StreamFab and Scheduling

[ParadoxGBB]

Hello all,

I was very excited to see that StreamFab added a scheduling feature in version 5.0.2.8. As a lifetime PlayOn user that was burned by recent updates there, I'd love to evaluate this and I have a few questions for others that might be using this that has implications for how StreamFab is going to integrate with this feature. To me, this feature was the only functional gap between StreamFab and PlayOn.

1) When in trial mode will StreamFab attempt to download new scheduled shows if you still are within quota? The popup implies no, but it allowed me to create the schedule anyway. I'll find out in a few days I guess.

2) I'm really curious here what others' experience here is around the software being more or less hands-off and automatic. I've had to enter in credentials repeatedly in Audials and StreamFab, especially after taking new updates, and that seems to run counter to the goal here and could be one of the reasons why PlayOn requires you to separately configure credentials per source/channel. Does anyone here feel confident walking away from your PC for a week?

3) Related to 2), PlayOn takes updates automatically, and while there's a startup application configured for StreamFab ("StreamUpdate.exe") so far I think it doesn't do anything but notify, and even then not very quickly. Especially for me at least as I keep my PC on 24/7.

For anyone interested, it appears that the approach here is that a portion StreamFab doesn't run as a separate background service like PlayOn, but rather creates a scheduled task to run StreamFab with the "TaskScheduler" parameter. Not sure yet how it distinguishes between each show that way and whether it's something that can be micromanaged through automation yet.

Thanks for any insights anyone can provide!

[KidJoe]

I too was burned by playon. I'm just starting to play with the StreamFab scheduling options so I can't go point by point with all your questions. I can only explain what I've done, and what my experiences have been.

Yesterday afternoon, as a test, I added series shows from HBOMax, Amazon, Disney+ and Peacock to my schedule in StramFab, with each set to check once per day at 12:00am. Unfortunately some were older shows, so I don't expect them to pick up new episodes, but I was more testing was scheduling available for that service, and it is! I will try other streaming services soon.

I had StreamFab open and downloading other things. This morning when I looked at the scheduled tab in StreamFab, "Last Updates" for each show said Mon April 11 00:00:41 2022. Last Week Tonight (HBOMax) also said 1 Video Added to queue. Looking at the download queue, sure enough S09E07 which per HBOMax web site aired on April 10, was added to

So in that respect, StreamFab scheduling is working like PlayOn. Checking once per day for new episodes and added them to the download queue.

Here is a slight difference. PlayOn would add the shows to the queue and would also also immediately download them. With StreamFab the new Last Week Tonight was added to StreamFab's download queue, but the download didn't auto start. I don't know if this is expected, or if its because I had the download queue running with other things when Last Week Tonight was added. I never used the YouTube scheduler, so I don't know if it works similarly, and there isn't info on this new scheduling feature for the VIP Services on the StreamFab sales web site yet.

I also don't know how it keeps track of what was downloaded to determine what is new. For example, what happens if I move these downloads from the 'download folder' to the TV folder on my PlexServer?

As far as credentials. With Playon I had to re-enter and test my credentials for each service ALOT!! sometimes several times per week, other times once every 30 days. With StreamFab I have rarely, if ever, had to re-enter my credentials for the streaming providers.

[ParadoxGBB]

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

I had scheduled "Moon Knight" to check (I think they drop Wednesdays) but when I checked in this morning there was an error asking me to check the subscription manually and when I did so it's stuck checking. So it's possible that this is effectively disabled for trial users. From your description, I think you're registered.

Not downloading the queue automatically seems like quite a gap to me --- hopefully, someone will weigh in here if that's expected or not. It's possible that there's a parameter there like StreamFab -DownloadQueue that could be utilized as a kick.

For credentials, it's possible that I'm mistaken compared to Audials, but it was one of the reasons why I brought up updates because that might impact that. Because StreamFab downloads directly it might mean that it doesn't have as many web components that it swaps out on upgrade which could flush cached credentials, which would be great if true. Just as a FYI I rarely had to update my credentials to PlayOn.

PlayOn stores all of its configuration, from subscriptions, recording queue, and success / fail status, in a SQL3Lite database file that is queryable, so I would up integrating with it better in my automation to notify the user when something is recording, when there's a problem with a recording, and to make sure the service is running. The greater goal is to make sure things are running so that the user doesn't have to open up each recording service to make sure things aren't broken or stuck or needs an update. I'll have to decide if it makes sense to look at similar scenarios with StreamFab. Unfortunately, my renewal date for PlayOn was 4/4 (!!!) and I allowed that because StreamFab didn't have this feature yet, so I'll also have to decide whether I should drop cash here and if so when.

[twhiting9275]

My own feedback, as noted here (I knew I should have just added to this thread but didn't want to hijack it, as it were)

1: This should
2: Hands off, and automatic, not so much... It should be, but not so much
3: SF does not update automatically, which can be a good thing.

I had SF crash and had to restart it a few hours later. Came back to 20+ shows I had to manually check. I'm not sure if this would have resolved itself, but I did so. Huge PITA.
As noted above, the system did NOT automatically start said downloads, so this needs to be added in for sure

As far as moon knight, since today is Tuesday (not Wednesday) in the US (where things will drop), you're likely going to have to wait until tomorrow for this.

I too was burned by PlayOn, but way before they pulled the lifetime invalidation scam. Devs effectively rendered software useless a couple years back for me, and refused to fix the problem

Anyways, just my 0.02

[KidJoe]

From your description, I think you're registered.

Yes I am a registered user of StreamFab. I have been since it was first released as DVDFab Downloader. So I'm grandfathered in and have access to all modules except the Adult services and DRM M3U8 Downloader. (and I subscribe to Amazon, Netflix, HBOMax, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount+, AppleTV+, ESPN+, Discovery+ services)

StreamFab has just gained the ability to check for and download new episodes for series on schedule, so there is room from improvement. Don't expect StreamFab to be as robust as PlayOn was in this area yet. Give it some time.

Unfortunately I've seen the FAB team bring out new features in the past without much explanation of how it should work (or what the expected behavior is). That certainly appears to be the case here. That means there is going to be a learning curve for us users to better understand how it actually works.

While its been a manual effort, StreamFab has been "hands off" for me. Sure there have been glitches here and there, or breakages due to streaming provider changes, that needed to be worked on (PlayOn had this). But for the most part StreamFab has been: Open the "VIP Service" module, select the movie or show I want, add to queue, repeat to add more, then when ready hit start download and walk away. AppleTV+ does seem to make me log in often, but I also have to re-log in often via PC Web Browser and my Roku boxes, so this might be more an Apple thing than StreamFab thing.

With PlayOn I had more of a need to repeatedly log into providers, and failed recordings way more often than I do with StreamFab. So if StreamFab's scheduling part comes up to speed quickly I'll be extremely happy, because PlayOn was screen recording at 1x playback, limited to 1280x720, and stereo audio, where StreamFab is a true downloader(high speeds) with 1080p for many services, and up to 6 channel EAC3 audio.

The FAB Team has been relatively good at fixing issues (especially if you provide logs and an explanation of how to recreate the issue). Sometimes you do have to be patient. And I wont sugar coat it, there have been a few occasions where fixes have taken longer, or issues are still open, without any communication, update or insight from the FAB Team or developers for us users to know what's going on, so it feels like they aren't working on it. (Apple TV+ issues comes to mind). As a paying customer, as things drag on like that without update/status, it becomes frustrating to say the least.

[twhiting9275]

I've got to say that so far, the scheduler is an epic failure here. Like massive failure.

Every single time I pop it open to see if it's done anything, all of the scheduled tasks are red, and I have to manually check them again. What's the point?

Tasks, literally take forever to run through (which is likely why everything has to be done manually), likely because of the inefficient way that SF handles seasons

Understandably, this is 'new' to SF, but it's not new tech. Had things been done efficiently in the first place, this wouldn't be an issue

[Wilson.Wang]

Hi,

The new released videos will be added to task queue and then start to download automatically (the download order sort is based your downloading list).

And StreamFab will be also start up automatically if you set the scheduled task but StreamFab client is not running.


Please post the log file and video link if you have any problem.

BTW, Netflix website upgraded something today, so the tasks of Netflix will be failed to check the new videos

Wilson

[twhiting9275]

Hi,
The new released videos will be added to task queue and then start to download automatically

This is 100% inaccurate, as of the current release. The queue is not started automatically, however videos are added to the queue

[Cats4U]

I just got done setting up scheduling for my wife's two soap operas that she watches. They start streaming roughly every weeknight at 8pm our time. The key word is roughly. Sometimes it is a little before 8pm, sometimes right at 8pm, and most times a little after 8pm. My concern is that scheduling only offers up times at the top of the hour (ie; 7pm, 8pm, 9pm, etc.) and I don't know what will happen if the task starts at 8pm and nothing new is available yet. If possible I'd like to be able to set my own time for the scheduling such as 8:08pm or whatever.

[twhiting9275]

Just double checked and confirmed
3 Hulu
2 Peacock
added to the download queue as a result of scheduler
Queue did NOT start automatically

[Cats4U]

As I wrote in a previous message here that is still listed as "Unapproved", I set up two soap operas for my wife. One is Hulu and the other is Peacock. I've gotten nothing, not even anything added to the Download queue, never-mind it starting.



I'm willing to take at least part of the blame for the failure because I fully admit that I'm not really sure how this is supposed to work.

[AGuyWithAComputer]

same here, 1 think from paramount added to the queue but did not start downloading till I atarted it

[twhiting9275]

Just adding to this here:

It seems that when downloads are started (manually), the first episode of the show is downloaded, at least for Peacock and HBO Max. Additionally, the show is not stored as it should be (download folder/source/episode number-show-episode name.ext). It's simply stored as episode name.ext

Others may differ, I haven't gotten too far into that yet.

[ParadoxGBB]

Quick update from me:

My test subscription did work in that it placed a new show into the download queue, but as noted did not automatically download. For some reason I needed to re-enter in credentials to fix the errors / problems I noted above, but once I did that again things seem to be behaving.

When you log into StreamFab the subscription does have a red dot next to it for more than a few seconds as the program checks them, even if it's out of schedule. The red circle normally indicates a problem, it might be better to use an arrowed circle or something like that.

I noticed this morning that 5.0.2.9 dropped but so far I don't see any announcements or notes so not sure what changed yet. It might just contain the Netflix fix that Wilson alluded to above.

I agree with a lot of the sentiments on this thread that the right things seem to be happening as far as the development / feedback process goes. It'll take some time until what the software does and how we think it should work meet somewhere in the middle.

[ParadoxGBB]

Quick update from me:

My test subscription did work in that it placed a new show into the download queue, but as noted did not automatically download. For some reason I needed to re-enter in credentials to fix the errors / problems I noted above, but once I did that again things seem to be behaving.

When you log into StreamFab the subscription does have a red dot next to it for more than a few seconds as the program checks them, even if it's out of schedule. The red circle normally indicates a problem, it might be better to use an arrowed circle or something like that.

I noticed this morning that 5.0.2.9 dropped but it looks like it doesn't contain any scheduling fixes.

I agree with a lot of the sentiments on this thread that the right things seem to be happening as far as the development / feedback process goes. It'll take some time until what the software does and how we think it should work meet somewhere in the middle.