How To: Add custom online video feed definitions (default STV; v7.0+)

[Opus4]

Note: This topic covers how to add custom online video links; to discuss custom links that you've added, see: Suggest Online Video Feeds (v7.0+)


Sample custom properties files are attached to this post showing example custom online video feeds.

Be sure to edit the custom online video properties files, or add your own additional custom files, instead of editing the original files that are installed with SageTV. If you edit OnlineVideoLinks.properties and OnlineVideoUIText.properties, your changes will be overwritten the next time a SageTV update is installed or when SagetV downloads updated online video files.


The attached CustomOnlineVideoLinks.zip file contains 2 files:

• CustomOnlineVideoLinks.properties
• CustomOnlineVideoUIText.properties.

These properties files can be added to the <install dir>\SageTV\STVs\SageTV7\OnlineVideos directory and then used to customize the online video feeds.

You will need to use the default STV from SageTV v7.0.23 or later in order to use these properties files.

See the comments near the top of the CustomOnlineVideoLinks.properties file for instructions for adding new links. The first time you access a new link in SageTV, the titles and icon URL will be automatically created in the CustomOnlineVideoUIText.properties file, which you can edit later, if you wish. The links are listed in the UI in alphabetical order, based on the feed's property name ('FeedName').


The custom files can also be used to modify the default set of links -- if the custom properties files contain the same properties as the default properties files, the custom setup will be used instead. Just remember, if you do this, your custom setup will still override the default definitions for every upgrade install afterwards.


Additional notes:

1. One of the changes for v7 was to extend support for externally generated feeds; see the explanation of the new capabilities in the "Externally generated feeds" section of the sample CustomOnlineVideoLinks.properties file. See the "Movie Showtimes" plugin from SageTV forum user 'evilpenguin' for an example customization using externally generated feeds.
   
   
2. The "Weather" item on the Online Services menu is not part of the online video properties files; it is part of the STV. Weather will always be 1st in the list.
   
   
3. The default online video properties files will automatically be updated when updates are available. If you really insist on disabling updating the default properties files, and thus missing any fixes that the properties file updates would take care of, you can chnage the option in SageTV at Detailed Setup -> Advanced -> Automatic Update Checks. Please be sure to remember that you've done this if you have problems with the online feeds in the future.

- Andy

[nyc6035]

Thanks for posting the files (with the instructions inside). Works great. I've been able to add some newsfeeds easily.

[dibs]

There is a live concert webcast I'd like to show through my extender. Not sure if I would be able to do this by adding a custom video feed, but the link for the "sample stream" is this:
http://www.livephish.com/packages/2,...l?launchPlayer

Will I be able to do this by simply manipulating those custom files under "links" and just add the URL for the live feed when they have it available? If there is something I need to find out from the provider or an easier way to do this, please let me know as I am not a brain scientist with this stuff.

Thanks!

[brainbone]

Any way to add an age rating to a custom video feed that SageTV will obey (R, PG, etc.)?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by brainbone

Any way to add an age rating to a custom video feed that SageTV will obey (R, PG, etc.)?

Not that I know of, but you could use the parental control access code to restrict access to all online video features via Detailed Setup -> Customize -> Online Video options -> Online Video Access.

- Andy

[jjstok]

Will this allow me to create links to online resources such as TV.com, TBS, etc? It would be nice to avoid drilling all the way through the PlayOn selections.

Thanks

[patja]

I'm having a heck of a time trying to get this to work. Posted a support request but am checking here in case anyone else can see something obvious I am missing. I am getting exceptions in the log that seem to indicate Sage is not picking up the URL value for my custom feeds. They show up with the right labels and icons and everything, but always yield "No videos found" when I click into them. Running 7.0.23.246 Windows client with the latest WHS server, Java 1.6.0_23, and the standard theme SageTV7.xml STV version 7.0.23.1

With a file named CustomOnlineVideoLinks_Pat.properties with contents:
CustomSources=xPodcastPat
xFeedPodcastPat/Cyriak=xPodcastPat;http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/...ak/uploads_YTC
xFeedPodcastPat/Brewing=xPodcastPat;http://www.basicbrewing.com/radio/video.rss

and a file named CustomOnlineVideoUIText_Pat.properties with contents:
Source/xPodcastPat/LongName=Pats Online Videos
Source/xPodcastPat/ShortName=Pat
Category/Cyriak/ThumbURL=http://i2.ytimg.com/i/9Ntx-EF3LzKY1nQ5rTUP2g/1.jpg?v=84cdc4
Category/Cyriak/LongName=Cyriak YouTube Channel
Category/Cyriak/ShortName=Cyriak
Category/Brewing/ThumbURL=http://www.basicbrewing.com/radio/images/MicCU.jpg
Category/Brewing/LongName=Basic Brewing Video
Category/Brewing/ShortName=Brewing

I get errors like these in the log (seems like Sage is not picking up the URL):

Sat 1/15 11:53:41.686 [AWT-EventQueue-0@187aeca] Online Video category selection: xPodcastPat--Brewing
Sat 1/15 11:53:41.689 [AWT-EventQueue-0@187aeca] FeedContext: Brewing/URLContext=
Sat 1/15 11:53:41.692 [AWT-EventQueue-0@187aeca] Searching Pats Online Videos for Brewing, URL:
Sat 1/15 11:53:41.695 [AWT-EventQueue-0@187aeca] processOptionsMenu optionsMenu=default:BASE-70961|OptionsMenu:Wait while video list is downloaded
Sat 1/15 11:53:41.700 [ReProcessHook@1c1d928] EXCEPTION in getValueAsObject:sage.a.e: Error in method reflection of new_java_net_URL of java.net.MalformedURLException: no protocol: for:sage_media_rss_RSSParser_parseXmlFile(new_java_net_URL(SearchURL), hand, false)
Sat 1/15 11:53:41.709 [ReProcessHook@1c1d928] setUI(sage.b6@1586edb[Online Video Search Results]) histIdx=3 uiHistory=[sage.b6@1c012fa[Main Menu], sage.b6@14e7b87[Online Services Menu], sage.b6@1f5e42b[Online Video Menu], sage.b6@1586edb[Online Video Search Results]]
Sat 1/15 11:53:41.750 [ReProcessHook@1c1d928] EXCEPTION in getValueAsObject:sage.a.e: Error in method reflection of sage_media_rss_RSSItem_getTitle of java.lang.NullPointerException for:sage_media_rss_Translate_decode(sage_media_rss_RSSItem_getTitle(RSSItem))
Sat 1/15 11:53:41.756 [ReProcessHook@1c1d928] EXCEPTION in getValueAsObject:sage.a.e: Error in method reflection of sage_media_rss_RSSItem_getMediaGroup of java.lang.NullPointerException for:sage_media_rss_RSSItem_getMediaGroup(RSSItem)

[Opus4]

The Brewing link works fine for me. But, you don't have the custom URL lines set up correctly -- see the sample custom properties files for more info, but you should use:

xFeedPodcastCustom/Brewing=xPodcastPat;http://www.basicbrewing.com/radio/video.rss

For the YouTube Channel link, you need to add the _YTC suffix to the feedname, not the URL. And, it needs to be a URL that returns the RSS feed that SageTV can understand. One way to do this would be to look in the SageTV log for an existing YouTube channel & then substitute the channel name you want to use; thus try using:

xFeedPodcastCustom/Cyriak_YTC=xPodcastPat;http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/users/Cyriak/uploads?alt=rss&max-results=20&start-index=1

Or, you can overwrite the existing YouTube channels definition with your own that adds the channel you want to add:

xYouTubeChannels/Categories=Cyriak,HBO,CBS,ABCNews,BBC,universalmusicgroup,sonybmg,RCARecords,NBA,NationalGeographic,YTVideoGuide,MontyPython

The downside to that method is that if the original online videos properties file changes that line, it won't automatically be updated in your custom file. The advantage is that it will allow viewing multiple pages of results.

- Andy

[patja]

Thanks Andy, with your pointers to what I was missing I've got it all working now.

[zands]

I'm a bit of a dunce... can i add something like this stream through the video feed section:
http://sharxdemo2.servehttp.com/en/login.asp

actual stream:
http://sharxdemo2.servehttp.com/stream.jpg

i've been trying with webfeedencoder and have some lag with encoding, trying to see if this works at all...

thanks in advance!

[bjkiller]

may be somebody can help me to add to 'online services' section RBC TV

website:
http://rbctv.rbc.ru/

Live video streem
mms://tv.gldn.net/rbc

Archive:
http://rbctv.rbc.ru/archive