Feature Requests - Post Here [Archive]

Mr X

17-11-2008, 08:03 AM

Thanks for the feedback, glad you like the new app. We've been working on it for quite a while now, and it's been written from scratch, so all the limitations we had before are now no longer in place.

The feature request you mentioned are already logged to be added in future versions, except adding support for MCE remote which I will log.

Thanks for the feedback.

Hi everyone!

I just thought I'd post my thoughts & suggestions on the latest release of WinTV v7.

Firstly I'd like to meantion the improvements to this version.

Improved stability vs WinTV v6
The improved interface, Now easier to use... Clearly the developers have shifted the focus on the usabity of the application & made watching Television the main focus. No more clogged up interface! :D
Configuration options are now all in one place. No Primary.exe required!

My Suggestions (I'm sure some of them are already in the works)

Improve remote control support or atleast provide a configuration tab to configure what keys do what. (For HID remotes Media Centre style)
SignalMonitor - A nice app to have but its really ugly (I assume it was created using VB6 - I noticed the ocx for the progress bar control) maybe add it to the Info tab page of the configuration window?
Make the TV Guide window Sizeable?

Most of the suggestions I've listed are only minor & I really recommend everyone upgrade if they can - It's worth it!

Mr X

17-11-2008, 04:56 PM

Try changing the renderer (and enable HW acceleration)

There is simple re-arranging of channel order available. (to be improved upon in future versions) Configuration -> All Channels. Right Click "Details" and then change the channel number "Preset" to the number you want. IF there is already a channel on that, then the one that was there will go to the end of the list.

Re: Shutdown option - will log this.

Thanks

Graham

18-11-2008, 04:07 PM

Thank you for the useful information, I have sucessfully re-numbered my TV cahnnels. Unfortunately changing the rendering has had no effect on the full screen problem.

Regards

Graham

bigal

28-11-2008, 01:24 AM

has anyone asked if the ability to record a complete MUX or a selection of streams, will be added?
Also what about viewing all channels in a MUX.

bigal

01-12-2008, 11:12 PM

I cant believe no one is asking for this, i suppose its because were all use to not having it in VMC or MCE2005. It is possible to have this feature as i have seen it in other applications, i wont mention them, using the hauppauge remote.
So can we please have this option in MCE2005 and VMC?

If not is there a search option in the wintv7 epg? if not can we have that along with multitap?

bigal

03-12-2008, 05:48 PM

could we have a sticky of all features requesteds, so i/we dont ask for them again and so we know what has been requested>
Thanks in advance

TheNewGuy

04-12-2008, 12:46 AM

Sorry, but its unlikely we'll post and maintain a list here. Our master lists of this stuff is in our own internal systems, and is feed from our own internal requirements, feedback from distributors and testers in various countries, feedback on these forums, and from user emails/calls. It'd be a lot of extra work for us to maintain similar lists here, especially when we're busy doing developing and testing new releases etc.

Its actually a good idea for multiple users to post asking for the same features, since it gives us a feel for which features are really wanted by users.

Michael9000

04-12-2008, 01:44 AM

I dont know what information is stored in the todo-lists, but it shouldn't take many hours to create a webpage listing the topics from the DB and a vote-for-this-feature-button. Simple and usefull for both users and developers...

By the way, I'm really looking forward to the new rewrite of WinTV (v7) with analogue support for HVR-products.

TheNewGuy

04-12-2008, 01:48 AM

I dont know what information is stored in the todo-lists, but it shouldn't take many hours to create a webpage listing the topics from the DB and a vote-for-this-feature-button. Simple and usefull for both users and developers...I'm sorry, but for a variety of reasons, this isnt going to happen. Where possible we'll try to keep people informed about stuff, but from a business perspective this isnt always possible. We're definitely keen to see posts from users requesting features though. This provides us valuable insights into what users think is missing in the application.

bigal

04-12-2008, 09:32 PM

thanks for getting back and letting us know.

Michael9000

06-12-2008, 10:04 AM

Okay, thats fair enough. Nice to know somebody's reading the posts about feature requests :)

fpjolly

10-12-2008, 03:58 PM

Please may we have the ability to record in 15 minute 'chunks' back in thus version - I really miss it and used it a lot in v6.

David McMillan

10-12-2008, 06:08 PM

Amen to that.

Mr X

10-12-2008, 07:20 PM

you mean where pressing record again sets recording for 15 mins then 30 etc?

this is logged already as a request.

fpjolly

11-12-2008, 10:48 AM

Thank you very much for your reply - I look forward to the fix!

wintv is awesome

17-12-2008, 03:35 PM

hi, would it be possible for the next release to be able to record in different formats? such as MP4, M4V, Mpeg2, wmv, quicktime!

TheNewGuy

17-12-2008, 04:53 PM

hi, would it be possible for the next release to be able to record in different formats? such as MP4, M4V, Mpeg2, wmv, quicktime!Sorry, thats not something we intend to do... at least not in the near near future. We prefer to stick with the native formats that come out of the devices.

For digital broadcasts we record the original broadcast stream, in the original transport stream format, so may contain any mixture of MPEG2, MPEG4 (H.264), AC3, MPEG1 Layer 2, HE-AAC etc.

For analog broadcasts we'll be recording as MPEG-2 content. This will come out of the onboard hardware MPEG2 encoder for those devices with them, or from a soft MPEG2 encoder for those that dont have the hardware encoder.

In my experience conversion to other formats is better done after the recording has completed:

- a lot less can go wrong with recording
- you end up with a better quality encoding
- have the ability to do two pass encoding etc
- use a lot less CPU recording

hajj_3

20-12-2008, 02:43 PM

make sure when you add the 15min jumps in time that we can still manually time in the time in 1min increments though. Any eta on wintv 7.01?

TheNewGuy

20-12-2008, 10:22 PM

Any eta on wintv 7.01?Its still a few weeks away. The main changes at this stage are for supporting a wider range of Hauppauge products, but there are a few bug fixes and some minor performance improvements though.

alihad

24-12-2008, 10:45 AM

I'd like to see support for digital teletext :)

Mr X

24-12-2008, 10:45 AM

you mean in the UK?

alihad

24-12-2008, 11:01 AM

you mean in the UK?

Yes, Digital Teletext in the UK. I know it's not been available before now but my HVR 900 is capable of supporting it as I can get it using Nebula DigiTV.

TheNewGuy

24-12-2008, 07:00 PM

alihad

26-12-2008, 10:59 AM

The app already supports digital teletext. Unfortunately the UK doesnt use teletext on digital channels. It uses MHEG-5 instead. This system is used only used in the UK and NZ. Support for it might be added in the future, but wont be in the short term.

That's too bad, especially as some areas have already had their analogue transmissions terminated with many more switchovers coming this year. The current teletext support will become irrelevant by 2012. I see that MHEG-5 will also be deployed in Ireland, Hong Kong, South Africa, Malaysia, Turkey and India.

TheNewGuy

26-12-2008, 02:41 PM

MarkieVee

05-01-2009, 11:38 AM

Hi,

I'd just like to say how much I'm liking WinTV7

I have only had one issue - my channels weren't auto sorted so I had to sit and re-order 100 or so channels - not back breaking but annoying enough :)

I'd also like to see some kind of "background recording" tasktray icon thingummy doohickey - i found it reassuring :)

the ability to resize the EPG Screen would be fantastic its a wee bit small for my failing eyes. (I'd just like to be able to see more channels and more timeslots).

I'll be cheeky and ask for a way to integrate DigiGuide and WinTV7 :)

thanks to all for WinTV 7 and I look forward to the future versions.

M.

cdldt

05-01-2009, 11:55 AM

the ability to resize the EPG Screen would be fantastic its a wee bit small for my failing eyes. (I'd just like to be able to see more channels and more timeslots).

I'll be cheeky and ask for a way to integrate DigiGuide and WinTV7 :)
I agree with both of these requests.

Mr X

05-01-2009, 12:05 PM

All these are already logged as feature request (except the DigiGuide part)

cdldt

05-01-2009, 12:21 PM

With regards DigiGuide, is there a set of command line parameters for WinTV7? If Hauppauge don't want to write their own plugin it would be possible to add support via say Dabdig or DVBMon if we know the commands for channel changing and recording.

Mr X

05-01-2009, 12:36 PM

if you can let me know the full list of commands you need to execute I'll try and get them added to the command line,

tovele

12-01-2009, 06:40 PM

One thing that I really miss is that one does not get the program name when one has recorded a program only the date and time which is a pain when you have recorded loads of things.

Mr X

13-01-2009, 05:44 AM

tovele

15-01-2009, 12:51 PM

In the old version if you set a program and it had already started it would still kick in and tape what is left, also one could make it always tape x amount of minutes before the prog and x mins after in case it starts early or over runs.

crab2k

16-01-2009, 11:34 AM

Thanks for the feedback - This is on the list already too ;-)

We are working towards a CD 1.1 at the moment which will add Analogue Support and some bug fixes/features (no timeframe exactly - but asap)

I think it could be more important to add the remaining DVB-T cards, before the analogue..... :rolleyes:

Mr X

16-01-2009, 11:44 AM

let me guess - you don't have analogue right? ;-)

bigal

23-01-2009, 12:06 AM

RE: the guide
I dont know how the over the air guide is sent and whether scheduled recordings are triggered by the teletext signal but would it be possible to add an auto detect change in program schedule.
How many times in mce i have setup a program to record and began watching the recording to find that the previous program had over run. Even if you did a guide update it would not make any difference as the hosts for the online guide obviously dont update quick enough. I hope that the over the air guide would be different.
hope that makes sence

Rocket

24-01-2009, 05:23 PM

You really do need a rethink on this constant recording that has appeared in version 7. I have a Nova-TD stick and it basically makes my PC useless since the disk is always being written to when I just want to watch TV in a window while I work. Have you guys ever seen the old TechnoTrend software for the Nova-T PCI card? You can turn timeshift on and off with 1 click and it uses far less CPU and memory resources than the Nova-TD.

I've gone back to the old card. It's just simple and efficient - even compared to version 4.6

crab2k

28-01-2009, 08:22 AM

let me guess - you don't have analogue right? ;-)

Right! In italy, we are going to "switch off" to the digital in a few time.
No more analog... :p
bye!

bigal

30-01-2009, 08:23 PM

this might be a shot in the dark but here goes.
does anyone know if there are any plans to have hot links to web addresses via the red button ect ect
I think this would be a great addition when watching an advert or promotion in a program.

TheNewGuy

31-01-2009, 01:23 AM

Sorry, no plans for anything like that at this stage. Maybe in the future though.

Lots more core functionality to focus on first.

bigal

31-01-2009, 02:46 AM

ok, thanks:)

CapVi

05-02-2009, 12:31 PM

Right! In italy, we are going to "switch off" to the digital in a few time.
No more analog... :p
bye!

Yes I's true in my region I have only DVB-T, anolog was switch off 1st Gennuary 2009!

jcbjcb

08-02-2009, 11:55 PM

hi.
as the title,how do i turn off the info box that keeps comimg up with each channel change.
i ask as most of the time the information is wrong and it seems to stick/not update at certain times as to be totally irrelevant due to the time being different.ie:still shows program info at 10pm even tho its now 11:30 pm.

only other comment i have is, its a shame we cant seperate radio from tv without having to spends ages manually editing every button after every scan,life is just too short im afraid to spend it poncing around just to get a tv to work.
would be simpler just to have all relevant commands in every right menu click rather than have to keep opening one window after another each time,or maybe have it so all the diff windows will open at the same time.

lol,just remembered another comment:the reason not many non geeks make it to this forum is the antispam requirements in registering,gobbledegook is how it was told to me by one non tech customer and so they didnt bother to register n probably wont buy any more hauppage again.,but i guess thats the plan there,keep the pc noobs out.. ;)

thank you.

TheNewGuy

09-02-2009, 03:15 PM

hi.
as the title,how do i turn off the info box that keeps comimg up with each channel change.
i ask as most of the time the information is wrong and it seems to stick/not update at certain times as to be totally irrelevant due to the time being different.ie:still shows program info at 10pm even tho its now 11:30 pm.There was a bug in that first public release of WinTV7 that could cause this incorrect data. Its been fixed for the next build.

I've not tested it, but you might be able to get the info box to not show up by setting <OSDTimeoutInfo> to "0" in the settings.xml file. I recommend you backup this file first though before editing it.

would be simpler just to have all relevant commands in every right menu click rather than have to keep opening one window after another each time,or maybe have it so all the diff windows will open at the same time.What do you mean?

lol,just remembered another comment:the reason not many non geeks make it to this forum is the antispam requirements in registering,gobbledegook is how it was told to me by one non tech customer and so they didnt bother to register n probably wont buy any more hauppage again.,but i guess thats the plan there,keep the pc noobs out.. ;)
Pretty much all forums on the internet have to do this these days. If we didnt, this side would be full of porn and viagra adverts. Its a sad reality of the internet.

charly

22-02-2009, 03:34 PM

Hi

I agree that there should be a way of switching off timeshift as it can be annoying and I appreciate this might be looked into later, I would also like to see a button for keeping the TV on top or make the program remember the stay on top feature instead of having to pull down the menu everytime I start the TV software.

Another thing thats annoying is the TV and Digital Radio channel all being lumped together and think it would be better to be able to filter which channels you want either TV or Radio, or even a small icon like the TV icon to switch between the two, Radio when watching TV and TV when listening to radio.

Maybe channel changing could be made faster but I think this is dependent on timeshift and buffering so if in future time shift is able to be turned off/on then I would imagine this will speed up channel changing anyway.

Also the cycling through from startup to custom size to fullscreen is okay but as soon as you go back to main screen (Start up) the whole thing defaults back to the left hand corner of the monitor and I alway like it on the Right like the old V6 version.

I am sure I will find some more but that will do for now.
Regards
Charles

David McMillan

24-02-2009, 07:46 AM

Can I support this and add that one problem is the buffering means that recording finishes before the end of every program unless you manually add a minute to program length. It would be nice to preset an overrun time.

Teddo

24-02-2009, 05:03 PM

WinTV7 NTSC

*ability to add channels manually to channel list.

*ability to tune to channels manually by entering channel number.

thecaptain2000

24-02-2009, 07:09 PM

Hello,
it would be useful to be able to manage several favorite lists, to keep a separate list of, let's say news chgannels, sports channels, HD channels, financial, etc.
when you select the favorite list, you should be able to move across channels with the up and down arrows, and change favourite list with the left and right arrows.
TheCapt

charly

01-03-2009, 02:43 PM

Hi
I am not trying to be funny and I am quite serious, after now trying the WinTV 7 software for about 3 weeks, I think you would be better off trying to iron out some bugs first before adding any more features as there are many many bugs too numerous to mention but certainly it isnt a stable platform yet by far, once you have it stable then it would be a good time to start adding new features.

Please dont think I am not grateful for the amazing software so far, as its world apart from the old stuff that was fed to us, and I appreciate all the hard work re-writing (it seems from scratch) this new software but I dont want to see you going back to the old way of releasing update after update and never getting the software up to an acceptable level in fact your earlier software was more stable than the older software which I really dont want to happen to this new and exciting new release.

Only my opinion for what its worth.

Regards
Charles

Mr X

01-03-2009, 03:40 PM

thats pretty much what we have been doing, hence we only launched with a limited number of boards and it's been a while until we added the rest of the boards. CD 1.1 should be much more stable and also have lots of new features (i.e Analogue, Teletext (analogue), DVB-S2, etc) and support a wider range of boards.

thecaptain2000

02-03-2009, 08:31 AM

On my request of handling more than one favorite list, any comment? Does it seem like a good idea to those one who can make it happen?

TheCapt

Mr X

02-03-2009, 10:27 AM

Having Favourites list is a good idea, I've logged a request for this.

On my request of handling more than one favorite list, any comment? Does it seem like a good idea to those one who can make it happen?

TheCapt

Taras

06-03-2009, 07:32 PM

could we have 16:9 option for s-video please ...

Taras

06-03-2009, 07:35 PM

sorry another request...

on v6 wintv could control meida enabled keyboards (well microsoft ones) v7 isn't!!!!

Thanks
Taras

alihad

07-03-2009, 03:17 PM

Hi, I just got WinTV 7.1 working for my HVR-900 (650xx) on Windows 7. Sure it's not supported and a little buggy but it's a start.

I have a few requests for the TV guide:
Add a "Go to Now" button, very helpful if you scroll hours or days ahead
Add a "Switch to.." button, you see a show that you want to watch right now or it's about to start, the button closes the TV guide and changes the channel
Add a "Watch" button next to the Record - instead of recording, it starts WinTV when the programme is scheduled to start and the correct channel is selected
Add configuration options to select the number of channels and the period length in the TV guide view. I don't think that covering seven channels and two hours is enough for most, especially on a large display.

There's also a minor bug, a page scroll advances much further than one page. When the view is of programs from 15:00 to 17:00, you would expect that the next view would change to 17:00 to 19:00. Instead it switches to 20:00 - 22:00.

charly

08-03-2009, 11:50 PM

Hi
Seeing as the last three things I asked for were met a week later in release CD 1.1, I thought well I might as well push my luck. :D
One thing I love about my other house PVRs is the ability to when watching a recording I have made is when the adverts come on being able to click the FF or REW button once for 2x speed and twice for 4x speed 3 times for 16x speed and so on up to 64 x speed this is great for finding a part of a recording to watch and the Fast Forward Rewind and Next chapter buttons seem to be wasted at the moment, as they seem to jump one minute either back or forward, not sure if this can be done with the new WinTV 7 though, but as it was done before to some extent with WinTV 6 then I don’t see why not, I know the commercial boxes use Linux to control Via dedicated Chipsets and I also realise this is Windozzzee we are talking about so I would not expect miracles but its a suggestion which would be useful.

Regards
Charles

Mr X

09-03-2009, 08:01 AM

Taras

09-03-2009, 08:11 AM

Could the time seek bar be made a little bit bigger (height wise) say a about 5 pixels more ?

Mr X

09-03-2009, 08:42 AM

that's logged already, so yes, it'll happen in a future CD.

charly

09-03-2009, 02:20 PM

IF you press a number (say 4) then press Fast Forward, it goes forwad 4 minutes (ideal for advert skipping) I find this more useful that the "slow fast foreward"

this is why you have to press OK after entering a number for a channel change.

Does this work for you?

Hi Mr X
I never realised this feature existed and is indeed a very useful function now you have pointed it out, maybe it would be improved if the FF REW chapter buttons stay as you have documented, while the FF REW buttons could be used for just visual 2 x speed rewind or fast forward to enable you to get to the exact time rather than the nearest minute.

Regards
Charles

TheNewGuy

09-03-2009, 02:32 PM

I never realised this feature existed and is indeed a very useful function now you have pointed it out, maybe it would be improved if the FF REW chapter buttons stay as you have documented, while the FF REW buttons could be used for just visual 2 x speed rewind or fast forward to enable you to get to the exact time rather than the nearest minute.Its unlikely we'll ever add smooth multi-speed FF/RW due to limitations of third party directshow components we use.

ATurnb

10-03-2009, 06:27 PM

Just started to use WinTV V7 today.

So far I have these comments/requests:

How about greater use of the mouse buttons?

I'd like to see the scroll wheel being used for volume control. I also have additional left and right mini-buttons on my Logitech laser mouse. It would be nice to see these being used for up and down channels. Or maybe have an option to assign these buttons other functions.

Somebody has already asked for better sorting and I endorse that request. I prefer to see the whole list and be able to edit at once. Having to deal with an individual pop-up menu to change the location of the channel is painfully slow. Take a look at how some satellite receiver manufacturers do their channel editing and that's the way I'd love to see it implemented.

I also agree with the request to be able to handle different favourite categories like Sport, News, Entertainment, Kids etc.

There's also no parental control option. What if you don't want your kids to watch certain channels because they're too young, or it's too late?

How about being able to set up a parental control facility?

There's also no previous option. I often flick between two channels and this would be nice to have.

On the EPG it's a little small and there's no option to quickly move to a certain time or date, like there was on the old style scheduler. I prefer the old webpage style. RadioTimes.co.uk have a nice layout and I use that a lot to see what's on. It's full screen and you can toggle between grid view and list view.

TheNewGuy

10-03-2009, 06:38 PM

Take a look at how some satellite receiver manufacturers do their channel editing and that's the way I'd love to see it implemented.My satellite receiver doesnt do anything particularly great for channel editing. Give me an overview of what yours does and I'll take it into consideration.

I also agree with the request to be able to handle different favourite categories like Sport, News, Entertainment, Kids etc.We probably will add this sort of functionality in a future release.

There's also no parental control option. What if you don't want your kids to watch certain channels because they're too young, or it's too late?

How about being able to set up a parental control facility?Actually there is a parental control option, but it only shows up for ATSC/NTSC users at this stage. A similar feature will probably appear for DVB in a future release.

Alot of this stuff has already been considered, but its all a matter of internal priorities and limited available resources working on the project. We'll get to most of it, but it may not be in the next release.

ATurnb

11-03-2009, 07:12 AM

I use a PC based program called Dreamboxedit to arrange my channel settings in my linux based networked satellite receiver. After the channels are scanned in you can manipulate their order by being able to cut & paste channels into your own created favourites, sorting groups of channels at once, not just an individual channel, by highlighting them and using the mouse to drag them to their new position. Sorting by clicking on any particular column header. Being able to resize editing windows to full screen to allow a better view of more of the channels.

With the latest WinTV the way it's implemented for the user is IMHO a backwards step from the last version. In order to move a channel to the position you want, you have to open a separate menu box and change the position number. With 80+ channels in Freeview this is a pain in the backside to sort out. Additionally if new channels are added later and scanned in does the program remember the previous arrangement and add channels to the end or does it just start a new scan?

With my sat receiver software new channels can be scanned in without affecting the existing arrangement allowing you to just manipulate the new channels. I get the feeling that WinTV7 doesn't allow this and you have to start from scratch with your channel list even if just one new channel is added. Is this right?

Wouldn't it be better to have a separate channel list that the software can use so that new scans could either be merged or overwritten (at the users discretion) with an existing arrangement?

I also fully understand with the Company's internal priorities and available resources, I'm just throwing into the pot my suggestions in case some haven't been considered and are possibly worth considering.

Mr X

11-03-2009, 12:26 PM

CD 1.1a will be out in about a week or 10 days ish, so there won't be any MAJOR changes but these are a few of the smaller changes already done:

Channel Change:
You don't have to press OK now to change channels. If you press a number now it will change channel. If you want to use the Skip Forward x Minutes feature you just need to press Fast Foward within 750ms.

Channel Number Entry Display:
Now when you press numbers they are displayed on the overlay (so you know what's going on)

Resizable EPG Window:

As it says

Advanced Options tab:

Allows you to control some hidden settings (more to be added)

Log Files:

Button to open Log files directory, so you don't have to find it.

http://www.wintvcd.co.uk/images/change.JPG

http://www.wintvcd.co.uk/images/resize.JPG

http://www.wintvcd.co.uk/images/advanced.JPG

tovele

11-03-2009, 02:38 PM

How about the recordings getting automatically their program name like in the old versions; also would be nice to have the feature of always being able to let taped recordings to overrun by a few minutes; otherwise very nice.

Mr X

11-03-2009, 02:47 PM

These are all planned for future versions already.

Thanks!

lectrospin

11-03-2009, 08:09 PM

TheNewGuy

11-03-2009, 09:08 PM

I concur with those points, i cannot understand why the tv guide is such a tiny area and not very attractive colours. As shown in the screenshot above, its resizable in the next release so you can have it as big as you want. The colours of the tv guide arent currently skinnable, but probably will be in a future release.

Channels are still sorted by the order in which they are found and not by the freeview channel number. I just checked its correctly listing the channel in channel number order. Are yours not listing in the same order as your 'All Channels' tab in the settings screen?

Wintv 7 is a definite improvement but it's still has some way to go to catch up with windows media center.We're definitely not trying to be the same sort of application as media center.

WinTV7 is meant to be a simple 2ft UI type of app, used as a windows app, with user sitting a couple of feet away with mouse/keyboard. Its designed to be a basic app, giving the basic features required to use their TV card for watching TV or recording.

Media center is a 10ft UI, designed to be the users entertainment hub in the home, with all encompassing music, movie, photos, tv, online services, all from across the room with a remote. We're definitely not trying to be that sort of app.

Quick question to add. Is the interface skinable?Yes, the main UI is skinnable. You can move all the controls around, group them in different ways, remove or add controls, can have vertical or horizontal volume control etc. See the "C:\Users\Public\WinTV\Skin\Default" directory, and most importantly the skin.xml file. The selected skin is controlled with the <Skin>Default</Skin> setting in settings.xml.

lectrospin

11-03-2009, 11:11 PM

As shown in the screenshot above, its resizable in the next release so you can have it as big as you want. The colours of the tv guide arent currently skinnable, but probably will be in a future release.

I just checked its correctly listing the channel in channel number order. Are yours not listing in the same order as your 'All Channels' tab in the settings screen?

We're definitely not trying to be the same sort of application as media center.

WinTV7 is meant to be a simple 2ft UI type of app, used as a windows app, with user sitting a couple of feet away with mouse/keyboard. Its designed to be a basic app, giving the basic features required to use their TV card for watching TV or recording.

Media center is a 10ft UI, designed to be the users entertainment hub in the home, with all encompassing music, movie, photos, tv, online services, all from across the room with a remote. We're definitely not trying to be that sort of app.

Yes, the main UI is skinnable. You can move all the controls around, group them in different ways, remove or add controls, can have vertical or horizontal volume control etc. See the "C:\Users\Public\WinTV\Skin\Default" directory, and most importantly the skin.xml file. The selected skin is controlled with the <Skin>Default</Skin> setting in settings.xml.

i still think certain features of wmc are useful for general viewing and would make wintv better.

BrenH

12-03-2009, 12:44 AM

TheNewGuy

12-03-2009, 01:35 AM

I didnt say we wont implement support for it in future. Its difficult to justify the development effort for it at this stage, but I'm sure when it starts to become more widely used it'll be bumped up our priority list.Really? Difficult to justify a somewhat significant use of a tv card in a computer (a working EPG), in two markets you sell to?MHEG-5 is not common. Its not used for the EPG in UK. The users in the UK get a 7 day EPG via the standard DVB-EPG. Its only New Zealand's DVB-T system that strangely opted to do its EPG this way.

WinTV7 is a new app, started from scratch recently. If we waited until we had an app that did every single thing every user wanted, we would never have got WinTV7 into the hands of the users. We had to be pragmatic about it and develop the features first that will benefit the most users, and incrementally add more features in each later releases (again starting with those that benefit the most users).

We may add support for MHEG-5 in a future release, but we're not ready to look at it yet. The WinTV7 project has a much smaller development team than you'd probably imagine, and we're pretty snowed under focusing on much more commonly used features (stuff like wider device support, DVB and analog Teletext, DVB Subtitles, North Amercian Close Captions, Parental Control).

If only Kordia and the NZ Freeview consortium had done the right thing and chosen the better option of using the standard DVB epg over DVB-T, the same as they did for the DVB-S version of Freeview, then life would have been much easier for you. You would have had an EPG in large number of DVB apps available, including WinTV7. At least you currently get the now/next show info.

The list of annoyances being an early buyer of the HVR4000 in NZ is growing. I was hoping the latest WinTV v7, would finally give us something to use out-of-the-box but it looks like it's another e-mail to get a new CD from Singapore, as I see download versions don't have the codecs (ala the flakey powercinema 5 version that came with it originally) and now more 3rd party apps to get a working EPG for those of us who don't have an old sky dish on the roof to use.Sorry, thats out of our control. We're unable to make the H.264/HE-AAC decoders available for download.

Surely Freeview HD in NZ has been around long enough now to actually get something solid out there for the products you're selling here.I'd like WinTV7 to support it, but its not something we can do right now. I cant think of any devices that ship with support for NZ's Freeview HD EPG.

In general WinTV7 is pretty well suited to the HVR4000 and New Zealand. It supports DVB-T with H.264 video and HE-AAC audio format and DVB Subtitles used there, which very few TV apps do. It also supports DVB-S, and gives the full 7 day EPG with Freeview DVB-S. The only downer is the choice of FreeviewNZ/Kordia to choose a non-standard EPG source, meaning you only get the Now/Next info on DVB-T in New Zealand.

charly

12-03-2009, 02:15 PM

Hi
Just a quick one, I know this has already been asked for but the Scheduler window is very basic and way too small maybe this can be made at least double size in length L x B with double the amount of listed channels and maybe a slightly more advanced interface where we could say search for an instance of a particular program.

Regards
Charles

TheNewGuy

12-03-2009, 02:55 PM

Hi
Just a quick one, I know this has already been asked for but the Scheduler window is very basic and way too small maybe this can be made at least double size in length L x B with double the amount of listed channelsAs shown on the last page, its resizable in the next release. When it wasnt resizable we had to keep the tv guide screen relatively small to accommodate those that run their desktop at a lower resolution.

and maybe a slightly more advanced interface where we could say search for an instance of a particular program.We do intend to make lots of improvements to the scheduler, but that'll have to wait until later. We've got other more important stuff we have to tackle first.

cdldt

12-03-2009, 03:06 PM

I would like to request the following:
Timeshift Backup/Record (keep the timeshift)
There is one feature I have on my Topfield PVR which is great. If you are watching "live" TV, you can rewind it and start recording from the moment you originally started watching. Hardly anybody has implemented this on the PC - only MyTheatre to my knowledge. DVBViewer lets you keep the whole timeshift file, but that could be hours long. You should be able to rewind say -10 minutes and start recording from that point and then continue recording until you want to stop.
XMLTV EPG Input
There are various sources for XML EPG data. If this could imported into WinTV it would solve problems in certain regions that only give Now/Next. Maybe it's too complicated for beginners, but the most vocal users who would want it can probably figure it out, except for when they're just blowing hot air without an ounce of understanding.
Setup Page - Codec List
WinTV 7 should enumerate available codecs and then provide a list. This would solve problems for people who have imported a product that only shipped MPEG2 decoders into a region using h.264. There are some good alternative decoders available now.
EPG - Genre colour highlighting
I don't know how good the EPG data is in other countries, but in the UK, the Genre field is used quite well. It would be great if for example, Movies could be set a certain colour in the grid.
AFD
Not so important these days since many people now have widescreen monitors. But for viewing BBC channels on a 4:3 monitor, AFD support is essential to avoid "postage stamp" effect on old programmes such as Murder, She Wrote.
Discontinuity Counter
When recording, write to a log file whenever there is a discontinuity and at the end give a count of errors. If a program has been recorded twice, it is easy to see which is the best one to keep and which one has been ruined by impulse noise.
Multiple Source/Transmitter Support
If you receive multiple instances of the same channel, have the option to link them together. Somebody might receive a strong BBC one and a weaker BBC One and these should be grouped together, and have an option to deselect them if desired. Similarly for DVB-S and DVB-T you could link similar channels together and then use conflict avoidance and tuner preference to pick the best - i.e. if no tuners are in use, pick the best out of DVB-T and DVB-S. If all DVB-S tuners are in use, drop to the DVB-T tuner, and so on. The preferred one should always be used first.
Signal Checker
Signal checker should be implemented in WinTV 7 itself and should have monitoring and logging facilities to catch "intermittent" yet consistent interference problems.

Mr X

12-03-2009, 03:09 PM

Number 1 is logged already ( by me :) ) this is just like on my Sky+ HD PVR box.

I would like to request the following:
Timeshift Backup/Record (keep the timeshift)
There is one feature I have on my Topfield PVR which is great. If you are watching "live" TV, you can rewind it and start recording from the moment you originally started watching. Hardly anybody has implemented this on the PC - only MyTheatre to my knowledge. DVBViewer lets you keep the whole timeshift file, but that could be hours long. You should be able to rewind say -10 minutes and start recording from that point and then continue recording until you want to stop.
XMLTV EPG Input
There are various sources for XML EPG data. If this could imported into WinTV it would solve problems in certain regions that only give Now/Next. Maybe it's too complicated for beginners, but the most vocal users who would want it can probably figure it out, except for when they're just blowing hot air without an ounce of understanding.
Setup Page - Codec List
WinTV 7 should enumerate available codecs and then provide a list. This would solve problems for people who have imported a product that only shipped MPEG2 decoders into a region using h.264. There are some good alternative decoders available now.
EPG - Genre colour highlighting
I don't know how good the EPG data is in other countries, but in the UK, the Genre field is used quite well. It would be great if for example, Movies could be set a certain colour in the grid.
AFD
Not so important these days since many people now have widescreen monitors. But for viewing BBC channels on a 4:3 monitor, AFD support is essential to avoid "postage stamp" effect on old programmes such as Murder, She Wrote.
Discontinuity Counter
When recording, write to a log file whenever there is a discontinuity and at the end give a count of errors. If a program has been recorded twice, it is easy to see which is the best one to keep and which one has been ruined by impulse noise.
Multiple Source/Transmitter Support
If you receive multiple instances of the same channel, have the option to link them together. Somebody might receive a strong BBC one and a weaker BBC One and these should be grouped together, and have an option to deselect them if desired. Similarly for DVB-S and DVB-T you could link similar channels together and then use conflict avoidance and tuner preference to pick the best - i.e. if no tuners are in use, pick the best out of DVB-T and DVB-S. If all DVB-S tuners are in use, drop to the DVB-T tuner, and so on. The preferred one should always be used first.
Signal Checker
Signal checker should be implemented in WinTV 7 itself and should have monitoring and logging facilities to catch "intermittent" yet consistent interference problems.

g-avvx

13-03-2009, 11:43 AM

Hi,

I upgraded to WinTV v7 yesterday evening and have some requests:

1. Recording from the radio.

30 minutes of audio was about 45mb under WinTV v6 and output was MP2. It's now saved as a transport stream and occupies about 465mb - a ten fold increase. Can we please have the option to save as mp3 (or mp2)? I've spoken to UK technical support and have been told that this is will be easy to do.

2. The PC is no longer brought out of Stand By to do recordings.

This is essential for me. I could do one for myself, but I expect that others would like it.

3. We could do with some sort of help file.

There may be cone - I could not find it.

4. There is no easy way to edit a scheduled recording.

I suspect that it's held as an XML file somewhere. So I could write my own, but I'd rather not.

5. Scheduling recordings is a little tricky.

Setting up a new recording should flow from the top of the dialog box to the bottom. If you are setting up a recording in the evening for the following morning, you can't set the start time until you have set the start date (logical error trapping to prevent attempts to record in the past). Please move the start date to before the start time.

Similarly, to setup a permanent regular recording, you have to set the end date to be a long time in the future - I set it to 2099. Relatively easy for me to do as a user once I'd worked out what to do, but doing it programmatically would be a nice touch.

When setting up multiple recordings, the default channel is always set to the first. Persisting the previously used channel would could save time and frustration.

6. What are the chances of series link?

I hope that these requests are useful, but until we get item 1, I will have to roll back to WinTV v6.

Thanks.

Mr X

13-03-2009, 12:49 PM

Thanks for the feedback.

1. Try this tool it converts straight to MP3 from TS files:

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=16065

2. Should be. It works fine for me.

4. Will be in CD 1.1a (working already)

All the others are pretty much already logged as requests

Hi,

I upgraded to WinTV v7 yesterday evening and have some requests:

1. Recording from the radio.

30 minutes of audio was about 45mb under WinTV v6 and output was MP2. It's now saved as a transport stream and occupies about 465mb - a ten fold increase. Can we please have the option to save as mp3 (or mp2)? I've spoken to UK technical support and have been told that this is will be easy to do.

2. The PC is no longer brought out of Stand By to do recordings.

This is essential for me. I could do one for myself, but I expect that others would like it.

3. We could do with some sort of help file.

There may be cone - I could not find it.

4. There is no easy way to edit a scheduled recording.

I suspect that it's held as an XML file somewhere. So I could write my own, but I'd rather not.

5. Scheduling recordings is a little tricky.

Setting up a new recording should flow from the top of the dialog box to the bottom. If you are setting up a recording in the evening for the following morning, you can't set the start time until you have set the start date (logical error trapping to prevent attempts to record in the past). Please move the start date to before the start time.

Similarly, to setup a permanent regular recording, you have to set the end date to be a long time in the future - I set it to 2099. Relatively easy for me to do as a user once I'd worked out what to do, but doing it programmatically would be a nice touch.

When setting up multiple recordings, the default channel is always set to the first. Persisting the previously used channel would could save time and frustration.

6. What are the chances of series link?

I hope that these requests are useful, but until we get item 1, I will have to roll back to WinTV v6.

Thanks.

icargill

13-03-2009, 09:02 PM

you mean where pressing record again sets recording for 15 mins then 30 etc?

this is logged already as a request.

Even more useful would be a set of four, small buttons (say in some of the spare space in the bottom frame) with +15, +30, +60 & reset. OR, just a text box that you could type in ANY number of minutes and press a button to record for that time!!

Kiwi

14-03-2009, 10:59 AM

Hihi!

With the upcoming WinTV v7 supporting even some of the analog tuners, I have a question. Are there plans to implement similar recording options like the MPEG2 format (*.MPEG) and video/audio resolution/bitrate customisation options as in WinTV v6?

Thanks.

alihad

14-03-2009, 02:52 PM

Are there plans to implement similar recording options like the MPEG2 format (*.MPEG) and video/audio resolution/bitrate customisation options as in WinTV v6?

I think it's more or less a given then this will not happen. As stated in other threads, the recording is done as a transport stream ".ts" as that is the native transmission format. That's not to say that it could be done when more important features have been added.

alihad

15-03-2009, 08:34 AM

Is there a way to start the TV guide without watching TV? Could it be added as a future feature? I just missed a program and wanted to schedule it the next time it was on but I couldn't without starting the TV, something I did not want to do as the computer was busy.

momo

15-03-2009, 01:28 PM

Runing HVR 4000 on P4 dual 3,2 Ghz, XP-SP3

WinTV-V7 freeze or abort while scanning DVB-S (ASTRA 192+HOTBIRD 130) when runing with normal priority (default), Nothing else running.
But OK (and speeder) if WinTV is set to higth priority before scanning.

So, my feature request is to be able to define a default priority,
and to be able to rename analog channels.

Thanks.

Mr X

15-03-2009, 02:49 PM

you can set winTV to not autostart LiveTV - this is already an option in Settings.xml (though we added this a a UI config in CD 1.1a)

Is there a way to start the TV guide without watching TV? Could it be added as a future feature? I just missed a program and wanted to schedule it the next time it was on but I couldn't without starting the TV, something I did not want to do as the computer was busy.

cdldt

15-03-2009, 03:07 PM

How about an option in the system tray icon to just view the EPG and schedule recordings?

Another feature I'd like to see is the ability to close WinTV whilst a recording is in progress, and let the TV server continue. At present, a warning message appears stating that the recording will stop.
(Does WinTV7 act as a client+server, with the TV server always recording, or does the WinTV app record whilst it's running and TV server when running in the background?}

It would be great if you could implement a workaround for the VMR9+DXVA corruption issue, and the VMR9 tearing issue. Vista works great, with EVR, but trying to find a suitable renderer on XP is a bit difficult. Some of them tear, some of them show corruption, some of them give blurry image. I realise that this isn't Hauppauge's fault because these are bugs in VMR provided by XP, but to me tearing is even more noticeable than deinterlacing artefacts. Overlay renderer works, but gives flickering OSD.

With regards to priority setting, I too find Normal priority to be too low for TV apps but on the other hand High priority can be too high. "Above Normal" works well for most things - it's high enough to get priority over other things like browsing folders in Explorer but low enough to not cause deadlock of the system in case of a program crash or to interrupt USB transfers etc. I agree that the option should be there to select what you want (except Realtime :)), with a warning but I think Above Normal should be the post-install default.

tovele

15-03-2009, 07:24 PM

one should be able to; like in the older versions; set a recording even if the program has already started.

alihad

15-03-2009, 11:56 PM

you can set winTV to not autostart LiveTV - this is already an option in Settings.xml (though we added this a a UI config in CD 1.1a)

OK, so maybe I phrased the question badly. I was looking for the ability to start only the TV Guide - without the overhead of the TV - from a start menu item or desktop icon. Then if I wanted to start TV from the guide to watch something.

I expect that this is not possible from the way everything is being integrated into one package - as well it should. So can there be a command line option to start WinTV.exe /noautostart /tvguide? The default that I would want is to autostart the TV by default unless overridden.

icargill

16-03-2009, 05:55 PM

OK, so maybe I phrased the question badly. I was looking for the ability to start only the TV Guide - without the overhead of the TV - from a start menu item or desktop icon. Then if I wanted to start TV from the guide to watch something.

I expect that this is not possible from the way everything is being integrated into one package - as well it should. So can there be a command line option to start WinTV.exe /noautostart /tvguide? The default that I would want is to autostart the TV by default unless overridden.

Or, perhaps better, /epgonly so it's all in one switch? :)
And I entirely agree with the request. It used to be SO handy when I had the web-based EPG and could run it independently from the TV. The v7 EPG would also be a lot more useful if:

1. It wasn't modal (I can't change channels while I'm perusing it.)
2. It showed the channel numbers, as well as names (since it is the channel number that I use when jumping around) - like the web EPG used to.
3. You could change channels from the EPG (e.g. dbl click or an icon to click on) - which should think would be simple now that it is integrated with the TV app.
4. I could re-size it to use the entire screen (which I believe may be in the next release??)
5. You could launch it quickly from a button on the toolbar at the bottom. (minor quibble!!)

icargill

16-03-2009, 06:33 PM

It would be nice to have a set of 'Favourites' (OK, or 'Favorites') buttons. Five or six would be nice, ten a bit better. Question of where to put them, of course.

Maybe on the bottom right, between the main controls and the mute button? That would need them to be dynamically added/removed as you resize to suit the available space, which might not suit everyone.

Personally, I'd be happy to sacrifice a few vertical pixels to get them, and put 1/2 height buttons under the main controls.

Oh yes, and I used to have a button to switch between the current/previous channels. Has that gone AWOL?? Not desparate for it, but it was handy.

Orry Verducci

17-03-2009, 02:42 PM

I've been using WinTV 7 for about a week now with my HVR-1300 and I have to say it's a huge improvement over WinTV 6. However it would be nice to see the following added:

Better Tuning Options
At the moment adding or retuning channels isn't a simple as it perhaps should be. A tuning button should be on the Channels tab of the configuration window, as it took me a while to realise the Wizard button on the Devices tab. Also it seems analogue tuning isn't complete, with manual tuning adding channels to the present numbers of the frequency channel they were found on, rather than allowing entry of a preset number other than the frequency channel. Also, when editing analogue channels, it only allows the preset to be changed, whereas the channel name and frequency channel should also be editable.

Technical Information
It would be nice to have a technical info window within the application, displaying the channels bitrate, multiplex information, signal strength and quality, etc.

Decoder Selection
It would be nice to have decoder selection in the configuration window, for example I would like to use FFMpeg as it has a decent built in deinterlacer.

Better Snapshot Options
It would be nice to have an option to save snapshots to the clipboard rather than a file, also it would be nice to have an option to always capture them at their native resolution, so no matter what size the window is the snapshot will always be 720x576/1024x576.

Analogue Recording Bitrate Options
At the moment there is no option to change the bitrate of analogue recordings, which WinTV 6 did have.

Active Format Descriptors
I'm not sure how easy this would be to add, but it would be nice to have support for Active Format Descriptors, which are used by the channels to allow frame accurate switching of aspect ratio. It is particularly important to have for the BBC channels, as they always broadcast 4:3 shows pillarboxed in a 16:9 picture, using AFD to signal to the receiver that it can crop it for 4:3 display.

Mr X

18-03-2009, 09:26 AM

command line options:

-epg
-scheduler

Have been added to CD 1.1a (Not 100% if there will be Start Menu Shortcuts or not yet for these)

Paul Webster

19-03-2009, 01:15 PM

if you can let me know the full list of commands you need to execute I'll try and get them added to the command line,

If it remained backward compatible (change of executable name/location is fine) then it would be easy for such tools.

Have not checked with V7 - but both BGRecorder and with old WinTV2k executables supported pretty well the same command line interface.

Recording could be initiated something like this ...

bgrecorder -c 1 -startr:"filename.mpg" -limit:3600 -qdef -mute -nss
-c - channel number
-startr - start recording to this file name
-limit - record for this many seconds
-qdef - quality default
-mute - recording without local sound on PC
-nss - no splash screen

As on page 27/28 here (for the old software)
http://www.wintvcd.co.uk/manual/WinTV%20User%20Manual.pdf

TheNewGuy

19-03-2009, 02:31 PM

If it remained backward compatible (change of executable name/location is fine) then it would be easy for such tools.

Have not checked with V7 - but both BGRecorder and with old WinTV2k executables supported pretty well the same command line interface.

Recording could be initiated something like this ...

bgrecorder -c 1 -startr:"filename.mpg" -limit:3600 -qdef -mute -nss
-c - channel number
-startr - start recording to this file name
-limit - record for this many seconds
-qdef - quality default
-mute - recording without local sound on PC
-nss - no splash screen

As on page 27/28 here (for the old software)
http://www.wintvcd.co.uk/manual/WinTV%20User%20Manual.pdfyou can run "WinTV7Rec.exe -limit:1800 -c:1" to record channel 1 for 1800 seconds. The rest of these old command line parameters have no meaning in WinTV7Rec.exe.

valiant

19-03-2009, 02:58 PM

Good afternoon,

speaking about compatibility, is the new drivers package compatible with software different from WinTV v7 (i.e., version 5.0 of PowerCinema originally shipped with the HVR4000, or ProgDVB) ?

Thank you in advance

Valiant

Mr X

19-03-2009, 03:07 PM

Sure, it's just updated drivers. Obviously we never garantee compatibility with 3rd party apps, it's down to the app to add support for a particular board, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work,

valiant

19-03-2009, 03:12 PM

Sure, it's just updated drivers. Obviously we never garantee compatibility with 3rd party apps, it's down to the app to add support for a particular board, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work,

Thank you Mr. X for the prompt reply.

Paul Webster

19-03-2009, 03:20 PM

you can run "WinTV7Rec.exe -limit:1800 -c:1" to record channel 1 for 1800 seconds. The rest of these old command line parameters have no meaning in WinTV7Rec.exe.

Thanks

Is the V7 manual on-line (I've not found it as a separate downloadable)?
How is the file name generated (if there is no startr parameter)?

TheNewGuy

19-03-2009, 03:22 PM

Is the V7 manual on-line (I've not found it as a separate downloadable)?No. I'm dont think its been completed yet.

How is the file name generated (if there is no startr parameter)?Its derived from the channel name. Its likely a future release will make it settable via the command line, but not at this stage.

Paul Webster

19-03-2009, 03:31 PM

OK - is it also possible to initiate live viewing (e.g. by leaving out the -limit)?

Plus is the colon after the -c mandatory (old software did not specify a colon and did not require it - but not sure if it allowed it).

TheNewGuy

19-03-2009, 03:37 PM

OK - is it also possible to initiate live viewing (e.g. by leaving out the -limit)?No. WinTV7Rec.exe is a background recording utility without any GUI. You can run WinTV7.exe to start live tv, but its not currently possible to tell it to start on a specific channel from the command line.

Plus is the colon after the -c mandatory (old software did not specify a colon and did not require it - but not sure if it allowed it).Yes, it is mandatory.

In summary, WinTV7 is not a descendent of WinTV6, and is an entirely new application, and a lot of things are different.

Paul Webster

19-03-2009, 05:39 PM

In summary, WinTV7 is not a descendent of WinTV6, and is an entirely new application, and a lot of things are different.
Understood.
I have now documented this for my users - however, maintaining the same command line switches would have made the migration almost transparent and well within the capability of many end-users (who would have spotted the change in the executable name).

CapVi

24-03-2009, 02:41 PM

In future could you add the time to end recording near the time to start recording?
Thanks for all

couch70

25-03-2009, 03:27 PM

As added features:

It would be beneficial to see the channel number, channel name, and current time on the screen with the Now&Next information when the channel is changed or channel information is requested. The channel number is currently seen in the window border, but is not visible in full-screen view.

A means of importing the EPG when using DVB-S to view freesat would be helpful, in particular if Hauppauge decided to provide the service of providing a downloadable EPG guide for free or for a small yearly charge.

Changing channels from the EPG page if the selected program is currently playing, would be a user friendly extension.

Providing hotkeys to navigate the EPG, with up / down / left / right / select, would also be helpful.

Cheers

charly

25-03-2009, 06:26 PM

Hi

I think its been said before but this thread is getting way too big to sit and read through it all now,:eek:
I think a good idea to enable "Padding" so we can easily add a minute or three to the beginning or end of a Scheduled recording for early start or over run of a program.
Also on the cosmetic side, can the box header be removed from the custom sized screen like the older WinTVs used to be so we can set the size of WinTV and can only see WinTV picture without the blue bar on top with the title "WinTV" at the top?

Regards
Charles

thetimman

27-03-2009, 01:40 AM

A couple of things that might be useful/nice to have (if any are already there and I missed them please let me know!):

- the scheduled recordings picking up the name of the program recorded when selected from the guide and using it in the filename.
- a button in the guide returning the view to "now" (where the red line is) so that when I've gone a long way ahead it is easy to return without having to close and reopen the guide.
- buttons in the guide to skip forward and back 24 hours,

That's all for now, keep up the good work!

Tim

Taras

27-03-2009, 04:11 PM

Could the inital buffer be short so the start up time is short as possible.

I can see this to be an issue when we have user definable buffer length. I saw this problem with my old nvtv card with a 1gb buffer it would take up 30 seconds to initalize (sorry to mention nvtv again but trying to help) ...

TheNewGuy

27-03-2009, 04:21 PM

Could the inital buffer be short so the start up time is short as possible.Its pretty much as small as it could be already. It only buffers about a second and half before starting playback. If its reduced further you begin to get stuttering etc as it will often over consume the available data in the buffer.

This buffering is pretty short, any extra time is the time required to start the device, which can vary widely depending on the device.

OrangeMikey

31-03-2009, 11:42 AM

Could we have a tool to aid in the aligning of Satellite dishes? Not that I like to take my NOVA-S-USB2 camping with me and pay for an electrical hook up. Hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult to write the code for this.

icargill

05-04-2009, 04:47 PM

The Information button makes the channel information information pop up for a fixed time. The PVR on my Freeview box for my main TV has a nice feature for this, that I think WinTV could use.

Each time you press the Info button, it cycles through three modes: 'Simple Display' (just the program name and start/end times), 'Full Display' (which includes a summary of the program) and 'Off' again.

Just a simple change, and it would be quite useful.

icargill

07-04-2009, 09:52 AM

In the thread: "WinTV Guide - why so small??" (closed) NewGuy says (re Guide being modal):

It'll still be modal. Sorry, no plans to change that at this stage. Maybe in a future release though

I'm not sure why you would wan't to make it modal in the first place. I would normally want both the TV App and Guide open together all the time. (Which I used to be able to do with the Guide was a web page). Is there a reason for it being modal??

In any case, I would greatly prefer that is was NOT modal. Could we at least have the option??

Mr X

07-04-2009, 10:16 AM

Actually I just thought of a trick you can use to be able to do this.

We just added the command line "-epg" to directly launch ONLY the EPG

if you combine that with "-multi" to launch a Second WInTV window, you can use the EPG seperately from the Main APP.

"wintv7.exe -multi -epg"

(Works ok for me here)

In the thread: "WinTV Guide - why so small??" (closed) NewGuy says (re Guide being modal):

I'm not sure why you would wan't to make it modal in the first place. I would normally want both the TV App and Guide open together all the time. (Which I used to be able to do with the Guide was a web page). Is there a reason for it being modal??

In any case, I would greatly prefer that is was NOT modal. Could we at least have the option??

Richard Gamester

07-04-2009, 10:24 AM

For some time I have been using WinTV v6, but instead of using the windows scheduler, I wrote my own TV controller (it includes web access to set up recordings and imports data from Digi-Guide). It even powered up the PC when required and shut it down afterwards!

I have two PC's with WinTV-NOVA-T-500 dual recorders and can set up recordings from any PC or my laptop.

To make recordings, I emulated the windows scheduler and it worked exceedingly well.

Today, I installed WinTV v7...

Obviously a lot of things have changed, but I do miss the ability to type in a channel number!

However I obviously need to update my program to control your software.

I can see that you now use a tray application (started at power up) and save some of the recording details in the database, but is it still possible to use the old "shell" technique to start recordings?

Or can you publish a way to do this please?

I must admit I don't like the recordings being left with file names like:
Channel 4+1_20090406_0930.ts
but I see that should change in the next update.

Thanks,
Richard Gamester

Mr X

07-04-2009, 10:30 AM

Hi,

Snip from Page 10 of this thread:

"you can run "WinTV7Rec.exe -limit:1800 -c:1" to record channel 1 for 1800 seconds"

To add to this you can now use this command

-prefix "Sky Spts News"

Also in CD 1.1b you can just type in a channel number now and Scheduled recordings also automatically use the Now/Next informaton now for thefilename prefix

icargill

07-04-2009, 08:28 PM

Actually I just thought of a trick you can use to be able to do this.
We just added the command line "-epg" to directly launch ONLY the EPG
if you combine that with "-multi" to launch a Second WInTV window, you can use the EPG seperately from the Main APP.
"wintv7.exe -multi -epg"
(Works ok for me here)
Sort-of works for me too. Brings up EPG in a separate, simultaneous window (nice) but ... I thought the EPG was going to be re-sizeable. Mine definitely isn't. :(

Also, does the -multi switch mean that you can run two instances on different channels??

TheNewGuy

07-04-2009, 08:32 PM

Sort-of works for me too. Brings up EPG in a separate, simultaneous window (nice) but ... I thought the EPG was going to be re-sizeable. Mine definitely isn't. :( Is it resizeable when you bring up the TV Guide window in the app the normal way?

Also, does the -multi switch mean that you can run two instances on different channels??Yes, if you machine is up to it, and you have multiple tuners.

charly

07-04-2009, 08:49 PM

I like the -multi feature :cool: really impressive, have only seen this once on Elgato and I thought that was cool and never thought I would see it on a PC.

Regards
Charles

Orry Verducci

07-04-2009, 10:29 PM

Just a few small requests following my play with CD 1.1b, which I have to say is a great improvment over the previous release. Firstly, it might be a good idea to change the "Show Subtitles" option on the right-click menu to "Hide Subtitles" when subtitles are active, to avoid any confusion.

Also, it would be great if the install experience could be improved, which to me is getting a bit overly complicated and dated. It would be great if the apps could be installed from one installer, rather than having an application to load up multiple installers for the seperate apps. It would also be great if upgrades could be made easier, without loosing all the settings and such in the process. I would love it if when a new version is released I could just run the installer, and it would deal with removing everything, installing the new versions of the apps, restarting the pc and then installing the drivers, rather than having to go through all the steps myself.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the analogue options need improving. When manual tuning, there really need to be an option to add a network to a different preset than its broadcast channel, and when editing the channel the frequency options really need to be editable rather than greyed out to allow for future changes. Finally, on a related note, if I scan DVB-T channels, and then rescan later on to add changes to Freeview, rather than replacing the existing versions of channels with the new ones as Freeview boxes do, it unneccesarily adds the channels again in the 900's.

icargill

08-04-2009, 07:06 AM

Is it resizeable when you bring up the TV Guide window in the app the normal way?
Yes. And it looks as though it remembers the window size. Restarted in -epg mode, was non-resizable, but the same size as the sizable window was when I closed it.

Mr X

08-04-2009, 08:25 AM

It's fantastic for the Snooker World Championships coming up

301 (Table 1) on one Window
302 (Table 2) on the other

:D :D

I like the -multi feature :cool: really impressive, have only seen this once on Elgato and I thought that was cool and never thought I would see it on a PC.

Regards
Charles

charly

08-04-2009, 10:02 AM

It's fantastic for the Snooker World Championships coming up

301 (Table 1) on one Window
302 (Table 2) on the other

:D :D

A man after my own heart "Come on Ronnie" :D :D

Regards
Charles

icargill

08-04-2009, 06:38 PM

First, with CD 1.1b out, might it be time to seal this thread and start another for specifically changes from 1.1b onward?

And speaking of 1.1b... A couple of thoughts that I'm not yet sure are actually good ideas, but others might like to comment:

When using -multi to open two windows, perhaps some config options for sound handling in multi-mode, such as

a. Sound from last active window. i.e. if I swap from A to B, I get the sound for B only. If I open up another program, so neither has focus, I continue to get the sound from B - the last WinTV window to have focus. And a hot key to turn this on/off! ;)

b. Sound from window A to left speaker, sound from window B to right. ????

c. Hot keys to mute/unmute A or B window. E.g (?) Alt+A toggles window A, Alt+B toggles window B. (or whatever isn't used.)

Don't implement it immediately, I might change my mind! :D

Oh yes, and if I double click on a program in the EPG, it closes the window (?) and tunes the TV to that station???

charly

08-04-2009, 06:52 PM

Hi icargill

We already have a hotkey for the 2 TVs sound at the same time so you can focus on one TV at a time, its the mute button at the side of the volume slide bar. :D :D
Dont know about the double click on the schedule as far as I know there is no function that uses the double click on the schedule so in that case it will be a simple fix, Dont double click on it :D :D sorry it just had to be said and you did invite opinion.

Regards
Charles

TheNewGuy

08-04-2009, 06:56 PM

icargill

09-04-2009, 08:03 PM

Oh yes, and if I double click on a program in the EPG, it closes the window (?) and tunes the TV to that station???

Also re the TV Guide, it would be useful to have the channel numbers as well as the name at the left-hand side. Even more so if we didn't get the double-click, above.

GregDude

12-04-2009, 07:04 AM

Just played with WinTV 7 for the first time. Here's some suggestions I didn't see already put forward:

1) Remember the display mode and restore it when application was started. (It already remembers the size and position, but not Fullscreen/Normal/NoTitle.)

2) TV Guide have a 'jump to current time' button (or context menu item) to return to 'now' after scrolling away.

3) Configure show recording to automatically (or manually with ease) set 5 or more minutes either side of a show. Our local TV station puts shows on at any old time up to 15 minutes out of schedule!

4) Show signal strength for a few seconds when channel changes or when info is displayed. A thin bar and/or percent won't take up much extra space. I realize a separate app shows this in great detail.

From other people, I vote for...
* Favorite channels short list.
* Configure schedule completely separately to the tv viewing.
* Multiple screens with dual/multi tuners.
* Multiple channels on one screen updated intermittently.
* Rescan or configure channels with more options.

Well done with the user interface, the whole apps so far is well thought out and has minimal clutter!

icargill

12-04-2009, 12:35 PM

Just played with WinTV 7 for the first time. Here's some suggestions I didn't see already put forward:

2) TV Guide have a 'jump to current time' button (or context menu item) to return to 'now' after scrolling away.

3) Configure show recording to automatically (or manually with ease) set 5 or more minutes either side of a show. Our local TV station puts shows on at any old time up to 15 minutes out of schedule!

2. I agree. I nearly suggested this one the other day, but thought it might be a bit trivial. But having just been scrolling around again several days ahead, I'm again of the opinion that it would be useful. (Especially as there is usually a day or more of blank timetable in front of the 'now' position.) Also, if you scroll away and back again, you seem to lose the (helpful) red 'now' line. Not important, but useful.

3. Seconded. Also, since most guides give start and end time times rather than start and duration, it would be nice to have that option when setting recording. I'm good at maths, but even I hate finding a program that starts at 14:35 and finshes at 16:50 and having to modulo 60 maths on it! :(

From other people, I vote for...
* Favorite channels short list.
* Configure schedule completely separately to the tv viewing.
* Multiple screens with dual/multi tuners.
* Multiple channels on one screen updated intermittently.

Yes mostly agree with these. Were you aware that you can already do multiple screens with the -multi switch?? I've got a dual tuner and have successfully used it to run two channels side-by-side.

GregDude

12-04-2009, 01:11 PM

...Were you aware that you can already do multiple screens with the -multi switch??...Just tried it thanks. Seems to be fairly stable.

Acr0nym

12-04-2009, 03:08 PM

Firstly, Thanks for a great product. I have been using HVR 1300 for at least a couple of years and have been very happy with it.

WinTV 7 is a big improvement on WinTV 6 with a much slicker interface and so far it has been very stable, although the screen does go black, audio goes silent and buffering of the stream stops after about 4 minutes of full screen viewing. I have to resize to a window and reselect the channel to get video and sound back. At the moment watching full screen on my system is not possible.

Some of the suggestions I have here have been requested by others, and some are possible via the command line...

TV Guide:

TV guide should not be modal.

TV guide should be available without running WinTV

Double clicking a channel in TV guide changes channel on TV.

Better channel editing and a search function.

TV application:

Previous channel button and drill down editable channel selection combo control next to transport controls.

+15 minute record time on each click of record button.

Ability to edit video and audio PID's also ability to edit PCR and PMT values.

Option to choose which codecs are used from those installed on the system.

Fast forward and rewind to show continuous at x2, x8 as winTV 6,instead of stepping through content/buffer.

Ability to switch off disk buffering/timeshift.

Snapshot button.

SDK or publication of the API's allowing users to code their own plugins and for WinTV to use those plugins

Finally, WinTV 7 uses the .Net framework, I guess it is written in C++ or C#, would there be any chance of releasing the source under something like a GPL?

TheNewGuy

12-04-2009, 05:11 PM

Feedback on a couple of your points:

TV guide should be available without running WinTVYou can create a shortcut which runs "WinTV7.exe -epg" and it'll just start TV Guide screen, not the main app.

+15 minute record time on each click of record button.

Ability to edit video and audio PID's also ability to edit PCR and PMT values.We do intend to do these in a future release.

Fast forward and rewind to show continuous at x2, x8 as winTV 6,instead of stepping through content/buffer.Sorry, this wont be happening, and it never really worked in WinTV6 either (where no smooth rewind, and fastfoward was limited to 2x). This is due to limitations with thirdparty components we used. We'll stick to skipping instead.

Ability to switch off disk buffering/timeshift.We wont be removing the buffering, but we may allow it to be done in memory in a future release (ie, user might configure a 50MB slip buffer). Removing the buffer will make things a lot uglier behind the scenes, and make the application much harder to maintain.

Snapshot button.You can already press the space bar to get a .bmp saved in your recording directory. We didnt want to clutter the UI with features that most user dont use, so no button in the UI for this one.

Finally, WinTV 7 uses the .Net framework, I guess it is written in C++ or C#, would there be any chance of releasing the source under something like a GPL?Its a mixture of C# and C++. Sorry, there is no chance we'll be GPL'ing it.

icargill

12-04-2009, 05:58 PM

+15 minute record time on each click of record button.
We do intend to do these in a future release.

Just a suggestion. The way V6 did it was OK, but I think it would be much more flexible to do something like:
Left Click = +15mins
Shft+Left Click = +30mins
Ctrl+Left Click = +60mins
Right Click = Cancel.

TheNewGuy

12-04-2009, 06:02 PM

Just a suggestion. The way V6 did it was OK, but I think it would be much more flexible to do something like:
Left Click = +15mins
Shft+Left Click = +30mins
Ctrl+Left Click = +60mins
Right Click = Cancel.I dont like combining keys and clicks. No one is ever going to remember those. I'll just have it add +15 each time you press record (either 'record' button on remote, or clicking 'record' button in UI).

DigiDiz

12-04-2009, 06:05 PM

First of all, I have no complaints over the recording quality, but a slight flaw in the recording time that is used in the scheduler

That is, there should be an offset of before and after the programme starts. I know this can be done manually, but it is a pain to say the least. The offset should be 3mins before/after the programme has started/finished

Also, grey skin..............not the most inspiring of skin, should we be able to try to make this ourselves to suit us????

TheNewGuy

12-04-2009, 06:33 PM

Also, grey skin..............not the most inspiring of skin, should we be able to try to make this ourselves to suit us????Most people have been pretty positive about the skin, and we like it, especially when compared to previous versions of WinTV.

That said, the app is designed to support multiple skins, and they can have very different looks and feels, so feel free to create your own. If you do, upload it to the forums so others can give it a go.

If anyone whats to have a go at creating their own skin, I'm happy to point them in the right direction to get them started.

DigiDiz

12-04-2009, 06:34 PM

Most people have been pretty positive about the skin, and we like it, especially when compared to previous versions of WinTV.

That said, the app is designed to support multiple skins, and they can have very different looks and feels, so feel free to create your own. If you do, upload it to the forums so others can give it a go.

How to create my own and upload skins?

TheNewGuy

12-04-2009, 06:51 PM

How to create my own and upload skins?

Start out by copying the "C:\Users\Public\WinTV\Skin\Default" directory to "C:\Users\Public\WinTV\Skin\MySkin". Next, edit the "C:\Users\Public\WinTV\Settings.xml" file to specify <Skin>MySkin</Skin>. When you now start WinTV7.exe, it'll be using your skin. It'll look like the current WinTV7 skin until you customise it though.

----
To customise, the first thing you'll probably want to change is the background frame. Do this by replacing the following images with your own images:

top-Left.png
top-filler.png
top-right.png
left-filler.png
right-filler.png
bottom-Left.png
bottom-filler.png
bottom-right.png

These images represent the corners, and the sides of the frame. You dont not have to make your images the same sizes as these. For example, you might decide you're going to have a thin frame on the left/right/bottom, and a large part of frame at the top with all the controls.

----
To move buttons around, or group them differently, you need to edit the skin.xml. You can create as many groups of buttons as you want, each relative to somewhere on the frame. For example, the default skin defines a set of "WindowControls" (name not important), which has a help/minimize/maximize/exit button in the top right of the frame:

<Panel name="WindowControls" relativeLocation="Right-5,Top+3" size="95,20" background="Transparent">
<Control name="Help" type="Button" location="0,0" size="20,20" imageNormal="btn-help.png" imagePushed="btn-help-down.png" />
<Control name="Minimize" type="Button" location="20,0" size="20,20" imageNormal="btn-minimize.png" imagePushed="btn-minimize-down.png" />
<Control name="Maximize" type="Button" location="40,0" size="20,20" imageNormal="btn-maximize.png" imagePushed="btn-maximize-down.png" />
<Control name="Exit" type="Button" location="60,0" size="20,20" imageNormal="btn-close.png" imagePushed="btn-close-down.png" />
</Panel>

For example, if you decided you wanted a thin frame on the left/right/bottom, and a large part of frame at the top with all the controls, you'd define your various control panels as all being relative to the "Top" of the frame.

If you want the buttons themselves to look different, you'd edit the image file names specified in the skin.xml for each button.

----
If you end up with a skin you're happy with and would like to share it with others, then zip up your 'MySkin' directory, and upload it to the forums.

DigiDiz

12-04-2009, 06:52 PM

Thanks

Acr0nym

12-04-2009, 08:22 PM

Hi TheNewGuy,

Thanks for the quick response, either the overtime is good or you really need to get out more... It is Easter Sunday ;) Err, I guess I do too, for here am I!

From my browsing the forum I would guess that you are a little more than just a moderator. You either code as part of the WinTV 7 project team or at least work on that side and have direct contact with the developers. "TheNewGuy" eh? Maybe you're the latest addition to the development team? Whatever, I have been known to be wrong more times than I am right.

Fair enough about the GPL but how about a SDK or API documentation so users can build their own plugins? BTW you can send me the source, I won't torrent it, honest.

Regarding solo EPG... I already did the short cut thing. I browsed this whole thread before posting. A simple shortcut in the start menu created by the installer will deal with this for your "average" PC user.

As for x2 and x 8 FF. This worked perfectly for me in TV6. If the option was available to choose which 3rd party codec was used, could this be available again? Or is it because TV7 is constantly writing the steam to disk that makes a smooth x2, x8 FF/RW speed impossible?

I understand about the buffering... it's nice to be in control and know where it's at. A memory buffer instead of disk buffer would be quicker and less obtrusive to the end user.

Didn't know about the space bar snapshot... Documentation, Off line help? Yes I know, a manual is on the way. Documentation/Help is a chore, I would rather be creating than writing about what I did yesterday too. (BTW WinTV 7 misbehaves if you deny it access to the Internet after clicking the question mark).

The only reason some of my requests are the repeats of others' requests is.. Quote "Its actually a good idea for multiple users to post asking for the same features, since it gives us a feel for which features are really wanted by users".

Anyhow, keep up the good work, you have a good product, good software, and compared to many, a good support forum too. Not that I have ever found a solution or anything of any use here ;)

TheNewGuy

12-04-2009, 09:22 PM

Thanks for the quick response, either the overtime is good or you really need to get out more...I dont get overtime, so it'll be latter...

From my browsing the forum I would guess that you are a little more than just a moderator. You either code as part of the WinTV 7 project team or at least work on that side and have direct contact with the developers. "TheNewGuy" eh? Maybe you're the latest addition to the development team? Whatever, I have been known to be wrong more times than I am right.I'm the lead developer on the WinTV7 project. I was the new guy about a year, but I guess I didnt think about the passing of time when I created my forum name.

Fair enough about the GPL but how about a SDK or API documentation so users can build their own plugins?An SDK was definitely a goal of the WinTV7 project, but we've been too busy with other aspects of the project to really focus on this side of things. Hopefully it'll materialize some time over the next few releases.

Didn't know about the space bar snapshot... Documentation, Off line help? Yes I know, a manual is on the way. Documentation/Help is a chore, I would rather be creating than writing about what I did yesterday too. (BTW WinTV 7 misbehaves if you deny it access to the Internet after clicking the question mark).We're in the process of creating documentation for the software. Thankfully most aspects of the software are pretty straight forward,

Anyhow, keep up the good work, you have a good product, good softwareThanks.

Mr X

12-04-2009, 09:33 PM

we might try and add a bunch of shortcuts but maybe under a sub folder called "Advanced" on the Start Menu - we didn't want to clutter the Start Menu up with loads of options.

I dont get overtime, so it'll be latter...

I'm the lead developer on the WinTV7 project. I was the new guy about a year, but I guess I didnt think about the passing of time when I created my forum name.

An SDK was definitely a goal of the WinTV7 project, but we've been too busy with other aspects of the project to really focus on this side of things. Hopefully it'll materialize some time over the next few releases.

lol :D nice try.

We will probably end up creating a shortcut for this, but we havnt yet (due to differences in some regions).

Sorry, its unlikely we'll be changing anything on this front. The main issues are on rewind, and didnt make sense to have it just foward play. 8x FF never worked correctly in v6. It was probably more like 3x.

We're in the process of creating documentation for the software. Thankfully most aspects of the software are pretty straight forward,

Thanks.

icargill

13-04-2009, 08:22 AM

I dont like combining keys and clicks. No one is ever going to remember those. I'll just have it add +15 each time you press record (either 'record' button on remote, or clicking 'record' button in UI).

I can guarantee that I would remember them! ;) I have several applications that do things with Ctrl/Alt/mouse combinations, and they are very useful shortcuts. Not to mention the universally understood key+clicks for multiple file selections

You might not like them, but there are quite a lot of us who ARE happy to combine keys and clicks, especially if they do something useful. How annoying is it to have to set 2hrs 45 mins in 15 min increments? That's 11 clicks. With my suggestion, you can do it in 4.

They are trivial to implement and you don't have to use them if you don't like them. However if you **REALLY** are against them, then can you at least provide some easier way of setting longer timeouts? It could be as simple as a hotkey that pops up a dialog box in which you enter the number of minutes.

P.S. And even if you ignore this post, at least it has promoted me from "Junior Member" to "Member". Should I celebrate? Do I get a badge? ;)

icargill

13-04-2009, 06:45 PM

Start out by copying the "C:\Users\Public\WinTV\Skin\Default" directory ...
----
If you end up with a skin you're happy with and would like to share it with others, then zip up your 'MySkin' directory, and upload it to the forums.

This is really neat. I've just managed to create the most hideous looking WinTV 7... and I can show people and blame it on you! :D

Actually, what I was going to suggest is... The forum is exceedingly useful, but it has its limitations as a repository of information. Threads move on, get closed, etc. This one is now so big, a lot of people will miss this really useful post.

Have you considered creating a Wiki? They are much more suited to building up a knowledge base in an accessible way, and you could harness the power of your users to help with documentation, pass on personal experience, etc.

There are enough people here that I'm sure useful stuff that was posted here would get migrated to a suitable place in the Wiki. Also a more logical place for a library of skins that a discussion forum??

Anyone else out there prepared to help populate a WinTvWiki ??? Or even think its a good idea?

Mr X

14-04-2009, 08:19 AM

Not a bad idea when we get some time - I'm trying to move useful posts to the "Fixed Forum" to keep them as a reference in the mean time. I might move some of these posts into a new thread later.

Thanks for the feedback

icargill

14-04-2009, 10:58 AM

Thanks for the feedback

Enlightened self-interest! :)

Actually, a collegue runs a programming Wiki and I believe it runs on php + MySQL, much like vBulletin, so you might not actually have to do a lot to get a WIki up and running on the same server.

Matt101

20-04-2009, 04:43 PM

I have been trying this WinTV V7. All in all, nice. It is, however, somewhat complicated to use in some situations.

I also have WinTV V6 installed (not sure if it was installed/updated with the WinTV V7 installation I downloaded), as I also installed the software from the included CD before installing the version from the web.

Issues I have had with WinTV V7:

Channel changing is extremely bad. You have to wait several seconds to see the channel you change to. This makes it next to impossible to 'channel surf'.

Not all channels are found, even after several scans, there are still channels missing. I'm scanning DVD-T and analogue, and a TV with DVB-T receiver is getting channels, the software isn't (both analogue and digital). There is no way to manually enter the channel information, and channel scans are seriously slow. Waiting up to 20 min, for a scan to complete, and have it find only 4 channels, isn't really all that good performance wise :mad: :eek: . Additionally, scanning analogue only, causes the application to hang and crash. If you kill the process, WinTV V7 will hang every time you start it until you restart your computer. So if the software hangs, as WinTV (any version) commonly does, you kill the process, you must restart your computer to use WinTV again.:mad:

Changing the channel input type is not available, but is available in V6. Example, I receive channels in PAL. However some channels may be in NTSC-M format. Additionally, I connected an NTSC-M analogue video camera to the S-Video and Composite ports, however V7 has these set to PAL :confused: . No option to change the signal format anywhere. Same channel in V6 can be changed (including the S-Video and Composite ports), however the changes made in V6 are not used in V7 although they appear to be using the same database file (I never scanned for channels with V6, only V7, and the channels from V7 are available in V6 when I start it).

Wish list:
Faster channel switching. V6 has the option to channel surf. It automatically changed the channel or would display 6 to 9 channels (1 frame and update ever few seconds) and allow the user to select 1 to change to.

As I have been using WinTV to back up my old home videos, that are analogue signal, it would be nice to have the software (once you resolve the inability to correctly set the video format) to stop recording if no signal or a static signal is sent/received for a user defined time frame. Example, tape runs to the end, and camera shuts off, user sets recording to auto stop if no signal or static signal is received for 2 minutes (timer should also be shown with options to ‘stop now’ and ‘ignore for X minutes’). This adds flexibility to the software. Timer recordings for home videos playing from a video camera (analogue or digital) connected to the S-Video or Composite can not be easily 'predefined' for recording length.

A simple basic video editor would be nice. The software can/is saving the signal and will play it, however, if the end user wants to remove portions from the saved video (advertisements, static, garbage, etc), we are generally stuck. Yes there are several applications on the market, but a basic editor would be nice. Example, an editor to simply cut out a portion of the video that isn't wanted.

Favorite’s buttons. Buttons along the top, bottom or side, that the end user can define.

icargill

20-04-2009, 08:26 PM

Matt,
As a fellow end user...

Wish list:
Faster channel switching. V6 has the option to channel surf. It automatically changed the channel or would display 6 to 9 channels (1 frame and update ever few seconds) and allow the user to select 1 to change to.

I too would love to see quicker channel changes, I am finding it annoyingly slow. Hauppauge have previously implied that there are technical reasons for it, but if so, I don't understand why neither of the Freeview boxes that I've had for the TV downstairs had such slow changes. If it is for 'stability' then maybe we could have the buffer time as an option, so we can tweak it the minimum that works well with our reception?

A simple basic video editor would be nice. The software can/is saving the signal and will play it, however, if the end user wants to remove portions from the saved video (advertisements, static, garbage, etc), we are generally stuck. Yes there are several applications on the market, but a basic editor would be nice. Example, an editor to simply cut out a portion of the video that isn't wanted.

I confidently predict that the Hauppauge response will be no, and can even hazard to predict their reasons:
1. It would be a poor use of the developers time when there is still so much other "core" functionality to be added.
2. There are already a lot of free (or nearly free) programs that already do that.
From my own perspective, the only time I feel a need to top and tail a recording is when I'm going to burn it to DVD (say), in which case I'll trim it in the DVD authoring software. I doubt I would ever bother doing it from within WinTV.

Favorite’s buttons. Buttons along the top, bottom or side, that the end user can define.
Yes, I agree that would be nice... One day! :)

charly

21-04-2009, 12:53 AM

Hi Guys
The issue with slow channel change is because WinTV sets up a Buffer, I beleive its only 256mb of Hard Drive Memory, which is very small and this is due to the fact that WinTV 7 Has a time shift feature meaning you can rewind as soon as you have started watching, meaning if you miss 10 mins while answering the phone, or a call of nature, then you can just rewind to where you left off, all my freeview/freesat boxes do this as all my boxes are PVR (Personal Video Recorder) and this is where people get confused as WinTV7 is a Very different beast To WinTV6 in the fact you are getting a Free PVR instead of a bog standard TV which in my opinion is great especially for free, some people dont like this feature and the production team have hinted that it may be user controlled and be able to be turned off in a later version but I would say it wont be in the next release and probably not in the next few.

My Boxes dont Quite take as long as WinTV7 to shift channels but they are dedicated boxes running linux and dedicated Chipsets and all in all its not too long for WinTV7 running on Windoze

Hope this helps you
Regards
Charles

TheNewGuy

21-04-2009, 01:16 AM

some people dont like this feature and the production team have hinted that it may be user controlled and be able to be turned off in a later version but I would say it wont be in the next release and probably not in the next few.Just to set expectations appropriately - you wont be able turn off the slipping in a future release, but we may introduce an in-memory slipping mode. This is something we have experimented with recently. From a user perspective it looks and performs exactly the same as the current disk slipping, but you cant skip back as far. Some machines with slow I/O systems (netbooks with flash drives etc) may see improved performance because of this, but otherwise there would be very little perceived difference. ie, channel change times will be unchanged.

Specifically on the subject of channel changes taking too long - we're always to looking to improve things, but I dont anticipate things will change too much. The 'always recording' style of live tv will always have at least a couple of seconds required for each channel change. The exact time taken is a combination of how quickly the tuner changes frequencies, plus how frequently the broadcaster transmits the channel information in the stream (PAT/PMT), combined with the time to buffer about a megabyte of data - which is pretty much the minimum the application can get away with without stuttering. In our testing, WinTV7 channel changes take between 2.0-4.5 depending on tuner and broadcasts. We'll hopefully be able to reduce the higher side of those averages, but I dont expect to it'll get too much quicker what you see today.

charly

21-04-2009, 12:20 PM

Hi TheNewGuy
Thanks for the clarification of this as it seems the main gripe of users is the channel change speed, where I understand the delay it seems some people cannot get their heads round the fact that WinTV7 is now a PVR with timeslip/chaseplay and not just a TV only Based Application.
As has been said before you cannot please everyone all of the time and when this feature was not present, Most people wanted it, and now its been implemented some don’t want it, I personally think its the best way forward and once you learn to live with the delay playoff for the features it supplies its a very acceptable trade off.

Regards
Charles

TheNewGuy

21-04-2009, 03:34 PM

As has been said before you cannot please everyone all of the time and when this feature was not present, Most people wanted it, and now its been implemented some don’t want it, I personally think its the best way forward and once you learn to live with the delay playoff for the features it supplies its a very acceptable trade off.
Yes, thats pretty much my view on it. We're happy with the progress we've made.

sykkes

23-04-2009, 05:45 PM

I don't know if it's been mentioned already, but how about these:

I don't know if there's a default or uncontrollable setting for these but here we go:

Ability to select video and audio bitrates for MPEG2/4 (like in Wintv6)
Ability to manually add new channels for DVB-S(2) (such as frequency/polarity/sid/pid etc)

I'll add more to the list as I think of them... :)

icargill

24-04-2009, 05:06 AM

Probably not a really high priority, but...

Say you are using v7 for playback of an earlier recording. You watch half a movie then have to close. When you come back to it, and want to jump to half way to continue watching. I can't see any way of doing this apart from clicking the >> button, which can take forever if you want to (say) go to half way, where you left off watching last.

Unless I'm missing something (not at all impossible! ;) ) it would be nice to have a way to do this. My favourite would be a slider bar across the bottom of the picture, across the width of the screen, that you could either drag the slider, or click at x% of the bar to jump to x% of the recording.

A higher priority would be a less laborious way of re-ordering the channel list! :( Any chance sometime of move up/down buttons?

But once again, keep going guys and well done, it's way better than v6 already.

TheNewGuy

24-04-2009, 05:36 AM

Say you are using v7 for playback of an earlier recording. You watch half a movie then have to close. When you come back to it, and want to jump to half way to continue watching. I can't see any way of doing this apart from clicking the >> button, which can take forever if you want to (say) go to half way, where you left off watching last. If for example you want to skip 30 minutes into a recording, simply press 30-skip. Alternatively, you can click on the thin timeline bar in the frame below the video window to jump to a different part of the video.

A higher priority would be a less laborious way of re-ordering the channel list! :( Any chance sometime of move up/down buttons?Those up/down buttons are in the next release.

icargill

24-04-2009, 07:22 PM

If for example you want to skip 30 minutes into a recording, simply press 30-skip. Alternatively, you can click on the thin timeline bar in the frame below the video window to jump to a different part of the video.

Is there a keystroke for skip, or is clicking on the >| button the only way?
And there is a timeline bar! So obvious when pointed out, but I missed it completely.

Those up/down buttons are in the next release.

Excellent.

TheNewGuy

24-04-2009, 07:59 PM

Is there a keystroke for skip, or is clicking on the >| button the only way?From memory, Ctrl-RightArrow, or the skip key on the remote.

mrvmurray

26-04-2009, 10:30 AM

Channel changing is extremely bad. You have to wait several seconds to see the channel you change to. This makes it next to impossible to 'channel surf'.

Agreed. I have a Sky+ STB, and the visual delay between hitting buttons on the STB remote control extender and seeing the result makes the process really irritating.

What I need, please, is a functional TV, that displays the picture as it receives it with no delay. The Sky+ STB records, pauses and rewinds.

Having a separate mode/app to do recording-to-disk would be nice. Windoze Moviemaker certainly used to be able to do this.

M

TheNewGuy

26-04-2009, 04:51 PM

Agreed. I have a Sky+ STB, and the visual delay between hitting buttons on the STB remote control extender and seeing the result makes the process really irritating.You're trying to use it an odd way. Just about every modern TV app buffers live tv these days (MCE, SageTV, Beyond TV etc), and typically this add at least two seconds of buffering. In none of those apps (or WinTV7) would the user use their STB remote. Instead, they use their TV card remote to tell the app to change channels, and the app then uses an IR Blaster to channel change on the STB when it needs to. This also enables the application to automatically change channels on the STB any time it needs to.

If you really want to stick with using your original STB remote for controlling things, you'll probably always be unhappy with the delay, even if we're able to reduce it. If thats the case, you're looking for an entirely different type of app to WinTV7, and will probably need to look for some third party app. (maybe the free version of ChrisTV from http://www.chris-tv.com/cards.html)

muca

27-04-2009, 12:33 AM

Remote IR working on Vista. My remote don´t work!

15 minutes in pause mode???? In v6 the buffer was configurable!!

mrvmurray

27-04-2009, 08:46 AM

You're trying to use it an odd way. Just about every modern TV app buffers live tv these days (MCE, SageTV, Beyond TV etc), and typically this add at least two seconds of buffering. In none of those apps (or WinTV7) would the user use their STB remote. Instead, they use their TV card remote to tell the app to change channels, and the app then uses an IR Blaster to channel change on the STB when it needs to. This also enables the application to automatically change channels on the STB any time it needs to.

When I contacted Hauppauge tech support to get an IR-blaster, I was told in no uncertain terms that there was no way this would work except on Windows MCE, which I don't have (in spite of the fact that apparently relevant software was installed). What I have instead is a windows app that talks to a box that simulates the Sky+ remote.

If you really want to stick with using your original STB remote for controlling things, you'll probably always be unhappy with the delay, even if we're able to reduce it. If thats the case, you're looking for an entirely different type of app to WinTV7, and will probably need to look for some third party app. (maybe the free version of ChrisTV from http://www.chris-tv.com/cards.html)

I disagree. I'm Using WinTV V6 right now and the delay is highly acceptable. The only problems are the excessive startup time and the spurious audio delay that only comes in after I use the WinTV mute button.

I've tried K!TV (Free) and the delay is fine but the audio needs work; its a bit crackly. I'll give ChrisTV ago too, thanks.

M
--

dytham

27-04-2009, 02:12 PM

So, my feature request is to <snip>
and to be able to rename analog channels.

I am running PVR350 and WinTV7_CD_1.1b.

I can't see a response to the request to be able to rename analog channels.

Is it planned - or even by manually editing a config file would help.

It is frustrating when screen shots are included showing meaningful channel names, rather than the likes of "Ant33".

mdtauk

29-04-2009, 04:31 PM

I am using Windows 7 7100 the Release Candidate, and have just installed WinTV v7 CD1.1b and am so glad that it is finally working. I had a BSoD when stopping a recording, but problems are to be expected.

I would like to request a few feature that I would find useful, one of which was available in WinTV 6

Take Screenshots from Live TV
I work for a few websites which feature galleries of stills and videos from various Television Channels, and this is a feature I miss so much...

Save Screenshots from Playback Video
Being able to playback recordings from both Media Centre, and WinTV is very useful, but if there is a Screenshot button added for Live TV, could this also be available from playback of recorded video...

Ability to save Live TV Buffer as Video
With Sky+ you can be watching a TV show for about 30-60mins with the ability to rewind, but you can also press the record button and it records the rest of the show, and saves it with the rest of the programme in the pause buffer. The Ability to click a button to dump the pause buffer would be good if you want to keep what you have watched, or if you missed something you wanted to capture.

Window 7 Jump List
With Windows 7's jump lists, it would be very useful to put common tasks on this menu, things I would like to see are...

Display EPG
This would open the EPG if the WinTV app is running or not.

Playback Recordings
A list of recently recorded programmes could be displayed along with this task option, which opens a Common Open File Dialog and allows you to just pick a file, which then opens the App with your file.

View and Change Scheduled Recordings
This should be obvious, it will open a dialog with all the scheduled recordings which you can edit, cancel, as well as an option to add new recordings, or creat a manual recording. This display would work with the recording service, and would not open the WinTV Window.

Pick a Channel
This would display a list of channels and will open the WinTV window on that channel, or change the channel if the WinTV app is already running.

I know these may not be massively requested features, but Some have been present in the past, and the Windows 7 specific features would be neat to have come Windows 7's release.

Mr X

29-04-2009, 04:52 PM

This is fixed in the next build

I am running PVR350 and WinTV7_CD_1.1b.

I can't see a response to the request to be able to rename analog channels.

Is it planned - or even by manually editing a config file would help.

It is frustrating when screen shots are included showing meaningful channel names, rather than the likes of "Ant33".

Mr X

29-04-2009, 04:57 PM

Press SPACE to take a snap shot. It goes into the My Videos folder

Ability to save Live TV Buffer as Video - Logged already ( I use this at home too :) )

Display EPG - There is a shortcut to this in the next CD but if you create a shortcut to wintv7.exe with command line -epg OR -scheduler it will run without WinTV

View and Change Scheduled Recordings - See above

Pick a Channel - You can pin a permanent channel list to the side if you click on the pin in top right hand corner of Find Channels dialog

I am using Windows 7 7100 the Release Candidate, and have just installed WinTV v7 CD1.1b and am so glad that it is finally working. I had a BSoD when stopping a recording, but problems are to be expected.

I would like to request a few feature that I would find useful, one of which was available in WinTV 6

Take Screenshots from Live TV
I work for a few websites which feature galleries of stills and videos from various Television Channels, and this is a feature I miss so much...

Save Screenshots from Playback Video
Being able to playback recordings from both Media Centre, and WinTV is very useful, but if there is a Screenshot button added for Live TV, could this also be available from playback of recorded video...

Ability to save Live TV Buffer as Video
With Sky+ you can be watching a TV show for about 30-60mins with the ability to rewind, but you can also press the record button and it records the rest of the show, and saves it with the rest of the programme in the pause buffer. The Ability to click a button to dump the pause buffer would be good if you want to keep what you have watched, or if you missed something you wanted to capture.

Window 7 Jump List
With Windows 7's jump lists, it would be very useful to put common tasks on this menu, things I would like to see are...

Display EPG
This would open the EPG if the WinTV app is running or not.

Playback Recordings
A list of recently recorded programmes could be displayed along with this task option, which opens a Common Open File Dialog and allows you to just pick a file, which then opens the App with your file.

View and Change Scheduled Recordings
This should be obvious, it will open a dialog with all the scheduled recordings which you can edit, cancel, as well as an option to add new recordings, or creat a manual recording. This display would work with the recording service, and would not open the WinTV Window.

Pick a Channel
This would display a list of channels and will open the WinTV window on that channel, or change the channel if the WinTV app is already running.

I know these may not be massively requested features, but Some have been present in the past, and the Windows 7 specific features would be neat to have come Windows 7's release.

charly

29-04-2009, 04:59 PM

Hi mdtauk
Some of the features you are requesting are already present

*Save Screenshots from Playback Video*
Snapshot will save a copy of the screen live TV to the recording folder if you press the spacebar, this will also work from a recording.

*Display EPG*
The EPG can be run seperatly with the command WinTv7.exe -epg
The Schedule can be run seperatly with the command WinTv7.exe -scheduler

There are a lot of features in WinTV7 I think if you read through the forum for an hour or so you will be amazed at the features that are not obvious.

Regards
Charles

charly

29-04-2009, 05:00 PM

You beat me again Mr X :D :D

Regards
Charles

some of the key controls below

Pause" key="{CTRL}Q"
Play" key="{CTRL}P"
"Record" key="{ALT}R"
"Stop" key="{ALT}S"
"StartTV" key="{ALT}T"
"SkipForward" key="{CTRL}Right"
"SkipBack" key="{CTRL}Left"
"FastForward" key="{CTRL}F"
"Rewind" key="{CTRL}R"
"NormalWindowMode" key="Escape"
"ViewDetails" key="{CTRL}O"
"StreamDetails" key="{CTRL}D"
"ToggleAspectRatio" key="{CTRL}A"
"ToggleSubtitles" key="{CTRL}S"
"ToggleFullscreen" key="{CTRL}W"
"Teletext" key="{CTRL}T"
"Scheduler" key="{CTRL}Z"
"OpenFile" key="{ALT}F"
"Settings" key="{CTRL}I"
"EPG" key="{CTRL}G"
"VolumeDown" key="Next"
"VolumeUp" key="PageUp"
"ToggleMute" key="{CTRL}M"
"CatchUp" key="{CTRL}C"
"Channel+" key="{SHIFT}Oemplus"
"Channel-" key="{SHIFT}OemMinus"
"Channel+" key="Oemplus"
"Channel-" key="OemMinus"
"Channel+" key="Add"
"Channel-" key="Subtract"
"OnTop" key="{ALT}O"
"ToggleAudio" key="{ALT}Z"
"ContextMenu" key="{ALT}M"
"ChannelList" key="{CTRL}L"

mdtauk

29-04-2009, 05:25 PM

Thank you, the spacebar tip is perfect, I was expecting a button, I suppose once the help documentation is done, everyone will know that.

I did read about the epg and scheduler command lines, but with windows 7 it would be useful to have that on the jumplist, as having multiple winTv shortcuts pinned to the task bar is too irritating.

With the pinned channel list, this is a good tip, but beign able to open WinTV with a specific channel from a jumplist menu would be quicker, than opening WinTV waiting for it to load, then clicking a channel.

icargill

29-04-2009, 07:41 PM

I would like to request a few feature that I would find useful, one of which was available in WinTV 6

Actually, I think nearly all of these are already available?

Take Screenshots from Live TV
Save Screenshots from Playback Video

Press the space bar.

Display EPG

Create a shortcut like "C:\Program Files\WinTV\WinTV7\WinTV7.exe" -multi -epg
-multi opens an independant window, -epg puts the EPG in it.

Playback Recordings
Click the folder icon bottom left. Opens the Open File dialog at the recording folder. (Shared Video, by default)

View and Change Scheduled Recordings
Open the EPG (see above). Click on the 'Pending Recordings' tab. Click on listing of pending recording. Click Edit button.

Pick a Channel
Right click on screen and select "Find Channel". Intuitive.
To keep it open, click on the 'Pin' icon and it stays open as a panel on the right side of the TV window.

Actually, I only discovered this almost by accident. At the cost of a small amount of screen area, it provides a permanent, one-click 'quick jump' menu. Very nice!!

Mr X

30-04-2009, 05:01 PM

cool! glad you are happy. We are very much listening to the feedback and actiing on it. We are working for the next CD to make sure as much that was possible in WintV v6 is possible in WinTv7 (where possible)

keep the suggestions coming in,

mdtauk

01-05-2009, 12:24 PM

TheNewGuy

01-05-2009, 02:10 PM

Having had some experience now with taking Screenshots, I was wondering if it would be possible to capture screenshots at their proper broadcast size, or have the ability to resize the window to the proper broadcast size, so the screenshots aren't resized at all.You'll notice that what you currently get varies depending on the video renderer you're using. I cant remember which is which, but one type gives you a bitmap the size of the video window, the other gives you a bitmap the size of the video frame. We have no control over this behaviour (you'd need to talk to Microsoft about that).

PAL Widescreen: 1024x576
PAL Fullscreen: 768x576Its worth noting that those arent the broadcast resolutions. PAL 4:3 fullscreen is 768x576, and PAL widescreen 16:9 is also 768x576. (there are other slight resolution variations for PAL, but this is sufficient to get the point across). All that is different between the two broadcasts is a small flag that says whether the aspect ratio of the video is 16:9 or 4:3, then the set top box, or application stretches (or shrinks) as necessary for displaying the video in the correct aspect ratio. Its the same number of pixels, and the shape of those pixels varies at display time.

mdtauk

01-05-2009, 03:43 PM

You'll notice that what you currently get varies depending on the video renderer you're using. I cant remember which is which, but one type gives you a bitmap the size of the video window, the other gives you a bitmap the size of the video frame. We have no control over this behaviour (you'd need to talk to Microsoft about that).

Its worth noting that those arent the broadcast resolutions. PAL 4:3 fullscreen is 768x576, and PAL widescreen 16:9 is also 768x576. (there are other slight resolution variations for PAL, but this is sufficient to get the point across). All that is different between the two broadcasts is a small flag that says whether the aspect ratio of the video is 16:9 or 4:3, then the set top box, or application stretches (or shrinks) as necessary for displaying the video in the correct aspect ratio. Its the same number of pixels, and the shape of those pixels varies at display time.

Yes the Pixel shape effects the Aspect Ratio...

WinTV 6 gave you the option for what size to capture still images, also it had the option to right click the screen and choose the size of the window. If either of these options were brought back, it would mean pressing SPACE would capture the image at the right size.

TheNewGuy

01-05-2009, 04:01 PM

WinTV 6 gave you the option for what size to capture still images, also it had the option to right click the screen and choose the size of the window. If either of these options were brought back, it would mean pressing SPACE would capture the image at the right size.WinTV6 only had to worry about compatibility with the one renderer. Some of the newer video renderers supported by WinTV7 do not support what you want to do, so this is not possible. Sorry, its unlikely to change from what you currently have today.

Orry Verducci

01-05-2009, 06:03 PM

Martin, if it's any help I've attached a screenshot of my WinTV7 setup, which is the correct size to take screenshots at 1024x576. Unfortunately using EVR, 4:3 screenshots include the pillarboxing, so you'll have to crop them yourself later.

A small request, to me it would make sense that on the first run of WinTV7, if the user has a high enough display resolution, the window should default to the window size in the attached screenshot, allowing the user to enjoy the full resolution.

RobAnt

04-05-2009, 05:49 PM

This topic is far too long for me to read every post, so if this suggestion has been made before, sorry.

What would be nice is a way to set up a sort of Playlist, that changes channel automatically when the programme(s) you want to watch start. This is just so you can plan your viewing in advance, so not allied to recording as this facility/functionality already exists.

Mr X

04-05-2009, 06:56 PM

that might be possible, yes.

RobAnt

04-05-2009, 11:06 PM

Thanks.

Mr X

06-05-2009, 10:31 AM

New thread here:

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=16985

I've tried to summarise as much as I could from this thread. If something you posted is missing or wasn't added please repost.

Mr X

01-06-2009, 09:41 AM

Since I accidentally deleted my nice summary, here is the old thread!

Keep the feature requests coming.

Mr X

01-06-2009, 09:42 AM

Option to watch 16x9 Analogue/S-Video input not just 4x3

Mr X

01-06-2009, 10:04 AM

Posting some feature requests from other threads:

Remove Bar on top of No Title TV Mode
Autoconvert DVB Radio to MP3.
Use Sky 10Day EPG / FreeSat EPG

charly

01-06-2009, 10:14 AM

Posting some feature requests from other threads:

Remove Bar on top of No Title TV Mode

Hi Mr X
That was my original request :D :D Happy to see it implimented in the update.

Any news of when 1.1d will be released yet?
Did you get any further with the Channel 4 Group Freeze issue?

Best Regards
Charles

Mr X

01-06-2009, 10:27 AM

Actually that's not impleleted quite yet but I was cleaning out feature requests people made in general thread before we had the feature requests thread, just so they don't get lost.

Re: C4 issue. The main dev guy has the Files and is looking at it, but its' not going to make CD 1.1d (will be the next CD)

Matt101

01-06-2009, 11:23 PM

After doing allot of tests with WinTV7 7.0.27093.1 (and WinTV6 6.0.26080), I find it to be missing important items, and slow.

If your in an area where different signals are available (or connecting hardware that plays in different signal formats), WinTV7 does not appear to have the option to change the signal type (PAL/NTSC). It choose the format and if its wrong, you simply can't watch with WinTV7 unless you edit the channel settings with WinTV6.

Adding S-Video and Composite is possible with WinTV7, however the software chooses the signal format it wants, and there isn't an option to set it to the correct format (if its wrong) unless you have WinTV6 to edit and change the format. Or I couldn't find it.

Both WinTV6 and WinTV7 find channels they both report as having 'No Signal'. If there is no signal, why are they listed (see below)?

WinTV7 TV Guide does not always update with the correct (if any) listings. Programming to record any of the listings, is ignored (recording does not happen).

To further test, I used ProgDVB 6. This changes channels considerably faster then both WinTV6 and WinTV7 (less then 2 seconds). Channels both WinTV6 and WinTV7 report as having 'No Signal' are not only listed, but played with ProgDVB 6. Several of these are radio stations. The TV Guide is always update to date, and lists everything for all the channels, and lists them correctly, where WinTV7 doesn't.

Although perhaps this would be considered looking at the 'competition', the authors could take a look at ProgDVB 6 to see what I'm referring to. It is buggy, but works, in many ways, better then both WinTV6 and WinTV7.

I have noted that manually starting a recording, records in unusual formats (perhaps intentional). Some times I get a .mpg file, some time I get a .ts file. Yes, I read that the software records in the format it receives in and does not reencode. But if that’s true, then pressing stop during a recording and starting a new recording, during the same broadcast on the same channel, should result in the same file type, not a different type. I did a test with both WinTV6, recording the same broadcast. Result, WinTV6 recorded in .mpg every time, however, would not show what it was recording (2 recordings of the same broadcast, pressing stop and waiting about 10 minutes before starting the next). Same channel, same broadcast, same method for the recording (record 5 to 10 minutes, then stop and start a new recording a few minutes later), with WinTV7, the recording was shown as it was being recorded, however, one file was .ts and one was .mpg. I can only get the .ts files to play in WinTV7 (I did not try to play them in WinTV6). Windows Media Player would not play them. Please provide an option to resave the .ts files to a .mpg file.

Uninstalling WinTV7 results in the MCE elements remaining, and causing crashes at startup. Using the hcwclear, from the WinTV7 download, does not remove the MCE application elements. This forces someone that installs WinTV7, to keep WinTV7, even if they don't need it, to avoid the error message and crash at Windows startup.

I can not get NTSC 4.43 to work correctly with the software, no matter what I do. I connected a PAL Hi-8 video camera that outputs NTSC signal as NTSC 4.43 or as NTSC as PAL. Results were that the NTSC 4.43 (when it would show) was in black and white, verses color, and the NTSC as PAL was shown in color, but flickering, and the top portion of the video was at the bottom of the video. The same camera, with the same tape, played back on a TV, resulted in perfect video, in both NTSC 4.43 and NTSC as PAL. The software (WinTV) isn’t processing the incoming signal correctly.

To the programmers, keep up the good work. The software shows real promise, but really needs some additional work. Perhaps a revamp of the current features and uninstall routines, is in order here, to ensure that was is currently in the software, works correctly, before adding more feature creating more issues then you can resolve.

RobAnt

02-06-2009, 02:53 AM

Mr X, can you please add the ability to change certain items in the registry to meet the users needs, and, of course, display the current value, via the UI. An example being the prefer AC3=? option.

See here [click] (http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=16939).

Thanks.

charly

02-06-2009, 03:39 PM

Hi Guys
Depending on whose software you use with a twin tuner card like Nova T stick with two inputs depends on who uses the 1st port as primary, some software will use the side port as primary (Like WinTV7) and back port as secondary and other software will use the back port as port Primary (Like EyeTV) and side port as secondary, my question is can we have the ability to change in WinTV7 which port is primary and which is secondary as the side port with the adaptor is to be honest a bad idea/design and soon becomes loose and it would be great if I could make the end UHF connector the primary socket instead.
Currently I have to wrap electrical tape round the whole stick to make a good connection and of course this becomes slack over time and I have to do the whole thing again, I will when out of warranty take it apart and solder a UHF lead into the stick with a female UHF connector on the end but would much rather use the end port as a primary if posssible.

Regards
Charles

gaztaylor

04-06-2009, 06:37 AM

Im liking the new version, much more stable. Is it possible to have the snapshot button back for taking stills? Also there are no settings for stills capture.

I would also like to be able to record in a different format to a TS file

Mr X

04-06-2009, 08:45 AM

press Space Bar to capture a screenshot (goes into recording folder)

Go to Config -> Advanced Option and you you can record to .mpg format.

gaztaylor

04-06-2009, 11:46 AM

You mean the setting to convert to mpg? I tried that and the first thing I recorded and really wanted to watch, it failed to convert and lost the recording

RobAnt

06-06-2009, 07:50 AM

Unfortunately, the people who installed our communal satellite system didn't give us the technical specs - so although I know it points at 28.2e, I don't know what kind of LNBs have been fitted. There seems to be quite a few - 4 I think, although we only have two downlinks each from the distribution system.

Is it possible for WinTV to incorporate some sort of detector that can list the satellites the LNBs can see.

I've read that it's possible for multiple LNBs to "see" a number of satellites if they're aimed accordingly and we may have a better system then we currently know about.

If the S/S2 cards do have this ability, then it would be great if it could be incorporate in to the setup wizard. Maybe with the ability to edit the known satellites list? Which might be useful if the one normally used is damaged or dies.

Incidentally, the current setup for WinTV7 doesn't give the option to setup S2 channels, just S. Does it matter, are DVB-S2 channel detected as S channels anyway?

Thanks.

Mr X

09-06-2009, 12:33 PM

Taken from some old threads:

Recording should start even if your PC wasn't on at the start time.

zoikkeli

10-06-2009, 06:42 PM

Why is it that I can't pick the frequencies to tune the stations myself, but have to use a predefined list instead? I'd prefer the local transmitter (which has lower power but I have clean line of sight to) than the predefined higher power one.

I tried to look for a list of the predefined locations but couldn't find a file which would "look right". Is there one, or is the station/location info precompiled to a library file?

Mr X

10-06-2009, 06:55 PM

What country are you in? There should be local transmitter information for most locations where we have offices.

You can also edit the terrestrial.xml file and create your own entry.

We will also have a manual DVB-T & DVB-S scan option in the next CD

Joonate

16-06-2009, 07:38 PM

I use version 1.1D. I found bug in teletext functionality. If there are more than 10 sub pages, it does not work correctly. Sub page numbering goes like as follows:

pagenumber/01
pagenumber/02
pagenumber/03
pagenumber/04
pagenumber/05
pagenumber/06
pagenumber/07
pagenumber/08
pagenumber/09
pagenumber/0:
pagenumber/0;
pagenumber/0<
pagenumber/0=
pagenumber/0>
pagenumber/0?
pagenumber/10
pagenumber/11
pagenumber/12
pagenumber/13
pagenumber/14

etc.

After sub page 9, it does not show sub page correctly and shows special characters in sub page number like ':', ';', '<', '=', '>' and '?'. After that special characters, Sub page number 10 and subsequent sub pages shows normally.

Also if disk buffering is set to 0 minutes, time shift functionality not work at all. This should be work in this situation like it works in WinTV6.

These two bugs should be fix to the next versions of WinTV7.

Now in version 1.1D, 5.1 surround speakers works perfectly, many thanks for this fix.

Mr X

17-06-2009, 08:54 AM

Also if disk buffering is set to 0 minutes, time shift functionality not work at all. This should be work in this situation like it works in WinTV6.

> It will be, as you told it to buffer 0 minutes and it is doing so. Set it to a value your prefer. Memory buffering in LiveTV mode occurs regardless of what value this is set to. Only when you press rewind/pause does it read from the file on the drive.

These two bugs should be fix to the next versions of WinTV7.

The first one isn't a bug. The second one will be added to the list of things to fix. It will be fixed soon, can't promise for next release.

I use version 1.1D. I found bug in teletext functionality. If there are more than 10 sub pages, it does not work correctly. Sub page numbering goes like as follows:

pagenumber/01
pagenumber/02
pagenumber/03
pagenumber/04
pagenumber/05
pagenumber/06
pagenumber/07
pagenumber/08
pagenumber/09
pagenumber/0:
pagenumber/0;
pagenumber/0<
pagenumber/0=
pagenumber/0>
pagenumber/0?
pagenumber/10
pagenumber/11
pagenumber/12
pagenumber/13
pagenumber/14

etc.

After sub page 9, it does not show sub page correctly and shows special characters in sub page number like ':', ';', '<', '=', '>' and '?'. After that special characters, Sub page number 10 and subsequent sub pages shows normally.

Also if disk buffering is set to 0 minutes, time shift functionality not work at all. This should be work in this situation like it works in WinTV6.

These two bugs should be fix to the next versions of WinTV7.

Now in version 1.1D, 5.1 surround speakers works perfectly, many thanks for this fix.

Joonate

17-06-2009, 06:28 PM

Also if disk buffering is set to 0 minutes, time shift functionality not work at all. This should be work in this situation like it works in WinTV6.

> It will be, as you told it to buffer 0 minutes and it is doing so. Set it to a value your prefer. Memory buffering in LiveTV mode occurs regardless of what value this is set to. Only when you press rewind/pause does it read from the file on the drive.

These two bugs should be fix to the next versions of WinTV7.

The first one isn't a bug. The second one will be added to the list of things to fix. It will be fixed soon, can't promise for next release.

Why that disk buffering bug isn't bug? It should be work also if disk buffer is set to 0 minute. In that situation it should be start disk buffering only when you press pause button etc. like it works in WinTV6. Also for example if I set disk buffer to 1 minute and press pause button and wait over 1 minutes, then press play button, it jumps at begining and only show normally delayed last 1 minute. If I look at pause buffer folder it looks like that it create pause buffer files correctly for all that time, but does not display it correctly.

TheNewGuy

17-06-2009, 06:44 PM

Why that disk buffering bug isn't bug? It should be work also if disk buffer is set to 0 minute. In that situation it should be start disk buffering only when you press pause button etc. like it works in WinTV6.Sorry, but thats just not the way we designed it to work. Yes, its different to WinTV6, but just about everything about the app is different. They dont share a common lineage, other than the name. We're happy with the new slipping/recording behaviour, and have had good feedback about it, but I guess its one of those "its hard to please all of the people all of the time" type of things.

Joonate

17-06-2009, 07:40 PM

Sorry, but thats just not the way we designed it to work. Yes, its different to WinTV6, but just about everything about the app is different. They dont share a common lineage, other than the name. We're happy with the new slipping/recording behaviour, and have had good feedback about it, but I guess its one of those "its hard to please all of the people all of the time" type of things.

This new instant time shift and recording functionality is good generally, but at least please fix this bug if disk buffer is for example 10 minutes and you use pause mode more than 10 minutes, it does not work now correctly as I describe it in previous reply. I think that it would not be hard to implement also winTV6 like pause mode to the wintv7 if you set disk buffer to 0 minutes.

Mr X

17-06-2009, 08:09 PM

connie

18-06-2009, 07:00 PM

1. Number one on my list by a wide margin would be for Scheduler to recognize that my HVR 1600 Model 74021 is a combo tuner and allow me to schedule overlapping recordings.

2. I sometimes use another media player that has a feature whereby the user can select an area with the mouse and the selection will expand to fill the screen as completely as possible without distorting the proportions. A similar capability would be useful in WinTV for dealing with unnecessary letter/pillarboxing, for cropping off an annoying dotted line I see at the top of some broadcasts, and perhaps for the occasional closer look at some small, interesting detail.

3. EPG for the US. I imagine it's already on the someday list and understand that with a world-wide market, there are higher priorities, so thanks for the TitanTV support in the meantime.

Joonate

20-06-2009, 10:00 AM

it only starts to read from the pause buffer file when you press pause/rewind.

It sounds like you basically want a really large pause buffer right? So in your usage case, just set the value to a high number of minutes and it will work as you want, this will be as near to WinTv v6's behaviour for you.

WinTV v6's pause buffer was set to a maximum value (definable) also, so you couldn't just pause it forever either.

Basically I want that WintV7 not buffer to disk if I do not want it and start buffering only if I want to use pause mode, because when WinTV7 buffering continually to the disk it also slow performance of other open applications that reads or writes to the disk at the same time. Generally I watch tv and do some other things using same computer at the same time. Now implemented functionality limits usage of WinTV7.

There are also few bugs and feature requests that I notice:

Why WinTV 7 and FM radio applications do not work at the same time? If I watch TV and then start FM radio, WinTV7 freezes. Is this bug? I have HVR 1100.

It would be nice if Hauppauge implement new functionality to the WinTV7 what I now try to explain. I know that it should be possible to implement (no hardware limitations), because I know devices that have this functionality.

- Watch TV channel and record different channel within same transponder at the same time using one tuner.

Also why now WinTV7 settings not tell correctly audio channel language names? now it show like "Audio Stream #1", "Audio Stream #2", "Audio Stream #3" etc. It is sometimes hard to choose correct audio language. It also should show in popup menu generally more clearly what settings is selected etc., now it does not do that.

TheNewGuy

20-06-2009, 05:15 PM

Basically I want that WintV7 not buffer to disk if I do not want it and start buffering only if I want to use pause mode...Sorry, but we dont intend to go back to the old scheme used in WinTV6.

Why WinTV 7 and FM radio applications do not work at the same time? If I watch TV and then start FM radio, WinTV7 freezes. Is this bug? I have HVR 1100.The hardware isnt capable of doing FM Radio at the same time as live tv, so they apps cant be used at the same time.

At the moment we're just including the old FM Radio app with WinTV7 until we have built-in support for FM in the application. For now you just have to make sure you use one or the other, and not try to use both at the same time. You wont need to worry about this when its built-in.

It would be nice if Hauppauge implement new functionality to the WinTV7 what I now try to explain. I know that it should be possible to implement (no hardware limitations), because I know devices that have this functionality.

- Watch TV channel and record different channel within same transponder at the same time using one tuner.
This is possible, and we have discussed it internally, but its unlikely we'll add it in the near future. WinTV7 is only intended to be a basic application. We need it to be easy to use and understand. Adding this will confuse a lot of users (can only watch some channels, differing depending on whats recording), it'd make the application's internal structure more complicated, and will ultimately create support issues.

Advanced users need thing sort of feature can always look at third party apps.

Also why now WinTV7 settings not tell correctly audio channel language names? now it show like "Audio Stream #1", "Audio Stream #2", "Audio Stream #3" etc. It is sometimes hard to choose correct audio language. It also should show in popup menu generally more clearly what settings is selected etc., now it does not do that.This is on our to-do list. We havnt found time to do it yet though.

mazda_626

22-06-2009, 11:22 PM

i have posted this esomewhere else on the site, wrong forum though :rolleyes:
so lets see if i can actually post it in the right place this time :D

if anyone has the time, may i suggest a program for the hauppaugge remotes.
something similar to what the Z-board (keyboard) or logitec setpoint (mouse/keyboard) programs do.
so you have a picture for the choosen remote and if you click on a button on the picture, you can see what it does or change the command if you wish.
the chioce of comands could come from a predetermined drop down box (play, stop, ff, rew, etc) with an option for "custom" or "browse" so you can link a button to a program or folder if you choose.
once the program is established, maybe extend to macros, so record +1 dumps the recorded file into a specified file or sets the current channel to start recording in 1 hour. of course this would be getting toward the too hard basket.

might i also suggest each button displays the ir code so people with universal remotes may be able to program them in too.

As far as i know, there are three different remotes, there is a program for one of them so maybe that could be a starting point or just something to reffer to.

CapVi

25-06-2009, 06:05 PM

Add Mute when you put the right botton on mouse!
Thanks for all;)

Mr X

25-06-2009, 09:27 PM

when you right click where?

Right click brings up context menu at the moment

Mike64

25-06-2009, 09:41 PM

:confused:

Newbie of this forum...

IMHO WinTV7 is much better than 6, but I strongly miss an old feature: starting recording from live tv and set the timer (15 min through 4 hrs) just clicking again the button. Do you plan to implement this again in WinTV7? Is there any workaround to start recording from live tv and set a timer? I couldn't find any... TIA!

Apart from that, WinTV7 is really brilliant, good job dudes!

Mike

ATurnb

27-06-2009, 08:32 PM

I just like to say that having now used 1.1d for several weeks I can report that I'm very happy with the way it's working for me.

The weekly recording works great and recording the transport stream enables me to stream it directly to my Linux satellite box and onto my downstairs TV without having to use a VLC plug-in. This is a real plus for me over version 6.

My future requests if they haven't been asked already are:

1) On the scheduled recordings option can we have an end date option so that a weekly or repeated recording can end on a certain date or set the recording for a certain number of weeks or days? (i.e a series that lasts 10 weeks/days we could set the recording to run for 10 weeks/days, rather than forever as it is now.

2) Following on from 1) is of course the request for a Series Recording function so that a series can be recorded (even if the days of the series change). Is that possible?

Aside from that I'd like to say a big thank you for the work you've done.:)

Mr X

28-06-2009, 02:43 PM

glad your happy. #1 should already be possible, just select the end date from the calender.

#2 - Series link is logged as a feature request ( by me ;-) )

ATurnb

28-06-2009, 02:48 PM

glad your happy. #1 should already be possible, just select the end date from the calender.

#2 - Series link is logged as a feature request ( by me ;-) )

Doh!

Funny how you can look at something and not see it.

thebiggfella

28-06-2009, 08:24 PM

I've only been using WinTV for a few days and on first impressions it seem like a nice bit of kit. I've had look at the last few pages of this thread and couldn't see the following requests, so here's mine:

1. A fix to give the option which makes 'fill' the default for aspect ratio.

2. A small icon in the TV guide on a programme which is set to record would be good. I know that there is the 'pending recordings' tab but it would be nice to see at a glance in the TV guide what is set to record.

3. A fix which would allow the removal of the underscores in the file name of a recorded programme. It's just me, I don't like underscores!

4. In 'no title' view, an option to have the controls (the ones that are visible in 'normal' view) either hidden or visible in a panel at the bottom of the viewing window

5. Bookmarking so that the recording being watched starts from where it was stopped.

Thanks. Glynn.

Mike64

30-06-2009, 08:43 PM

TheNewGuy

30-06-2009, 08:48 PM

Newbie of this forum...

IMHO WinTV7 is much better than 6, but I strongly miss an old feature: starting recording from live tv and set the timer (15 min through 4 hrs) just clicking again the button. Do you plan to implement this again in WinTV7? Is there any workaround to start recording from live tv and set a timer? I couldn't find any... TIA!

Apart from that, WinTV7 is really brilliant, good job dudes!

MikeNo comments about this feature request? No available workarounds?

MikeThe request has come up earlier in this thread, before you asked for it.

We do intend to add something like this but we havnt yet decided what release it'll be included in.

Mike64

01-07-2009, 09:02 PM

The request has come up earlier in this thread, before you asked for it.

We do intend to add something like this but we havnt yet decided what release it'll be included in.

Thanks TheNewGuy fya, I must wait then. :o

Could you kindly suggest any workarounds and/or command lines to schedule stopping a record session, once started by the UI?

Mike

TheNewGuy

01-07-2009, 09:17 PM

Could you kindly suggest any workarounds and/or command lines to schedule stopping a record session, once started by the UI?When you schedule a recording, you specify the start/end times. If you want to stop prior to the end time you specified, you can stop it early in scheduler screen, or by right clicking on the recording in system tray and selecting 'cancel' from the context menu.

When you do an 'instant record' (ie click the record button in live tv), then it'll record until you hit the record button again, or click the stop button.

RobAnt

02-07-2009, 10:06 AM

Doh!

Funny how you can look at something and not see it.In my experience, that needs fixing. Mine doesn't stop recording on the end date at all.

Mike64

02-07-2009, 11:54 AM

When you schedule a recording, you specify the start/end times. If you want to stop prior to the end time you specified, you can stop it early in scheduler screen, or by right clicking on the recording in system tray and selecting 'cancel' from the context menu.

When you do an 'instant record' (ie click the record button in live tv), then it'll record until you hit the record button again, or click the stop button.

Thanks again , TheNewGuy, but I meant something different. If I start an instant record, can I somehow schedule record stopping after some time?

TIA

Mike

TheNewGuy

02-07-2009, 03:54 PM

Thanks again , TheNewGuy, but I meant something different. If I start an instant record, can I somehow schedule record stopping after some time?There is no concept of an end time on a instant record, so you pretty much have to manually stop it. If you want record for a certain amount of time, then for now you need to do a scheduled recording instead.

Mike64

02-07-2009, 06:24 PM

There is no concept of an end time on a instant record, so you pretty much have to manually stop it. If you want record for a certain amount of time, then for now you need to do a scheduled recording instead.

Thanks again, I must be patient then....

thebiggfella

03-07-2009, 07:24 PM