Quiet around here

[brohebus]

I've been out of the loop for a few weeks....sure is quiet in these forums recently. Where is everyone?

Since things seem to have settled down a bit after a a large number of rapid-fire changes to the software, I'm going to start over from scratch with the latest and greatest from Ben and Stewart and see what I can come up with.

-Dave

[Mastiff]

Yo, I'm actually waking up again now. I got my Loox back, so now I'm going to install the latest version and see if it blows up in my face... :wink:

[brockgr]

Maybe people are actually off wathing films and listening to music? :lol:

One reason it's been quiet is the latest and greatest is about to change. Give us a little longer, and we should have the new NR with new Girder feedback system out. Performance seems to be up, and multiple image feedback, panel jumps, etc should all work too.

I will also get an LDJ ready which doesn't kill your Girder instance, and adds some of the recent feature requests - especially, having a multi image interface like Carl's.

How are people going with the latest Tonto? Anyone got any good "template" based skins working?

Gavin

[MikeM]

Gavin, any idea as to when we'll see .983? I can't get IR passthrough to work, and an wondering if I should put a lot more effort into debugging .98 or just waiting for .983... My axim and CF wifi card have arrived and I have a CCF built and am dying to try it...

Thanks,
Mike

[brockgr]

I'm afraid IR passthru is not really my area - I'm more on the Girder side. Maybe Ben will comment when he has some time.
Gavin

[z.mash]

MikeM,

I suggest you do what I did, and use Girder for now. I setup a hidden panel with all the actions to execute the Girder commands. Then I linked the buttons on my visible panels to this “action panel”. All this works fine. However, once the NRIRServ bugs get worked out, all I have to do is change ~30 commands located on two panels, and everything is updated! Bottom line is that I can use my Slink-e to do IR passthrough for now.

-Zak

[mrallen]

looking forward to performance improvements (redraws). hey, is the socket set up with tcp nodelay?

[Ben S]

Mike, I'd recommend waiting for 0.983. It is resolved, but I want to pack up some changes required for the new 1.43 of tonto, the new girder feedback, and the ir fix in the next release. 0.983 also should make NetRemote (the executable itself) finally standard in the way drivers are loaded and used, allowing me to release just patched drivers instead of the whole package when there is a fix.

The performance enhancement right now deals almost exclusively with Girder feedback. Going to a ccf skin has slowed performance slightly with jumps, which I hope to iron out after the 0.983 release. I have a few ideas.

Regarding TCP_NODELAY, I am not currently using it from my side, and I'm not pumping much data through, but there should be a -big- performance benefit to having both the lua socket and MJB use TCP_NODELAY.

Gavin, can you do that from the lua side?

[mrallen]

TCP_NODELAY actually helps more (reduces latencies) with smaller amounts of data because the OS doesn't wait for a timeout or buffer to fill before transmitting. So I think it would be very helpful to have it enabled in NetRemote.

[Ben S]

I'll try it out. The network performance that I've always noticed is from MJB or Girder back to NetRemote, not from NetRemote out. I've never noticed a delay in calling Girder, MJB, or sending IR.

But I'll give it a shot and see.

[brockgr]

Sadly LUA provides no access to socket TCP options so I can't do it. However TCP_NODELAY is mostly meant for terminals (keyboards with invidual bytes sent). NetRemote is sending 100byte+ messages so the effect may be less than is being hoped.

Gavub

[mrallen]

I'd still like to have Ben enable it. It's harmless if it doesn't provide benefit. But if it does, it will be great. Don't forget that the Girder protocol is very 'chatty'. Each line is usually < 30 bytes. So small events like button presses should be measurably faster.

[MikeM]

Ben, do you know when we might be able to see .983? No hurry, just want to make sure I have time scheduled to work on it when it comes out!

Thanks,
Mike

[Ben S]

I think you might see it tonight. Gavin's new feedback is fully implemented, the new features of Tonto 1.43 are fully implemented, the IR bug has been fixed, and overall the thing is more stable.

[Mastiff]

Is this another one of those April's fools day jokes? :wink:

[MikeM]

I think you might see it tonight.

Ben, that would be great! Looking forward to it!

Thanks,
Mike

[Ben S]

April Fools! Check the 0.983 release thread. It's out!

Although it seems to me that a lot changed, not that much actually changed.

IR fixed, new feedback, better Tonto support, and a few bugs squashed.

Also, for those that are wondering, Matt Ashland at J. River just released a new beta of Media Center, with the new RemoteServer interface, which is basically the WebRemote code tighter bound with MC. Just so you all know, I'm running the new version right now, and not only does it work, it seems to have a bit better performance regarding NetRemote communication.

Go download it! It will work with all versions of NetRemote.

[Mastiff]

Now that sounds interesting! I'm downloading both the new NR and MC right away! Thanks, Ben, yo the man! :D