OpenDCT: An open source digital cable tuner.

[BigSwifty]

Unfortunately, I'm back. I was struggling in self-imposed Java hell. Now that I have that sorted, I still have an issue with Sage tuning OpenDCT channels. Previously, when I compared my Opendct.properties log to Alphacrew's it looked ok. Upon further review, the last entries say otherwise. I truncated most of the logs channels for space. Thanks to all for the patience and help so far.

#dct_infinitv Configuration File
#Sun Jun 30 13:50:57 EDT 2019
channel.0002=2,,false,NECN,,QAM256,171000000,5,,0,UNKNOWN,false
channel.0995=995,,false,EAS,,QAM256,141000000,1,,0,UNKNOWN,false
channel.1911=1911,,false,LOOR1,,QAM256,129000000,133,,0,UNKNOWN,false
lineup.address=192.168.200.1
lineup.friendly_name=Ceton InfiniTV PCIe (00-80-5f-8f)
lineup.offline_update_interval=604800000
lineup.source=INFINITV
lineup.update_interval=28800000
sagetv.available_channels_ref=
sagetv.unavailable_channels_ref=2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,29,30,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,70,71,72,84,85,88,89,95,101,102,103,104,105,106,108,109,112,115,116,117,118,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,132,133,134,135,136,137,139,140,141,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,160,161,162,163,164,166,167,168,169,170,174,175,176,177,178,179,180,182,183,187,189,190,191,192,193,194,195,196,197,198,201,202,203,204,205,207,208,221,222,223,224,231,232,234,235,241,243,244,245,247,248,249,250,252,254,256,258,260,268,269,270,271,272,273,274,278,279,289,290,291,292,293,295,296,302,303,304,306,307,316,317,320,321,331,335,338,341,342,343,344,346,347,349,350,351,352,353,354,360,361,362,363,364,366,367,368,370,371,373,374,375,376,377,378,379,380,381,382,383,384,385,386,387,388,389,391,393,395,396,397,399,400,401,402,403,404,405,406,407,408,409,410,411,412,413,414,415,416,417,418,419,420,421,422,423,424,425,426,427,428,429,430,431,432,433,434,435,436,437,438,439,440,441,442,443,444,445,446,447,448,449,450,451,452,453,454,455,457,458,459,460,461,490,491,492,493,497,510,511,512,513,514,515,516,517,518,519,520,531,532,533,534,535,536,537,538,539,540,541,542,543,544,545,546,702,703,706,712,714,717,718,719,720,721,722,724,727,728,729,730,731,732,735,736,737,738,739,740,741,743,744,746,747,748,749,750,751,752,753,754,755,756,757,759,760,761,762,763,764,765,766,767,768,769,770,771,772,774,775,776,777,778,779,780,781,782,783,784,785,786,787,788,789,790,791,792,793,795,796,797,798,799,800,802,810,812,814,815,816,817,818,819,820,821,822,824,826,828,829,894,898,899,918,919,990,995,1911

[KryptoNyte]

Just a shot in the dark here, but have you tried uninstalling OpenDCT entirely, including deleting this directory (usually a hidden directory);

C:\ProgramData\OpenDCT

Then reinstalling OpenDCT from scratch so that it can configure itself clean?

(at this point, I'm assuming you're using the 64 bit version of OpenDCT and the 64 bit version of Java alone)

[BigSwifty]

Thank you. I've previously uninstalled and deleted all the Java and OpenDCT folders (hidden included). I did a fresh install of both x64 OpenDCT and Java 1.8. That environment yielded my concern

#dct_infinitv Configuration File
#Sun Jun 30 13:50:57 EDT 2019
channel.0002=2,,false,NECN,,QAM256,171000000,5,,0,UNKNOWN,false

channel.0995=995,,false,EAS,,QAM256,141000000,1,,0,UNKNOWN,false
channel.1911=1911,,false,LOOR1,,QAM256,129000000,133,,0,UNKNOWN,false
lineup.address=192.168.200.1
lineup.friendly_name=Ceton InfiniTV PCIe (00-80-5f-8f)
lineup.offline_update_interval=604800000
lineup.source=INFINITV
lineup.update_interval=28800000
sagetv.available_channels_ref=
sagetv.unavailable_channels_ref=2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,29,30,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,70,71,72,84,85,88,89,95,101,102,103,104,105,106,108,109,112,115,116,117,118,120,121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,132,133,134,135,136,137,139,140,141,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,160,161,162,163,164,166,167,168,169,170,174,175,176,177,178,179,180,182,183,187,189,190,191,192,193,194,195,196,197,198,201,202,203,204,205,207,208,221,222,223,224,231,232,234,235,241,243,244,245,247,248,249,250,252,254,256,258,260,268,269,270,271,272,273,274,278,279,289,290,291,292,293,295,296,302,303,304,306,307,316,317,320,321,331,335,338,341,342,343,344,346,347,349,350,351,352,353,354,360,361,362,363,364,366,367,368,370,371,373,374,375,376,377,378,379,380,381,382,383,384,385,386,387,388,389,391,393,395,396,397,399,400,401,402,403,404,405,406,407,408,409,410,411,412,413,414,415,416,417,418,419,420,421,422,423,424,425,426,427,428,429,430,431,432,433,434,435,436,437,438,439,440,441,442,443,444,445,446,447,448,449,450,451,452,453,454,455,457,458,459,460,461,490,491,492,493,497,510,511,512,513,514,515,516,517,518,519,520,531,532,533,534,535,536,537,538,539,540,541,542,543,544,545,546,702,703,706,712,714,717,718,719,720,721,722,724,727,728,729,730,731,732,735,736,737,738,739,740,741,743,744,746,747,748,749,750,751,752,753,754,755,756,757,759,760,761,762,763,764,765,766,767,768,769,770,771,772,774,775,776,777,778,779,780,781,782,783,784,785,786,787,788,789,790,791,792,793,795,796,797,798,799,800,802,810,812,814,815,816,817,818,819,820,821,822,824,826,828,829,894,898,899,918,919,990,995,1911

unavailable to Sage reference.

My Ceton diagnostics was showing CableCard errors yesterday; after speaking with Comcast, they are sending a new card that arrives on Friday. Until then, I'm "just" running my 3 R5000's.

[phantomii]

Is there a command line command to determine which version of openDCT is installed and running? If not, is there another easy way to determine this???

[KryptoNyte]

When you first launch OpenDCT (or restart the computer with OpenDCT running on it), the first line of the opendct.log file reads:

[WrapperSimpleAppMain] INFO Main - Starting OpenDCT 0.5.X...

My OpenDCT log files are in this folder:

C:\ProgramData\OpenDCT\logs

[BigSwifty]

So I had uninstalled OpenDCT and Ceton programs, deleted all their folders and reinstalled. Ceton diagnostics was showing intermittent signal/authorization issues with the cablecard. Comcast sent me a replacement card and, after being on cablecard tech support phone for quite sometime with similar issues sent a tech out today. He put a new card in and, viola, all is well. OpenDCT sees all 4 tuners without issues.

Unfreakinbelievable. It took 3 cards to get one that reliably worked.

Thank you all for the help and patience.

[AlphaCrew]

Originally Posted by BigSwifty

So I had uninstalled OpenDCT and Ceton programs, deleted all their folders and reinstalled. Ceton diagnostics was showing intermittent signal/authorization issues with the cablecard. Comcast sent me a replacement card and, after being on cablecard tech support phone for quite sometime with similar issues sent a tech out today. He put a new card in and, viola, all is well. OpenDCT sees all 4 tuners without issues.

Unfreakinbelievable. It took 3 cards to get one that reliably worked.

Thank you all for the help and patience.

Thanks for the follow up. Glad you got it all working.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by BigSwifty

So I had uninstalled OpenDCT and Ceton programs, deleted all their folders and reinstalled. Ceton diagnostics was showing intermittent signal/authorization issues with the cablecard. Comcast sent me a replacement card and, after being on cablecard tech support phone for quite sometime with similar issues sent a tech out today. He put a new card in and, viola, all is well. OpenDCT sees all 4 tuners without issues.

Unfreakinbelievable. It took 3 cards to get one that reliably worked.

Thank you all for the help and patience.

Yep, had similar issues on 2 of my 3 Cable Cards for my HDHR's. Their "home install" for CC is horrendous! Phone tech support not much better, it doesn't go "deep" enough. On both of the CC's I had trouble with once the tech arrived they found out that the CC wasn't pointing to the proper activation node. The first one took a while, but once I explained the story on the 2nd one to the tech that is the first place they looked and got it straightened out right away.
You obviously aren't as stubborn as I am. I must have gone through 4 or 5 CC's from the Comcast store before I gave up and let them send out a tech.

[thomaszoo]

I just started having some problems with OpenDCT. It has been working just fine and I haven't made any changes. I'm using it with a Prime tuner. It works for some but not all channels. Those channels are viewable through the HDHR windows app, so there is no DRM (and they have been viewable up until now). I have attached the DCT log. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[thomaszoo]

Well, never mind. Without changing anything it is working again.

[CptKirk]

@EnterNoEscape,

Was hoping to touch on this again. I had some posts back in 2016. I've got a couple of STB's from Comcast that I would like to stop paying rent on and since they are used mostly for tuning in the Comcast music channels I thought I would give OpenDCT another shot.

I was using 0.5.28 (default settings) and the music would break up quite a bit. So I:

1. Uninstalled 0.5.28
2. Deleted the \programdata\opendct directory (to get clean new install)
3. Installed 0.5.29
4. Rebooted
5. Stopped 0.5.29 service
6. Set: consumer.dynamic.channels.raw=801-850
(801-850 are the music channels, no other changes were made)
7. Rebooted

The Comcast music channels were playing better, still getting a few breakups but not as bad.

So finally just left it on channel 843 for the afternoon while I was doing other things. After a couple of hours, I noticed that there was no music playing. I went and looked at the TV and the Comcast music channel was still on the screen and it was shown as still playing. But, there was no sound coming out.

I pressed stop and then play again, and I started getting sound. After an hour or so, the same thing happened. Shows playing but no sound. This scenario never happened with 0.5.28.

@EnterNoEscape I will send you a PM with a link to a Google Drive share that has the .log, .properties and .ts files.

Are there any other settings that could help with this?

Thanks,
Kirk

[waylo]

If I recall correctly, as I also asked him about this issue earlier, clients specifically do very poorly with the Comcast music channels which have some odd encoding issues, and there was not much that could be done to remedy it. What system are you viewing these stations on?

[CptKirk]

HD300 -> Onkyo TX-SR876 Receiver -> Panasonic TC-P50 S2 Plasma TV
and
HD300 -> Panasonic TC-26LX85 LCD TV

[waylo]

Looking back at my posts from a few years ago:
https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/sho...postcount=2063

ENE replied that it was the Windows clients that could not keep timing properly. I'm not sure if the extenders have a similar issue.

[technazz]

Is there a way i can update the ffmpeg used in OpenDCT?

I recently moved over to unraid and im having trouble with some of the streams im using with ffmpeg. I had a working version of FFMPEG on windows using generic pipe and a newer version of FFMPEG.

Thx

Chris

[egeller]

Originally Posted by technazz

Is there a way i can update the ffmpeg used in OpenDCT?

I recently moved over to unraid and im having trouble with some of the streams im using with ffmpeg. I had a working version of FFMPEG on windows using generic pipe and a newer version of FFMPEG.

Thx

Chris

I run OpenDCT on Unraid for my production machine and on Windows for some testing I am doing for an IPTV source. Both versions load ffmpeg-2.8.1-1.1.jar. Are you saying that you updated the Windows JAR to a newer version?

If Yes, then you might be able to install your version of ffmpeg's JAR (Probably under appdata), stop the OpenDCT docker, edit OpenDCT's config to point ("Add another Path") /opt/opendct/lib/ffmpeg-2.8.1-1.1.jar to your JAR's location, and restart the docker. You may need to override /opt/opendct/lib/ffmpeg-2.8.1-1.1-linux-x86_64.jar also.

The "add another path" works for specific files as well as directories. I use the trick on another docker to override the config file location.

[technazz]

Originally Posted by egeller

I run OpenDCT on Unraid for my production machine and on Windows for some testing I am doing for an IPTV source. Both versions load ffmpeg-2.8.1-1.1.jar. Are you saying that you updated the Windows JAR to a newer version?

If Yes, then you might be able to install your version of ffmpeg's JAR (Probably under appdata), stop the OpenDCT docker, edit OpenDCT's config to point ("Add another Path") /opt/opendct/lib/ffmpeg-2.8.1-1.1.jar to your JAR's location, and restart the docker. You may need to override /opt/opendct/lib/ffmpeg-2.8.1-1.1-linux-x86_64.jar also.

The "add another path" works for specific files as well as directories. I use the trick on another docker to override the config file location.

No,

I used the external tuning used the pipe with ffmpeg. I just thought someone else was able to update the jar. I think ffmpeg is on version 4+ and it works on all of my IPTV streams.

I guess I have to install the binary inside the Docker and configure it like I did in windows?

Thanks

Chris

[egeller]

Originally Posted by technazz

No,

I used the external tuning used the pipe with ffmpeg. I just thought someone else was able to update the jar. I think ffmpeg is on version 4+ and it works on all of my IPTV streams.

I guess I have to install the binary inside the Docker and configure it like I did in windows?

Thanks

Chris

Ah. OK. I am familiar with piping IPTV streams through ffmpeg to stabilize them. There is a bit of talk on that on the TVHeadend forum.

I guess you could install the binary outside the docker and create a PATH variable to tell the OpenDCT docker where to find it. I have not done that, but shouldn't it work, in theory?

You may have another alternative. Check out the comment at this link about node-ffmpeg-mpegts-proxy. It runs as a docker and comes from Github. You will need to create a path variable for the source.json config file. The docker uses ffmpeg to stabilize the stream. It does no transcoding. If you have trouble finding it, through the Unraid application search, look for the author's name, jalle19.

The input is the IPTV streams and the output is on port 9128 of your server. Yes, you need to turn your m3u file into a json file and I did that with Notepad++, but I am sure there are easier ways.

It took a bit of setup, but I got it running. I call its streams from OpenDCT and, just this week, modified my TVHeadend config to use the streams. It seems to reduce the issue of connection drops, creating more stability.

However, I found an issue that I have not yet figured out how to resolve with OpenDCT on Unraid with IPTV streams. I find that HD streams seem to have pixelation and blocking on the lower have of the screen. When I point SageTV to a Windows 10 instance of OpenDCT, the picture is as clear as it is in VLC. If you run into the same thing and resolve it, let me know how.

[technazz]

Originally Posted by egeller

Ah. OK. I am familiar with piping IPTV streams through ffmpeg to stabilize them. There is a bit of talk on that on the TVHeadend forum.

I guess you could install the binary outside the docker and create a PATH variable to tell the OpenDCT docker where to find it. I have not done that, but shouldn't it work, in theory?

You may have another alternative. Check out the comment at this link about node-ffmpeg-mpegts-proxy. It runs as a docker and comes from Github. You will need to create a path variable for the source.json config file. The docker uses ffmpeg to stabilize the stream. It does no transcoding. If you have trouble finding it, through the Unraid application search, look for the author's name, jalle19.

The input is the IPTV streams and the output is on port 9128 of your server. Yes, you need to turn your m3u file into a json file and I did that with Notepad++, but I am sure there are easier ways.

It took a bit of setup, but I got it running. I call its streams from OpenDCT and, just this week, modified my TVHeadend config to use the streams. It seems to reduce the issue of connection drops, creating more stability.

However, I found an issue that I have not yet figured out how to resolve with OpenDCT on Unraid with IPTV streams. I find that HD streams seem to have pixelation and blocking on the lower have of the screen. When I point SageTV to a Windows 10 instance of OpenDCT, the picture is as clear as it is in VLC. If you run into the same thing and resolve it, let me know how.

I've got it working with the Generic Pipe

1. Download the FFMPEG static binary
https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/rel...-static.tar.xz and unpack it.
2. Create a FFMPEG folder in my /appdata folder and give it executable permissions (chmod +777 to the contents of the folder)
3. Add a PATH to the OpenDCT container
/mnt/user/appdata/ffmpeg/
Container Path: /mnt/user/appdata/opendct/ffmpeg
4. Edit the opendct.properties add the Tunername to Generic Pipe Device name field and save it
generic.pipe.device_names_csv=IPTV_PIPE
5. Start the OpenDCT docker and let it generate the tuner info in the opendct properties
6. Stop the docker and edit opendct.properties and add the tuning executable command. the xxxx field will be unique to your install just look for the Device name in the tuner fields. Also change the consumer to RawSageTVConsumer Save it
sagetv.device.xxxxxxx.streaming_url=/mnt/user/appdata/opendct/ffmpeg/./ffmpeg -i http\://iptvurl.com\:8080/username/password/%c% -c\:v copy -c\: copy -f mpegts pipe\:1
sagetv.device.xxxxxxx.consumer=opendct.consumer.RawSageTVConsumerImpl
7. Start docker and then add in new source to SageTV. I had to restart SageTV to pick up the tuner even though i have the network discover on for some reason.

It works great and it cleans up the few streams that the built in OpenDCT 2.xx FFMPEG would choke on.


** EDIT: Added sagetv.device.xxxxxxx.consumer=opendct.consumer.RawSageTVConsumerImpl to allow some channels that we not working in LIVETV with opendct.consumer.FFmpegTransSageTVConsumerImpl
I *think* that opendct.consumer.FFmpegTransSageTVConsumerImpl is not needed because I am processing through FFMPEG already **

Chris

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by CptKirk

@EnterNoEscape,

Was hoping to touch on this again. I had some posts back in 2016. I've got a couple of STB's from Comcast that I would like to stop paying rent on and since they are used mostly for tuning in the Comcast music channels I thought I would give OpenDCT another shot.

I was using 0.5.28 (default settings) and the music would break up quite a bit. So I:

1. Uninstalled 0.5.28
2. Deleted the \programdata\opendct directory (to get clean new install)
3. Installed 0.5.29
4. Rebooted
5. Stopped 0.5.29 service
6. Set: consumer.dynamic.channels.raw=801-850
(801-850 are the music channels, no other changes were made)
7. Rebooted

The Comcast music channels were playing better, still getting a few breakups but not as bad.

So finally just left it on channel 843 for the afternoon while I was doing other things. After a couple of hours, I noticed that there was no music playing. I went and looked at the TV and the Comcast music channel was still on the screen and it was shown as still playing. But, there was no sound coming out.

I pressed stop and then play again, and I started getting sound. After an hour or so, the same thing happened. Shows playing but no sound. This scenario never happened with 0.5.28.

@EnterNoEscape I will send you a PM with a link to a Google Drive share that has the .log, .properties and .ts files.

Are there any other settings that could help with this?

Thanks,
Kirk

The best way I dealt with these channels was to actually use FFmpeg to transcode just music stations. I created a profile specifically for this purpose (ultrafast_mc) that only picks up stations that look like music stations. All other stations are just remuxed like normal. By transcoding, it's basically just adding all of the interframes that don't exist normally on music channels and makes them much more compatible.


About the comments on updating FFmpeg. I attempted this over a year ago and it was a complete mess because breaking changes were made to the code base and the code examples for FFmpeg were not on parity with those changes. As such I had to fumble about to get things working by looking at source code...not fun. I thought I had a working version, but lots of users reported frequent crashing, so I reverted back to the previous version and haven't revisited. I currently have no plans to try again.