How does NextPVR separate TV from VOD ?

[FrankBKK]

I just got a new Provider whose VOD entries show up in the TV channels instead the VOD section.

As I have the possibility to change the M3U output I should be able to fix this but in order to do that
I need help on how NextPVR separates these entries.

This entry works fine and shows up in the VOD section:
#EXTINF:0 CUID="18760" tvg-name="DE - 96 Hours: Taken (2008)" tvg-logo="https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w600_and_h900_bestv2/y5Va1WXDX6nZElVirPrGxf6w99B.jpg" group-title="VOD - GERMANY [DE]",DE - 96 Hours: Taken (2008)
http://xxxx.xxx/1163632.mkv

This entry SHOULD show up in VOD but is recognized as TV Channel:
#EXTINF:0 CUID="55579" tvg-name="Smile 2 - 2024 de" tvg-logo="https://xxxx.xxx/t/p/w600_and_h900_bestv2/aE85MnPIsSoSs3978Noo16BRsKN.jpg" group-title="VOD - |DE| NEUE FILME 2024",Smile 2 - 2024 de
http://xxxx.xxx/1211323.ts

My player groups them properly and filters by 'VOD' in the group-title.

How does NextPVR approach this ?

[mvallevand]

Since a ts stream could be Live TV it makes sense they aren't filtered.

When you add the channels use the filter option to only includes the groups you want.

Martin

[FrankBKK]

Since a ts stream could be Live TV it makes sense they aren't filtered.

When you add the channels use the filter option to only includes the groups you want.

Martin

Hmm, this means NextPVR uses file extension (ts or mkv) to decide whether a stream is TV or Movie ?

[mvallevand]

I am not talking TV or Movie as VOD. I am not the author and don't know for certain how NextPVR determines VOD but since it does normally stream ts or m3u8 from an m3u file it makes sense to me those would be treated as regular channels.

Did filtering not work? You should be filtering anyway.

Martin

[sub]

Since a ts stream could be Live TV it makes sense they aren't filtered.

When you add the channels use the filter option to only includes the groups you want.

Martin

Hmm, this means NextPVR uses file extension (ts or mkv) to decide whether a stream is TV or Movie ?

If it's a link to a file, then yes it uses the file extension (mkv/mp4/m4v/m2ts/avi/vob/wmv), or if the group starts with "Movie ". I've extended that for the next release to also look for groups starting with "VOD "

Unfortunately there is no solid standards around this stuff, and lots providers do it different ways, so it's pretty much just a case of tweaking the exceptions as I come across them.

[FrankBKK]

Would you consider to lookup such exceptions from a config file instead of hard-coding them ?

For the regular user nothing would change and if there are unusual 'standards' we would have a way to tweak things.

[sub]

Maybe

[FrankBKK]

I got it sorted out by importing an m3u containing only the VOD's via a separate device then unselecting all VOD's showing up as TV channels.
They now show up properly as VOD's.

Some issues I experienced:
- MaxConnection is not always properly saved and resets to a default when working on devices.
- If the VOD's don't show up right away a restart of the service is necessary.
- It seems as if you import VOD's this way and later decide to remove the device (with empty channels but VOD) the VOD's will not be removed and stay forever.
Only way to get rid of them was to delete the db3 but that seems to corrupt the newly generated db3 file as no more VODs would show up later on, even from providers that worked fine before.
I had to purge/reinstall NextPVR to get it working again.

[sub]

VOD only has very limited basic support, and it's only available in the web app. Honestly, I'm more interested in the live tv streams aspect, and not so much VOD.

With the web app open (so you're authenticated) you can visit the http://localhost:8866/service?method=vod.delete url and it'll delete the VOD items.

The VOD items will return when you update channels in your IPTV device. (You may need to force refresh your browser to get to VOD tab to show up though)