Schedule and record with ALOT of cards www

[jmb295]

Paul,

Lasse's changes now produce the correct string to pass to dabdig. If I take the command from this scheduled recording file, and in run it in the command shell then I get the correct pop-up from the myHD scheduler.

The problem I am having now is it doesn't seem that the scheduler is actually executing the command. Does the plugin send the command to dabdig when I select a recording, or does it wait until a few minutes before the show is on? Is there a way to check if a recording has been sent yet?

[Paul Webster]

Are you saying that if you run the DABDig command by hand then you see the entry get pushed into you myHD application and the recording then works?
i.e. that the issue is that you are not seeing commands sent from xLobby being automatically actioned by DABDig?

If so - then my lack of knowledge of xloby and the plug-in will stop me giving a definitve answer (I don't have any of that software yet) - but I'll give it a try later today .. but my suspicion (from an earlier comment by Lasse) is that the event is sent to DABDig (or whatever) at the time of the scheduled recording. A way to test - queue up something that is about to start.

If the problem is between DABDig and myHD then ... can you send me the dabdig.ini, dabdig.txt and we can start working on it without filling up this thread with stuff that isn't really xlobby problem.

[lar282]

Paul,

Lasse's changes now produce the correct string to pass to dabdig. If I take the command from this scheduled recording file, and in run it in the command shell then I get the correct pop-up from the myHD scheduler.

The problem I am having now is it doesn't seem that the scheduler is actually executing the command. Does the plugin send the command to dabdig when I select a recording, or does it wait until a few minutes before the show is on? Is there a way to check if a recording has been sent yet?

check the "Control panel-scheduled task" and see if the task has been runned or not. If it doesn't exist it has been runned.
Also maybe Dabdig has a problem with system account.try with the logged on user accound and dont forget to type in the password in the ini file.(restart xlobby too)

The plugin only adds a task to the task scheduler and then the command is issued from the scheduler in Xp.


//Lasse

[Paul Webster]

Aha - if running DABDig from the Windows Scheduler then you might be hitting issue with it being run in an unexpected directory.
Windows might be running it in somewhere other than where you had expected - and hence the dabdig.ini is not being found.

So - you could search the disk for dabdig.ini and make the one in the "wrong" directory has the right settings or you use an undocumented facility within DABDig.
The undocumented one is one that I put in for me when I put in my code to use the Windows Scheduler.
Basically ... modify the first parameter to be
"-H:homeDirectoryInDosFormat REC"
e.g.
"-H:c:\somewh~1\dabdig\ REC"

another trick is to schedule a batch file rather than DABDIg itself - and then in the batch file put in something lke
c:
cd "\somewhere\dabdig"
wscript dabdig %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

(might need quotes around the %1 etc - can't remember if they get stripped by Windows before the batch file sees them)

[jmb295]

Thanks for the tips, I'll play around with it today.

[Paul Webster]

Alternative approach that will work for many of the devices that DABDig supports - just throw the request at it when the user queues it rather than putting it on the Windows Scheduler.

[lar282]

wouldn't it for u just to use the
"start in Directory" option in task scheduler?


//Lasse

[lar282]

I think it will, so I added the WORKDIR=set to your dabdig directory
option in the ini file. If not set at all it will not use it.

download at the usuall place


//Lasse

[jmb295]

Lasse,

I get the following result when the scheduled task executes in the dabdig log:
6/19/2005 4:01:02 PM - 2.54b08 -
6/19/2005 4:01:02 PM - 2.54b08 - Wrong parameters: Usage-"<StreamType>" "<ChannelName>" "<ChannelAssignment>" "<ProgrammeName>" "<StartYear>" "<StartMonth>" "<StartDay>" "<StartHour>" "<StartMinute>" "<MinutesDuration>" ["<Description>" ["<Category>"]]
... do not forget the quotation marks - because of spaces in ChannelName and ProgrammeName etc
... Oh Yes - do not put the <> or [] signs in! The [] signs indicate optional parameter.

The Scheduled Task has the following settings:
Run:
C:\xlobby\dabdig\dabdig.vbe "record "WTTGDT1" 36/5/1/1 "The Simpsons" 05 06 19 17 00 30"
workdir: C:\xlobby\dabdig

One question I have is about the timming of the scheduled task. Is it possible to have a setting in the ini file for how early to schedule the recording, or even a setting to not use the scheduler and just run the program now. I have a concern that once I get the schedule to execute correctly it will happen too late. If the show starts at 4:00, the task doesn't execute until 4:00, and for at least the myHD program the time to set the recording needs to be at least 3:59.

[Paul Webster]

Run:
C:\xlobby\dabdig\dabdig.vbe "record "WTTGDT1" 36/5/1/1 "The Simpsons" 05 06 19 17 00 30"
workdir: C:\xlobby\dabdig

Looks like a quoting problem on that command line. At least there is a mismatch in what is posted here.
In any case - the channel "number" should be quoted (it has an extended syntax and is not limited to being a simple numeric field).

One question I have is about the timming of the scheduled task. Is it possible to have a setting in the ini file for how early to schedule the recording, or even a setting to not use the scheduler and just run the program now. I have a concern that once I get the schedule to execute correctly it will happen too late. If the show starts at 4:00, the task doesn't execute until 4:00, and for at least the myHD program the time to set the recording needs to be at least 3:59.

Another FYI - if DABDig is called to record something and the start time has already been reached ... then it adds something to the start time and subtracts the equivalent to the duration. This is because some devices will not pick up requests that have a start time that has already passed. This can be modified by the NowOffset field in dabdig.ini

Lasse - sorry about all of this messing around - I just haven't had time to work out how xlobby and plug-ins work - we went out to see Star Wars III
If this is too much of a pain then let me know and I'll either send you some edits for your plug-in (assuming the source is available) or make a quick one myself.

[jmb295]

One thing I've noticed that may or may not be a factor is the following. In the scheduled program saved file it lists the command for dabdig as:

/create /sc ONCE /sd 06/19/2005 /st 20:30:00 /tn 6 19 200520 30 /ru system /rp /tr "C:\xlobby\dabdig\dabdig.vbe record "WTTGDT1" 36/5/1/1 "American Dad" 05 06 19 20 30 30"

If I execute the following extracted information from the command shell it runs fine:

C:\xlobby\dabdig\dabdig.vbe record "WTTGDT1" 36/5/1/1 "American Dad" 05 06 19 20 30 30

If I look in the scheduled task in the control panel it shows the command to run as:

C:\xlobby\dabdig\dabdig.vbe "record WTTGDT1" "36/5/1/1 "American Dad" 05 06 19 20 30 30"

If I try to execute that line dabdig produces an error that I think is attributed to the quote's before record & after the last time value. If I remove those then it goes through ok. When I run it from the command line the channel value 36/5/1/1 can either be in quotes or not, dabdig still handles it correctly. I'm not sure of the syntax for working with the windows task scheduler though, so I could be way off.

[lar282]

Found the error....

new DLL is uploaded. The zip files are not replaced yet.

I had to start WSCRIPT.exe with dabdig parameters for it to work otherwise dabdig.vbe wouldn't accept the parameters at all.....


How would u guys (Dabdig users) would like to have the record now set up. Is it possible to use record now with dabdig? For me(Gbrecord) I just start the app right away but I have no clue how to set it up with dabdig. Suggestions?

//Lasse

[jmb295]

Lasse & Paul,

Thanks for the help getting this up and running. I am almost there, and have one other small problem.

Xschedule is now sending the correct information to dabdig, and the dabdig.tvpi file is being generated with the correct values by the scheduled task. The problem I am having is the tvpi is not being executed, is there a setting that I am missing? When I run the same command from the shell it executes the tvpi file.

[lar282]

is it a xlobby problem or dabdig? I don't even know what tvpi is!!Sorry.

If u find out what it is and u need me to change something just let me know.
did u try to take the command from the scheduled task and run it?
Is it a timing issue so I need to implemet timetorecord-xxx minutes?


//Lasse

[jmb295]

Lasse,

I'm not sure which application is causing the problem. It looks like xschedule is doing everthing right, although the timerecord -xxx option would be very nice for my setup I don't think that is causing the problem. Your passing all of the information correctly, and dabdig is processing it. The problem is the output file of dabdig isn't being executed, so the recording information never gets sent to the tv application. I'm not sure if theres a an additional command that must be given to dabdig to execute the file right away or not.