, no more no less!

I can run the GUI of the encoder a produce a file with no problems!

cheers for any info

Dogo

Hey there,

Well... I am now making the final test on a virtual PC to make sure the 0501 version is ok and I will be putting it on the web site. This is a MUCH more stable version and I hope I solved most of the instabilities people have been experiencing. I will also post a change list and known issues (only minor ones).

I really hope I fixed those issues with the out of proc encoder.

[Masnark]

I placed a new version of the EtiVo on the site - 0501.

I updated the top post.

The main changes are stabilization, and I hope I finally nailed the bug of Encoder did not come back to us. I hope.

Thanks to Corey for helping me test this, and for those of you who posted bugs on these pages!

[Abone9]

This is a MUCH more stable version and I hope I solved most of the instabilities people have been experiencing. I will also post a change list and known issues (only minor ones).

I really hope I fixed those issues with the out of proc encoder.

Thats Great news! I am heading to Boston for a week but will take a look at this when I get back. I have been having problems with fetching stalling randomly. Sometimes It will fetch over 10 gigs before it crashes and other times it will fetch only 3 gigs. I caused it to freeze once by deleting a show on the Tivo while etivo was trying to fetch it. ;)

Aaron

[cmylxgo]

I placed a new version of the EtiVo on the site - 0501.

I updated the top post.

The main changes are stabilization, and I hope I finally nailed the bug of Encoder did not come back to us. I hope.

Thanks to Corey for helping me test this, and for those of you who posted bugs on these pages!

NP..It was my pleasure. I have been manually encoding shows so I could watch them over broadband while I travel. This app makes it so damn easy its not even funny :D

So Far on one Tivo and one Server I have the following stats...
UpTime: 0 days, 22:59:36
Successful Encodings: 18
Failed Encodings: 1
Total fetched megabytes: 21325

The failed encoding --> Fetching failed:File retrieved from FTP - size is too small.

Second Tivo and Second Server...
UpTime: 1 days, 09:29:19
Successful Encodings: 27
Failed Encodings: 12
Total fetched megabytes: 34785

Title Failure Reason
{The Screen Savers}{2004-04-19}{}{TECH} Remote encoder encountered an error. 7:33 AM
{The Screen Savers}{2004-04-16}{}{TECH} Remote encoder encountered an error. 7:32 AM
{The Screen Savers}{2004-04-20}{}{TECH} Remote encoder encountered an error. 4:34 AM
{The Screen Savers}{2004-04-21}{}{TECH} Remote encoder encountered an error. 12:27 AM
{The Screen Savers}{2004-04-22}{}{TECH} Remote encoder encountered an error. Wed, 5:41 PM
{The Screen Savers}{1998-05-31}{}{TECH} Remote encoder encountered an error. Wed, 2:45 PM
{American Chopper}{2004-03-01}{Leno Bike 2}{DSC} Fetching failed:File retrieved from FTP - size is too small. Wed, 11:14 AM
{Queer Eye for the Straight Guy}{2004-02-24}{Kevin D_}{BRVO} Remote encoder did not call back to us. Wed, 10:59 AM
{Friends}{2004-04-29}{The One With Rachel's Going Away Party}{DT4} Remote encoder did not call back to us. Wed, 7:58 AM
{Star Trek Enterprise}{2004-04-28}{The Forgotten}{DT50} Remote encoder did not call back to us. Wed, 5:32 AM
{Delete Remote Now Playing items}{2032-04-30}{}{REMOTE_TIVO} Remote encoder encountered an error. Wed, 1:43 AM
{Refresh Remote Now Playing items}{2032-04-30}{}{REMOTE_TIVO} Remote encoder encountered an error. Wed, 1:43 AM

[mavrcksd]

I have gotten a few questions about using this program w/o IIS. So just to make it clear:

1. EtiVoServer, that's the heart of the system. It has zero need for IIS. It works (when bugs do not plague it) as a service or as a console application. It only needs a windows based system and .NET (which is free) installed.
2. EtiVoWeb - this is the web front-end - this guy needs an IIS Web server with ASP+ runtime installed (the ASP+ runtime is free).

Since EtiVoWeb just uses the protocol EtiVoServer defines, it should be no problem doing the same exact thing that it's doing in a non-IIS environment. I wrote it specifically not to use any special .NET protocols just so that people who want to write a non-IIS version of the web-interface, can.

If nobody writes one, at some point, I might add a very simple HTML generator that is executed by EtiVoServer and just writes the list of ready-shows. But I wont be writing any real non-IIS web-servers.

Also, if all you need is control over EtiVoServer and you dont care about security or it's in your internal network, I will be writing at some point a Win32 client that will interface with it.

I hope this answers these questions.


This would be great news, or if you need any help with PHP let me know.

I have finally gotten everything to run, I will however put in the .501 version as well to get the stability.

I run a LINUX web server at home, and none of my windoze clients are running when i'm not there. I think abstinance works well for microsoft products too!. You dont touch them and they run just fine :P hahah j/k.

Anyway. The ability to have the download / view / stream capability from a linux machine would be great...

Thanks.

[Masnark]

This would be great news, or if you need any help with PHP let me know.

I have finally gotten everything to run, I will however put in the .501 version as well to get the stability.

I run a LINUX web server at home, and none of my windoze clients are running when i'm not there. I think abstinance works well for microsoft products too!. You dont touch them and they run just fine :P hahah j/k.

Anyway. The ability to have the download / view / stream capability from a linux machine would be great...

Thanks.

Well.. If you want to write the web server - I will help you out as much I can, with making the protocol run etc.


Remote encoder encountered an error. 7:33 AM
Fetching failed:File retrieved from FTP - size is too small. Wed, 11:14 AM
Remote encoder did not call back to us. Wed, 10:59 AM


Ok. I'll explain what each of those means.

Remote encoder encountered an error - This means that when trying to run the Windows encoder on the other process, an error has occurred. The error (should) be visible in the SlaveEncoder.log. I am very interested at what it is.

Fetching failed:File retrieved from FTP - size is too small - Currently EtiVo will fail a transcoding if the file size is smaller than 1 MB. I did this because it seemed to me that fetching such a small file must be an error. Am I wrong? Can you have shows that are that small?

Remote encoder did not call back to us. This should not happen anymore. But it used to happen if the computer was busy for more than 20sec and did not let the remote encoder run.

[TheAvatar]

Okay, I'll state the obvious. But let me first say I'm no net newby! I've been Telneting, FTPing and even Gophering since I got my first bitnet account back in the 80s.
I think this a great tool, but what would make it remarkable is if the need for telneting and typing long strings of characters were replaced with a slick web inerface, maybe a tivoweb module too?
Click here to see a list of shows ijn NOW SHOWING, click on Show name to transcode to WMA and stream....
It could be a windows version of TyStreamer

Ah, If only I had gone into computers instead of Medicine..... :)
Anyone have the "Mad Sk1llz" to do this? :)

[Masnark]

Okay, I'll state the obvious. But let me first say I'm no net newby! I've been Telneting, FTPing and even Gophering since I got my first bitnet account back in the 80s.
I think this a great tool, but what would make it remarkable is if the need for telneting and typing long strings of characters were replaced with a slick web inerface, maybe a tivoweb module too?
Click here to see a list of shows ijn NOW SHOWING, click on Show name to transcode to WMA and stream....
It could be a windows version of TyStreamer

Ah, If only I had gone into computers instead of Medicine..... :)
Anyone have the "Mad Sk1llz" to do this? :)

You dont need to telnet. If you have IIS installed, you can just use the EtiVo Web - it gives a web interface to most long strings the telnet client supports and then some. It will stream via HTTP the WMV to you and let you see it on your machine etc. Take a look on the site - it has examples of how it looks.

[TheAvatar]

don't you still need to use telnet to cue the shows you want to transcode?

[Masnark]

don't you still need to use telnet to cue the shows you want to transcode?

Nope.

You have a screen called "Manual Queuing" where you just click the show and it will enqueue the shows for you.

[TheAvatar]

When I go to manual Queing I get the following error

Server Error in '/EtiVoWeb' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 211, position 52.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Xml.XmlException: An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 211, position 52.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:


[XmlException: An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 211, position 52.]
System.Xml.XmlScanner.ScanNamedEntity() +617
System.Xml.XmlTextReader.ParseBeginTagExpandCharEntities() +714
System.Xml.XmlTextReader.Read() +216
System.Xml.XmlValidatingReader.ReadNoCollectTextToken() +38
System.Xml.XmlValidatingReader.Read() +14
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadChildren(XmlNode parent) +33
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadElementNode() +144
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadCurrentNode() +38
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadCurrentNode() +192
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadChildren(XmlNode parent) +47
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadElementNode() +144
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadCurrentNode() +38
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadCurrentNode() +192
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadChildren(XmlNode parent) +47
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadElementNode() +144
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadCurrentNode() +38
System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc) +49
System.Xml.XmlLoader.Load(XmlDocument doc, XmlReader reader, Boolean preserveWhitespace) +102
System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader) +72
System.Xml.XmlDocument.LoadXml(String xml) +163
EtiVo.Service.Api.EtiVoServer.ReadXmlDomResponse() in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb0501\ApiEtivoServer.cs:106
EtiVo.Service.Api.EtiVoServer.ExecuteCommand(String cmd) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb0501\ApiEtivoServer.cs:162
EtiVo.Service.Api.EtiVoServer.GetNotQueuedList() in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb0501\ApiEtivoServer.cs:122
EtiVo.Web.UnrecordedShows.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\inetpub\wwwroot\EtiVoWeb0501\UnrecordedShows.aspx.cs:32
System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +67
System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +35
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() +731


I have just installed the latest versions of etivoserver and web...

[TheAvatar]

Well Auto Tivo seems to work, it's fetching right now.

Another thought, how about using requantizer which was mentioned on the TyStreamer Messages,
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62849

It uses an algorthem that VERY quickly will reduce the bitrate of a MPEG file
resulting in a smaller file. People have been using it to Shrink DVDs to fit on
DVD-R media.

This could be a quicker way to "re-encode" the files, Not sure shich would have the better quality, WMA or "re-encoded" MPEG, but the MPEG might re-encode fast enough to allow real time streaming while "re-encoding"

[Masnark]

TheAvatar:

1. That is a very weird error. Can you telnet to your EtiVo (port 6969) and type in "list" and send me the log of the telnet session (all the output)? It basically means my EtiVo is spitting out malformed XML, which.. Well.. It shouldnt. I must've screwed up there.

2. About the MP2 Reencoding - yeah - but one needs a Linux machine for that. Plus, I dont necesserily want to stream the files, but change them to a managable size so that people can download them.

In my tries, reencoding MP2s to the level where 1hr takes ~120MB results in horrible results when you compare them to WMV (of course, WMV was designed for that, so not like it's surprising).

If you just need the streaming, I suggest you use that software - EtiVo is more for making a downloadable library and for people who do not have Linux. It would be infinitely more efficient to use the MP2 reencoder rather than my software.

[TheAvatar]

I"ll send that log when I get a chance.
I still think requantizer (which has been ported to Windows) should be looked at, I played arround with it and was able to reduce a 600 MB 30 min show into a 140 MB very watchable MPEG file, the kicker is it only took 90 SECONDS to convert the 30 min program!!!

[erhan]

1. That is a very weird error. Can you telnet to your EtiVo (port 6969) and type in "list" and send me the log of the telnet session (all the output)? It basically means my EtiVo is spitting out malformed XML, which.. Well.. It shouldnt. I must've screwed up there.


It chokes on the ampersand sign:

<ShowName>{House of Mouse}{Timon & Pumbaa}{DIS2}{No Info}</ShowName>

[Masnark]

It chokes on the ampersand sign:

<ShowName>{House of Mouse}{Timon & Pumbaa}{DIS2}{No Info}</ShowName>

Hmm.. I just took another look at the code to make sure. This really should not be happening. I have multiple shows with a "&" and they all work fine, translating to &amp;.

2 questions:
1. What's the version are you using? Can you make sure it's 0501? Just right-click properties EtiVoSrv.exe in your program files\etivoserver directory, and go to version. It should say 0.01.0501.0

If that's not the case, try uninstalling and installing.

2. This Show Name seems very weird to me. I haven't seen one like it before. Can you post the name of the .ty file as MfsFtp reports it? The full name?

Thanks.

[TheAvatar]

Okay, I tried typing list but there was no responce, so I rebooted my Tivo and restarted the service. Now I am able to open the page but akll I see it:

Available shows EtiVo Status Manual Queuing EtiVo home page

Click on a show name to queue it for recording. Notice that when you manually enqueue a show, it will take priority over AutoTivo shows.



No shows are listed!

[QUOTE=Masnark]TheAvatar:

1. That is a very weird error. Can you telnet to your EtiVo (port 6969) and type in "list" and send me the log of the telnet session (all the output)? It basically means my EtiVo is spitting out malformed XML, which.. Well.. It shouldnt. I must've screwed up there.

[TheAvatar]

Final got it to work!
HAd to uninstall and re-install etivoserver (Had the wrong version)
Take about 10 minutes to transfer a 650MB 30 min file from the Tivo to the PC and A LOT longer to re-encode it. Is there anyway to start re-encoding the stream while ther file is still transfering? That at least would save 10 minutes off of the proceses.
And then there's requantizer... ;)



TheAvatar:

1. That is a very weird error. Can you telnet to your EtiVo (port 6969) and type in "list" and send me the log of the telnet session (all the output)? It basically means my EtiVo is spitting out malformed XML, which.. Well.. It shouldnt. I must've screwed up there.

2. About the MP2 Reencoding - yeah - but one needs a Linux machine for that. Plus, I dont necesserily want to stream the files, but change them to a managable size so that people can download them.

In my tries, reencoding MP2s to the level where 1hr takes ~120MB results in horrible results when you compare them to WMV (of course, WMV was designed for that, so not like it's surprising).

If you just need the streaming, I suggest you use that software - EtiVo is more for making a downloadable library and for people who do not have Linux. It would be infinitely more efficient to use the MP2 reencoder rather than my software.

[Masnark]

Final got it to work!
HAd to uninstall and re-install etivoserver (Had the wrong version)
Take about 10 minutes to transfer a 650MB 30 min file from the Tivo to the PC and A LOT longer to re-encode it. Is there anyway to start re-encoding the stream while ther file is still transfering? That at least would save 10 minutes off of the proceses.
And then there's requantizer... ;)

:)

Glad it's working for you.

Re-encoding taked a very long time. Yeap. Very very long.

[TheAvatar]

...but requantizer only takes 90 Seconds!



:)

Glad it's working for you.

Re-encoding taked a very long time. Yeap. Very very long.

[Masnark]

...but requantizer only takes 90 Seconds!

Ok. Lets make a deal.

Lemme finish the current thing I am working on, then I will open up certain hooks in EtiVoSrv that will allow you to write your own encoder. Then you can write something that interfaces with requantizer.

I have enough space on my Web Server, so I can also host it for you once it's done.

Sounds like a deal?

[TheAvatar]

Cool! Deal!


Ok. Lets make a deal.

Lemme finish the current thing I am working on, then I will open up certain hooks in EtiVoSrv that will allow you to write your own encoder. Then you can write something that interfaces with requantizer.

I have enough space on my Web Server, so I can also host it for you once it's done.

Sounds like a deal?

[blaxer]

I am getting this error message under failed shows on the status page:

Fetching failed:File retrieved from FTP - size is too small.


Also I do not get the "show name" when I go to the manual queuing page, for example when I FTP I get:

{Futurama}{2000-02-27}{Raging Bender}{07.00 PM Sun May 02, 2004}{TOON}.ty

in the manual queue page I get:

{2000-02-27}{Raging Bender}{07_00 PM Sun May 02, 2004}{No Info}

Here is a snipet from the etivosrv log,

12:57:45 - Info: FtpFetcher: 226 Transfer complete.
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: TYPE I
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: 200 Type set to I
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: Downloading file South Park}{1999-04-21}{Succubus}{05.30 PM Tue May 04, 2004}{COM}.ty from tivo//ty
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: PASV
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: 227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,1,109,12,32).
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: RETR South Park}{1999-04-21}{Succubus}{05.30 PM Tue May 04, 2004}{COM}.ty
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: 550 error, can't find "South Park}{1999-04-21}{Succubus}{05.30 PM Tue May 04, 2004}{COM}.ty"
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: Closing connection to tivo
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: QUIT
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: 221 Server Closing Control Connection by client request

And when I telnet to etivosrv and type list, I see the souce with no begining { in it

Any ideas? TIA

[Masnark]

I am getting this error message under failed shows on the status page:

Fetching failed:File retrieved from FTP - size is too small.


Also I do not get the "show name" when I go to the manual queuing page, for example when I FTP I get:

{Futurama}{2000-02-27}{Raging Bender}{07.00 PM Sun May 02, 2004}{TOON}.ty

in the manual queue page I get:

{2000-02-27}{Raging Bender}{07_00 PM Sun May 02, 2004}{No Info}

Here is a snipet from the etivosrv log,

12:57:45 - Info: FtpFetcher: 226 Transfer complete.
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: TYPE I
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: 200 Type set to I
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: Downloading file South Park}{1999-04-21}{Succubus}{05.30 PM Tue May 04, 2004}{COM}.ty from tivo//ty
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: PASV
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: 227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,1,109,12,32).
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: RETR South Park}{1999-04-21}{Succubus}{05.30 PM Tue May 04, 2004}{COM}.ty
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: 550 error, can't find "South Park}{1999-04-21}{Succubus}{05.30 PM Tue May 04, 2004}{COM}.ty"
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: Closing connection to tivo
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: QUIT
12:57:46 - Info: FtpFetcher: 221 Server Closing Control Connection by client request

And when I telnet to etivosrv and type list, I see the souce with no begining { in it

Any ideas? TIA

Actually, I just had an idea. It might be that the output of the list command that your MfsFtp is spitting out is different than the one I have.

This is how my MfsFtp spits out the file list:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 000485490688 Apr 20 08:00 { Recording}{Gilmore Girls}{2004-04-20}{Tick, Tick, Tick Boom}{08.00 PM Tue Apr 20, 2004}{KTWB}.ty
-rwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 000557842432 Apr 20 05:30 {The Simpsons}{2001-11-06}{Treehouse of Horror XII}{05.30 PM Tue Apr 20, 2004}{KCPQ}.ty

I have been working under the assumption that all MfsFtps spit out this format of list. Where the name of the show starts at char 56. This appears not to be the case with you (and some other people who emailed me/posted here).

Can you send me the exact format list that MfsFtp spits out for you so that I can compare it and see what adjustments I need to make?

In the worst case, I will just detect where the first "{" is. Maybe that's what I should have done in the first place anyway.

[blaxer]

Here is the exact name I get from SmartFTP, is that what you want?


{Futurama}{2000-02-27}{Raging Bender}{07.00 PM Sun May 02, 2004}{TOON}.ty

And here it is via command line FTP

-rwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 0486539264 May 02 07:00 {Futurama}{2000-02-27}{Raging Bender}{07.00 PM Sun May 02, 2004}{TOON}.ty

[Masnark]

Here is the exact name I get from SmartFTP, is that what you want?


{Futurama}{2000-02-27}{Raging Bender}{07.00 PM Sun May 02, 2004}{TOON}.ty

And here it is via command line FTP

-rwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 0486539264 May 02 07:00 {Futurama}{2000-02-27}{Raging Bender}{07.00 PM Sun May 02, 2004}{TOON}.ty

Yes. That's what I was looking for. It seems like there is more than one format for it.

Lemme make a patch that will fix that. I will post it here when I am done.

Edit:

Ok. This guy should solve this problem and also should ignore by default specially named recordings such as:

{Refresh Remote Now Playing items}{2032-05-01}{}{REMOTE_TIVO}
{Delete Remote Now Playing items}{2032-05-01}{}{REMOTE_TIVO}


Tell me if it works ok for you. I did minimal testing to it:

http://prish.com/etivo/downloads/0.01.0501.10/EtiVoServerSetup.msi

[blaxer]

That worked great for me, thnx!!

[brian_r_baker]

I placed a new version of the EtiVo on the site - 0501.
I've been trying out this version of EtiVo, but the EtiVo service doesn't seem to succesfully download the show from my TiVo. Here is the error as reported by EtiVoWeb:

Fetching failed:Could not download - FTP Error: Got null response from FTP Server

Any ideas? A snippet from the mfs_ftp log is below if that helps...

03:34:57:PM - 220 Mfs_Ftp ver 1.2.9p - {sock26} from "10.0.10.100:3439"
03:34:57:PM - 331 User name okay, need password.
03:34:57:PM - 230 Running in TiVo Mode.
03:34:57:PM - 250 Directory change successful.
03:34:57:PM - 257 "/ty" is current directory.
03:34:57:PM - 227 Entering Passive Mode (10,0,10,102,12,32).
03:34:57:PM - 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list.
03:34:59:PM - updating cached recording info
............................................................

............................................................

03:35:07:PM - 226 Transfer complete.
03:35:09:PM - 221 Server Closing Control Connection by client request
03:35:09:PM - 502 Command not implemented ""
catch close lastsock val ""
03:38:53:PM - 220 Mfs_Ftp ver 1.2.9p - {sock26} from "10.0.10.100:3445"
03:38:53:PM - 331 User name okay, need password.
03:38:53:PM - 230 Running in TiVo Mode.
03:38:55:PM - 250 Directory change successful.
03:38:55:PM - 257 "/ty" is current directory.
03:38:55:PM - 227 Entering Passive Mode (10,0,10,102,12,32).
03:38:55:PM - 150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list.
03:38:57:PM - updating cached recording info
............................................................

............................................................

03:39:04:PM - 226 Transfer complete.
03:39:06:PM - 200 Type set to I
03:39:06:PM - 227 Entering Passive Mode (10,0,10,102,12,32).
03:39:06:PM - 150 About to open data connection.
08:39:13:PM - sourcing settings
08:39:13:PM - sourcing p1
03:39:21:PM - updating cached recording info
............................................................

............................................................

catch close lastsock val "can't read "info(lastsock)": no such element in array"
04:12:42:PM - 226 Transfer complete.
04:12:42:PM - 200 shutting down the server NOW from "ac_intv_bail"

[Masnark]

I've been trying out this version of EtiVo, but the EtiVo service doesn't seem to succesfully download the show from my TiVo. Here is the error as reported by EtiVoWeb:

Fetching failed:Could not download - FTP Error: Got null response from FTP Server

Any ideas? A snippet from the mfs_ftp log is below if that helps...

03:34:57:PM - 220 Mfs_Ftp ver 1.2.9p - {sock26} from "10.0.10.100:3439"
03:34:57:PM - 331 User name okay, need password.
[...]
04:12:42:PM - 226 Transfer complete.
04:12:42:PM - 200 shutting down the server NOW from "ac_intv_bail"

I have no idea.

I don't know if this makes any difference, but I am using the Q version rather than the P one and it seems to be working flawlessly about 99% of the time. Maybe you can run the log by rc3105 and see if he can figure out from it what I am doing wrong?

I must be running some illegal command against the MfsFtp or something.

[dogo]

Hi Masnark,

I'm glad to report i have no problems with your lastest version of your program :D

Just a quick question, can you tell me if it possible to encode the WMA files in a version compatible with Media player 7! note as i watch the files at work, on a machine that i have no admin rights, so i cant install the updated codecs!

cheers

[Masnark]

Hi Masnark,

I'm glad to report i have no problems with your lastest version of your program :D

Just a quick question, can you tell me if it possible to encode the WMA files in a version compatible with Media player 7! note as i watch the files at work, on a machine that i have no admin rights, so i cant install the updated codecs!

cheers

That's a very good question. Play with Media Encoder - just open the WME that I supply in it and edit it and see if you can encode into different versions.

[blaxer]

So how do you get the Etivoserver and the Etivoweb to run on different machines? I have tried everything I can think of but it will not work. WME dosen't like UNC's and neither does the web app. I dont' know about you, but I store all my archived tivo shows on networked drives...

[Masnark]

So how do you get the Etivoserver and the Etivoweb to run on different machines? I have tried everything I can think of but it will not work. WME dosen't like UNC's and neither does the web app. I dont' know about you, but I store all my archived tivo shows on networked drives...

I just checked it. It seems to be working perfectly.

You must be having some security probkems. Make sure of the following:

1. The account under which the service is running has full access to the data share.
2. The account under which the web server is working has read access to the data directory.

If this is the case, and you still cannot make it work, some logs would have been helpful.

[blaxer]

The web server account, meaning the identity of the applcation pool or the web service login? Do you use a UNC or a mapped drive?

Here is the relevant log entries from the etivosrv machine:

11:26:42 - Info: Queue: Dequeing from Fetching:{Beavis and Butt-head}{1997-05-28}{}{MTV2}
11:26:42 - Info: Queue: Enqueuing on Fetched:{Beavis and Butt-head}{1997-05-28}{}{MTV2}
11:26:42 - Info: Queue: Dequeing from Fetched:{Beavis and Butt-head}{1997-05-28}{}{MTV2}
11:26:42 - Info: Queue: Enqueuing on Encoding:{Beavis and Butt-head}{1997-05-28}{}{MTV2}
11:26:42 - Info: QueueItem: Running encoder on:{Beavis and Butt-head}{1997-05-28}{}{MTV2}
11:26:42 - Info: WM9Encoder: Starting to listen for OutOfProc encoder.
11:26:42 - Info: WM9Encoder: Listen call successful. Waiting for OutOfProc encoder to call.
11:26:42 - Info: WM9Encoder: Calling EtiVo Slave for encoding with commandline:-encoder -p1184
11:26:43 - Info: Session: Session created.
11:26:43 - Info: Session: Session closing down.
11:26:44 - Info: WM9Encoder: Slave encoder contacted us. Building communication stream.
11:26:44 - Info: WM9Encoder: Sending HelloSlave handshake to Slave encoder.
11:26:49 - Info: WM9Encoder: Waiting for slave encoder to exit.
11:26:51 - Error: WM9Encoder: Slave encoder did not exit. Killing it.
11:26:51 - Info: QueueItem: Setting Failure on:{Beavis and Butt-head}{1997-05-28}{}{MTV2}
11:26:51 - Info: Queue: Dequeing from Encoding:{Beavis and Butt-head}{1997-05-28}{}{MTV2}
11:26:51 - Info: Queue: Enqueuing on Completed:{Beavis and Butt-head}{1997-05-28}{}{MTV2}

The failure reason given in the web interface is:

This operation is not allowed while encoding.

[Masnark]

I tried doing it with a UNC, not with a mapped drive. Which one are you using?

I mean 2 accounts:

1. The account which ASP.NET uses to grab the data. If you are using integrated or basic security, that's the account you are using to connect to the web server.
2. The account under which the service is running.

Can you also send relevant part of the slave encoder log please?

[Hi8]

Sorry if this has been reported before, I browsed through most of this thread without finding anything on it...

All of my recorded auto-extracted shows only contain half of the recording, an example is Jay Leno's Tonight Show is only 28mins. an 1 /1/2hour movie only 48mins... has anyone else seen this?

(edit) I must add that the entire .ty file is transfered, it just the encoded file that is cut short.

Also I'm new to Media Player Encoder, and WMV files, and my first exposure to it is this application. I'm very happy with the quality of the results, however I'm NOT sure how to adjust the defaults of what seems to have been selected of 320x240 mono - I would like to go UP a level to 640x480 and stereo. Do I just edit the .wme file that is in the EtiVoServer folder? I tried that but it would let me save the files because the files within that file don't exist on my machine... was that just an example or is that file used as a template for all the encoder's settings?

GREAT program...

[cmylxgo]

Sorry if this has been reported before, I browsed through most of this thread without finding anything on it...

All of my recorded auto-extracted shows only contain half of the recording, an example is Jay Leno's Tonight Show is only 28mins. an 1 /1/2hour movie only 48mins... has anyone else seen this?

(edit) I must add that the entire .ty file is transfered, it just the encoded file that is cut short.

Also I'm new to Media Player Encoder, and WMV files, and my first exposure to it is this application. I'm very happy with the quality of the results, however I'm NOT sure how to adjust the defaults of what seems to have been selected of 320x240 mono - I would like to go UP a level to 640x480 and stereo. Do I just edit the .wme file that is in the EtiVoServer folder? I tried that but it would let me save the files because the files within that file don't exist on my machine... was that just an example or is that file used as a template for all the encoder's settings?

GREAT program...

I had this same problem. Try watching the extracted .ty file while it is encoding. It most likely is only 28min long even though the file size is correct. This is a problem with mfs ftp. I had to play with different series2 bins to get mine to work. As of right now I can only download via mfs ftp.

What version of mfs ftp are you running?

[Masnark]

Also I'm new to Media Player Encoder, and WMV files, and my first exposure to it is this application. I'm very happy with the quality of the results, however I'm NOT sure how to adjust the defaults of what seems to have been selected of 320x240 mono - I would like to go UP a level to 640x480 and stereo. Do I just edit the .wme file that is in the EtiVoServer folder? I tried that but it would let me save the files because the files within that file don't exist on my machine... was that just an example or is that file used as a template for all the encoder's settings?


You can either create a new one, or you can edit the existing one.

If you create a new one, do remember that 2-pass encoding does not work.

To edit the existing one, simply open it in WMEncoder - it will complain that the files do not exist, but it should still open the file. When it's time to save the file, make sure that you have a valid file for source. It doesn't really matter what file it is - it just needs to be valid.

[Hi8]

I had this same problem. Try watching the extracted .ty file while it is encoding. It most likely is only 28min long even though the file size is correct. This is a problem with mfs ftp. I had to play with different series2 bins to get mine to work. As of right now I can only download via mfs ftp.

What version of mfs ftp are you running?

1.2.9p I think thats the version... It's what ever sanderson required for his application.

as far as editting the .wme I will give that a try, I didn't think to select one of my files -- duh...


another question, is there a way to prevent the original .ty file from being deleted after encoding? I would like to mux and burn to DVD-R from time to time, and this will be a great way to save me the trouble of extracting manually.

[Masnark]

another question, is there a way to prevent the original .ty file from being deleted after encoding? I would like to mux and burn to DVD-R from time to time, and this will be a great way to save me the trouble of extracting manually.


Not right now.

I added it as a feature request.

[erhan]

I had this same problem. Try watching the extracted .ty file while it is encoding. It most likely is only 28min long even though the file size is correct. This is a problem with mfs ftp. I had to play with different series2 bins to get mine to work. As of right now I can only download via mfs ftp.

What version of mfs ftp are you running?
It's because of a "broken" mfs_stream. If the combine ty file becomes larger than 512MB you only see the first 512M. IIRC, ronnythunder had compiled and posted a different mfs_stream binary that worked.

[Hi8]

It's because of a "broken" mfs_stream. If the combine ty file becomes larger than 512MB you only see the first 512M. IIRC, ronnythunder had compiled and posted a different mfs_stream binary that worked.


I've tried searching for that , without success. the file I have I believe is part of the S2 mfs_ftp.tar

-rwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 632092 Dec 17 23:00 mfs_stream

is there another one released outside that?

I searched for mfs_stream & ronnythunder and nothing...

[erhan]

Yes, that one is the one with the problem. I was going to post the binary I had, but evidently my Tivo decided to build /var last night :mad: so I lost my mfs_ftp directory.

Use the one in this post (http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/showpost.php?p=115129&postcount=34)

[blaxer]

I've now got it working on another machine using UNC's but it still dosen't work on the "original" machine. Kinda strange but hey, it's working so I am happy :)

[Masnark]

Hey,

I have a new version coming out, but I want 2 more people to test it out before I put it on the site.

If anyone is interested, please send me an email to s h a h a r @ p r i s h . c o m (remove the spaces. :))

The new version supports email notifications, usage fixes for the web version (sorting etc) and other misc stuff.

[desh]

Would it be possible to have EtiVo's Available Shows page display links for both the .ty files and the converted .wmv's? I'm unable to get the OutOfProcEncoder to work (even if I set the EtiVo service to be run by the machine's administrator) and the WM9Encoder is painfully slow! So slow in fact that I think it bails while encoding at times. If I could have links to just the .ty files I could at least reliably watch on my local network.

[Masnark]

Would it be possible to have EtiVo's Available Shows page display links for both the .ty files and the converted .wmv's? I'm unable to get the OutOfProcEncoder to work (even if I set the EtiVo service to be run by the machine's administrator) and the WM9Encoder is painfully slow! So slow in fact that I think it bails while encoding at times. If I could have links to just the .ty files I could at least reliably watch on my local network.

WM9Encoder / OutOfProc encoder are one and the same. The only difference is that OutOfProcEncoder runs in a different process and allows your system to be more responsive. What version are you using by the way? OutOfProc encoder should be working well. Can you send snippets from both the EtiVo and the Slave Encoder logs in your program files\etivoserver directory please?

As for the other question... One of the feature requests was to have a setting leave TYs in the directory. Once that's done, you should be able to use the NULL encoder to get the effect you requested. I will not be supporting that in the web-server though for now. Only WMVs there for the mean time.

[tards]

This is a very nice, very useful, ver well-thought out program! Worked perfect the first try for me EXCEPT the "available shows" link is blank. The encoded shows are in the data dir, but nothing shows up in the web server screen?

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Masnark]

This is a very nice, very useful, ver well-thought out program! Worked perfect the first try for me EXCEPT the "available shows" link is blank. The encoded shows are in the data dir, but nothing shows up in the web server screen?

Any ideas?

Thanks

Glad you are finding it useful.

1. Did you make sure that your web.config points to the correct directory?
2. Did you make sure that your EtiVoWeb has access to the directory?

[needo]

Is it possible to re-encode WM9 to MPEG2?

And what are the pros and cons of such?

Thanks!

[Masnark]

Is it possible to re-encode WM9 to MPEG2?

And what are the pros and cons of such?

Thanks!

Is this a general question? Or do you want a TiVo file that was encoded into WMV to be encoded into MP2?

If so, why would you? The original can be turned into MP2 with much better results than WM9.

In any case, if you have a MP2 encoder, you should be able to do it.

[needo]

Is this a general question? Or do you want a TiVo file that was encoded into WMV to be encoded into MP2?

If so, why would you? The original can be turned into MP2 with much better results than WM9.

In any case, if you have a MP2 encoder, you should be able to do it.

Kind of a general question. I was wondering about the quality in doing so. I haven't tested this out yet, so just doing homework.

[tards]

Glad you are finding it useful.

1. Did you make sure that your web.config points to the correct directory?
2. Did you make sure that your EtiVoWeb has access to the directory?

I was confusing the 2 config files (one in localhost and one in programs). Now I am able to see the list of encoded programs. However, when I click the "download" link, I get "page not found" error.

Thanks for your help and for one of the most USEFUL tivo hacks I've found. I let etivo run on my media server in auto mode 24/7 so I always have a "copy" of everything my Tivo has recorded. I can copy these over to my laptop for travel, thumbdrive for transport, or on a CD/DVD in MASS!! When I need a perfect copy, I go another route. But for routine shows, this is a perfect solution!!

[Masnark]

I was confusing the 2 config files (one in localhost and one in programs). Now I am able to see the list of encoded programs. However, when I click the "download" link, I get "page not found" error.


You have to set up, in the web.config, the URL location of your movies. And you need to open that up.

So..

If your movies are on c:\data, you need to define a virtual directory called, say, Movies which will point to c:\data. Then you need to configute web.config to point to /movies/ for the url.

Post your web.config and I will point you to the correct key that you need to set.

[osetivo]

All went well with the EtiVo server installation, did a couple of manual encodings.

Ran into trouble with the EtiVoWeb/IIS stuff. Initially I was getting the text version of one of the "aspx" files. Now http://localhost/EtiVoWeb gives me a "Page not found" web error.

Data folder is at "e:\media\videos\EtiVo" in both the web.conf and the EtiVoserver.conf files (Telnet into server gives me listing of 2 "ready" files)
I created the alias "movies" pointing to "e:\media\videos\EtiVo" so I left the conf files as default /movies/
I tried the .NET/ASP fixes

suggestions.

TIA

[Masnark]

All went well with the EtiVo server installation, did a couple of manual encodings.

Ran into trouble with the EtiVoWeb/IIS stuff. Initially I was getting the text version of one of the "aspx" files. Now http://localhost/EtiVoWeb gives me a "Page not found" web error.

suggestions.

TIA

Hrrm...

Sounds like a security problem to me. I dont know what to tell you, except that you try playing with the security a bit. Try doing integrated security etc. Check out to see if the settings in IIS console makes sense.

I havent run into that problem yet.

[tweaky]

Somehow this thread slipped by me. What a great idea. I can now stream media files while I am out on the road (If I can get it to work).

I am running XP, w/ all the required programs installed. The service shows up in the services control panel, but when I run EtiVoServer.exe, I get a "Windows Services Start Failure: Cannot start service from the command line or a debugger. A Windows Service must first be installed ...." after about 20 seconds when I start the service manually. If the service is not running, I get the error right away. If I run it from the command prompt with the -c option, it appears the program hangs as the command prompt does not show up.

Now I am sitting in the Minneapolis Airport using remote desktop connection, and that may have something to do with it.

[Masnark]

Somehow this thread slipped by me. What a great idea. I can now stream media files while I am out on the road (If I can get it to work).

I am running XP, w/ all the required programs installed. The service shows up in the services control panel, but when I run EtiVoServer.exe, I get a "Windows Services Start Failure: Cannot start service from the command line or a debugger. A Windows Service must first be installed ...." after about 20 seconds when I start the service manually. If the service is not running, I get the error right away. If I run it from the command prompt with the -c option, it appears the program hangs as the command prompt does not show up.

Now I am sitting in the Minneapolis Airport using remote desktop connection, and that may have something to do with it.

Nope. It should be working.

Does a log even get created when you use the -c option? If so, what does it say?

[burriko]

Edit: ignore this next paragraph, it's actually mfs-ftp that's reporting the wrong file size and confusing etivo, i'll try updating to the latest version of mfs-ftp.

I've just started using etivo about an hour or so ago, and have noticed something strange when handling ty streams larger than 2GB. The percentage fetched reached 100% when etivo had fetched 2GB of the ty stream and then changed to N/A on the status page, even though the ty stream is a lot larger than 2GB and is still in the process of being fetched by etivo now. The first thing that comes to my mind is that you may be using a signed 32-bit int to store the file size of the ty stream?

Plus, any chance of making the EtiVoStatus.aspx page compatible with mozilla/firefox? at the moment the percentage bar doesn't show correctly.


Thanks a lot, etivo really does seem like a great tool. Not sure i actually have a use for it but it's still fun to play with. :D

[tweaky]

Nope. It should be working.

Does a log even get created when you use the -c option? If so, what does it say?

Nope, no log file.. Things that make you go hmmmm :)

[Masnark]

Nope, no log file.. Things that make you go hmmmm :)

Your Config File makes me think that you should have a log file. It should be in:

c:\program files\etivoserver and it's name should be Etivo.log I think.

Check again please.

burriko:
I just made sure that it's indeed a long (64bit value). But in any case - even if it was not - you should have seen an error in the log saying something about parsing the value.

[osetivo]

Everything working now. Just took a clean re-install of WinXP :eek:

Now the requests, er, I mean thoughts :D

My laymans understanding of WME is that you have basically 2 types of WME inputs, live feed (capture card, web cam, etc) or an existing media file (mpeg), and 2 types of WME outputs, a live streaming broadcast or a converted file.

It seems that Etivo uses the Local File/conversion combination, whereby EtiVo passes the local TY file (downloaded to PC via mfs_ftp) to WME which then compresses the file.

Is there a way (.wme file setting) to tell WME to broadcast the TY, rather than convert it to a file?

Also, I also have approx. 400GB of local TY files on my PC. It would be nice to have the Manual Que be able to pull from the local TY files, as well.

thanks again for the great application and the help.

[Masnark]

Is there a way (.wme file setting) to tell WME to broadcast the TY, rather than convert it to a file?

Also, I also have approx. 400GB of local TY files on my PC. It would be nice to have the Manual Que be able to pull from the local TY files, as well.

thanks again for the great application and the help.

As for your demands.. Err... Thoughts. ;)

Well..

RE: Broadcast
EtiVo just doesnt fit this profile imho. However.. I can see how it could be made to fit, but it would be like putting a square peg through a round hole - doable, but messy. I have been thinking of making a Poor Man's version of Windows Media Server that will use encoder to broadcast media, but it's just an idea still.

RE: Queuing TY files manually
Interesting idea. I will think about it. Do you know if a TY file contains the XML data within it?

[gamejester]

First off let me say what a great program this is. I don't usually post, choosing instead to figure things out on my own but this is stumping me.

I got everything installed and working a few days ago, but now it will not show me a list of shows on the Manual Queuing page, I have already extracted and encoded 21 shows with no problems.

I am running both the server and the asp.net app on a windows 2003 server, and using version mfs_ftp[1].1.2.9p.tar.zip.

I can connect to mfs_ftp using IglooFTP PRO (FYI. do not use cute as it will not connect) and view the list of shows in the TY folder.

When I was trying it last night I simply got a series of
01:36:05 - Info: Session: Session created.
01:36:05 - Info: Session: Session closing down.
in the Etivo.log file.

This morning I get:
09:37:49 - Info: Session: Session created.
09:37:49 - Info: FtpFetcher: Opening connection to 10.1.1.5
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: 220 Mfs_Ftp ver 1.2.9p - {sock22} from "10.1.1.10:5958"
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: USER anonymous
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: 331 User name okay, need password.
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: PASS anonymous@anonymous.net
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: 230 Running in TiVo Mode.
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: Connected to 10.1.1.5
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: CWD /ty
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: 250 Directory change successful.
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: PWD
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: 257 "/ty" is current directory.
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: Current directory is /ty
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: PASV
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: Closing connection to 10.1.1.5
09:37:54 - Info: FtpFetcher: QUIT
09:37:54 - Info: Session: Session closing down.
09:38:07 - Info: Session: Session created.
09:38:07 - Info: Session: Session closing down.
09:38:10 - Info: Session: Session created.
09:38:10 - Info: Session: Session closing down.

and no shows are seen.

Any ideas?

[gamejester]

I have just noticed that in the successful connection in the log it issues a list command after a successful PASV call
22:36:40 - Info: FtpFetcher: 227 Entering Passive Mode (10,1,1,5,12,32).
22:36:44 - Info: FtpFetcher: LIST -aL
I am guessing that mfs_ftp is dumping out at the PASV request, but is working OK from IGLO in none PASV mode, will try it in PASV mode and see what happens. This is not the case, I have just tested with IGLO using PASV and connect ok

Question: Why are you using PASV when you connect, will people need to use this via a layer of nat? I am guessing not, so it would be more stable to connect normal FTP connection as I believe this is the recommended method for mfs_ftp?

Question2: How do I stop and restart mfs_ftp on Tivo via Telent?

[tweaky]

Your Config File makes me think that you should have a log file. It should be in:

c:\program files\etivoserver and it's name should be Etivo.log I think.

Check again please.


Nope, no log file. I am using the default config file except the file path. I am using my Hosts file and have the word "Tivo" mapped to that IP.

I am going to try a different pc real quick.. I'll report back.

[burriko]

burriko:
I just made sure that it's indeed a long (64bit value). But in any case - even if it was not - you should have seen an error in the log saying something about parsing the value.

thanks, it was mfs-ftp causing it, upgrading to the latest version of it has fixed the problem.

[tweaky]

As for your demands.. Err... Thoughts. ;)
RE: Queuing TY files manually
Interesting idea. I will think about it. Do you know if a TY file contains the XML data within it?

Ty files from Jdiner's TyTool does not contain the xml info that a TMF or T+ file normally has. There was a discussion about TyTool being able to support those files, but I don't know what the exact status is..
hth

[tivomaster]

Ty files from Jdiner's TyTool does not contain the xml info that a TMF or T+ file normally has. There was a discussion about TyTool being able to support those files, but I don't know what the exact status is..
hth

Yea, straight ty files do not contain xml info.
However, With the right interface the web client could prompt for the missing/important info such as show name etc. While this would not be as good a solution as having it get the info directly from the show it would allow for processing.

[gamejester]

My available shows to download page has now started populating again!
Weird, I did nothing on Tivo or the win2003 server to resolve the issue, it just started working again, I now see a PASV conntection in the log and the list command issued.

[osetivo]

RE: Queuing TY files manually
Interesting idea. I will think about it. Do you know if a TY file contains the XML data within it?
If the TY or TY+ was downloaded with any recent version MFS_FTP, it has the XML at the end of the file. (I forget the first version that included the xml, but it's been a while.)

This fits in my semi-on-demand way of thinking. I tested a 1 hour TY file which took approx 10 minutes to download and then the encoding was just a bit longer than 1 hour, so it's almost a 1:1 for me. I've got a faster machine that would probably get it under 1:1. As you mentioned WME doesn't lock the file, but I've yet to test playing the WMV while it's still being encoded.

I have been thinking of making a Poor Man's version of Windows Media Server that will use encoder to broadcast media, but it's just an idea still.Ah, glad to see your thinking about it.

Thanks

[tivomaster]

If the TY or TY+ was downloaded with any recent version MFS_FTP, it has the XML at the end of the file. (I forget the first version that included the xml, but it's been a while.)


Do you know if ty's downloaded with the latest versio of tytool have the xml also?

[osetivo]

Do you know if ty's downloaded with the latest versio of tytool have the xml also?

I don't think, but I haven't been keeping a close eye on TyTools.

[gamejester]

Still having intermitant problems performing list from eTivo and downloading shows, fails to fetch.

Can someone tell on Tivo how to:
1. See what processes are running
2. kill msf_ftp so I can restart it (wihout a reboot)

[tweaky]

Do you know if ty's downloaded with the latest versio of tytool have the xml also?
Anything downloaded using Jdiner's TyTool DOES NOT contain any xml information (as of version 9r14).

[gamejester]

I have now encoded more than 30 shows using ETivoWeb, GREAT.
...but, occasionally it has failed for whatever reason, be it a reboot mid encode or whatever. So i end up with 30 mins of a 1 hour show in .wme format and the ty file deleted with no way to re-que the file to download again from Tivo.

Anyone know where ETivoWeb stores its que information?
I want to edit the list of shows EtivoWeb is aware that it has downloaded so that I can re-download the shows that have failed.

[tweaky]

Still having intermitant problems performing list from eTivo and downloading shows, fails to fetch.

Can someone tell on Tivo how to:
1. See what processes are running
2. kill msf_ftp so I can restart it (wihout a reboot)

1. "ps -ax" -> will list all processes
2. Per the mfs_ftp instructions, telnet to your tivo on port 3105 and type exit.

[tweaky]

I've tried 2 different machines, and I have the same problem w/ the program not starting and not leaving a log file behind. I have tried the all versions also. I have the newest version of .net installed so I can't think of what would be preventing the application from running..
The service shows up in the services menu, and I can start it there and with the "net start etivoserver", so I don't know why it is complaining that it can't start if from the command line?

Any ideas? Maybe if you could compile a version for me that doesn't attempt to start the service, I can start it manually and see what happens?

[Masnark]

...but, occasionally it has failed for whatever reason, be it a reboot mid encode or whatever. So i end up with 30 mins of a 1 hour show in .wme format and the ty file deleted with no way to re-que the file to download again from Tivo.

Anyone know where ETivoWeb stores its que information?
I want to edit the list of shows EtivoWeb is aware that it has downloaded so that I can re-download the shows that have failed.


I know, I know!! ;) EtiVo simply looks at your directories. Just delete the directory with the 1/2 WMV in it, and it should work. Though I dont understand how that can happen. EtiVo is supposed to delete the TY file only if it thinks the encoding was successful.

I've tried 2 different machines, and I have the same problem w/ the program not starting and not leaving a log file behind. I have tried the all versions also. I have the newest version of .net installed so I can't think of what would be preventing the application from running..