Artwork and backend resume support / Testers needed

    Noone willing to help testing here? I somehow hoped to get a bit more feedback.


    MarkusE can you please have a brief look at scraper2vdr at some time just to check if the plugin works somewhat similar to yours (meaning: Does the plugin have the URLs and would it in theory be possible to add new API to deliver URLs). After that I would just give scraper2vdr the "Abandoned and unmaintained" stamp and forget about it. As far as I remember testing tvscraper is just installing the plugin?


    Also MarkusE am I right that, even with vnsiserver being the only user, your plugin still downloads artwork? Would it be possible to add a switch to disable this for "headless VDR server only" setups? If yes, I would create an Issue.

    Hallo M-Reimer,


    scraper2vdr: Nicht meine Baustelle. Ich glaube nicht, dass es dafür Datenquellen gibt, die wir hier im Forum diskutieren (?). Vermutlich müsste man einen http Server in scraper2vdr einbauen, da die URLs zu den Bildern der Datenquellen vermutlich nicht stabil sind (ich habe jetzt geraten).

    > I would just give scraper2vdr the "Abandoned and unmaintained" stamp and forget about it.

    gute Idee


    > even with vnsiserver being the only user, your plugin still downloads artwork?

    Ja, das ist korrekt. Die Bilder werden an verschiedenen Stellen verwendet, z.B. auch in vdr-plugin-live. Sicherlich kann man einen solchen Schalter einbauen, das ist aber nicht geplant. Wenn es VDR clients gibt, die Zugriff auf das Dateisystem des Servers haben, können diese VDR clients auch die Bilder auf dem Server nutzen.


    ~Markus

    Client1: ASUS P5QC, Dual Core 3G, Cine S2, Ext. Board von TBE, Xubuntu 20.04, VDR 2.6x

    Client2: RPI3

    Server: RPI4, Sundtek SkyTV Dual 2x

    Quote from M-Reimer

    I somehow hoped to get a bit more feedback.

    Yeah I hoped that too :( Phunkyfish just recommended me to ask testers from Kodi forums (https://github.com/kodi-pvr/pvr.vdr.vnsi/pull/180). But do we need more testers for these features?


    Quote from M-Reimer

    As far as I remember testing tvscraper is just installing the plugin?

    What I can remember after installing you need to set what channels you want to scrap from plugin settings.


    If someday scraper2vdr starts to support new interface we can easily add support for it without modifications needed to Kodi VNSI plugin.

    Hi,


    It would be possible to enhance vdr-plugin-live with a service interface to provide URLs for tvscraper images on the local file system.

    Actually, live itself is a web server, and uses these URLs to display the pictures.

    In this way, also pictures from other scrapers could be used for vnsi.


    I volunteer to make this enhancement to live, if:

    • Someone confirms that he will update the vdr-plugin-vnsiserver pull request, to use the old scraper service interface (also supported by scraper2vdr) und the new service interface in live (which I will provide) for the vnsiserver enhancement
    • Someone confirms that he will confirm/include this updated vdr-plugin-vnsiserver pull request into https://github.com/vdr-projects/vdr-plugin-vnsiserver

    ~ Markus

    Client1: ASUS P5QC, Dual Core 3G, Cine S2, Ext. Board von TBE, Xubuntu 20.04, VDR 2.6x

    Client2: RPI3

    Server: RPI4, Sundtek SkyTV Dual 2x

    Quote from MarkusE

    Someone confirms that he will update the vdr-plugin-vnsiserver pull request, to use the old scraper service interface (also supported by scraper2vdr) und the new service interface in live (which I will provide) for the vnsiserver enhancement

    I can make this change if no one else volunteers and if pull request is accepted to vnsiserver.

    MarkusE I see you have made some changes to Live and Tvscraper. Is new interface ready to use?


    Little bit off topic, have there been some change in Tvscraper which makes it not to found series or movies if name in epg event is in local language? It used to work but not anymore.

    > Is new interface ready to use?

    No :( .


    For your off topic questions, please check the Tvscraper plugin settings. You can select a language for each channel.

    Client1: ASUS P5QC, Dual Core 3G, Cine S2, Ext. Board von TBE, Xubuntu 20.04, VDR 2.6x

    Client2: RPI3

    Server: RPI4, Sundtek SkyTV Dual 2x

    Like 1
    Quote from MarkusE

    > Is new interface ready to use?

    No :( .

    Okay, no rush :)

    Quote from MarkusE

    For your off topic questions, please check the Tvscraper plugin settings. You can select a language for each channel.

    Thanks. Found settings but I can't change system language or additional language to Finnish :( How I can add Finnish to available options?

    Edit. I added:

    Code
    {11, "fin", "fi-FI", "suomi"}


    to config.h and rebuild plugin and changed plugin default/system language to 11 and additional to 6. Lets see if that fixes the issue :)

    Quote from MarkusE

    Someone confirms that he will confirm/include this updated vdr-plugin-vnsiserver pull request into https://github.com/vdr-projects/vdr-plugin-vnsiserver

    The most important part is missing there: Someone confirms to test the combination of the patched Kodi Addon together with the updated vdr-plugin-vnsiserver.


    If the resulting change in vdr-plugin-vnsiserver is that minimal that I can "just see" that it is OK, then I can merge this. But no major feature additions without anyone testing them.

    I think the reason for the lack of feedback is that only very few VDR users use VDR to drive the PVR feature of a media center with it.


    In my opinion someone has to at least test with more than one client. I could try to temporarily set up the required plugins if someone guides me through the process but I can only test with the one client I'm using here. And keep the changes as simple as possible to make it easy for me to understand the possible side effects.


    The issue is that vnsi server still is in a more or less "unmaintained" state. The whole "community maintained" thing was only meant for minor changes and not for major new features. Things would be easier if there was an maintainer for vnsi server. Someone who has at least a basic knowledge about the plugin and can fix issues, that may arise with the new feature, quickly. The only thing, I can do if I find issues with the new features in my setups, is to roll back all those changes and push an "intermediate release" without the new features until someone provides a pull request with a fix.


    But the whole maintainer issues aside: I really like the idea of delivering the artwork using the live plugin. The live plugin is more or less "the standard" web interface for VDR so it makes sense to use it for centralized artwork delivery.

    Code
    cGetLiveImageProvider getLiveImageProvider;
bool serviceAvailable = getLiveImageProvider.call() != NULL;


if (serviceAvailable) {
  std::string imageOnFilesystem = "/var/cache/vdr/plugins/tvscraper/movies/300803_poster.jpg";
  std::string imageUrl = getLiveImageProvider.m_liveImageProvider->getImageUrl(imageOnFilesystem);
}

    Client1: ASUS P5QC, Dual Core 3G, Cine S2, Ext. Board von TBE, Xubuntu 20.04, VDR 2.6x

    Client2: RPI3

    Server: RPI4, Sundtek SkyTV Dual 2x

    Got it working, thanks. There should be mention somewhere that server url means url without port number :D Although makes sense after reading help and seeing example url.


    I updated Github repos. VNSI client for Kodi 19 Matrix is not yet updated.

    Here's instructions how to test these new features.


    Get latest vdr-plugin-live

    Code
    git clone https://github.com/MarkusEh/vdr-plugin-live
cd vdr-plugin-live
make
make install


    Install vdr-plugin-tvscraper example from this PPA https://launchpad.net/~seahawk…+archive/ubuntu/vdr-2.6.3

    Set channels which you want to scrape from plugin settings on VDR.


    vdr-plugin-vnsiserver

    Code
    git clone https://github.com/Dis90/vdr-plugin-vnsiserver -b tvscraper_backendresume
cd vdr-plugin-vnsiserver
make
make install


    Kodi add-on if your Kodi is installed on Windows/Mac/Android/iOS you can get from here: https://jenkins.kodi.tv/blue/organizations/jenkins/kodi-pvr%2Fpvr.vdr.vnsi/detail/PR-180/6/artifacts


    Build instructions:

    Code
    mkdir kodi_vnsi
cd kodi_vnsi
git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc -b Nexus
git clone https://github.com/Dis90/pvr.vdr.vnsi -b tvscraper_backendresume_nexus
cd pvr.vdr.vnsi && mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DADDONS_TO_BUILD=pvr.vdr.vnsi -DADDON_SRC_PREFIX=../.. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../../xbmc/addons -DPACKAGE_ZIP=1 ../../xbmc/cmake/addons
make

    Copy build add-on to Kodi

    Code
    cd ../../xbmc/addons/
sudo cp -r pvr.vdr.vnsi/ /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/kodi/addons/


    Restart Kodi


    If you want to Kodi to use VDR resume point on recordings you need to enable backend resume from Kodi add-on settings.

    Good idea to make it possible to disable (and disable by default) the "resume point" feature. Very useful if one person has several clients but would be a bad idea in a family with one central server where everyone watches recordings on his own client.


    We still need at least one tester "from outside".


    And I still think that -Dis should at least co-maintain vdr-plugin-vnsiserver as probably he is the person with the deepest insight into the plugin currently.

    After a first look at the code: You take the file path from tvscraper (or scraper2vdr) first.


    If "live" exists, then you replace this file path with the URL reported by live.


    Does this mean that on a "single user only" system (VDR and Kodi on the same machine), Kodi could directly access the files on the local drive in this case?


    So on an "all on one machine" the live plugin is not required and for network clients the live plugin can be used (and most people will probably use it anyway as a browser based interface to manage stuff on the server).

    Quote from M-Reimer

    Good idea to make it possible to disable (and disable by default) the "resume point" feature. Very useful if one person has several clients but would be a bad idea in a family with one central server where everyone watches recordings on his own client.


    If I remember correctly VDR supports resume points per client. So if I implement client id's to Kodi client then it would be possible save resume points to VDR server without using same resume points for every client.


    Edit. quickly looking VDR source code it seems to be possible only if VDR itself is client :(


    Quote from M-Reimer

    And I still think that -Dis should at least co-maintain vdr-plugin-vnsiserver as probably he is the person with the deepest insight into the plugin currently.

    I can help to review PR's but I don't have much knowledge other parts of vnsiserver than those I made changes (EPG and recording listings).

    Yep it will get urls for images from Live plugin if Live service is found.


    If -u URL or --url=URL is not in Live start parameters then it will return same file path as given to Live service (local file path).


    Live plugin is not required when VDR and Kodi are in same device. I don't know is there some way to detect if server and client are in same device and skip Live plugin in that case. Is there even any benefits doing that? :D

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