Standby and Guide Updates / Fixes

Started by philzgr8, July 19, 2006, 09:24:21 AM

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BJReplay

Hi Marc,

The intention wasn't to wake every 5 minutes to update PIMP, but rather, only if a recording request is scheduled by a user via the PIMP server, and the server detects that the device has not picked up the request (say) 15 minutes before the scheduled start time of the request, that it then sends a WOL packet to wake up the HTPC.

That way the PC gets to sleep, until it wakes up to record something it already knows about, or the PIMP server knows it needs to be woken up to be told about a recording that it doesn't yet have scheduled.

It gives you the best of both worlds - PIMP for last minute "I want to record this" requests, but the HTPC sleeping when not required.

philzgr8

Sorry to bring this thread back on topic guys but I think I need to restate the original question in a different way. From my observations it seems that guide updates and fixes cause the machine to automatically come out of standby while PIMP updates only occur while the machine is awake. If that is correct then I would assume that the PIMP updates could be safely set to 5 minute intervals and they would likely occur when the machine wakes to update the guide.

Is that the way it works?

Shane

Phil,

The last 4 or 5 posts have actually been right on topic.

PIMP does as you state - it will update when the machine is "awake". The problem is if your machine only wakes to record programs that it already has in it's guide, or when the guide needs to update, you lose one of the best features of PIMP, the "last minute recording" from anywhere (via phone or web).

This is because the client needs to connect to the server as regularly as possible to pull down the latest programs you want it to record. If the machine is off and you ask PIMP to record something - more than likely it won't record as the PIMP client won't be able to update MCE.

With the WOL functionality BJ is talking about, it may actually be possible for your machine to be asleep, and the PIMP server (ie at IceTV's premises) wakes your computer up to allow the PIMP client to connect, and therefore grab that "last minute recording".

Here's hoping the WOL capability as described by BJ is a feasible option.

Regards,
Shane.
Shuttle SB83G5M (P4 630 nVidia 6600) running Vista Premium with:
Hauppauge Nova-T 500 MCE Tuner|Ice TV Guide|PIMP|Buffalo LinkStation HD-H160LAN & HD-HG300LAN|Xbox 360 MCE

BJReplay

Quote from: Shane on July 28, 2006, 06:40:36 PM
Here's hoping the WOL capability as described by BJ is a feasible option.

Yeah, I hope so - I'm hoping DB can come to the rescue here (Peter as you know, I'm happy to help off line).

Otherwise I'll have to hack someone else's work and create QuickWOLâ,,¢!

Quote from: philzgr8 on July 28, 2006, 11:39:40 AM
Sorry to bring this thread back on topic guys but I think I need to restate the original question in a different way. From my observations it seems that guide updates and fixes cause the machine to automatically come out of standby while PIMP updates only occur while the machine is awake. If that is correct then I would assume that the PIMP updates could be safely set to 5 minute intervals and they would likely occur when the machine wakes to update the guide.

Is that the way it works?

Phil, your understanding is correct.  I haven't personally observed my HTPC waking up to do a guide update - I have, infact, observed my dev PC doing a guide update 'late' after I manually wake it up - so I suspect that MCE natively doesn't wake up to do a guide update, though PIMP might.

But, in summary, if PIMP is set for five minute updates - and anything wakes up the PC, PIMP will be able to update.

However, my HTPC isn't reliably sleeping any more.  I haven't bothered to see if it is PIMP keeping it awake, or the fact that the mobo died and I did a mobo transplant without a re-install.  One possibility is, however, that PIMP might keep your PC from sleeping if five minute updates are more frequent than the standby/hibernate timeout.

On the chance that PIMP was keeping the HTPC awake, I've set the update to 20 minutes (Standby is set to 15 minutes), and it seems to have allowed the HTPC to go to sleep.

Now, lets get back OT.  Peter, Doug, any comments on WOL?

philzgr8

With the benefit of a bit of time over the weekend I find that the PC is definitely waking to do the guide updates and I suspect the guide fixes too. It clearly is not waking every 5 minutes to do the PIMP update but I am finding that pimp is causing some kind of problem once or twice a week where by the time I get to it there are about 40 or 50 error dialogs on the screen. I haven't had time to document them yet because my kids were over on the weekend and they wanted to watch something at the time but I have found that when it happens there are so many error dialogs that the only reasonable way to fix it is to press the reset button... not ideal! When I see it again I'll try to document the error and post in a new thread.