Many hands make light work...

The only thing I had planed to add to what I've got so far was to consolidate all of the different settings for the applications in the registry, instead of using xml files, and add those to the settings application so it would all be GUI based. I'll probably get that done by this weekend.

I can email you the source for the add-in and you could start incorporate what you've done before that, with the only caveat that the location of the reg settings will change; I'm going to organize the settings into a global HKLM\Software\DVRMSToolbox (install path for eg.) and application HKLM\Software\DVRMSToolbox\CommercialSkip (logging, autoskip, etc) level. Each application that has settings would have it's own sub key under the global. PM me your email address and I can send it over.

Another thing to be aware of is that I wrote a custom msas sink and consumer. It's not as complex as the MediaState implementation, but it didn't need to be. I was concerned that another project would use MediaState, which would cause problems as both apps tried to read from the same MMF.

One thing that I'm curious about is the extensive use of Toub's disposal cleanup object. Wondering why objects that don't implement IDisposable were added to the list it tracked?

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DVRMSToolbox, Recording Broker, LcdWriter, and more software
babgvant.com

The mods you have done have improved things quite a bit... one thing that bothers me is when you insert a DVD and the prompt comes up to play that DVD you can't use the right arrow to move to the X and close the dialog because the commercial skipper kicks in and either skips to the next commercial end or mentions there is no commercial file.

Thank you for reporting this.  This is one of the bugs that we are still tracking down.  Right now, there is only two bugs that I know about.  The display box problem is one, the other is a garbage collection issue that causes the Graph lookup to fail (actually the Graph problem seems to be fixed in the version you have, but the fix is so ugly that I'm not sure it's truly fixed).

 

If you find any other issues please let me know.  I’d love to make the application as stable as possible.  If you wish to help Debug the Graph error, try all the different combinations of skipping in Live TV, Recorded TV, a show that is currently recording, etc (most importantly switching between all of these).  If you encounter a problem, please let me know the sequence to recreate it.  You’ll know you encountered the Graph error because a display box will appear telling you there was a Graph error.  A Graph error is only possible when you start a show (or restart the same show, or press play from a paused state).  This is when the Graph is loaded.

 

Any help you can provide testing would be appreciated.

One thing I forgot to mention.  If you would like to solve your dialog box problem for now, just stop the show you are watching (press stop on the remote) before pressing the Right or Left arrow.  After you make your selection and the display prompt goes away, you can then restart your show.

 

This is on my list to fix, but right now I have no way of knowing when a dialog box appears.  There are a few of these that pop-up, so we really hope to find a way to fix this.

I have enable the "skipbox" function that you added and it seems to count the minutes since the play started after the last commercial rather than the time from the beginning of the commercial to the end of the commercial. The actual skip is correct just the time says say 14 minutes 30 seconds where is should be 3 minutes 30 seconds. If you rewind the commercial and then have it skip the same commercial again the time is correct. This "skipbox" option seems to be much faster and you don't get that small portion of commercial before it catches and skips... Also is there any way to make the informational dialog boxes translucent? That would be a great improvement.

Please try the version attached.  When I added skipMaxMinutes I messed up the skipbox calculation.  Also, the skipbox time is a calculation from your current position to the end of the next commercial segment (the amount of time you will be skipping).  If you are using AutoSkip this just happens to be the time from the beginning of the commercial segment to the end of the commercial segment.  However, if you are using manual skip the time will be different (you could manually skip from the middle of a show segment to the end of the next commercial segment).  Anyway, please try this and let me know what you think.

 

Also, since you are trying things out.  What do you think of skipMaxMinutes and skipBoxMinMinutes?  skipMaxMinutes will work with any skipDisplayType (skipbar, skipbox, or classic).  I wanted some way to know if I skipped over a section of my show, but I couldn’t decide what was best.  My brother really likes skipbar, but my family likes skipbox combined with skipMaxMinutes (set to 10 minutes) and skipBoxMinMinutes (set to 4 minutes).  I’m curious what others find useful and what options we are just wasting our time supporting.

i'm getting a recurring error with DVRMSToolbox that i just can't seem to find a resolution for.  i have seriously spent many hours researching this problem, reading through this giant thread, and searching other forums for answers.

i really like DVRMSToolbox and for the most part it works great, but i keep getting the following set of errors when processing only some of my dvr-ms files:

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97.77%
98.58%
99.42%
The parameter is incorrect.
End Splice
Duration = 00:02:22.4218750
Fix slider in MCE;
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Duration = 00:00:00

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Another issue that I have found is that the add-in doesn't seem stable when you register it with

%windir%\ehome\RegisterMCEApp.exe CommercialSkipAddin.xml /allusers

...

If you register without the /allusers it seems much more reliable...

What version of MCE are you running and do you have any extenders?  I have extenders so I’ve performed all my testing with /allusers.  When you say it’s unstable, can you give me some examples of problems?

Span created - 3836.6328, 3837

this is the problem... the size of the span is too small... i'd thought this bug had been fixed... i'll take another look.

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DVRMSToolbox, Recording Broker, LcdWriter, and more software
babgvant.com

found the problem... i'll have it fixed in the next rev.

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DVRMSToolbox, Recording Broker, LcdWriter, and more software
babgvant.com

babgVant you are awesome   thanks so much for your quick response.  i can stop pulling my hair out now.  for now, i think i'll try manually editing the XML file, remove the small spans, and run the file through DVRMSToolbox again.  i'll let you know how it works.

i'll definitely be waiting anxiously for the new release.  if you need a hand testing it let us know.

also, i was just curious if your new release will be based off the latest Stephen Toub "Toub.MediaCenter.Dvrms.dll" (v1.1.10.0 09/12/2005).  it looks like he updated his code here, DVR-MS: Adventures in Closed Captioning.

 

I wasn't planning on updating the version... the link to the code mentioned in that article seems to be dead.

unless he fixed bugs in the splicing or metadata parts of the code stream, it wouldn't make a difference...

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DVRMSToolbox, Recording Broker, LcdWriter, and more software
babgvant.com

Okay after messing around a bit I have found that once you close MCE and open it again you can no longer use the add-in until I reboot the computer (restarting MCE doesn't fix it)... whether I register it for all users or not. That is with both versions of the DLL you submitted. In the event log I do see

UserName=Joe
Uninitialize.
Process.Id=2832

UserName=Joe
Initialize.
Process.Id=2832

and this just after restarting MCE and it not working you get

UserName=Joe
Uninitialize.
Process.Id=3080

UserName=Joe
Initialize.
Process.Id=3080

but it will not show the skipper while playing recorded TV.

I just tried it with my setup and I can’t recreate the problem (I tried it on three different machines and It worked correctly on all of them).  If you don’t mind, can you please try a few things for me?  First, please clear your Event Log (I’m going to have you perform a test and send me your Event Log).  Please go to the registry and add the keywords Logging = 1 and OnMSASEventLogging = 1.  Then perform your test (using the same sequence you described) and backup the Application EventLog.  If you post the EventLog I’ll look through it and hopefully I can tell what’s happening.  After performing this test please make sure to set OnMSASEventLogging = 0, if you don’t it will fill up your EventLog quickly.

 

Thanks for helping with the testing.