[mythtv-users] New Upnp Channel Changer Script (Dish VIP 211 users definitely read)

[Dan Wilga]

On 6/10/15 5:11 PM, Michael wrote:
> On 04/13/2015 11:22 AM, Jon Heizer wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 12:07 PM, Michael <mythtv at blandford.net 
>> <mailto:mythtv at blandford.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     On 02/23/2015 07:03 PM, Jon Heizer wrote:
>>
>>         Mythtv users. I'd like to present a new channel changer
>>         script.  If you are a Dish VIP 211 users this will definitely
>>         work and it is AMAZING.  It uses ethernet to change the
>>         channels.  NO MORE IR BLASTERS!!  Can you tell I'm excited? :)
>>
>>         Basically a few weeks ago I randomly plugged my STB into the
>>         network for the first time in years. Being the curious type I
>>         did port scans and such. There was now a Upnp port open with
>>         control abilities.
>>
>>         Benefits over lirc scripts:
>>          - No LIRC
>>          - Super fast.  Live tv is ~ 5 seconds to change now.  Even
>>         faster on first start up.
>>          - No more idling out to the screen saver after 4 hours.  I
>>         disable it.
>>          - No LIRC
>>
>>         The one Negative: our VIP 211 receivers are smart enough to
>>         use the same guide number for both HD when available and SD
>>         when not.  Sadly, the upnp interface is not and it displays
>>         the SD feed.  You must update your channel data to use the
>>         super high number channels.  A bit of a pain I'll admit, but
>>         I can't imagine going back now.
>>         I've been using this on my production system for about 3
>>         weeks now on 2 receivers and have not had a single issue.
>>
>>         You can find the script at
>>         https://github.com/jheizer/UPnPChannelChanger and I'll be
>>         updating that page this evening with instructions for people
>>         using a different STB with steps to detect Upnp and
>>         instructions to modify the script.
>>
>>
>
> Hi John,
>
> I have been following this thread for a while and still pondering the 
> transition to Dish using your scripts.
>
> I noticed there is also a vip-channellist script that pulls the 
> available channels from the receiver.  In other thread today, there is 
> discussion about the visible flag for channels.  It seems like it 
> would be possible to:
> 1) Subscribe to all dish channels on schedules direct
> 2) Run the vip-channellist script to get the valid channels for your 
> account
> 3) update the visible flag in mythtv for those channels you are 
> getting today
>
> if you ran this daily, hopefully you would get all of the weekend 
> special channels, etc as they come and go without having to mess with 
> any configuration.
I had already considered extending John's script to do something 
similar. You have to watch out for the HD vs. SD channel gotcha John 
warns about. Some channels have a separate HD version at a different, 
higher, number. If you just blindly enable in Myth all channels your 
receiver can tune, you'll also be enabling the SD versions of some 
channels, and they might get recorded. So, for any given channel *name*, 
you have to enable only the higher *numbered* version.

Also, I seem to recall looking at the channel list reported by the 
receiver when there were free channels advertised on the web site, and 
they didn't completely match up. (I looked at what's offered right now, 
and they do.) So I think you would want to include some sort of email 
notification that channels were added/dropped. If it was running as a 
cron job, that would be as simple as printing the message to stdout. You 
might even want to include a feature to save/restore the previous state, 
just in case.
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