nPVR, XP, SchedulesDirect

[soyrunner]

So, my nPVR on WinXP Pro x64 stopped getting lineups after I upgraded to nPVR 3.8.3 but it took a while for me to realize this failure. I only noticed when my pending recordings only showed two for last night and none beyond.

The nPVR Settings>Channels would fail now setting up the EPG. I would go to a channel, select SchedulesDirect as the source, then going to the lineup button I'd quickly get a box saying I couldn't connect to SchedulesDirect and to try again later. I've been told this has to do with SchedulesDirect moving to load balancing their servers and WinXP not having suitable encryption. I was disturbed that the nPVR wouldn't get me the drop down box showing login username and password.

I went into \App Data\nPVR and renamed the directory \nPVR.old.2016.11.09 and did the same in Program Files (x86) (hoping that if I could get it working I could find the file containing the 130+ recurring programs list and move it over). Then I installed nPVR 3.2.9, scanned devices and got my HDHR3 tuners channels. Now with the Settings>Channels populated, I tried mapping and this time when I input SchedulesDirect as source I got a login user name and password box with a Download button. Hooray I thought. I mashed the Download button, a 2 or 3 second hourglass icon appeared, but no response from SchedulesDirect. Lineup and Mapping dropdown boxes stayed blank with no choices.

But I have no difficulty logging into http://www.schedulesdirect.org on WinXP. I have an entry for the legacy SD-DD (XML) service, which historically has been providing the information to nPVR, and when I go to the report lineups problem I see that there are two listings, the SD-DD (XML) lineup specification described as CableDigital and also a lineup described as SD-JSON.

It seems to me nPVR is going to the SD-JSON login and download rather than the SD-DD (XML) it used in the past. I had no idea what JSON is and just did a Google search and got this:

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write. It is easy for machines to parse and generate. It is based on a subset of the JavaScript Programming Language, Standard ECMA-262 3rd Edition - December 1999.

Now I know my WinXP Pro x64 started failing java upgrades more than a year, perhaps a few years ago. So, I'm guessing now that SchedulesDirect upgraded its java and it now causes nPVR to fail login to get lineups.

It was suggested I use xmltv.exe to get lineups from schedulesdirect but I don't see how that will work. If nPVR on XP can't login then how can xmltv.exe on XP login? Or is xmltv getting its listings elsewhere?

Is there some java workaround exploit that I can use to get nPVR on WinXP to login? I know there are different flavors of java. Suggestions? Thanks.

soyrunner

Okay, I see here (https://blogs.oracle.com/henrik/entry/th...of_java_on) the java installer has been fixed to allow installation on XP. Trying it now.... No joy although I now have Java8 on XP. Will try later versions of nPVR.... Nope, nPVR 3.6.6 fails to bring down the login dialog for schedulesdirect when I mash the lineup button.

The advantage nPVR with HDHomeRun3 gives me over my Tivo Premier XL4 is that if I record programs from 10pm to 11pm, my HDHR3 being on a second NIC of the XP machine (Hero Maximus VI motheboard) has those late recordings right there to start processing with MCEBuddy at say 11:05PM. MCEBuddy runs all night and usually finishes before I get up. If I can't use my HDHR3, because nPVR can't get lineups, any recording made between 10pm and 11pm must be transferred to the XP machine and that typically takes 20 minutes or so per hour program and for best MCEBuddy commercial removal the transfers must be completed before MCEBuddy start. Plus with both the 4 Tivo tuners and the 3 HDHR3 tuners I can get up to 7 programs. I have Win7 on an older machine but nPVR on that can't access the HDHR3 tuners on the unique subnet from that other machine and so without access to tuners there's no device population and no scanned channel listings to download lineups. The unique subnet for HDHR3 on the XP machines is for best recordings.

[mvallevand]

The legacy service and website and the JSON service are not the same and aren't linked. But why post again on this? You aren't paying for support but if you were you would have paid for an OS upgrade.

Martin

[soyrunner]

Until Jan. 2014 I had been running HDHR3/nPVR/MCEBuddy on an ASUS board and XP. I agreed with others online the changes in Vista and beyond were not to my liking. Even something as simple as searching for a file. So, the XP drive went on the new Maximus VI motherboard and I installed Win7 on the older board. And I really am not happy with Win7 compared to WinXP so I'm not prepared to upgrade the XP.

[mvallevand]

I guess you don't understand what unsupported means. In any case check out mc2xml to see if it works for you.

Martin

[sub]

Is there some java workaround exploit that I can use to get nPVR on WinXP to login? I know there are different flavors of java. Suggestions?

It's nothing to do with Java.

Your only real options are:
- switch to xmltv,
- or update your version of windows,
- or whine to Schedules Direct in hopes they'll switch back to their old load balancer

[mikeh49]

You can use mc2xml to generate a xmltv file from your Schedules Direct account. In your Channels/Details setting, point the EPG source to the xml file. I guess you'd have to do some scheduling in Windows to automate things. Unless NPVR can call mc2xml at EPG update (one of the batch files?).

I just tested it and got the xml file and set up one channel on my 3.8.3 test box to read the file. Worked fine. I'm using a version of mc2xml from 2015, if that matters.

[MarkHotchkiss]

Your only real options are:
- switch to xmltv,
- or update your version of windows,
- or whine to Schedules Direct in hopes they'll switch back to their old load balancer

I chose the "whine" option.

Here's a thread you can join: http://forums.schedulesdirect.org/viewto...=15&t=2861

[dixxfixx]

I took the XMLTV route. Trivial change, really. Still great SD data, still great NPVR functionality, very little pain.

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...tall/page4

[soyrunner]

Thanks mikeh49 and dixxfixx. Was busy today and chores to do for some days so can't get right to it. This happened at something of a bad time. Fortunately I had the Tivo as a failsafe, having two copies of most recordings, watching the HDHR3/nPVR/MCEBuddy files and deleting the Tivo file afterwards as well. My watching schedule is pretty backed up so copying the Tivo files over to be run through MCEBuddy isn't a strain. But no fallback for the time being. The cost of a Tivo Bolt would allow me to build a better system but I can't afford a Tivo Bolt and another Tivo lineup charge anyway. One of those 'if I had ham I'd have ham and eggs if I had eggs' kind of thing. Besides they didn't add more tuners. That commercial skip sounds interesting though and that larger drive is a strong selling point.

I'll try the suggestions in a few days and get back. Thanks.

soyrunner

[soyrunner]

Okay, I've installed mc2xml.exe both on a Win7 machine and an XP. On the Win7 machine I tried the non-json choice for SD but no good. Then I went to the SD json choice, gave my user name and pass and an xmltv.xml file was generated. I dropped that on the XP machine and with a fresh install tried to use it but kept getting failures. So, on the XP machine I ran the mc2xml and went to the non-json SD choice and got a login, entered my login data and generated an xmltv.xml file that works in nPVR.

I've learned that bulk mapping doesn't run the XMLTV choice down the list of channels but when one does go to an individual channel and enter the XMLTV source choice the mapping goes right to the correct channel and name.

I see the xmltv data covers 7 days. The clearly well functional WinXP scheduled tasks allowed me to schedule mc2xml.exe to run once daily weekdays and a test just now found it took 1 minute to write a new xmltv.xml file in the appropriate directory.

Since I have a fresh installation of nPVR there are no recurring recordings listed. I tried moving an old recurring-backup.xml to the App Data\NPVR directory but it was no help.

soyrunner