Locast.org support

[mvallevand]

I have been reading a lot recently about locast.org https://www.locast.org/ which could be a reasonable alternative to using tuners in many places in the US.  They write that they cover 45% of the US market (see list below).  It does appear to be legitimate since they do take several measures to prevent out of market viewing.  Like anything the success of locast.org will depend on users donating but the price seem pretty reasonable.  Of course cable companies may not agree but that is for discussion.  

I have been able to create an extra for NextPVR that hopefully will allow you you to use this service but I am looking for some people to help me test.  Eventually if there is demand I can add XMLTV importing too, just no point in doing this if no one wants it.   For now I expect the EPG will come from

The streams are already h264/aac so they will integrate better with NextPVR web (no transcoding) then traditional tuners and should work on any platform that v5 supports.

The extra is based on two open source project locast2plex and the locast addon for Kodi so in theory anyway it should be working ok. 

If you live in one of these markets and are interested in testing let me know.  You will need to register on locast.org to activate an account. 

• Atlanta
  
• Baltimore
  
• Boston
  
• Chicago
  
• Dallas
  
• Detroit
  
• Denver
  
• Houston
  
• Indianapolis
  
• Los Angeles
  
• Miami
  
• Minneapolis
  
• New York
  
• Philadelphia
  
• Phoenix
  
• Puerto Rico
  
• Rapid City
  
• San Francisco
  
• Seattle
  
• Sioux City
  
• Sioux Falls
  
• Tampa Bay
  
• Washington DC
  
• West Palm Beach
  
• Wilkes Barre-Scranton
  

Note that this was the pre-release thread. If you are looking for help information on how to install the extra see here https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/Extra-Locast

Martin

[BrettB]

Hey, Martin.

I'm sorry I let you down on helping with this project before. Between my real job and a visit to NC to help my mom last week, I've just been really swamped lately.

I do have a locast.org subscription which I've been (very lightly) trying out with Channels DVR on my QNAP NAS. I am interested in trying it with NextPVR at some point, too. I guess I really should set up a test NextPVR server again. Of course, I also already have an SD subscription, so wouldn't need their guide support.

[mvallevand]

No problem Brett, testing was much easier then I expected. Now I just have to make sure it works for others.

Martin

[2leftfeet]

Martin,

I have Locast and it looks like I will have some time to help you test - how do I begin?

[mvallevand]

Great if you like OTA I think you will like this. First you will need to install

python3 and then run

pip install requests lxml m3u8

Martin

[2leftfeet]

It has taken me a while to dust off an old server & update windows 10 to the latest feature pack. I have installed python and "tried" to run "pip install requests lxml" from python. I am getting an invalid syntax error - where did I go wrong?

[mvallevand]

Actually you run pip from the command prompt.

Martin

[2leftfeet]

OK, had some trouble with python 3.9.1 - no pip. Then d/l'd 3.7.9 from microsoft and did the pip install. Next?? pls be patient, python is new to me.

[mvallevand]

Don't worry python is new to a lot of people but it is really handy for me to make extras that work on all NextPVR platforms. I am using 3.85 from pyton.org myself, I didn't even know Microsoft had something other than IronPython.

Anyway a few comments and questions to help me lead your through this

1. Do you use an existing Schedules Direct account or do test the free locast EPG (one week)?

2. I assume you have registered and haven't paid for locast. It won't work without registering.

3. There are limitations on the free account, you will after a period of time start getting a locast announcement when you start live TV or recordings. Recordings will also be truncated after an announcement. Once registered I have been running my server for 23 days with lots of recordings with no specific issues with the service.

4. Be prepared to update to the next release of NextPVR for a few reasons
a. Because you always should.
b. NextPVR.exe doesn't like some IPTV streams very much and the new reader helps a lot. Kodi plays them ok.
c. There is a bug in NextPVR error handling from m3u8 files. Sub has partially fixed it but there might be occasional glitches (similar to OTA breakups) until he has more time to handle it better. I am not sure if the cause of the actual error is from locast or not but is recoverable

5. Sub hasn't specifically implemented multiple channels from an Extra, but we can implement this using multiple extras if you want to have multiple channels simultaneously. If you want this we can do this afterwards.

Martin

[2leftfeet]

Don't worry python is new to a lot of people but it is really handy for me to make extras that work on all NextPVR platforms.  I am using 3.85 from pyton.org myself, I didn't even know Microsoft had something other than IronPython.

Anyway a few comments and questions to help me lead your through this

1. Do you use an existing Schedules Direct account or do test the free locast EPG (one week)?  Use SD

2. I assume you have registered and haven't paid for locast.  It won't work without registering.  PAID/registered - Philadelphia region.

3. There are limitations on the free account, you will after a period of time start getting a locast announcement when you start live TV or recordings.  Recordings will also be truncated after an announcement. Once registered I have been running my server for 23 days with lots of recordings with no specific issues with the service.

4. Be prepared to update to the next release of NextPVR for a few reasons  Latest version of NPVR is installed, newer releases will be installed asap
a. Because you always should.
b. NextPVR.exe doesn't like some IPTV streams very much and the new readers helps a lot.  Kodi plays them ok.
c. There is a bug in NextPVR error handling from m3u8 files.  Sub has partially fixed it but there might be occasional glitches (similar to OTA breakups) until he has more time to handle it better.  I am not sure if the cause of the actual error is from locast or not but is recoverable

5.  Sub hasn't specifically implemented multiple channels from an Extra, but we can implement this using multiple extras if you want to have multiple channels simultaneously.  If you want this we can do this afterwards.  Simultaneous channels are highly desired - Locast offers 4 streams, I would like to utilize them so that I can eliminate CableTV.

Martin

thanks, see imbedded responses.