DVA dead?

[rkramer]

as good as DVarchive is, does anyone know the status of the project? It is been a year+ since 3.1 has been released, and it certainly has many bugs to squash and features to add...

[rlichtefeld]

Gerry says he is planning on releasing a new version, but no time table.

http://dvarchive.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2149

[adone36]

What are the "many bugs"?

What features are you looking for?

[gduprey]

[QUOTE=rkramer]as good as DVarchive is, does anyone know the status of the project? It is been a year+ since 3.1 has been released, and it certainly has many bugs to squash and features to add...[/QUOTE]
Care to elaborate on what those "many bugs" are buddy? While there are some minor cosmetic issues, there are only 3 that are really of any consequence and they are not really show stoppers either.

If you were on the dvarchive.org forums, which are moderately active, you might see that things are far from dead.

And what features do you feel are lacking and needed to be answered?

I really get irked by folks who expect things to run on their schedule and when they don't, start declaring things "dead" (how much more insulting can you be about the effort I put into this project?).

If you feel DVA is dead, you are free to take your uninformed assertion and use some other software.

[rkramer]

sorry, no offense intended! (I'm a former software developer, and have had to deal with users with that exact same attitude on a continous basis...) I was more just wondering if there is a future version in the works. people are pretty much considering Replay itself a dead platform, at least no upgrades coming down the pipe, since the last release was also a year+ back...

bugs... corrupted config files, locking up on startup (the grey screen), occasionally not dying off when closing it. those are the ones I run into, not sure what the common ones are you mentioned.

I did visit the dva forums but found no mention of the future of DVA, other then the 1 post linked to that mentions there will eventually be a future version.


anyway, i guess my hope was that if it eventually does become abandonware, that it would move to open source at that time. At this point I can see why you wouldn't want to be associated with the direction might head if it goes open source... (built in poopli support, etc...)

[gduprey]

[QUOTE=rkramer]bugs... corrupted config files, locking up on startup (the grey screen), occasionally not dying off when closing it. [/quote] All variations on the same issue: DvA re-writes it's config files more often than it has too and that opens up vulnerabilities.

I did visit the dva forums but found no mention of the future of DVA, other then the 1 post linked to that mentions there will eventually be a future version.Since the DVA V1.0, I have made it policy not to pre-announce anything about a release. Things happen and sometimes things you want to get into a release don't make it. If you announced it ahead of time, people bitch afterwards if the thing they were hoping for is omitted. Also, if you start talking about a new release, every other email/message becomes a variation of "when will it be coming out'. Since DVA is freeware and something I do for fun, I'm not going to subject myself to that sort of thing.

There are alpha and beta testers who, understandably, have fore-knowledge, but are asked not to speak of it to anyone else. The last beta cycle for DVA V3.0 took about 8 months (there were nearly 120,000+ lines of code added between V2.0 and V3.0 to DVA).

anyway, i guess my hope was that if it eventually does become abandonware, that it would move to open source at that time.I guess I don't even appreciate the suggestion that it somehow seems headed that way. Whatever...

At this point I can see why you wouldn't want to be associated with the direction might head if it goes open source... (built in poopli support, etc...) Add in poopli support (me or anyone else), and expect to see a lawyer pronto. I have had some experience with this....

[ClearToLand]

[QUOTE=gduprey]Care to elaborate on what those "many bugs" are buddy? While there are some minor cosmetic issues, there are only 3 that are really of any consequence and they are not really show stoppers either. [/QUOTE]What are the three bugs that you are referring to? Do you have LINKs to more information located on your forum? Do they have workarounds, if needed?

[gduprey]

I have them in my internal tracking files. You can certainly find references around in the DVA forums -- it would take scanning for too long to figure them out (config file being re-written too often, TV Guide listings gettign screwed up under certain changes to the provider channel lineup, upcoming show analysis issue under certain repreated channel setups).

[DTSfan]

rkramer, DVA 3.1 is working like a champ for me and I'm looking forward to the next update whenever it becomes available. As Gerry mentions, anyone wanting to follow the progress or ask questions can go directly to the DVA forums at the home site. There are plenty of experienced DVA users who can answer questions - but of course you should read the FAQ and search first since most have already been asked and answered.

[zabolots]

[QUOTE=rkramer]anyway, i guess my hope was that if it eventually does become abandonware, that it would move to open source at that time.[/QUOTE]

IIRC DVArchive was open source prior to V3, even though I'm pretty sure Gerry did 100% of the development.

Any reason why the source availablility was pulled?

[gduprey]

yep

[BaysideBas]

[QUOTE=zabolots]IIRC DVArchive was open source prior to V3, even though I'm pretty sure Gerry did 100% of the development.

Any reason why the source availablility was pulled?[/QUOTE]I'm only guessing here, but two reasons come to mind: 1. Lawyers and, 2. Lawyers.

[DTSfan]

zabolots, A simple search of DVArchive.org's forums for "source code" will answer your question. Here's a link (http://www.dvarchive.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=813&highlight=source+code) for you.

[Hairston]

Wow, I can't believe this thread even exists... :rolleyes:

As long as ReplayTV lives, so will DVA. If it wasn't for DVA, I would guess most of us wouldn't use a ReplayTV like we do today.

I must say DVA is as stable as it gets when it comes "free use" software. And as far as features? Geez, I don't even need to elaborate.

Although Gerry must get a ton of thank yous for his work, I am going to throw in another anyway:

THANK YOU AGAIN GERRY! :)

- HB

[gweempose]

DVArchive rocks!
Long live King Gerry! :)

[djdementia]

it doesn't seem dead at all to me. it's far more mature then a lot of other free programs I've used. It still amazes me at how great the program is.

I think it's only problem is Java's bloatwear, but you have to make a trade off when you want an application that is cross platform.

[Sarcoma]

Unlike many of you, I don't feel the need to archive most shows I watch (I archive a few special sporting events, about three so far). However, since Gerry released version 3.1, DVArchive has an all-new value to me. It is the PERFECT way to set up my recording schedule for the fall season.

Last year I spent some time working through the spreadsheet posted here of the fall line-up to load-balance my two units and avoid conflicts. Then I had to go into the ReplayTV and find all of the shows to record. THEN I downloaded DVA 3.1, which really simplifies things! The recording scheduling can all be done from one computer and you can view conflicts between various recordings (theme based). DVA 3.1 is brilliantly designed to help in the one major area of weakness a ReplayTV has as compared to a TiVo (their list of scheduled upcoming recordings).

Yes, I am one of the host of ReplayTV owners who gives mad props to Gerry for DVA!

[famewolf]

Is one of the enhancements planned to support Java 1.5? Currently DVArchive requires 1.4.2 and Azureus requires 1.5. I'm currently looking into how to make linux use a different java for each.

[Serra]

[QUOTE=famewolf]Is one of the enhancements planned to support Java 1.5? Currently DVArchive requires 1.4.2 and Azureus requires 1.5. I'm currently looking into how to make linux use a different java for each.[/QUOTE]

I've run into the same issue here. Java keep flashing up "Install the new version"... I am afraid to...

As for DVA in general... I seem to have been hit with two of the three bugs, but they don't bother me that much as I seem to be able to get around them.

I love DVA and when the new release comes out, I'll be happy. I'll be even happier if it is the April Fools version....

[gduprey]

Yes -- any future release of DVA will be able to run with Java 1.4.2 and later.

However, there is no need to have to pick one or the other. You jan have Java 1.4.2 and 1.5 installed on your machine at the same time with no conflicts. The details are covered on the DVA forums, but the short version:

Insure Java 1.5.x is NOT installed
Install Java 1.4.2 (if not already on)
Install Java 1.5

The default Java for your system will be Java 1.5

Then use either a custom shortcut/script file to launch DVA using the javaw executable in the 1.4.2 install directory or, if under windows, use something like WinDVA and tell it where the Java executable is.

Lots of folks do this and it's not really all that hard.

[gduprey]

[QUOTE=famewolf]Is one of the enhancements planned to support Java 1.5? Currently DVArchive requires 1.4.2 and Azureus requires 1.5. I'm currently looking into how to make linux use a different java for each.[/QUOTE]
Just install Java 1.4.2 and Java 1.5. They should install into different directories (if they don't by default, it's easy to change the install directory). Make one java your system default (edit the /etc/profile or /etc/bashrc to add the path to the java/bin directory of the default version.

If you make Java 1.5 your default, then just write a simple script like this to launch DVA

#!/bin/sh
/usr/<path_to_java_1.4.2>/bin/javaw -jar <path_to_DVArchive.jar>/DVArchive.jar &

Make the script file executablem put it into a bin directory (/usr/local/bin is a good choice) and use that "command" to launch DVA.