DigiTV-Multiple recordings-PC startup and shutdown
 

Hi everyone,

I have a question about the best way to set my Nebula DigiTV to startup and
shutdown the PC on it's own and make multiple recordings. I've researched
this a bit, and have read what other people suggest with using such programs
as DigDab and Digiguide, but I'm not sure what combination of what program
will really do what I want.

Forget the timer bugs in the Nebula software for now because I think they'll
be resolved soon anyway. What I want to do is be able to set the PC to
switch on at a certain time, then have the program recorded, the PC
hibernate, THEN switch on again at another time, record, hibernate, etc..

I know I can set the PC to hibernate, then have something set in Scheduler
to switch the PC on, then DigiTV will record a program then turn the PC off
if the settings are set to do that. I've tried that just as a test and it
works well. However, the Nebula software won't switch the PC off unless all
the timers have been used. I am away most Weekends though so will want to
set it to record more than once with a large gap in-between, where I'd
rather the PC wasn't left on.

I know I could set Scheduler to turn the PC on at multiple times, but how
about hibernating? I have found a program called Slawdog that will put my PC
into hibernate mode at a chosen time, but then I'll have to not only set the
Nebula software's timer but also Slawdog AND Scheduler.

What would be best would be to set ONLY the timer, and have that take care
of everything, which is something I'd love to see Nebula do in future. I've
know some people use the Digiguide and DigDab software, but I'm not sure
what their features are. Could they be used to do what I want at all?

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could achieve this without having
to set too many different bits of software please?

I'm using XP Home Edition with SP1 by the way, in case that helps.

Thanks,
Geoff.

Geoff wrote:
Hi everyone,

I have a question about the best way to set my Nebula DigiTV to startup and
shutdown the PC on it's own and make multiple recordings. I've researched
this a bit, and have read what other people suggest with using such programs
as DigDab and Digiguide, but I'm not sure what combination of what program
will really do what I want.


Can't you just leave the machine on? With the monitor off, it's not
going to use too much power. If you have broadband, the you can set it
remotely too. I would defiantly look at using DigiGuide & DabDig.
Takes all the hassle out of setting up timers.

S.

Just use windows power saving function to put the computer into standby
after the preset time of inactivity.

Start - Control Panel - Power Options

Stew.

"Stuart" wrote in message
...
Geoff wrote:
Hi everyone,

I have a question about the best way to set my Nebula DigiTV to startup
and
shutdown the PC on it's own and make multiple recordings. I've
researched
this a bit, and have read what other people suggest with using such
programs
as DigDab and Digiguide, but I'm not sure what combination of what
program
will really do what I want.


Can't you just leave the machine on? With the monitor off, it's not
going to use too much power. If you have broadband, the you can set it
remotely too. I would defiantly look at using DigiGuide & DabDig.
Takes all the hassle out of setting up timers.

S.

I know I could set Scheduler to turn the PC on at multiple times, but how
about hibernating? I have found a program called Slawdog that will put my PC
into hibernate mode at a chosen time, but then I'll have to not only set the
Nebula software's timer but also Slawdog AND Scheduler.

Use the program "Shutdown" from www.budja.com/shutdown and create a
Schedule for this program to hibernate the PC. Best to rename the
program as there is already a "shutdown.exe" program included with
Windows XP.

DigiTV actually shuts down the PC, there's no choice yet to hibernate.

It is a pain having to setup separate schedules to start and stop but
there's still no alternative yet. Perhaps one day DigiTV and DabDig
will do it.

"KingStew" wrote in message
...
Just use windows power saving function to put the computer into standby
after the preset time of inactivity.

Start - Control Panel - Power Options

Stew.

Hi Stew. Trouble with that is that the PC still stays effectively on. As the
other Stewart said, it doesn't use much power so maybe I'll end up doing
that. I'm thinking also of wear and tear and the fire risk though, not just
electricity. If it's on to record stuff I know that's still a fire risk,
even though it's a tiny one. I'd just prefer it if it was as off as off can
be, which hibernate mode is.

Geoff.

"Bluesky" wrote in message
...
I know I could set Scheduler to turn the PC on at multiple times, but how
about hibernating? I have found a program called Slawdog that will put my
PC
into hibernate mode at a chosen time, but then I'll have to not only set
the
Nebula software's timer but also Slawdog AND Scheduler.

Use the program "Shutdown" from www.budja.com/shutdown and create a
Schedule for this program to hibernate the PC. Best to rename the
program as there is already a "shutdown.exe" program included with
Windows XP.

DigiTV actually shuts down the PC, there's no choice yet to hibernate.

It is a pain having to setup separate schedules to start and stop but
there's still no alternative yet. Perhaps one day DigiTV and DabDig
will do it.


Thanks for your reply, I'll look into that program and see what it's like
compared to 2 others I've come across. I need to be able to switch it on
again after hibernating, and be able to set it with more than one time. I'll
research the program anyway and see if it will do what I need.

In fact can't I set a schedule to hibernate it rather than using a seperate
program? I know there are command line options I can use for such things, so
maybe I could set Scheduler to run a command written in a batch file or
something? Hmmm....My head is spinning with possibilities now! :)

Thanks mate,
Geoff.

On Fri, 02 Jan 2004 18:32:37 GMT, Geoff wrote:
"KingStew" wrote in message
...
Just use windows power saving function to put the computer into standby
after the preset time of inactivity.

Start - Control Panel - Power Options

Stew.

Hi Stew. Trouble with that is that the PC still stays effectively on. As the
other Stewart said, it doesn't use much power so maybe I'll end up doing
that. I'm thinking also of wear and tear and the fire risk though, not just
electricity. If it's on to record stuff I know that's still a fire risk,
even though it's a tiny one. I'd just prefer it if it was as off as off can
be, which hibernate mode is.

It's a well known fact that you are more likely to damage the components
of your PC by constand switching off and on than by leaving them
switched on. At work we have a policy that PCs are never switched off.

For example, the machine that I'm writing this on has been up for 58
days and that's only because there was a power cut. Before that it had
been on for almost a year.

--
Dave

"Dave MacRae" wrote in message
...
It's a well known fact that you are more likely to damage the components
of your PC by constand switching off and on than by leaving them
switched on. At work we have a policy that PCs are never switched off.

For example, the machine that I'm writing this on has been up for 58
days and that's only because there was a power cut. Before that it had
been on for almost a year.


Hi Dave. It's a well known fact to me too, but there are limits. Surely it's
better to have the PC come on, for example, once on a Saturday and once on a
Sunday for, say, one hour each, rather than leaving it on for 3 days and 2
nights non-stop? I'm just using my common sense.

Geoff.

Hi Stew. Trouble with that is that the PC still stays effectively on. As the
other Stewart said, it doesn't use much power so maybe I'll end up doing
that. I'm thinking also of wear and tear and the fire risk though, not just
electricity. If it's on to record stuff I know that's still a fire risk,
even though it's a tiny one. I'd just prefer it if it was as off as off can
be, which hibernate mode is.

Geoff.



Most BIOSs have an option to set the PC to power on at a certain time
driven by the Real Time Clock. The trouble is I have never seen a way to
programmatically set this time through software.
It's probably theorectically possible to do it, perhap requiring a
driver to talk directly to the hardware, but I suspect Bioses are not
sufficiently standardised for someone to create a system to do it
reliable accross a range of motherboard models.
You could set it to come on once at the right time by going into the
bios options, but you wouldn't be able to have more than one scheduled
recording.
Its good enough if you just want it to wake you up at a cetain time in
the morning.

Otherwise you can't make a pc awake from power off at a certain time,
unless you use Wake On Lan and have another system set up to fire off a
wake packet.

"Dave MacRae" wrote
| For example, the machine that I'm writing this on has been up for
| 58 days and that's only because there was a power cut. Before
| that it had been on for almost a year.

User-Agent: slrn/0.9.7.4 (Linux)

Ah, that explains it!

Owain

On Fri, 02 Jan 2004 19:40:13 GMT, Geoff wrote:
"Dave MacRae" wrote in message
...
It's a well known fact that you are more likely to damage the components
of your PC by constand switching off and on than by leaving them
switched on. At work we have a policy that PCs are never switched off.

For example, the machine that I'm writing this on has been up for 58
days and that's only because there was a power cut. Before that it had
been on for almost a year.


Hi Dave. It's a well known fact to me too, but there are limits. Surely it's
better to have the PC come on, for example, once on a Saturday and once on a
Sunday for, say, one hour each, rather than leaving it on for 3 days and 2
nights non-stop? I'm just using my common sense.

Basically, it's your call.

One thing I'm not sure about is whether the DigiTV starts up at boot
time or do you have to be logged on? The PC that I have my card in is
multi-user and I restrict the things the kids have access to so they
have to log in. DigiTV will record if they are logged in but I'm not but
what happens if no-one is logged on. Must try.

Regards

--
Dave

"Darren Wilkinson" wrote in message
...
Do you already have digiguide? If not then download and install the demo
anyway. The other bit of software is actually called DABDig
(http://www.spidersweb.freeserve.co.uk/dab/dabdig.htm) which stores
schedulad recordings in nebulas own registry for the digitv.exe app to
record. IIRC when used with dabdig digiguide can bring the pc out of
hibernation but don't quote me on that. Of course as it is scheduled for
the
nebula app to record any timer bugs will still be apparent. I know that
you
didn't want to bring up the timer issue but as they are kinda related it
is
worth pointing out.

The other option which should deifintely avoid the timer issue and (I
think)
bring the pc out of hibernation is showshifter. There is a fifteen day
demo
of the new dvb version available from www.showshifter.com .


Ok thanks for all that Darren, it's very useful info. I haven't got
DigiGuide yet but have downloaded DabDig. I will definately get the demo of
DigiGuide tomorrow and try it out together with DabDig and see how it goes.
I have actually got the 'Shutdown' program since I last wrote, and have got
that to hibernate the PC using Scheduler. I haven't yet found out how to
start with PC without actually specifying a program to start, but that's not
a big deal and I'll work out a tidier method sooner or later anyway. I'm not
sure what IIRC is to be honest but I'll look it up after sending this. :)

Thanks again,
Geoff.

"Geoff" wrote in message
...
Ok thanks for all that Darren, it's very useful info. I haven't got
DigiGuide yet but have downloaded DabDig. I will definately get the demo
of
DigiGuide tomorrow and try it out together with DabDig and see how it
goes.
I have actually got the 'Shutdown' program since I last wrote, and have
got
that to hibernate the PC using Scheduler. I haven't yet found out how to
start with PC without actually specifying a program to start, but that's
not
a big deal and I'll work out a tidier method sooner or later anyway. I'm
not
sure what IIRC is to be honest but I'll look it up after sending this. :)


I feel like a total idiot now! I just found out what IIRC means-I thought it
was the name of a program! Duh. Hides head in shame and embarrassment

Geoff.

"Geoff" wrote:

"Darren Wilkinson" wrote in message
. ..
Do you already have digiguide? If not then download and install the demo
anyway. The other bit of software is actually called DABDig
(http://www.spidersweb.freeserve.co.uk/dab/dabdig.htm) which stores
schedulad recordings in nebulas own registry for the digitv.exe app to
record. IIRC when used with dabdig digiguide can bring the pc out of
hibernation but don't quote me on that. Of course as it is scheduled for
the
nebula app to record any timer bugs will still be apparent. I know that
you
didn't want to bring up the timer issue but as they are kinda related it
is
worth pointing out.

The other option which should deifintely avoid the timer issue and (I
think)
bring the pc out of hibernation is showshifter. There is a fifteen day
demo
of the new dvb version available from www.showshifter.com .


Ok thanks for all that Darren, it's very useful info. I haven't got
DigiGuide yet but have downloaded DabDig. I will definately get the demo of
DigiGuide tomorrow and try it out together with DabDig and see how it goes.
I have actually got the 'Shutdown' program since I last wrote, and have got
that to hibernate the PC using Scheduler. I haven't yet found out how to
start with PC without actually specifying a program to start, but that's not
a big deal and I'll work out a tidier method sooner or later anyway. I'm not
sure what IIRC is to be honest but I'll look it up after sending this. :)
FYI - I have't put explicit code in DABDig to shutdown/wake-up the PC.
2 barriers - neither insurmountable
a) Usually DABDig and hence DigiTV is only called by DigiGuide just a
few minutes before the programme is scheduled to start. So neither
DABDIg nor DigiTV know to set a wake-up event in the PC
b) There is no code in DABDig to set a wake-up event

re a) you could get round this by changing the default alter period of
the DABDig marker in DigiGuide from 15 minutes to 3 days. You might
potentially miss an event if listings change before DigiGuide
downloads (because mahcine i spowered off) them but unlikely.
DABDig would then put the ebvent into the DigiTV queue and DigiTV
would know about the timer and can use its power-down/wake-up stuf
(assuming it works). Then b) doesn't matter.
The good folks have DigiGuide have recently been involved in
discussing putting this sort of code into upcoming version of
DigiGuide ... which means that it owuld happen automatically for al
devices not just Nebula.
See http://forums.digiguide.com/topic.asp?id=12150

re b) There is some code in DABDig that potentially puts events into
the Windows Scheduler. It can be enabled through a setting in
dabdig.ini but it was something that I put in the code and never
really used afterwards. ISTR that I found that events that were more
than 24 hours in the future were having strange effects on Windows
Scheduler so I put in code to ensure that the event is set for less
than 24 hours time and then it puts itself back on the queue if the
real event is still more than 24 hours in the future ... or soemthing
like that (I haven't checked for ages).
If the Windows Scheduler is able to wake-up a PC from its slumber
automatically (by talking to the machine when it shutsdown) then maybe
this would work.

In any case - when DABDig schedules into Nebula DigiTV it is able to
put the event straight into the Nebula schedules and let it work it
out so I wouldn't use the Windows Scheduler even if you enabled it.
(some other devices that I support do not have their own timer queue -
and it is for them that I have that code)
--
Rgds
Paul Webster

"Paul Webster" wrote in
message ...
FYI - I have't put explicit code in DABDig to shutdown/wake-up the PC.
2 barriers - neither insurmountable
a) Usually DABDig and hence DigiTV is only called by DigiGuide just a
few minutes before the programme is scheduled to start. So neither
DABDIg nor DigiTV know to set a wake-up event in the PC
b) There is no code in DABDig to set a wake-up event


I won't quote it all but I read with interest all your points. I had to read
it several times but I think I understand what you're saying apart from
possibly one thing. You SEEM to imply that DigiTV is capable of waking the
PC up providing DABDig tells it about the program before I hibernate the PC.
However, I didn't think Nebula's software was able to do that? Or are you
saying that it would work IF Nebula's software had that function?

Thanks for all the info you wrote out for me Paul.

Geoff.

"Geoff" wrote:

"Paul Webster" wrote in
message ...
FYI - I have't put explicit code in DABDig to shutdown/wake-up the PC.
2 barriers - neither insurmountable
a) Usually DABDig and hence DigiTV is only called by DigiGuide just a
few minutes before the programme is scheduled to start. So neither
DABDIg nor DigiTV know to set a wake-up event in the PC
b) There is no code in DABDig to set a wake-up event


I won't quote it all but I read with interest all your points. I had to read
it several times but I think I understand what you're saying apart from
possibly one thing. You SEEM to imply that DigiTV is capable of waking the
PC up providing DABDig tells it about the program before I hibernate the PC.
However, I didn't think Nebula's software was able to do that? Or are you
saying that it would work IF Nebula's software had that function?
HI Geoff,
You interpreted my wordy response correctly.

Looks like I was wrong though - I had remembered seeing things in the
Nebula GUI and release notes related to Hibernate and had
misremembered it as being able to wake up as well ... but having just
re-read their Help file I see that they do not do that part yet .. it
says:
"at the moment DigiTV cannot re-start your machine automatically if
there are programme timers still active" which I guess is a sign of
hope.
Maybe I need to add the option into my stuff .. I'll have a look.
Problem is testing it - I don't have a PC here that sucessfully
restores from hibernation.
--
Rgds
Paul Webster

Looks like I was wrong though - I had remembered seeing things in the
Nebula GUI and release notes related to Hibernate and had
misremembered it as being able to wake up as well ... but having just
re-read their Help file I see that they do not do that part yet .. it
says:
"at the moment DigiTV cannot re-start your machine automatically if
there are programme timers still active" which I guess is a sign of
hope.
Maybe I need to add the option into my stuff .. I'll have a look.
Problem is testing it - I don't have a PC here that sucessfully
restores from hibernation.

I don't think there is any way of waking a pc up from hibernation
through software.
Hibernate is essentially the same a power off, with all memory contents
stored on the hard disc.
Essentially the windows task scheduler cannot wake the pc up from
hibernate mode because there is no software running to be triggered by a
timer.
You can wake from standby mode, even the deep S3 STR mode where only the
memory remains powered, but you cannot wake from hibernate except by
using the bios Real Time Clock wakeup.
There appears to be no way to set the Bios wakeup time through software.

"Paul Webster" wrote in
message ...
HI Geoff,
You interpreted my wordy response correctly.

Looks like I was wrong though - I had remembered seeing things in the
Nebula GUI and release notes related to Hibernate and had
misremembered it as being able to wake up as well ... but having just
re-read their Help file I see that they do not do that part yet .. it
says:
"at the moment DigiTV cannot re-start your machine automatically if
there are programme timers still active" which I guess is a sign of
hope.
Maybe I need to add the option into my stuff .. I'll have a look.
Problem is testing it - I don't have a PC here that sucessfully
restores from hibernation.


Hi Paul. I searched the DigiTV help documentation for such information but
didn't find it. I probably used the word "hibernate" in my site search which
of course they didn't mention. :)

Until 3 days ago, my computer wouldn't restore from hibernation either but
I've fixed that now so I'd be very happy to test any new program code out
anytime. I'll copy this message to your email address so that you get my
address, and you can email me directly anytime if you wish to use my
computer as a guinea pig. :)

Cheers,
Geoff.

"Edward" wrote in message
...
I don't think there is any way of waking a pc up from hibernation
through software.
Hibernate is essentially the same a power off, with all memory contents
stored on the hard disc.
Essentially the windows task scheduler cannot wake the pc up from
hibernate mode because there is no software running to be triggered by a
timer.
You can wake from standby mode, even the deep S3 STR mode where only the
memory remains powered, but you cannot wake from hibernate except by
using the bios Real Time Clock wakeup.
There appears to be no way to set the Bios wakeup time through software.



Hi Edward. You can actually wake up from the Hibernate state. I don't
honestly know how it works (but am interested if anyone knows!). I have run
several tests on this and use XP Scheduler to re-start it from Hibernate (or
Standby). If I just set Scheduler to load any program, and tick the box
'wake computer' (or whatever it says), it will wake it in any mode apart
from totally shut down.

Geoff.

"Jaime" wrote in message
...
You sure, in windows XP Hibernate is suspend to disk (STD) and is no
different to sutdown as far as the bios etc.. is concerned. Suspend (STR -
suspend to ram) is completely different in that windows makes use of the
power management abilities of the bios to achieve this, however personally
I
find it makes little difference in terms of noise and power usuage
compared
to idle.

It really is much easier to just leave the PC on. However do be mindful of
power usage, my main machine which is a p4 box eats 180w, whereas the p3
box
I use as a server (and will add a second digitv card to shortly for
recording) uses less than 45w (and is barely audiable from 2m at night).


Hi Jaime.

I keep reading people say that you can't resume from hibernate mode
automatically. I understand what you and others say about why this is, but I
can't help that it works for me! :) I have been doing several tests with it
lately and I promise you it is working. I know what I'm talking about and
I'm not mistaking hibernate mode for anything else. I can set XP Scheduler
to start a program, and when it's in hibernate mode, it WILL wake the PC
without a problem. It is hibernating properly and both HDD's are switched
off and the PSU fan is off.

I still don't accept that leaving the PC on for a whole Weekend is the best
answer. There's not only power usage (although not that much I know), but
also the small fire risk. If the way around this is to spend 5 minutes
setting a few schedules, then I'm very happy to do that.

Cheers,
Geoff.

Done some digging around.
When I submit jobs to the Windows Scheduler I use Microsoft's WMI
implementation.
Unfortunately this does not give access to the "Wake the computer to
run this task" flag.

So - I'll do some digging around to see what I can find to help.
--
Rgds
Paul Webster

Hi Edward. You can actually wake up from the Hibernate state. I don't
honestly know how it works (but am interested if anyone knows!). I have run
several tests on this and use XP Scheduler to re-start it from Hibernate (or
Standby). If I just set Scheduler to load any program, and tick the box
'wake computer' (or whatever it says), it will wake it in any mode apart
from totally shut down.

Agreed Geoff, the XP scheduler can wake from a Hibernate (S4) - I do
this nearly every day.

The problem with S3 and S4 sleeping is that some motherboards don't
implement well or properly or at all. Also how the BIOS was set when
XP was installed causes major problems.

Paul Webster wrote:
Done some digging around.
When I submit jobs to the Windows Scheduler I use Microsoft's WMI
implementation.
Unfortunately this does not give access to the "Wake the computer to
run this task" flag.

So - I'll do some digging around to see what I can find to help.

Hi there,

I have written a small program that reads all the entries in registry
relating to DigiTV scheduled recordings and creates scheduled tasks with
the "Wake the computer" flag set. In the end had to use the C++ code
examples in MSDN to work out how to do it.

It's a bit of a back but works. Let me know if your interested. I can send.

Chris

Paul Webster wrote:
Done some digging around.
When I submit jobs to the Windows Scheduler I use Microsoft's WMI
implementation.
Unfortunately this does not give access to the "Wake the computer to
run this task" flag.

So - I'll do some digging around to see what I can find to help.

Hi there,

I have written a small program that reads all the entries in registry
relating to DigiTV scheduled recordings and creates scheduled tasks with
the "Wake the computer" flag set. In the end had to use the C++ code
examples in MSDN to work out how to do it.

It's a bit of a back but works. Let me know if your interested. I can send.

Chris

"Christopher Anderson" wrote in
message ...
I have written a small program that reads all the entries in registry
relating to DigiTV scheduled recordings and creates scheduled tasks with
the "Wake the computer" flag set. In the end had to use the C++ code
examples in MSDN to work out how to do it.

It's a bit of a back but works. Let me know if your interested. I can
send.



Hi Chris. I'm definately interested in that. I've tried various options for
this and at the moment I'm using DigiGuide and DABDig but setting the
scheduler myself. DABDig will set it for me but then I still have to create
a schedule to hibernate the computer anyway, and I have to take into account
various settings in DABDig so I know when to set the computer to hibernate.
It all gets a bit much to work out and I think it's simpler, at the moment,
so just set the scheduler myself. I suppose it would be the same with your
program?

What I have done, bearing in mind that I'm not a programmer, is create a
simple script using mainly the sendkeys command that puts a tick in the
'wake computer up' box for the top item in the scheduler. It then changes
the filename to something random with a 'z' at the beginning, so that when
the scheduler is opened again, that item will be at the bottom of the list.
I have to do that because I only want to change the top item, which will be
AT1. Using sendkeys I obviously have to know where the item I want to change
will be in the list. It's very crude and I haven't seriously used it yet but
it does work. What would be nice would be if a program would set the
scheduler to switch on the pc and also hibernate, depending on how long it
is until the next programme set it the timer. I have a program that
hibernates the PC with a simple command line instruction by the way.

From my limited knowledge, I would have thought that a problem with the
program you've written is that you'd have to set DigiGuide to send the alert
way before the program starts, to allow DABDig to put the entries into
DigiTV's registry. That means that the marker in Digiguide will dissapear,
so you wouldn't know what you've set.

Anyway, that's just my 2 pence worth. :)

Geoff.

"Christopher Anderson" wrote in
message ...
I have written a small program that reads all the entries in registry
relating to DigiTV scheduled recordings and creates scheduled tasks with
the "Wake the computer" flag set. In the end had to use the C++ code
examples in MSDN to work out how to do it.

It's a bit of a back but works. Let me know if your interested. I can
send.



Hi Chris. I'm definately interested in that. I've tried various options for
this and at the moment I'm using DigiGuide and DABDig but setting the
scheduler myself. DABDig will set it for me but then I still have to create
a schedule to hibernate the computer anyway, and I have to take into account
various settings in DABDig so I know when to set the computer to hibernate.
It all gets a bit much to work out and I think it's simpler, at the moment,
so just set the scheduler myself. I suppose it would be the same with your
program?

What I have done, bearing in mind that I'm not a programmer, is create a
simple script using mainly the sendkeys command that puts a tick in the
'wake computer up' box for the top item in the scheduler. It then changes
the filename to something random with a 'z' at the beginning, so that when
the scheduler is opened again, that item will be at the bottom of the list.
I have to do that because I only want to change the top item, which will be
AT1. Using sendkeys I obviously have to know where the item I want to change
will be in the list. It's very crude and I haven't seriously used it yet but
it does work. What would be nice would be if a program would set the
scheduler to switch on the pc and also hibernate, depending on how long it
is until the next programme set it the timer. I have a program that
hibernates the PC with a simple command line instruction by the way.

From my limited knowledge, I would have thought that a problem with the
program you've written is that you'd have to set DigiGuide to send the alert
way before the program starts, to allow DABDig to put the entries into
DigiTV's registry. That means that the marker in Digiguide will dissapear,
so you wouldn't know what you've set.

Anyway, that's just my 2 pence worth. :)

Geoff.

see http://www.rjf295.co.uk

It doesn't support consecutive timers yet but the updated version
does, that'll be finished by Monday.


"Geoff" wrote in message ...
Hi everyone,

I have a question about the best way to set my Nebula DigiTV to startup and
shutdown the PC on it's own and make multiple recordings. I've researched
this a bit, and have read what other people suggest with using such programs
as DigDab and Digiguide, but I'm not sure what combination of what program
will really do what I want.

Forget the timer bugs in the Nebula software for now because I think they'll
be resolved soon anyway. What I want to do is be able to set the PC to
switch on at a certain time, then have the program recorded, the PC
hibernate, THEN switch on again at another time, record, hibernate, etc..

I know I can set the PC to hibernate, then have something set in Scheduler
to switch the PC on, then DigiTV will record a program then turn the PC off
if the settings are set to do that. I've tried that just as a test and it
works well. However, the Nebula software won't switch the PC off unless all
the timers have been used. I am away most Weekends though so will want to
set it to record more than once with a large gap in-between, where I'd
rather the PC wasn't left on.

I know I could set Scheduler to turn the PC on at multiple times, but how
about hibernating? I have found a program called Slawdog that will put my PC
into hibernate mode at a chosen time, but then I'll have to not only set the
Nebula software's timer but also Slawdog AND Scheduler.

What would be best would be to set ONLY the timer, and have that take care
of everything, which is something I'd love to see Nebula do in future. I've
know some people use the Digiguide and DigDab software, but I'm not sure
what their features are. Could they be used to do what I want at all?

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could achieve this without having
to set too many different bits of software please?

I'm using XP Home Edition with SP1 by the way, in case that helps.

Thanks,
Geoff.

see http://www.rjf295.co.uk

It doesn't support consecutive timers yet but the updated version
does, that'll be finished by Monday.


"Geoff" wrote in message ...
Hi everyone,

I have a question about the best way to set my Nebula DigiTV to startup and
shutdown the PC on it's own and make multiple recordings. I've researched
this a bit, and have read what other people suggest with using such programs
as DigDab and Digiguide, but I'm not sure what combination of what program
will really do what I want.

Forget the timer bugs in the Nebula software for now because I think they'll
be resolved soon anyway. What I want to do is be able to set the PC to
switch on at a certain time, then have the program recorded, the PC
hibernate, THEN switch on again at another time, record, hibernate, etc..

I know I can set the PC to hibernate, then have something set in Scheduler
to switch the PC on, then DigiTV will record a program then turn the PC off
if the settings are set to do that. I've tried that just as a test and it
works well. However, the Nebula software won't switch the PC off unless all
the timers have been used. I am away most Weekends though so will want to
set it to record more than once with a large gap in-between, where I'd
rather the PC wasn't left on.

I know I could set Scheduler to turn the PC on at multiple times, but how
about hibernating? I have found a program called Slawdog that will put my PC
into hibernate mode at a chosen time, but then I'll have to not only set the
Nebula software's timer but also Slawdog AND Scheduler.

What would be best would be to set ONLY the timer, and have that take care
of everything, which is something I'd love to see Nebula do in future. I've
know some people use the Digiguide and DigDab software, but I'm not sure
what their features are. Could they be used to do what I want at all?

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could achieve this without having
to set too many different bits of software please?

I'm using XP Home Edition with SP1 by the way, in case that helps.

Thanks,
Geoff.

"jolly green giant" wrote in message
om...
see http://www.rjf295.co.uk

It doesn't support consecutive timers yet but the updated version
does, that'll be finished by Monday.


That looks interesting. I've downloaded it but before I try it, I just want
to ask something. I see that you're using JT, which I thought was for
Win2000 which is why I didn't download that myself. I have XP-Will it work
in XP? I must have read somewhere that it didn't, which is why I didn't try
it myself but maybe I'm mistaken?

Has anyone else tried it?

Thanks,
Geoff.

"jolly green giant" wrote in message
om...
see http://www.rjf295.co.uk

It doesn't support consecutive timers yet but the updated version
does, that'll be finished by Monday.


That looks interesting. I've downloaded it but before I try it, I just want
to ask something. I see that you're using JT, which I thought was for
Win2000 which is why I didn't download that myself. I have XP-Will it work
in XP? I must have read somewhere that it didn't, which is why I didn't try
it myself but maybe I'm mistaken?

Has anyone else tried it?

Thanks,
Geoff.