Beta testers wanted: hack to stop TiVo recoding episodes you have already seen

[sanderton]

I'm at it again, sorry; this TiVo hacking is addictive. :)

I'm building a hack which will extend the current 28-day no-re-record rule so that an episode, once recorded, will NEVER be re-recorded. This will mean that I can have a SP for a show on a heavy repeat cycle and it will pick up only the episodes which I have not recorded before.

It will also allow you to block entire series from being recorded by a wishlist or (optionally) as suggestions.

A TiVoWeb module will let you edit the blocked episodes list, should you discover that a recording has failed or whatever. You can restore a blocked episode from Recording History. A manually specified recording will not be blocked.

It WON'T fix dodgy guide data (miracles, as they say, are extra), so duplicates caused by that will not be affected. And of course the blocking of repeats only starts from the day the hack is installed, so there will be period where it doesn't seem to be helping much; but give it a few months and UK Gold SPs might become usable.

Now my problems in writing this are 1) it will do nothing for 28 days as TiVo handles it up to that point and 2) I need a good variety of SPs and wishlists to get it checked out.

So I'm looking for some brave volunteers to help me out. :)

The hack has three bits:

1) A modified version of EndPad, which as well as doing its usual stuff creates a little database of what has been recorded. If you don't want padding, that's fine it will run with the padding part turned off.
2) A TiVoWeb module that lets you view and edit that database
3) A script which runs periodically and removes episodes which are in its "recorded" database from the To Do List

Initially I'm looking for help with 1 and 2; 3 will come a bit later as it's more alpha than beta right now! But I want to get the database creation/editing part completely sorted before setting the actual episode blocking loose. So at this stage your recordings would be safe.

To be able to help, you'll need to have TiVo with TiVoWeb.

If you are prepared to help the cause of new hacks, could you PM me your e-mail address?

Thanks. :)

A shipping version of this (which ended up working rather differently) is here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2341737&&#post2341737

There are are also a couple of modded versions people have done in subsequent posts.

[pgogborn]

Originally posted by sanderton

3) A script which runs periodically and removes episodes which are in its "recorded" database from the To Do List

I am 99.9% certain that you have already got this in the spec for your script - but just in case - I suggest that it would be useful if removed episodes formed part of your DaiyMail report.

[sanderton]

Good idea.

[pgogborn]

I feel guilty for making suggestions, making more work, when you are already doing so much good work - but here goes.

How about a non-destructive way of dealing with repeated programmes?

Instead of just automatically removing repeats from the "To Do" list, as an alternative, how about an installation option to add a 'repeat' symbol/acronym to the programme title (and perhaps forcing a short "keep until" date).

The user could then elect to choose which repeats to delete from the "To Do" list / ignore them in the "Now Playing" list etc.

[sanderton]

I'm trying to build something that means I don't have to check the To Do list regularly as I'm too lazy. And one of the points of the hack is that if the recordings are cancelled, the TiVo can record something I haven't seen in that slot instead.

However once the framework is built, changes such as those should be very easy; probably just one line of code. I suspect that iI will leave them as an exercise for the reader, though. :)

[bradleyem]

Sounds cool.

Is there a way that it can check the TDL to see if the program was ever viewed? I'm thinking that if a program drops off the now playing list because of overwriting (for example), it'd be nice to re-record it next time.

See PM: count me in.

Brad


[edit, got Now Playing confused with To Do lists :confused: ]

[sanderton]

Not easily, no. I had though of trying to do it, but it seemed to me that many things on my Now Playing go unplayed because they are repeats, and life's too short to delete them manually.

[pahunt]

Originally posted by sanderton
Not easily, no. I had though of trying to do it, but it seemed to me that many things on my Now Playing go unplayed because they are repeats, and life's too short to delete them manually.

I agree. I do this all the time with Simpsons and Friends so I'd wouldn't want this.

[GvH]

Message deleted - read thread after commenting! Doh!!!!

[bradleyem]

I still think it'd be useful (perhaps only for certain season passes) but the majority has spoken.

But anyway, Tracker installed easily and is busy adding to, and tracking my shows.

[doubledrat]

stuart: I'd like to help, but I don't have tivoweb (I'm sure lots of people don't), so can it be designed to take into account all those without tivoweb please?

will the removed progs appear in the todo list as "someone in your household deleted"? I think they need to really, so us non-tw people can see what's going on.

Bob

[sanderton]

I don't think it will be practical if your don't have TiVoWeb - if TiVo screws up a recording you will never get that epiode re-recorded, so you need a mechanism for removing the block on specific episodes.

No you have a serial connection, can you not TiVoweb working?

[doubledrat]

well I don't have ethernet on my box. I have serial access but that's it.

is your DB going to be a plain text file? If so, I could always just manually edit it. Or what about a simple script to edit?

It would be a shame to limit something so useful to the few with ethernet on their tivos...

[Rob Nespor Bellis]

Bob,

With serial access you can configure ppp ( a TCP/IP ) connection to the PC on the other end of the serial cable.

With a TCP/IP connection ( not involving TiVoNET or TurboNET ) you can run TiVoWEB and any of the other programs that require an IP connection ( like ftp, telnet, etc. )

Rgds,

R.

[sanderton]

Originally posted by doubledrat
well I don't have ethernet on my box. I have serial access but that's it.


TivoWeb works over a serial connection.

[doubledrat]

oh. I didn't realise that

I'll give the docs a look then

[tivo_boj]

Originally posted by sanderton
...........

To be able to help, you'll need to have TiVo with TiVoWeb.

If you are prepared to help the cause of new hacks, could you PM me your e-mail address?

Thanks. :)

PM'ed you with my email ------I will help if I can

[leemcg]

Same here, PM sent. Happy to help if I can.

Lee

[SteveWilkins]

Sounds like the essential hack for Sky One viewers to stop those Simpson and Futurama's re-appearing. ;)

Count me in.

[TMW2N]

well, since i'm basically starting again with a clean TiVo, i odnt have much to lose, so count me in. i've installed just about every other one of your hacks and am very pleased so far.

G

[sanderton]

Apologies to recent volunteers who I haven't got back to yet. Distracted with other stuff. Will be in touch soon!

[sanderton]

Following a number of comments, it seems sensible for the Tracker project to be able to use whether or not an episode was watched to help decide whether or not to allow it to be rerecorded.

So, could the Tracker testers try the enclosed for me?

The main part is a script called watched.tcl. This will update the Tracker database with the deletion and watched status of each item.

Copy it to /var/hack
Make it executable with "chmod 755 watched.tcl"
Run it with "/var/hack/watched.tcl"

The enclosed updated version of the TiVoWeb module tracker.itcl lets you see the deletion/watched status.

The enclosed EndPad is the current 1.3.3 version.

Can you let me know if it works OK, and if the data its adding appears correct?

[mark.stringer]

Hi Stuart,

Just loaded the watched.tcl module. It seems to be working fine though I don't have much tracking data yet. Typical result is:

Episodes of Top of the Pops which have been recorded

TMS ID Episode Title Date recorded Source Deleted by Watched Status
EP4075790188 28 November Friday 28 November 2003 Season Pass User Watched (51mins)

which is fine. And for a show that has been deleted by TiVo:

Episodes of Star Trek: Voyager which have been recorded
TMS ID Episode Title Date recorded Source Deleted by Watched Status
EP1273610162 Lineage Sunday 30 November 2003 Suggestion
EP1273610120 Relativity Saturday 29 November 2003 Suggestion TiVo Unwatched


Do I need to set the watched.tcl to run once a day or something using cron to keep this up to date?

Thanks,
Mark.

[sanderton]

It will eventually run daily as part of the main program, but TiVo keeps a record of episodes foing back weeks, so you can run it manually from time to time just to keep the list up to date. cron it if you want; it won't hurt.

[Fozzie]

Just tried running watched.tcl and get the following error:

bash-2.02# /var/hack/watched.tcl
Updating Tracker list with watched status...
can't open object (errDbNotFound)

while executing
"db $db openid $fsid"
("uplevel" body line 3)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"ForeachMfsFileTrans fsid name type "/Recording/Cancelled" "" 10 {

set item [db $db openid $fsid]
set cancelreason [dbobj $item get CancelReason..."
(file "/var/hack/watched.tcl" line 64)
bash-2.02#

[sanderton]

Try running it again? It failed to open the database for some reason. Happens.

[comdw]

Worked fine on mine - all the data looks correct.

The logic for blocking episodes is looking likely to get complicated, but more information = more control.

[Fozzie]

Originally posted by sanderton
Try running it again? It failed to open the database for some reason. Happens.

Tried half a dozen times when I first posted but got the same error each time.

Just tried now and it completed ok. DB must have been busy with something else before.

[tivo_boj]

Loaded up the new tracker and run watched .tcl severl times, but none of the episodes show any entries for "deleted by" or "tracked" in tivoweb.

Also loaded up the endpad version withing the zip file, and although you say its version 1.3.3, the endpad log says 1.3.2

[sanderton]

Have they been deleted? things still in Now Playing won't be changed.

Have you had a major system reset of some kind which might have flushed out the "deleted" part of the database - have a look though TiVoWeb's MFS module at /Recording/Cancelled, and see if there's much there.

[tivo_boj]

there seems to be plenty in the MFS recordings/cancellled

when clicking on a few cancelled reason was 12?

[tivo_boj]

Re- checked, some of the tracked items I had deleated or watched a part of, but these are not reflected in the tracker on tivoweb. re-run watched.tcl, but no change.

[sanderton]

No idea; it works fine on mine and from the sound of it several others.

Are you really using TiVoWeb beta 4?

CancelReason = 12 means deleted by you; it is those that the script is supposed to update the database with.

Try running this debug version of watched.tcl and see what output it gives you.

[mark.stringer]

tivo_boj, sorry if you have already done this, but you need to do a quick reload of TivoWeb to have it use the new Tracker module before the changes come up, or at least I did. Best to come right out of Internet Explorer in case the page is cached.

Mark.

[tivo_boj]

I am using 1.9.4 beta 4, and have reloaded tivoweb severall times.

running watcheddebug does show it capturing delete reason and time watched, but still not showing in tracker

[Fozzie]

Shouldn't you be running Tivoweb v1.9.4 and not an older beta version? Would that be the problem?

[tivo_boj]

Originally posted by Fozzie
Shouldn't you be running Tivoweb v1.9.4 and not an older beta version? Would that be the problem?

Sorry my mistake - it is v1.9.4 not beta 4 as quoted earlier. Still no deleted reason or watched status??

[sanderton]

Open up one of the files in the /tracker directory, one of the ones which has a .old version so you know it's been edited. You should see the deleted and watched status in there in the mess of curly brackets.

In TiVoWeb, are the columns for Watched and Deletd By there, but blank?

[djrowley]

Originally posted by tivo_boj
Sorry my mistake - it is v1.9.4 not beta 4 as quoted earlier. Still no deleted reason or watched status??

I've just been through the same problem - I hadn't updated to the latest version of tracker which is in the zip with watcher and endpad, a little way up this thread.

David

[tivo_boj]

Originally posted by sanderton
Open up one of the files in the /tracker directory, one of the ones which has a .old version so you know it's been edited. You should see the deleted and watched status in there in the mess of curly brackets.

In TiVoWeb, are the columns for Watched and Deletd By there, but blank?

Right.... changing rooms recorded, updated using watched.tcl. Watched a couple of minutes left for a while, updated using watched.tcl. Deleted, updated using watched.

Each time I updated, the entry in the tracker file showed

EP1877230234 Torquay 12387 9 1 {} {}

in other words no change
UPDATE
decided to bite the bullet and start again.Deleted all my entries in the tracker folder, just need to wait for a few recording before trying again

[sanderton]

What was the output from the debug version of watched.tcl?

I'm at a loss as to why this works for others but not you.

watched.tcl will have done nothing until you deleted the show, and might have taken a couple of minutes for the cancellation to be processed into the /Recording/Canaclled list.

[tivo_boj]

example of part of a debug. It seems to looking up the info but no writing it to the tracker files (although it does update).

Like I said I will record a few things and delete them to see what happens

Looking up data
Updating tracking SH187723 EP1877230233 User Watched (28mins)
1644409 cancelreason = 20
1644408 cancelreason = 12
Looking up data
Updating tracking SH501906 EP5019060010 User Watched (27mins)
1644390 cancelreason = 12
Looking up data
Updating tracking SH620819 EP6208190003 User Watched (30mins)
Reading data for SH620819
Writing revised data
1656638 cancelreason = 12
Looking up data
Updating tracking SH483384 SH4833840000 User Watched (22mins)
1646330 cancelreason = 12
Looking up data
Updating tracking SH496617 SH4966170000 User Unwatched
1660490 cancelreason = 12
Looking up data
Updating tracking SH410411 SH4104110000 User Unwatched
1632417 cancelreason = 29
1662124 cancelreason = 12
Looking up data
Updating tracking SH533812 EP5338120041 User Unwatched
1632409 cancelreason = 29
1632418 cancelreason = 29



Like I said I will record a few things and delete them to see what happens

[sanderton]

It will only update the tracking for files which already exist in its database - if you haven't been running tracker for long then some of these will not be in the database so will not be updated. You need to look at a show which was recorded after you started using the system.

[tivo_boj]

Reloaded tivoweb from the latest version from the Tivoweb website ( just in case, but I beleived Inhad the latest) Reloaded endpad, tracker and watched from this post. Chmoded where required. Rebooted Tivo (which runs endpad).

Run sinnce last night and tracker picked up the episodes of Emmererdale recorded tonight.

Deleted them !

Run watched.tcl.

rechecked tracker - still showed the emmerdale episodes, with no delete reason ( ie the deleted by & watched columns blank)

Cannot for the life of me see what i am doing wrong!!!!

UPDATE

checked the tracker files for emmerdale, both the new and old files identical - ie not picked up the fact it had been deleted

[tivo_boj]

Out of the five things tivo recorded, I also deleted football league extra withouy watching. In tracker this actually shows

SH4966170000 No title, rec 02 December 2003 Tuesday 02 December 2003 Season Pass User Unwatched Blocked .

So it worked on , but not emmerdale?. Maybe the database is a bit behind.

Will leave it a few days to see if does start cathing up........

Sorry if this has been a wild goose chase.

[bradleyem]

ok, the watched.tcl just isn't working for me.


I've been trying to run it since release, and I just keep getting:

bash-2.02# /var/hack/watched.tcl
Updating Tracker list with watched status...
no such object: {CONFLICT err=errTmActiveLockConflict}
while executing
"dbobj $series get TmsId"
("uplevel" body line 14)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"ForeachMfsFileTrans fsid name type "/Recording/Cancelled" "" 10 {

set item [db $db openid $fsid]
set cancelreason [dbobj $item get CancelReason..."
(file "/var/hack/watched.tcl" line 64)

(I'm runing the new version of endpad btw)

Is it something I'm doing? I've tried copying it over again, running it at varying times during the day, even right after a reboot...

[bradleyem]

oh it's typical isn't it? Just after saying it never works, it runs, although after 9 "retrying after errTmBackgroundHoldoff ..." messages.

I think it needs some ironing out though, as it can't really be trusted to run in a script if it fails 95% of the time...

[sanderton]

Thnat's why this is a beta test....

[tivo_boj]

Right,

deleted the emmedales progs yesterday, run watched.tcl, checked on tracker, still shows no deleted reason. This goes for other items. So it does not look like the watched prog is adding the watched and deleteded reason, although in the tracker folder it does update the files ( ie get an old version), but they are identical

[sanderton]

I'm utterly bemused then.

It shouldn't write a new copy of the file unless it has a wached date to add.

But what I really don't understand is how its updating mine fine but not yours.

Could you zip up the contents of the Tracker directory and send it to me?

[tivo_boj]

Originally posted by sanderton
I'm utterly bemused then.

It shouldn't write a new copy of the file unless it has a wached date to add.

But what I really don't understand is how its updating mine fine but not yours.

Could you zip up the contents of the Tracker directory and send it to me?

see attached

[pahunt]

I've only just loaded this but it seems to work OK for me.

[sanderton]

Thanks for the file tivo_boj

I think I have an idea why you're seeing this. The /Recordings/Cancelled database goes back about a month, so watched.tcl is finding episodes of a series which you have previously recorded and deleted, and it goes to add the watched status to the series file, but the episode is not there as you weren't running Tracker then. So the file gets updated, but no data is added.

I tried some tests on my TiVo and it added the deletion status after about 30 mins.

[tivo_boj]

Maybe as Emerdale always records , that some reason why it not recognising the ones I have deleted.

I will try and leave it a few days of normal watching and deleting to see if it does start regonising new recording that have been watched/deleted. The only one that has come up with the watched and delete status was football league extra.

footnote

the bill was recorderd ealier, watched some of it, deleted it, waited 1 hour, run watched, still not watched or delete status showing in tracker:confused:

[sanderton]

It's processed by one of TiVo's background tasks, maybe yours is just a bit lazy (or the backgound task is triggered by something, perhapsa recording starting).

Whatever, in the context of Tracker, as long as the status is added within 28 days it doesn't really matter - up to that point TiVos built in systemes will be keeping out repeats.

[tivo_boj]

A lot of progs recordered , either watched deleted or both and still not updating information on tracker. ( although does write old files with same info).

Your debug vervison of watched, any way of showing the actual info it trying to write with the update. I would like to see the watched prog doing its stuff in more detail, including the actaul data it is capturing and how its trying to write it. The ability to pause the script every part of the way could help me go line by line thrugh it to see where mys ystem is failing to either collect or write the updated files.

[mark.stringer]

Stuart,

Is there any chance of a one-off script to add the contents of Now Playing to the Tracker database? The reason I ask is because I have a load of ER episodes and West Wing episodes from the last season still to watch. TiVo is now starting to record duplicates of these on E4 even though they are in the Now Playing list, and my SP is set to First Run Only. I had assumed it would not do this but since they are over 28 days old it seems to be ignoring the entries in the Now Playing list and recording them anyway.

Is the Tracker module actually active at this stage anyway or is it just collecting data? In other words would adding these to the database actually prevent them being recorded?

Thanks,
Mark.

[sanderton]

It's just collecting data, nothing is active.

[bobnick]

Originally posted by mark.stringer
I have a load of ER episodes and West Wing episodes from the last season still to watch. TiVo is now starting to record duplicates of these on E4 even though they are in the Now Playing list

Tivo shouldn't be taping anything that's still in your Now Playing list, so I guess it would be easier to chase up Tribune to get them to fix their dodgy guide data.

[tivo_boj]

Stuart,

Watched is still not updating the tracker files with ther delete and watched info. :-(

[sanderton]

Football League Extra has details added in the file you uploaded.

Try running this and posting the output file.

[tivo_boj]

Stuart,

got this when trying to run.

bash-2.02# dumpcancelled.tcl
Getting cancelledd list and saving to dumpfile.txt
can't open object (errDbNotFound)

while executing
"db $db openid $fsid"
("uplevel" body line 3)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"ForeachMfsFileTrans fsid name type "/Recording/Cancelled" "" 10 {

set item [db $db openid $fsid]
set cancelreason [dbobj $item get CancelReason..."
(file "/var/hack/dumpcancelled.tcl" line 18)
bash-2.02#

UPDATE

Gets simalar error now when runiing watched.tcl

[sanderton]

Tht database is busy when you try to access it; keep trying.

[tivo_boj]

find attached,

I did start from scratch yesterday ( deleted tracker files and started again), do not know if that will make a difference.

The Football League Extra program is the only one that has ever shown the watched info.

[tivo_boj]

Stuart, see a comparison ( hope I am comparing the right things)

From Dumptext

dbobj2026 21 SH100316 EP1003160044 User Unwatched

From SH100316 tracker files after running watched.tcl

EP1003160044 Exploitin' 12391 8 1

I attach my tracker folder as I said it has changed and thus this related to that in the dumptesxt file

[sanderton]

The tracker folder has "Sh100316 " (lowercase h) which would prevent the update - any idea how that might have happened?

[tivo_boj]

Weird,

can confirm in the actual tracker file they are upper case. It seems that winzip did this. Tried and zip them again and the same files agian went to lower case- why ....dunno?

[tivo_boj]

Still nothing...............................................

[fireshipjohn]

Hi,

An oddity this morning, my endpad had died with this message....

--------------------------------
Thursday 09:58:00 : Next wake up will be 10:25
Sleeping, checking every minute for kill signal............................
Thursday 10:25:00 : Woken up
Thursday 10:25:00 : Recording {Max & Ruby} on NICKJR now
Thursday 10:25:00 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 10:30
Thursday 10:25:00 : Next recording is {The Holy Grail} on DCI at 11:00
Thursday 10:25:00 : Error detected
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/SH526697": too many open files
while executing
"open "$trackerdir/$seriestmsid" a"
Thursday 10:25:00 : Attempting to recover
Thursday 10:25:31 : Woken up
Thursday 10:25:31 : Recording {Max & Ruby} on NICKJR now
Thursday 10:25:31 : Recording Scheduled End Time: 10:30
Thursday 10:25:31 : Next recording is {The Holy Grail} on DCI at 11:00
Thursday 10:25:31 : Error detected
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/series": too many open files
while executing
"open "$trackerdir/series" r"
Thursday 10:25:31 : Attempting to recover
Thursday 10:25:31 : Too many errors, stopping
Thursday 12:29:46 :
Thursday 12:29:46 : endpad.tcl 1.3.2 log file, starting up
Thursday 12:29:46 : Start padding set to 60 seconds
Thursday 12:29:46 : End padding set to 240 seconds
Thursday 12:29:47 : Woken up
Thursday 12:29:47 : No recording in progress
-----------------------

'too many open files' looks like something isnt closing properly, Tivo
has not been that busy!

Cheers

John

[pahunt]

This same error has been reported by other people in the Endpad thread and Sanderton's advice was to rename the tracker folder (disabling the tracking function) for the time being.

[sanderton]

Apologies for the lack of progress on this one; all my development hours are going into a project to let you synch the Now Playing lists of two networked TiVios and play shows even if they are on the remote machine.

For obvious resons you won't be reading about that here!

I shall return to the Tracker project in the new year.

[Rob Nespor Bellis]

Yay!!! See you on the other side ( where my handle is Spod! ) Which forum number will you be posting in?

Rgds,

R.

[sanderton]

39; don't hold you breath though - I have all the individual bits working (getting the NP list; sending to the remote machine; adding dummy entries in the remote NP; detecting when someone tries to play one; initialising a file transfer when that happens; playing the resulting "real" recording), but making them play nicely together is proving to be fun and games!

[ChrisJB]

Stuart, are you talking about a merged Now Playing that can be accessed by either machine? From the TiVo GUI? If so, then wow! Most of our TV-watching Christmas has been trying to guess which show is on what TiVo. Especially one whole series, A Very Peculiar Practice, which, due to conflicts is spliced between both our TiVoes. This would be something else. I look forward to forum 39 of the database of deals revealing all! I have to take my hat off to you Stuart, you have a very practical focus to your programming. Good luck!

[ccwf]

Will this hack also prevent seen episodes from being recorded as suggestions?

Note: If suggestions from the To Do List are simply removed in the obvious way, they can reappear when TiVo recalculates suggestions (which seems to occur every half hour or so) since such removals do not get noted in the Recording History. To make sure an undesirable suggestion stays off the To Do List, it is necessary to first record it as a normal recording and then cancel that recording.

[sanderton]

Yes, it tracks suggestions. The plan is that it sweeps the TDL every half hour or so. the exact timing will be a matter for experimentation.

I think they do get noted in Recording history, athough possinly not displayed?

[ccwf]

They are certainly not displayed in the Recording History. If they are noted, it is in a useless way that it doesn't prevent the suggestions from appearing again, so I think the explicit record and delete procedure is necessary for suggestions. Otherwise, at best the tracker would delete the suggestion, it would reappear, the tracker would delete it again, it would reappear, …, which would prevent the suggestion from being recorded with a short enough sweep interval but would not allow other suggestions to be recorded instead during that time.

[sanderton]

Cancelled suggestions are logged in /Recordings/Cancelled which contains more stuff that Recordings/History

I think we'll have to look at that in practice to see how it works.

[gl9500]

Hi Stuart,

This sounds like just the thing I need to track episodes. Any ETA for when it may be available? (I did see an old release a few pages back, but I was thinking I should try something more current and w/ some docs :).

Thanks much!

[sanderton]

I have a wife-limited amount of develoment time at the moment, and it's all going on stuff we can't talk about here.

I'll return to Tracker when that's working properly.

[dlw283]

This thread has been inactive for some time... Any update? Bump...

[sanderton]

Wife insisting on a certain amount of "getting a life". :) Plus the rugby season is reaching its climax, which makes weekends more of a drinking/hangover time than coding time.

All hacking time over Xmas and since spend building a hack to list & play the shows on the disk of a second TiVo over your home network.

That now pretty much works, so I will retuen to Tracker as the re-recording of episodes I've already seen is about the one annoyance about TiVo I haven't yet managaed to fix to my satisfaction.

Doing it properly though, is tricky.

[Mike Laskey]

Hi Stuart

I have a season pass in for "2 Wheels 2004" shown on GMM. Now the problem with this is that the guide data is zero in terms of episode titles and descriptions. Unfortunately, GMM repeat the show about 4 times a week.

Is there some other programme identifier that you will be using for Tracker to help determine repeat shows already recorded, or will Tracker be unable to do much about this situation?

Mike.

[sanderton]

It won't be able to do anything about it. :(

All the episodes will have the same ID number.

It would be possible to write a custom hack which removed the extras from the to do list automatically.

[Mike Laskey]

I was afraid you might say that!

Thanks anyway :)

Mike.

[dlw283]

This thread has been inactive for some time... Any update? Bump...

[sanderton]

Started working on it again now the rugby season is over. Have decided my initial model was too complex, so am working on a simpler one.

[mark.stringer]

Great to know you are on the job. I have been patiently waiting for this one whilst enjoying the benefits of your other creations such as endpad. Keep up the good work!
Mark.

[bradleyem]

by the way, i noticed that the tracker functionality of endpad is missing on 1.4.0.
or is it just me?

[sanderton]

Yes, that code proved unnecessary as the details of recent recordings can be read from the TiVo database even after they have been deleted for several weeks.

[bradleyem]

ah... does it still build the db? I've got a nice long list in tracker, and I'd kept using 1.3.3 so i'd be ready to go when you finished the next step.

[sanderton]

It won't be of much use I'm afraid. One thing I've found with my testing to date is that you really don't want to just extend the 28 day rule to a "forever" rule - at least I don't. Some (many) shows get recorded then deleted through lack of space, but I would have no objection to their being re-recorded - I just didn't get around to watching them first time.

The system I'm building will prevent re-records of things you have manually deleted, or optionally things which you have watched then either deleted or TiVo has cleared off.

Unfortunately the database I set up using EndPad doesn't record the watched status or how the programme was deleted.

[bradleyem]

that sounds like the best way forward. Would there be some sort of mechanism to unmark files (I'm thinking for missed channel changes and suchlike).

I've missed CSI pilot episode twice now due to missed changes!!!

(finally managed to download it, then tivo went and deleted episode 2.... aarrggh)

[dlw283]

Just looking for a status update...

[dlw283]

Bump...

[sanderton]

OK, here's my current work in progress.

Should work with any TiVo, TW 1.9.4 (probably not TW+ as it patches in to the To Do List module, but I haven't tried it).

Unzip the enc, drop it into the /modules directoy and do a Quick Restart.

If you've been running the beta module I posted ages ago, click the link to convert the database before doing anything else.

Click "Create/Update Tracking List" to update the database with what's in been recorded and deleted in the last 28 days, or since the last time you ran it.

Click "View Tracking List" to view the database.

Click "Setup options" to decide what to do about shows which reappear in the TDL which you've already recorded. You can either Block or Allow, based on whther the show was watched and whether it was deleted by you or TiVo houskeeping. You can also make Tracker ignore generic, no data, episodes, or process them as any other.

Click "Process To Do List" to view the TDL, with re-recordings marked for deletion. From there in its the normal TDL module.

Don't expect it to do a lot at first if you haven't been building up a database, as TiVo's 28 day rule will block duplicates in that time span.

As always, may not work, may make you machine record porn instead of Casualty and end your marriage, use at your own risk, etc etc.

To answer two questions in advance: 1) no, I don't plan to make a version that runs automatically and 2) No, there is no way to edit the database yet because it's just too tedious to code. If you wish to do either of the above, please feel free to use my code any way you like.

[bradleyem]

Seems to work fine for TW+ for me.

Nice one!

[blindlemon]

Hi Stuart,

Looks great :)

However when I hit Create/Update Tracking List I get

action_tracker_update '' ''
can't open object (errDbNotFound)

while executing
"db $db openid $fsid"
("uplevel" body line 4)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"ForeachChangedMfsFileTrans fsid name type "/Recording/Cancelled" $since 10 {

if {[lindex [split $name :] 0] <= [expr [clock seconds] / 86400]..."
(procedure "scan_cancelled" line 11)
invoked from within
"scan_cancelled $lastupdate"
(procedure "::action_tracker_update" line 5)
invoked from within
"::action_$action $chan $part $env"
("eval" body line 1)
invoked from within
"eval {::action_$action $chan $part $env}"

It seems to have worked before falling over though, as I get a list of series being tracked and the Process ToDo List option works fine with a few items preselected.

In case it's pertinent I should mention that I'm also running Global Blocklist v0.23.

[sanderton]

Looks like a database busy doing something else error - affects all TW modulkes occasionally. Full Reload TW.

[Fozzie]

Stuart,

Small question - is a partially watched programme tagged as watched?

Ta.

[dmchapman]

Originally posted by sanderton
may make you machine record porn instead of Casualty

Sigh.

Yet another reason why I really ought to get my TiVo hacked :)

Darren

[mark.stringer]

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for all the hard work that must have gone into this. I have it installed and working - it deleted one show from my TDL on first run which was interesting. It was an episode I had already seen.

Just a note for anyone installing this. Don't be surprised if the initial database creation takes 30 seconds or so, mine did.

I will be making this a regular part of my TDL cleanup.

Thanks again,
Mark.

[blindlemon]

Only 30 seconds?

On my 240gb Sky TiVo, with 100+ wishlists & SPs it took about 10 minutes :eek:

Worked fine though, and is now tracking 149 series.... thanks Stuart :)

[Milhouse]

Bummer... I get the following error when converting my old database:


Processing SH3322630000

INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
--cut here--
action_tracker_convert '' ''
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/MV": no such file or directory
while executing
"open $datafile r"
(procedure "::action_tracker_convert" line 6)
invoked from within
"::action_$action $chan $part $env"
("eval" body line 1)
invoked from within
"eval {::action_$action $chan $part $env}"
--cut here--


I have several MV* directories but none called "MV":


bash-2.02# ls MV*
MV000093 MV006499 MV024212 MV037926 MV103568 MV132987 MV144665
MV001957 MV014541 MV025767 MV044257 MV117222 MV133643 MV146486
MV004589 MV016060 MV026417 MV053650 MV120599 MV140254 MV147866
MV005491 MV017227 MV034311 MV103279 MV123201 MV140279


Should I just forget the convert and start from scratch? I'm running endpad 1.3.4

[sanderton]

Start from scratch I'm afraid - those files date froma couple of versions ago, when I made all films come under one heading as a series called "films" as the Tracker screen was getting cluttered.

I don't know what the converter will do with that old database - post a copy of any blocklits_* files it has created and I'll see if they are valid.

[sanderton]

Originally posted by Fozzie
Stuart,

Small question - is a partially watched programme tagged as watched?

Ta.

Yes.

[Milhouse]

Hi Stuart

I've got 4 block_* files:


bash-2.02# ls -la block*
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 2561 Sep 18 16:18 block_UT
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 520 Sep 18 16:18 block_UU
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 13 Sep 18 16:14 block_WT
-rw-r--r-- 1 0 0 1053 Sep 18 16:18 block_WU


They all seem to contain TMS ID's... perhaps it only got part way through the conversion and the block lists it created are useable?

I'm a bit confused about the relationship between endpad and tracker. Is endpad still required to create these entries (do I need to upgrade?) or is Tracker completely stand alone now?

[sanderton]

Endpad had all the elements to do with Tracker removed about a year ago. :) I would upgrade as there have been several bug fixes since the evrsion you are using.

I figured out how to read the 28-day no-rerecord list directly in MFS, so keeping track of recordings "live" using EndPad was not needed.

[Milhouse]

I've upgraded now! Didn't see the need before as why fix something that (at least for me!) wasn't broke? :D

It seems that tracker is writing to the same /var/hack/tracker directory as endpad did originally, with tracker creating "block_*", "MV" and "SP" files (along with it's own config). Would it be OK to remove the SH* and MV* files (after a conversion) as I'm guessing they're no longer required?

Oh, and THANKS for all your efforts! :D

[sanderton]

The block_* files and the .cfg file are the only ones which actually do anything. The others allow the database to be displayed, originally with the idea of being editable, but that turned out to be too horrible to program - which is why this module's been on the back burner for 9 months. Do what you like with the rest!

[dlw283]

If I watch a show and delete it, then do a Tracker update and view...should the show I just watched and deleted immediately show up in the Tracker or is there a delay factor? The reason I ask is that yesterday I watched 2 episodes of CSI and deleted them. Afterwards I ran the Tracker update then view. One of the episodes was in the list but not the other. I then went and checked some other shows I had watched and noticed some of them were missing as well. I ran it again this morning, and the shows were still missing. Could I be running the Tracker too often?

[sanderton]

Is it possible that one of those episodes was a generic (TMS Id ends in 0000)? If so it will only appear once.

I'm not sure exactly when TiVo shifts a show from Active to Cancelled, but i'd have thought it would be pretty much staright away.

You can't run Tracker too often.

Does the show which isn't listed appear in the Deleted Shows bit of TW?

Edit: having checked, Tracker will not pick up shows which have been deleted but can still be recovered. They will appear once they have been proeprly trashed. This will not effect its functionality at all as "undeletable" shows will be blocked by TiVos 28-day rule anyway.

[dlw283]

My machine is running near capacity because I have recorded 4 seasons of CSI on it! I didn't have the missing CSI episode available in the deleted, but I have this episode that doesn't show up in the tracker that I pulled back from deleted...

Lotsa useless stuff removed...

P.S. This is a series 1 tivo

[dlw283]

Edit: having checked, Tracker will not pick up shows which have been deleted but can still be recovered. They will appear once they have been proeprly trashed. This will not effect its functionality at all as "undeletable" shows will be blocked by TiVos 28-day rule anyway.

That is probably what is happening...I knew you would have a good answer. Thanks for the good work!!!

[Milhouse]

Stuart...

In "View Tracked Episodes" I have Dalziel & Pascoe, with the following detail (most would have been on UK Gold, some may have been from BBC1 LDN):


TMS ID Episode Title Date recorded Source Deleted by Watched
EP3735550024 Walls of Silence Tue 31 Aug 04 WishList User Watched (0mins)
EP3735550030 Truth and Consequences Tue 27 Jan 04 WishList
EP3735550045 Secrets of the Dead Sat 05 Jun 04 WishList
EP3735550053 The Unwanted Sat 03 Jul 04 WishList
EP3735550054 Mens Sana Sat 17 Jul 04 WishList
EP3735550056 For Love nor Money Sat 31 Jul 04 WishList
EP3735550065 A Game of Soldiers Sat 07 Aug 04 WishList


yet in my To Do List I have the following entry:


Wed 22nd Sep 00:10 UKGLD Dalziel and Pascoe Truth and Consequences


Which is going to be recorded, and wasn't picked up by Tracker as a dupe - could this be because tracker is not identifying dupes across channels? Although I don't know for sure which channel the deleted version of "Truth and Consequences" was recorded from.

Any ideas, or have I done something wrong? I have created/updated my tracking list, then processed the TDL but the episode for D&P on Wed 22nd Sep is never marked as being a candidate for deletion.

Mind you, when I look at the detail for the episode to be recorded (by clicking on the link for "Truth and Consequences" in the TDL) it shows the "Cancel Reason" as "RecordDifferentShowing"... :confused:

:)

[sanderton]

There are no entries under Watched or Deleted by for that episode. The database from that very old EndPad-run Tracker didn't have that information, so the "Update database" didn't work properly.

Seems you will have to junk the database and and start over - sorry.

[Milhouse]

No probelm - I'll do just that and start from scratch once I get home. :)

[Milhouse]

Hi Stuart - I started from scratch (moved all files out of /var/hack/tracker except tracker.cfg.*), updated the tracking list (now have about 15 programmes instead of 100+, they all seem to be TiVo/Unwatched) and then got the following error when attempting to process the TDL:


INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
--cut here--
action_tracker_todo '' ''
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/block_WU": no such file or directory
while executing
"open $trackerdir/block_UU r"
(procedure "::action_tracker_todo" line 20)
invoked from within
"::action_$action $chan $part $env"
("eval" body line 1)
invoked from within
"eval {::action_$action $chan $part $env}"
--cut here--


The only block_* file I had after running "Create/Update List" was block_UT, so I touch-ed block_WU and reran "Process TDL" - it then failed on block_UU. I touch-ed block_UU, and "Process TDL" ran fine... :)

I'm hopeing I was correct to touch these two files, maybe a suggestion for the "Create/update Tracking List" process to create these files as empty if there is no data? Or "Process TDL" to ignore if not found?

Cheers, M.

[sanderton]

Delete the tracker.cfg file - it includes the time the last update was run and ignores anything it finds in MFS from before then, so you won't have picked up anything much at all when Create/Update List was run - so the files didn't exist.

[Milhouse]

Originally posted by sanderton
Delete the tracker.cfg file - it includes the time the last update was run and ignores anything it finds in MFS from before then, so you won't have picked up anything much at all when Create/Update List was run - so the files didn't exist.

Ha! And there's me trying to be clever and saving the config... doh! :) Thanks sanderton.

[gyre]

Stu, you are awesome. This is exactly what I wanted :)

Thanks!

-- gyre --

[gyre]

Question... when I manually delete something from the todo list, does tracker notice?

The reason I ask is that I'm seeing stuff appear on the todo list that I remember watching 6 months back before I installed tracker. I normally manually delete that stuff before it gets recorded again.

Ideally, tracker would notice that I've deleted it manually, rather than having to wait for it to be recorded and then deleting it without watching it.

Thanks!

-- gyre --

[sanderton]

Good point.

Here's a version which should treat explicit deletes from the TDL the same as a manul delete of a recording. Let me know if it works!

[gyre]

Wow!

Thanks Stuart. Will install that tonight and try it out.

-- gyre --

[sanderton]

The deleted items won't show up in Tracker until the day that they would have been broadcast. (To keep processing time down, Tracker ignores entries in MFS past the current date)

It may well open a can of worms in picking up scheduled suggestions which TiVo decided not to record, or shows which got taken off the TDL because of conflicts - let me know!

[sanderton]

Ahem, here's a version without the typo which stops it working!

[gyre]

I tried the first one. Wasn't able to see if it worked or not. Did notice that it had DOS format CRLFs tho :)

Trying new one now. Thx.

-- gyre --

[sanderton]

Don't worry about the DOS format stuff - it doesn't affect pure TCL, so modules are fine.

[gyre]

Yay :D

-- gyre --

[gyre]

Ah, I see, you've changed the recording reason from 2 to 22. Couldn't find a list of reasons easily to hand.

Running now. It doesn't appear yet to be generating huge number of bogus already seen episodes. Which is good.

Thanks Stu.

Quick question... under which conditions do I need to run the 'create/update tracking list' before I run the 'process todo list' ? I'm doing both each time for now, but wondered if the first needed to be done only after a phone call etc.

-- gyre --

[sanderton]

I'd do it every time to ensure the list is fully up to date.

[Fozzie]

Originally posted by sanderton
Here's a version which should treat explicit deletes from the TDL the same as a manul delete of a recording. Let me know if it works!
Stuart - how does it treat the scheduled recording of a programme that the user subsequently chooses to cancel when setting up a new recording that clashes with it?

Thanks.

[sanderton]

Pass. Try it and see!

[kitschcamp]

Originally posted by sanderton
The deleted items won't show up in Tracker until the day that they would have been broadcast. (To keep processing time down, Tracker ignores entries in MFS past the current date)


By that do you mean it will only process ones on the day run, or up to the day run?

[kitschcamp]

Hmm. Just got this error with the new one. Returned to the old one and got it there too, now.


INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
--cut here--
action_tracker_update '' ''
can't open object (errDbNotFound)

while executing
"db $db openid $fsid"
("uplevel" body line 4)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"ForeachChangedMfsFileTrans fsid name type "/Recording/Cancelled" $since 10 {

if {[lindex [split $name :] 0] <= [expr [clock seconds] / 86400]..."
(procedure "scan_cancelled" line 11)
invoked from within
"scan_cancelled $lastupdate"
(procedure "::action_tracker_update" line 5)
invoked from within
"::action_$action $chan $part $env"
("eval" body line 1)
invoked from within
"eval {::action_$action $chan $part $env}"
--cut here--

[kitschcamp]

Strange, one reboot and it all seems ok :/

[LJ]

Originally posted by kitschcamp
can't open object (errDbNotFound)That's a generic TiVo-getting-it's-knickers-in-a-twist error ;) A complete exit/restart of TiVoWeb sometimes fixes it, otherwise it's time to reboot as you found.

[sanderton]

Originally posted by kitschcamp
By that do you mean it will only process ones on the day run, or up to the day run?

It looks at any entry in /Recordings/Cancelled which a) have changed since it was last run and b) had a scheduled recording date of "today|" or before.

[kitschcamp]

Thanks for that - and I presume an explicit delete via TivoWeb is the same as via the TiVo?

[sanderton]

Yes, IIRC TW assigns the "explicit delete" CancelReason code.

[lenwuk]

This seems like a very useful module, but I'm having trouble following its development.
Am I right in assuming that the "tracker" module is all that's required, or does it still need the "watched" script as well?

Thanks, Len

[sanderton]

Just the Tracker module.

[lenwuk]

Thanks Stuart.
I can't wait to see what other goodies you have in store for us . . . :)

Best Regards, Len

[tankstage]

Thanks for this module sanderton.
would it be possible to add a function, to keep two units (both subbed and with tracker loaded) databases in sync ?

[sanderton]

Possible, yes. Have I got time to write it? No!

The tracker databse uses TMSIDs which should be TiVo independent, so you "just" need to sync the /tracker directories.

[tankstage]

Thanks for the prompt reply.
I assume you mean reading the database files onto my computer and manualy entering (or wite a prog to do it) differences between the two sets of data , and then saving the same file back to both Tivo's ?

[gl9500]

Stuart,

please feel free to flog me, but I just downloaded your Tracker-3.0.1b1, ran tivoweb and clicked to get it to automagically spit out a /var/hack/tracker folder.

I am also running your endpad-1.3.3.

Is it ok to run these 2 together?

are there any "readme" or instructions?

(apologies for all the stupid questions).

TIA

[sanderton]

I'd recommend you upgrade to the latest EndPad - I'm not sure how that version will interact with Tracker.

[SteveT]

Just found this thread and quickly tried it out (on TWP1.1-pre2). So far, so great! It found two shows for deletion the first time. Thanks for writing this very useful tool.

[SteveT]

.....
To answer two questions in advance: 1) no, I don't plan to make a version that runs automatically and 2) No, there is no way to edit the database yet because it's just too tedious to code. If you wish to do either of the above, please feel free to use my code any way you like.Regarding #2 above, I may be able to help a bit.
What would you want to be able to edit? Would a page listing the blocked items with a "remove" checkbox for each be helpful? Is there something else?

[sanderton]

I think the main reason for wanting to edit the database is when a guide data screw up means that while Tivo thinks program x has been recorded in fact another show was. Tracker will then block show x even though you've never seen it. Being able to delete entries would be useful.

[SteveT]

I think the main reason for wanting to edit the database is when a guide data screw up means that while Tivo thinks program x has been recorded in fact another show was. Tracker will then block show x even though you've never seen it. Being able to delete entries would be useful.OK, I'll give it a look. Step 1, determine how to look up the show and episode titles from the key values in the BLOCK_* files. Step 2, create the form page and the update function. Step 3, write the changed list back to the BLOCK_* files.

[SteveT]

I believe I've found a minor problem with tracker, at least on my HDVR2. Line 188 sets isepisodic based on the MFS value Episodic. However, it appears that Episodic is only populated on my system when the value is 0. I changed the line to default 1 if not found. Old: set isepisodic [dbobj $series get Episodic]New: set isepisodic [defaultval 1 [dbobj $series get Episodic]]Before this change, View Tracking List only had two items "Films" and "Specials and One-offs", with most everything clumped under the latter, with no episode titles. After the change, I deleted the /var/hack/tracker directory and reran "Create/Update Tracking List". Now, I have a list of series, each of which lists its episodes.

[dlw283]

Would it be hard to add an option to backup the 4 data files to my PC? Never know when Tivo might trash my hacked machine, and I would hate to lose those files now!

David

[fysmd]

I'm a VERY greatful long term user of endpad and tracker but I've lost track!

What is the current/latest version of each?

[kitschcamp]

Not sure if it's working as intended or if I've uncovered a bug.

I've just deleted a load of "Meet the Ancestors" from Now Playing that I've seen a long while back and have been recorded as suggestions.

I've been into tracker and clicked on the "Create/Update" link and then gone into the "View Tracking List" but the episodes I've deleted are not in the table.

Any ideas?

I've noticed a similar thing with a few other series where they do not seem to be going into the tracking list.

I've deleted a few episodes of The O.C. (which is a season pass, not suggestions) and they too are not in the View Tracked list. The ones deleted on 20th Feb, however, are. The one from last night isn't.

Am I missing something subtle?

[kitschcamp]

Ah, solved my own problem.

As long as the item is still in the Deleted Programs (ie exists on the disc) it doesn't move into the tracker database.

It's only because my tivo is so empty at the moment that I've noticed. A couple of test recordings to force items out of Deleted Programs moved them into the database.

[kitschcamp]

A very small modification - seems to work on mine.

There is now an option to check the scheduled suggestions for things you've previously seen.

[ash_bluewomble]

Fantastic... seems to work for me!

I guess the next logical step is to have one link that processes both the to-do list and scheduled suggestions...

[tivo-onion]

Is there a tcl module available yet that will run from the cron and update the tracker database on a frequent basis?

cheers

Chris

[sanderton]

You can use http_get to open the refresh page. (In theory, not tried it, rembeber you need to manually enable local loopback on a UK TiVo).

[mrtickle]

I have a script I use to gather stats each day, based on LJ's cron "Phone module" script from his website. I made some modifications of my own: if tivoweb uses a password in the .cfg file you need some extra stuff to handle this.
(also some quick mods to remove personal stuff from this file, so fingers crossed)


#!/tvbin/tivosh

# dailystats.tcl
#
# Intended to be called from cron.
# cron can be downloaded from here: ftp://ftp.alt.org/pub/tivo/dtype/
# e.g. the following line in crontab will run it at 8am GMT every Sunday:
# 0 8 * * 6 /var/hack/dailystats.tcl > /var/log/dailystats &
# Save this file to /var/hack and run 'chmod +x /var/hack/dailystats.tcl'
#

# Change the port number if your TiVoWeb(Plus) isn't running on port 80
set port 8019
# use http://makcoder.sourceforge.net/demo/base64.php to encode your password and paste here
set authencode "base64encoded password"
set datetimestr [clock format [clock seconds] -format "%Y%m%d%H%M"]

#exec ifconfig lo up
# NB, the correct "\r\n" doesn't work with Authentication

# info page
set chan [socket localhost $port]
puts -nonewline $chan "GET /info/ HTTP/1.0\n"
puts -nonewline $chan "Authorization: Basic $authencode\n"
puts -nonewline $chan "\r\n"
flush $chan
set reply [read $chan]
close $chan

set fname "/var/hack/stats/$datetimestr.info.html"
set fd 0
if {![catch {set fd [open $fname w]}]} {
puts $fd "$reply"
}
close $fd

[tivo-onion]

You can use http_get to open the refresh page. (In theory, not tried it, rembeber you need to manually enable local loopback on a UK TiVo).

Based on the 3.0.1b1 version of tracker, I have created a callable TCL script that can be called by the cron that will perform the tracker update function. The module is called "trackerupdate.tcl" and is attached to this post. It is 99.9% Sandeton's tracker module, updated such that it is callable as a standalone TCL file. I have tested it to a reasonable level today, and it seems to work pretty well so far - so I thought i would make it available to the larger community. It will be especially useful when used in combination with next version (v0.38) of dailymail_jazz.tcl, which displays "blocked" programs in your regular daily TiVo status email.

An example of the line you need to add to your cron file would be:

00 5 * * 0-6 /tvbin/tivosh /var/hack/trackerupdate.tcl > /var/log/trackerupdate_cron.log 2>&1

which would run the trackerupdate module at 5am every day.

Hope this is useful,

cheers

Chris

[LJ]

I guess the next logical step is to have one link that processes both the to-do list and scheduled suggestions...Funny you should say that ;)

This version adds a link to update and process in one click.
Don't look at the code, it's horrible ;P

I've modified a few other bits too (From memory):
Show only shows selected for blocking in the todo list
View generics only and non-generics only in the tracking list
Added a link from the todo list to show the tracked episodes

[sanderton]

Show only shows selected for blocking in the todo list


The way it works showing the whole list was deliberate as I found I made some manual deletions from the TDL at the same time.

[LJ]

I'm too lazy to scroll down the whole list to spot the ones marked for deletion :D

[ash_bluewomble]

Based on the 3.0.1b1 version of tracker, I have created a callable TCL script that can be called by the cron that will perform the tracker update function. The module is called "trackerupdate.tcl" and is attached to this post. It is 99.9% Sandeton's tracker module, updated such that it is callable as a standalone TCL file. I have tested it to a reasonable level today, and it seems to work pretty well so far - so I thought i would make it available to the larger community. It will be especially useful when used in combination with next version (v0.38) of dailymail_jazz.tcl, which displays "blocked" programs in your regular daily TiVo status email.

An example of the line you need to add to your cron file would be:

00 5 * * 0-6 /tvbin/tivosh /var/hack/trackerupdate.tcl > /var/log/trackerupdate_cron.log 2>&1

which would run the trackerupdate module at 5am every day.


Great stuff! I've installed it on my crontab and it seems to be working... Can't wait for the new version of DailyMail to go with it! :)

[chippyt]

I just installed this module in tivowebplus 1.1pre2 and clicked create/update database. When I select "process todo list" it shows my entire todo list, but there are no checks (probably because I just started tracking.) In the future do I click process todo list and then I will see some programs checked, then I click delete to remove them. If I don't get around to processing my todo list, then they will record anyway?

I guess what I am asking is the tracker requires user intervention to remove programs from the todo list, it does not automatically remove items from the todo list?

Is that correct?

TIA!

[kitschcamp]

Yup, you'll only start to notice it working in about a month or so. And you do have to remember to run the top option and the to-do list option.

[tivo-onion]

I am having a problem.

I have been running tracker successfully for a number of weeks now, and yesterday I decided to modify my settings. I previous has only "Watched episodes you deleted" and "Unwatched episodes you deleted" set to block. However, yesterday I updated my settings to set "Watched episodes TiVo deleted" to BLOCK also.

I run "Process To Do List" and I get the following error:

INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
--cut here--
action_tracker_todo '' ''
couldn't open "/var/hack/tracker/block_WT": no such file or directory
while executing
"open $trackerdir/block_WT r"
(procedure "::action_tracker_todo" line 26)
invoked from within
"::action_$action $chan $part $env"
("eval" body line 1)
invoked from within
"eval {::action_$action $chan $part $env}"
--cut here--

Just to make sure, I then selected the "Create/Update Tracking List" option, just to make sure that everything was up to date. This ran without error. I then selected "Process To Do List" but I get the same error. The "View Tracking List" works fine.

any ideas?

cheers

Chris

[sanderton]

Sloppy coding from the looks of it. I'd guess that I assumed that block_WT would exist as it is created by the Update Tracker bit if anything fell into that category (programmes that you have watched, and TiVo has deleted.) I guess you haven't had any of those, so it didn't exist.

Q&D solution is just create an empty text file with that name.

[sanderton]

Yes, Tracker has nothing to do with EndPad.

[vertigo235]

At least not anymore, I read the first post and didn't read much farther. I later found this out though! :) Thanks Sanderton!

[Softail95]

I'm having a problem getting trackerupdate.tcl to run. I tried it at the bash promt:

trackerupdate.tcl

and I get

": no such file or directory

I checked and $trackerdir is set right, and tracker updates in tivoweb are working so I think all the files are there....

Any idea what I can check?

[sanderton]

Sounds like you transferred in text mode ftp not binary.

[Softail95]

I just checked and if I:

cat trackerupdate.tcl

it is readable and looks to be formatted properly... re-ftped it to be sure. binary mode xfer. same results....

[Softail95]

trackerupdate.tcl runs fine using the cron command line:

00 11 * * 0-6 /tvbin/tivosh /var/hack/trackerupdate.tcl > /var/log/trackerupdate_cron.log 2>&1

just not from the bash prompt--which is fine... just makes me curious....

[sanderton]

The first line of the script tells it to be interpreted by tivosh. Under cron you've manually forced that. the error message you see is what you'd get if that first line was corrupted. All of which points to that first line being broken some how.

[ash_bluewomble]

I've been using tracker for some time now... it's even more useful now that it is incorporated into the dailymail...

I was wondering if there was a way to block an entire series -- for example, I recently bought the complete box set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer dvds... as there are no more being made, I do not want TiVo to record any more for me as suggestions... however, I don't really want to set the thumbs database to say that I don't like Buffy, in case that stops TiVo suggesting things similar to it!

Cheers,
Ash

[sanderton]

Not through Tracker at this time, but there was a blacklist program which did that.

[ash_bluewomble]

Not through Tracker at this time, but there was a blacklist program which did that.

Do you know where I could find it?

A search on this forum and at the other place hasn't revealed much...

Ash.

[BobBlueUK]

You can find it here (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?threadid=153834), in the tivocommunity archive...

Very useful module, I use it all the time. :up:

[Ian_m]

Call me Mr Thicky, but when I have installed Tracker (and under Cron + recognised by DailyMail_Jazz) what exactly am I looking for when it has blocked/deleted a show ? :confused:

[sanderton]

Use the TivoWeb Tracker module to cleanse your To Do List of things you've previously seen. It's a manual process.

[Softail95]

Sanderton,

First let me say thanks for all the great work you have done on the modules and hacks, and for the excellent support you give the users of them. Please do not take offense at my question below!

I have been using Tracker for a while. Trackerupdate runs daily. I had a bit of strangeness happen a while back, so I stopped doing the actual deletions in the TDL. I had been doing the deletions, and a couple of show mysteriously dissappeared from the TDL and I cannot figure out why. If I look in the history on the Tivo interface, there's no "someone in your household deleted it" message. They were just gone.

Now, I'm not accusing anything, but, how likely do you think it might be that one of my tracker deletions deleted the wrong episode from the TDL. By that I mean, I said to go ahead and delete the upcoming showing of a repeat of "Decorating Sense" that has been viewed, and it somehow deleted the upcoming unviewed non-repeat showing of "Desperate Housewives"?

Also, whether you think this problem may be tracker-related or not, do you know of any logs or anything that might help me determine what happened?

If they had an emoticon showing a smilie with his hat in his hands, I'd put it here. :(

[sanderton]

I'd say it was unlikley. You can never say never with code though. Certianly I've not seen anything like that. The deletions page is just the standard TDL page which has been passed the IDs of the tracked shows - it's not my code.

Most common cause of a vanish-without-trace in my experience is having a SP set to be First Run Only and then TiVo screwing up the OAD date.

[Softail95]

Hmmm. Both of these SP's were First Run Only. How did you determine that Tivo screwed up the OAD?

[sanderton]

Difficult in retrospect unfortunately, as all trace will have gone.

[Softail95]

So I'm thinking that you must have noticed it after the mysterious deletion, but before the program had actually aired. So you could still see the OAD in the existent guide data.....

[sanderton]

Yes.

[vertigo235]

Iv'e been using Tracker for quite some time now, and it seems to work great. But whenever I try to view the tracked list, it restarts my TiVo?

Is this bad?

[vertigo235]

It looks like my database is corrupted somehow, is there any way to fix it without erasing it? I would hate to have to rebuild all my recorded shows again :(

[iankb]

Try running 'mfscheck' at the bash prompt. If that shows errors, run it again to see if it has fixed them. If it hasn't, run 'mfsassert -please'. This will trigger a reboot into the GSOD (don't panic), which is mfsfix attempting to correct those errors.

[SteveT]

Just thought I'd mention that Tracker works great after my upgrade to 6.2. I restored the tracking list files and was able to start right back where I left off. Nice work Sanderton! (and LJ for the "combo" menu item)

[vertigo235]

Try running 'mfscheck' at the bash prompt. If that shows errors, run it again to see if it has fixed them. If it hasn't, run 'mfsassert -please'. This will trigger a reboot into the GSOD (don't panic), which is mfsfix attempting to correct those errors.

No dice, I see the "database' apears to be several flat files in the /tracker directory.

What do all the files mean, maybe I can go through them and find out what entry is causing my problem?

[sanderton]

They contain extracted data from the TiVo database. i doubt there's anything you could see manually.

It could be a memeory issue; try increasing the MEMPOOL Tivoweb runs in. I can't remember the exact command.

[vertigo235]

I'm not sure if trackerupdate.tcl is working anymore either each morning. When I try to run it from bash, it pauses for a few seconds and I get this, which is a weird response.

bash-2.02# /var/hack/trackerupdate.tcl
": no such file or directory
bash-2.02#

[vertigo235]

Does this meain anything? This is from the log for trackerupdate.tcl

---- Tracker For Cron
started at 10:00:02
about to run tracker_init -->
<-- completed tracker_init
about to run tracker_update -->
Dumping mempool to /tmp/BlockFailure.222

To view the blocks, run:
$TIVO_ROOT/devbin/poolview.tcl <app-with-symbols> /tmp/BlockFailure.222

In the UI that comes up, find your leaked block by address (see above)
This will help you identify the type and ownership of the blocks.

Common causes for leaks:
- Circular refs. Redefine ownership without circular dependency
- Explicit Malloc or GetChunk without Free or ReturnChunk
- Use of non-TmkCore objects, without using delete operator (TmkLock for example)

Tmk Assertion Failure:
BlockFailure, line 2150 ()
Tmk Fatal Error: Thread tivosh <222> died due to signal -2
1ad0770 1acf08c 1ac9390 1cf0f8c 1cfcd64 1d4860c 1d6570c 1d68a2c 1d63ca8 1d59f70 1d479e0 1d6c78c 1d59f70 1d479e0 1d6c214 1d59f70 1d479e0 1bc8e40 1d59f70 1d479e0 1d49cb0 1d59f70 1d479e0 1d6c214 1d59f70 1d479e0 1cfdce4 1cfd2a0 1d59f70 1d479e0 1d6c78c 1d59f70 1d479e0 1d6c78c 1d59f70 1d479e0 1d6c78c 1d59f70 1d479e0 1d6c78c 1d59f70 1d479e0 1d64a78 1d65b84 1cfcd04 1cfca4c 1800134

[vertigo235]

do I need the MV SP and series files to ensure my old blocked shows will continue to be blocked or do I just need to save the block_XX files?

[sanderton]

It won't be a corruption of the files themselves.

When you run struff from cron the environment variables are different. This includes the default memory allocation - which can cause crashes if it's too low. Check the DailyMail thread, which has this issue, for ways to increase the mempool.

[vertigo235]

I think increasing the Mempool has helped, I did so for both trackerupdate.tcl and tivoweb. However it looks like trackerupdate.tcl is still giving this error.

---- Tracker For Cron
started at 10:00:01
about to run tracker_init -->
<-- completed tracker_init
about to run tracker_update -->
unmatched open brace in list
while executing
"lindex $episode 0"
(procedure "updatetrack" line 22)
invoked from within
"updatetrack $seriestmsid $episodetmsid $eptitle $recdate $type 2 $deletedby $watched"
("uplevel" body line 99)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"ForeachChangedMfsFileTrans fsid name type "/Recording/Cancelled" $since 10 {

if {[lindex [split $name :] 0] <= [expr [clock seconds] / 86400]..."
(procedure "scan_cancelled" line 11)
invoked from within
"scan_cancelled $lastupdate"
(procedure "tracker_update" line 18)
invoked from within
"tracker_update"
(file "/var/hack/trackerupdate.tcl" line 541)

[vertigo235]

actually I thought increasing the pool size helped because I could at least view the tracker list, but now when I run tracker update from tivoweb I get restarts again! arghh!

[vertigo235]

OK I restored a backup and copied SP.old to SP and MV.old to MV, then ran tracker update in tivoweb and got this error.

INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
--cut here--
action_tracker_update '' ''
can't open object (0x30007)

while executing
"db $db openid $fsid"
("uplevel" body line 4)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"ForeachChangedMfsFileTrans fsid name type "/Recording/Cancelled" $since 10 {

if {[lindex [split $name :] 0] <= [expr [clock seconds] / 86400]..."
(procedure "scan_cancelled" line 11)
invoked from within
"scan_cancelled $lastupdate"
(procedure "::action_tracker_update" line 5)
invoked from within
"::action_$action $chan $part $env"
("eval" body line 1)
invoked from within
"eval {::action_$action $chan $part $env}"
--cut here--

[sanderton]

In the first one, "unmatched open brace in list" suggests that the trackerupdate.tcl file is duff. Whereevery you got it from, get a new one.

In the second, that's a pretty standard error you get when there is a problem accessing the database. No easy or obvious solution bar "keep trying".

[vertigo235]

OK, I reinstalled the trackerupdate.tcl file located in this thread.

Created a .sh file to change the poolsize and launch trackerupdate.tcl, and executed it.

I guess it's working, but it's been running for about 77 mins now (I checked with "ps aux"), should it be running this long?

If so then I may know why I had problems before, I have a safereboot running about 1 and a half hour after I run trackerupdate.tcl in the mornings.

[vertigo235]

OK so it finally finished like 3 hours later, then I went to view tracking list in tivoweb and got a reboot again :(.

[vertigo235]

yeesh, OK so I increased the poolsize even more and now it's working again.

For the mempool, is there a size that I should start to worry about it being too large?

I'm currently using this size
export TIVOSH_POOLSIZE=3322880

[vertigo235]

does tracker work with 6.2?

[SteveT]

does tracker work with 6.2?see here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3030025&&#post3030025)

[vertigo235]

NICE

Has anyone found a way to easily consolidate the tracker files every once and a while from 2 TiVo's?

[fysmd]

does tracker work with 6.2?
Sorry if this is a REALLY stoopid question:
v6.2 of what?? :confused:

[SteveT]

Sorry if this is a REALLY stoopid question:
v6.2 of what?? :confused:The TiVo software. 6.2 is the last release for the S2 DirecTiVo's. It features a MUCH faster UI and supports MRV (when properly motivated.)

[fysmd]

The TiVo software. 6.2 is the last release for the S2 DirecTiVo's. It features a MUCH faster UI and supports MRV (when properly motivated.)

Ahh, not relevant for a UK TiVo then. Thanks

[Vito the TiVo]

Does this mean anything to anyone?

INTERNAL SERVER ERROR
--cut here--
action_tracker_update '' ''
can't open object (errDbNotFound)

while executing
"db $db openid $fsid"
("uplevel" body line 4)
invoked from within
"uplevel $body"
invoked from within
"ForeachChangedMfsFileTrans fsid name type "/Recording/Cancelled" $since 10 {

if {[lindex [split $name :] 0] <= [expr [clock seconds] / 86400]..."
(procedure "scan_cancelled" line 11)
invoked from within
"scan_cancelled $lastupdate"
(procedure "::action_tracker_update" line 5)
invoked from within
"::action_$action $chan $part $env"
("eval" body line 1)
invoked from within
"eval {::action_$action $chan $part $env}"
--cut here--

[zippy7272]

Which is the best version of tracker to use (UK) and how do I put an entry into the cron?

Thanks

[PhilG]

I haven't had time to scour the WHOLE of this thread yet, but I downloaded Tracker v3.0.1b1 and (silly me) hoped to find installation instructions as well as the script......

ARE there any installation instructions anywhere? Also, there's just the tracker.itcl script. Isn't there supposed to be a TivoWeb module as well????

Sorry if the answers are buried here (somewhere)

[sanderton]

Tracker.icl IS the TW module. You install it the same way as any other - drop it in the/modules directory and restart TW.

[PhilG]

Sorry, now I am really confused.

I thought there was a module that actually did the "management" of the ToDo list? Or is it all handled by this one??

Every time I try and read these scrips, I am overtaken by a wave of inferiority :( , and I thought I could read most programming languages

[sanderton]

All handles by this one. Just try it, you'll see.

[PhilG]

AHA (light bulb goes on!)

I was still thinking that this was an AUTOMATIC process that ran in background (much like your fantastic Endpad)

But it's manual (which is probably better as it won't be able to make any "mistakes"!!)

Thanks for your patience

[sanderton]

It was originally going to be automatic, but the problem was that it would block shows which were actually failed recordings for one reason or another.

[Fozzie]

But there is a trackerupdate script (somewhere but can't recall) that can be run from cron to regularly update the tracking list (funnily enough!).

[LJ]

If you're happy for the update to be automatic, this works:

In crontab:# Update Tracker database every day
21 3 * * * /var/hack/upd_tracker.sh &

In /var/hack/upd_tracker.sh:# Update Tracker files
# LJ 15Oct05 10:02

ifconfig lo up
# Call top level menu as this sets tracker variables
wget --tries=3 --timeout=15 -O /dev/null -o /var/log/trk_upd --server-response "http://127.0.0.1:80/tracker" &
sleep 5
wget --tries=3 --timeout=600 -O /dev/null -a /var/log/trk_upd --server-response "http://127.0.0.1:80/tracker_update" &
Don't forget to run "chmod +x /var/hack/upd_tracker.sh.

It also writes a (rather cryptic) log acessible from TiVoWeb.

[barney34]

What or where do I get the version of wget that contains thoes commands?

when I do which wget it comes back and says BusyBox v1.00 (2004.10.20-05:30+0000) multi-call binary is that old?

[Fozzie]

But there is a trackerupdate script (somewhere but can't recall) that can be run from cron to regularly update the tracking list (funnily enough!).It was a couple of pages back:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2660229&&#post2660229

(Just before LJs updated tracker module post!)

[PhilG]

OK, so can someone point me at an idiots guide to cron???

I assume I am "cron-less" as I have never needed it for anything else

Thanks

[Fozzie]

http://www.planetbuilders.org/tivo/tivo_cron.html

;)

[BK89]

Help! I added the tracker.itcl to the modules directory and restarted TWP. Now, I lost access to tivoweb and can no longer FTP to the TIvo (to delete the tracker). ANybody know what I did wrong??

[Fozzie]

Nope. There's no reason why doing anything with modules and Tivoweb should have an effect on FTP?! I suggest your problem is elsewhere.

Can you ping Tivo?
Can you telnet to Tivo?

If not, what responses do you get?

[BK89]

I can ping the Tivo just fine (also MRV still works between the two Tivos) but cannot telnet or FTP or access TWP. When I try to telnet I get:

"Could not open connection to the host on port 23: Connection failed"

[mrtickle]

I have merged

kitschcamp's version from
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2642302&&#post2642302

with LJ's version from
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2662479&&#post2662479

and the result is attached. HTH

[SamTheMan]

Hi, need to some help, been running tracker for quite sometime, but it appears to have recently stopped working. It is nolonger adding episodes to the any of the list. So I decided to delete the files in the tracker directory and run the create/update option. Tracker did not regenerate any files, except the .cfg file. Downloaded the latest version of tracker, installed and restarted TWP, same results. Verified files are being transfered as binary files with unix line feeds only. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[SamTheMan]

Hi folks, thanks don't worry about, had a GSOD early today, when system repaired it self tracker seem to start working again. Thanks anyway.

[PhilG]

Would it be possible to have a sub-script (callable from cron) that updates the tracking list automatically?

I understand why the todo list processing is not automatic, but the episode tracking could be (I think)

[Fozzie]

Would it be possible to have a sub-script (callable from cron) that updates the tracking list automatically?

I understand why the todo list processing is not automatic, but the episode tracking could be (I think)Do you ever do a search Phil or read the whole thread?

What you are asking for already exists! I posted about it ~10 posts up and LJ posted another method just before that, on this very page.

[PhilG]

ooops (small voice, suitably (and quite rightly) chastised)

sorry all

[PhilG]

OK, tracker and trackerupdtae have been running for a while, but I am not 100% that tracker is tracking things I watch and delete

For example, my wife and I watched 3 programs last night, and despite running tracker updare through TivoWeb, they are not showing up in the tracker list. How can I find out what's going wrong (or what does anyone else need from me to find out)??

[vertigo235]

OK, tracker and trackerupdtae have been running for a while, but I am not 100% that tracker is tracking things I watch and delete

For example, my wife and I watched 3 programs last night, and despite running tracker updare through TivoWeb, they are not showing up in the tracker list. How can I find out what's going wrong (or what does anyone else need from me to find out)??

It doesn't show up in tracker until a few days later, I think it has to be removed from the TiVo duplicate recording list first or something.

[Dave_Lane]

First of all, thanks for a great tool! I'm using this and endpad - love them both :)

My UK Tivo recorded about 20 seconds of a program on Sunday which seemed to be a 2 second loop - then, it decided to give up and stop recording. (Strange, as it still marks it as 1hour and 2 minutes).

My question is, how can I tell Tracker that I want to rerecord the program if it's re-broadcast? It's too high a priority to be deleted by Tivo, so I have to delete it manually. Do I have to edit the series list when it eventually shows up in Tracker?

Dave

[kitschcamp]

That's what I did in the past when Law & Order kept on being the version with the flippy flappy woman.

[PhilG]

Whilst I think Tracker is brilliant, because I have had Tivo so long without it, there are a lot of programs I'd like it to know about from the past.....

One idea I had was if it was possible to add another category to the programs tracker classes as "watched" - is it possible to detect a program deleted from the TODO list and mark that as "watched"? I'm imagining another option on the "choose what to do with:" screen so it;s optional.

Then I could reinstate a load of season passes and when Tivo decides to record things I have already seen, I could remove them AND have Tracker update the Tracker list

An alternative would be a special "Delete from TODO list screen in Tracker itself that deletes and marks as watched" (in fact, this might be better - a normal removal from TODO might be because of a conflct).

So, ignore my first suggestion and consider the second one! (If you follow)

Anyone willing to take this on???

Thanks

[SteveT]

<snip>An alternative would be a special "Delete from TODO list screen in Tracker itself that deletes and marks as watched" (in fact, this might be better - a normal removal from TODO might be because of a conflct).<snip>I'm pretty sure Tracker already tracks items deleted from the ToDo list.
(items with CancelReason 22=ExplicitlyDeletedFromToDo are added to tracklist)

You control this by selecting the "Unwatched episodes you deleted" option.

Or am I misunderstanding your request?

[PhilG]

I thought that "unwatched episodes you deleted" was talking about episodes in the "Now Playing" list that were deleted without being watched

I wanted Tracker to track things deleted from ToDo without being watched OR recorded

If I have misunderstood Tracker, then all well and good, but I suspect I haven't

[PhilG]

It appears to be tracking recordings cancelled for reasons 6, 12, 24 and 33

How would I translate those into English??

[Fozzie]

I wanted Tracker to track things deleted from ToDo without being watched OR recorded
If I have misunderstood Tracker, then all well and good, but I suspect I haven'tErrr, you have.

From this very thread (by the author):

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2341541&&#post2341541

;)

[PhilG]

I'm obviously missing something (and not for the first time I hear you cry)

WHERE does it tell me what these 4 cancellation reasons actually MEAN???

[PhilG]

OK

I am now fairly certain that the version of TrackerUpdate that I have (dated 3 March 2005) is NOT picking up shows that I am deleting from ToDo (NOT Now Playing) because I have watched them before

Is there a newer version of TrackerUpdate to do this?

(I am not even 100% that Tracker itself does this - can sanderton enlighten us? This is why I have been asking about the four cancellation reasons that tracker is looking for)

Thanks for any (more) advice

[Fozzie]

I am now fairly certain that the version of TrackerUpdate that I have (dated 3 March 2005) is NOT picking up shows that I am deleting from ToDo (NOT Now Playing) because I have watched them beforeIIRC correctly, it does take a couple of days from deletion for TiVo to do its housekeeping stuff and tracker picking up the deletion. Could this be the reason?

[PhilG]

Well and update (of sorts)

I set up a manual recording for "Spongebob Squarepants" (guaranteed to be easy to search for!) and then deleted it. When I did a manual tracker update (later, after the scheduled broadcast time) it popped up in the tracker list

So that bit works OK

Now I have repeated the test and will have to wait for my cron-controlled TrackerUpdate to fire off on Sunday (I am away from home so cannot change my crontab to get it launched earlier!)

Watch this space - looks like I have maligned the excellent work in tracker

[Fozzie]

...I am away from home so cannot change my crontab to get it launched earlier!What... you mean you don't have Hackman installed? :)