andy vt's tools & blog

DOWNLOAD HAS MOVED HERE

Hi everyone,

I have rewritten this post to reflect the final version of my profile. There is not much more that I can do to it because it's all that is really needed.

A special thanks goes out to Andy who helped develop this script and mikinho who built the DeleteWTV. I should have thanked them sooner. I have a newborn baby and these instructions were important to get written and I forgot to thank the people that made this possible.

I am going to start right off with the instructions, there is much more sense in typing instructions than a history of why this needs to be done.

Prerequisites:
Windows 7 Build 7057 or 7077 or higher.

• This DOES NOT include 7048 or 7068; the WTV Converters in those builds we extremely buggy and "gave up" on shows not producing a DVR-MS file or a partial show.

• If you have a second computer that's got a newer version of Windows 7, you can copy it from your newer computer ONLY AFTER you take ownership and give yourself "full control"

Win7DTBAddin. You need this if you want to automatically commercial skip.

• This is only available on Early Access. I will come out with a secondary script that will rip the commercials out for those of you who don't have early access. This would script would be something like a "LifeExtender"

• If you don't have "Early Access", or can't get the DTBAddin to work, please follow the instuctions in "v1.5 of AButtino's DVR-MS SpaceSaver"

Place ALL commercial XML's in Recorded TV directory

• This is beyond important. One of my testers didn't have any luck with the add-in until he placed the XML's into the same directory as it's DVR-MS counterpart. 2 weeks alone figuring that problem out.

Instructions:

Attached to this post is a ZIP file that you need to download and extract.

Once extracted, you need to copy the the DPC files to your DVRMSToolbox\Profiles in your program directory.

After these files are copied, you can open DVRMSToolboxSettings. Scroll down to the bottom of the profile window and you will see my profiles.

The instructions as follows is for both profiles.

First you need to create a create a folder on a seperate HD called "Processing Show. Example below:

C:\ProcessingShow


It doesn't need to be the C: drive but I suggest you do have it on a separate HD.

Next you can edit the "v4.0 Final of AButtino's WTV to DVR-MS Converter for FW". Edit the 3rd line in the profile if you created the folders on another drive than D:.

The next thing you will need to do is configure Filewatcher and the add-in.

 

Filewatcher tab:

1. "Watched Directories" needs to be your "Recorded TV" directory
2. "Wait Time" needs to be 0 or greater
3. "Watched Ext" needs to include .dvr-ms and .wtv with commas after them ".dvr-ms,.wtv"
4. "Video Ext." needs to Include ".WTV"
5. Check: Log Create, Log Poll, Log Delete, Automatic Cleanup and Log Write, and Include watched folders. DO NOT Check Queue on Update, EVER.

MC Addin tab:

1. "Process Profile" needs to be "Do Nothing"

Commercial Skip tab:

1. Commercial path needs to be your recorded tv directory. There are no exceptions to this. ALL XML's need to be created there.
2. Check Autoskip, Reload Settings

Processing Tab:

1. Delay Processing needs to be set to ignore.

Save the settings at the bottom of the window and the settings window will close.


The next set of instructions will involve the creation of the WTV Condition and setting it to use my filewatcher profile, then setting DVR-MS files to use my Find Commercials profile. If you have already done this or already know how to do it, then all you have to do is restart your computer and you are all set to skip commercials worry free.

Open ProcessingConditionEditor

1. Click on "New Condition"
2. In the Description field, fill in WTV Files
3. Under that, there is a dropdown, select "v4.0 Final of AButtino's WTV to DVR-MS Converter for FW"
4. Click on "Add". A new window will come up with 2 dropdowns. In the left dropdown, select "FileExt". The center dropdown should remain at "Contain" and fill the field in with ".wtv" (without the quotes). Save that condition and move it to the top by using "Raise Priority".

Most people have a condition for DVR-MS files called "Every file". You can now delete that. You don't need a DVR-MS condition any longer.

Again, If you don't have "Early Access", or can't get the DTBAddin to work, please follow the instuctions in "v1.5 of AButtino's DVR-MS SpaceSaver"

The DVRMSFileWatcherService will unexpectedly terminate for no reason at all so here are the instructions for making sure it'll start back up if it fails.

Start Menu > Right click on "Computer" > Manage >Double click on "Services and Applications > Double Click on "Services" > Edit DVRMSFilewatcher Service. > Recovery tab > Make all 3 dropdowns say "Restart the service > Apply > Ok

EDIT: The Conversion Process drops the meta-data of "Delete on" and it won't automatically delete your programs, so you have to make sure to delete your old programs.

That's it, restart and have a commercial free day!

Hey.

First of all, my time and energy is limited - when I need to dedicate it to my projects. That said, I want to know what exactly the .wtv file is, as I got my first one (after updating to VMC 6.1)... and how to work around it as it pertains to me.

I have Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit, as my O.S., and I have 1 GB Memory.

Up until now, I was able to start processing for commercials and CC extraction through a combination of ComSkip, DVRMSTB 1.2.1.6, and a final check through SA 0.9.7

I still intend to do so, but I need to convert this unknown file type - to the .dvr-ms format... as everything works with .dvr-ms. Now the next question I have is, there is an option in Toolbox settings, to apply every broadcast as TV; I'm wondering if this will help or hurt the problem (meaning avoiding the conversions).

Can you tell me in simpler instructions how to go about doing something like so:

I have I:\Recorded TV\Grease_FAMP_2009_03_21_19_59_00.wtv, as my hopefully one and only wtv file... unless the conversion is now required for every file. I want to convert it to I:\Recorded TV (Temp or Final)\Grease_FAMP_2009_03_21_19_59_00.dvr-ms

Then it will be processing as normal. If you know of how to skip this conversion and work, let me know. What I want you to know, is I am somewhat clueless about command-line utilities... and syntaxes... I am a visual person, which is why I work within Windows (XP/Vista).

Please respond soon,

Thanks, G

P.S. When is the estimated release date for Windows 7 (out of curiousity)?

 What the heck are you talking about? This is a Win7 script, ONLY WIN7!

pcmix9250:

P.S. When is the estimated release date for Windows 7 (out of curiousity)?

Latest rumor is that the PUBLIC Release Candidate (RC)  will be in May 2009-

Okay.

Maybe I came across new information with my problem, but basically here's the deal:

I updated my Windows Vista Media Center to 6.1, through a patch I found online... before I did so, I was gettin' a whole lot of crashes and still frames (except for CC and audio) in Windowed Mode.

The fix happened a couple weeks ago, and it improved my performance and gave me new features in Media Center (6.1 VMC). However, what I just found out is that I'm guessing that the upgrade changed the file format from .dvr-ms to .wtv, as it no longer says filename.dvr-ms, it says filename.wtv

Now, because this is a new format, I want to convert it back to .dvr-ms, for processing and business as usual before burning to a finalized disc.

Since then I copied the files to C:\Program Files\DVRMSToolbox, and placed the images in the profile section of Toolbox, in hopes that I would be able to convert back to .dvr-ms.

You see, the thing is, this is not just a Windows 7 (at least based on what I'm experiencing) file type change, because I think it's a part of the upgrade even to MC 6.1 on Vista. The way I know so, is because I have a .wtv recording (which is the Grease movie I'm talking about) after recording to my external hard-drive.

Now as my question stands, how to convert it to .dvr-ms for processing purposes or where to go from here? Note: the .wtv file does not recognize the commercials, and I can't process it in ComSkip... because it's not a recognized format.

What I thought, and was mistaken, is that the .wtv file type is produced by not ATSC standards, but by the upgrade. It is unquestionable why I needed the upgrade, but it is questionable what to do here.

If this is new information on your part, let me be the first to announce, that this happened on Windows Vista as well.

Let me know,

Later, G

I hear your pain- but Microsoft did not offer a way to convert.wtv files to .dvr-ms files until it released their Build 7048. If you do not have that, or a later build, then this thread will not help you. You might search the main VISTA thread- I think there was a todvrms file created by someone... 

Good luck

I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your profile and the write up.  I'm still running into a couple of issues however things are working.

 Thank you!

 I am not a moderator, but this is very off topic. You should try "todvrms" threads. That's about the only support you are gonna get in Vista.

Please refrain from posting Vista issues in this thread :)

abuttino:

I would suggest going into the GUI and have it process the directory with the “WTV to DVRMS Converter by abuttino” before you start having FW watch for WTV files, otherwise you are gonna wait forever and a day to see any results.

 

 

Can you explain a bit more about the quoted part above.  I've followed your guide to the letter... but I don't know where to go to do the above.

 Yes, I will..

 Say you have 30 recordings on your drive. 

 The Filewatcher will start processing all of these files and when you want something recent to be comskipped, you won't see results until the other 30 shows you have on your HD process.

 Those files come first, then the files you have newly recorded go to the bottom of the queue.

 Is this something that happens automatically, or is there something I need to click to make it do it?  I'm used to the Lifextender model, where you tell it to process a folder of existing recordings... and then it will pickup the new ones from there.

 Can you explain a bit more about the quoted part above.  I've followed your guide to the letter... but I don't know where to go to do the above.

I think you are asking how to get it at the top. Here are Tony's instructions:

The second item of business is the Processing Condition Editor.

Make a new condition for “WTV Files”. “New Condition” Type “WTV Files” in the top field

In that condition you want add a new condition and in the left dropdown choose “FileExt”. In the center dropdown, you want “Contains” and in the field, “.wtv” (with the period). Hit ok on that and then in the dropdown under the name of your profile you have to choose “WTV to DVRMS Converter for FW by abuttino”

Save that profile and move it to the top

Here's how this looks after the WTV Files is created. JUst make sure that WTV Files is located at the top of the ProcessConditionEditor

 The "DVRMStMPEGGUI" is the program you open to start processing on the files before you have FW start watching for them.

 LifeExtentender is somewhat like Filewatcher, it scans for new files then starts ripping the commercials out when it's done.

 This profile will take the file, convert it to DVR-MS and scan for commercials after they are done. Only removing commercials by way of the autoskip in media center, not entirely ripping them out.

If there are WTV files in the watched directory (Recorded TV) when Filewatcher first starts up, it will try and scan all of them and it will take some time to get to all of them (depending on how many you have) and only after that, it will start the files that you record after starting Filewatcher for the first time.

That is why it's a good idea to use the GUI on the recorded tv directory before you start Filewatcher.

 

I see a lot of people are jumping the gun and are not reading my instructions entirely, I have written EVERY SINGLE THING that you need to do in the instructions above. I know that DVRMSToolbox is quite complicated to use, however, the instructions have been outlined for people that have some experience working with DTb. If you have any questions, cosult the wiki about other programs before posting in this thread; the instructions are all on this site. Just search or use the wiki.

The "DVRMStMPEGGUI" is the program you open to start processing on the files before you have FW start watching for them.

Thank you... that's what I was looking for. Sorry if that is such a newbie question... I was looking on the Settings and Process Conditioner GUI's looking for a way to manually run a profile. Though I think I'm going back to Vista, as build 7057 has too many quirks for my wife to handle. :)

 Go back to 7022 or try 7068.