Automatic soft padding running on the TiVo

[sanderton]

The latest version of EndPad, 1.3.1 is now in the top post.

This version tries a lot harder to trap those pesky database active conflict errors and recover from them. Because they are quite infrequent, I can'tconfirm yet that it works, but this version certainly recovers from a manually forced error OK.

If anyone sees an error recovery in their logs, please post it as I'd like to know if it works!

The reason the version number has jumped is that there have been new versions of EndPad in the interim for those folks who are helping with the Tracker beta test. This version of Endpad contains the Tracker code, as I don't want to have to deal with forked versions, but it is disabled and does nothing.

[racingclub]

trying it now - as always - thanks for all your hard work :)

[sanderton]

Ahem, 1.3.2 now up with a rather obvious typo corrected. :rolleyes:

[racingclub]

had a problem last night / this morning that may or may not be endpad related (I'm using the latest version).

TiVo looked like it was recording this morning - but would not respond to remote commands. Turned the TV on and it was displaying a static image from a recording last night. I telnet'd into the TiVo and done a reboot.

Looking at the recording in NP - the description showed the length of the recording as 1hr and was not flagged as a partial recording. Playing the recording showed the time bar was green upto 1hr - with 1hr -> 1hr 3min (the padded bit) as not recorded (ie the bar was empty).

Looking at the endpad logs I got the following recurring upto the reboot:

Tuesday 21:55:00 : Gap is 0 seconds
Tuesday 21:55:00 : Next end padding setting due 22:55
Tuesday 21:55:00 : Can't add start padding to {Most Haunted}
Tuesday 21:55:00 : No start padding requested
Tuesday 21:55:00 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Tuesday 21:55:00 : Next start padding setting due 22:10
Tuesday 21:55:00 : Next wake up will be 22:10
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal................
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Woken up
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Recording {Most Haunted} on LIVING1 now
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 23:00
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Next recording is {The Armando Iannucci Shows} on C4 at 23:45
Tuesday 22:10:01 : No episode tracking done at this time
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Not time to add end padding yet
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Next end padding setting due 22:55
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Can't add start padding to {The Armando Iannucci Shows}
Tuesday 22:10:01 : No start padding requested
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Next start padding setting due 23:55
Tuesday 22:10:01 : Next wake up will be 22:40
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Woken up
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Recording {Most Haunted} on LIVING1 now
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 23:00
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Next recording is {The Armando Iannucci Shows} on C4 at 23:45
Tuesday 22:40:01 : No episode tracking done at this time
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Not time to add end padding yet
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Next end padding setting due 22:55
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Can't add start padding to {The Armando Iannucci Shows}
Tuesday 22:40:01 : No start padding requested
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Next start padding setting due 23:55
Tuesday 22:40:01 : Next wake up will be 22:55
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal................
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Woken up
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Recording {Most Haunted} on LIVING1 now
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 23:00
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Next recording is {The Armando Iannucci Shows} on C4 at 23:45
Tuesday 22:55:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Added 180 seconds end padding to {Most Haunted}
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Next end padding setting due 00:15
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Can't add start padding to {The Armando Iannucci Shows}
Tuesday 22:55:00 : No start padding requested
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Next start padding setting due 23:55
Tuesday 22:55:00 : Next wake up will be 23:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Tuesday 23:25:00 : Woken up
Tuesday 23:25:00 : Recording {Most Haunted} on LIVING1 now
Tuesday 23:25:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 23:03
Tuesday 23:25:00 : Next recording is {The Armando Iannucci Shows} on C4 at 23:45
Tuesday 23:25:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Tuesday 23:25:00 : No end padding required:
Tuesday 23:25:00 : End padding of 180 seconds already set
Tuesday 23:25:00 : Next end padding setting due 00:15
Tuesday 23:25:00 : Can't add start padding to {The Armando Iannucci Shows}
Tuesday 23:25:00 : No start padding requested
Tuesday 23:25:00 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Tuesday 23:25:00 : Next start padding setting due 23:55
Tuesday 23:25:00 : Next wake up will be 23:55
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
.
.
.
.
Wednesday 07:11:44 : Woken up
Wednesday 07:11:44 : Recording {Most Haunted} on LIVING1 now
Wednesday 07:11:44 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 23:03
Wednesday 07:11:44 : Next recording is {The Armando Iannucci Shows} on C4 at 23:45
Wednesday 07:11:44 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 07:11:44 : No end padding required:
Wednesday 07:11:44 : End padding of 180 seconds already set
Wednesday 07:11:44 : Next end padding setting due 00:15
Wednesday 07:11:44 : Can't add start padding to {The Armando Iannucci Shows}
Wednesday 07:11:44 : No start padding requested
Wednesday 07:11:44 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Wednesday 07:11:44 : Next start padding setting due 23:55
Wednesday 07:11:44 : Next wake up will be 07:12
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal..

[doubledrat]

I think it's easy to blame this sort of thing on the latest mod you made to the system, but my tivo's done what you describe a couple of times (before I ever hacked it).

[racingclub]

it just seems strange it crashed just at the moment it was to start padding

[sanderton]

Did it? It would have put "Woken up" etc to the log BEFORE it added any padding. Whether Endpad waking up caused the crash ort teh crash stopped Endfpad waking up - not a clue!

[TriscuiT]

Since no one has responded to my question regarding progress on the dual tuner DirecTivo/DTivo, I will ask it again:

Is any effort being made to get EndPad to check both tuners on a DirecTivo/DTivo?

Quite often I record on both tuners simultaneously so this would be a really nice thing to add to my DTivos.

[Ashley]

Originally posted by sanderton
Do you mean SoftPad or EndPad? There were some bugs in an early version of SoftPad (the old PC app, no longer supported) that could do that. EndPad (the "new" on-TiVo app) does not edit any part of a recording apart from its paddings ettings.

I meant to use Endpad but for some reason I entered a time warp and installed Softpad.

Sorry for troubling you. I'll get my coat.:)

ps Endpad now installed and working OK. Thanks

[sanderton]

Originally posted by TriscuiT

Is any effort being made to get EndPad to check both tuners on a DirecTivo/DTivo?

Quite often I record on both tuners simultaneously so this would be a really nice thing to add to my DTivos.

Not by me; I only have access to a UK machine.

It was mentioned above that some folks might have a go, but it's actually quite a major re-write.

[groovyclam]

Once again my /var has been wiped so EndPad and my few TiVo bins ( ls ps etc) have gone. This is the second time in a month. My TiVo must like a clean /var

Is there any danger/problem with installing these things in their own directory on the /etc/ partition instead ( and of course altering rc.sysinit.author accordingly )

[SolidTechie]

Originally posted by groovyclam
Once again my /var has been wiped so EndPad and my few TiVo bins ( ls ps etc) have gone. This is the second time in a month. My TiVo must like a clean /var

Is there any danger/problem with installing these things in their own directory on the /etc/ partition instead ( and of course altering rc.sysinit.author accordingly )

FWIW.... this happened to me too... damned annoying. :mad: :down:

[groovyclam]

My sympathies to iancdbutcher, but I was being a moron.

endpad had stopped some time last night so this morning I rebooted, set a manual for 10 mins in the future but the TiVo didn't softpad the start so I assumed /var had been wiped again.

Now that I have dragged my PC to the living room and gone in via serial bash I find endpad is still there and just hadn't woke up in time to start the soft padding after the reboot. The logs show it is due to softpad a recording in an hour's time.

However, endpad did die last night with the following error in /var/hack/endpad.err...

Syntax error in expression "longstop - 1069876500 + 0 - 10"
while executing "expr longstop - $cendtime + $cexistingendpadding - 10"

This was version 1.2.6 - I am currently Zmodeming the new version across.

endpadd.err was timestamped at 26th Nov 19:50

As far as I recall it wasn't recording a programme at 19:50 but was due to start a 5 min recording at 19:55 ( with 2 mins startpad so really at 19:53 ).

Just prior to 19:50, I had chosen a programme to add to the todo list at 20:00 which clashed with an existing 20:00 recording and I overrode it and chose to cancel the previous schedule. Could this be the problem ?

Any thoughts ?

[sanderton]

That's a bug! That bit of code runs VERY rarely (only if your padding setting is longer than the programme you are trying to record) so it hadn't been spotted.

1.3.3, now in the first post, fixes.

[sanderton]

People on the Tracker beta test can install 1.3.3 if they want, the tracking part will activate itself on their machines.

Thanks.

[Prof. Yaffle]

Hi. Only had Endpad running for a couple of days. One quick question - Would I be right in saying that the best way to replace it with the newest version is to use the /var/hack/endpad.tcl -stop command before replacing it and then rerunning it?

Just a note as well that in the first post the current version is listed as 1.3.1 still. ;)

[pahunt]

Originally posted by Prof. Yaffle
Hi. Only had Endpad running for a couple of days. One quick question - Would I be right in saying that the best way to replace it with the newest version is to use the /var/hack/endpad.tcl -stop command before replacing it and then rerunning it?

That's what I do and it works fine for me. Don't know if it's strictly necessary but it makes me feel happier :)

Originally posted by Prof. Yaffle
Just a note as well that in the first post the current version is listed as 1.3.1 still. ;)

I think you need to refresh the page

[iankb]

Originally posted by pahunt
I think you need to refresh the page

I think that he means in the body of the post, not the name of the zipfile.

[tivo_boj]

Originally posted by sanderton
People on the Tracker beta test can install 1.3.3 if they want, the tracking part will activate itself on their machines.

Thanks.
I did PM you but as yet no tracker beta :-(

[Prof. Yaffle]

Sorry, I did mean the body of the post. The attachment is the newest version.

[pahunt]

Originally posted by Prof. Yaffle
Sorry, I did mean the body of the post. The attachment is the newest version.

Doh :o

[sanderton]

Sorry, tivo_boj, there are several people I haven't got back to due to my being crap.

If you install 1.3.3 then create a directory:

/var/hack/tracker

then EndPad starts to take notes on every episode you record.

You can view the episodes it's tracked with the enc. TivoWeb module.

The next stage will be a TCL script which analyses the To Do List and decides what it would allow and what it would block (but doesn't actually do it). That's probably a couple of weeks away due to an upcoming trip abroad with family. The TCL script can't really be tested until people have built up a good database, hence the delay.

(latest version of attatchment moved to http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141201)

[tivo_boj]

no problems- I know your busy by all the scripts your writing.

I will give this ago, do you want feedback via PM?

[sanderton]

If you find problems, yes.

[djrowley]

Originally posted by sanderton
Sorry, tivo_boj, there are several people I haven't got back to due to my being crap.

If you install 1.3.3 then create a directory:

/var/hack/tracker

then EndPad starts to take notes on every episode you record.


I'll try that, thanks.

I thought you might like to know that when I stopped endpad to upgrade to 1.3.3, it had been running for 29 days. Wonderful.

David

[sanderton]

If ony I had a TiVo that would run for 29 days! The combination of my hacks and a very dodgy power supply out here in deeest Zummerzet means a week is bloody good going.

[dickuk]

Firstly, thanks for the great utility it is working a treat.

I have installed the tracker module, and entries are appearing in there, but what does the status Blocked mean in the entries?

Thanks

Richard

[sanderton]

At the moment, nothing.

When the software to do it is finished, an episode marked Blocked will not be re-recorded if it comes on again, even after the TiVo's built in 28-day exclusion period.

This functionality will be completely separate to EndPad, which is just used as a convenient way to collect a list of what has been recorded.

[dickuk]

Thanks Stuart, keep up the good work !

[comdw]

The tracker thing seems a good idea, but it would make more sense to me to keep track of what episodes I've actually watched rather than whats been recorded which I might not have watched. Especially as suggestions are also tracked and these are often deleted before I realise they are there.

Forgive me if I've missed the point and thats going to be the plan in the end...

P.S. Endpad is the greatest hack ever - just what every Tivo has always needed.

[pahunt]

Originally posted by comdw
The tracker thing seems a good idea, but it would make more sense to me to keep track of what episodes I've actually watched rather than whats been recorded which I might not have watched. Especially as suggestions are also tracked and these are often deleted before I realise they are there.

Forgive me if I've missed the point and thats going to be the plan in the end...

P.S. Endpad is the greatest hack ever - just what every Tivo has always needed.

I'm ready to be corrected but I think the problem with that is there is no way of telling whether a program has been actually been watched or not.

[sanderton]

You can tell if a programme has been watched. :)

My problem with taking that approach is simply that if a repeat of an episode I've already seen is recorded today, I will delete it without watching it, so it will not get blocked!

It's an interesting point though, and we can play with some algorithms. I think I'll try adding a "Watched" flag to the tracking.

[pahunt]

Originally posted by sanderton
You can tell if a programme has been watched. :)

My problem with taking that approach is simply that if a repeat of an episode I've already seen is recorded today, I will delete it without watching it, so it will not get blocked!

It's an interesting point though, and we can play with some algorithms. I think I'll try adding a "Watched" flag to the tracking.

Well I did say I was ready to be corrected :)

Presumably the flag only gets set once a certain point has been reached?

[sanderton]

No, the database stores the number of seconds in you have watched to (so it can resume playing), as well as the number of times you have played the recording. It also stores the way you deleted it, so you can tell if a programme was wiped by the end-of-programme bong alert.

[doubledrat]

stuart: a good test programme is "game pad 4" it seems to repeat ad nauseum. Unfortunately, differing progs seem to look the same from my tracking...

Bob

[sanderton]

Yes, unfortunately the tracking won't be able to selectively block episodes where the guide data says they are the same episode!

[Tony Hoyle]

Possible padding bug?

For the last couple of weeks every episode of Robot Wars has been scheduled for 6 hours, stopping all other season passes that evening from recording. I have to keep checking the todo/season passes manually to stop it missing stuff I want to record. The guide data clearly states that the programme is one hour long.

This has only happened since I put the softpad software in, which coincidentally is the same time I put an SP on Robot Wars. If if was guide data, though, I'd expect such a gross error to be fixed pretty quickly.

[sanderton]

Those who are playing with Tracker for me can find the latest update here :

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1550373#post1550373

[sanderton]

Tony:

When does it start to appear to be six hours long? EndPad only adjusts the recording times 5 mins before the recording is due to start recording

What do your endpad logs say when Robot Wars is processed?

If you have TiVoWeb, can you go to Now Playing and view the episode of Robot Wars which caused the problem's details. Then in the URL in your web browser change the word "showing" to "object" and refresh. The resulting page should have a link on it labelled IndexUsedBy; click that link and cut and paste the resulting page here.

Thanks.

[Tony Hoyle]

Here's one that went wrong:

Episode Title
Episode Description Game show where competitors build and compete their robots.
Episode Number
Duration 5:07
Original Air Date Wed 6th Mar 2002
Genres Game Show
Type Series
Channel 105 FIVE
Showing Date Sat 29th Nov 12:50
Expiration Date Mon 1st Dec 12:50
Deletion Date Sat 29th Nov 17:57
Cancel Date
Cancel Reason ExplicitlyDeleted
Error String One button delete
Quality High
Bookmark 0:04:37
Time Watched 0:01:12
Num Visits 1
Selection Type Season Pass
State Deleted
Size 8192 MB

Showing 901060/11 {
Date = 12385
Program = 60956/-1
Reason = 2
Station = 49912/-1
Time = 46200
Duration = 3900
IndexUsedBy = 901060/10
}

IndexUsedBy isn't a link, but viewing that object gives:

Recording 901060/10 {
Version = 147
BitRate = 0
EndPadding = 18000
ExpirationDate = 12387
ExpirationTime = 46200
ProgramSource = 870906/-1
RecordQuality = 75
SelectionType = 9
Showing = 901060/11
StartPadding = 60
ActualShowing = 901060/13 901060/14 901060/18 901060/20 901060/23 901060/25 901060/33
Score = 5995
Part = 901060/12 901060/15 901060/16 901060/17 901060/19 901060/21 901060/22 901060/24 901060/26 901060/27 901060/28 901060/29 901060/30 901060/31 901060/32 901060/34
StopDate = 12385
StopTime = 64575
StreamFileSize = 8388608
Bookmark = 901060/36
StartDate = 12385
NSecondsWatched = 72
NVisit = 1
CancelReason = 12
DeletionDate = 12385
DeletionTime = 64670
ErrorString = {One button delete}
StartTime = 46138
State = 5
IndexUsed = 901060/11
IndexPath = /Recording/Active/1:12385:46138:901060 /Recording/History/12385:46200:901060 /Recording/DiskUsed/10/901060:8388608
}

My endpad.log looks like:

Saturday 12:48:00 : Woken up
Saturday 12:48:00 : No recording in progress
Saturday 12:48:00 : Next recording is {Robot Wars} on FIVE at 12:50
Saturday 12:48:00 : No end padding required:
Saturday 12:48:00 : No recording in progress
Saturday 12:48:00 : Next end padding setting due 13:50
Saturday 12:48:00 : Added 60 seconds start padding to {Robot Wars}
Saturday 12:48:00 : Next start padding setting due 13:50
Saturday 12:48:00 : Next wake up will be 13:18
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Saturday 13:18:00 : Woken up
Saturday 13:18:00 : Recording {Robot Wars} on FIVE now
Saturday 13:18:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 18:55
Saturday 13:18:00 : Next recording is {Click Online} on BBC24 at 20:30
Saturday 13:18:00 : No end padding required:
Saturday 13:18:00 : End padding of 18000 seconds already set
Saturday 13:18:00 : Next end padding setting due 18:50
Saturday 13:18:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Saturday 13:18:00 : Next start padding setting due 20:28
Saturday 13:18:00 : Next wake up will be 13:48


18000 seconds is rather a lot!!! It's about 5 hours...

For completeness, here's my rc.local...
#!/bin/bash
insmod -f /lib/modules/8390.o
insmod -f /lib/modules/tivone.o
insmod -f /lib/modules/nfs.o
ifconfig eth0 192.168.44.6 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
route.tivo add default gw 192.168.44.1
tnlited 23 /bin/bash -login &
/var/hack/tivoweb/tivoweb &
/hack/bin/cron
/var/hack/endpad.tcl 1 5 -auto >/dev/null &

[Tony Hoyle]

Also for completeness, here's one that was OK (Scrapheap Challenge):

Showing 912713/11 {
Date = 12386
Duration = 3900
Program = 911324/-1
Reason = 2
Station = 49911/-1
Time = 63300
IndexUsedBy = 912713/10
}

Recording 912713/10 {
Version = 41
BitRate = 0
ExpirationDate = 12388
ExpirationTime = 63300
ProgramSource = 897363/-1
RecordQuality = 75
SelectionType = 9
Showing = 912713/11
StartPadding = 60
Part = 912713/12 912713/15 912713/16 912713/17
EndPadding = 300
Bookmark = 912713/18
StartDate = 12386
NSecondsWatched = 3375
NVisit = 1
StopDate = 12386
StopTime = 67178
ActualShowing = 912713/13 912713/14 912713/19
Score = 6000
StreamFileSize = 1794048
CancelReason = 12
DeletionDate = 12386
DeletionTime = 67185
ErrorString = {One button delete}
StartTime = 63238
State = 5
IndexUsed = 912713/11
IndexPath = /Recording/Active/1:12386:63238:912713 /Recording/History/12386:63300:912713 /Recording/DiskUsed/10/912713:1794048 /Recording/NoReRecord/993198:NN:99999:00912713
}

[sanderton]

Check your Season Pass - I thinkyou may have accidentally set it up with six hours end padding on it!

[Tony Hoyle]

Is that even possible???

No, I have not done anything like that:

Record quality: high
Keep at most: 5 episodes
Show type: Repeats and first run
Keep until: space needed
Start recording: on-time
Stop recording: on-time

However, looking at the object:

SeasonPass 870906/10 {
Version = 4
EndTimePadding = 18000
MaxRecordings = 5
RecordQuality = 75
Series = 60953/-1
Station = 49912/-1
Priority = 4
IndexPath = /SeasonPass/004~870906
}

So now two questions:

1. How did it get like that
2. How do I change it to something normal?

[sanderton]

Using TiVoWeb, go User Interface > Season Pass, then go to edit the Robot Wars pass, then change the word "editseasonpass" in the URL to "object", and tell us what you see.

Those logs you posted above show that the 6hrs padding was set before EndPad touched it - it didn't try to add any padding bacause there was aready 6hrs in place - which is why I think it must be in the Season Pass.

[sanderton]

You edited while I was posting!

How? Who knows! Certainly not EndPad, as it doesn't look at the SPs at all.

Delete it and create a new one.

[Tony Hoyle]

See the 2nd half ov my previous message :)

Tivo and TivoWeb both say 'on-time' but the SP has 5 hours extra padding... which means something added it outside the UI? I guess deleting the SP and recreating it will fix it but I'd rather work out how it got in that state first just in case it happens again.

[sanderton]

We need a re-order thread option. :)

TiVoWeb and the TiVo UI only know about teh standard settings for padding, and report any non-standard number as "On Time"

[Tony Hoyle]

Hey, you replied while I was posting! :)

I wonder if there's a way to make tivoweb detect this kind of thing rather than just blindly say 'on-time' for a padding it doesn't recognise.

[sanderton]

It's a reasonably simple edit to the TiVoWeb code to make it show the real time.

[Tony Hoyle]

I think I'll stop posting... it's getting ridiculous :)

I'll see if I can make it do that, so I'm not getting confused next time it happens.

[sanderton]

Untested, but if you edit the following lines in the print_recoptions procedure in ui.itcl then it should work:


set startvals "0 1 2 3 4 5 10 $startearly"
set startlabs {On-time}
lappend startlabs {1 minute early}
lappend startlabs {2 minutes early}
lappend startlabs {3 minutes early}
lappend startlabs {4 minutes early}
lappend startlabs {5 minutes early}
lappend startlabs {10 minutes early}
lappend startlabs "$startearly minutes early"
set endvals "0 1 2 5 15 30 60 90 180 $endlate"
set endlabs {On-time}
lappend endlabs {1 minute longer}
lappend endlabs {2 minutes longer}
lappend endlabs {5 minutes longer}
lappend endlabs {15 minutes longer}
lappend endlabs {30 minutes longer}
lappend endlabs {1 hour longer}
lappend endlabs {1 1/2 hours longer}
lappend endlabs {3 hours longer}
lappend endlabs "$endlate mins longer"

[Tony Hoyle]

The lappend line was all on one line on my version of tivoweb (1.9.4). I made equivalent modifications and now it says:

Start recording: 0 minutes early
Stop recording: 0 minutes longer

...on all my SPs. I can live with it, though, as it at least means I can diagnose odd SP problems relatively easily now.

[sanderton]

I split the lines up deliberately; the variable substitution doesn't work within {}. At least I thought it didn't!

[doubledrat]

you don't have 5 hrs hard padding in your RW SP do you?! as it looks like EP didn't add it

[Tony Hoyle]

Variable substitution seems to work within {}... tcl isn't one of my favourite languages though - could never get my head around it really. Even perl is easier!

[sanderton]

Maybe it depends on the context. My manual definitely says it doesn't!

[Tony Hoyle]

It's not supposed to (in fact the whole point of curly brackets is supposed to turn it off) but it definately does on the Tivo...!

[Mark Burley]

Have tried to install the endpad funtion via the serial link, as per the instructions supplied by occitan.

The TiVo I am using has a current boot parameter of root=/dev/hda7. I am a little confused as the instructions under the heading Installing Endpad are the same for both hda7 & hda4 , stating mount /dev/hda4 /var/newos.

After following the instruction I do not notice any difference in the operation of my TiVo and I do not go back to the bash prompt when I reboot.

Unix is foreign to me so I do not understand what is going wrong.

Has anyone succesfully used these instructions, or can anyone offer me assitance?

[gadgetgaz]

Hi, Mark. Lucky for you I have just spent a weekend getting endpad running and all is OK. It does work exactly as expected - THANKS SANDERTON.

There are a couple of problems with the docs you mention. Firstly, I think the section you mentioned is a typo - I reckon the second line should be hda7 as you stated. My TiVo boots (normally) from hda4 so I used the first option in the docs. You should use the second option. If you think about it, at that point in the docs you have booted from the alternative drive so you need to mount the original drive to copy the new programs to.

The next bit is what got me and I worked it out from reading this forum. The file permissions of the rc.sysinit.author file are wrong after you have copied it to your hda7 drive. After you have typed in the two cp commands enter the following at the bash prompt

chmod 755 /var/newos/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.author

And then just continue on with the instructions. After I did this it all worked as expected.

You will know it has worked when you get a bash prompt just by plugging in your serial cable and a 30 minute program will say 31 or 33 minutes etc. in its progress bar.

Good luck.

[occitan]

Thanks for the heads up on these typos, and sorry for the hassle they caused Mark. I've fixed them in my doc and replaced the original attachments with updated PDFs.

Please PM me if you've any further suggestions for changes or additions if you think it would help any others who might be tempted to try.

[gadgetgaz]

Hi Occitan, I just looked at the new docs and they appear to cover the problems I encountered.

Thanks for the trouble - everyone who doesn't have endpad running has no excuse now!

[BobBlueUK]

One other small comment about your PDF guide to set up endpad over a serial connection, occitan...

You mention that a serial cable from Texas Instruments TI-85 or TI-86 scientific calculators can be used to connect to TiVo. Don't know about the TI-86, but I just dug out the box of my old TI-85 and found the serial cable included was an ordinary 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, so not of any real use for connecting TiVo to a 9-pin serial connector on a PC.

[ccwf]

Gary's site says you can also order the serial cable (actually a serial + null modem cable) from pacelink.co.uk.

[sanderton]

The one I used came from a Panasonic digital video camera, used by the Panny for downloading stills.

[Chris T]

A cable from a Philips Pronto can also be a used.

[occitan]

Yeah, I mentioned the Pronto cable in the doc, that's what I used myself. It's certainly easiest, as it works out of the box.

The TI reference came from

TivoHelp.com (http://www.tivohelp.com/archive/tivohelp.swiki.net/35.html)

though I wasn't able to verify it (I should of noted that I guess). Thanks for the update, I'll add a note that not all TI cables are equal...

I checked the TI web site, and the computer connect cables look OK. I'll change the text to, "if you have a serial cable to connect your computer to a TI calculator (Graph Link), then it should also work with the TiVo.

TI cables (http://education.ti.com/us/product/accessory/connectivity/features/cables.html)


By the way, does anyone have any Zmodem s/w tips to add to the docs ? I used a Mac myself, and it was very easy with the Mac Zterm shareware. The info I put in the doc for Zmodem terminal s/w on Windows was just a result of a google search, but I had no way to try it. If anyone has any practical info, I'd happily add/modify the current text.


Cheers

[gadgetgaz]

RE: zmodem software

I used hyperterminal from windowsXP, a very simple task. When you start up the program it asks if you want to set up a new connection type "yes" then call it TiVo or something and set the baud rate and stop bits etc. according to your docs.

Once the connection is made and you are ready to send the file, go to the transfer menu, select "send file...." and a dialog box appears.

browse to the file on your hardrive, scroll to zmodem and then click send and the file is transferred - no rz command is needed.

[BobBlueUK]

Originally posted by occitan
I checked the TI web site, and the computer connect cables look OK. I'll change the text to, "if you have a serial cable to connect your computer to a TI calculator (Graph Link), then it should also work with the TiVo.Ahh, yep it does look like such cables do exist then. Suspect they may be extra accessories you can buy, as the standard cable that came with mine was just a standard 3.5mm-3.5mm jobbie to link two TI-85's together. Then again, it was a looooong time ago that I bought mine so they could easily come with different cables by now?

Still, your proposed re-wording certainly makes things clearer... :)

[occitan]

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I've updated the documents, and attached the new version to the original post.

I've updated the comments about serial cables, clarified a little the ZModem process for Hyperterminal and ZTerm, and added the -p flag to the cp statements, to ensure the executable permissions are not lost.

[alextegg]

Was wondering what values everyone uses?

I kicked off with 5 mins each side, and that seems to be ok, but I still missed the end of the last Top Gear, which was the reason why I decided to install endpad due to the capture of Saddam!! :mad:

Oh well, I guess even Stuart's TCL skills don't allow for the capture of discredited dictators by the yanks :D ;)

Also, I have removed all padding from my SPs as suggested, and have endpad add the 5 mins to either end, but what about really important things, or sports events. I used to tag 15 minutes either side of things I really didn't want to miss, and an hour on the end of things like the Grand Prix in case of rain. Is there a way to do this now?

Thanks!

Alex

[pahunt]

Originally posted by alextegg
Was wondering what values everyone uses?

I kicked off with 5 mins each side, and that seems to be ok, but I still missed the end of the last Top Gear, which was the reason why I decided to install endpad due to the capture of Saddam!! :mad:

Oh well, I guess even Stuart's TCL skills don't allow for the capture of discredited dictators by the yanks :D ;)

Also, I have removed all padding from my SPs as suggested, and have endpad add the 5 mins to either end, but what about really important things, or sports events. I used to tag 15 minutes either side of things I really didn't want to miss, and an hour on the end of things like the Grand Prix in case of rain. Is there a way to do this now?

Thanks!

Alex

Personally I use 2 minutes at the start and 5 minutes at the end and have found this to be ample.

[ccwf]

Originally posted by alextegg
Also, I have removed all padding from my SPs as suggested, and have endpad add the 5 mins to either end, but what about really important things, or sports events. I used to tag 15 minutes either side of things I really didn't want to miss, and an hour on the end of things like the Grand Prix in case of rain. Is there a way to do this now? For those events, just use hard padding as you did previously.

[doubledrat]

I use 0 at the start and 5 at the end. I think I've missed the start of about 2 things in 18 months, and didn't feel I missed anything really in 2 years of tivo-ing. It's missing the end that really p*sses me off ;)

[iankb]

I add 1 minute to the start, and 2 minutes to the end. So far, I have only lost the end of Top Gear (because there was no room for soft padding), and overruns due to those damn US war-mongers. :rolleyes:

[alextegg]

Originally posted by ccwf
For those events, just use hard padding as you did previously.

Ah, didn't realise that endpad respects the padding already there. Cool

Thanks

Alex

[Prof. Yaffle]

I've got it set with 2 minutes at the start and 5 minutes at the end as well. And the only ending I've missed was Top Gear a couple of weeks ago also because there was no room for padding. They were just about to try starting the Toyota pickup truck after destroying the tower block and "Boing".

[shanew]

Damn! I missed the end of that Top Gear episode too! They were just trying to start the engine and then i got "Delete now?".!!!

Does anyone know if it actully started?

Just to confirm - this wasn't endpads fault, its a great utility.

A new suggestion perhaps: (maybe some voice recognision required!)
When they show you the start of something (like in top gear where they were going to blow up that building) and say the rest is "Coming up later" if tivo could jump to that section automatically that would be great!! It would make programs run normal instead of all over the place..

They only do it so we don't turn over, and we're not likely to do that with a TiVo recording anyway!

[pahunt]

Originally posted by shanew
Damn! I missed the end of that Top Gear episode too! They were just trying to start the engine and then i got "Delete now?".!!!

Does anyone know if it actully started?

Take a look at this thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=147183) for the answer :)

[shanew]

Cheers paul, now i know :)

[comdw]

endpad crashed last night after over a week continuous running - the log file had this info (looks like its due to the tracker code):

Tuesday 23:08:01 : Error detected
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/SH625755": too many open files
while executing
"open "$trackerdir/$seriestmsid" a"
Tuesday 23:08:01 : Attempting to recover
Tuesday 23:08:31 : Woken up
Tuesday 23:08:31 : Recording Bedsitcom on C4 now
Tuesday 23:08:31 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 23:15
Tuesday 23:08:31 : Next recording is {Film 2003: Lord of the Rings Special} on BBC1STH at 23:35
Tuesday 23:08:31 : Error detected
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/series": too many open files
while executing
"open "$trackerdir/series" r"
Tuesday 23:08:31 : Attempting to recover
Tuesday 23:08:31 : Too many errors, stopping



When I restarted endpad I got this:

A stale PID file was found and has been deleted.
This means that this script terminated unexpectedly last time. Loading now.
The errors logged (if any) before the last termination were:
syntax error in expression "longstop - 1069788300 + 0 - 10"
while executing
"expr longstop - $cendtime + $cexistingendpadding - 10"
(file "/var/hack/endpad.tcl" line 395)

I'm running version 1.3.3

[sanderton]

Is something else running on your TiVo that might have lots of files open, as EndPad should close all its open files immediately?
Anyway, the Tracker part of EndPad will be coming out of the next release, as I have a better way of doing it.

[pahunt]

Originally posted by sanderton
Anyway, the Tracker part of EndPad will be coming out of the next release, as I have a better way of doing it.

Care to enlighten us? :)

[sanderton]

Still working on stuff. I'm counting on hiding from rellies in the computer room over Xmas to get it working! But basically it turns out TiVo tracks stuff in MFS in a way I can use in the database without having to update it "live" as recordings are made.

[pahunt]

Originally posted by sanderton
Still working on stuff. I'm counting on hiding from rellies in the computer room over Xmas to get it working! But basically it turns out TiVo tracks stuff in MFS in a way I can use in the database without having to update it "live" as recordings are made.

Sounds good :up:

[comdw]

I can't think of anything else I've got running that would have lots of open files (it is a little worrying though).

Anyway, I want to make sure endpad will continue to while I'm away over Christmas - can I disable the tracker code simply by renaming the /var/hack/tracker directory to something else?

[sanderton]

Yes, then restart EndPad.

[comdw]

my god that was a fast reply - thanks!

[dickuk]

I seem to have had the same problem as comdw, see copy of endpad.log below:

Any ideas?

Richard

Tuesday 00:17:01 : endpad.tcl log file, log rotated
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal............
Tuesday 00:28:00 : Woken up
Tuesday 00:28:00 : No recording in progress
Tuesday 00:28:00 : Next recording is {The Osbournes} on MTVUK at 00:30
Tuesday 00:28:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Tuesday 00:28:00 : No end padding required:
Tuesday 00:28:00 : No recording in progress
Tuesday 00:28:00 : Next end padding setting due 00:55
Tuesday 00:28:00 : Added 60 seconds start padding to {The Osbournes}
Tuesday 00:28:00 : Next start padding setting due 00:55
Tuesday 00:28:00 : Next wake up will be 00:55
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal............................
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Woken up
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Recording {The Osbournes} on MTVUK now
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 01:00
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Next recording is {Dawson's Creek} on E4 at 01:55
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Added {The Osbournes} to series list
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Added episode {My Big Fat Jewish Wedding} to tracker list
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Added 300 seconds end padding to {The Osbournes}
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Next end padding setting due 03:15
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Not time to add start padding yet
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Next start padding setting due 01:53
Tuesday 00:55:03 : Next wake up will be 01:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Tuesday 01:25:05 : Woken up
Tuesday 01:25:05 : No recording in progress
Tuesday 01:25:05 : Next recording is {Dawson's Creek} on E4 at 01:55
Tuesday 01:25:05 : No episode tracking done at this time
Tuesday 01:25:05 : No end padding required:
Tuesday 01:25:05 : No recording in progress
Tuesday 01:25:05 : Next end padding setting due 03:15
Tuesday 01:25:05 : Not time to add start padding yet
Tuesday 01:25:05 : Next start padding setting due 01:53
Tuesday 01:25:05 : Next wake up will be 01:53
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.............................
Tuesday 01:53:00 : Woken up
Tuesday 01:53:00 : No recording in progress
Tuesday 01:53:00 : Next recording is {Dawson's Creek} on E4 at 01:55
Tuesday 01:53:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Tuesday 01:53:00 : No end padding required:
Tuesday 01:53:00 : No recording in progress
Tuesday 01:53:00 : Next end padding setting due 03:15
Tuesday 01:53:00 : Added 60 seconds start padding to {Dawson's Creek}
Tuesday 01:53:00 : Next start padding setting due 03:15
Tuesday 01:53:00 : Next wake up will be 02:23
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Tuesday 02:23:00 : Woken up
Tuesday 02:23:00 : Recording {Dawson's Creek} on E4 now
Tuesday 02:23:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 04:50
Tuesday 02:23:00 : Next recording is EastEnders on UKGLD at 08:20
Tuesday 02:23:01 : Added episode {All Good Things ... Must Come to an End} to tracker list
Tuesday 02:23:01 : No end padding required:
Tuesday 02:23:01 : End padding of 5400 seconds already set
Tuesday 02:23:01 : Next end padding setting due 04:45
Tuesday 02:23:01 : Not time to add start padding yet
Tuesday 02:23:01 : Next start padding setting due 08:18
Tuesday 02:23:01 : Next wake up will be 02:53
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Tuesday 02:53:01 : Woken up
Tuesday 02:53:01 : Recording {Dawson's Creek} on E4 now
Tuesday 02:53:01 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 04:50
Tuesday 02:53:01 : Next recording is EastEnders on UKGLD at 08:20
Tuesday 02:53:01 : Episode {All Good Things ... Must Come to an End} already in tracker list
Tuesday 02:53:01 : No end padding required:
Tuesday 02:53:01 : End padding of 5400 seconds already set
Tuesday 02:53:01 : Next end padding setting due 04:45
Tuesday 02:53:01 : Not time to add start padding yet
Tuesday 02:53:01 : Next start padding setting due 08:18
Tuesday 02:53:01 : Next wake up will be 03:23
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Tuesday 03:23:01 : Woken up
Tuesday 03:23:01 : Recording {Dawson's Creek} on E4 now
Tuesday 03:23:01 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 04:50
Tuesday 03:23:01 : Next recording is EastEnders on UKGLD at 08:20
Tuesday 03:23:01 : Error detected
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/SH247756": too many open files
while executing
"open "$trackerdir/$seriestmsid" a"
Tuesday 03:23:01 : Attempting to recover
Tuesday 03:23:31 : Woken up
Tuesday 03:23:31 : Recording {Dawson's Creek} on E4 now
Tuesday 03:23:31 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 04:50
Tuesday 03:23:31 : Next recording is EastEnders on UKGLD at 08:20
Tuesday 03:23:31 : Error detected
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/series": too many open files
while executing
"open "$trackerdir/series" r"
Tuesday 03:23:31 : Attempting to recover
Tuesday 03:23:31 : Too many errors, stopping

[sanderton]

Disable Tracker until I've figured it out.

[threadkiller]

Thanks for an excellent hack Stuart, has saved my backside twice since puttin it on this week.

If I only have one hack it would have to be this:up:

[Phil_Hoggins]

IS there anyway to tell if endpad is running without connecting a pc to Tivo. I've put the mod on the tivo and made the call from the rc.sysinit.author but would like to be able to tell if it's working. Does the recorded time of a program give you a clue to this ?

Cheers,

Phil

[sanderton]

That would be the obvious way, yes! The green bar will initally show the standard duration plus the start padding, and will eventually show the duration plus both paddings.

You may be able to access the endpad log through the backdoor logs key combination, although I've not tried it.

[threadkiller]

probably a stupid question, but if i want to alter the timings, do Ihave to restart my TIVO?

[ccwf]

No, you just have to restart endpad.

[gregh]

Does the rc.sysinit.author entry in the first post restart endpad if it crashes/goes away, or do I need to do something else to acheive this?

cheers,

greg

[pahunt]

Originally posted by gregh
Does the rc.sysinit.author entry in the first post restart endpad if it crashes/goes away, or do I need to do something else to acheive this?

cheers,

greg

If it crashes or you stop it, you can either restart it manually using the command you put in rc.sysinit.author or reboot Tivo which will run rc.sysinit.author and therefore start endpad again.

[gregh]

..but not if your away for 3 weeks Paul!! I was wondering if it is likely to crash/stop???

[LJ]

Another option would be to set up a cron job which would restart it if it had stopped for whatever reason or do nothing if it was running - see here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1538033#post1538033)

[pahunt]

Originally posted by gregh
..but not if your away for 3 weeks Paul!! I was wondering if it is likely to crash/stop???

I missed the bit in your post about being away :confused:

A crash is pretty unlikely if your running the latest version but there have been a few problems with the tracker version although they don't seem to have affected me.

[Roj]

Sanderton,

I think I've found a bug with endpad. Last night my Tivo was recording 100 greatest musicals on channel 4 until 19:55, then was meant to record Top Gear from 20:00. I have endpad v 1.33 set with 4 minutes end padding, and 2 minutes start padding.
When I came to watch Top Gear this morning, I found that the "green bar" started at 4 minutes into the program, as if it had missed the start, and it had not changed channel either, so was still on Ch4. I've seen something similar before, but this time I was aware of what it should have been trying to do. Relevant section of log is below, although it doesn't seem to show any obvious problem.

I can't think of anything else which would cause this problem.
Any ideas?

Roj

Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal....
Sunday 19:50:01 : Woken up
Sunday 19:50:01 : Recording {The 100 Greatest Musicals} on C4 now
Sunday 19:50:01 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 19:55
Sunday 19:50:01 : Next recording is {Top Gear} on BBC2 at 20:00
Sunday 19:50:01 : Added 240 seconds end padding to {The 100 Greatest Musicals}
Sunday 19:50:01 : Next end padding setting due 20:55
Sunday 19:50:01 : Not time to add start padding yet
Sunday 19:50:01 : Next start padding setting due 19:57
Sunday 19:50:01 : Next wake up will be 19:57
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal........
Sunday 19:57:00 : Woken up
Sunday 19:57:00 : Recording {The 100 Greatest Musicals} on C4 now
Sunday 19:57:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 19:59
Sunday 19:57:00 : Next recording is {Top Gear} on BBC2 at 20:00
Sunday 19:57:00 : No end padding required:
Sunday 19:57:00 : End padding of 240 seconds already set
Sunday 19:57:00 : Next end padding setting due 20:55
Sunday 19:57:00 : Added 58 seconds start padding to {Top Gear}
Sunday 19:57:00 : Next start padding setting due 20:55
Sunday 19:57:00 : Next wake up will be 20:27
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Sunday 20:27:00 : Woken up
Sunday 20:27:00 : Recording {Top Gear} on BBC2 now
Sunday 20:27:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 21:00
Sunday 20:27:00 : Next recording is {Never Mind the Buzzcocks} on BBC2 at 22:00
Sunday 20:27:00 : Not time to add end padding yet
Sunday 20:27:00 : Next end padding setting due 20:55
Sunday 20:27:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Sunday 20:27:00 : Next start padding setting due 21:57
Sunday 20:27:00 : Next wake up will be 20:55
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.............................

[sanderton]

I don't think the problem is Endpad, although I'll try to work through the program logic in the morning and see if I can see if there's a problem.

I also recorded those shows and this is my log for comparison:


Sunday 19:50:00 : Woken up
Sunday 19:50:00 : Recording {The 100 Greatest Musicals} on C4 now
Sunday 19:50:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 19:55
Sunday 19:50:00 : Next recording is {Top Gear} on BBC2 at 20:00
Sunday 19:50:00 : Episode already in tracker list
Sunday 19:50:00 : Added 120 seconds end padding to {The 100 Greatest Musicals}
Sunday 19:50:00 : Next end padding setting due 20:55
Sunday 19:50:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Sunday 19:50:00 : Next start padding setting due 19:58
Sunday 19:50:00 : Next wake up will be 19:58
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.........
Sunday 19:58:00 : Woken up
Sunday 19:58:00 : No recording in progress
Sunday 19:58:00 : Next recording is {Top Gear} on BBC2 at 20:00
Sunday 19:58:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Sunday 19:58:00 : No end padding required:
Sunday 19:58:00 : No recording in progress
Sunday 19:58:00 : Next end padding setting due 20:55
Sunday 19:58:01 : Added 60 seconds start padding to {Top Gear}
Sunday 19:58:01 : Next start padding setting due 20:55
Sunday 19:58:01 : Next wake up will be 20:28


ps. Grease? Over West Side Story? Harumph.

[sanderton]

Sorry, looking at your logs:

Sunday 19:57:00 : Next recording is {Top Gear} on BBC2 at 20:00
...
Sunday 19:57:00 : Added 58 seconds start padding to {Top Gear}

The recording should have started at 19.59.02.

If it didn't there are two possible reasons:

a) the scheduler was busy and did not notice thet it had had start padding added (unlikely, as it would then have started at 20:00)
b) Something else stopped the recording starting - most commonly ambient IR blocking the channel change

[Roj]

Originally posted by sanderton
Sorry, looking at your logs:

The recording should have started at 19.59.02.

If it didn't there are two possible reasons:

a) the scheduler was busy and did not notice thet it had had start padding added (unlikely, as it would then have started at 20:00)
b) Something else stopped the recording starting - most commonly ambient IR blocking the channel change

a) Seems unlikely, since it didn't start until 4 minutes in, and didn't change channel either.

I don't understand b). How does the Tivo know if a channel change has been successful or not (I'm on freeview, if that makes a difference)? And then why did it start recording a few minutes later, although the channel still hadn't changed?

Roj

[sanderton]

I'm afraid I've not seen anything like that, and the logs seem to indicate EndPad was working normally. ??

[Roj]

Originally posted by sanderton
I'm afraid I've not seen anything like that, and the logs seem to indicate EndPad was working normally. ??

As luck would have it, this weekend's schedules have been full of shows with a 5 minute gap between them, so I can confirm that this is a repeatable problem.
I've also done some experimentation, and am able to reproduce the problem by scheduling two manual recordings with a 5 minute gap between the "official" (unpadded) end time of the first show, and "official" (unpadded) start of the second show.
If I disable endpad, the problem goes away. If I reconfigure endpad to 1 minute startpad and 3 minutes endpad, the problem goes away. But I'd rather use 2 and 4.
I don't know whether the problem is a bug in endpad, or an interaction issue between endpad and the Tivo scheduler. Looking at the section of log below, the first part looks the same as that previously posted - with correct end padding (4 mins) and start padding (58 secs) added. But this time I've looked ahead in the logs to the next time endpad wakes up - it still thinks it's recording the first show, even though it should be recording the second show by now (clive james 8:30 - 8:35, smile 8:40 - 8:45)!

So to recap:
endpad 1.3.3, start padding 2 minutes, end padding 4 minutes.
When two shows have a gap of 5 minutes, the second show starts recording 4 minutes late, and there is no channel change issued. This occurs whether the shows are on the same or different channels, and whether they are programmed recordings, or Tivo's suggestions.

Thoughts?

Roj

***
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal......
Sunday 08:32:00 : Woken up
Sunday 08:32:00 : Recording {Clive James in Dallas} on SKYTRVD now
Sunday 08:32:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 08:35
Sunday 08:32:00 : Next recording is Smile on BBC2 at 08:40
Sunday 08:32:00 : Added 240 seconds end padding to {Clive James in Dallas}
Sunday 08:32:00 : Next end padding setting due 08:41
Sunday 08:32:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Sunday 08:32:00 : Next start padding setting due 08:37
Sunday 08:32:00 : Next wake up will be 08:37
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal......
Sunday 08:37:00 : Woken up
Sunday 08:37:00 : Recording {Clive James in Dallas} on SKYTRVD now
Sunday 08:37:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 08:39
Sunday 08:37:00 : Next recording is Smile on BBC2 at 08:40
Sunday 08:37:00 : No end padding required:
Sunday 08:37:00 : End padding of 240 seconds already set
Sunday 08:37:00 : Next end padding setting due 08:41
Sunday 08:37:00 : Added 58 seconds start padding to Smile
Sunday 08:37:00 : Next start padding setting due 08:41
Sunday 08:37:00 : Next wake up will be 08:41
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.....
Sunday 08:41:00 : Woken up
Sunday 08:41:00 : Recording {Clive James in Dallas} on SKYTRVD now
Sunday 08:41:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 08:39
Sunday 08:41:00 : Next recording is {The Long Duel} on BBC2 at 13:20
Sunday 08:41:00 : No end padding required:
Sunday 08:41:00 : End padding of 240 seconds already set
Sunday 08:41:00 : Next end padding setting due 15:05
Sunday 08:41:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Sunday 08:41:00 : Next start padding setting due 13:17
Sunday 08:41:00 : Next wake up will be 09:11
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.........
***

[mark.stringer]

Hi Stuart,

My /var directory got rebuild yesterday as a result of a disk error!!! I have reinstalled most items including endpad 1.3.3. Is it worth enabling the Tracker part of this or will the data it collects be worthless when you create the new program using a different method?

Thanks,
Mark.

[Fatbloke]

OK peeps, here's one for you. I tried adding endpad tonight to an unmodified Tivo via the serial link. All seemed to go well as I followed the guide from Occitan. However, although everything seemes to complete correctly, endpad doesn't seem to be running.

I've checked back over the hyperterminal log and everything seems to have been typed correctly. I remembered the CHMOD 777s and did the CP -p as it showed.

I guess it's something to do with the rc.sysinit.author (I'm using the downloaded one) since I also can't get the bash prompt without going back through the diagnostics menu all the time. The rc.sysinit.author looks fine when I do the CAT command, no undesired line breaks etc. but of course it's not in it's final position at that point.

Can someone throw me a couple of linux commands that will allow me to check that rc.sysinit.author is in the correct location and has the correct authorisations whilst Im using the 'old' operating system?

[sirfergy]

Did you mod rc.sysinit.author to be +x?

[sanderton]

Sounds like a possible candidate for DOS line endings? A DOSsed file looks OK when you cat it IIRC.

[Fatbloke]

It's possible, but I was careful to edit it in Ultraedit, saying NO to 'reformat into DOS' when it asked me.

What's this +x bit all about then? I thought the chmod 777 was all I needed?

[sanderton]

Originally posted by mark.stringer
Hi Stuart,

My /var directory got rebuild yesterday as a result of a disk error!!! I have reinstalled most items including endpad 1.3.3. Is it worth enabling the Tracker part of this or will the data it collects be worthless when you create the new program using a different method?

Thanks,
Mark.

I'm going to use a different method. Thanks anyway.

[gl9500]

hi,

I just started running endpad a couple of days ago and last night had a situation occur...

snippet of ToDo schedule was to record 3 30minute shows... "Cheers" SP at 4:30 and 5:00 and "Daily Show" manual SP at 5:30. endpad was started w/ "2 2". (I converted the times here to match the endpad.log)

Problem was, "Daily Show" did not record at all. 5:00 Cheers recording ends up w/ the 2 minute padding at the end, which it shouldn't. There should be no padding at the end since there was another schedule recording immediately after.

here is the log...

/var/log/endpad.log:
...
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Recording Cheers on TVLAND now
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 05:00
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Next recording is Cheers on TVLAND at 05:00
Wednesday 04:57:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Can't add end padding to Cheers
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Gap is 0 seconds
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Next end padding setting due 05:25
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Can't add start padding to Cheers
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Gap is only 0 seconds
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Next start padding setting due 05:25
Wednesday 04:57:00 : Next wake up will be 05:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.............................
Wednesday 05:25:01 : Woken up
Wednesday 05:25:01 : Recording Cheers on TVLAND now
Wednesday 05:25:01 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 05:30
Wednesday 05:25:01 : Next recording is {The Daily Show With Jon Stewart} on COME
DY at 05:30
Wednesday 05:25:01 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 05:25:01 : Added 120 seconds end padding to Cheers
Wednesday 05:25:01 : Next end padding setting due 05:55
Wednesday 05:25:01 : Not time to add start padding yet
Wednesday 05:25:01 : Next start padding setting due 05:27
Wednesday 05:25:01 : Next wake up will be 05:27
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...
Wednesday 05:27:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 05:27:00 : Recording Cheers on TVLAND now
Wednesday 05:27:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 05:32
Wednesday 05:27:00 : Next recording is {The Drew Carey Show} on WGN
at 06:00
Wednesday 05:27:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 05:27:00 : No end padding required:
Wednesday 05:27:00 : End padding of 120 seconds already set
Wednesday 05:27:00 : Next end padding setting due 06:25
Wednesday 05:27:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Wednesday 05:27:00 : Next start padding setting due 05:57
Wednesday 05:27:00 : Next wake up will be 05:57
...

[pahunt]

Originally posted by Fatbloke
It's possible, but I was careful to edit it in Ultraedit, saying NO to 'reformat into DOS' when it asked me.

What's this +x bit all about then? I thought the chmod 777 was all I needed?

chmod 777 will give the file full permissions and so the +x won't help you.

[sanderton]

Originally posted by gl9500
hi,

I just started running endpad a couple of days ago and last night had a situation occur...



Are you absolutely sure that that particular The Daily Show was not a suggestion rather than from the SP? EndPad will cancel suggestions which clash with the intended padding.

Endpad had correctly picked up the start and end times as being the same, and the only situation when it would still cancel the following show would be if it was a suggestion.

[gl9500]

Originally posted by sanderton
Are you absolutely sure that that particular The Daily Show was not a suggestion rather than from the SP? EndPad will cancel suggestions which clash with the intended padding.

Endpad had correctly picked up the start and end times as being the same, and the only situation when it would still cancel the following show would be if it was a suggestion.

Definitely *not* a suggestion. But it was a regular recording, not part of a manual-SP. I had the DailyShow as a manual-SP, but then explicitly recorded the episodes for the week since the DailyShow was moving to a different timeslot the next week.

The recording history shows the 2 entries for manual and regular DailyShow recording...

----- from Tivo and Tivoweb
- Manual: DailyShow ... Conflict ... was not recorded because someone chose to record another program instead: "DailyShow"
- DailyShow ... Conflict ... was not recorded because someone chose to record another program instead: ""
-----

Note that the "conflict" for the regular DailyShow recording was *blank*. And it was a Conflict, not a Cancelled or otherwise.


ok, no big deal. The Tivo scheduling software does sometimes gets confused so it's probably not your bug, but I just thought I'd report it just FYI.

ps. similar ToDo list for last night and the DailyShow was recorded just fine. so who knows.

thanks for Endpad and for looking into this.

Regards

[edit]
pps. FWIW, I verified that the recording did exist in the ToDo list prior to the missed recording. Every morning I run my own script which dumps (using lynx), among other things, the ToDo list via Tivoweb. And the regular, single "DailyShow" recording was on the list.

[sanderton]

And you are using the lastest version of EndPad?

I'm at loss on this one; the code in EndPad only goes ahead if another programme is scheduled is the selectiontype = 6 (ie, a suggestion). Manual recordings should be fine.


if {$gap < $endpadding && $nselectiontype == 6} {

DeleteSuggestion "$nextrecfsid"

set endpadtoset $endpadding

}

[gl9500]

Originally posted by sanderton
And you are using the lastest version of EndPad?
...


I just downloaded a couple of days ago from the link on the first post here.

Must be a tivo schedule glitch then.

Altho I have to say I can't say that I trust the "selectiontype" code since you mentioned it for my "change to suggestions" post. Perhaps it works ok for reading the value, but it doesn't see to "set" it properly.

in case you missed my reply to your hints...

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1626044#post1626044

thanks again. regards

[sanderton]

I'd forgotten that thread. I've replied over there.

[gl9500]

Originally posted by sanderton
No, a suggestion before a scheduled recording will record as normal and the soft start padding will not be added to the scheduled recording. this because, as I feared, if you just try to add the start padding the scheduled recording gets cancelled, not the suggestion.

I'm personally inclined to leave it that way, rather than delete a perfectly good suggestion which has almost finished recording for the sake of the start padding.

But if others feel differently I can revisit that bit of code (once I figure out how to kill an in-progress recordng gracefully).

Let me know.

First let me apologize for not reading all 31 pages (!) on this thread <g><ng>. But I did do a search and found the above post.

What was/is the resolution of this?? From what I can tell, the latest version 1.3.3 does not do this... so...

I would vote to trash the suggestion prior to a scheduled recording, in favor of adding padding to the start of the schedule recording. After all, I really want the scheduled recording; who knows if I want or care about the suggestion.

As it stands now, I've gone to turning off suggestions since I am trying to capture episodes to transfer to DVD and endpad works really well at grabbing as much of a recording as possible. Kudo's to you Stuart. I've only been using endpad for a few days, but it's really very cool!

ps. everytime I type "endpad" I feel like I should type it as "endpad(tm)" <g>.

[mbriody]

I started using it earlier this week and it works oaky except that it seems to die after a day or so.

Also if I try to restart it manually is appears to work but my TiVo reboots shortly afterwards, so putting it on a cron job is no good.

Any ideas?

[iankb]

Originally posted by mbriody
... it seems to die after a day or so.Is that because it wasn't adding padding, or because you couldn't see the process, or because it stopped writing to the endpad log?

Maybe running a second copy caused the reboot. I would think that the endpad log would be the easiest indicator of whether it is running or not.

[mbriody]

All three.

The log entry stopped in the middle of a sentence, there is no process in the list and of course the padding stopped.

Originally posted by iankb
Is that because it wasn't adding padding, or because you couldn't see the process, or because it stopped writing to the endpad log?

Maybe running a second copy caused the reboot. I would think that the endpad log would be the easiest indicator of whether it is running or not.

[kweller]

This isn't exactly crritical and someone else may have reported it already although I couldn't see it in this thread - endpad crashes if there are fewer than two recordings in the todo list; see log below.

I've skip read through the thread but this is such a massive thread to come in to this late that I may have missed something. Is the current recommendation for endpad restarts after a crash a cron job or the amendment to rc.sysinit.author ((sleep 120 && while ! /var/hack/endpad.tcl n -run 2>>/var/hack/endpad.err) &).

Thanks.

Endpad log

***** NO RECORDINGS *****

Sunday 14:01:57 : endpad.tcl 1.3.3 log file, starting up
Sunday 14:01:57 : Start padding set to 60 seconds
Sunday 14:01:57 : End padding set to 120 seconds
Sunday 14:01:57 : Error detected
can't read "rectype": no such variable
while executing
"if {$rectype == 3} {

# Recording active

set isrec 1

# Get details of curently recording programme

RetryTransaction {
set crec [db $d..."
Sunday 14:01:57 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 14:02:27 : Error detected
can't read "rectype": no such variable
while executing
"if {$rectype == 3} {

# Recording active

set isrec 1

# Get details of curently recording programme

RetryTransaction {
set crec [db $d..."
Sunday 14:02:27 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 14:02:27 : Too many errors, stopping

***** ONE RECORDING *****
Sunday 14:27:07 :
Sunday 14:27:07 : endpad.tcl 1.3.3 log file, starting up
Sunday 14:27:07 : Start padding set to 60 seconds
Sunday 14:27:07 : End padding set to 120 seconds
Sunday 14:27:08 : Error detected
can't read "nextbutonerecstartdate": no such variable
while executing
"expr $nextbutonerecstartdate * 86400 + $nextbutonerecstarttime"
Sunday 14:27:08 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 14:27:38 : Error detected
can't read "nextbutonerecstartdate": no such variable
while executing
"expr $nextbutonerecstartdate * 86400 + $nextbutonerecstarttime"
Sunday 14:27:38 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 14:27:38 : Too many errors, stopping

[Fatbloke]

Here's an update to the manual endpad load I was trying over the weekend.

I retraced my steps carefully once more and this time changed the chmod from 777 to 755. Now I dont know whether this made a difference or that I corrected a typo from the other (two) times I tried it. But I managed to get endpad running via the serial connection.

Two small points to note, dont know if they have been mentioned before...

1) After installing, I rebooted and tried a 5 minute manual recording. This started about 4 minutes after my reboot, but of course this was only entered a minute or so after the reboot (endpad had ben running fo a short while by now). Anyway, the 5 min manual recording was not endpad'd at all. I could see in the log that it was waiting for the first to-do item in a few hours time.

2) The manual instructions mention that a serial prompt will appear without going through the x,p,root= method. This was certainly the case, only thing was I couldn't see what I was typing in! I was getting the bash prompt (although it wasn't line breaking) and any results from the commands I typed (echo * etc.) but I couldn't check for typos as I typed my commands :| I assume a hyperterminal settings problem but can anyone suggest what I could do?

[doubledrat]

fb: type

stty sane

to get an echo of what you type

[LampyDave]

Originally posted by Fatbloke

1) After installing, I rebooted and tried a 5 minute manual recording. This started about 4 minutes after my reboot, but of course this was only entered a minute or so after the reboot (endpad had ben running for a short while by now). Anyway, the 5 min manual recording was not endpad'd at all. I could see in the log that it was waiting for the first to-do item in a few hours time.

Endpad wakes up every half hour to check for upcoming recordings. If it was watching for changes in the ToDo all the time then it would 'load' the processor too much.

Therefore a recording added after endpad last woke up, and starting before it wakes up again, will not be 'seen' and will not get padded.

Therefore it's as designed as far as I know.

Cheers,

Dave

Edited for poor grammar :confused:

[sanderton]

Originally posted by kweller
This isn't exactly crritical and someone else may have reported it already although I couldn't see it in this thread - endpad crashes if there are fewer than two recordings in the todo list

Yes, it will. :) I'll fix that.

[mbriody]

My endpad has died again. This time a real error maybe?

Sunday 17:25:00 : Recording Futurama on SKYONE now
Sunday 17:25:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 17:30
Sunday 17:25:00 : Next recording is Futurama on SKYONE at 17:30
Sunday 17:25:00 : Added Futurama to series list
Sunday 17:25:00 : Added episode {My Problem With Popplers} to tracker list
Sunday 17:25:00 : Error detected
no space left on device
while executing
"close $episodelist"
Sunday 17:25:00 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 17:25:30 : Woken up
Sunday 17:25:30 : Recording Futurama on SKYONE now
Sunday 17:25:30 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 17:30
Sunday 17:25:30 : Next recording is Futurama on SKYONE at 17:30
Sunday 17:25:30 : Added episode {My Problem With Popplers} to tracker list
Sunday 17:25:30 : Error detected
no space left on device
while executing
"close $episodelist"
Sunday 17:25:30 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 17:25:30 : Too many errors, stopping

[doubledrat]

looks like your /var/tmp might be full?!

[mbriody]

Is there a maximum size for this then and is it configurable anywhere?

There's a lot a stuff in there - can I just delete it all?

[sanderton]

You can delete anything in /var/tmp - and I'd do it soon; if TiVo find's that /var is full it can decide to simply delete it and start again, and you'd lose all your hacks!

[doubledrat]

if you type

ls -l /var/tmp

you will see how big things are. It might be interesting to establish what is hogging the space

[mbriody]

Deleted it now. This was the output from ls:

total 6219
drwxr-xr-x 3 0 0 3072 Jan 12 10:01 .
drwxr-xr-x 14 0 0 1024 Jan 1 1970 ..
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 EventSwitcher
srwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 0 Jan 10 12:23 EventSwitcherSocket106
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 EvtMaster::Run135
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 EvtMaster::Run145
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 EvtMaster::Run160
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 EvtMaster::Run163
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 1747 Jan 10 13:20 HServer.recv
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 2215 Jan 10 13:19 HServer.send
srwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 0 Jan 10 12:23 MasterSocket135
srwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 0 Jan 10 12:23 MasterSocket145
srwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 0 Jan 10 12:23 MasterSocket160
srwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 0 Jan 10 12:23 MasterSocket163
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 MyWorld
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 Osd
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:33 Program.temp.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:36 Program.temp.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:53 Program.temp.10
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:55 Program.temp.11
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:57 Program.temp.12
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:59 Program.temp.13
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 11 08:10 Program.temp.14
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 11 08:11 Program.temp.15
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 11 08:12 Program.temp.16
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:40 Program.temp.17
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:41 Program.temp.18
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:41 Program.temp.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:37 Program.temp.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:42 Program.temp.20
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:42 Program.temp.21
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:42 Program.temp.22
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:43 Program.temp.23
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:43 Program.temp.24
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:44 Program.temp.25
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:44 Program.temp.26
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:45 Program.temp.27
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:45 Program.temp.28
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 10 14:45 Program.temp.29
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:39 Program.temp.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:41 Program.temp.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:43 Program.temp.5
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:44 Program.temp.6
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:46 Program.temp.7
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:48 Program.temp.8
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102400 Jan 12 01:50 Program.temp.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:25 ProgramToSeries.temp.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:26 ProgramToSeries.temp.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:28 ProgramToSeries.temp.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:30 ProgramToSeries.temp.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:32 ProgramToSeries.temp.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 63216 Jan 11 07:59 ProgramToSeries.temp.8
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 Sark (mcp)
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:23 ShowcaseHasClipIndex.temp.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 1520 Jan 12 01:23 ShowcaseHasProgramIndex.temp.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:23 ShowcaseIdentToIdIndex.temp.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:44 Showing.temp.10
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:45 Showing.temp.11
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:46 Showing.temp.12
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:48 Showing.temp.13
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:49 Showing.temp.14
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:50 Showing.temp.15
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:52 Showing.temp.16
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:53 Showing.temp.17
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:54 Showing.temp.18
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:56 Showing.temp.19
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:36 Showing.temp.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:57 Showing.temp.20
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:58 Showing.temp.21
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 97488 Jan 12 01:59 Showing.temp.22
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:59 Showing.temp.23
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 129024 Jan 12 01:59 Showing.temp.24
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 161792 Jan 11 08:13 Showing.temp.25
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 614376 Jan 10 14:46 Showing.temp.30
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 695296 Jan 10 14:46 Showing.temp.36
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:39 Showing.temp.5
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 102396 Jan 12 01:40 Showing.temp.6
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 49152 Jan 12 01:41 Showing.temp.7
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:42 Showing.temp.8
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:43 Showing.temp.9
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 317 Jan 10 13:19 TCD411.recv
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 364 Jan 10 13:19 TCD411.send
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 11 14:27 TClient.res
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 TclEvent138
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:24 TclEvent171
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:24 Tms.temp.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:25 Tms.temp.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 13200 Jan 11 07:59 Tms.temp.14
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:27 Tms.temp.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:28 Tms.temp.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:29 Tms.temp.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:30 Tms.temp.5
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 12 01:32 Tms.temp.6
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 dbgc-mcp
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 fsmem
-rw------- 1 0 0 1358 Jan 11 14:27 keyquery.post
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 4 Jan 10 13:20 keyquery.response
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:24 mom
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 10 12:24 mwstate
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 10 12:24 myworld.lck
srwxr-xr-x 1 0 0 0 Jan 10 12:24 serialPortArbitrator
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 131072 Jan 11 14:27 syslog
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 20455 Jan 11 18:58 tclIndex
-rw------- 1 0 0 12 Jan 10 12:23 tcphonehome
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 0 Jan 10 12:23 tcphonehome.lck
drwxr-xr-x 2 0 0 1024 Jan 10 13:28 unbundle
bash-2.02#

Looks like the showing.temp files and program.temp were taking the space. Any ideas what these are?

I've stll got a directory called unbundle. Is it safe to remove?

[tivouser]

sanderton - great addition to Tivo.

I have been running endpad for a week and it's a great improvement.
My only issue is with consecutive suggestions on the same channel, I think that the first suggestion gets end padding applied and the second suggestion is not recorded.
If this is so, is it possible to compare the channel for the 2 suggestions and records both of them adding the end padding to the last one as appropriate.

[doubledrat]

Perhaps it could even add double the end Padding! :) ;)

[Ashley]

Endpad has stopped with this error:

Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal............................
Sunday 20:55:00 : Woken up
Sunday 20:55:00 : Recording {Time Team} on DISC1 now
Sunday 20:55:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 21:00
Sunday 20:55:00 : Next recording is {Location, Location, Location} on DHL1 at 21:00
Sunday 20:55:01 : Error detected
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/SH339649": too many open files
while executing
"open "$trackerdir/$seriestmsid" a"
Sunday 20:55:01 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 20:55:31 : Woken up
Sunday 20:55:31 : Recording {Time Team} on DISC1 now
Sunday 20:55:31 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 21:00
Sunday 20:55:31 : Next recording is {Location, Location, Location} on DHL1 at 21:00
Sunday 20:55:31 : Error detected
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/series": too many open files
while executing
"open "$trackerdir/series" r"
Sunday 20:55:31 : Attempting to recover
Sunday 20:55:31 : Too many errors, stopping

So it's Tracker that seems to be the culprit. Can I just remove it?

[sanderton]

This was reported further up. Just delete or rename the /var/hack/tracker folder

[pahunt]

Originally posted by Ashley
Endpad has stopped with this error:

snip....

So it's Tracker that seems to be the culprit. Can I just remove it?

If you rename the Tracker folder that will disable it.

[jonnydeath]

Hello,
I looked through the entire thread and saw this question asked, but I am not sure if it has been implimented in 1.3.3. Sorry to repost if it has been answered.

Here is the US, NBC has decided to start a lot of shows a minute early.

Ie, 9:59 instead of 10:00

I have another show on another channel that goes from 9:30 to 10:00. Therefore, I loose the entire second show. Will this hack automatically negative pad the second show to start at 10:00?

I don't care which show is padded, I just want them both to be recorded.

Thanks a million,

[sanderton]

No, I'm afraid not.

[jonnydeath]

thanks for your quick-reply.

Is there anyway to hack your script so that if something has a begin or endtime +/- 1 minute to just change it? This would fix everything, and since it only removes time for recordings, it shoudn't mess anything up. (or will it?)

In my lame psuedo-code:

if($cstarttime % 60*60 == 59*60) // if starts at X:59
set cnewstarttime [$cstarttime + 60] // start at X+1:00

if($cendtime % 60*60 == 1*60) // if ends at X:01
set cnewendtime [$cendtime - 60] // end at X:00

This could either be an option or a second script. it would be great if it only does this if there is a conflict, bug beggers can't be choosers!!!

Thanks again for your hard-work,
Jon

[sanderton]

No, because EndPad merely manipulates start and end times of items in the To Do List; in the case you describe TiVo will never schedule the clashing programme so it's not ever in the TDL!

What you should be able to do is apply 2 mins of negative padding to the SP for the one which starts at the odd time (there's a thread in the Underground on negative padding), so it doesn't cause a clash. EndPad would then add the start of the programme back if there was no preceding show.

[doubledrat]

just bumping this up to where it should be - near the top ;)

[racingclub]

mebbe needs sticky-fying?

[bobones]

I have no serial cable or network access for my tivo. Can I install the endpad hack just by inserting the hard disk on my PC, copying the endpad script to /var/hack and making the appropriate edits to the rc files? Are there any other prerequisites, for example, do I need to install tcl first?

[sanderton]

You can indeed install it by taking your hard disk out and copying the files on, editing the startup script and setting the relevant file permissions. There are no prerequisites.

However your only way to restart EndPad should it stop for some reason will be to reboot.

[bobones]

Thanks. If only I could get the bloody lid off!

Would the easiest way for me to check that it's running be to schedule a manual recording, of say 10 minutes, then check that the duration of the actual recording is 10 + start pad + end pad minutes long?

[sanderton]

It only adds the end padding right at the end. If you play an "EndPadded" recording while it is still recording, you will seen a green bar of the programme duration + the start padding until about 5 mins before the end.

eg, I have it running on 1 min start and 2mins end, so a 1 hour programme with no clashes at either end has a green bar showing 1.01 for the first 55 mins, then 1.03 when it's done.

If you check it with a manual recording, remember EndPad only wakes up every 30 mins if it's not expecting a new recording to start, so it will miss your manual recording if you set it to start too soon.

[iankb]

Originally posted by bobones
I have no serial cable or network access for my tivo. Can I install the endpad hack just by inserting the hard disk on my PC, copying the endpad script to /var/hack and making the appropriate edits to the rc files?Just in case (since you don't say) ...

I presume that you are going to boot into Linux, and not into Windows. Whatever you do, DON'T boot into Windows NT, 2000 or XP with your TiVo drive attached, since it will corrupt the drive.

[bobones]

Yes, I'm going to boot with Tiger's boot cd, do a backup, and then start hacking. Now I have discovered I can use my pronto serial cable, I'll set up a serial connection for testing and further hacks. Thanks for the advice.

[Milhouse]

Endpadding is running just fine on my UK SA! :)

Suggestion:

Would it be possible to have endpadding modify the recording quality? For instance I have suggestions enabled and have set my default recording quality to MEDIUM so that they don't take up too much space - but for my scheduled recordings (SP, Wishlists etc.) I record in BEST quality.

Could endpad.tcl set the recording quality to BEST for all non-suggestion recordings at the same time it adds the start padding? Obviously this may not be to everyone's liking so it should be an optional feature... and could be extended to set different qualities according to genre (BEST only for Sport etc.)

[dickuk]

Stuart,

I have installed endpad and the free space display on a friends tivo which has no turbonet, and the free space is working, but endpad isnt.

Is there any way to look at the endpad.log file without removing the hard drive again? I have tried the backdoor log view but it isnt there.

Thanks

[ljb.designs]

I have been trying to install endpad via serial the port using occitan's instructions
I can't get it to work!
I havn't use unix in over 10 years and am rusty
can anybody help and what damage has been done so far
the tivo is still working.

[bobones]

dickuk, unless you have set up the tivo to get a bash prompt over a serial cable (pronto cable works), you'll need to remove the disk again. Check execute permissions and that file has been transferred correctly. You could create a hard link from tvdebuglog to endpad.log (ln tvdebuglog endpad.log) to make the log viewable with the backdoor. I'd also change the start up line so that standard error is appended to endpad.log, e.g.:
/var/hack/endpad.tcl 1 4 -auto >>/var/log/endpad.log 2>&1 &

ljb.designs, need more detail of what you have done. Have you got a bash prompt and is it just endpad that doesn't work?

[charliektm400exc]

A couple of days ago, when I was changing the keep until date on a program, the TiVo locked up on the wait a short while screen. It maintained recording the program what was on at the time. I had to pull the plug to get it going again.

Tonight, the machine locked up part way through a fast forward of a program. The fast forward continued on, but he remote wouldn't work. In addition the display showing how far through the program I was stopped at the fourteen minute mark. It didn't start recording a program it should have been recording. Again, I had to pull the plug to get it going.

The only thing I have which is different, as far as I remember, from a standard oztivo 3.0 image is that I have endpad working, so I suspect that it's related.

Has anybody else had this problem?

[sanderton]

Not seen anything like that reported.

If you get it again, please post the relevant sections of the EndPad log and the kernel log showing the crash, so you can see if there's a relation between them.

My gut feel is that with 500-odd people using EndPad and no similar reports, that this is something else?

[ljb.designs]

bobones, after using occitan's instructions endpad does not work
I don't get a bash prompt by just connecting the serial cable but can get it if I follow instruction at the beginning

[bobones]

Reading occitan's instructions, I think you can just go through the whole procedure again. The only commands that will fail are the "mkdir /var/hack" and "mkdir /var/newos" since those directories will now already exist.

Make sure your sysinit.rc.author file has unix endlines, not dos ones. (Use the one I've attached to be sure). Upload with zmodem in binary mode.

Make sure you run the chmod commands correctly, and pay attention to whether you need to mount /dev/hda4 or /dev/hda7.

The one extra step I would do before powering off would be:

umount /var/newos

to make sure the copied files are fully flushed onto the disk. (This may be the cause of your problem).

Once you've rebooted with the original boot parameters, you should get a bash prompt if all is well.

I'd recommend that you install the "Joe" editor and other useful files for hacking so you can futher tune your tivo. See the hack faqs for details.

[Milhouse]

Is there a bug in endpad.tcl 1.3.3? Looking at the Tracking thread a "too many open files" error has been reported (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1604397#post1604397).

Looking at endpad.tcl it appears it may have a resource leak at about line 433:


set episodelist [open "$trackerdir/$seriestmsid" r]

while {![eof $episodelist]} {
if {[lindex [gets $episodelist] 0] == $episodetmsid} {
set isinlist 1
}
}

set episodelist [open "$trackerdir/$seriestmsid" a]


The second "open" is overwriting the stream identifier for the first file without closing it - would this account for the error eventually occurring? I'm no TCL expert but suspect the code should be modified as follows:


close $episodelist
set episodelist [open "$trackerdir/$seriestmsid" a]



By the way - any progress on the tracker project? :)

[sanderton]

Yes, there she blows - a cut and paste error from the development code which closed the file!

I've got a couple of minor bug fixes to test up.

Tracker is still on the back burner while I work on a "shared Now Playing between networked TiVos" hack.

[charliektm400exc]

Originally posted by sanderton
Not seen anything like that reported.

If you get it again, please post the relevant sections of the EndPad log and the kernel log showing the crash, so you can see if there's a relation between them.

My gut feel is that with 500-odd people using EndPad and no similar reports, that this is something else?

I got another crash today, halfway through watching a program, but potentialy at a time when end pad might have woken up, but it's hard to tell.

The kernel's last message was about 13 minutes before the crash.

Endpad's last message was exactly (as close as I can remember from looking at the clock when it happened) 1 hour before the crash

Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.... Tuesday 19:58:00 : Next end padding setting due 20:25
Tuesday 19:58:01 : Added 60 seconds start padding to {Reality Bites}
Tuesday 19:58:01 : Next start padding setting due 20:25
Tuesday 19:58:01 : Next wake up will be 20:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal..Tuesday 21:23:26 :
Tuesday 21:23:26 : endpad.tcl 1.3.3 log file, starting up

There appears to be no sign of endpad waking up at 20:25, and the crash happened at 20:58

What happened was that part way through the program, which we were watching about 10 minutes late it just reverted to the program description screen, and gave an option to resume playing, but nothing we could do would make any difference.

I left it running in the hope it would continue to record the program (didn't seem likely as I couldn't TiVoweb in or Telnet in to the TiVo at the time. After the end of the show I rebooted the TiVo and went back in to have a look at what had been recorded, and the recording ended at the 9 minute mark, which was about where it would have been when we started watching it. We certainly went a long way beyond this when we watched it, but that had all gone from the TiVo.

So could it be endpad?

If not, any other suggestions?

Thanks

Charlie

[sanderton]

There are two dots in the "Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.." line, which says that EndPad crashed at 20.00, not at 20.58.

The 9 minute thing suggests that it recored the first 512Mb block and then locked up. That block would have been set in motion at 8pm, so it looks like it came to create the next one at 10 past and myworld had fallen over so it couldn't.

This could happen for any number of reasons, including a hard disk problem. You'd tend to see this at a recording start and as endPad runs just before then it's tempting to think they are related - however EndPad was in its wait loop when the crash happened, and the recording did successfully start, so I don't think it's directly related.

[dickuk]

>> You could create a hard link from tvdebuglog to endpad.log (ln tvdebuglog endpad.log) to make the log viewable with the backdoor

Thanks bobones for the info, however how do I create this hard link?

[bobones]

Boot with appropriate cd
Mount /var:
# mkdir /mnt/var; mount /dev/hda9 /mnt/var
cd to the log directory:
# cd /mnt/var/log
remove any endpad.log that may exist there (have a look at it first!):
# rm endpad.log
create link:
# ln tvdebuglog endpad.log
unmount /mnt/var:
# umount /mnt/var

[dickuk]

Thanks, will give this a try.

[charliektm400exc]

Thanks for the analysis.

The recording started at 8:30, but I assume that doesn't change your conclusions.

I'll go looking elswhere.

Charlie

[sanderton]

It started recording Reality Bites at 8pm, according to the log, and EndPad crashed about then.

[Fatbloke]

Just a quick question about elongated padding at the end.

If, for example I ran endpad with 15 minutes padding at the end, would the program be padded for just 5 minutes if there was a program to record only 5 minutes after program 1 is scheduled to end? Or would you just get no padding?

tia.

[ccwf]

Originally posted by ccwf on Oct&nbsp;9
It looks like the current script is an all-or-nothing padding […].

The code below changes behavior so that […] less soft padding will be used if necessary. [Stuart then further modified my code changes to deal with the two seconds TiVo uses for changing channels.]

So, you'll get as much padding as possible, assuming you aren't running an ancient version of EndPad.

[tivo-onion]

Hi,

I know that endpad will remove a suggestion scheduled before or after a non-suggestion if there is an overlap in time generated by endpad. However, what happens if you have 2 suggestions back-to-back. Will the second suggestion be discarded, or are both suggestions treat as equals and both recorded - much as two non-suggestions would be?

thanks for your help on this,

cheers

Chris

[kitschcamp]

I *think* it cancels one of the suggestions - I wish it didn't, but I've noticed a few times two back-to-back suggestions in the list, and only one getting recorded.

[tivo-onion]

Originally posted by kitschcamp
I *think* it cancels one of the suggestions - I wish it didn't, but I've noticed a few times two back-to-back suggestions in the list, and only one getting recorded.

Yeah,

I have just seen it happen actually, coincidentally ... it does seem to cancel the subsequent suggestion. You would thing suggestions would be equal - as are non suggestions - well anyway.....

thanks for your help,

cheers

Chris

[sanderton]

The logic is: better one suggestion with an ending than two without. :)

Should be an option though.

[PaulOckenden]

Originally posted by sanderton
Should be an option though.

In an ideal world there would be a database of channels you trust (the mechanical stations driven by a playout system), and the channels you don't (those with live segments, and driven by humans).

The former can pretty much be guaranteed to run to time, so padding could be switched off. The latter can pretty much be guaranteed to start a minute early, and finish 3 minutes late!

P.

[sanderton]

Please note that falconx, the brains behind TiVoWeb Plus, has produced a version of EndPad which works correctly with dual tuners.

It also has optional treatment of back to back suggestions. :)

He lives over at the database of deals, and I can't post a link, but the end bit of the url is:

/forum/showthread.php?t=31854

[mrhatken]

Firstly, hello Sanderton and thanks for creating EndPad, it is a fantastic utility for TiVo and I appreciate you sharing it with the community.

If I may please suggest a feature that you may like to consider for a future version of EndPad - I don't think it would be too difficult to implement.

I am not sure about the US, but in Aus most shows tend to run mostly on-time (within a few minutes) most of the day, but balloon off-time late in the night and very early morning.

I was thinking it would save disk space if EndPad could adjust its padding depending upon the time of day at which the show was running (e.g. less during the day, more late at night).

My Dad uses EndPad and he wants me to set it to 45 minutes so he doesn't miss one or two shows that he likes to record late a night (he could use specific padding for these shows ...).

I think this could be achieved simply by creating a "crontab" like file that specified different EndPad settings for different times of the day. If you want to get fancy it could even be channel-specific.

A file with a format something like this simple example:

# EndPad config file
# start-hour end-hour week-day channel startpad endpad
6 21 * * 1 5
21 6 * * 15 45

So this suggests that between 6am and 9pm on every day on every channel pad for 1 and 5 minutes. However, between 9pm and 6am on every day on every channel pad 15 and 45 minutes.

When EndPad wakes up to do its thing, it could just read this file, or refer to values it has cached, and determine the startpad and endpad times for the particular program it is padding.

I guess the only difficult part would be ensuring that the period, days, channels, etc in the configuration file are non-overlapping.

Perhaps if there is an overlap it could just take the first appropriate entry (the last line could just be a default for all times on all days on all channels)

Please consider and thanks again!

Cheers,
Ashley Aitken.

[tivo-onion]

Originally posted by sanderton
Please note that falconx, the brains behind TiVoWeb Plus, has produced a version of EndPad which works correctly with dual tuners.

It also has optional treatment of back to back suggestions. :)

He lives over at the database of deals, and I can't post a link, but the end bit of the url is:

/forum/showthread.php?t=31854

This "endpadplus" treats suggestions the same as normal planned recordings. My preference would be to still have suggestions as second class citizens i.e. a suggestions would be knocked off in favour of padding a real recording, but all suggestions are equal i.e. one suggestion will not knock off another suggestion because of padding. "endpadplus", with the relevant option selected, just treats all recordings the same and pads where possible - it does not knock anything off - based on my observations yesterday! I was concerned for a while that "NEW" enterprise was not going to record, as a suggested simpsons was recording before it. SCAREY! ;-)

Suart, I have made a small modification to your endpad module to only delete the next "suggestion" if the current recording is not a "suggestion" in line with the regular padding rules. I have a window of opportunity tonight to test it poperly - so will pop it on the forum then.

cheers

Chris

[sanderton]

Originally posted by mrhatken
I was thinking it would save disk space if EndPad could adjust its padding depending upon the time of day at which the show was running (e.g. less during the day, more late at night).

...

I think this could be achieved simply by creating a "crontab" like file that specified different EndPad settings for different times of the day.

You could do this with cron; set up a series of cron jobs to start and stop EndPad at various times each day with different padding settings.

[manolan]

Originally posted by mrhatken
... snip ...
I think this could be achieved simply by creating a "crontab" like file that specified different EndPad settings for different times of the day. If you want to get fancy it could even be channel-specific.

A file with a format something like this simple example:

# EndPad config file
# start-hour end-hour week-day channel startpad endpad
6 21 * * 1 5
21 6 * * 15 45

So this suggests that between 6am and 9pm on every day on every channel pad for 1 and 5 minutes. However, between 9pm and 6am on every day on every channel pad 15 and 45 minutes.

... snip ....

As an experineced cron user, I can't believe anyone would actually suggest using the crontab format these days! It seems remarkably archaic. Surely something in XML would be called for.

[mrhatken]

Ok, ok, fair comment, XML is more easily parsed and more readable.

It's just when I think time, I think cron, and its a format I (sort of) know.

BTW, has cron been updated to use XML (as well as the old format) yet?

Cheers,
Ashley.

[tivo-onion]

Stuart,

excuse my ignorace....I have been inspecting the code of endpad and have a quick question surrounding start padding.

If there is a suggestion scheduled followed directly by a proper recording then does the suggestion get cancelled in order to make room for the proper recording start padding. I thought that it did, but I cannot see in the code where it would happen. Could you point to me to the right area in the code to find this functionaity if it exists.

The alternative is of course that the suggestion plays out with no end padding, and the proper scheduled recording starts with no start padding? is this the case? Is it therefore that it is only end-padding that causes the deletion of suggestions?

If this is the case, is there any reason why you could not cancel a preceding suggestion to make room for start padding of a proper scheduled recording?

cheers

Chris

[sanderton]

Basically, I don't know how to stop an in-progress suggestion in MFS. Adding the start padding anyway actually prevented the scheduled show form recording. So I played it safe and left alone.

[tivo-onion]

Stuart,

so does that mean that by default, adding start padding to a recording will automatically stop a prior suggestion being recorded?

In a scenario where tivo is planning to record the following programs.....

8.30&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9.00&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9.30
|<---------------------->|<---------------------->|
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;simpsons&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; friends
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(suggestion)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(season pass)

..... at which point / time does the start padding for the episode of friends get added (if at all), and will the suggestion record or not,

thanks for your help,

cheers

Chris

[kwangomango]

I receive the following error when trying to run endpad.tcl manually

": no such file or directory

Any ideas?

[Milhouse]

FTP. BINARY MODE. (Most likely). Definately sounds like you've got DOS line endings.

Search (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1680469#post1680469) :)

[kwangomango]

Cheers, i noticed the DOS line endings when i opened the file using joe. I have since saved and resaved in textpad (as UNIX) and ftp'd in binary mode but the line endings are still there. I am using SmartFTP which is set to always use binary.
Cheers for the search link, knew i'd seen the issue before but i couldn,t find it from my search.

[Milhouse]

If you've saved it in Unix format and are FTPing in Binary mode then either you are still uploading the old file or uploading the new file to the wrong place on the TiVo and not overwriting the old file. Can't think what else could be the problem!

Is the timestamp on the TiVo file changing after you upload the new file? Can you make an intentional change in the file on the PC and upload it to the TiVo - does the change appear on the TiVo?

[njh]

Originally posted by tivo-onion

so does that mean that by default, adding start padding to a recording will automatically stop a prior suggestion being recorded?

Chris

No - I think you will find that in that the suggestion is recorded without end padding, and start padding will not be applied to the scheduled recording - the cut over between the suggestion recording and the scheduled recording happens at the time scheduled in the program guide, exactly as it would if endpad wasn't running.

If I read Sanderson correctly, any padding added at this point will risk cancellation of the scheduled recording - if adding padding creates a conflict which involves a recording in progress then that recording takes precedence.

Regards,

[tivo-onion]

Originally posted by njh
No - I think you will find that in that the suggestion is recorded without end padding, and start padding will not be applied to the scheduled recording - the cut over between the suggestion recording and the scheduled recording happens at the time scheduled in the program guide, exactly as it would if endpad wasn't running.

If I read Sanderson correctly, any padding added at this point will risk cancellation of the scheduled recording - if adding padding creates a conflict which involves a recording in progress then that recording takes precedence.

Regards,

Thanks for that. It seems then that only end-padding will result in a suggestion being cancelled! I will update my daily mail generator appropriately.

cheers

Chris

[pahunt]

Just noticed that Endpad crashed yesterday with these messages in the error log.

Error detected
commit failed (0x00030007)

while executing
"transaction {uplevel $body}"
(procedure "RetryTransaction" line 5)
invoked from within
"RetryTransaction {

# Alter the database record to add the padding
set db [dbopen $dbPoolSize]
set rec [db $db openid $recfsid]
..."
Thursday 12:10:01 : Attempting to recover
Thursday 12:10:31 : Error detected
can't scan path (0x00070009)

while executing
"mfs scan "/Recording/Active" -start "3:" -count 1"
("uplevel" body line 2)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"transaction {uplevel $body}"
(procedure "RetryTransaction" line 5)
invoked from within
"RetryTransaction {
set currec [mfs scan "/Recording/Active" -start "3:" -count 1]
set nextrec [mfs scan "/Recording/Active" -start "4:" -count 2]
..."
Thursday 12:10:31 : Attempting to recover
Thursday 12:10:31 : Too many errors, stopping

I've not seen an error like this before and a search in this thread didn't find anything similar either.

[sanderton]

I've occasionally seen that from an mfs scan. It either means that the database was exceptionally busy when it was being read, or possibly that there is a hard disk/data integrity problem.

Keep an eye out; if it doesn't recur I'd suspect teh former.

[pahunt]

Originally posted by sanderton
I've occasionally seen that from an mfs scan. It either means that the database was exceptionally busy when it was being read, or possibly that there is a hard disk/data integrity problem.

Keep an eye out; if it doesn't recur I'd suspect teh former.

I'll hope for the former :D

Thanks Stuart

[tivo_boj]

Slightly ( maybe way) off subject I know, but my hard disk is S.M.A.R.T, but is not enabled. what command at the bash do I need to enable it to ensure hard disk problems are captured early

[Fozzie]

See this (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=153428) thread ;)

[tivo_boj]

Thanks. Should have used search :-)

[russellg]

Hello, thanks for such a great program.

I'm seeing this problem... It appears that it added time to the end of a Suggestion, thus causing a scheduled show starting just afterwards to not be recorded. Note that the scheduled recording wasn't an SP, it was just a show that I had told Tivo to record. I found a similar post from "gl9500" on Jan. 8th (post 1634960 - sorry, won't let me hyperlink) saying the same thing, so I'm wondering if there really is a problem here somewhere.

I installed version 1.3.3 ok, and set all SPs back to zero minutes extra time before and after. I also reorganized the SPs to cause them to be re-indexed. This was all done several hours before the problem happened.

The day before, I had told Tivo to record a show called Air Force One, which started at 9:30pm. At 9:55pm, I noticed it wasn't recording. I checked the Recording History page on Tivo and it said it wasn't recorded because someone in the household chose to record something else (definitely not true).

I then checked the EndPad log via TivoWeb, and found the section included below. From what I can tell, it looks like a suggestion called Modern Marvels was being recorded from 8:30pm to 9:30pm (I've verified that it shows up now as a suggestion in the Now Playing list). At 9:25pm, EndPad added 15 minutes to the end of it, even though Air Force One was due to start at 9:30. It was my understanding that EndPad would give priority to the scheduled recording. Certainly it should, or you'd never know when a suggestion would cause you to lose a show you actually wanted.

Here's my EndPad entry from /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit.author:

/hack/endpad.tcl 0 15 -auto > /dev/null 2>&1 &

Any ideas? Thanks!

Russell

=====================

Wednesday 20:40:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 20:40:00 : Recording {Modern Marvels} on HIST now
Wednesday 20:40:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 21:30
Wednesday 20:40:00 : Next recording is {Air Force One} on NGEO at 21:30
Wednesday 20:40:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 20:40:00 : Not time to add end padding yet
Wednesday 20:40:00 : Next end padding setting due 21:25
Wednesday 20:40:00 : Can't add start padding to {Air Force One}
Wednesday 20:40:00 : No start padding requested
Wednesday 20:40:00 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Wednesday 20:40:00 : Next start padding setting due 21:40
Wednesday 20:40:00 : Next wake up will be 21:10
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Recording {Modern Marvels} on HIST now
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 21:30
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Next recording is {Air Force One} on NGEO at 21:30
Wednesday 21:10:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Not time to add end padding yet
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Next end padding setting due 21:25
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Can't add start padding to {Air Force One}
Wednesday 21:10:00 : No start padding requested
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Next start padding setting due 21:40
Wednesday 21:10:00 : Next wake up will be 21:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal................
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Woken up
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Recording {Modern Marvels} on HIST now
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 21:30
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Next recording is {Air Force One} on NGEO at 21:30
Wednesday 21:25:01 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Added 900 seconds end padding to {Modern Marvels}
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Next end padding setting due 22:25
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Can't add start padding to {Air Force One}
Wednesday 21:25:01 : No start padding requested
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Next start padding setting due 21:40
Wednesday 21:25:01 : Next wake up will be 21:40
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal................
Wednesday 21:40:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 21:40:00 : Recording {Modern Marvels} on HIST now
Wednesday 21:40:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 21:45
Wednesday 21:40:00 : Next recording is {A Stranger In Our Home} on ABN2 at 23:00
Wednesday 21:40:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 21:40:00 : No end padding required:
Wednesday 21:40:00 : End padding of 900 seconds already set
Wednesday 21:40:00 : Next end padding setting due 23:40
Wednesday 21:40:00 : Can't add start padding to {A Stranger In Our Home}
Wednesday 21:40:00 : No start padding requested
Wednesday 21:40:00 : Start padding of 0 seconds already set
Wednesday 21:40:00 : Next start padding setting due 23:10
Wednesday 21:40:00 : Next wake up will be 22:10
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................

[sanderton]

EndPad will only delete the subsequent show if it has a Type of 6, which is a Suggestion.

Could you go to Recording History in TivoWeb, find the cancelled show and post the text that TivoWeb has on it. It would also be useful to see the "object" data - when you have the recording history page up for the show, change "showing" in the URL to "object".

Also, what version of the TiVo software are you running?

[russellg]

Hi sanderton, thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately, after I realized it wasn't recording, I tried to start recording it from the middle of the show, and it ended up not getting it all. That in itself changed the entry in the recording history. But then I ended up deleting the partial recording this morning, so now the only entry in recording history is "deleted", and there's no longer any info about why it wasn't recorded -- at least not on that page -- maybe there's a log somewhere else?

You said EndPad will only delete the subsequent show if it has a type of 6, which is a suggestion. However, keep in mind that it appears that EndPad never actually cancelled the recording of the second show -- Tivo did, because it saw that "the user" (actually EndPad) had changed the end time of the first show, thus overlapping with the start time of the second show. The original message in the recording history was something along the lines of, "it wasn't recorded because someone in the household chose to record something else."

I believe EndPad is somehow not seeing the scheduled non-SP recording correctly. It's apparently not seeing it as a suggestion, because as you said, it would have been cancelled, and it wasn't. But it's also somehow not seeing it as a scheduled recording, because it should have cancelled the first show. (actually if I hadn't set EndPad to start shows 1 minute early, it could have just let the suggestion record without any modification -- but since I did, I believe it should have cancelled it, or possibly cut it off early)

If you take another look at the article I mentioned, I think the other guy was saying the same thing. He was recording two SP shows back-to-back, followed immediately by a scheduled non-SP recording, and instead of only modifying the end time of the last show, EndPad modified the end time of the second show, and then it was actually Tivo that cancelled the recording of the third -- not EndPad. Here's the relative URL for his post:

/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1634960#post1634960

Also, here's the object data of the show that got skipped in my case:

Showing 665862/25 {
Date = 12487
Duration = 3600
Program = 657111/-1
Reason = 2
Station = 611991/-1
Time = 77400
TvRating = 4
IndexUsedBy = 665862/10
}

You asked which version of Tivo I'm running. I'm actually in Australia, using their 3.0 Release 1 software on a US Tivo (that's the most common setup for our group here actually).

Thanks!

Russell

[Dunkwho]

Hi all ...

my endpad died again yesterday ... programs recorded yesterday evening & during the night don't have any padding - the bottom of the log file is:

Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal............................
Wednesday 11:57:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 11:57:00 : No recording in progress
Wednesday 11:57:00 : Next recording is {Bargain Hunt} on BBC1SE at 12:00
Wednesday 11:57:00 : No end padding required:
Wednesday 11:57:00 : No recording in progress
Wednesday 11:57:00 : Next end padding setting due 12:25
Wednesday 11:57:00 : Added 120 seconds start padding to {Bargain Hunt}
Wednesday 11:57:00 : Next start padding setting due 12:25
Wednesday 11:57:00 : Next wake up will be 12:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.............................
Wednesday 12:25:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 12:25:00 : Recording {Bargain Hunt} on BBC1SE now
Wednesday 12:25:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 12:30
Wednesday 12:25:00 : Next recording is {Let it Rain} on C4 at 12:30

Theres a endpad.err sitting on my tivo date stamped at 12:25 10/3/04 (same time as last entry in endpad.log) but I can't get at it right now (need to mod some tivo settings to allow me to ftp mfs - god damn securemote) ... if its needed for proper debug pls let me know, I'll try and get at it tonight and post it.

Duncan

[sanderton]

Russell - don't know, basically. If the TiVo is deleting the show it's because EndPad has forged ahead and added the padding regardless. But it can see the next show's start time, as is shown by the log.

It can't be something generic wrong in the script, as EndPad must have supervised thousands of back-to-back recordings.

My best guess would be the well known and utterly unrepeatable MFS bug where a database contentiom means that instead of returning an id it returns and stores an error value, so the the start time of the second showing was in some way corrupted. Maybe.


Dunkwo - need to see the .err file.

[dave h-j]

My endpad had also died today. couldnt find it on a ps, so ran the -stop argument. It complained of having a stale pid file and deleted it.

I started it up again and it seems to be running. endpad.err was blank (date stamped back in February)..

Thursday 10:25:01 : Next start padding setting due 12:52
Thursday 10:25:01 : Next wake up will be 10:55
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal............................Thursday 13:24:59 :
Thursday 13:24:59 : endpad.tcl 1.3.3 log file, starting up
Thursday 13:24:59 : Start padding set to 120 seconds
Thursday 13:24:59 : End padding set to 120 seconds
Thursday 13:25:01 : Woken up

[sanderton]

It's the weather. :)

[Dunkwho]

Here we are ... managed to remember the hoops I need to jump to just to get ftp running ... grrr :(

This is the 2nd time endpad has stopped working ... grateful for any info .

[gl9500]

Stuart, (et. al.)

I believe this situation described in this post is the same "bug" that I stumbled across...

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1798463#post1798463

It is because we are using US Tivo software version 3.x and selectionType's are different for version3. I've hardcoded my endpad.tcl to correctly check in version3...


set cselectiontype [dbobj [dbobj $crec get RecordingBehavior] get PresentationBehavior]
...
set nselectiontype [dbobj [dbobj $nrec get RecordingBehavior] get PresentationBehavior]

[gl9500]

I've also hacked Stuart's endpad 1.3.3 to "stop" suggestions recording where it would interfere w/ adding startpadding to a "real" recording.

here're the mods to make in v1.3.3 endpad.tcl

after the first line, add these...


source $tcl_library/tv/sendkey.tcl
# disable keyname echoing to controling tty
set verboseSendKeyG 0



then find the first and last line of this next mod and insert...



# if there's a "real" recoding going on we need to see if there is space a
vailable

## supposed to stop a suggestion rec... (works for my tivo, US version3.x, YMMV)
## if can add startpad to next "real" rec
if {$isrec == 1 && $cselectiontype == 6 && $nselectiontype != 6} {
puts $logchan "[clock format [clock seconds] -format $datestamp] : current recording is a SUGGESTION $ctitle"
## stop suggestion recording
SendKey livetv
after 2000
SendKey clear
after 2000
SendKey enter
after 2000
#
set isrec 0
}

if {$isrec == 1} {



As you can see, it "stops" the suggestion recording by changing channels (flipping to previous channel). This should work under most circumstances. One side-effect is, if your Tivo is in Standby mode, it will not be after this code runs. And just about the only time the "previous" channel won't be available is immediately after a Restart.

Works for me, YMMV.

[sanderton]

Originally posted by Dunkwho
Here we are ... managed to remember the hoops I need to jump to just to get ftp running ... grrr :(

This is the 2nd time endpad has stopped working ... grateful for any info .


Hmm. The syntax error reported in the error log is not there in my copy of 1.3.3 - I can only think that the endpad.tcl file has somehow become corrupted. Re-install it.

[Dunkwho]

ahem ... 1.2.6 on my machine ... updated now, thanks!

[sanderton]

Aha. That will also cure the other errors listed in your log file (or rather, EndPad will recover from them instead of just stopping).

[Milhouse]

A small modification to Endpad 1.3.3....

Endpad 1.3.4 will change the recording quality of Suggested recordings to the quality level specified by a configurable option (suggestionRecQuality). I find this useful as now I can set my default recording quality to Best and thanks to Endpad 1.3.4 my suggested recordings will record at Medium.

If you specify a setting of -1 then Endpad 1.3.4 will behave identically to 1.3.3 - ie. no change of recording quality for Suggestions.

The default recording quality for Suggestions is Medium.

Edit: Attachment removed, now available from first post in this thread (thanks Stuart!) :)

[sanderton]

I've incorpoporated the code into 1.3.4 in the top post.

Please only post the mods you make, not complete versions - with so many people using EndPad (?1000) I'm trying to keep version control reasonably tight.

Thanks for the mod though.

[Fozzie]

Stuart,

You left this line in 1.3.4:

puts $logchan "[clock format [clock seconds] -format $datestamp] : endpad.tcl 1.3.3 log file, starting up"

[sanderton]

D'oh. I'm alwayss doing that. My later hacks have a variable right at the top to change all references!

[Mike Laskey]

Stuart,

Just wanted to add my thanks to you for the endpad extension. My Tivo is now recording 2 minutes of pre-padding and 5 minutes of end padding. I've no idea why Tivo didn't do this themselves!

Mike.

[jasch]

Sanderton, great work and a great idea! Altough I think I found a bug with two tuners...

If there is nothing recording at the same time on the other tuner, the recording get's softwadded perfectly... but if the other tuner is recording whatever, the softpaddin does not occur.

For example, I record a program every day at 7:30am. The recording is normally 32 minutes (1 minute of before and after padding).

Yesterday I was recording a movie on the other tuner from 7am -> 9am. The 7:30 recording did not get softpadded, even tough it could have been, since the 1st tuner was not being used...

I was using 1.3.3, I just upgradedd to 1.3.4, but I don't think this problem has been solved.

Thanks again, and keep the great work.

[sanderton]

For a two tuner machine, falconx has added full two tuner support; you can find his version on Deal Database.

[Fletch]

I just started testing the latest version (1.3.4) on a Series 1 SA and had the following occur:

The following were in the TDL:
Show 1, 4-4:30PM, SP
Show 2, 4:30-5PM, SP
Show 3, 5-5:30PM, Sugg

endpad is running with start=5 and end=15

The result (verified by the endpad loffile):
Show 1 was start padded and Show 3 was endpadded. Shouldn't the suggestion have been deleted to allow for end padding of Show 2?

[sanderton]

Yes. Could you post the actual log?

What version of the TiVo software are you using?

[Fletch]

Thanks for your help.

TiVo Information:
Current Channel
Channel: 301 TV Land
Program: Love Boat
Episode: April's Love; Happy Ending; We Three
Description: April returns with her fiance; two writers decide to finish their marriage with their script; a girl unknowingly befriends her father.
Recording Status: Not Recording
TiVo Box Information
Current Temperature: 38C
Software System: 3.0-01-1-010
Remote Address 1
Uptime 12d 23h 52m 45s
Kernel Information

Version 2.1.24-TiVo-2.5
Compile #8 Wed May 8 15:38:27 PDT 2002

Memory Information

Memory Statistics:
total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
Mem: 14278656 14114816 163840 68431872 77824 3923968
Swap: 133165056 7598080 125566976
MemTotal: 13944 kB
MemFree: 160 kB
MemShared: 66828 kB
Buffers: 76 kB
Cached: 3832 kB
SwapTotal: 130044 kB
SwapFree: 122624 kB

Space Used - 123839 MB
Expired Suggestion 16 45393 MB 36.7% 17:31:57
Single 1 1294 MB 1.0% 0:30:00
Season Pass 1 1512 MB 1.2% 0:35:01
Suggestion 28 72596 MB 58.6% 28:00:52
Invisible 1 72 MB 0.1% 0:21:00
Live Cache 1 1632 MB 1.3% 0:38:17
Total 48 122499 MB 98.9% 47:37:07

Relevant portion of logs:
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Wednesday 03:24:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 03:24:00 : Recording {Screech Owls} on DCKIDS now
Wednesday 03:24:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 03:30
Wednesday 03:24:00 : Next recording is Nightcap on MOMAX at 04:00
Wednesday 03:24:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 03:24:00 : Not time to add end padding yet
Wednesday 03:24:00 : Next end padding setting due 03:25
Wednesday 03:24:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Wednesday 03:24:00 : Next start padding setting due 03:54
Wednesday 03:24:00 : Next wake up will be 03:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal..
Wednesday 03:25:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 03:25:00 : Recording {Screech Owls} on DCKIDS now
Wednesday 03:25:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 03:30
Wednesday 03:25:00 : Next recording is Nightcap on MOMAX at 04:00
Wednesday 03:25:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 03:25:00 : Added 900 seconds end padding to {Screech Owls}
Wednesday 03:25:00 : Next end padding setting due 04:25
Wednesday 03:25:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Wednesday 03:25:00 : Next start padding setting due 03:54
Wednesday 03:25:00 : Next wake up will be 03:54
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal..............................
Wednesday 03:54:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 03:54:00 : No recording in progress
Wednesday 03:54:00 : Next recording is Nightcap on MOMAX at 04:00
Wednesday 03:54:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 03:54:00 : No end padding required:
Wednesday 03:54:00 : No recording in progress
Wednesday 03:54:00 : Next end padding setting due 04:25
Wednesday 03:54:00 : Added 300 seconds start padding to Nightcap
Wednesday 03:54:00 : Next start padding setting due 04:25
Wednesday 03:54:00 : Next wake up will be 04:24
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Recording Nightcap on MOMAX now
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 04:30
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Next recording is Nightcap on MOMAX at 04:30
Wednesday 04:24:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Can't add end padding to Nightcap
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Gap is 0 seconds
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Next end padding setting due 04:25
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Can't add start padding to Nightcap
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Gap is only 0 seconds
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Next start padding setting due 04:25
Wednesday 04:24:00 : Next wake up will be 04:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal..
Wednesday 04:25:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 04:25:00 : Recording Nightcap on MOMAX now
Wednesday 04:25:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 04:30
Wednesday 04:25:00 : Next recording is Nightcap on MOMAX at 04:30
Wednesday 04:25:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 04:25:00 : Can't add end padding to Nightcap
Wednesday 04:25:00 : Gap is 0 seconds
Wednesday 04:25:00 : Next end padding setting due 04:55
Wednesday 04:25:00 : Can't add start padding to Nightcap
Wednesday 04:25:00 : Gap is only 0 seconds
Wednesday 04:25:01 : Next start padding setting due 04:55
Wednesday 04:25:01 : Next wake up will be 04:55
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Recording Nightcap on MOMAX now
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 05:00
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Next recording is M*A*S*H on HALMRK at 05:00
Wednesday 04:55:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Can't add end padding to Nightcap
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Gap is 0 seconds
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Next end padding setting due 05:25
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Can't add start padding to M*A*S*H
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Gap is only 0 seconds
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Next start padding setting due 05:25
Wednesday 04:55:00 : Next wake up will be 05:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................
Wednesday 05:25:00 : Woken up
Wednesday 05:25:00 : Recording M*A*S*H on HALMRK now
Wednesday 05:25:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 05:30
Wednesday 05:25:00 : Next recording is Friends on KTLA at 07:00
Wednesday 05:25:00 : No episode tracking done at this time
Wednesday 05:25:00 : Added 900 seconds end padding to M*A*S*H
Wednesday 05:25:00 : Next end padding setting due 07:25
Wednesday 05:25:00 : Not time to add start padding yet
Wednesday 05:25:00 : Next start padding setting due 06:54
Wednesday 05:25:00 : Next wake up will be 05:55
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal...............................

[sanderton]

And MASH was a suggestion?

Can you use TiVoweb to extract the data about it:

Find the episode details from Now Showing (or Recording history if you've deleted it), change the word showing to object in the URL, eg:

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/showing/688505/11

to

http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/object/688505/11

there should be a link named "IndexusedBy", follow it and cut and paste the page of data here. Thanks!

[Fletch]

Originally posted by sanderton
And MASH was a suggestion?
Yes.

From http://tivo.lan/object/3223321/10:
Recording 3223321/10 {
Version = 28
BitRate = 0
ExpirationDate = 12506
ExpirationTime = 18000
ProgramSource = 1388534/-1
RecordingBehavior = 3223321/12
Score = 0
SelectionType = 3
Showing = 3223321/11
SubPriority = 268632575
UsedBy = 1
StartDate = 12501
StartTime = 17999
EndPadding = 900
ActualShowing = 3223321/14 3223321/18
Part = 3223321/13 3223321/15 3223321/16 3223321/17 3223321/19
StopDate = 12501
StopTime = 20701
State = 4
DeletionDate = 24855
StreamFileSize = 1990656
IndexUsed = 3223321/11 3223321/12
IndexPath = /Recording/Active/1:12501:17999:3223321 /Recording/NoReRecord/99465:1:99999:03223321
/Recording/SeasonPass/01388534/87498:81999:3223321 /Recording/TmsId/EP0027100076:87498:82000:3223321
/Recording/NowShowingByClassic/6:87498:82000:3223321 /Recording/NowShowingByExpiration/5:12506:18000:3223321
/Recording/NowShowingByTitle/1:MASH:87498:82000:3223321 /Recording/DiskUsed/10/3223321:1990656
}

[sanderton]

I can see the problem.

I'll work on a fix over the weekend.

[Fletch]

Cool, thanks. Let me know if I can provide additional data. In the meantime, do you have any hints on how to avoid this?

[sanderton]

Switching suggestions off?

[sanderton]

New version of EndPad is in the top post.

Changes:

Fixed bug which did not pad if a suggestion immediately followed a show on some US TiVos
Back to back suggestions on same channel no longer cancels the second one
You can now prevent suggestions cancelling other suggestions with a command line switch
You can change the recording quality used by suggestions with a command line switch
EndPad can now be placed anywhere, not just /var/hack
Code tidied and speeded up a little
Logfile tidied up with clearer info

The syntax to launch EndPad has been regularised to allow future additions - this means that if you install the new version and you have EndPad launched from a startup script you will need to edit that script for the new commands.

Has run for 24hrs on my two TiVos with no problems, but please report bugs etc.

[ddub]

Seems to work fine here Stuart. Thanks !

- had to delete the pid file from /var/run/ before I could run it though, got "endpad is already running". Even though I'd killed the process.

good work!
Darren

[russellg]

Fixed bug which did not pad if a suggestion immediately followed a show on some US TiVosHi, thanks for the update. Sorry to nitpick, but I wonder if this also fixes the problem I mentioned, which is that if a show immediately follows a suggestion, the suggestion was padded, thus cancelling the show (on a US Tivo). I believe the problem you mention above is the opposite, where a suggestion comes after a show, and the show wasn't padded.

Here's the relative URL to my original post:
/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1798463#post1798463

Thanks,

Russell

[Fozzie]

Good work Stuart. Thanks.

[Fletch]

What does "-sugqual 0" do?

[Fozzie]

Originally posted by Fletch
What does "-sugqual 0" do?

Hmmm, you did read the first post? ;)

"Note 3: EndPad has the ability to alter the recording quality of any suggestions, allowing you to, say record suggestions at Medium while leaving the default at Best, making setting up SPs faster. Use the optional -sugqual switch with values of 0 (Basic), 40 (Medium), 75 (High) or 100 (Best)"

[Fletch]

Thanks. Somehow I confused myself into thinking there were only three recording qualities...

[sanderton]

Originally posted by ddub
Seems to work fine here Stuart. Thanks !

- had to delete the pid file from /var/run/ before I could run it though, got "endpad is already running". Even though I'd killed the process.

good work!
Darren

Did you stop it with endpad.tcl -stop or just kill it?

[sanderton]

Originally posted by russellg
Hi, thanks for the update. Sorry to nitpick, but I wonder if this also fixes the problem I mentioned, which is that if a show immediately follows a suggestion, the suggestion was padded, thus cancelling the show (on a US Tivo). I believe the problem you mention above is the opposite, where a suggestion comes after a show, and the show wasn't padded.

Here's the relative URL to my original post:
/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1798463#post1798463

Thanks,

Russell

Yes, it will (I hope, not having a US TiVo to test it on). It wasn't correctly identifying some shows as suggestions under 3.x - it should now.

[ddub]

Did you stop it with endpad.tcl -stop or just kill it?

Yes, i tried that, It told me that it might take a minute. I also noticed a new file in var/hack called endpad.kill

I waited a few more mins, and tried starting endpad again, and got the same message "endpad is already running".

so sweat anyway, once I'd deleted the PID file, it started anyway.

thanks
DArren

[orange]

Just to let you know I had the same issue with getting the still running message and also had to delete the PID file.

My TiVo was restarted which caused this problem, so endpad.tcl -stop was not used. I was just testing to see if it would came back to life after a power failure or tivo provoked reboot. As I found the answer appears to be no.

I am running version 2.5.5a-01-1-023 of the software. If you need any more help please contact me. Apart from that top work!

[sanderton]

What command line is in your start up script?

You need to have the -auto flag in it to run it at startup.

[mark.stringer]

My endpad.log is showing all times as GMT so everything is actually one hour less than it should be. For instance, for Holiday which is on at 19:00 BST this evening I get:

Monday 17:30:06 : endpad.tcl 1.4.0 log file, starting up
Monday 17:30:06 : Start padding set to 60 seconds
Monday 17:30:06 : End padding set to 180 seconds
Monday 17:30:06 : Suggestions will not be padded if another suggestion immediately follows them
Monday 17:30:06 : Detected TiVo software version 2.5.5-01-1-023
Monday 17:30:06 : Suggestions will be recorded in High
Monday 17:30:06 : Woken up
Monday 17:30:07 : No recording in progress
Monday 17:30:07 : Next recording is Holiday on BBC1NI at 18:00
Monday 17:30:07 : No end padding required:
Monday 17:30:07 : No recording in progress
Monday 17:30:07 : Next end padding setting due 18:25
Monday 17:30:07 : Not time to add start padding yet
Monday 17:30:07 : Next start padding setting due 17:58
Monday 17:30:07 : Next wake up will be 17:58
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal.........................


When I type date on the Tivo I also get the GMT time.

Does endpad need a fix for this or is there something up with my Tivo? The time on the Tivo screens and on the TivoWeb info page shows correctly with the +1 hour for BST added.

Thanks,
Mark.

[sanderton]

This is "as designed". TiVo's internal clock runs on GMT. I left the log in GMT partly for ease of debugging as the other log files in /var/log are also in GMT; but mainly because I couldn't be arsed to write the code to make it local time.

[mark.stringer]

OK Stuart, thanks, as long as I know it is as designed. Whilst I have your attention can I be cheeky enough to ask how the tracker module is going? Or is your development time limited/on other projects at the moment?

Thanks,
Mark.

[sanderton]

Development time is spouse-limited at thet the moment!

[SteveJones]

I've been running endpad since about the first version with little problem. What an excelent utility!

However I am having problems with the latest version 1.4.0 running from rc.sysinit.author.

It starts, and stops, fine from a Telnet session and all the parameters work as they should, but try as I might I can't get this version to run from a reboot.

The line in my rc.sysinit.author file is:
/var/hack/endpad.tcl -s 1 -e 5 -sugqual 40 -sugeq -auto >> dev/null &

All the other progs in rc.sysinit.author start up OK as did previous versions of endpad.

Any ideas what's wrong?

Steve

[iankb]

I don't know what effect it would have but I think 'dev/null' should be '/dev/null'.

[SteveJones]

Thanks Ian, I'll give that a try tomorrow.

I notice in the startup line for autospace.tcl it is /dev/null but I'm sure I had dev/null running earlier versions of endpad with no problems.

Steve

[Fozzie]

I use /dev/null

[sanderton]

Steve - without the first / the command will fail.

You don't actually need all of the stuff after the endpad command as EndPad backgrounds itself; belt and braces!

[kitschcamp]

Originally posted by sanderton
Development time is spouse-limited at thet the moment!

Sounds like you have plans to change that :D

[sanderton]

It's more that the rugby season is approaching its end too - I don't know what to do with myself in the summer months!

[davestretty]

Hi Stuart,
I'm new to tivocommunity, but have been reading your posts on soft padding to cure tivo's most annoying fault i.e missing prog ends. Brilliant solution!!!!!! Unfortunately the actions described may as well be in swahili as i have no tivo hacking experience! Is an idiots guide available? Please help as you appear to be my only hope of avoiding continual spousal earache! A larger harddrive would also be useful but again a uk tivo based idiots guide is needed.
ps my tivo is 18months old and has 2.5.5a software
cheers
Dave E

[sanderton]

There are step by step walkthroughs on installing EndPad in the thread above. If they don't seem frantically simple I'm afraid it's because it isn't!

There are step by steps for upgrading your hard disk in this forum too.

You need to do plenty of reading until the fog begins to clear. It will! I don't recommend doing anything other than a hard disk upgrade "blind" ie with a set of instructions you don't understand. Do that first; maybe have a read of "Linux for congenital morons" or whatever.

[racingclub]

I'm running the latest version with the switch to record sugg. in Medium. This is confirmed in the enpad log file.

However, suggestions are still being recorded in High (my default setting) - any ideas?

[doubledrat]

davestretty: you can also buy pre-upgraded disks, so you just have to swap for the old ones. much easier for the uninitiated.

getting your machine to the state where you can endpad is not easy esp. if you are not familiar with linux. maybe you can impose on a knowledgeable friend? it's well worth it :)

I can't remember the last time I got a "bong of death"!