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Messages - cwdean

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21
Support / PVD Wiki is now online!
« on: March 12, 2009, 06:26:34 pm »
Hello Everyone,

Many folks, including myself, have requested making a Wiki available to assist in supporting the Personal Video Database (PVD).  Well, you’re suggestion have not fallen on deaf ears and I’m happy to report that the PVD-Wiki is online, live and ready for use!

I’ve participated in several community support sites over the years, whether they be forums, blogs and/or wikis.  I find them to be an effective way of promoting social awareness and support of the service being offered.  A wiki will help to supplement the support already provided within the PVD Forums.  Ultimately, the goal of the wiki should be a one-stop location for documentation and training purposes.  Then, if something isn’t clear and you need additional assistance, definitely check out the PVD Official Forums.

The wonderful thing about programs that are freely available, like PVD, is that they promote a strong social community.  People love to get involved in such projects; they feel a personal sense of satisfaction in knowing that they are contributing to a community of developers – or in the case of PVD, a community of users.  Obviously, nostra is developing and supporting PVD as a labor of love.  That’s an infectious feeling that is hard to ignore.  :)  Which is why I volunteered to create and support a PVD Wiki.

Both nostra and rick.ca believe in a community-driven support system (as do I).  It fosters greater enthusiasm and support for PVD and ultimately leads to a much better product.  Most users of PVD are here because it’s the best product of its kind.  Most of you participate in the forums for that very same reason.  So my hope is that you will use and contribute to the PVD Wiki for the same reason as well.  Let’s make the Wiki an incredibly useful tool in supporting PVD and the PVD community.  With your help and participation, I’m sure it will be so.

To find the PVD Wiki, click on the link below.  Be sure to bookmark the site for future reference.  And don’t forget, if you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Wiki, be sure to check the forums and ask.  Then, if you think the answer (or subject) should be included in the Wiki, feel free to add it.  ;D

http://www.nimidia.com/pvd_wiki/tiki-index.php

By the way, we welcome your suggestions/feedback on the Wiki…so don’t be shy.  ;)  Post your comments in this forum.

22
Support / Re: Sorting is culture-insensitive
« on: February 23, 2009, 04:36:21 pm »
The Problem is that sorting is done by Firebird, not in my code and I have not found a way yet to change this sorting behavior, but I keep searching.

Hi Nostra,

Not sure if this is helpful, but I did come across a web page that talked about some of the challenges (and possible solutions) related to Firebird INTL Architecture (selecting character set and collation).  See below:

http://www.jodelpeter.de/i18n/fbarch/selecting_charset_and_collation_in_firebird.html

23
Feature Suggestions / Re: multiple movies editor enhancement
« on: February 03, 2009, 04:02:15 pm »
Multiple movies editor strikes again! It makes your heart soar—until you realize it doesn't include the field you want to edit. :'(

To add insult to injury, it causes you to miss things like this: You can select multiple episodes (in the same season) and change the seen or wish status by using the commands on the Movies menu. ;)

Now that's disheartening...somebody added this feature while my back was turned  ;)  Seriously though, thanks for pointing this out to me.  After being informed, I played with it in 0.9.9.4 beta and it worked perfectly.  In 0.9.8.20 the behavior wasn't consistent (i.e. the flag didn't always appear checked even though I highlighted multiple movies and selected 'Wish - Not Owned' from the Movie menu).

As for Multiple movies editor, it would be nice if it would include all fields that might not be unique, but then it would still not include custom fields. I often wonder if it would not be better if it were just a simple dialog where you could select any field (regular or custom) and enter a value. Very rarely do I change more than one field at a time, which seems to be the only advantage to the current implementation. Also, it would be nice if the value box would include a drop-down showing all the current values of the selected items (i.e., whether or not they are list fields). Even if the new value is to be none of these, it's a convenient way to confirm exactly what is being changed.

Good suggestion.

24
Feature Suggestions / multiple movies editor enhancement
« on: February 02, 2009, 04:38:38 pm »
I just discovered the multiple movies editor feature.  I was actually looking for this functionality to change the Wish status to 'Not Owned" for multiple movies.  I was a bit disappointed to see that you can't do that with the multiple movies editor today.  Could this feature be added?

This is particularly important for series data.  Right now, since adding a Series downloads ALL seasons (even those we may not own), it would be nice if I can change the status for an entire season from Owned (default) to 'Not Owned'.  Right now, unless I'm wrong, you have to change the Wish checkbox for each episode manually :'(  If this were part of the multiple movies editor, this would be a HUGE time-saver  ;D

This functionality would be great for the Seen status as well.

Let me know.

25
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 29, 2009, 04:00:50 pm »
The share is by default password protected.. Add the "guest" account (maybe "everyone" as well - for testing) in your permission of your share in Windows (XP?,Vista?, Server?)..
Don't forget to choose the share from the PCH top menu (in effect: mounting the share) before going in Kroozbox otherwise when selecting the movie nothing will happen. Automount feature is something that was asked many times as a firmware update feature... hope it comes.

When I created the share under Windows XP it is automatically assigned to "everyone" with Read only access -- i.e. no password.  I did change permissions to Write and Execute as well, just to see if it made a difference, and it didn't.  I have no idea why it thinks the share is password protected.  I will go ahead and associate the share with the Guest account as well, just to see if that makes a difference.

To test, I am trying to mount the share from the PCH top menu, that is where I'm seeing the permissions error message.  I do appreciate you clarifying that this is required before selecting a movie in Kroozbox.

Thanks!  I'll let you know how it goes tonight.

26
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 29, 2009, 06:44:21 am »
Since the PCH cannot display ISO file through HTTP, Kroozbox cannot deliver the stream. So, for ISO file you will have to also modify the globalParam.properties file to put the name of your PCH share as argument for "MyShare" parameter. Create the share on the PCH, mount your share first on the PCH (by just selecting it from top menu) and then use Kroozbox interface. TS folder that's another story...
First test with your WMV files.

Kroozbox is NOT using ODBC. I think you mean for testing your SQL statement before putting it in Kroozbox?
I suggest not to use ODBC bridge if you can. Just install Firebird 2.1 and use something like JDBStudio to connect (free). In JDBStudion the "DB Path" would be the location of your PVD file, user: SYSDBA, password: masterkey.

To get the "Media label" field (is that the one you want) in Kroozbox interface!?
I looked at the database - this value is in the "LABELS" table (mine is always "Multimedia" in PVD frontend). And I cannot see any "relation" to the "MOVIES" table (maybe the "type" column but mine is always empty). Anyway, if the value you want is not in the MOVIES table you will have to create another HTML file after MoviesDetails-8.html (named MoviesDetails-9.html and pushing down all the rest). This file would have the SQL request with the relation with table TYPE. If the value is in MOVIES table then it is just a matter of adding the field in the DBINFO header and putting the reference in the content.



I reinstalled Kroozbox and made the required changes...it looks like it's working quite nicely.  I am able to stream both my WMV and TS files via HTTP.  I am, however, having difficulties with ISO files.  I'm not very familiar with creating shares on the PCH.  I created a share on my server where the media files are located (and called it PCHMEDIA).  Then on the PCH I created a Network Share called PCHMEDIA mapped to "smb://192.168.0.163/pchmedia".  But when I try to browse the PCHMEDIA share on the PCH I get an invalid username and/or password error.  The strange thing is that the share is not password protected.  Just for grins I supplied my administrator account and password but I still get the same error message.  Not sure what I'm doing wrong or what to look for.

MyShare in Kroozbox is set to PCHMEDIA.  Any ideas?

Also, I figured out how to browse the database.  My problem was that I didn't specify embedded database in the client application.  So my next task will be to modify the MoviesDetails-8 to include the Media Label field.

Look forward to your reply.

Thanks,
CD

27
Development / Re: Accessing the Database directly (read only)
« on: January 28, 2009, 10:11:03 pm »
There should be an option if embedded server should be used which needs to be selected.

Disregard my post above (although I'd still be interested in knowing which client utility you are using).  With the trial version of Firebird Maestro I was able to find the option for indicating connecting to an embedded database, and then I was able to connect just fine.  Thanks for steering me in the right direction  :)

28
Development / Re: Accessing the Database directly (read only)
« on: January 28, 2009, 09:56:35 pm »
There should be an option if embedded server should be used which needs to be selected.

Nono recommended JDBStudio as a possible Firebird client since it is free, but with it I am still getting the error.  Nowhere am I able to find a connection option to indicate an embedded server.  Which client are you using?

Thanks for your help!

29
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 28, 2009, 06:44:48 pm »
Since the PCH cannot display ISO file through HTTP, Kroozbox cannot deliver the stream. So, for ISO file you will have to also modify the globalParam.properties file to put the name of your PCH share as argument for "MyShare" parameter. Create the share on the PCH, mount your share first on the PCH (by just selecting it from top menu) and then use Kroozbox interface. TS folder that's another story...
First test with your WMV files.

Kroozbox is NOT using ODBC. I think you mean for testing your SQL statement before putting it in Kroozbox?
I suggest not to use ODBC bridge if you can. Just install Firebird 2.1 and use something like JDBStudio to connect (free). In JDBStudion the "DB Path" would be the location of your PVD file, user: SYSDBA, password: masterkey.

To get the "Media label" field (is that the one you want) in Kroozbox interface!?
I looked at the database - this value is in the "LABELS" table (mine is always "Multimedia" in PVD frontend). And I cannot see any "relation" to the "MOVIES" table (maybe the "type" column but mine is always empty). Anyway, if the value you want is not in the MOVIES table you will have to create another HTML file after MoviesDetails-8.html (named MoviesDetails-9.html and pushing down all the rest). This file would have the SQL request with the relation with table TYPE. If the value is in MOVIES table then it is just a matter of adding the field in the DBINFO header and putting the reference in the content.


I have Firebird 2.1 installed.  I downloaded JDBStudio based on your recommendation and installed both it and JRE 6.  I'm doing my testing in a Virtual Machine with Windows 2000.  When attempting to connect to my PVD database file using JDBStudio, I get the following error message:

6. 28-01-2009 9:28:55  [USRERROR]  Database connection failed: GDS Exception. 335544379. unsupported on-disk structure for file C:\Documents and Settings\cwdean\My Documents\Personal Video Database\MOVIES.PVD; found 32779.10, support .
Reason: unsupported on-disk structure for file C:\Documents and Settings\cwdean\My Documents\Personal Video Database\MOVIES.PVD; found 32779.10, support .

Any ideas what might be causing this?  Seems like this process should be pretty simple and straight-forward, but for some reason is turning into a bigger challenge than I would have expected.

BTW, when you associate a media file with the PVD record, the Media Label field gets auto-populated with the media disk label (I'm assuming if this is a removable media, which I'm using).  By displaying this on the Kroozbox page I will know which removable media disk the associated movie file is on.

Thanks,
CD

30
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 28, 2009, 04:51:47 pm »
Few points:

* Run Kroozbox using the startme.bat - Not as a service. Service may not have access to G:. Is G: a local drive or a network mapped drive? (i'm guessing a USB external drive - but still try with startme instead - you'll have the screen output). Be sure NOT to have multiple Kroozbox running at the same time on the same machine (one as a service and one with startme for instance) - that would break communication.

* Since Kroozbox is running on same machine as PVD you don't need to setup the localMediaRoot and the dbaseMediaRoot properties. Just comment them out (with # in front). Mind you, it should not hurt.

* Are your movies ISO files or VIDEO_TS? what are the extensions (.AVI, .MKV)? Are you able to watch those movies on the PCH through other means (share or..) ? (just checking here if the format is proper for the PCH and if the PCH is properly working with those).

* You may have change something else.... what about re-installing completely and just change the "dbName" value (to point to database) in .\templates\PVDTemplate-HD\Kroozbox.properties file!? That's really the only change you should need to do.

* You could always set "debug = true" in .\templates\PVDTemplate-HD\Kroozbox.properties file, restart Kroozbox and look at the Kroozbox screen output when you click on the link of the movie to play. Post it here.

* Is your PCH firmware up to date? It shoudl work with older firmware but I have no way to test.


Hi Nono,

I'm at work right now so I can't try your suggestions, but I will do so as soon as I get home this evening.  In the meantime, to answer a few of your questions:

* Right now I am only using startme.bat (I've uninstalled the service as you recommended in a prior post  ;) )
* I didn't think I needed to set the localMediaRoot and the dbaseMediaRoot properties based on my configuration, but didn't think it would hurt anything either.  I do have some ISO files so tried to base the Kroozbox configuration to support ISOs.
* My movies are primarily WMV files, with some ISO and several .TS thrown in for good measure.  They all work perfectly fine from the USB-attached drive on the PCH.
* It won't hurt me to try re-installing from scratch.  It should only take a few minutes to reconfigure.
* I have the PCH A-110 with the latest firmware (this is confirmed as I'm anxiously awaiting some of the new enhancements with the latest firmware that is imminent).

Another quick question that you may be able to help me with:  I am attempting to modify the MoviesDetails-8 template file to include the Media Label field.  Unfortunately, I cannot seem to get the Firebird ODBC driver to successfully complete a test connection.  I've also installed several Firebird clients but they give me an error message similar to "unsupported on-disk structure".  Can you recommend a good Firebird client and ODBC driver?  Also, would you happen to know the field attribute name for the media label field?

Thanks again for all your help.  I'll let you know how things go this evening.

Regards,
CD

31
Development / Re: Accessing the Database directly (read only)
« on: January 28, 2009, 04:38:40 pm »
You need a client application to use the driver and connect to the database. Just google for it.

With the ODBC driver installed you can still Test the connection.  Connections fail when configuring the driver to connect to the PVD database.  However, in addition to this, I have installed and attempted to connect to the database using the following clients:

  • Firebird Maestro
  • Interbase & Firebird Development Suite
  • DB Workbench Lite
  • IB Easy

All of which say they cannot connect to the database.  I get a similar message from each client, something like "unsupported on-disk structure".

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

I really appreciate the assistance.

Thanks,
CD

32
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 28, 2009, 06:38:15 am »
Hmmm... I think you are missing the most important point of Kroozbox. (maybe you should read the manual  ;) )

If I understand you, you first enter the movies in PVD and then move your hard disk to your PCH.... ouch - not good - it defeats the purpose.

Kroozbox is build to deliver the movie to the PCH through the network. Do NOT unplug your hard disk from your computer where Kroozbox is running, just leave it there. Selecting the movie from kroozbox will deliver it to the PCH.

Now, there are situations where the movie you enter in PVD might not be find at the same drive/location by Kroozbox. For instance, on my system I use PVD on my personal computer that sees the movies on drive "m:". The database is physicaly located on a hard disk on my home server that is using "e:" as drive letter (where the movies are). Kroozbox is also running on this home server. In essence, the PVD database have the movies entered on drive "m:" but Kroozbox must get them on drive "e:".

There are multiple ways to adjust this. The simplest way is to adjust the value of "dbaseMediaRoot" and "localMediaRoot" in the corresponding kroozbox.properties. In my example, I would set "dbaseMediaRoot = m:/" and "localMediaRoot = e:/". You could adjust that and have "localMediaRoot = USB_DRIVE_A-1:/" or something like that. But you would miss some of the important feature of Kroozbox (delivering to multiple medias, etc) and you would have to alwyas move your hard disk (yurk).
You could also use the "mediaLinkPathTable" and/or the "mediaPathTable" correspondance tables, but these should be use for more complex re-mapping where you have multiple hard disks on different drive assignments or exotic network.

But I think that in your case, you just have to plug and play.... isn't it working properly when you start the movie ? (from browser or PCH).

Nono,

I can't seem to get Kroozbox to stream my movies.  I'm certain it's something that I have misconfigured.  I have PVD and Kroozbox both running on the same server.  The media files are located on drive G: ... so both the database and Kroozbox would find the media on drive G.  Thus I have "dbaseMediaRoot = G:/" and "localMediaRoot = G:/".  I can successfully watch movies locally from the server using my browser, but if I try to stream a movie from PCH the television (browser) just flickers and nothing happens.

Any suggestions on what I should change?

Thanks!
CD

33
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 27, 2009, 11:30:17 pm »
Thanks for the reply, Nono.  You're correct, I need to read the manual...but you know how us IT types can be  ;)  I will do so tonight.

I am able to get my movies to stream locally (from the server).  To be honest, I haven't tried this from the PCH.  My preference was to do it as I described earlier, thinking that streaming locally via PCH-attached USB would be much faster (and therefore better performance) than streaming via my network.  I don't have the most efficient network configuration.  But it may be fine...I'll try this evening.

I did try the config change ("localMediaRoot = USB_DRIVE_A-1:/") as you suggested but it didn't work.  I may be wrong (and probably am) but I don't think that Kroozbox understands the local mapping from PCH since the request is made from the server.

But I can live with this.  If it streams fine via my network then I can use my docking station on the server.  And if my network performance isn't good enough, I can still use Kroozbox/PVD to manage my movie collection and use the Location field to determine which drive to put in the USB docking station (attached to the PCH).

Keep up the great work  :)

Thanks,
CD

34
Development / Re: Accessing the Database directly (read only)
« on: January 27, 2009, 06:25:26 pm »
Hello,

I'm fairly new to PVD but am really enjoying the application.  I'd like to learn more about the database and possibly extend it's functionality based on some ideas I have.  However, I can't seem to find any schema information on it.

As suggested in a previous post, I installed an ODBC driver (from here http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=files&id=odbc) but cannot seem to make a successful connection to the database.

Can you give me a brief outline on how to do this?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

-CD

35
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 26, 2009, 03:53:55 am »
You cannot run Kroozbox as a Windows service and with Starme.bat. Its like runnning teh same application twice, each asking for the same resource (server port, database access, etc). This will result in unpredictable behavior - maybe... oh... like you have seen.
Stop the service, uninstall it to be sure (REMOVESERVICE.bat). And run startme. You may have to hard boot your PCH as well after that (to be sure).

Install Kroozbox Windows service when all is nice.

You're awesome.  That was the problem.  I'll re-install the service once everything is working perfectly.

I can now browse my databse via PCH.  I have a quick question for you.  But first, background.  I have a Thermaltake USB Hard Drive docking station that I use with PCH.  This way I can have many movies on multiple hard drives and just plug in the one with the movie that I want to watch.  With this said, I can now browse the Kroozbox server and once I find hte movie I want to watch...plus that hard drive into the docking station and away I go.

The question I have, how do I configure Kroozbox to support this configuration?  On the Kroozbox server, the movie library drive is plugged in to the server as drive G (G:/).  On the PCH, it will always be referenced as USB_DRIVE_A-1.  So how should this be referenced in the Kroozbox config files?

Once I have this last detail figured out I should be all set (other than a template change to display the movie Location on the screen -- so I know which hard drive to grab).

Thanks!
CD

36
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 26, 2009, 03:12:28 am »
Well, make sure that the "ssdpOn" property is set to "true" (ssdpOn = true) in the corresponding template kroozbox.properties file. Else then that.... next time send me the complete screen output when you start Kroozbox. By theway.. using version 1.8.. yes!?

You could always add your service manually in the "./config/extraSSDP.properties". Something like:

Code: [Select]
My PVD Movie = 192.168.1.200:9008  (put your own IP and port)
but it shoudn't be necessary.


N

Thanks for the prompt reply, Nono.  I checked as you recommended and ssdpOn is already set to True.  I did add the service manually, just in case.  Then restarted the service and re-ran the startme.bat file.  By the way, if Kroozbox is running as a service do I still need to run startme.bat?

This time there was a bunch of UPnP activity in the command window.  I checked PCH and there are three UPnP entries on the menu for Kroozbox...one for HD, one for SD and one for notices.  Unfortunately, when I selected the SD entry the activity monitor kept spinning for about two minutes and then PCH indicated that the request could not be processed (some kind of timeout, I'm assuming).

Getting much closer.  Any suggestion what to look for next?

Thanks again!
CD

37
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 26, 2009, 02:11:58 am »
Hello,

Hmmm... never saw this problem. Maybe a firewall issue on the server running Kroozbox? Network connectivity of the NMT box!? Router?

Sorry cannot be more help. Of course, you could also set the "ssdpDebug = true" in the ./config/SSDP.properties file, restart kroozbox with startme.bat and see what you get in the screen output (wait at least 20 seconds for the NMT to send its request). If nothing get listed it would clearly be the NMT SSDP dispatch not geting to Kroozbox.
Does MyHome works properly from the same server running Kroozbox? if yes, I am out of ideas...

Let me know.


Thanks for the help, Nono.  Much appreciated!

I did as you requested.  I set "ssdpDebug = true" and this is the error message that gets posted to the screen output:

 [upnpDevice]  ***ERROR Cannot start UPNP listener. No HTTP server to publish (see properties files)

I'm not sure what is meant by no HTTP server to publish...as I can browse my movie collection in IE just fine.  Anything specific that I should be looking for here?

Thanks again,
CD

38
Development / Re: Kroozbox - PVD to media theatre solution
« on: January 25, 2009, 11:42:58 pm »
Forgive me if I'm a little off topic.  I'm very new to PCH, Kroozbox and PVD...but I'm absolutely loving what you can do with these utilities.  Great work by all. 

Anyway, I have PVD set up and about 50 movies in the database.  I've configured Kroozbox and everything seems to be working correctly via HTTP.  The problem I'm experiencing is that I don't see Kroozbox available from the PCH menu.  The documentation states that Kroozbox should appear as an option automatically in the menu since it supports UPnP.  Unfortunately, I'm not seeing it.

Any suggestions on what I should look for to fix this?  I appreciate any assistance you can offer.  And again, sorry if this isn't the appropritate forum for this question.

Thanks in advance!
CD

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