DirectTV SHEF IP Control Plugin for TVServer (3 Viewers)

[Maninthewilderness]

I hope I did this right. Here's the zipped folder of all my logs.

The STB is right as well.

Thanks again!!!

 

[mm1352000]

Perfect!

Okay, so it looks like your SHEF plugin configuration is incomplete:

[2014-01-24 18:44:48,080] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: find card for channel 5 KPIX
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,082] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: got 1 tuning details for 5 KPIX
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,083] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: channel #1 tv:5 KPIX Freq:0 Channel:5 Country:United States Tuner:Cable Video:HdmiInput1 AudioPDIFInput1
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,083] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:1 type:RadioWebStream is disabled
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,084] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:2 typevbIP is disabled
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,085] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:3 type:Analog can tune to channel
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,086] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:4 typevbC is disabled
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,086] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:5 typevbS is disabled
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,087] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:6 typevbS is disabled
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,087] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:7 typevbS is disabled
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,088] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:8 typevbS is disabled
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,088] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: found 1 card(s) for channel
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,089] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - AdvancedCardAllocation.GetAvailableCardsForChannel took 8 msec
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,089] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: found 1 free card(s)
[2014-01-24 18:44:48,089] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - AdvancedCardAllocation.GetFreeCardsForChannel took 9 msec
[2014-01-24 18:44:51,101] [Log ] [6 ] [DEBUG] - CardReservationBase.RequestCardTuneReservation: placed reservation with id=2, tuningdetails=tv:5 KPIX Freq:0 Channel:5 Country:United States Tuner:Cable Video:HdmiInput1 AudioPDIFInput1
[2014-01-24 18:44:51,102] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:3 type:Analog users: 0
[2014-01-24 18:44:51,102] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: card:3 type:Analog is available
[2014-01-24 18:44:51,103] [Log ] [6 ] [INFO ] - Controller: try max 1 of 1 cards for timeshifting
[2014-01-24 18:44:51,104] [Log ] [6 ] [DEBUG] - DirecTV_SHEF - DirecTV_SHEF_OnTvServerEvent(): Changing Channel - Card Id = 3, Channel = 5 (5 KPIX), Video Source: HdmiInput1
[2014-01-24 18:44:51,105] [Log ] [6 ] [ERROR] - DirecTV_SHEF - DirecTV_SHEF_OnTvServerEvent(): INFO: attempt to send command to unmapped receiver; command send not attempted

Note the last two lines there.
What that means is that you need to enter the card/tuner ID in the SHEF plugin configuration so that the plugin know which receiver to control when the corresponding card/tuner is tuned.
The card ID for your Colossus is 3, so put that in the "card ID" field for receiver 1 (or whichever receiver you entered the IP address against).
After that you should be good to go.

mm

 

[Maninthewilderness]

That was it!!! I was putting the DirecTV card number in there... Thank you so much!!! Now I'm off to finish the setup!!! Really like this program!!!

 

[sjevtic]

Don't forget:

• SHEF needs to be turned on from your receiver's GUI. See section 2.4 of http://www.satinstalltraining.com/homeautomation/DTV-MD-0359-DIRECTV_SHEF_Command_Set-V1.3.C.pdf
  
• Your receivers need names or addresses that won't change. If you just plug them into your home router without configuring this, there's a good chance that their IP addresses will change from time to time, causing the SHEF plugin to be unable to communicate with them at some point.
• You can test SHEF functionality with your web browser. Here is an example that turns my receiver on and off every time I refresh the page, just as if I had pressed the power button on my remote:
  
• When all else fails, running Wireshark on your TV-Server machine is one of the best ways to observe the interactions between the SHEF plugin and your STBs.

Since it seems the SHEF plugin has been largely abandoned, I will try to get around to building the SHEF plugin against 1.6.0 as soon as possible with my changes for supporting multiple concurrent clients per stream. It's not perfect, but seems to work pretty well.

Good luck!

Sasha

 

[enricong]

Feature Suggestion:

Is MediaPortal able to take advantage of the DirecTV DVR's ability to record multiple shows at once somehow?

There could be a user option to have MediaPortal record to the HD or to the DVR. It could also automatically transfer the recording to the HD from the DVR by playing back the show and recording it during off times, like at night. There could be tracking of which recorded shows are on DVR and which are on the HD. If one wants to playback the one on the DVR, then the plugin could playback the specified file. To go further, mediaportal could do some "intelligent" scheduling and automatic delegate some of the recording to the DVR if it detects a potential programming conflict.

 

[mm1352000]

There could be a user option to have MediaPortal record to the HD or to the DVR. It could also automatically transfer the recording to the HD from the DVR by playing back the show and recording it during off times, like at night. There could be tracking of which recorded shows are on DVR and which are on the HD. If one wants to playback the one on the DVR, then the plugin could playback the specified file. To go further, mediaportal could do some "intelligent" scheduling and automatic delegate some of the recording to the DVR if it detects a potential programming conflict.

I'd be surprised if the DVR recordings are not encrypted and if the protocol provides a way to pull recordings out of the DVR.

 

[enricong]

There could be a user option to have MediaPortal record to the HD or to the DVR. It could also automatically transfer the recording to the HD from the DVR by playing back the show and recording it during off times, like at night. There could be tracking of which recorded shows are on DVR and which are on the HD. If one wants to playback the one on the DVR, then the plugin could playback the specified file. To go further, mediaportal could do some "intelligent" scheduling and automatic delegate some of the recording to the DVR if it detects a potential programming conflict.

I'd be surprised if the DVR recordings are not encrypted and if the protocol provides a way to pull recordings out of the DVR.

I'm not suggesting downloading from the DVR HD somehow. I mean commanding the receiver to record the specified show, then later commanding it to playback the recorded show so it can be captured.

You can send remote commands over ethernet like changing channels (I assume thats what the current plugin does). So you could do the proper sequence, but that would require some sort of feedback to know how to navigate. With the directv app, I can command my receiver over ethernet to play or record a specific show. I wasnt sure if this protocol was well understood to be able to incorporate into the plugin. Another avenue at least for recording is that you can setup recording via the website.

 

[sjevtic]

This would probably be theoretically possible, but sounds complex for a pretty marginal benefit. I just have a stack of 3 DirecTV (non-DVR receivers) connected to 3 Colossus cards in my TV-Server. The result is fantastic--I can have streams for three separate channels going simultaneously, and each stream can have multiple users, where a "user" can be a MediaPortal client watching TV, a recording session running on the TV-Server itself, or an MPExtended remote user. TV-Server is smart about handling the three receivers, automatically allocating them to different activities as necessary.

And yes, the current plugin sends remote commands over Ethernet to change channels and turn the receivers on and off. Note that you schedule MediaPortal recordings on the web using WebMediaPortal or another MPExtended client (like aMPdroid on your phone).

Sasha

 

[enricong]

I briefly looked through the SHEF protocol and saw a section for DVR commands where you can get the playlist and play shows. However, it looks like the section is deprecated. If there were simple commands to play a show, it would reduce the complexity alot.

Sure, it would be simpler to get more receivers but then you have to pay an additional monthly fee ($6/mo) for each receiver in perpetuity. In addition, for people like myself that are out of contract, I would be forced to renew to get additional receivers. It just seems like a waste to have an HD DVR that can record 2 shows at once and in order to get the same functionality (with mediaportal) I have to get another receiver (and capture device) and start paying an additional $6/mo.

 

[sjevtic]

Well, you're right about the fee for the additional receivers, though the way I look at it, if I didn't have a MediaPortal setup, I'd end up having receivers in different rooms that I'd end up paying for anyway, so it's largely a wash there. I bought my H24 receivers from a dealer online because DirecTV couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't send me H25s (which don't have Ethernet), but perhaps the upside of this was that I was never asked to sign a new 2 year agreement. That said, I don't know under what conditions they ask for a contract extension.

Sasha