Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
[OT] Is anyone using kaffeine 2?
208 views
Skip to first unread message
pinnerite
Nov 10, 2016, 7:19:30 PM11/10/16
to
I have been having a variety of problems with kaffeine 2.0.x on
both kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
I would like to compare notes with other users.
--
Mageia 5 for x86_64, Kernel:4.4.16-desktop-1.mga5
KDE version 4.14.5 on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition.
both kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
I would like to compare notes with other users.
--
Mageia 5 for x86_64, Kernel:4.4.16-desktop-1.mga5
KDE version 4.14.5 on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition.
Scott
Nov 11, 2016, 1:51:27 PM11/11/16
to
On Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:19:29 +0000, pinnerite <pinn...@gmail.com>
wrote:
>I have been having a variety of problems with kaffeine 2.0.x on
>both kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
>
>I would like to compare notes with other users.
Had a cup of coffee at lunchtime if that counts.
wrote:
>I have been having a variety of problems with kaffeine 2.0.x on
>both kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
>
>I would like to compare notes with other users.
Johnny B Good
Nov 11, 2016, 11:38:16 PM11/11/16
to
On Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:19:29 +0000, pinnerite wrote:
> I have been having a variety of problems with kaffeine 2.0.x on both
> kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
>
> I would like to compare notes with other users.
I'm still using Kaffeine 1.2.2 with Linux Mint KDE 17.1. The only
> I have been having a variety of problems with kaffeine 2.0.x on both
> kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
>
> I would like to compare notes with other users.
problems I've had[1] were with regard to the twin tuner Kworld DVBT-1
tuner 'dropping out' a few weeks ago after over a year of trouble free PVR
duty.
The first time it happened, despite my suspicions of an iffy contact in
the PCI slot, I did a warm reboot of the OS which got it going for a day
or three before I started seeing 0 byte recordings again. This time I
shut the system down so I could reseat the card (and clean the edge
contacts with an india-rubber pencil eraser).
Last night (this Friday), I noticed the same thing with the "Eggheads"
scheduled recording (a wasted slot on account of the dancin' crap - ICBA
altering the 5 days a week repeat schedule for that interloper) but not
the preceding "Dolphins - Spy in the Pod" recording a few hours earlier.
This time, I did a full shutdown (including power off) reboot and
everything went back to normal. Whilst 'watching Live', I jiggled the
card by the antenna socket to see whether it was a repeat bad contacts
issue and it carried on undisturbed[2]. A fact that, in itself, was
slightly disturbing since it implied that some other random cause for the
adapter's dropping out was responsible this time around.
It looks like I'm going to having to watch the home folder's contents
like a hawk from now on to look out for more zero length files. The
previous 18 months have been glitch free (apart from forgetting to
provide a temporary power hook up to the distribution amp in the attic
when working on the basement, 1st and 2nd floor lighting circuit that
powers the 13A socket (via a 3A fused CU box) rigged up in said attic for
just this purpose), so I'm not overjoyed at this loss in rock solid
stability right now.
I'm still on version 1.2.2 because I haven't been offered an update via
the software manager's auto-update service. I guess it might be worth
checking whether there's any compelling reason to update it to ver 2.0.x
(but not if it's been cursed with a bug or three).
Have you tried reverting back to the previous version? What issues have
you been seeing? Aside from possible bugs, does the new version offer any
worthwhile advantages?
[1] I don't count the "feature" of not updating the EPG until you watch a
'Live Stream' as a bug (the EPG eventually 'runs dry' if you leave it
just running as a PVR - this doesn't effect regular programmes such as
Eggheads set up to record every Monday to Friday but if you're recording
the more eclectically scheduled random length mini-series and one offs
(and their repeats) on BBC4, you obviously need to see the next 7 days of
EPG listings which only updates by actually watching 'Live TV' for 5
minutes or so at a time. A minor, if slightly irritating requirement to
keep the EPG database up to date, hence "Feature" rather than "Bug". :-)
[2] I've just checked that the adapter is working just now, some 10 hours
or so later, and I'm still able to conjure up a Live TV stream from the
BBC2 channel I normally leave it parked on. So far, so good. I'll just
have to keep a more watchful eye on it over the next few weeks or so.
I've got a feeling I'll be giving the system an early 'spring cleaning'
within the next month or so anyway which will give me the opportunity to
do a more thorough reseating exercise of everything that's prey to
connector problems in a desktop PC.
--
Johnny B Good
pinnerite
Nov 12, 2016, 11:55:48 AM11/12/16
to
On Sat, 12 Nov 2016 04:38:14 +0000, Johnny B Good wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:19:29 +0000, pinnerite wrote:
>
>> I have been having a variety of problems with kaffeine 2.0.x on both
>> kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
>>
>> I would like to compare notes with other users.
>
> I'm still using Kaffeine 1.2.2 with Linux Mint KDE 17.1. The only
> problems I've had[1] were with regard to the twin tuner Kworld DVBT-1
> tuner 'dropping out' a few weeks ago after over a year of trouble free
> PVR duty.
>
> The first time it happened, despite my suspicions of an iffy contact in
> the PCI slot, I did a warm reboot of the OS which got it going for a day
> or three before I started seeing 0 byte recordings again. This time I
> shut the system down so I could reseat the card (and clean the edge
> contacts with an india-rubber pencil eraser).
>
//SNIPPED//
> On Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:19:29 +0000, pinnerite wrote:
>
>> I have been having a variety of problems with kaffeine 2.0.x on both
>> kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
>>
>> I would like to compare notes with other users.
>
> I'm still using Kaffeine 1.2.2 with Linux Mint KDE 17.1. The only
> problems I've had[1] were with regard to the twin tuner Kworld DVBT-1
> tuner 'dropping out' a few weeks ago after over a year of trouble free
> PVR duty.
>
> The first time it happened, despite my suspicions of an iffy contact in
> the PCI slot, I did a warm reboot of the OS which got it going for a day
> or three before I started seeing 0 byte recordings again. This time I
> shut the system down so I could reseat the card (and clean the edge
> contacts with an india-rubber pencil eraser).
>
1) My dropped connections were with mythtv on Mageia Linux 5. I cannot
recall whether it was so with kaffeine 1.2.2 as well.
2) My decision to try kaffeine 2.0.5 (now) is that it supports HD
channels. The problem was that either the card drivers would either not
compile under kernels 4.7 or 4.8 on all of the newest distros that I ran
up or the modules wouldn't show up in dmesg.
3) I finally decided to stick with the current beta of Mageia 6 in the
hopes of it just updating as bugs were overcome.
4) Eventually TBS compiled and installed the drivers remotely but didn't
tell me what they did that I hadn't. I had been doing it with every new
kernel for over three years so it is a bit discomforting.
5) However kaffeine 2.0.5 just will not work as expected. It 'sees' the
TBS tuners but tryng to set the source where I am, in the UK London area
is impossible. The scanfile utility collects a huge file from the
internet that includes, as far as I can tell every country under the sun
except the uk. I selected its autoscan setting but that achieved nothing.
I then discovered that whereas in the past the config files were held at
~/.kde4/share/apps/kaffeine they now appeared to be held at ~/.local/
share/kaffeine. At least those are the ones that get updated.
So in desperation I edited config.dvb and changed scanSource to
scanSource=uk-CrystalPalace and pasted the crystal palace settings from
the version 1.2.2 into scanfile.dvb.
I would like to report that all this helped but it didn't.
When I run a channel scan it seems to be searching bit finds nothing.
There is no active forum even including kde.org so I am pretty cheesed
off with it.
--
kubuntu 16.10 for x86_64, Kernel: 4.8.0-22-generic
KDE5 5.8.2 running on an Intel core-3 processor
Bob
Nov 12, 2016, 12:08:36 PM11/12/16
to
On Sat, 12 Nov 2016 16:55:46 +0000, pinnerite wrote:
>
> There is no active forum even including kde.org so I am pretty cheesed
> off with it.
Is alt.os.linux.ubuntu any good to you?
>
> There is no active forum even including kde.org so I am pretty cheesed
> off with it.
Johnny B Good
Nov 12, 2016, 11:17:29 PM11/12/16
to
On Sat, 12 Nov 2016 16:55:46 +0000, pinnerite wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Nov 2016 04:38:14 +0000, Johnny B Good wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:19:29 +0000, pinnerite wrote:
>>
>>> I have been having a variety of problems with kaffeine 2.0.x on both
>>> kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
>>>
>>> I would like to compare notes with other users.
>>
>> I'm still using Kaffeine 1.2.2 with Linux Mint KDE 17.1. The only
>> problems I've had[1] were with regard to the twin tuner Kworld DVBT-1
>> tuner 'dropping out' a few weeks ago after over a year of trouble free
>> PVR duty.
>>
>> The first time it happened, despite my suspicions of an iffy contact
>> in
>> the PCI slot, I did a warm reboot of the OS which got it going for a
>> day or three before I started seeing 0 byte recordings again. This time
>> I shut the system down so I could reseat the card (and clean the edge
>> contacts with an india-rubber pencil eraser).
>>
> //SNIPPED//
>
> 1) My dropped connections were with mythtv on Mageia Linux 5. I cannot
> recall whether it was so with kaffeine 1.2.2 as well.
My earlier experiences with MythTV didn't go too well for me. I found it
>
>> On Fri, 11 Nov 2016 00:19:29 +0000, pinnerite wrote:
>>
>>> I have been having a variety of problems with kaffeine 2.0.x on both
>>> kubuntu 16.10 and Mageia 6.
>>>
>>> I would like to compare notes with other users.
>>
>> I'm still using Kaffeine 1.2.2 with Linux Mint KDE 17.1. The only
>> problems I've had[1] were with regard to the twin tuner Kworld DVBT-1
>> tuner 'dropping out' a few weeks ago after over a year of trouble free
>> PVR duty.
>>
>> The first time it happened, despite my suspicions of an iffy contact
>> in
>> the PCI slot, I did a warm reboot of the OS which got it going for a
>> day or three before I started seeing 0 byte recordings again. This time
>> I shut the system down so I could reseat the card (and clean the edge
>> contacts with an india-rubber pencil eraser).
>>
> //SNIPPED//
>
> 1) My dropped connections were with mythtv on Mageia Linux 5. I cannot
> recall whether it was so with kaffeine 1.2.2 as well.
all rather too fussy with the set up tasks. My later attempts with an 11
year old laptop ran into problems due to lack of power management driver
support (to the extent that I always had to manually complete the shutdown
on the power button). I think I may revisit this (or whatever it may be
known as by the time I get another round tuit with a carefully chosen
Linux compatible laptop).
Kaffeine is more my speed as far as configuration complexity goes (and
it's a far cry from the windows equivalent "DTVR" TV recording software I
used to use for the best part of a decade prior to upgrading from win2k
to Linux Mint, April last year, when a major hardware upgrade finally
proved an upgrade too far for win2k to survive).
Prior experience with Kaffeine harks back some 5 or 6 years when I
started testing Ubuntu on an al fresco test setup to prepare myself for
win2k's ultimate demise. I was testing virtualisation using Oracle's
Virtualbox and a win2k and a winXP VM so as to ease the transition from
Microsoft to Linux.
I also dropped that Kworld twin tuner DVB-T adapter into a PCI slot so I
could use it to resolve recording scheduling conflicts that I couldn't
resolve using DTVR on both my desktop and laptop machines (both running
win2k). The thing was, I had to be very careful not to mechanically
disturb this al fresco setup since the DVB-T adapter was rather wobbly in
the absence of a case expansion slot by which to firmly anchor it in
place.
It usually managed to stay up long enough to resolve the scheduling
conflicts but I did see it drop out often enough from being wobbled a bit
too much in its slot, requiring a shut down so I could reseat the adapter
and line up the TV co-ax so as to help it stay leaned over to one side to
reduce the wobblyness to a minimum. I was only too pleased to finally be
able to mount it in my desktop case when that last upgrade forced me to
at last give up win2k in favour of LM 17.0. I'd finally be able to
eliminate PCI slot connector issues from the stability equation and see
its true potential as a stable PVR platform (I had never been able to use
that Kworld adapter with win2k due to lack of driver support).
I'd been using it this way for a good 2 or 3 years before discovering
(quite by accident) that Kaffeine could record every BBC SD TV channel
from the one multiplex without the need for a second tuner shortly before
that fateful upgrade (and also the fact that I could also employ
overlapping paddings entirely conflict free to boot!!! - all
impossibilities in the windows world of PVR software).
>
> 2) My decision to try kaffeine 2.0.5 (now) is that it supports HD
> channels. The problem was that either the card drivers would either not
> compile under kernels 4.7 or 4.8 on all of the newest distros that I ran
> up or the modules wouldn't show up in dmesg.
the not too distant future so it looks like I'll be forced to upgrade to
Kaffeine ver 2.0.5 or later, a requirement I was unaware of till now.
>
> 3) I finally decided to stick with the current beta of Mageia 6 in the
> hopes of it just updating as bugs were overcome.
I guess you're more into bleeding edge distros and compiling your own
drivers and packages than I feel I'm ready to tackle (hence the wimp's
route into Linux, notwithstanding that my first experience of installing
Linux dates back over 15 years ago using the SuSie Linux CD that came
with the "Linux for Dummies" book - that ended with a "Now what?" moment
when I completed the installation and several years hiatus until I
discovered the joys of the famous Knoppix Live CDs which finally started
answering that very question).
>
> 4) Eventually TBS compiled and installed the drivers remotely but didn't
> tell me what they did that I hadn't. I had been doing it with every new
> kernel for over three years so it is a bit discomforting.
make of DVB-T2 adapter and got it first hit. Presumably you're obliged to
download the source code and compile the driver code yourself (presumably
as a loadable module or embedded into the kernel? - I vaguely recall
there being these two options regarding adding hardware driver support).
>
> 5) However kaffeine 2.0.5 just will not work as expected. It 'sees' the
> TBS tuners but tryng to set the source where I am, in the UK London area
> is impossible. The scanfile utility collects a huge file from the
> internet that includes, as far as I can tell every country under the sun
> except the uk. I selected its autoscan setting but that achieved
> nothing.
>
> I then discovered that whereas in the past the config files were held at
> ~/.kde4/share/apps/kaffeine they now appeared to be held at ~/.local/
> share/kaffeine. At least those are the ones that get updated.
>
> So in desperation I edited config.dvb and changed scanSource to
> scanSource=uk-CrystalPalace and pasted the crystal palace settings from
> the version 1.2.2 into scanfile.dvb.
>
> I would like to report that all this helped but it didn't.
Unfortunately, I can't offer any suggestions other than to try posting
into the uk.comp.os.linux or the uk.comp.homebuilt news groups for help
or pointers to more useful newsgroups. Whilst there are some posting here
who are into assembling their own PC based PVR solutions, it seems to me
that most of the expertise tends to lie with windows rather than *nix
based solutions.
--
Johnny B Good
pinnerite
Nov 14, 2016, 3:57:03 PM11/14/16
to
Johnny B Good
Nov 15, 2016, 10:53:25 AM11/15/16
to
On Sun, 13 Nov 2016 17:32:26 +0000, Mr. Marmite wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Nov 2016 04:17:28 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> Is there such a beast? I'm running eight HD tuners (Astrometa and PCTV
> 290e) on the back of a Windows 10 box, using either WMC or DVBViewer as
> a front end, and have run into difficulties with Windows 10 unable to
> support an unlimited number of USB connections, something Windows 7
> accomplished without any problems. At present, I have to keep unplugging
> all my archive discs to use all the tuners (very rare, but it
> occasionally happens around 2100) and that's starting to become a right
> PITA.
Apologies for the tardy response. I've been juggling with off-air and
iplayer sources of BBC content courtesy of get-iplayer just lately. I've
been stressing out my 30Mbps VM cable connection over the past 3 weeks or
so, trying to gather as many "HD" versions of my recent off-air SD
recordings whilst they're still available. This afternoon, I finally got
myself caught up with this backlog and can now deal with my 'archiving
task' at a more leisurely pace.
To answer your question, yes, there are dual and quad tuner DVB-T2
adapters (PCI and PCIe types) available if you search hard enough but
they're not exactly cheap[1]. I'll be needing two such tuners because the
BBC4 HD stream is on a seperate mux to the rest of the Beeb's HD
broadcast streams on Freeview (I only need a single tuner to capture all
of the BBC's SD streams using Kaffeine).
Eight DVB-T2 tuners suggests you're determined to archive the whole of
Freeview's broadcast streams (SD and HD) although the 'astro' part of the
'Astrometa' name suggested the possibility that you were including
satellite broadcast sources (but googling shows it only does DVB-C/T/T2,
not S).
JOOI, can you record all TV streams in a single mux using WMC and
DVBViewer? I know some folk have used VLC in windows to capture the full
mux data stream from which they can later hive off individual channel
streams in a post processing exercise which seems as close to Kaffeine's
ability to record each TV stream to seperate files without regard to
padding overlap conflicts with back to back programmes across the whole
mux. Scheduling conflicts in Kaffeine only arise when you don't have
enough tuners to cover programmes being aired simultaneously on different
muxes.
[1] Unfortunately, the range of *nix compatible DVB-T2 adapters is rather
small compared to windows compatible kit and what is available tends to
be the more expensive up-market kit. Given enough time and some dedicated
effort by the devs, some of the more affordable models do eventually make
it into the *nix repositories or into the kernel code. I'm keeping an eye
on the situation with a view to eventually upgrading to DVB-T2 without
having to resort to the expensive high end kit that's only currently
available for *nix based systems.
--
Johnny B Good
> On Sun, 13 Nov 2016 04:17:28 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>> I'm planning on upgrading to a twin tuner DVB-T2 adapter some time in
>>the not too distant future
> <snip>
>>the not too distant future
>
> Is there such a beast? I'm running eight HD tuners (Astrometa and PCTV
> 290e) on the back of a Windows 10 box, using either WMC or DVBViewer as
> a front end, and have run into difficulties with Windows 10 unable to
> support an unlimited number of USB connections, something Windows 7
> accomplished without any problems. At present, I have to keep unplugging
> all my archive discs to use all the tuners (very rare, but it
> occasionally happens around 2100) and that's starting to become a right
> PITA.
Apologies for the tardy response. I've been juggling with off-air and
iplayer sources of BBC content courtesy of get-iplayer just lately. I've
been stressing out my 30Mbps VM cable connection over the past 3 weeks or
so, trying to gather as many "HD" versions of my recent off-air SD
recordings whilst they're still available. This afternoon, I finally got
myself caught up with this backlog and can now deal with my 'archiving
task' at a more leisurely pace.
To answer your question, yes, there are dual and quad tuner DVB-T2
adapters (PCI and PCIe types) available if you search hard enough but
they're not exactly cheap[1]. I'll be needing two such tuners because the
BBC4 HD stream is on a seperate mux to the rest of the Beeb's HD
broadcast streams on Freeview (I only need a single tuner to capture all
of the BBC's SD streams using Kaffeine).
Eight DVB-T2 tuners suggests you're determined to archive the whole of
Freeview's broadcast streams (SD and HD) although the 'astro' part of the
'Astrometa' name suggested the possibility that you were including
satellite broadcast sources (but googling shows it only does DVB-C/T/T2,
not S).
JOOI, can you record all TV streams in a single mux using WMC and
DVBViewer? I know some folk have used VLC in windows to capture the full
mux data stream from which they can later hive off individual channel
streams in a post processing exercise which seems as close to Kaffeine's
ability to record each TV stream to seperate files without regard to
padding overlap conflicts with back to back programmes across the whole
mux. Scheduling conflicts in Kaffeine only arise when you don't have
enough tuners to cover programmes being aired simultaneously on different
muxes.
[1] Unfortunately, the range of *nix compatible DVB-T2 adapters is rather
small compared to windows compatible kit and what is available tends to
be the more expensive up-market kit. Given enough time and some dedicated
effort by the devs, some of the more affordable models do eventually make
it into the *nix repositories or into the kernel code. I'm keeping an eye
on the situation with a view to eventually upgrading to DVB-T2 without
having to resort to the expensive high end kit that's only currently
available for *nix based systems.
--
Johnny B Good
pinnerite
Nov 17, 2016, 6:10:39 AM11/17/16
to
Mr. Marmite wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Nov 2016 15:53:23 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>> <snip>
>
> torrents, but the eight tuners in fact often becomes the equivalent of
> four as I allow a two minute and five minute overlap at the beginning and
> end of recordings.
> a while but found that separating and editing the different programs that
> I wanted to archive took so long that it was easier to just record the
> programs individually.
I use a TBS dual-tunered TBS PCIe card but they do make four-driver models.
The satellite one is TBS6905 DVB-S2 Quad Tuner PCIe Card and the TBS6205
DVB-T2/T/C Quad TV Tuner PCIe Card for example. From four years experience I
can confirm that their Linux support and indeed customer support is pretty
good.
HTH
Regards Alan
> On Tue, 15 Nov 2016 15:53:23 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>> <snip>
>
>> To answer your question, yes, there are dual and quad tuner DVB-T2
>>adapters (PCI and PCIe types) available if you search hard enough but
>>they're not exactly cheap[1]. I'll be needing two such tuners because the
>>BBC4 HD stream is on a seperate mux to the rest of the Beeb's HD
>>broadcast streams on Freeview (I only need a single tuner to capture all
>>of the BBC's SD streams using Kaffeine).
>>
> Thanks for the info.
>>adapters (PCI and PCIe types) available if you search hard enough but
>>they're not exactly cheap[1]. I'll be needing two such tuners because the
>>BBC4 HD stream is on a seperate mux to the rest of the Beeb's HD
>>broadcast streams on Freeview (I only need a single tuner to capture all
>>of the BBC's SD streams using Kaffeine).
>>
>
>> Eight DVB-T2 tuners suggests you're determined to archive the whole of
>>Freeview's broadcast streams (SD and HD) although the 'astro' part of the
>>'Astrometa' name suggested the possibility that you were including
>>satellite broadcast sources (but googling shows it only does DVB-C/T/T2,
>>not S).
>>
> I archive a lot of films and TV, mostly from binary Usenet groups or
>> Eight DVB-T2 tuners suggests you're determined to archive the whole of
>>Freeview's broadcast streams (SD and HD) although the 'astro' part of the
>>'Astrometa' name suggested the possibility that you were including
>>satellite broadcast sources (but googling shows it only does DVB-C/T/T2,
>>not S).
>>
> torrents, but the eight tuners in fact often becomes the equivalent of
> four as I allow a two minute and five minute overlap at the beginning and
> end of recordings.
>
>> JOOI, can you record all TV streams in a single mux using WMC and
>>DVBViewer? I know some folk have used VLC in windows to capture the full
>>mux data stream from which they can later hive off individual channel
>>streams in a post processing exercise which seems as close to Kaffeine's
>>ability to record each TV stream to seperate files without regard to
>>padding overlap conflicts with back to back programmes across the whole
>>mux. Scheduling conflicts in Kaffeine only arise when you don't have
>>enough tuners to cover programmes being aired simultaneously on different
>>muxes.
>>
> DVBViewer will record a complete mux but WMC won't. I tried doing this for
>> JOOI, can you record all TV streams in a single mux using WMC and
>>DVBViewer? I know some folk have used VLC in windows to capture the full
>>mux data stream from which they can later hive off individual channel
>>streams in a post processing exercise which seems as close to Kaffeine's
>>ability to record each TV stream to seperate files without regard to
>>padding overlap conflicts with back to back programmes across the whole
>>mux. Scheduling conflicts in Kaffeine only arise when you don't have
>>enough tuners to cover programmes being aired simultaneously on different
>>muxes.
>>
> a while but found that separating and editing the different programs that
> I wanted to archive took so long that it was easier to just record the
> programs individually.
I use a TBS dual-tunered TBS PCIe card but they do make four-driver models.
The satellite one is TBS6905 DVB-S2 Quad Tuner PCIe Card and the TBS6205
DVB-T2/T/C Quad TV Tuner PCIe Card for example. From four years experience I
can confirm that their Linux support and indeed customer support is pretty
good.
HTH
Regards Alan
pinnerite
Nov 18, 2016, 12:25:43 PM11/18/16
to
Mr. Marmite wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 11:10:37 +0000, pinnerite <pinn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> only have USB access.
They do three satellite USB devices: :)
http://www.tbsdtv.com/products/
Regards, Alan
> On Thu, 17 Nov 2016 11:10:37 +0000, pinnerite <pinn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Mr. Marmite wrote:
>
>>> DVBViewer will record a complete mux but WMC won't. I tried doing this
>>> for a while but found that separating and editing the different programs
>>> that I wanted to archive took so long that it was easier to just record
>>> the programs individually.
>>
>>I use a TBS dual-tunered TBS PCIe card but they do make four-driver
>>models. The satellite one is TBS6905 DVB-S2 Quad Tuner PCIe Card and the
>>TBS6205 DVB-T2/T/C Quad TV Tuner PCIe Card for example. From four years
>>experience I can confirm that their Linux support and indeed customer
>>support is pretty good.
>>
> Thanks, but there's no room in any of my machines to install PCI cards, I
>>Mr. Marmite wrote:
>
>>> DVBViewer will record a complete mux but WMC won't. I tried doing this
>>> for a while but found that separating and editing the different programs
>>> that I wanted to archive took so long that it was easier to just record
>>> the programs individually.
>>
>>I use a TBS dual-tunered TBS PCIe card but they do make four-driver
>>models. The satellite one is TBS6905 DVB-S2 Quad Tuner PCIe Card and the
>>TBS6205 DVB-T2/T/C Quad TV Tuner PCIe Card for example. From four years
>>experience I can confirm that their Linux support and indeed customer
>>support is pretty good.
>>
> only have USB access.
They do three satellite USB devices: :)
http://www.tbsdtv.com/products/
Regards, Alan
Johnny B Good
Nov 19, 2016, 12:26:09 AM11/19/16
to
On Wed, 16 Nov 2016 15:53:55 +0000, Mr. Marmite wrote:
> On Tue, 15 Nov 2016 15:53:23 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>> <snip>
>
You're most welcome. :-)
If I'd realised Kaffeine's abilities straight away, I'd have setup a
dedicated Linux box as a PVR a good three years ago. I just assumed it
would suffer the same one tuner per desired TV channel to be recorded
limitation with the various windows flavoured PVR/simple TV recording
software I'd trialled over the past decade.
I only discovered its excellent qualities quite by accident after
recording a couple of programmes from two different BBC TV channels
whilst Kaffeine had been running on "One Lung" due to an oversight in my
configuring that Kworld dual tuner DVB-T adapter. I already knew that
overlapped paddings didn't matter between back to back recordings on any
given TV channel (I just hadn't realised that this applied right across a
whole mux's worth of TV channel streams).
I was never impressed by any of the "Home Theatre" styled PVR software
(too damn cumbersome and a horrible Ten Foot Interface to make matters
even worse). In the end, I stuck with the recording software that had
been supplied with my single tuner DVB-T PCI adapter simply because it
proved to be the most reliable out of a bunch of similar offerings I'd
acquired with other adapters which had even worse issues (such as
selecting from the off-air epg resulting in a totally random programme
being selected).
The DVB Plus software package was chosen simply on account it was the
easiest one to manually set up a recording schedule with when you were
forced to enter the channel/start and run time manually from a web page
(Andrew Flegg's very fine Bleb.org website and the Beeb's own TV schedule
pages).
As far as BBC SD programme broadcasts are concerned, I only need a
single DVB-T tuner to capture whatever takes my fancy without any regard
to padding overlaps (globally set to 5 min start and 10 min end).
Scheduling recordings is simply a matter of looking through each
channel's EPG and selecting whatever programmes I wish to record over the
next 7 days or so. Such a far cry from the days of using DTVR out of the
DVB Plus suite of rubbish editing/processing utilities!!!
>
>> Eight DVB-T2 tuners suggests you're determined to archive the whole of
>>Freeview's broadcast streams (SD and HD) although the 'astro' part of
>>the 'Astrometa' name suggested the possibility that you were including
>>satellite broadcast sources (but googling shows it only does DVB-C/T/T2,
>>not S).
>>
bigger than a pack of 20 super-long cigarettes with a USB1 port. The
"USB2" reference on the packaging implied, rather misleadingly, that the
interface was the faster USB2 standard when, all along, they were simply
highlighting the bleedin' obvious fact that it could be plugged into
*any* USB2 port on account of the built in backwards compatibility with
the USB1 standard that was part of the USB2 spec. A prime example of
"Marketing" at its usual misleading best (phrase claims for the product
in such a way as to encourage the 'victim' (customer) to read more into
the blurb than is actually being claimed - caveat emptor and let the
Devil take the hindmost).
Anyway, grumble aside, I was able to take great joy in (at long last!)
being able to record off-air TV streams. My previous analogue TV tuner
adapters had been fine for watching TV programmes in *full frame* but
were a miserable failure as far as recordings went unless you'd spent a
small fortune on a high end adapter with its own on-the-fly compress to
MPG video hardware or else had a 10GB or larger HDD and a powerful CPU
when HDDs in typical use at that time had only just reached the 8GB mark.
The advent of Freeview was a Godsend as far as the PC enthusiasts who
looked on with envy at those able to afford high priced and overspecced
PCs needed to record analogue TV broadcasts with only a modicum of
bother. At last, the storage and processing requirements had been slashed
at a single stroke by virtue of the broadcasters doing all the hard work
for you. :-) Without built in hardware compression, an analogue system
needed to store about 1GB for each ten minute's worth of uncompressed
video (about 6GB per hour's worth of programme - a rather tall order for
entry level PCs of the day).
Once I started recording Freeview TV programmes, it swiftly turned into
a bit of an obsession which was only kept in check (even when recruiting
a laptop as a recording schedule conflict resolver) by the limitations of
one tuner per programme and no overlapping paddings allowed.
Going over to Linux and Kaffeine last year opened my eyes to a totally
new world of recording Freeview broadcasts. The transition was, as I've
previously described it, rather like being released from a straitjacket.
Now I was genuinely able to record more TV than I could watch 'Live' as
DTVR had more or less obliged me to do.
It wasn't so much a gathering of even more programmes to add to my
collection so much as to grab the repeats in order to choose the least
end credit vandalised airings. To this end, I was able to really go OTT
compared to what had gone before.
Since I recently started getting to grips with "Get_iplayer" around
about 3 or 4 weeks ago, my off-air recording activity is now mostly to
provide a safety net to guard against any problems with iplayer sourced
material and to capture those programmes that, rather curiously, aren't
available for later viewing with iplayer (pretty well all those classic
sitcoms being aired early to mid afternoon by BBC2 - Some Mothers..., Hi
de Hi, Open All Hours and so on). Consequently, the need to record
'endless repeats' has now largely evaporated (If I've already got an
iplayer sourced recording, typically, but not always, in 1280 by 720
"HD", I know there's nothing to be gained by recording yet another repeat
showing of the programme in SD quality. TBH, I'm still learning to adjust
to this novel state of affairs.
>
>> JOOI, can you record all TV streams in a single mux using WMC and
>>DVBViewer? I know some folk have used VLC in windows to capture the full
>>mux data stream from which they can later hive off individual channel
>>streams in a post processing exercise which seems as close to Kaffeine's
>>ability to record each TV stream to seperate files without regard to
>>padding overlap conflicts with back to back programmes across the whole
>>mux. Scheduling conflicts in Kaffeine only arise when you don't have
>>enough tuners to cover programmes being aired simultaneously on
>>different muxes.
>>
individual TV channel streams does have the charm that there's no need to
use padding to guard against scheduling tomfoolery. The idea of
recording each 24 hour day's worth from each and every Freeview mux might
seem like a neat way to "Have your cake and eat it" (never miss a raved
about programme you forgot to add to the schedule being the most
attractive aspect) but, as you've discovered, this can lumber you with a
lot of 'hard work' in the post processing of those data streams.
Using Kaffeine allows me to achieve the same end result without the need
to sift out programme streams from a full mux's worth of a data stream
file. Whatever I select from the epg gets its own individual file
(sometimes even in duplicate on those occasions when I've not noticed the
duplicate entry due to an edit of a programme's epg entry by the
broadcaster and I've effectively selected both, each with the same start
and end times!).
Indeed, on those rare occasions where the duplication has been the
result of the running order of two back to back programmes being switched
around, I've simply selected all four epg entries to save me the bother
of trying to work out the truth of the matter. I simply delete the
incorrectly named versions afterwards in a "Shoot first, ask questions
later." mode of operation. I know that if they're both half or one hour
programmes that have been swapped around, I could simply record each one
without duplication and sort out any renaming that might arise afterwards
but, quite simply, renaming is more work than simply deleting the surplus
duplicates. :-)
--
Johnny B Good
> On Tue, 15 Nov 2016 15:53:23 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>> <snip>
>
>> To answer your question, yes, there are dual and quad tuner DVB-T2
>>adapters (PCI and PCIe types) available if you search hard enough but
>>they're not exactly cheap[1]. I'll be needing two such tuners because
>>the BBC4 HD stream is on a seperate mux to the rest of the Beeb's HD
>>broadcast streams on Freeview (I only need a single tuner to capture all
>>of the BBC's SD streams using Kaffeine).
>>
> Thanks for the info.
>>adapters (PCI and PCIe types) available if you search hard enough but
>>they're not exactly cheap[1]. I'll be needing two such tuners because
>>the BBC4 HD stream is on a seperate mux to the rest of the Beeb's HD
>>broadcast streams on Freeview (I only need a single tuner to capture all
>>of the BBC's SD streams using Kaffeine).
>>
You're most welcome. :-)
If I'd realised Kaffeine's abilities straight away, I'd have setup a
dedicated Linux box as a PVR a good three years ago. I just assumed it
would suffer the same one tuner per desired TV channel to be recorded
limitation with the various windows flavoured PVR/simple TV recording
software I'd trialled over the past decade.
I only discovered its excellent qualities quite by accident after
recording a couple of programmes from two different BBC TV channels
whilst Kaffeine had been running on "One Lung" due to an oversight in my
configuring that Kworld dual tuner DVB-T adapter. I already knew that
overlapped paddings didn't matter between back to back recordings on any
given TV channel (I just hadn't realised that this applied right across a
whole mux's worth of TV channel streams).
I was never impressed by any of the "Home Theatre" styled PVR software
(too damn cumbersome and a horrible Ten Foot Interface to make matters
even worse). In the end, I stuck with the recording software that had
been supplied with my single tuner DVB-T PCI adapter simply because it
proved to be the most reliable out of a bunch of similar offerings I'd
acquired with other adapters which had even worse issues (such as
selecting from the off-air epg resulting in a totally random programme
being selected).
The DVB Plus software package was chosen simply on account it was the
easiest one to manually set up a recording schedule with when you were
forced to enter the channel/start and run time manually from a web page
(Andrew Flegg's very fine Bleb.org website and the Beeb's own TV schedule
pages).
As far as BBC SD programme broadcasts are concerned, I only need a
single DVB-T tuner to capture whatever takes my fancy without any regard
to padding overlaps (globally set to 5 min start and 10 min end).
Scheduling recordings is simply a matter of looking through each
channel's EPG and selecting whatever programmes I wish to record over the
next 7 days or so. Such a far cry from the days of using DTVR out of the
DVB Plus suite of rubbish editing/processing utilities!!!
>
>> Eight DVB-T2 tuners suggests you're determined to archive the whole of
>>Freeview's broadcast streams (SD and HD) although the 'astro' part of
>>the 'Astrometa' name suggested the possibility that you were including
>>satellite broadcast sources (but googling shows it only does DVB-C/T/T2,
>>not S).
>>
> I archive a lot of films and TV, mostly from binary Usenet groups or
> torrents, but the eight tuners in fact often becomes the equivalent of
> four as I allow a two minute and five minute overlap at the beginning
> and end of recordings.
When I got my first DVB-T adapter about 11 years ago now, a box slightly
> torrents, but the eight tuners in fact often becomes the equivalent of
> four as I allow a two minute and five minute overlap at the beginning
> and end of recordings.
bigger than a pack of 20 super-long cigarettes with a USB1 port. The
"USB2" reference on the packaging implied, rather misleadingly, that the
interface was the faster USB2 standard when, all along, they were simply
highlighting the bleedin' obvious fact that it could be plugged into
*any* USB2 port on account of the built in backwards compatibility with
the USB1 standard that was part of the USB2 spec. A prime example of
"Marketing" at its usual misleading best (phrase claims for the product
in such a way as to encourage the 'victim' (customer) to read more into
the blurb than is actually being claimed - caveat emptor and let the
Devil take the hindmost).
Anyway, grumble aside, I was able to take great joy in (at long last!)
being able to record off-air TV streams. My previous analogue TV tuner
adapters had been fine for watching TV programmes in *full frame* but
were a miserable failure as far as recordings went unless you'd spent a
small fortune on a high end adapter with its own on-the-fly compress to
MPG video hardware or else had a 10GB or larger HDD and a powerful CPU
when HDDs in typical use at that time had only just reached the 8GB mark.
The advent of Freeview was a Godsend as far as the PC enthusiasts who
looked on with envy at those able to afford high priced and overspecced
PCs needed to record analogue TV broadcasts with only a modicum of
bother. At last, the storage and processing requirements had been slashed
at a single stroke by virtue of the broadcasters doing all the hard work
for you. :-) Without built in hardware compression, an analogue system
needed to store about 1GB for each ten minute's worth of uncompressed
video (about 6GB per hour's worth of programme - a rather tall order for
entry level PCs of the day).
Once I started recording Freeview TV programmes, it swiftly turned into
a bit of an obsession which was only kept in check (even when recruiting
a laptop as a recording schedule conflict resolver) by the limitations of
one tuner per programme and no overlapping paddings allowed.
Going over to Linux and Kaffeine last year opened my eyes to a totally
new world of recording Freeview broadcasts. The transition was, as I've
previously described it, rather like being released from a straitjacket.
Now I was genuinely able to record more TV than I could watch 'Live' as
DTVR had more or less obliged me to do.
It wasn't so much a gathering of even more programmes to add to my
collection so much as to grab the repeats in order to choose the least
end credit vandalised airings. To this end, I was able to really go OTT
compared to what had gone before.
Since I recently started getting to grips with "Get_iplayer" around
about 3 or 4 weeks ago, my off-air recording activity is now mostly to
provide a safety net to guard against any problems with iplayer sourced
material and to capture those programmes that, rather curiously, aren't
available for later viewing with iplayer (pretty well all those classic
sitcoms being aired early to mid afternoon by BBC2 - Some Mothers..., Hi
de Hi, Open All Hours and so on). Consequently, the need to record
'endless repeats' has now largely evaporated (If I've already got an
iplayer sourced recording, typically, but not always, in 1280 by 720
"HD", I know there's nothing to be gained by recording yet another repeat
showing of the programme in SD quality. TBH, I'm still learning to adjust
to this novel state of affairs.
>
>> JOOI, can you record all TV streams in a single mux using WMC and
>>DVBViewer? I know some folk have used VLC in windows to capture the full
>>mux data stream from which they can later hive off individual channel
>>streams in a post processing exercise which seems as close to Kaffeine's
>>ability to record each TV stream to seperate files without regard to
>>padding overlap conflicts with back to back programmes across the whole
>>mux. Scheduling conflicts in Kaffeine only arise when you don't have
>>enough tuners to cover programmes being aired simultaneously on
>>different muxes.
>>
> DVBViewer will record a complete mux but WMC won't. I tried doing this
> for a while but found that separating and editing the different programs
> that I wanted to archive took so long that it was easier to just record
> the programs individually.
Recording a whole mux at a time for later slicing and dicing of the
> for a while but found that separating and editing the different programs
> that I wanted to archive took so long that it was easier to just record
> the programs individually.
individual TV channel streams does have the charm that there's no need to
use padding to guard against scheduling tomfoolery. The idea of
recording each 24 hour day's worth from each and every Freeview mux might
seem like a neat way to "Have your cake and eat it" (never miss a raved
about programme you forgot to add to the schedule being the most
attractive aspect) but, as you've discovered, this can lumber you with a
lot of 'hard work' in the post processing of those data streams.
Using Kaffeine allows me to achieve the same end result without the need
to sift out programme streams from a full mux's worth of a data stream
file. Whatever I select from the epg gets its own individual file
(sometimes even in duplicate on those occasions when I've not noticed the
duplicate entry due to an edit of a programme's epg entry by the
broadcaster and I've effectively selected both, each with the same start
and end times!).
Indeed, on those rare occasions where the duplication has been the
result of the running order of two back to back programmes being switched
around, I've simply selected all four epg entries to save me the bother
of trying to work out the truth of the matter. I simply delete the
incorrectly named versions afterwards in a "Shoot first, ask questions
later." mode of operation. I know that if they're both half or one hour
programmes that have been swapped around, I could simply record each one
without duplication and sort out any renaming that might arise afterwards
but, quite simply, renaming is more work than simply deleting the surplus
duplicates. :-)
--
Johnny B Good
NY
Nov 20, 2016, 9:24:16 AM11/20/16
to
"Mr. Marmite" <mr__m...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9fa33chkau9j395un...@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 19 Nov 2016 05:26:08 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
> <big snip of interesting material>
> only since 1992 and just can't summon up the energy to master yet another
> OS. I used the old (sadly now defunct) Nebula software and hardware for
> years when transitioning from a VCR to a computer-based system of
> recording
> TV but have for the last ten years or so found WMC and DVBViewer more than
> adequate for this purpose. Just wish I could sort out the Win 10 quirk of
> not allowing more than ten or so USB connections...
Yes I couldn't be arsed learning the intricacies of other OS (eg Mac or
UNIX), together with having to keep *two* PCs permanently on: the Windows
one that I use for everything else and the Linux PVR PC.
I have Windows 7 on my PCs and nothing will induce me to downgrade (as I see
it!) to Win 8 or Win 10. I use Windows Media Centre (WMC) to schedule
recordings and save them to "library" HDDs on this PC. I back up those
recordings to an external HDD. I also run Plex Server on this PC so we can
watch the recordings on the TV downstairs via the Roku box which has a Plex
client.
I top-and-tail and edit recordings using VideoRedo to take out adverts and
continuity announcements.
If I am ever forced to change to Win 10 (from which MS have perversely
removed WMC), I'll probably have to become familiar with third-party PVR
software such as NextPVR. NextPVR may have a strange user interface, but it
does have the advantage that it can make multiple simultaneous recordings
from the same multiplex, which WMC can't do. If I install more than one
DVB-T2 adaptor I'd be able to make simultaneous/overlapping recordings from
*different* multiplexes. Shame that most file formats can't save the
metadata (episode name, plot summary) in the recording file, as you can with
WMC's WTV format, but instead have to save it as a separate XML file which
then needs to be copied with the recording (eg TS format).
For watching recordings I tend to use the same "PVR" PC (when not using the
TV downstairs) and use VLC because of its ability to play back at faster
than real time.
news:9fa33chkau9j395un...@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 19 Nov 2016 05:26:08 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
> <big snip of interesting material>
>>
>> Indeed, on those rare occasions where the duplication has been the
>>result of the running order of two back to back programmes being switched
>>around, I've simply selected all four epg entries to save me the bother
>>of trying to work out the truth of the matter. I simply delete the
>>incorrectly named versions afterwards in a "Shoot first, ask questions
>>later." mode of operation. I know that if they're both half or one hour
>>programmes that have been swapped around, I could simply record each one
>>without duplication and sort out any renaming that might arise afterwards
>>but, quite simply, renaming is more work than simply deleting the surplus
>>duplicates. :-)
>>
> You make a compelling case for Kaffeine but I'm afraid I've been Windows
>> Indeed, on those rare occasions where the duplication has been the
>>result of the running order of two back to back programmes being switched
>>around, I've simply selected all four epg entries to save me the bother
>>of trying to work out the truth of the matter. I simply delete the
>>incorrectly named versions afterwards in a "Shoot first, ask questions
>>later." mode of operation. I know that if they're both half or one hour
>>programmes that have been swapped around, I could simply record each one
>>without duplication and sort out any renaming that might arise afterwards
>>but, quite simply, renaming is more work than simply deleting the surplus
>>duplicates. :-)
>>
> only since 1992 and just can't summon up the energy to master yet another
> OS. I used the old (sadly now defunct) Nebula software and hardware for
> years when transitioning from a VCR to a computer-based system of
> recording
> TV but have for the last ten years or so found WMC and DVBViewer more than
> adequate for this purpose. Just wish I could sort out the Win 10 quirk of
> not allowing more than ten or so USB connections...
Yes I couldn't be arsed learning the intricacies of other OS (eg Mac or
UNIX), together with having to keep *two* PCs permanently on: the Windows
one that I use for everything else and the Linux PVR PC.
I have Windows 7 on my PCs and nothing will induce me to downgrade (as I see
it!) to Win 8 or Win 10. I use Windows Media Centre (WMC) to schedule
recordings and save them to "library" HDDs on this PC. I back up those
recordings to an external HDD. I also run Plex Server on this PC so we can
watch the recordings on the TV downstairs via the Roku box which has a Plex
client.
I top-and-tail and edit recordings using VideoRedo to take out adverts and
continuity announcements.
If I am ever forced to change to Win 10 (from which MS have perversely
removed WMC), I'll probably have to become familiar with third-party PVR
software such as NextPVR. NextPVR may have a strange user interface, but it
does have the advantage that it can make multiple simultaneous recordings
from the same multiplex, which WMC can't do. If I install more than one
DVB-T2 adaptor I'd be able to make simultaneous/overlapping recordings from
*different* multiplexes. Shame that most file formats can't save the
metadata (episode name, plot summary) in the recording file, as you can with
WMC's WTV format, but instead have to save it as a separate XML file which
then needs to be copied with the recording (eg TS format).
For watching recordings I tend to use the same "PVR" PC (when not using the
TV downstairs) and use VLC because of its ability to play back at faster
than real time.
Norman Wells
Nov 20, 2016, 9:38:05 AM11/20/16
to
"Martin" <m...@address.invalid> wrote in message
news:qib33ch0usll8pnm6...@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 20 Nov 2016 13:51:06 +0000, Mr. Marmite <mr__m...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> <snip>
> USB 2
> https://plugable.com/2015/09/08/not-enough-usb-controller-resources/
On a slightly different but related point, is there any easy way to distinguish
easily between USB2 and USB3 ports? I think I'm supposed to have some of each but I
don't know which is which.
news:qib33ch0usll8pnm6...@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 20 Nov 2016 13:51:06 +0000, Mr. Marmite <mr__m...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>>Just wish I could sort out the Win 10 quirk of
>>not allowing more than ten or so USB connections...
>
> The limit seems to depend among other things on whether you are using USB 3 or
>>not allowing more than ten or so USB connections...
>
> USB 2
> https://plugable.com/2015/09/08/not-enough-usb-controller-resources/
On a slightly different but related point, is there any easy way to distinguish
easily between USB2 and USB3 ports? I think I'm supposed to have some of each but I
don't know which is which.
Norman Wells
Nov 20, 2016, 10:35:33 AM11/20/16
to
"brightside S9" <address@replyto_is_not.invalid> wrote in message
news:fpe33cli8f8kgmpu1...@4ax.com...
> USB2 has 4 connections and USB3 has 6 connections in plug. USB3 is
> also colored blue in plug. (All this refers to USB Typ A plugs /
> connectors). Look here
> http://static.diffen.com/uploadz/c/c1/USB-Connectors.jpg
Thanks for that - never realised the colour difference was significant before!
news:fpe33cli8f8kgmpu1...@4ax.com...
> also colored blue in plug. (All this refers to USB Typ A plugs /
> connectors). Look here
> http://static.diffen.com/uploadz/c/c1/USB-Connectors.jpg
Thanks for that - never realised the colour difference was significant before!
Roderick Stewart
Nov 20, 2016, 11:44:46 AM11/20/16
to
On Sun, 20 Nov 2016 16:48:29 +0100, Martin <m...@address.invalid> wrote:
>>If I am ever forced to change to Win 10 (from which MS have perversely
>>removed WMC),
>
>Only 3 and a bit years away from end of MS extended support of Win7.
>>If I am ever forced to change to Win 10 (from which MS have perversely
>>removed WMC),
>
>https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet
>
>My wife uses Win10 without problems. I can even cope with Win10 Insider. Aren't
>you a bit young to give up learning new things?
Back everything up, take a deep breath and go for it. It's not as bad
as you think. As long as you do a clean install (rather than an
upgrade), switch off all the "send info to Microsoft" functions as you
go, only use a local account and remove that annoying Cortana thing,
you'll end up with something that looks like Windows 7 but with
sharper corners. And they won't stop supporting it in 2020.
Rod.
NY
Nov 20, 2016, 12:48:17 PM11/20/16
to
"Roderick Stewart" <rj...@escapetime.myzen.co.uk> wrote in message
news:eak33c16j8h69sv0p...@4ax.com...
And install ClassicShell or something similar to give a Windows 7-like start
menu. And create a quick-start menu on the taskbar and use this to launch
apps, so as to links to potential apps and actual running apps as two
distinct things.
Change the default apps for common file extensions so as to launch old-style
apps instead of "Modern" or "Metro" apps.
Learn the important keyboard shotcuts:
Alt-F4 to exit an app
Windows-R to open up the Run dialogue (for things like Control Panel or
CMD). OK, real Control Panel, as opposed to Settings, is on the Classic
Shell start menu.
Use Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird or webmail - anything except the Metro
app Windows Mail which is a bit useless.
I've got a spare PC that I upgraded to Win 10. I need to get it out and
start using it to get used to its quirks and to find out what else to
customise to make its UI more like Win 7.
I'm not too old to learn new things. I just don't like having to do it.
Software development should only ever add new features and never remove old
features or ways of doing things. Compatibility and evolution are better
than revolution and re-learning. I wonder why MS took the conscious decision
to remove Windows Media Centre (as a means of scheduling and recording TV
programmes, as opposed to displaying them for which you can use Windows
Media Player, VLC or whatever).
news:eak33c16j8h69sv0p...@4ax.com...
menu. And create a quick-start menu on the taskbar and use this to launch
apps, so as to links to potential apps and actual running apps as two
distinct things.
Change the default apps for common file extensions so as to launch old-style
apps instead of "Modern" or "Metro" apps.
Learn the important keyboard shotcuts:
Alt-F4 to exit an app
Windows-R to open up the Run dialogue (for things like Control Panel or
CMD). OK, real Control Panel, as opposed to Settings, is on the Classic
Shell start menu.
Use Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird or webmail - anything except the Metro
app Windows Mail which is a bit useless.
I've got a spare PC that I upgraded to Win 10. I need to get it out and
start using it to get used to its quirks and to find out what else to
customise to make its UI more like Win 7.
I'm not too old to learn new things. I just don't like having to do it.
Software development should only ever add new features and never remove old
features or ways of doing things. Compatibility and evolution are better
than revolution and re-learning. I wonder why MS took the conscious decision
to remove Windows Media Centre (as a means of scheduling and recording TV
programmes, as opposed to displaying them for which you can use Windows
Media Player, VLC or whatever).
Johnny B Good
Nov 21, 2016, 12:14:20 AM11/21/16
to
On Sun, 20 Nov 2016 13:51:06 +0000, Mr. Marmite wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Nov 2016 05:26:08 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
> <big snip of interesting material>
>>
Even the modern Linux distros designed to mitigate the shock of the new
by using a desktop UI not too far removed from the windows XP and Vista
experience is still a major step change - and, unfortunately, not all for
the better, discounting of course this latest sick puppy of Microsoft's,
Windows 10, which I'm happy to say I've only had vicarious experience of
courtesy of the alt.comp.os.windows-10 newsgroup.
Up until April last year, I was a reasonably 'Happy Camper' with my much
cherished win2k machine until I wanted to upgrade the main components
(MoBo, CPU and RAM) when I knew win2k was going to get sidelined through
lack of driver support and the limitations imposed by a 32bit OS.
I rather thought I'd just scraped through under the wire with my last
major hardware upgrade 5 years earlier so had already started taking
steps towards gaining more experience and familiarity with Linux to
prepare for the inevitable day when I'd be forced to upgrade to a 64bit
OS. I'd been observing (and repairing) winXP. Vista, win7 and win8
flavours of win2k's successors with an increasingly jaundiced eye.
It seemed to me that Microsoft were playing 'Mind Games' with their
captive market. Windows 10 proved to be the final straw in persuading me
that I'd be seriously much better off booting into a unix based distro
(Linux isn't the only game in town) rather than any of Microsoft's
successors to win2k. Even with the prep work during the preceding years,
it proved a bit of a wrench to make the break but reading all the tales
of woe and anguish in the a.c.o.w-10 newsgroup during the last 18 months
or so provided all the motivation I needed (and then some!) to stick with
Linux Mint 17 and adapt.
What helps in making the transition is the use of Oracle's VirtualBox
virtualisation software to create a virtualised instance or three of your
favourite versions of windows so you can carry on using any 'essential'
windows only software that can't be replaced by a satisfactory Linux
alternative. In my case, I'm using a winXP guest VM to run Mpegstreamclip
to top and tail and convert the m2t transport stream files created by
Kaffeine into mpg programme stream files.
Initially, the processing ran at only a quarter of the speed that it
used to on the previous hardware setup under win2k. This proved to be due
to my relying on Vbox file shares to give the guest VM access to the
files stored on the Linux host's mounted file system. The key to success
in this case proved to be a case of creating virtual disk volumes of
100GB on each of the two HDDs which could be mounted by the guest exactly
like the primary, bootable virtual hard drives required for each guest VM.
The idea of using two such virtual disk drives each on a seperate
physical disk was to eliminate head contention and the Vbox file sharing
overhead. It did the trick since the actual processing is now about 3
times faster than it used to in the previous win2k setup (which wasn't
too shabby a spec at the time - dual core 3.1GHz Phenom with 3GB ddr2
ram, an SSD and a couple of HDDs compared to the current 3.8GHz clocked
quad core AMD FX4300 cpu and 8GB of ddr3 ram.
I still have to move the media files via the Vbox shares to queue the mt2
files into the source drive folder and transfer the results from the
output drive's folder back to the host OS file system but this is a fire
and forget batch process of a matter of minutes which saves me having to
wait over 3 minutes per half hour's worth of programme material to be
processed by Mpegstreamclip for each mt2 file that needs to be converted
and topped and tailed, a process where I spend some time setting up the
in and out points before hitting the 'save 'button to start each
conversion job, time where I land up 'twiddling my thumbs' until I can
deal with the next job.
It had been bad enough when this thumb twiddling time had been half a
minute per 29 minute's worth of programme let alone now having to wait 3
1/2 minutes before I could deal with the next job. The extra 5 minutes or
so transferring the files onto the virtual disk drive prior to working on
each individual mt2 file was an excellent investment in that a 29 minute
programme now gets processed in around 10 to 12 seconds, barely enough
time to take a drag on an E-Ciggy before checking the result with
mediaplayer (mainly the last few seconds to verify I've not included
unwanted material after the end credits have run to completion) before
dealing with the next file. I usually process a day's worth of recordings
at a time and transcode the mpegs into more compact h.264 MKV files
afterwards using Handbrake in the host OS before moving them into storage
on the 17TB NAS box for later viewing at my leisure.
Since I discovered the delights of get_iplayer[1] about a month back, I
don't process anywhere near the same amount of material this way these
days. The downloaded iplayer sourced files are all .ts files which I
transcode directly to mkv type using Handbrake. The files don't have any
start or end paddings to be trimmed off like the off-air m2t recordings
do making the processing task a lot simpler.
Processing these .ts files takes just over twice as long as the mpg
files on account most of them are 1280 by 720 HD versus 720 by 576 SD or
smaller in the case of the off-air derived mpg files. It's a swings and
roundabouts situation. The .ts files take longer to transcode but I avoid
several intermediate steps required to convert Kaffeine's m2t files into
topped and tailed mpg files before transcoding them.
Before I started routinely downloading media files off the Beeb's iplayer
servers[2], I had a well oiled routine to deal with Kaffeine's
recordings. Now I'm using a different, not quite so well oiled routine
for processing the HD .ts files but I seem to have reached a stage where
I'm a lot more relaxed over the business of "Archiving the BBC". :-)
[1] You can download a windows installable version of Get_iplayer which
might solve most of your scheduling conflicts if you have a decent enough
uncapped broadband connection. You can always schedule a batch of
downloads during the off-peak times of the day (typically midnight to 8
or 9 am depending on how your ISP's traffic management policy is
implemented)
[2] My original motivation for using get_iplayer was purely to retrieve
the odd programme that I'd failed to record using Kaffeine for one reason
or another, mostly due to "BBC scheduling twattery" for want of a better
descriptive phrase, but occasionally due to an oversight on my part.
When I realised that most of the material I was downloading was in 1280
by 720 HD rather than 720 by 576 SD and mostly free of end credit
vandalism that so often afflicted the off-air recordings, I decided to
make this my primary source and relegate Kaffeine to recording the
programmes as a safety backstop to cover iplayer availability
shortcomings.
The only minor downside when it comes to BBC1 and BBC2 aired programmes
is the presence of the BBC DOG in the top left corner of the picture
which is absent from these two channels' output. However, it seems a
small trade off against the improved definition and a significant
reduction in the amount of continuity end credit vandalism that so often
afflicts the Freeview broadcasts.
--
Johnny B Good
> On Sat, 19 Nov 2016 05:26:08 GMT, Johnny B Good
> <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
> <big snip of interesting material>
>>
>> Indeed, on those rare occasions where the duplication has been the
>>result of the running order of two back to back programmes being
>>switched around, I've simply selected all four epg entries to save me
>>the bother of trying to work out the truth of the matter. I simply
>>delete the incorrectly named versions afterwards in a "Shoot first, ask
>>questions later." mode of operation. I know that if they're both half or
>>one hour programmes that have been swapped around, I could simply record
>>each one without duplication and sort out any renaming that might arise
>>afterwards but, quite simply, renaming is more work than simply deleting
>>the surplus duplicates. :-)
>>
>>result of the running order of two back to back programmes being
>>switched around, I've simply selected all four epg entries to save me
>>the bother of trying to work out the truth of the matter. I simply
>>delete the incorrectly named versions afterwards in a "Shoot first, ask
>>questions later." mode of operation. I know that if they're both half or
>>one hour programmes that have been swapped around, I could simply record
>>each one without duplication and sort out any renaming that might arise
>>afterwards but, quite simply, renaming is more work than simply deleting
>>the surplus duplicates. :-)
>>
> You make a compelling case for Kaffeine but I'm afraid I've been Windows
> only since 1992 and just can't summon up the energy to master yet
> another OS. I used the old (sadly now defunct) Nebula software and
> hardware for years when transitioning from a VCR to a computer-based
> system of recording TV but have for the last ten years or so found WMC
> and DVBViewer more than adequate for this purpose. Just wish I could
> only since 1992 and just can't summon up the energy to master yet
> another OS. I used the old (sadly now defunct) Nebula software and
> hardware for years when transitioning from a VCR to a computer-based
> system of recording TV but have for the last ten years or so found WMC
> sort out the Win 10 quirk of not allowing more than ten or so USB
> connections...
I can understand your reluctance over learning a completely alien OS.
> connections...
Even the modern Linux distros designed to mitigate the shock of the new
by using a desktop UI not too far removed from the windows XP and Vista
experience is still a major step change - and, unfortunately, not all for
the better, discounting of course this latest sick puppy of Microsoft's,
Windows 10, which I'm happy to say I've only had vicarious experience of
courtesy of the alt.comp.os.windows-10 newsgroup.
Up until April last year, I was a reasonably 'Happy Camper' with my much
cherished win2k machine until I wanted to upgrade the main components
(MoBo, CPU and RAM) when I knew win2k was going to get sidelined through
lack of driver support and the limitations imposed by a 32bit OS.
I rather thought I'd just scraped through under the wire with my last
major hardware upgrade 5 years earlier so had already started taking
steps towards gaining more experience and familiarity with Linux to
prepare for the inevitable day when I'd be forced to upgrade to a 64bit
OS. I'd been observing (and repairing) winXP. Vista, win7 and win8
flavours of win2k's successors with an increasingly jaundiced eye.
It seemed to me that Microsoft were playing 'Mind Games' with their
captive market. Windows 10 proved to be the final straw in persuading me
that I'd be seriously much better off booting into a unix based distro
(Linux isn't the only game in town) rather than any of Microsoft's
successors to win2k. Even with the prep work during the preceding years,
it proved a bit of a wrench to make the break but reading all the tales
of woe and anguish in the a.c.o.w-10 newsgroup during the last 18 months
or so provided all the motivation I needed (and then some!) to stick with
Linux Mint 17 and adapt.
What helps in making the transition is the use of Oracle's VirtualBox
virtualisation software to create a virtualised instance or three of your
favourite versions of windows so you can carry on using any 'essential'
windows only software that can't be replaced by a satisfactory Linux
alternative. In my case, I'm using a winXP guest VM to run Mpegstreamclip
to top and tail and convert the m2t transport stream files created by
Kaffeine into mpg programme stream files.
Initially, the processing ran at only a quarter of the speed that it
used to on the previous hardware setup under win2k. This proved to be due
to my relying on Vbox file shares to give the guest VM access to the
files stored on the Linux host's mounted file system. The key to success
in this case proved to be a case of creating virtual disk volumes of
100GB on each of the two HDDs which could be mounted by the guest exactly
like the primary, bootable virtual hard drives required for each guest VM.
The idea of using two such virtual disk drives each on a seperate
physical disk was to eliminate head contention and the Vbox file sharing
overhead. It did the trick since the actual processing is now about 3
times faster than it used to in the previous win2k setup (which wasn't
too shabby a spec at the time - dual core 3.1GHz Phenom with 3GB ddr2
ram, an SSD and a couple of HDDs compared to the current 3.8GHz clocked
quad core AMD FX4300 cpu and 8GB of ddr3 ram.
I still have to move the media files via the Vbox shares to queue the mt2
files into the source drive folder and transfer the results from the
output drive's folder back to the host OS file system but this is a fire
and forget batch process of a matter of minutes which saves me having to
wait over 3 minutes per half hour's worth of programme material to be
processed by Mpegstreamclip for each mt2 file that needs to be converted
and topped and tailed, a process where I spend some time setting up the
in and out points before hitting the 'save 'button to start each
conversion job, time where I land up 'twiddling my thumbs' until I can
deal with the next job.
It had been bad enough when this thumb twiddling time had been half a
minute per 29 minute's worth of programme let alone now having to wait 3
1/2 minutes before I could deal with the next job. The extra 5 minutes or
so transferring the files onto the virtual disk drive prior to working on
each individual mt2 file was an excellent investment in that a 29 minute
programme now gets processed in around 10 to 12 seconds, barely enough
time to take a drag on an E-Ciggy before checking the result with
mediaplayer (mainly the last few seconds to verify I've not included
unwanted material after the end credits have run to completion) before
dealing with the next file. I usually process a day's worth of recordings
at a time and transcode the mpegs into more compact h.264 MKV files
afterwards using Handbrake in the host OS before moving them into storage
on the 17TB NAS box for later viewing at my leisure.
Since I discovered the delights of get_iplayer[1] about a month back, I
don't process anywhere near the same amount of material this way these
days. The downloaded iplayer sourced files are all .ts files which I
transcode directly to mkv type using Handbrake. The files don't have any
start or end paddings to be trimmed off like the off-air m2t recordings
do making the processing task a lot simpler.
Processing these .ts files takes just over twice as long as the mpg
files on account most of them are 1280 by 720 HD versus 720 by 576 SD or
smaller in the case of the off-air derived mpg files. It's a swings and
roundabouts situation. The .ts files take longer to transcode but I avoid
several intermediate steps required to convert Kaffeine's m2t files into
topped and tailed mpg files before transcoding them.
Before I started routinely downloading media files off the Beeb's iplayer
servers[2], I had a well oiled routine to deal with Kaffeine's
recordings. Now I'm using a different, not quite so well oiled routine
for processing the HD .ts files but I seem to have reached a stage where
I'm a lot more relaxed over the business of "Archiving the BBC". :-)
[1] You can download a windows installable version of Get_iplayer which
might solve most of your scheduling conflicts if you have a decent enough
uncapped broadband connection. You can always schedule a batch of
downloads during the off-peak times of the day (typically midnight to 8
or 9 am depending on how your ISP's traffic management policy is
implemented)
[2] My original motivation for using get_iplayer was purely to retrieve
the odd programme that I'd failed to record using Kaffeine for one reason
or another, mostly due to "BBC scheduling twattery" for want of a better
descriptive phrase, but occasionally due to an oversight on my part.
When I realised that most of the material I was downloading was in 1280
by 720 HD rather than 720 by 576 SD and mostly free of end credit
vandalism that so often afflicted the off-air recordings, I decided to
make this my primary source and relegate Kaffeine to recording the
programmes as a safety backstop to cover iplayer availability
shortcomings.
The only minor downside when it comes to BBC1 and BBC2 aired programmes
is the presence of the BBC DOG in the top left corner of the picture
which is absent from these two channels' output. However, it seems a
small trade off against the improved definition and a significant
reduction in the amount of continuity end credit vandalism that so often
afflicts the Freeview broadcasts.
--
Johnny B Good
Norman Wells
Nov 21, 2016, 4:39:33 AM11/21/16
to
"Johnny B Good" <johnny...@invalid.ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:KovYz.130649$3P.8...@fx11.am4...
But what did you do after your coffee break?
news:KovYz.130649$3P.8...@fx11.am4...
Roderick Stewart
Nov 21, 2016, 7:03:22 AM11/21/16
to
On Sun, 20 Nov 2016 17:48:22 -0000, "NY" <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>>>My wife uses Win10 without problems. I can even cope with Win10 Insider.
>>>Aren't
>>>you a bit young to give up learning new things?
>>
>> Back everything up, take a deep breath and go for it. It's not as bad
>> as you think. As long as you do a clean install (rather than an
>> upgrade), switch off all the "send info to Microsoft" functions as you
>> go, only use a local account and remove that annoying Cortana thing,
>> you'll end up with something that looks like Windows 7 but with
>> sharper corners. And they won't stop supporting it in 2020.
>
>And install ClassicShell or something similar to give a Windows 7-like start
>menu. And create a quick-start menu on the taskbar and use this to launch
>apps, so as to links to potential apps and actual running apps as two
>distinct things.
>
>Change the default apps for common file extensions so as to launch old-style
>apps instead of "Modern" or "Metro" apps.
>
>Learn the important keyboard shotcuts:
Most of the keyboard shortcuts are the same as they've always been
>>>My wife uses Win10 without problems. I can even cope with Win10 Insider.
>>>Aren't
>>>you a bit young to give up learning new things?
>>
>> Back everything up, take a deep breath and go for it. It's not as bad
>> as you think. As long as you do a clean install (rather than an
>> upgrade), switch off all the "send info to Microsoft" functions as you
>> go, only use a local account and remove that annoying Cortana thing,
>> you'll end up with something that looks like Windows 7 but with
>> sharper corners. And they won't stop supporting it in 2020.
>
>And install ClassicShell or something similar to give a Windows 7-like start
>menu. And create a quick-start menu on the taskbar and use this to launch
>apps, so as to links to potential apps and actual running apps as two
>distinct things.
>
>Change the default apps for common file extensions so as to launch old-style
>apps instead of "Modern" or "Metro" apps.
>
>Learn the important keyboard shotcuts:
(and many of them are the same in Linux too). The last Microsoft
application I recall using was a copy of Word that came installed on a
laptop in 2001, but since then I've aimed to be OS-agnostic by using
multiplatform applications as much as possible, Firefox, Libre Office,
Gimp, VLC, Stellarium, for example, and of course anything web-based,
will run on anything. By adopting this philosophy I hope to be always
using the latest and best supported version of whatever is available
without having to care too much about what it is. I don't have to
re-learn how to write every time I pick up a different brand of biro,
so it makes no sense to be tied to the specific features of one type
of computer system.
Rod.
0 new messages