Automatic free space indicator

nsysblh · 01-12-2004, 07:34 AM

Here is a little free space indicator I wrote. It should work on Series 1 with software version >= 3.

Instructions are included, as well as an explanation of the osd output.

The automatic part is that is puts up the information in place of the header on the Now Showing (or Now Playing) screen automatically.

Anyway, have fun with it.

Brandon

nsysblh · 01-12-2004, 07:36 AM

This is now V1.1. This will work with UK and US TiVos. See CHANGES.txt

If you installed V1.0 (or V1.0a) previously, don't forget to replace the osdcons executable. Then make sure to kill the old osdcons and autospace before starting autospace.tcl

Thanks to sanderton for help with the UK changes.

The osdcons package is somewhere on the second page of the thread.

NOTE: Until I update the included readme, there have been reported issues with the daily call using the rc.sysinit documented in the included readme.

The following format is suggested for the startup line in rc.sysinit:

/<directory>/autospace.tcl start >/dev/null 2>&1 &

(Note the trailing & that is not in the included readme)

pahunt · 01-12-2004, 07:40 AM

This sounds great but will it definitely not work on a UK Tivo with 2.5.5 or have you just not been able to test it on older software than version 3?

nsysblh · 01-12-2004, 07:50 AM

As is, it won't work with UK tivos. The data is in a different place in versions < 3.

cachecard_user · 01-12-2004, 09:18 PM

all i have is a readme file and a version file

looks cool though, i would like to try it

SR712 · 01-12-2004, 09:32 PM

Very Nice, nsysblh, good job. Pretty handy.

Works great. The only thing I can suggest, would be to use a san-serif font like the TiVo uses... it would blend into the normal TiVo-skin and look more like it belonged.

cachecard_user · 01-12-2004, 09:34 PM

[edit] Nevermind. For some reason windows won't show the files in any window or view, but my FTP client sees the files and they uploaded!

Looks GREAT!

(my only complaint is that the TiVo guy in the upper left hand corner is covered up)

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
when I unzip the file, i only get the readme and the version files, where did you get the actual files?

tombo28 · 01-12-2004, 10:17 PM

Cool idea.
I get the following error when I try to run it:

Code:

bash-2.02# ./autospace
No EventSwitcher active
    while executing
"event register $TmkEventII::EVT_USREVENT  EventCallback"
    (file "./autospace" line 161)

The same error appears when I try it with -start and -status.
In case it helps, I'm running an SVR-2000 with v.3.01.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

tombo28 · 01-12-2004, 11:59 PM

Nevermind, a reboot fixed it.
Thanks again for a cool app.

route66 · 01-13-2004, 04:15 AM

Worked great for me. I second the font change request.

nsysblh · 01-13-2004, 07:27 AM

Hmm. the font is from elseed (and tivovbi). apparently it was the only one that fit nicely. It also has the full PC character set...which is nice for line drawing.

If anyone knows of another fixed 16w x 26h font, let me know. Everything I have found is not a good aspect ratio. Since it is using fixed character spaces, it has to be a fixed size bitmap type font (not trutype or anything pcish)

I'll keep looking for a new font. I guess I could design my own. The font is the only thing I didn't rewrite myself.

---

As far as the EventSwitcher error, for some reason Version 3 has an eventswitcher bug and it does go out to lunch more and more as you run tcl scripts which attach to the EventSwitcher. A reboot will fix it.

My suggestion here is to reboot and run the program once. It will attach to the EventSwitcher only twice at startup (once for the foreground and once for the background) and then stay stable. If you restart or exit and start a lot, it will eventually kill the EventSwitcher (I know from testing). If that happens, a reboot will fix it.

---

The Tivo Guy isn't really covered. You can see thru the background. He is telling you how much space is being used (or something). I tried a transparent background, and the letters are harder to read...the palette on that screen only has about 10 unique colors to choose from (as opposed to the playback screen which has the full 256 and they are all different)

Brandon

km · 01-13-2004, 10:43 AM

I would like to request one more number in the display. The number of hours at the machines default recording quality attributed to Suggestions + Free/Deleted Space.

In other words the number of hours to the right of the yellow region in the bar.

sanderton · 01-13-2004, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by nsysblh
As is, it won't work with UK tivos. The data is in a different place in versions < 3.

Easy enough to change to work with 2.5.5. Might have a play later.

nsysblh · 01-13-2004, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sanderton
Easy enough to change to work with 2.5.5. Might have a play later.

Feel free. It is fairly straightforward, I just didn't want to put out something with a totally untested code section.

Quote:

Originally posted by km
I would like to request one more number in the display. The number of hours at the machines default recording quality attributed to Suggestions + Free/Deleted Space.

In other words the number of hours to the right of the yellow region in the bar.

I wanted to stay away from hour calculations, as they are more prone to error than anything else. However, adding an hour remaining counter may be a nice thing. You want it to just overlay the recording indicators on the right side if they exist? There are only 4 character positions to play with, so it would have to be a number kinda just floating in space. I think the most "recordings" that can be taking place at 1 time on a directivo is 3, so I used the last 3 positions for the recording indicators (it is left as an exercise to the reader as to how to record 3 things at once :-)

---

Just to point out, because it is buried in the doc, and not obvious, the numbers on the upper right are show counters, not hour counters...[1 2 3] would mean one permanent show, two normal, and 3 suggestions.

If I could only find a drastically smaller font that was still readable, I could fit more than 36cols and 2 rows in the space available...and add more info.

---

Is the timing ok? I know it takes a while to populate on a machine w/o a working cachecard. Sometimes I think the 30 minute timeout is too long. What I wanted to avoid is recalculating every time you navigate to anywhere besides Now Showing.

Does anyone care that the deleted shows and pure free space are lumped together for display. I tried it both ways, and decided using a real color for deleted shows was too confusing. Especially since there is no space to fit the count of deleted shows on the screen.

Brandon

hopefulboydy · 01-13-2004, 02:32 PM

I installed the app on a tivo with a working cachecard and it works great. I dont really think you need to add anything else as showing the memory available as a percentage of total memory is more meaningful that hours remaining (hours remaining is all dependent on what resolution/bitrates you record with etc). When I enter Now Showing and the app kicks in, it takes a a few seconds, maybe more than 5 seconds to display the info. Is there anyway to speed this up ?

spinJR · 01-13-2004, 02:59 PM

does this work with the DirectTV HDVRs? (HDVR and DSR7000)

nsysblh · 01-13-2004, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by spinJR
does this work with the DirectTV HDVRs? (HDVR and DSR7000)

Not Series 2. No one has figured out the Series 2 osd chip at the same level as the series 1 osd. All I know of at the moment is that you can rewrite the entire screen on a Series 2 via osdwriter. That would defeat the purpose of keeping the existing data on the screen.

Quote:

Originally posted by hopefulboydy
When I enter Now Showing and the app kicks in, it takes a a few seconds, maybe more than 5 seconds to display the info. Is there anyway to speed this up ?

How many total entries do you have? I have a 160G disk with ~250 now showing entries on one dsr6000+cachecard and it usually takes about 2 secs. Does it print 3 dots as in: 'Getting Data...' and then pause? The last step is to plow thru all the recordings. That part is going to take awhile no matter how it gets done.

It used to be slower. I optimized it a bit before releasing it. This is probably as fast as tcl can read the info.

Brandon

hopefulboydy · 01-13-2004, 03:24 PM

nsysblh, I only have about 30 recordings on there at the minute - 80G + 80G Series 1 SA Philips. It does say Getting Data ... while its retrieving the info. I suppose, it may actually not take as much as 5 secs.......just me being impatient. I am not at home now so i cant check, but it did seem to take a while last night. I suppose I will have to learn to be patient :-) Thanks for the great app.

HTH · 01-13-2004, 05:18 PM

Can you make it appear on the To Do List as well, and update the value as the cursor moves forward through the list for how much space will be available at those future times?

sanderton · 01-13-2004, 05:18 PM

Tweaked it to work on UK 2.5.5. The enc. version is ONLY UK compatible.

nsysblh, you should be able to see the very few changes with a compare; if you only want one version floating around TiVoWeb has code in it for identifying UK machines.

The filenames you have chosen are identified by WinXP as being system files, and so are hidden when you unzip them, which might cause some confusion!

Very nice work; it looks really good (I think I might move the % free number from over the top of the little TiVo though; my kids like him!)