Changing Channels over network

[IanSpringfield]

Directv was nice enough to send me a new receiver. The new receiver (h24) can be connected into the home network and can be controlled via sending signals (ie, change channel) across the network to this receiver. Up until this point I have been using the Hauppauge IR blaster to change channels but this new way is faster and more reliable.

Can anybody help with the method and syntax for accomplishing this task?

[SickBoy]

What mechanism do they provide for changing channels over the network? Mobile app?

It would be most helpful to have the documentation for how that works... and ideally a command line app that could change channels.

[mikeh49]

Some info here from Sage TV:

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthre...stcount=28

Apparently the box has a web server that you can talk to.

Lots of discussion on their forum and on Myth, so you may be able to figure something out from there. Sounds interesting, but over my head, and don't have DirectTV.

[IanSpringfield]

I don't know much, but what I do know is ... if I paste:

http://192.168.1.54:8080/tv/tune?major=202&minor=65535

Into a browser and hit "go", the box tunes to channel 202.

FYI, the address of the box is 192.168.1.54 and the port its using is 8080.

Also, I use girder and if I tell girder to execute the following:

C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuWin32\bin\wget.exe
argument: http://192.168.1.54:8080/tv/tune?major=202&minor=65535

the box will also tune to 202.

I had to install wget to get this to work. This is set up on a different computer with a different DTV box. I then tie that girder command to a netremote (software) icon/button. When I press the netremote button it tells girder to fire off the command and the channel changes. At present I have a netremote button and girder command for every channel.

I'm really trying to adapt this set up so that npvr can handle it.

I've looked at the Sage thread that talks about a dll file but am a little confused about what they are saying. I will continue to study and test.

[IanSpringfield]

Apparently there are 2 different ways SageTV is accomplishing the objective. I'm going to try the second option first.

Here is what the author says:

"To use the tuner just unzip the file in the SageTV\Common directory. It will add the following files/directories:
SageTV\Common\DirecTVTuner.dll
SageTV\Common\RemoteCodes\Directv HTTP Tuning
SageTV\Common\RemoteCodes\Directv HTTP Tuning\192.168.211.60.ir

You will need to change the name of the 192.168.211.60.ir file to the IP address of your DirecTV box. The IP address also needs to be entered inside the file. If you have more than one box then you can copy the file and change the name to appropriate IP address.

You will then need to restart Sage to get it to recognize the DLL."

My first question is if that is the location for Sage, what would be the location for NPVR?

[smajor]

My way might be a little kludgy, but it sounds like you just need to hit that URL with your channel for it to work. I'd download the curl or wget and from a cmd window send your url and see if they will change your channel as a test.

If so, from there I'd create a bat file to use as the channel changer with NPVR that uses curl or wget (whichever worked) and calls your URL: http://192.168.1.54:8080/tv/tune?major=%1&minor=65535

See where I substituted your channel with %1? That would be the channel number NPVR sends when calling the bat file and would insert it in the URL to change to the channel you want.

I'm doing something a little similar with SageChanger to change the channels on my Time Warner Cable boxes via Firewire (1394).

[IanSpringfield]

Thanks smajor,

I think I understand your directions. Where would I place the bat file and do I have to tell NPVR to use it?

[mvallevand]

The batch file can go anywhere C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts makes sense

Assuming you call it dtv.bat in the NextPVR tuner change the Channel Changer to Executable and in Executable use C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Scripts\dtv.bat and in Arguments use {channel}

Martin

[IanSpringfield]

Martin,

How do I get the path to the batch file into the executable field. It only lets me browse to it (and it doesn't show as its not an executable file) and it doesn't let me manually type in the path.

[mvallevand]

Martin,

How do I get the path to the batch file into the executable field. It only lets me browse to it (and it doesn't show as its not an executable file) and it doesn't let me manually type in the path.

If you navigate to the folder with the [...] button, can you type in dtv.bat?

Martin