RS Sleep-Record-sleep OK, little bug / improvement

[phax]

Hallo,

 

I would like to report how I set up my HTPC for (almost) perfect sleep-wakeup-record-sleep cycling ON WINDOWS 7, just in case someone is struggling with the same set-up.

 

I also report what in my opinion could be a small bug or enhancement request for the Recording Service.

 

1. The Case

Stand-alone HTPC, only OCCASIONALLY used as a streaming or TV server, mostly as proper TV/mediacenter box in living room. The HTPC is custom built, based on Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-UD2H motherboard, has a Skystar HD 2 tuner, Windows MCE remote. It runs W7 Ultimate (still the RC)

SW: DVBViewer 4.2.1.0 and Recording Service Beta 1.5.0.60, MCE RC plug-in.

 

The behaviour I expect is this:

- hit power on box or RC whilst watching TV -> Sleep (at least to S3)

- hit again power on box or RC -> wake up and resume TV

- program a recording later, sleep the box -> Sleeps

- later, box wakes up from sleep alone, records the show, goes back to sleep.

on old XP set-ups, we used to do this (huge kludge) with DVBViewer Scheduler and some tricks

no longer working on VISTA / W7 becaused of OS changes (W7/Vista no longer allow apps to suspend sleep / shutdown to get the time to program the wake-up timers)

 

2. The Set-Up

The desired behaviour can be obtained using DVBViewer + Recording Service ON THE SAME PC, but requires some tweaking.

 

First, install DVBViewer without the service, and get it to run properly. Do NOT use DVBViewer Scheduler. Remove it from startup folder, stop it from running, etc.

 

From Control panel, set the button behaviour to SLEEP the PC on power button. You can program a Remote Control and the actions in DVBViewer to obtain the same result. With a Win MCE RC, you do NOT need any programming in DVBViewer, because W7 will pick up the RC button itself and sleep or wake up the PC as needed. Beautiful.

 

If all is well, and you have a modern PC and good TV card drivers, at this point you may even be able to sleep and wake-up the PC with DVBViewer TV running. On my box this works! The PC takes 3s to sleep and 7..8s max before I have TV back on a wake up. This is a GREAT improvement on old XP installs and better than many sat receivers around.

 

Next, Install Recording Service exactly as indicated on the Wiki (see http://de.DVBViewer.tv/wiki/Recording_Service or the English translation). A later RS beta version (e.g. 1.5.0.60) can be overlayed over the last full-package install of RS after stopping the service from the PC management console.

 

For the occasional remote streaming and for Web control usage, your PC's firewall must be opened. This is really easy in Win7. There is no need to set up individual ports, you can simply create an inbound rule for allowing ALL connections to the APPLICATION DVBViewer Recording Service.

The firewall is in control panel -> System and Security -> Windows Firewall

 

Now test local usage. Test remote Web access and streaming. Everything should work.

Now test sleeping the box (hit power button) whilst watching TV. You will notice this NO LONGER WORKS as expected after you installed RS and set DVBViewer to work with the RS. Now the PC turns off the screen but otherwise stays awake. This is a new status in W7 and it's called the AWAY mode.

 

What happens is the RS thinks it's acting as a server and it should NOT let the box sleep if it's serving TV to a client, even if it's on the same box. RS (or W7 on its behalf) puts the HTPC to the lowest ' active ' mode instead. This is NOT what we want for a stand-alone box (RS and client on the same PC)

 

** IF ** you are primarily watching TV on this one PC, you can fix the behaviour as follows:

Go to control panel -> hardware and sound -> power options. I recommend to CREATE a POWER PLAN, based on 'Balanced', then go in and Change the plan, then select Change advanced Power Settings.

 

In the advanced Power Settings, select Sleep -> Allow Away Mode Policy and set it to NO. Activate the modified plan and retry to Sleep the PC while watching TV. Now it should just Sleep, as it did before we installed the RS.

 

Test programming a timer, sleeping the PC and check it back later. It should wake up, record, and go back to sleep exactly as expected.

 

This is OK for the shown scenario, but it is of course potentially damaging in other situations, like the occasional streaming to another PC or a recording running in the RS when you sleep the box.

 

3. THE BUG / Enhancement Request:

For general safe operation of RS in recording or streaming to another PC/client, we need to leave the AWAY mode policy ON. However, it would be good if the RS could allow a NORMAL SLEEP instead ** IF ** there are no recordings running, AND the only client connected (if any) is on the local PC. I don't know if this can be programmed in the RS, but it's the only way I can think of to get back the expected behaviour and still have safe operation.

 

I hope this helps.

[raty]

This behaviour was the same when using Vista. Its a real pain. My PVR is used for almost everything and I use Away mode alot but find I always have to terminate the viewer prior to power off (S3). What is also annoying is that you can not use the web-browser remotely as the PC enters sleep whilst still being used. I think there are a few sleep related issues that need to be looked at if possible.

[nicx]

hi phax,

 

this is exactly my experience with recording service and standby, in i wish this "feature" could be changed.

 

nicx...

[Matti Hanni]

First, sorry my poor english.

 

My platform is: win 7, 32bit, dvbv. beta 4.3.1.90 and dvb service 1.5.0.87.

Win 7 dos'nt wake to record a recorded program.

 

What is wrong?

 

Only chepter in first message what I don't understand was: Do NOT use DVBViewer Scheduler

How I disable it?

 

When I have win xp -platform, same computer parts I don't have eny problems, when I updated win 7, system does'nt waku up record programs.

 

Thanks anyway!

[Lars_MQ]

check the energy setting of windows (consult windows manual for it).

[Matti Hanni]

check the energy setting of windows (consult windows manual for it).

 

Can´t find any help there. I can´t find DVBViewer Scheduler or that settings anywhere.

 

Please help, thanks!

[Kommakul]

I second the feature request, that RS should not prevent sleep when the only client is the local one, and no recordings (either in RS or DVBV).

 

Hoping that it will reach your improvement list.

 

Regards.

Christian

[raty]

To resolve this for VISTA/Windows 7 it just needs a:

 

SetThreadExecutionState(ES_CONTINUOUS|ES_SYSTEM_REQUIRED|ES_AWAYMODE_REQUIRED);

 

Once a connection is made to RS and then a:

 

SetThreadExecutionState(ES_CONTINUOUS);

 

When the connection is removed.

 

I think that the PM stuff is coded as expected in XP but missing a bit for VISTA>?