Does anyone know if it's possible (or even easy) to direct recordings to a directory depending on it's category (in DigiGuide)?

i.e. send all Films to c:\Movies\

Potentially possible. I included the ability to record to different folders based on the channel for at least one device.

Doing it for category as well is a bit more tricky because I do not include the categoty in the data that is sent from DigiGuide to DABDig. However, including it would be easy enough.

Taking an action based on it (and maybe even auto-creating the subdirectory based on it could also be done - if I changed the code) but ... not all target devices support being told where to put the recording.

What device are you using?

DABDig creator

Excellant, good to hear that Paul!

I'm using a Hauppauge PVR350 card.

That is one of the devices that I think I can make this work for.

As an experiment ... can you try setting

WinTVPVRCmdP2 to something like (no quotes)

WinTVPVRCmdP2=c:\recordings\FILM

and then try to record simething via DABDig.

Try with a directory that DOES NOT exist (i.e. like the one I gave above) - to see if WinTV2k creates it automatically.

If it does - great.

If it does not create it - then ... create the directory by hand and retry the recording test.

If the first test works then it will be relatively easy for me to change the code to include this facility (but you will have a wait a few days).

If the frst test fails but the second works then I would have to do a bit more work - and would almost certainly not be possible before the week-end.

DABDig creator

good news Paul, that worked as you'd hoped!

WinTVPVRCmdP2=c:\recordings\FILM\

the line above created the recording & both directories, dir & subdir.

One thing to note though; if the backslash is left off at the end of the full path then FILM will be in the start of the filename & not as a directory.

OK - I'll put some code in to pass the category on the command line from DigiGuide to DABDig and then make it available as a keyword substitution - i.e. you would just put something like

WinTVPVRCmdP2=c:\recordings\$CT\

into the INI file.

I'll drop you a note when I've done it.

DABDig creator

Code now done and I am mailing it to you.

(Build 253b12)

DABDig creator

Sorry for the delay on getting back to this Paul.

WinTV2K.exe will create the directory "unknown" for an unknown category but won't put items that do have a category like FILM into a FILM directory. In other words, it's dropping everything into the default category (unknown) as specified in the ini file.

You mentioned WinTVcap in your email, & yes I only just discovered this little gem early last week. Works a treat (so far! fingers crossed!) & a much better solution than the overkill of WinTV2K.exe creates.

But after saying that, unfortunately WinTVcap.exe bombs because the path (the category dir) doesn't exist!

Point of note about how you're looking at the categories. Would you be able to do this on manually created markers? Say like a marker I've created called "WIFE", which can contain my wife's collection of her favourites like Coronation Street, Dr Phil, etc?

Hopefully,

Fergus.

Regarding everything going into "unknown" ... check the command line that was sent to DABDig (in dabdig.txt).

My guess is that you were using an old marker. Only new markers will pick up the ability to put a Category at the end of the command line.If you were adding a new marker and it did not work - then look in the DABDig.dgmarker in <dg>/user-settings using Notepad and check to see that there is a relevant comment from me up at the top of the file.

As for including Marker names (etc) in it ... bit trickier. The amrker is only run (i.e. I get control) when the marker is Added ... not when it Fires.

So if you create a marker and rename etc then I would not know about it.

DABDig creator

I'd installed it but it didn't pick up the new marker for some reason. Removed the old marker(s) in the dir & then it picked up the new one okay, and the new setup works grand now.

Films now go into the \Film dir etc, but only with WinTV2k.exe not while using WinTVcap.exe

With WinTVCap ... do they arrive there OK if the directory already exists?

DABDig creator

Plane delayed ... and airport has free wireless access ... so just modified the code so that it can create the output directory (at least ... assuming that the parent directory already exists).

To use this facility you will have to make some changes to your dabdig.ini

I had to change the way that OutputTarget works.

What you would do is this:

OutputTarget=c:\recordings\$CT
OutputTargetCreate=1
WinTVPVRCmdP2=$OT\
WinTVCapCmdP2=$OT\

Don't try it without the new code though - and I can't send you that until I get home late tonight.

DABDig creator

Edited by Paul Webster on Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - 5:38:01 PM

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With WinTVCap ... do they arrive there OK if the directory already exists?

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Paul Webster

DABDig creator

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Yep, they do arrive in the directory, but ONLY if it exists already.

Yes, that works nicely, for both WinTVCap & WinTVPVR. Tested it loads of times & behaves as expected.

For your reference, if I turn off "OutputTargetCreate" WinTVPVR will run okay & still create the directory, but WinTVCap will bomb out.

While doing a load of tests, I notice that I'm left with loads of different directories with the relevant recordings in them, like SOAP, SPORT, SCI FI, DRAMA etc. I know you said it'd be a much more difficult thing to code for, but would this make sense?

Having a section of all the default DigiGuide Categories & making each of them choosable by turning on/off which ones that are to be redirected to another directory (i.e. FILM)...just a thought!

Fergus.

I guess I could put in a mapping for Categories so that you could send different categories to specific locations and send unmapped categories to a default location.

However, I think that you will have to do without it for now as I want to freeze this code and make an official release and then get back to putting some stuff in for time overlaps.

If I can see an easy way to do it this weekend then you'll get it.

DABDig creator

That's brilliant Paul, thanks!

By all means, shelve it for a while, because I initially was asking this as a query, not expecting such a swift positive response, thanks again!

And yes, that sounds like an even better idea. If I understand you correctly, you're thinking of specifying the (possible) path for each Category (FILM=\Films, DRAMA=\Dramas) then everything else not specified would drop into the default? Nice one!