HD-PVR2 / STB / Devices / Channels

[johnjore]

Hi!

Switching from tvheadend to npvr to use a HDMI Capture "card" with a Virgin Media cable box. Currently running 3.6.6 on W10 and trying to setup devices / channels, but struggling to do this with an HD-PVR2.

Pre-req: All hardware works fine. NPVR (and Kodi) can see the channel the STB is currently tuned to.


Is the channel list from the STB thats the problem.

1) I have a "lineup" file which contains the channel listings available on the STB. Can't find a way to import this XML file. Not supported I guess?
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2) I have another tuner (free-to-air), works fine and uses the first 61 channels. When using "Import" on Devices and the HD-PVR2, the channels are sorted alfabetically and assigned the next free number, 62 and up:
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As per the image, "BBC One London" is on Channel 74 but is supposed to be channel 101. I right click and select "Edit Channel Settings", nothing happens?

3) I "Export Channels", modify the entry for "BBC One London" and "Import Channels". "BBC One London" is now on 101. Happy days!
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This is a manual and labour intensive process. Also, as the channel listing from Virgin Media changes with the seasons and various special events, it would be rather cumbersome to manually try and keep the channels within npvr upto date.


So, the question: Can this be automated? How do others do this? Has someone already written a snippet do modify npvr.db3 to do this?
Google and seaching the forums didn't turn up anything?


JJ

[Graham]

1) I have a "lineup" file which contains the channel listings available on the STB. Can't find a way to import this XML file. Not supported I guess?

Settings --> Devices --> Import Channels should allow you to read an xml file to get channels.

The scan of the DVB-T (Freeview) tuner should find channels and give the channels the numbers that Freeview gave them ... 1 for BBC1 2 for BBC2 3 for ITV and so on ... This process may have got stuffed up if you attempted to import channels from an XML file beforehand.

My suggestion .. Delete all devices and this will also delete all channels ... Reboot to force all NextPVR components to restart ... Devices should auto re-appear after reboot ... Configure the Freeview tuner first to get channel numbers and then read XML to get Virgin channels

[sub]

1) Not sure what that file you've shown is. I'm not familiar with it's format. You can do to Settings->Devices, then double click you HDPVR2 device, set the input/blaster options, then click the 'Import' button, and select your xmltv file.

2) As suggested above, it might be best to scan the digital tuner first. Either way, if there is number clashes on different source types though, there may be some manual renumber or merging of channels required.

[johnjore]

Thanks for the various suggestions, but the root problem is that the EPG/XMLTV file does not have the channel numbers as they are on the STB so the import can't assign the channel number for use with the ir blaster.

Can someone share how to create the XMLTV file in the correct format for use with npvr so it includes the channel numbers as they are on the STB? This is how I created the xml file: xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt -output VM_EPG.xml

(The separate linup XML file has the channel numbers as they are on the STB, but npvr will not import it, as per sub's post, its not a familiar format. It was created using this command: xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --get-lineup --output VM_Lineup.xml)


JJ

[Graham]

, but npvr will not import it, as per sub's post,

I use this to get xmltv data ... http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/ ... Be warned that it's missing some of the newest Freeview channels.

[johnjore]

Hi and thanks for this. I tested it, but the generated XML file does not contain the channel numbers as listed on the STB.

"Sony TV" is on 193 on the STB, and the string 193 only appears in start/stop times, descriptions and subtitle info. Not suprised really, as Sky and Virgin Media may both carry "Sony TV", but they're not both using channel 193 for it, so would not expect this information to be in the EPG guide... ?

Any device npvr controls directly would have no issues in tuning to the relevant channel, but this problem should be there for any STB that does not follow some sort of standard, so bit suprised that feature is not requested / added (parsing lineup xml file) ?

I'll see if I can find time this week end to write something to parse the linup xml file for importing into npvr.


JJ

[Graham]

Hi and thanks for this. I tested it, but the generated XML file does not contain the channel numbers as listed on the STB.

I don't use a STB so I am not best for this ... There are several UK Satellite / STB punters on here who can tell what they did ... you may be our first Virgin.

[johnjore]

Wrote a tiny C# util to do the conversion. EXE and source attached. Its crude and simple and skips radio as some of the channel names are the same as a TV station and no interest in spending more time on this at the moment. Best if it manipulated the SQLite? DB directly for ongoing, automated, updates.

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If the import lineup functionality could be added to npvr one day, that would be great enhancement for STB users.

JJ