PvrPack
RSTaskScheduler
RSTaskScheduler provides access to the windows task scheduling service. The task scheduler can be used to run tasks at predetermined times and dates. It can be used to start a video recording on a remote machine and will even work if the machine spends its idle time in standby mode. The interface is very detailed and somewhat difficult to understand but this component makes it easier to use.
RSTvTuner
RSTvTuner provides full control of a BDS tuner card. The component builds a filter graph and provides feedback on the success of the build. I have found tv tuners to be a bit fragile, sometimes they will not start without a machine restart. The component can test itself once the graph has been built to ensure that the filters will start and issue an event if not or if it finds the tuner components are already in use elsewhere.
The tuner also allows scanning for tv channels, making a record of them using an RSChannelManager, tuning to channels and recording to a file. This tuner does not provide pausable replay, for this you need RSBufferedTvTuner. The component can handle dual tv tuners and more than one tuner card in a machine.
RSBufferedTvTuner
RSBufferedTvTuner provides all the facilities of RSTvTuner but adds pausable replay. It uses Microsoft's caching filters and the buffering time can be set.
RSGuideStore
A BDS tuner can use a guide store to handle the details of channels in a multiplex. The guide store provides updates when the composition of channels or services in a multiplex changes. The guide store also provides some simple scheduling information about current and next programmes. I have not found this information to be very useful but digital transmissions in the uk use an events channel to transmit a two week programme guide. This data can be accessed using RSTvProgrammeGuide and the resulting schedule can be stored using an RSScheduleManager.
RSChannelManager
RSChannelManager provides management services for a collection of tv and radio channels. It can store the channels found during a channel scan in a ini file. The channel record allows channels to be hidden and, given that channels do not come out of the tuner in an order suitable for display, it allows you to order them in a meaningful way by assigning a key number. The key number can be thought of as channel 1, 2..
RSScheduleManager
RSScheduleManager provides management services for a programme guide. The tv Tuner provides events once it has been asked and a programme guide item has been received. Updating of programme guides goes on in the background, usually at a higher rate overnight. Programme guide items will be repeated so the schedule manager must identify schedule items it already has, perhaps updating its time properties or description if they have changed.
The schedule manager imposes a maximum age on schedule items beyond which they are removed from the list. The schedule can also be searched to identify scheduled programmes by their names. RSSeekGuideItems provides this function.
RSTvProgrammeGuide
A tv tuner does not provide its schedule events without being asked. This enables it to run smoothly on low power machines. RSTvProgrammeGuide has the job of asking the tv tuner if it has received a schedule item, which it will normally do every few seconds. The component provides an interface between the tuner, a schedule manager and any user interface controls that are being used to display the schedule. It uses its own thread to run the process so there should be no problems with application responses.
RSActonManager
RSActonManager provides services for user actions on a programme guide. It allows the action linked to a schedule item to be changed from no action through recording to viewing. It stores the action in the form of a recording or viewing task, set up using an RSTaskScheduler, and also stores a record of the action in the schedule storage file. This allows an application to know what tasks have been set without the recording machine running.
RSSeekGuideItems
RSSeekGuideItems allows a set of schedule items to be searched by the user. This can be a time consuming process; schedules in the Uk can contain several thousand items. The component accepts a string list of the items the user is looking for. It is possible, for instance, to set a recording job for all programmes matching a given search string. The component stores its search strings in an ini file and can be linked to programme guide updates so it knows when a new item has been received.
RSRecordingDispatcher
RSRecordingDispatcher provides an interface between a recording schedule item and a recording application. It creates a text string corresponding to a programmable format. This test string can then be delivered directly to a recoding application as a command line, or through a Scheduled task using an RSTaskScheduler.
RSViewDispatcher
RSViewDispatcher provides an interface between an schedule item and a replay application. It creates a text string conforming to a programmable format, describing the programme to be viewed. It would normally be linked to a replay application through a command line or some other form of inter-application communication.
RSImageManager
RSImageManager provides control over a photo collection. It interprets image files in a folder as 'Photos in a theme' The folders can be contained in another folder which you could call a Group of some kind - choose your own descriptions. The control allows a folder or a collection of folders to be presented as a slide show. I plan to add zooming and rotations to the control so that it can be trained to present each photo in the best possible orientation.
RSDirScan
RSDirScan provides directory search. It can be set to search three separate sets of folders, each search being targeted at a set of extension strings. You could use it to search media directories on different machines and to search for a set of video, audio and photo file types.
The component also provides file change monitoring threads for each of its search strings. The threads will be activated only when a file or folder change occurs.
RSDvdPlayer
RSDvdPlayer allows replay of DVDs. It allows setting of the viewing format and adjustments of aspect ratios to match, as well as possible, the different formats used in the film and PC worlds. It can also store bookmarks for each DVD using a unique identifier derived from the DVD contents using an RSDiskID from AudioPack. The component uses the Microsoft DVD navigator so I'm afraid you'll have to sit through those piracy promoting anti-piracy lectures.