VCTs for providers who are not FTA (1 Viewer)

[Benoire]

Afternoon!

I'm asking this question here to see what the devs (@mm1352000) etc think about this. Here in NZ we have a none free to air provider whose channel numbers are not picked up on a normal scan. This is because they've got their VCTs on a different tableID to the standard 0xc8/9 that is normally used. As I can't get MediaPortal to compile correctly on windows 8 using Visual Studio I was wondering what the appetite was for the devs to incorporate different providers VCTs if they're known? I'm presuming given the stance on PPV in MP that it would be unlikely but you don't get anywhere without asking

Many thanks,

Chris

 

[mm1352000]

Hello again Chris

First thing to say is that as far as I know VCT (virtual channel table) is an ATSC term. The 0xc8 and 0xc9 tables are used for terrestrial and cable info respectively. The equivalent in DVB is the SDT (service description table), PID 0x11 tables 0x42 and 0x46.
...unless you're referring to an OpenTV thing (which I would know nothing about)?
FYI my understanding is that though it may describe itself as a platform for the TV provider audience, the only relevance of OpenTV for MP is as a [potential] EPG data format. I get the impression it could be used sorta like MHEG 5. Maybe I'm mistaken.

Anyhow, this info may be more helpful...
As long as nothing has changed recently you can find the Sky NZ LCNs in the DVB NIT (network information table). PID is DVB standard - 0x10; table ID is DVB standard 0x40 and 0x41. Sky NZ use a custom descriptor tag 0xe2 with apparently identical structure to the Nordig (defacto DVB standard) LCN descriptor (tag 0x83). See the code in TVE 3.5 for reference:
https://github.com/MediaPortal/Medi...howFilters/TsWriter/source/NitParser.cpp#L425

It should be relatively easy to create a custom patch for TVE 3. My attention is entirely on TVE 3.5...

mm

 

[mm1352000]

Umm, so I guess I didn't really answer the question!
In principle I have no issue with it, because there are people using legitimate CAMs and smartcards to receive content from non-FTA providers.
Sky NZ is a bit different as you know, but I don't see any harm in parsing their service data. We already parse channel names etc. so I see no reason why we shouldn't parse LCNs as well.

 

[Benoire]

Hey Buddy,

Yeah I was referring to the OpenTV platform. I didn't want to talk too much given the nature of the subject Yes the purpose would be channel numbers as I hate having incomplete guides and also the EPG would be superb. Without native collection, I really on DJBlus UK plugin and just ignore the erroneous data it gives me on titles, this way I get a fully complete EPG Will TVE3.5 get EPGs for OpenTV, MHEG5 etc or is it going to be for the complete non-proprietry stuff?

It's interesting that you've got 0xe2 as the descriptors as I was going through EPGcollector and found the OpenTV descriptor as 0xb1, but there is a descriptor with 0xe2 but it's called E2... Anywho thanks

I'm hoping that DJBlue releases some of his code as the plugin system he modified looks superb, the ability to run different EPG plugins without having to worry about covering them all in the base code. If I can add in the right descriptors in and then compile (how do you compile on windows 8?!) then all I have to do is modify his code to remove the extra characters in the title and we have a fully working EPG

Anyway slight ramble over, thanks again!

 

[mm1352000]

Yeah I was referring to the OpenTV platform. I didn't want to talk too much given the nature of the subject

It is unfortunate that I no longer have access to a satellite dish. I should do some digging in our streams...

Without native collection, I really on DJBlus UK plugin and just ignore the erroneous data it gives me on titles, this way I get a fully complete EPG

You might have told me this before, but humour me and remind me again: why don't you use the EPG Collector and the XMLTV plugin? I know it doesn't get you LCNs, but with MP 1.3+ you can pretty much set and forget the LCNs.

Will TVE3.5 get EPGs for OpenTV, MHEG5 etc or is it going to be for the complete non-proprietry stuff?

Pass.
I'm only one person, and hence I have limitations to how much I can do and how fast I can do it.
My attitude towards EPG is that it is secondary to having rock solid tuning and scanning. My hierarchy of priorities is something like:
1. Tuning and hardware support.
2. Scanning.
3. EPG data.
4. Configuration.

Once I'm happy with our tuning, hardware support and scanning code I'll think about EPG grabbing (if somebody doesn't beat me to it).

It's interesting that you've got 0xe2 as the descriptors as I was going through EPGcollector and found the OpenTV descriptor as 0xb1, but there is a descriptor with 0xe2 but it's called E2... Anywho thanks

I can only report what I found. I use Transedit and examine the contents of the transport stream directly.

I'm hoping that DJBlue releases some of his code as the plugin system he modified looks superb, the ability to run different EPG plugins without having to worry about covering them all in the base code. If I can add in the right descriptors in and then compile (how do you compile on windows 8?!) then all I have to do is modify his code to remove the extra characters in the title and we have a fully working EPG

As above, EPG with correct titles and descriptions should be possible already with the aid of the EPG Collector... but yes, it would be nice to have an integrated solution.
How do you compile on W8?
I know no more than what is written here:
http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_.../Building_MediaPortal_from_source/1_Git_Setup
I run XP.

 

[Benoire]

If you ever need any DVB-s dumps just ask, no problem to do it.

I can't use EPGCollector as the TBS drivers lock all cards to a single application, even when not in use. I tried running a 3 hour schedule to catch the providers changes (happen quite a lot during the day especially on the sports channels) but every time EPGcollector kicked in it would kill the live streams and we would lose what ever was being watched/recorded. Took me a while to figure that out, and TBS confirmed it on their forums.

I guess I like the idea of having a complete package, something that does it all well... I realise the amount of hard graft everyone has done to make MP what it is today so all I can do is ask every now and then and see the response... I can modify code little by little but I'm not programmer so I rely on people like yourself to do awesome stuff!

It's still great that this is what it is and keep up the awesome work!

Chris

 

[Benoire]

Hi MM,

So I need a little help with this, sorry to bother you.

I'm using DJBlu's amazing plugin as he has now added Sky NZ to his list for EPG grabbing, I believe he is trying to use the dump I gave him to get the rest of the data so it can do all the channel shifting/grouping like the UK version does (really, this is the perfect example of how TVEngine software could work... Plugins per data type, saves having to edit a whole load of code everytime the engine changes!).

In the meantime I'm trying to add the code for the LCNs in to his modified TVE3. I've taken what you said above and gone in to the TSWriter source, edited both NITDecoder to add the references to the Sky LCN. Example below:

if(indicator==0x83 || indicator==0xe2) // lcn
{
try
{
DVB_GetLogicalChannelNumber(original_network_id,transport_stream_id,&buf[pointer]);
}
catch(...)
{
LogDebug("exception in DVB_GetLogicalChannelNumber");
}
}

I'm assuming that what I've effectively said here is that the LCN information that I'm after is either on 0x83 OR 0xe2 ( as you said that it was following standard DVB practices) and that it should try Code DVB_GETLCN to gather the correct data. Would the code surrounding DVB_GetLogicalChannelNumber be applicable for finding the sky values, or do I need to amend them?​

​

Any help or pointers is greatly appreciated.​

​

Chris​

 

[mm1352000]

Chris, the code as you have it should work.

 

[Benoire]

Cheers buddy, however its a bit weird as I'm still getting 10000 as the LCNs... Might have to edit the code in the standard 1.4 TVE3 and see what that does... It might be due to DJBlu doing LCN grabbing via his plugin rather than dealing with it through TSwriter.

 

[mm1352000]

I'll download and check the dump you posted to confirm the descriptor hasn't changed. As you say, if DJBlu is using alternate code to create channels then the changes you make will have no effect. I can't confirm as the plugin code is not available.