New Plugin: DboxRecorder Plugin

[pt-1]

@Alibert...

The whole mapping process is what always stopped me to play around more with GBPvr and the Dbox Plugin..

I know you normmaly access the Dbox via:
http://ip%20of%20your%20dbox/control/channellist

to get the channel list..
Is this List in the order the channels are sorted in the bouquet ..?

When I done this the last time I ended up with this:

Code:

44d00016dca Das Erste
43100016e29 EinsExtra
43100016e2a EinsFestival
43100016e2b EinsPlus
43700016d66 ZDF
43700016d6e ZDFdokukanal
43700016d6b ZDFinfokanal
43700016d70 ZDFtheaterkanal
43700016d67 3sat
44d00016dcd arte
44d00016dd2 Phoenix
43700016d68 KiKa

I my case I use Astra 19.2 and I would like to use 28.2 for my UK channels via a Multicam & a freesat card.

I know you have to zap to the individual channel
http://IP of your Box/control/zapto?44d00016dca

and then

http://IP of your Dbox/control/zapto?getallpids

to get the Pids etc

Code:

00101
00102 stereo
00106 Dolby
00104 vtxt
00100 pmt

I yesterday had a play with my Sat Dbox and the New IDE Interface. Since a while you are able to save the EPG of a Dbox to a mounted drive or even the HDD.

The only negative point is now that the Dbox trys to load these on bootup.
I have requested a new feature to make this option configurable so we could use the Dboxes own EPG info for GBPvr.

Is there really no other way to automize the whole mapping process to get a 1:1 copy of your Dbox Bouquets/Channels ..?

For example I can open the bouqets.xml via Excel and then just delete a whole row and add the numbers 1 and then 2 in the 2nd row and just pull it down to get the channel numbers...

Any hints ...

[n_s_simpson]

Hi PT-1... I thought it wouldn't be long before are paths crossed on this forum.

The GBPvr program definately gets the programs in the right order so how I started mapping them was to first import them and go to the column (defaults to -1) and rename them simply 1,2,3,4,5.... (nice if that was automated)

That's when the fun starts. As you know already getting XMLTV EPG to match up with the Dbox channels is NOT easy at all. I did it though but my GBPvr channel numbers (which you then have to map onto the already mapped XMLTV/Dbox list) are not correct - simply in the order that XMLTV data.xml list is in (for now). You'd think that the mapping reference numbers I gave would be able to be used for the channel numbers but BBC1 North West on XMLTV = 1 and BBC1 on GBPvr = 1 so the EPG and channel is set up so selecting a program from the program guide brings up the right channel. However just because they are both equal to 1 has nothing to do with the channel number (which is something like 107 as default but will be changed to channel 1 when i work out how to do so easily since the channels tab is not in a sensible order (and include every channel within XMLTV even if I've not mapped it because I don't want it) so i can't just go down the list and go 1,2,3...).

[pt-1]

You can normmaly edit the tv_grab_uk_.conf file and delete the unwanted EPG of channels you have not mapped ...

[alibert]

Hi,

Okay. I see that you're having lots of channels at your satellite-boxes. As I'm connected via digital cable, I only have about 200 channels from which I roughly use 20 in gbpvr. So the channel mapping process isn't that time consuming with my setup. The most annoying problem is that you can't scroll the two windows - the gbpvr channel list on the one side and the plugins' channellist on the other side - at the same time so that you have to close the plugins' configuration window again after you've mapped a couple of channels and start again later. But I can't change that behaviour, sorry.
What I can do to improve things a bit is something like 'guess' the correct gbpvr-channel for each dbox-channel when loading the channellist from the box, e.g. that the dbox channel 'BBC' will automatically be mapped to the number of a gbpvr-channel named 'BBC' by default. This shouldn't be a problem.

I know that parts of the channel info are held in the database and some in an XML file. So I recon there'd be a way of importing the XML data as well as the table within the database into a spreadsheet (or DB table) and then matching up channel names, removing duplicates (user decides for instance whether BBC1 on Dbox matches with BBC1 Wales, BBC1 Scotand, etc) and then exporting the info back into the correct places.

I need to do that because I need to talk to the dbox using the channel ids. They are stored along with the channel number gbpvr uses in the mentioned xml-file. When a reording starts, I only get the information of the channel number to start the recording - that's why this xml-file is necessary.

Also in the channels tab of the config screen it seems to list every channel within the XMLTV list even though I've removed a lot from my channel mappings (such as Box Office, SKY HD, etc that isn't even available on ntl).

This is a normal behaviour because you told gbpvr to use the xmltv-file along with your capture source.

This is a problem because the program guide shows these channels but has no EPG info for it but it just looks really messy. How do I remove these channels so they don't appear in the list? Do I untick favourites (I'd prefer them not to appear in the list at all to make manual mapping easier)? I don't understand why only the channels that have been mapped show up in this list. Have I done something wrong?

As far as I know it works this way: The epg shows those channels that can be actually used by one of your capture sources. If you disable a channel in all of your capture sources, the channel won't show up in the epg. There's another button somewhere in the config map that will remove unreferenced channels, but I can't tell you exactly what it will do.

Not sure how other sources compete for channel numbers. I only have one source set up. I have another Dbox I'll be setting up so I can record one channel and watch another.

I'm sorry but I have to tell you that the plugin *may* not work with multiple dboxes - I've never tried it. So, please do only test a few channels before you spend hours mapping the channels for nothing. I think that the problem will be that I've made my configuration class static some time ago, so if only one instance of the plugin is created, only one configuration can be used. You're welcome to report if it worked or if not and I'll try to fix that afterwards.

Will I see each list of channels seperately (by somehow selecting the required source) or will I need to but say BBC1 from the first Dbox on channel one and the BBC1 from the second Dbox on channel 1001 (or whatever)?

In my opinion GBPVR works beautiful with multiple capture sources. You never see that there are multiple capture sources or have to worry about which capture source supports which channel. If a capture source is busy, gbpvr will inform you about that - if not, you can easily select multiple shows at the same time to watch or record from. Even women can use this software.

-alibert

[pt-1]

Hi,

Okay. I see that you're having lots of channels at your satellite-boxes. As I'm connected via digital cable, I only have about 200 channels from which I roughly use 20 in gbpvr. So the channel mapping process isn't that time consuming with my setup.

Yep ;-)
I have 2 dishes and one points at Astra 19.2 and Eutelsat 13 for my German Channels and the other at Astra 2 at 28.2 for my UK channels.

In this case I even would need two different xml sources I assume ...

I haven't even gotten that far yet. I bought a Haupauge MVP like Mr. Simpson and would like to start using GBPvr a bit more.

I also own a Haupauge Nova-T usb so there is the 2nd source ;-)

I will have a play but time is limited at present so I will get back ;-)

THX for your time and effort

[n_s_simpson]

This is extremely impressive stuff I have to say. I use a cable Dbox but still have about 300+ channels to sort out.

Some of the screens allow you to select the channels in it's table. I then copied them into a spread sheet (put the in alphabetical order if necessary). This made things much easier. Without doing this it would have been almost impossible.

The unreferenced channels option doesn't appear to do much at all.

With respect to channels are you saying that if I have 2 Dboxes and have BBC1 setup on both if I select that chance GBPvr chooses an available source for that channel? If one source is being used to record (from the local GBPvr or one of the server GBPvrs) it will select the other source.

I was thinking about a couple of other things that would be a nice feature...
Is it possible to have a box show up on the Dbox saying "This box is currently being used to record a channel to GBPvr. If you change channels the recording will fail...". Once the recording ends the box goes away. That way the Dbox isn't locked but at least my fiancee wouldn't mess it up.

Thanks

Nick

[alibert]

Hi,

With respect to channels are you saying that if I have 2 Dboxes and have BBC1 setup on both if I select that chance GBPvr chooses an available source for that channel? If one source is being used to record (from the local GBPvr or one of the server GBPvrs) it will select the other source.

What do you mean by "the local GBPvr" and the "server GBPvrs"?

I was thinking about a couple of other things that would be a nice feature...
Is it possible to have a box show up on the Dbox saying "This box is currently being used to record a channel to GBPvr. If you change channels the recording will fail...". Once the recording ends the box goes away. That way the Dbox isn't locked but at least my fiancee wouldn't mess it up.

Did you try the "Use recording mode" setting of the plugin? I think that's what you're looking for, as it will prevent changing to a different transponder during a running recording.

-alibert

[n_s_simpson]

Alibert...

local GBPvr = GBPvr running on PC
server GBPvr = GBPvr running remotely on 1 or more MVPMedia from same PC

I haven't tried the "Use recording mode" in the plugin. Will that lock the Dbox while GBPvr is recording? Where is that option located? I'll look at it when I get home from work.

[alibert]

Hi,

if someone is willingly, I've attached a version of the plugin that will guess the correct gbpvr source channel number when loading the channellist from the dbox (only for those that are actually not yet mapped).

Please report if it is working okay that way.

-alibert

[alibert]

Hi,

local GBPvr = GBPvr running on PC
server GBPvr = GBPvr running remotely on 1 or more MVPMedia from same PC

Okay, so you're talkin about one pc (let's call it server) and there are some mvps connected to the server-pc via network (let's call them clients).

Then...

With respect to channels are you saying that if I have 2 Dboxes and have BBC1 setup on both if I select that chance GBPvr chooses an available source for that channel? If one source is being used to record (from the local GBPvr or one of the server GBPvrs) it will select the other source.

.. it will manage the recording sources as you have described (under the assumption that the plugin can handle multiple boxes, which I have never tried, as quoted above. But if not, I'm sure that I can provide a fix for it.).

I haven't tried the "Use recording mode" in the plugin. Will that lock the Dbox while GBPvr is recording? Where is that option located? I'll look at it when I get home from work.

It's a checkbox in the plugins configuration form, located at the 'Misc Settings' group box.

-alibert