DV Scheduler and issues with auto-add exclusions

[Dencorub]

Hi All,

I am using DV Scheduler as my main HTPC DVB recording application. I have been using it for years, but recently have run into issues.

For some odd reason, scheduled recordings are being added to the exclusions list the instant they are due to start recording.

It's not all recordings that do this, though.

I can't find anything in the logs to tell me why the recording failed.

I can't seem to find a way to increase logging.

Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening?

Running Windows 11.

Any help is appreciated.

[hydra3333]

Sorry, can't help you with his this apparently long-discontinued (since 2016?) software.

There's what may perhaps be an equivalent (or not) which is still developed and works really really well - TV Scheduler Pro
https://www.videohelp.com/software/DVB-Web-Scheduler (actually TV Scheduler Pro)

TV Scheduler Pro is a state of the art Digital TV application for scheduling recordings of Digital TV and Digital Radio (Terrestrial and Satellite) broadcasts, using one or more DVB tuner devices. TV Scheduler Pro runs as a service on your computer, you interact with TV Scheduler Pro using the fully functional Web interface in your favourite Web Browser. Because TV Scheduler Pro uses the widely accepted HTTP protocol for delivering the Web interface to your browser you can access and control the Scheduler from anywhere on your home network or, if you have Internet access, anywhere in the world. Requires JAVA (installed or standalone in a local folder) !

https://sourceforge.net/projects/tvschedulerpro/
https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/users/

It's free. Hope that helps.

Cheers

[Dencorub]

There's what may perhaps be an equivalent (or not) which is still developed and works really really well - TV Scheduler Pro

Thanks for that. Do you know if TV Scheduler Pro can record multiple streams using just 1 tuner?

We have 5 broadcasters here in Australia, with each having a number of channels available. For example, we have a broadcaster called Nine. They have channels Nine, Gem, and Go!

DV Scheduler allows me to record all the channels of a broadcaster using only 1 tuner. This means, with my 3 dual tuner cards, I can actually record every single free-to-air channel, and still have 1 tuner left to watch something live.

It's one of the reasons I have stuck with DV Scheduler.

[hydra3333]

Thanks for that. Do you know if TV Scheduler Pro can record multiple streams using just 1 tuner?

I have 2x hauppauge pcie Quad cards in a PC (i.e. 8 tuners) and it happily records all from all 8 tuners simultaneously. The PC is several years old, moderately spec'd (2 core) but with sufficient bus bandwidth (and memory speed) to handle it.
/rant/Having said that I now very very rarely watch any TV, and usually only record the footy for timeshifted viewing; streaming services seem much better with semi-watchable content on demand and I really really hate TV channels' moves to "fake" live content and overly emotive lowest-common-denominator shows ... script writers get actors to portray making decisions which no rational person would make and still show girls (and increasingly boys) tripping over when chased by a baddie who doesn't trip over ... /end rant/

We have 5 broadcasters here in Australia, with each having a number of channels available. For example, we have a broadcaster called Nine. They have channels Nine, Gem, and Go!

I'm in an a ACST timezone so I know (if not love) those channels content.

DV Scheduler allows me to record all the channels of a broadcaster using only 1 tuner. This means, with my 3 dual tuner cards, I can actually record every single free-to-air channel, and still have 1 tuner left to watch something live.

Yes, TVSP calls such a "mux" for each channel, similar applies.
I'm a tad less needy and prefer recording individual programmes vs a mux or two.
IIRC, it is possible that TVSP is a descendent or antecedent or relative of DV Scheduler; then again perhaps not and I may be thinking of the tool associated with the seeming-nearly-defunct DigitalNow website.

It's one of the reasons I have stuck with DV Scheduler.

Agreed, there's nothing which compares to the ease of use ("it just works") of something like TVSP.
I subscribe to the (perfectly legal) "ICE TV" service for AU channel programme data for TVSP to collect nightly, well worth the couple of bikkies a month.
I don't install java runtime, either, so go with downloading the recommended zip and unpacking that into the separate folder ... less versioning hassles in the long run.
The TVSP author is really cool with questions and informative answers and advice in the forum, too.

have 1 tuner left to watch something live.

I have as yet not found a free tool I like for simultaneous watching whilst TVSP does it thing.
Can you please advise what you use for watching and any relevant advice on configuring it ? Ta.

[Dencorub]

Yes, TVSP calls such a "mux" for each channel, similar applies.
I'm a tad less needy and prefer recording individual programmes vs a mux or two.

DV Scheduler can also do the mux thing, but can also spit out individual files for each channel. messing around to get a final result is not somewhere I wanna go ...

I have as yet not found a free tool I like for simultaneous watching whilst TVSP does it thing.
Can you please advise what you use for watching and any relevant advice on configuring it ? Ta.

We use Windows Media Centre. We give it a tuner for it's exclusive use. Quite a bit of messing around to get it working, but once done, it works great.

On occasion it fails to find it's tuner, or tells us it's in use. I wrote a little program that launched VLC and sets to a chosen channel. It reads in the EPG data we get from EPGScan so you can see what's on now, and what is on next. It lets us select a different tuner as well.

[hydra3333]

DV Scheduler can also do the mux thing, but can also spit out individual files for each channel. messing around to get a final result is not somewhere I wanna go ...

Cool, I shuddered when I typed that ... not being sure if TVSP did the split thing.
Ah, it got it the wrong way around the TS Mux is a single stream eg 9Go.

Capture Types
The following file capture types are available.
Full TS	The full transport stream (all pids that are transmitted, just dumps the received stream to disk)
DVR-MS	This is the new DVR capture format from Microsoft
TS mux	A basic Transport stream with just the packets from the video and audio streams you are interested in

Not altogether sure whether "Full TS" style captures are your bestest option ... each to their own ...
per the TVSP main interface (screen grab attached) one can click on a programme and say yes to the prompt to record and these show up with a yellow stripe (with a configurable recording overlap time) as pending, just record only the things you want to watch later (in their native broadcast format eg h.264/aac in a .TS container) saving disk space and other PC resources ...

[Dencorub]

Cool, I shuddered when I typed that ... not being sure if TVSP did the split thing.
Ah, it got it the wrong way around the TS Mux is a single stream eg 9Go.

This is a basic requirement of any recording package. DV Scheduler does this, but the feature I like is that it can record 9Go and GEM, but only use 1 tuner. I had looked at several other options, and they didn't do this.

Not altogether sure whether "Full TS" style captures are your bestest option ... each to their own ...

If it can't do the above, this is an alternative, but far to much messing about to get the streams out.

per the TVSP main interface (screen grab attached) one can click on a programme and say yes to the prompt to record and these show up with a yellow stripe (with a configurable recording overlap time) as pending, just record only the things you want to watch later (in their native format eg h.264/aac in a .TS container) saving disk space and other PC resources ...

Yeah. You mentions before the heritage of the 2 programs. I'm not sure either, but they both have the same feel and look, which is a plus when you have old people interacting with it.

[hydra3333]

old people ... he he, that's us.
I'm not sure if it uses the 1 tuner for 2 or more concurrent programme recordings from various streams in the one channel's mux.
I wouldn't necessarily assume it doesn't given the apparent software heritage.
You could ask the author over in https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/users/ and hope for the best ... if it does then you'd be using supported software again

edit: https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/users/thread/6116074e54/

[hydra3333]

OK an answer from the developer:

https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/users/thread/6116074e54/#6c8d

John Calvi. - 3 hours ago
TVSP has producers and consumers. When a capture is started a producer locks to the channel and hands data (memory share) to a consumer that will write the data to a file. The data written depends on whether its a partial or full mux. A partial is a single sub-channel and a full mux is all the sub-channels on that frequency. You can choose to record all of a frequency in one file or multiple separate files, or just one sub-channel.
For example in Australia ABC TV is a sub channel and ABC HD, ABC Kids, ABC Me etc. are all sub channels of the ABC frequency.
If another sub-channel is scheduled to be recorded and it is on the same parent channel then another consumer is started and gets its data from the same producer.
Long story short only a single capture card is required to support multiple captures if they are on the same frequency and multiple files can be created, no need to save a full ts-mux.
Feel free to pass this along to the other forum.

[Dencorub]

OK an answer from the developer:

John Calvi. - 3 hours ago
Long story short only a single capture card is required to support multiple captures if they are on the same frequency and multiple files can be created, no need to save a full ts-mux.

Thanks for this. Sounds just like the way DV Scheduler works.

I wonder how hard it is to import my settings, especially all my auto-add shows.

Will have a look and see how we go.

[hydra3333]

Will have a look and see how we go.

Had a chance to look at it yet ? Interested to see how you went.

[Dencorub]

Had a chance to look at it yet ? Interested to see how you went.

Hopefully I'll find some time this weekend.

[Dencorub]

Spent some time today ...

First, let me say that the following issues may well be settings and misunderstandings, so I'm prepared to try things out.

Right from the start, I was a bit baffled as to why I couldn't just use the standard Java x64 runtime. Installed the option provided, uninstalled other Java, and TV Scheduler Pro installed. I had standard Java x64 and x86 (required for DV Scheduler). Had to uninstall the x64 version, and did the x86 version as well. Then realised I needed the x86 version. Will be a bit of a pain not being able to run both.

Tried loading a settings backup from DV Scheduler, and it loaded TV channels, but nothing else. Disappointing, but not unexpected. This, of course, means manually adding all the auto-add recordings manually. What a pain in the butt ...
[EDIT] Will see how much of a difference there is, and if it's possible to write a simple translator.

Went to add my tuners. Was presented with the 6 tuners in my system. Great. Added the first 5. All the same name. Can't seem to find a way to rename them, and using the hardware ID's is not really a nice option.Being able to rename these would be great.

Went to reload my xmltv data, for which I use EPGScan to pull from the TV signal, and it just errors out, and loads nothing. Happy to ditch it for a more modern program that can do this, but I would have thought xmltv files ought to be standard.
[Edit] Fixed this with help from the author. Blank station names caused it to barf!

At this point I decided to just go back to DV Scheduler for the time being. Re-installed Java, and it's all running.

Not sure if the version of Java the TV Scheduler Pro wants is compatible with java x86. Will see next time I sit and have a play.
[EDIT] This works fine.

[EDIT] At this point things are progressing, but I've come across a few things that DV Scheduler does way better. Will make up a list and post them in the forums in one post.

[hydra3333]

Cool.

Re Java, please note item 2 in this explanation:
https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/users/thread/69d5ad767a/
... I use a standalone x64 JRE in the nominated TVSP subfolder so as to definitively eliminate all JRE version dependencies/incompatibilities with everything else on the PC. It makes TVSP "standalone" (yes, apart from the TVSP service), which I happen to like as a concept.

The relevant JRE version's .zip, per the release notes, can be downloaded as noted here:
https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/users/thread/69d5ad767a/#230b

Cheers

[hydra3333]

Been following your EPG thread over at the TVSP discussion forum, interesting.

I wrote a little program that launched VLC and sets to a chosen channel. It reads in the EPG data we get from EPGScan so you can see what's on now, and what is on next. It lets us select a different tuner as well.

Just wondering, would you be able to post the program and process ?

I know SafeXMLTV exists but have not given it a thorough going over.
https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/safexmltv/
and
https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/safexmltv/thread/298be0ad42/#f896

Multiple Source XMLTV Downloader.

This is a project I have developed to improve the reliability of EPG data.
The package creates a new guide using the best items from multiple sources.
It does this based on the data in the Webscheduler Matchlist first, then prioritises by
SubTitle and Length of Description building a composite guide containing the most
possible matchlist matches, most sub-titles and longest descriptions given a range
of source guides.
Also sets repeat flags based on previous recordings.

The complete package is available from.......

and then there's the "Free Australian XML TV Electronic Program Guide (EPG)"
https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/safexmltv/thread/298be0ad42/#cc71

In searching for ways to fix it, I came across this source for EPG data what is working well so far.
http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Adelaide.xml

There are files for all the regions.

https://www.xmltv.net/ and https://www.xmltv.net/forum/

Free Australian XML TV Electronic Program Guide (EPG)
The guide generally will be updated daily and contain 7 days but may occasionally fall short.
To use the XML just cut and paste the below link for your locations into the “XMLTV Guide” location during DVR setup.

Adelaide – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Adelaide.xml
Albany – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Albany.xml
Albury / Wodonga – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Albury_Wodonga.xml
Ballarat – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Ballarat.xml
Bendigo – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Bendigo.xml
Brisbane – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Brisbane.xml
Broken Hill – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Broken_Hill.xml
Bunbury – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Bunbury.xml
Cairns – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Cairns.xml
Canberra – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Canberra.xml
Central Coast NSW – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Central_Coast.xml
Coffs Harbour – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Coffs_Harbour.xml
Darwin – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Darwin.xml
Geelong – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Geelong.xml
Gippsland – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Gippsland.xml
Gold Coast – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Goldcoast.xml
Griffith – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Griffith.xml
Hobart – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Hobart.xml
Jurien Bay – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Jurien_Bay.xml
Launceston – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Launceston.xml
Lismore – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Lismore.xml
Mackay – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Mackay.xml
Mandurah – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Mandurah.xml
Melbourne – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Melbourne.xml
Mildura/Sunraysia – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Mildura_Sunraysia.xml
Newcastle – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Newcastle.xml
NSW Regional – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Remote_Central.xml
NT Regional – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/NT_Regional.xml
Orange – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Orange_Dubbo.xml
Perth – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Perth.xml
Port Augusta – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Port_Augusta.xml
Renmark – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Renmark.xml
Riverland – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Riverland.xml
QLD Regional – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/QLD_Regional.xml
Rockhampton – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Rockhampton.xml
S.A. Regional – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/SA_Regional.xml
Shepperaton – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Shepparton.xml
South Coast NSW – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/South_Coast.xml
South East S.A. – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/South_East_SA.xml
Spencer Gulf – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Spencer_Gulf.xml
Sunshine Coast – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Sunshine_Coast.xml
Sydney – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Sydney.xml
Tamworth – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Tamworth.xml
Taree /Port Macquarie – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Taree_Port_Macquarie.xml
Tasmania Regional – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/TAS_Regional.xml
Toowoomba – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Toowoomba.xml
Townsville – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Townsville.xml
W.A. Regional – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/WA_Regional.xml
Wagga Wagga – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Wagga_Wagga.xml
Wide Bay – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Wide_Bay.xml
Wollongong – http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Wollongong.xml

Cheers

[Dencorub]

Been following your EPG thread over at the TVSP discussion forum, interesting.

I wrote a little program to fix the issue ... spent an hour or so getting it right, and then the author goes and releases a fixed version

Pretty impressive response.

Just wondering, would you be able to post the program and process ?

Sure. It's written in AutoIT, and is pretty specific to me, with limited channels, but with a bit of commenting, it shouldn't be too hard to make it work for everyone.

I'll clean it up a bit and release it.

I know SafeXMLTV exists but have not given it a thorough going over.

I once paid for an XMLTV program with a donation, but then upgraded my PC, and they wanted more, then it seemed to become flakey, so I gave up and found EPGScan.

There are occasionally issues with EPG supplied, but it's served me well for 10+ years now.

[hydra3333]

I once paid for an XMLTV program with a donation, but then upgraded my PC, and they wanted more, then it seemed to become flakey, so I gave up and found EPGScan.

There are occasionally issues with EPG supplied, but it's served me well for 10+ years now.

Good oh.

I use "ICE TV" service, it's $4 a month and they respond and fix very rare anomalies quickly.
At the time, having undergone "issues" with sources, I found something reasonably curated and affordable did it for me.
Didn't try https://www.xmltv.net/ although am tempted due to it's cost of $0
Having said that, you can't beat roll-your-own free unless you're lazy like me

edit:
ooh, https://www.autoitscript.com/site/ nice, thanks for that.

[Dencorub]

I use "ICE TV" service, it's $4 a month and they respond and fix very rare anomalies quickly.
At the time, having undergone "issues" with sources, I found something reasonably curated and affordable did it for me.
Didn't try https://www.xmltv.net/ although am tempted due to it's cost of $0
Having said that, you can't beat roll-your-own free unless you're lazy like me

Paid once and got bit. Mind you, it wasn't very much, but when I got zero response to my queries, there was no way they were getting more money!

edit:
ooh, https://www.autoitscript.com/site/ nice, thanks for that.

Very BASIC like structure, and a good support forum that can (mostly) solve problems.

[Dencorub]

In searching for ways to fix it, I came across this source for EPG data what is working well so far.
http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Adelaide.xml

There are files for all the regions.

I downloaded this for my region, but it is using something different for channel ID's, and VLC uses the basic 4 digit PID for channels to play. Not sure if that would work without an extra layer of coding.

[hydra3333]

In searching for ways to fix it, I came across this source for EPG data what is working well so far.
http://xmltv.net/xml_files/Adelaide.xml

There are files for all the regions.

I downloaded this for my region, but it is using something different for channel ID's, and VLC uses the basic 4 digit PID for channels to play. Not sure if that would work without an extra layer of coding.

OK. That was a quote from the TVSP Author so I assumed it worked OK in TVSP, at least back then ... I'm not sure what's going on with it if it's an issue now.

Cheers

[Dencorub]

OK. That was a quote from the TVSP Author so I assumed it worked OK in TVSP, at least back then ... I'm not sure what's going on with it if it's an issue now.

Not saying it's not working in TVSP.

Just that it's a different format than what EPGScan producers, which means a whole other layer of coding to handle it.

[Dencorub]

Re Java, please note item 2 in this explanation:
https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/users/thread/69d5ad767a/
... I use a standalone x64 JRE in the nominated TVSP subfolder so as to definitively eliminate all JRE version dependencies/incompatibilities with everything else on the PC. It makes TVSP "standalone" (yes, apart from the TVSP service), which I happen to like as a concept.

The relevant JRE version's .zip, per the release notes, can be downloaded as noted here:
https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/users/thread/69d5ad767a/#230b

So ... I had TVSP installed and running, and then re-installed Java 32 bit so DV Scheduler would also run. They worked happily together. Went to install the update to 297, and it tells me I have to uninstall the version of Java I had, despite having it's version already installed.

This could get really very annoying for people that have to have the a different version of Java running, having to uninstall it just to update TVSP. I get the wish to try to keep it as clean as possible, but this seems silly, especially when TVSP works just fine if you install Java after installing TVSP.

[hydra3333]

Well, I avoid such issues by using an x64 standalone (non-installed) Java JRE which is specific to and used only by TVSP.

Per https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/418023-DV-Scheduler-and-issues-with-auto-add-exclu...ns#post2772993
If you extract the JRE from the correct zip into the correct sub-folder of TVSP, then no java installation is necessary for TVSP as it will use the standalone you extracted.

quote slightly modified for clarity

OR if you have downloaded the zip version of the Java JRE as specified in the release notes and you prefer it to be all one part of TVSP and independent of any and all system-installed Java JRE ...
2. Extract it to C:\Program Files\TV Scheduler Pro\jre, (or wherever you have installed TVSP, the installer will edit the wrapper.conf automatically).

Then (re)Install TV Scheduler Pro (if this is the first time setting up a standalone JRE), it should install and see and startup and use the extracted JRE rather than any system installed JRE.

Note: DO NOT have both a 32 and 64 bit version of JAVA on your system using the alternative environment path method (which is NOT this standalone JRE method).

e.g. I have my Java JRE extracted into "C:\TV Scheduler Pro\JRE" since I install TVSP into "C:\TV Scheduler Pro".
Be sure to set protections on the folder tree to everyone Full Access to head off the usual potential issues.

The relevant JRE version's .zip, per the release notes, can be downloaded as noted here:
https://sourceforge.net/p/tvschedulerpro/discussion/users/thread/69d5ad767a/#230b
i.e. from https://adoptium.net/temurin/releases

Much much cleaner.

When it comes time to upgrade TVSP to a new version:
1. stop all relevant TVSP processes eg wrapper.exe tray.exe etc
2. download and extract the relevant JRE if there is a new one, over the top of the old one
3. install the new TVSP over the top of the old one
4. reboot the PC (strictly speaking perhaps not necessary, but hey having worked in IT for several decades "have you tried turning it off and on again" gets a lot of loved mileage)

Hope that helps

[Dencorub]

Hope that helps

You're missing the point. TVSP will not proceed with it's install if it find an existing Java install that's not the one it wants.

This means if I have standard Java installed for other applications, I have to mess around just to install TVSP.

That seems odd ...

[hydra3333]

Oh.
Have you tried creating the root folder(s) and extracting the JRE into the JRE subfolder before installing TVSP ? (uninstalling tvsp if it's already present).
The readme suggests that'd work.
If you've already done that, perhaps post on the TVSP support forum ?
Cheers

[Dencorub]

Oh.
Have you tried creating the root folder(s) and extracting the JRE into the JRE subfolder before installing TVSP ? (uninstalling tvsp if it's already present).
The readme suggests that'd work.
If you've already done that, perhaps post on the TVSP support forum ?
Cheers

It's not a huge problem for me, I just think it's odd that an author would put code into their app forcing people to uninstall other software, especially when that other software actually runs fine.

In all the installs of Java I have ever done, I've not done any special configuration, so uninstalling and then reinstalling probably wouldn't hurt, just annoying.

As I said, odd ...