Instructions for using the RPTVUtility program.

Unzip the files to the Drive / Folder where you intend to save the off-loaded RPTV mpegs. 

Double click on the RPTVUTIL.exe file to start it.  (you can of course manually add a short-cut icon to your desktop if you wish)  

First time use .. input your IP address and delay factor.  (Use zero at your own risk) 

Files generated: 

1. At the end of each successfull off-loaded Mpeg, the 1234xxxx.mpg file will be renamed to a more "human" usable format.  It uses the ReplayTV  "ShowName:Title" format.    

2. A couple of "work files" are generated which will be automatically deleted at the end of the program session.

3. A *.dat file containing the last IP address and Delay factor used. 

4. A *.log file.  This contains a start and end of each session (appended with every session) and a list of each title, off-loaded containing it's name, date, and time of the start and stop of it's download.  (handy for reference or just comparing download times for various size files etc.)    I recommend trimming the beginning of that log (can be edited with WordPad / Notepad etc. every once in a while.  It just keeps appending itself every session and you may want to purge the oldest data to keep it small.  You can also just delete it .. the program will auto-generate a new one for you the next time it is run.

Notes:  

   Disregard any "data" like mpeg file sizes etc.  At the moment they are simply "estimated" and not computed.  This will be made more accurate in future versions.  

  There is no "activity" monitor .. other than the curser changing to an hour glass when positioned anywhere in the GUI.  The "status area" will change as each file is off-loaded but other than that you have no indication of what's going on.  This also will be changed in future versions.  

  It will sound a Windows "Beep" at the conclusion of each successful RPTV Mpeg off-load.  

  I've only used it to off load as many as three one hour high quality mpegs during a session.  In theory it should work with as many as ten totalled.   Right now it's limited to 10 off-loads per session.  

   There is no error checking.  If it crashes .. it really shouldn't affect your pc other than possibly leaving the ReplayPC application still running and having a couple "work" files still listed in the folder.  If that happens you will have to bring up the windows task / process menu and manually kill the ReplayPC application.  If you try to restart the program with ReplayPC still running it will give you an error.   This will also be taken care of when I get around to developing some fail safe error traps. FWIW, this is difficult as the program is working with "shells" to a command prompt.  (invisable to the user)  

Possible things to be added:

Error checking
checking for ReplayTV activity before attempting off loads
Scheduling unattended off-loads.
Optional parsing of Mpeg files  to check for problems (ie GOPs greater than 15, too high bit rate that will cause it to choke DVD authoring applications ) 


Any comments, suggestions or other help is appreciated.  This was my first attempt at programming in Visual Basic so be kind.  I'm a newbie in this area.  Please do not distribute or duplicate this version as it is very much a beta.  For the guys doing my "beta" testing, please email me directly ( rich@pcphotovideo.com) with comments etc.  

See the "history" file supplied with each updated program for any new/added features or bug fixes. 

Thanks everyone  - Rich 