Sky Channel Sync Tool

[systemshark]

Folks,

so those of us who use Sky as a source, I've finally got around (aggravated enough) to writing a tool to sync the channel numbers as you will know sky often move the channel line ups around and don't tell anyone.

This tool will match the channels by name and update the channel numbers. I've provided both a GUI and Slient mode options on the EXE in case you wish to run this regularly.

The Installation can be downloaded from here :-

Http://www.systemshark.com/SCSSetup.zip

If enough people are interested I'll add it to the Wiki.

Once Installed, the SkyChannelSync Tool has the following command Line options.

/? - Help Message including activity log file location
/s - slient mode, still writes activity log but no GUI
<nothing> GUI mode- still writes Activity log!

Questions :
Q) How is this going to work
A) I'm holding a XML channel list on my server which I'll keep in sync with Sky.

Q)What listing source are you using
A)I am using Radio Times via Alan Birtles Reader. I've tested it on that.

[martint123]

Hi Richard, well sort of success and failure.

Success - it updated my Sky channels.

Failure - it buggered up my non-Sky channels.

My PVR150 is setup as two sources, RF for normal analogue TV channels and also as fixed channels for grabbing Sky. I did it this way so that if something was to be recorded on, say, BBC1 then it would record analogue TV and leave the Sky box free for manual viewing.
So for my RF tuner source, the channels got changed from BBC 1 = 22, ITV 1 = 25 int 101 and 103 respectively.

I also note you seem to have changed the channels order (channels tab of config) I'd rather that be left unchanged as I spent some time getting the Sky channels grouped into things like 'documentary, music, etc so they show in the TV guide in a better (for me) way - now they've gone back to numerical order.

Cheers,
Martin

[systemshark]

Hi Martin

Success - it updated my Sky channels.

Good Good.

Failure - it buggered up my non-Sky channels.

Bad Bad.

My PVR150 is setup as two sources, RF for normal analogue TV channels and also as fixed channels for grabbing Sky. I did it this way so that if something was to be recorded on, say, BBC1 then it would record analogue TV and leave the Sky box free for manual viewing.
So for my RF tuner source, the channels got changed from BBC 1 = 22, ITV 1 = 25 int 101 and 103 respectively.

So you have one card in the machine with the first Capture card set for BBC1,2, ITV3,Channel4,5 set to Analogue, and the second source pointing at sky on a fixed channel of 21/22 (I think are the sky standard)

and you only want the sky Channels to be corrected.

If this is correct, I'll develop some selection logical to update the correct-capture source.

I also note you seem to have changed the channels order (channels tab of config) I'd rather that be left unchanged as I spent some time getting the Sky channels grouped into things like 'documentary, music, etc so they show in the TV guide in a better (for me) way - now they've gone back to numerical order.

Sorry about this (do you have a backup as I didn't mean to make work for you!!) - I wanted the channel numbers to match sky, I'll make it programmatic to impose the sky channel order or not...

Are you willing to try Version 1.01 ???

[martint123]

I actually have four sources - 1 and 2 are UK Freeview DVB-T channels and a Nova-T-500 dual tuner.
3 is Analogue RF on a PVR150
4 is Fixed tuned to channel 34 to get RF stuff from the Sky box and the same PVR150 as 3.

So in theory I can get BBC1 on all four sources, but from different off-air sources.

I guess the sky update logic to update Sky channel number changes could be something like "only change a channel if it's existing channel is in the rance 101 to 999" as all analogue RF will be less than 99 and DVB-T are wierd anyway (I'm not sure how they are held in the database).

Changes to the channel order list could be by tick box yes/no.

thanks for your time.

Martin

[systemshark]

Martin

New version, AKA 1.01

New Features

• Ability to select Capture Card
  
• Ability to optionally update Channel numbers in 'Channel Tab'
  

New Command line

Once Installed, the SkyChannelSync Tool has the following command Line options.

/? - Help Message including activity log file location
/s <capture card> <Update channels in Channels Tab> - slient mode, still writes activity log but no GUI
[INDENT]<capture card> = Name of card in Capture sources
<update channels in Channels Tab> = yes, no
[/INDENT]<nothing> GUI mode- still writes Activity log!

Questions :
Q) How is this going to work
A) I'm holding a XML channel list on my server which I'll keep in sync with Sky.

Q)What listing source are you using
A)I am using Radio Times via Alan Birtles Reader. I've tested it on that.

Q) Examples of the command line?
A) Update Sky channel numbers on the Hauppauge PVR350 card called '350' in the capture sources, and don't update the channel numbers on the channels tab

C:\>skyChannelSync.exe /s 350 no

Update Sky channel numbers on the capture card called 'sky' in the capture sources, and update the channel numbers on the channels tab

C:\>skyChannelSync.exe /s sky yes

The Installation can be downloaded from here :-

Http://www.systemshark.com/SCSSetup.zip

If enough people are interested I'll add it to the Wiki.

[martint123]

Cheers Richard, grabbed it and I'll give it a whirl later today and report back.

Thanks
Martin

[SFX Group]

I would look at this, but i'm off to Canada soon, however there are a number of people in the UK, i think this should be added to WIKI anyway....