[robingodfrey]

Hi,
I’m running Kodi 7.14 on Windows 10 with a plug-in for DVBLink Viewer and have a couple of problems:
1. The big problem: some tv programs can’t be deleted from within Kodi. Most are fine but for the second time (first time was about 6 months ago) a bunch of programs flicker for a moment but stay in the list of recorded programs. The files on the local drive get deleted but they stay in the Kodi listing. I’ve tried ‘Clean Library’ without success. When this happened previously I found an article on how to use DB Browser to issue an SQL command to remove items with a particular status/value. It worked a treat but I’ve searched this forum and everywhere else I can find but I can seem to find the same articles again. Can anyone tell me how I can repeat that SQL statement – or suggest an alternative fix. If anyone knows why this could happen and what I can do to prevent it in future that would also be great.
2. The niggly problem: If Kodi starts with Windows, it doesn’t seem to load the DBVLink add-in properly as the DBVLink services are still starting. I used to work round that by using a scheduled task to start the app 20 seconds after logon occurred (and logon was automatic). That worked until I switched to the Microsoft Store version of Kodi. Now there’s no .exe to run and I haven’t found a way of starting Kodi using a scheduled task. I bet there’s a slick way to let other services start before starting Kodi which everyone else using DVBLink Viewer has worked out. Can someone tell me what it is please

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Rob

[AndyHenderson]

I can't help with DVBViewer problems as I use the DVBLink PVR plug-in. Switching to DVBLink PVR might help as it's the one created and supported by DVBLogic.

As regards the DVBLink service, I find that delaying the start of Windows doesn't necessarily help because it often times out (even after extending the time-out limit with a registry change). I have a little .NET menu program that pops up with a double-press of the 'i' button on the remote. It includes options to: start the DVBLink service without a timeout; and to run Kodi. The trouble is, to get the authorisation to manage the DVBLink service, it has to be started by the Windows task scheduler (which can start tasks on start-up under admin privileges) - and that takes a minute or so to get going (on my PC anyway). It can also be run manually, but that causes a UAC challenge.

You could use some of that code to:

- Wait if the service is starting up, so you can discover the outcome
- Start the service if it's not running or starting, and wait for the result
- Start Kodi when the service is running

If you're interested I can provide some code but, to use it, you'd need to be a .NET C# developer.

Andy

[robingodfrey]

Thanks for the reply Andy (and sorry its taken so long to acknowledge).
I listed the wrong add-in. Its DVBLink I'm using and was describing the my problems for.

Appreciate the offer of code but I haven't written anything in C++ (as close as I ever got to C#) for 20 years and wouldn't know where to start. I also haven't had problems with DVBLink starting and a simple 'wait 30 seconds' is all I think I need which I can manage with a batch file or VBS etc. What I Haven't worked out is how to call a Windows Store application...

I'll try posting my DB problem in another topic to get a wider audience.

Cheers

Rob

[AndyHenderson]

Ah. I think the file deletion issue might be because of the way that the plug-in and DVBLink server work together. If a file gets deleted through the file system or through the 'Files' section of Kodi, the plugin is not involved and the DVBLink server is not informed. The information about recordings shown in the TV section of Kodi comes from the DVBLink server so will persist until it realises what's happened: you can delete it manually through the DVBLink Viewer app. Alternatively there is a 'Background check for deleted recordings' checkbox under Setup -> Settings in the app which asks the DVBLink server to delete them from its database automatically.

Hopefully that explains why database cleaning in Kodi doesn't help. I think deletion should work correctly if you do it from the TV section in Kodi. If not, I think it more likely to be an issue with the plugin, but can't be sure; it's not a issue I've encountered.

Andy

[robingodfrey]

Thanks Andy. I can see the recordings in DVBLink - they're highlighted red, it knows they're not there (they were deleted by Kodi) but I can't delete them from DBVLink.
I've already got ''Background check for deleted recordings' enabled and have had since before the problem began.
I don't think this can be due to DBVLink server and the plug-in not working together as you've described as this is standard functionality which I use constantly - I've only had this problem twice in the last 8 months even though I delete several files each day. Both times the problem has occurred its caused a problem for a dozen or so files but delete keeps working for all other files.

As I posted, someone had provided step by step guidance of how to modify the Kodi DB - that resolved the immediate problem but I can't find that article again...