RikPVR 2.2 Beta 1

The first beta of RikPVR 2.2 has just been made available. RikPVR 2.2 includes a new scanning module which is faster, improves compatability with various TV cards and also improves the broadcast EPG scanner considerably.

You can grab this latest version from http://www.rikpvr.com/beta.aspx or using the built in "Check for Updates" menu option (provided you've ticked the "Include pre-release versions" box in the options windows).

RikPVR 2.1 Release Candidate 1

RikPVR 2.1 is edging closer to release. The first feature complete beta has been released and is available through the "Check for Updates" option (as long as you have beta release checking turned on in the general settings) or by downloading from http://www.rikpvr.com/beta/RikPVR_2.1.0.356.msi. If you download separately you will need to uninstall previous versions first.

This release now has the new recording length UI included (see below). This adds red bars showing exactly when a recording starts and stops - including any buffers around the show. You can also use these bars to adjust the buffers by simply clicking and dragging on their ends.

RikPVR 2.1 beta 1 released

The first beta of RikPVR 2.1 has been released. You can grab the beta from http://www.rikpvr.com/beta/RikPVR_2.0.1.338.msi or by using the built-in RikPVR auto-update. Make sure you select "Include Pre-release (beta) versions" from the general options page.

So what's new? Here's a quick list of the major changes:

• Bug fixes - every significant bug that has been reported by users has been fixed. Some minor issues still exist, but nothing which gets in the way of using RikPVR
• Improved EPG scanning - scanning the TV guide from the broadcast has been sped up, made more stable and is just generally better!
• Better channel management - The channel options pages have been improved plus RikPVR will now automatically add new channels when they appear in your source. This is quite especially important in Australia at the moment as the new HD channels come online.
• Better management of adjacent recordings - This feature is still under development in this beta, but should be complete by the time 2.1 is released. RikPVR will now provide you with some options if you want to record to adjacent shows on different channels but you only have one tuner. Previously it wouldn't allow you to do this because of the padding. More details later :)
• Plus many other little tweaks... too many to list separately!

As always, send any feedback through by email or using the built in "Send Feedback" menu option.

New Beta Version Shipped

The RikPVR beta is now going strong with a quite a few people signing up. I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality of feedback I'm getting from the testers.

Last night I released a new version which should be available via the auto-update facility. This new version addresses a serious bug which quite a few people encountered (see the forum post for some details). The bug was centred around a DirectShow filter which ships with RikPVR. The filter required some DLLs which weren't always present (the VS2005 C-runtime DLLs). Thankfully, simply changing the compiler settings to statically link the runtime solved the problem.

I've also had considerable interest from overseas testers, in particular a number of people in the UK have signed up. This new release will address some problems they had as well and should hopefully now allow UK and European users to scan for channels without crashing. I've tracked down the UK frequencies as well so they won't need to manually enter them.

Finally, I've added support for selecting between standard definition and high definition channels when you create a recording. Each channel in the guide can have multiple broadcast channels associated with it. (e.g. Channel 7 in the guide could have Channel 7 SD and Channel 7 HD both attached to it) When you right click on a show you now have the option of choosing which of these channels to use for the recording. You can also adjust the channel through the recording properties.

This is the first feature added based on feedback from a user. I did already have plans to do this, but its priority was bumped when somebody requested it.

Anyway... I look forward to hearing more from the testers as this new version comes through to them.