Best approach to map channels (2 Viewers)

[madas]

Hi mm,

Even when I renamed the "Unknown**" channels it doesn't seem to be consistent. Either i'm loosing it or I see to get different channels when I select the same Unknown channel. Can anyone share what settings they are using in the HDHR Setup tool?

I've tried "MediaPortal" and I've tried "ATSC/Remap". The latter actually passes channel names to MP but they don't match the actual channel. I think with Sage the HDHR tool writes some files in to the SageTV directory which sage reads to identify the channels.

Any ideas what to try next?

 

[geoffstewart]

Hi guys,

mm dropped me a note to see if I could lend a hand (thanks for that, btw)... not sure if I can, but I'll try.

I had a similar issue that you guys are having where my plain analog cable tuner and HDPVR couldn't share the guide properly. The way I finally made it work was to have the analog channels scanned and named properly first.... then, when I add the schedules direct channels for the HD-PVR, the SD plugin can find the appropriate channel to connect with....

With this method, you will end up with multiple "tuning details" for a single channel. It's the channel record that schedules direct connects with.... I'm referring to the database records here.... probably not helping... let me try an example:

Consider the following channels:

101 CBS
102 ABC
103 NBC
104 CBC (some canandian content, eh?)

In the database, there are 4 records in the "Channels" table. Looks kinda like this:

idChannel, externalId, displayName
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1, '10036.31.schedulesdirect.org', '101 CBS'
2, '10234.31.schedulesdirect.org', '102 ABC'
3, '12344.31.schedulesdirect.org', '103 NBC'
4, '13412.31.schedulesdirect.org', '104 CBC'

I've omitted most of the details, but the key fields are those shown... the "externalId" and the "displayName". As you can see, the SchedulesDirect plugin has associated one of it's channels with a record in the MediaPortal database. It will only do a one-to-one association. Meaning, if I add another channel that has the same content as one that already exists, it will NOT get associated with SchedulesDirect. Like this:

idChannel, externalId, displayName
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1, '10036.31.schedulesdirect.org', '101 CBS'
2, '10234.31.schedulesdirect.org', '102 ABC'
3, '12344.31.schedulesdirect.org', '103 NBC'
4, '13412.31.schedulesdirect.org', '104 CBC'
5, '', '101 CBS'

The new channel with id 5 will never get associated with SchedulesDirect because the plugin already has one associated to 101 CBS.

At this point, you need to combine the channels with channel id 1 being the parent so the SchedulesDirect information is kept. This will essentially remove the channel record with id 5 and add a "tuning detail" to channel id 1. Now, if you add channel with id 1 to your mapping for your new card, it should be all set.

I've written all this and I'm pretty sure I'm not explaining it well... I'll just post it and see if anything sticks.

Cheers.

Geoff

 

[madas]

Geoff,

I don't think i'm even at the EPG part yet. It appears that it doesn't tune my HDHR3 correctly. What is the relationship (if any) between MP and the HDHR Setup tool?

If I disable channels in the HDHR setup tool will MP still find them in a scan?

Graham

 

[geoffstewart]

hmmmm, I'm not sure.... I've never used a HDHR before. Someone else is going to have to chime in on that one. Sorry.

 

[mm1352000]

Geoff: *much* appreciated
I think at some point I'm going to have to set up a trial SD account just so I can get my head around some of the issues that folks are dealing with. Channel associations in particular seems to be a big problem. Thanks once again!

graham: I was getting a little confused because I thought you were battling with a Colossus or HD-PVR - my mistake, sorry. I don't think there is any relationship between MP and the HDHomeRun tool. The only specific code that I know of for handling the HDHomeRun is in the device detection logic where we look at the registry to determine whether the HDHR is operating in cable mode (or DVB-T mode???). Could you please post your logs using the watchdog (option 3).

mm

 

[madas]

OK. I'm getting further. I have the tuning part of the HDHR working consistently. If I enable/disable channels in the HDHR setup tool it does block them from being seen by MP. I disabled all but one and thats all I see now. This makes the debug work a lot easier!

Now I have my Unknown-******* channel. I renamed this to 8-1 WTNHDT which is what SchedulesDirect uses. I currently do not have this channel from any other feed so this is a brand new channel (not like the scenario Geoff described above). The Schedulesdirect plugin unfortunately still does not associate the EPG data with this channel. Any thoughts? is this because of the -1? I tried "8 WTNHDT" and "8-1 WTNHDT"...neither worked.

If you still need logs let me know.

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again madas

If the HDHomeRun is working fine now then I don't need logs for that, but logs from the attempted channel import would be useful.

I've seen too many people struggling with SchedulesDirect channel mappings, so I've gone to the ultimate extreme of looking at the latest SD code to see exactly what it does. This is what I found.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Channels are linked if/when:

1. MP channel external ID (not editable, used for EPG mappings behind the scenes) matches SD channel XMLTV ID.
The SD XMLTV ID is assembed as follows:

if (IsLocalBroadcast && tvStation.BroadcastChannelNumber > 0 && !tvStation.IsDigitalTerrestrial)
{
// Local analog [cable???] channels.
xmlId += "." + tvStation.BroadcastChannelNumber.ToString() + XMLTVID;
}
else
{
// ATSC or cable (QAM) channels
xmlId += "." + tvStationMap.ChannelString + XMLTVID;
}

Presumably this is mostly to filter out channels that are already mapped correctly when you attempt a remap.

2. MP channel display name (ie. the name that you see in the "TV Channels" list) matches SD channel "call sign" (whatever that is - can somebody explain?). Assuming the call sign (the WTNHDT thing???) is visible in the SD lineup, this should be the easiest way to do things. Simply edit the channel names in MP to match the call signs in the lineup.

After that things start to get *significantly* more complicated.

First, for any MP channel that has:
- at least one tuning detail
- is unmapped in SD terms (ie. external ID not yet set)

1. Match SD "local lineup" channels to MP ATSC channels by major *and* minor channel numbers.
2. Match SD "local lineup" channels to MP analog [cable???] channels by MP channel number <--> SD broadcast channel number.
3. Match SD "non-local lineup" by linking between MP channel number and SD major channel number.

NOTE: for (2) and (3) the SD "allow channel number mapping" option must be enabled *or* the MP channel tuning detail must have a non-zero frequency (as well as the channel number).

Second. For any MP channels that:
- are analog [cable???]
- sourced from external (ie. not tuner) inputs - presumably STBs
- have an XMLTV external ID that is not present in the SD channel list

...match on the channel number component in the MP external ID and channel number component in the SD XMLTV ID. Presumably this is for handling channel mappings that have somehow fallen out of sync.

Finally, if an MP channel has:
- at least one tuning detail.
- is unmapped in SD terms (ie. external ID not yet set)

1. Match SD "local lineup" channels with MP analog [cable???] channels that have both a channel number *and* non-zero frequency by linking between MP channel number and SD major channel number.
2. Match SD "non-local lineup" channels by linking between MP channel number and SD broadcast channel number.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Even after looking at the code I *still* don't fully understand the way American and Canadian channels are labelled. Major and minor channel numbers... local and non-local... digital terrestrial and over-the-air (I thought NTSC analog OTA TV had been turned off?)... digital and analog cable... call signs.

I hope that my efforts are at least helpful to somebody...
mm

 

[ijourneaux]

There is nothing in the world I would like more thanto get MediaPortal up and running so I can retire BeyondTV. But this is really tough.

This weekend, assuming, I was doing something wrong, I removed all of the channels associated with all of the tuners and started over.

1. Added the HDPVR. Properly specified after TVServer is restarted, all of the channels come in from SchedulesDirect. The channels are named with a form like 8 WHRM.
2. Scanned the channels for the Adaptec analog tuners. These are identified with just a number 2-99. Since I have SchedulesDirect configured to match on # I think I have guide data for all of these channels as well.
3. When into the HDHomeRUn setup utility and disabled channels I didn't want. This eliminated many of the Unknown channels (still had a few though). The key channels just show up with call letters, for instance WHRM. This is where things go wrong. I can't get the guide data to be associated with the HDHomeRun channels. I tried renaming the Channels in TVServer to, for instance, "8 WRHM". No Luck. So I believe Madas and I have the same problem.

So at this point, I ahve 3 of my 5 tuners running (unfortuantely one one HD tuner though). So I though lets give it a shot for a while and get some feedback from the family.

@1$*& Damn if I couldn't get the IR blasting to the stb to work. I did have it working last week but nothing worked this go around. I have the TV3Server plugin, and IRSS installed. IN IRSS configuration, I have Windows Messages and USB-UIRT enable (USB-UIRT send and recieve enabled). In the TV3Server plugi, my cable box is listed so for the HDPVR tuner, I select the Motorola DCT2000. This will not blast via the USB_UIRT. No activity is indicated at the USB-UIRT. In the MediaPortal configuration utility, there is a section on the remote and USB-UIRT. I was able to confirm that if I learned the IR codes for my stb (0-9), I was able to change the channel on the stb BUT it would not successfully change the channel on the STB when I changed the channel in the guide. Some one had indicated that IRSS and EventGhost didn't play well together O all of this was done with EventGhost not running.

If I can ever get this to work, I will gladly write up a guide on how to get this to work. I understand my configuration is alittle more complicted than most but I can't believe I am the only one to experience these issues.

mm

Where are the tuning logs you referred to located?

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again Ian

So at this point, I ahve 3 of my 5 tuners running (unfortuantely one one HD tuner though). So I though lets give it a shot for a while and get some feedback from the family.

So let's be clear about what is not working:
- guide data for the HDHomeRun channels
- blasting for the HDPVR is not working

Where are the tuning logs you referred to located?

Just grab all the logs from the TV Server. Assuming you have the server set up as a single-seat, use the watchdog with option 3 to make a zip file of all the logs and post them here.

mm

 

[geoffstewart]

3. When into the HDHomeRUn setup utility and disabled channels I didn't want. This eliminated many of the Unknown channels (still had a few though). The key channels just show up with call letters, for instance WHRM. This is where things go wrong. I can't get the guide data to be associated with the HDHomeRun channels. I tried renaming the Channels in TVServer to, for instance, "8 WRHM". No Luck. So I believe Madas and I have the same problem.

So, is 8 WHRM on the HDHomeRun the same content as 8 WHRM on HDPVR and the other tuners?

If it is, then you would simply need to combine the channels ... keeping the HDPVR channel as the "parent"... The HDPVR channel has the link to SchedulesDirect. By combining the channels, you end up adding a tuning detail to the channel that is in the guide. So, when MP goes to record something, it will have multiple tuning options to get the same content.

The IRSS blasting is a bit klunky. You really only ever want a single program talking to the USB-UIRT. So, if you have the MP client (front end) using the USB-UIRT, then the IRSS cannot use it and vice versa. You really only need IRSS to use it... because when you watch live TV, you are communicating to the TV server which in turn asks the IRSS plugin to change the channel for you.

Hope that helps.

Geoff