Schedules Direct EPG (integrated BETA)

[pendragonsound]

Originally Posted by pendragonsound

Ideally I would like to leave my FTA channel list alone, but pull the EPG for those channels that can get it from Schedules Direct. I cannot find any way to do this, and would be grateful to anyone who could point me in the right direction. I'm assuming that means my only choice is to (1) import an irrelevant channel line-up for my FTA tuners, (2) disable all of the channels in that line-up, (3) reenter thousands of channels that will never have an EPG, and (4) reenter the Station IDs for the channels where I was able to find them. This will take days, and if MickBurke's concept were to work, it would take minutes.

Answered my own question, I think. I saw a thread started by tmiranda about exporting channel mappings, and BobPhoenix suggested trying "Import/Export Channel Lineup" by 49studebaker. They weren't sure the mappings would carry over, and didn't follow-up whether it did or not. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I exported my FTA channels, added the Schedules Direct line-up for Juneau OTA (only a few channels), deleted those channels, and reimported the FTA channels. It looks like it is working!

[rkulagow]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

Schedules Direct doesn't provide any way to know if a celebrity image exists without just checking and they don't provide a way to batch check if the images will exist.

If it walks like a feature request, and quacks like a feature request...

Please post a message to http://forums.schedulesdirect.org/viewforum.php?f=17

so that we can discuss it there, and I can look at the level of code-writing necessary.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by rkulagow

If it walks like a feature request, and quacks like a feature request...

Please post a message to http://forums.schedulesdirect.org/viewforum.php?f=17

so that we can discuss it there, and I can look at the level of code-writing necessary.

Will do.

[davephan]

I signed up for Schedules Direct, and I am still in the free trial period. I am using SageTV version 9.0.14.568. The banner message about Schedules Direct doesn't say how to test Schedules Direct is working. When I toggled the Schedules Direct channel banner, I got a message that my computer cannot communicate with Schedule Direct.

Is there something within SageTV where the EPG needs to be set to Schedules Direct? Do firewall ports need to opened? If so, which ports and what does the firewall need to be opened up to?

So far, there is "No Data" in the EPG at 7 PM on Monday, June 26, 2017. How do I force an update, or how long do I need to wait to find out if it is working. So far, after about 20 minutes, it doesn't seem to be working.

[wnjj]

You have to remove your capture devices and re-add them, selecting SD for guide data. Refer to the wiki.

[davephan]

I went into the tuner configuration and edited the EPG to use Schedules Direct. The programs seem to be loading into the program guide now, but so far, nothing pas 7 PM on Monday, June 26, 2017. Maybe I need to give it more time.

If I have to remove all the tuners to get past Monday at 7 PM, I'll need to write down all the channels I have configured, and quit watching programming, before removing the channels. Since I remove a lot of channels from the lineup that I never want to see.

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by davephan

I went into the tuner configuration and edited the EPG to use Schedules Direct. The programs seem to be loading into the program guide now, but so far, nothing pas 7 PM on Monday, June 26, 2017. Maybe I need to give it more time.

If I have to remove all the tuners to get past Monday at 7 PM, I'll need to write down all the channels I have configured, and quit watching programming, before removing the channels. Since I remove a lot of channels from the lineup that I never want to see.

So are all of your tuners on SD? When I had one in SD and 2 still on Sage EPG when it was down, I wasn't getting new data or not very fast. I've read that Sage EPG has priority when both are used but I don't know if that's globally or per tuner. I switched them all to SD and by morning I had 20 days of data.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by davephan

I went into the tuner configuration and edited the EPG to use Schedules Direct. The programs seem to be loading into the program guide now, but so far, nothing pas 7 PM on Monday, June 26, 2017. Maybe I need to give it more time.

If I have to remove all the tuners to get past Monday at 7 PM, I'll need to write down all the channels I have configured, and quit watching programming, before removing the channels. Since I remove a lot of channels from the lineup that I never want to see.

I was instructed in another thread to install the "import/export channel lineup" plugin to help with the enabling of channels in a new lineup. When importing, you do need to disable all channels just prior to the import (and I think there was a file extension change required).

It was explained in more detail here;

https://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50378

[davephan]

When trying to configure Schedules Direct, I did get the following error message:

"Your Schedules Direct account doe snot contain ay lineups. You need to add at least one line to your account for SageTV to use Schedules Direct for guide data."

After configuring the DirecTV username and password in SageTV, I configured Schedules Direct for my zip code and cable TV provider. I have six tuners using two HomeRun Prime 3 tuner cable card devices, using Comcast cable TV. I configured each of the the six tuners one at a time to use Schedules Direct, and my cable provider with the extended channels. After the first tuner, I could just 'accept' using the same Schedules Direct username, password, and channel lineup.

After about an hour, my EPG line up is now up to Saturday, July 15, 2017. Not all channels are up to the same time of day in the future, on July 15th. I will have to monitor how well the Schedules Direct guide works compared to the old guide. SageTV is kind of worthless without an EPG using timed recordings. The SageTV DVR value isn't there without the EPG. I didn't have to disable my channel lineups, I kept the channel lineups. Hopefully, the EPG guide will continue to function properly without having to remove the tuners, and re-add them and configure them.

I just took an image of my SageTV computer a couple of days ago. I'll need to create another image, plus apply the image to a spare C drive. I use a SSD drive for the C drive using a drive bay that can easily be swapped without opening the computer case. I also have a spare SSD with the same image. So, if I have a system failure, due to a C drive / programs problem, I can quickly swap to the spare SSD drive without recovering from an image, which I also have, but takes more time to recover than just by switching to my spare SSD. I also just changed out my recording drives today to SSD drives after one of my mechanical hard drives died.

Now, I only use mechanical drives for the recording libraries, not for the recording drives. I formatted my SSD recording drives to use 64K blocks for higher drive performance. I might temporarily move my data off my recording library mechanical hard drives so I can reformat the recording library drives from the default 4K block size to 64K blocks, then move the data back onto the reformatted recording library drives.

So far, the Schedules Direct EPG guide looks great. Maybe a link to some step by step instructions on the Schedules Direct info banner would help others. Hopefully, the Schedules Direct EPG service will exist for many years, for the long run, since I might still be using SageTV another ten years from now.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by davephan

After configuring the DirecTV username and password in SageTV, I configured Schedules Direct for my zip code and cable TV provider. I have six tuners using two HomeRun Prime 3 tuner cable card devices, using Comcast cable TV. I configured each of the the six tuners one at a time to use Schedules Direct, and my cable provider with the extended channels. After the first tuner, I could just 'accept' using the same Schedules Direct username, password, and channel lineup.

This afternoon, I did something similar, but I only configured the first Prime tuner, then told my other 5 tuners to use exactly the same lineup as I had configured with the first tuner (not a copy, but use the same lineup).

July 15th sounds right, usually about 20 days out it seems.

[KryptoNyte]

Just to confirm, it looks like you did it correctly - the only thing you need to do at the Schedules Direct website is to setup your account, username/password/pay 25 bucks, and then all lineup adding is done via the SageTV UI during tuner setup.

[davephan]

I'm on the free trial period now. I'll pay for the service in a few days. I'll need to setup a long term reminder, maybe with Google Calendar to remind me before the one year subscription expires, otherwise, I'll forget to renew the service, unless Schedules Direct sends me a reminder e-mail. Hopefully, this is a long term solution that will last at least a decade or more!

[rkulagow]

We (Schedules Direct) do send reminder emails, and we don't auto-renew.

[wnjj]

I thought the need for 64k block formatting was gone. These days the hardware doesn't have an issue keeping up.

[davidk21770]

How is the download time controlled?

I usually review for new movies in the afternoon, so I'm used to monitoring Sage.properties/...expanded_until and making sure that it's at least an hour before when I normally go through looking for them (the old one used to walk forwards -- it appeared to add 24 hours to whenever it successfully updated so any and all delays moved the time). But with the change to SD, one lineup appears to be working the old way but the other is sitting at 0?

When does the SD update happen and what triggers it? Is it something that makes sense to control?

I only want one update a day. I just want to know when it's going to happen! And I'd really prefer it not to walk.

[wnjj]

Originally Posted by davidk21770

How is the download time controlled?

I usually review for new movies in the afternoon, so I'm used to monitoring Sage.properties/...expanded_until and making sure that it's at least an hour before when I normally go through looking for them (the old one used to walk forwards -- it appeared to add 24 hours to whenever it successfully updated so any and all delays moved the time). But with the change to SD, one lineup appears to be working the old way but the other is sitting at 0?

When does the SD update happen and what triggers it? Is it something that makes sense to control?

I only want one update a day. I just want to know when it's going to happen! And I'd really prefer it not to walk.

My SD updates once per day and manually if I disable/enable a channel just like the old EPG.

[graywolf]

Originally Posted by davephan

I went into the tuner configuration and edited the EPG to use Schedules Direct. The programs seem to be loading into the program guide now, but so far, nothing pas 7 PM on Monday, June 26, 2017. Maybe I need to give it more time.

If I have to remove all the tuners to get past Monday at 7 PM, I'll need to write down all the channels I have configured, and quit watching programming, before removing the channels. Since I remove a lot of channels from the lineup that I never want to see.

check out the import/export plugin. export will create a <tuner name>.export file
then you can disable all channels, change the extension to .import, then import (from the edit channels options)


Also, you might want to upgrade to the latest V9.1.5. If i recall, there were enhancements (including SD EPG) since 9.0.4

[graywolf]

Originally Posted by davidk21770

When does the SD update happen and what triggers it? Is it something that makes sense to control?

I only want one update a day. I just want to know when it's going to happen! And I'd really prefer it not to walk.

Download time works same way as with SageTV EPG does. It is a function of SageTV no matter the EPG source. Behaviour is 24 hrs once the last EPG update COMPLETES. That is why you have EPG Update wlak/creep in Start Time.

I do the same thing wanting same time for update to start. I have a Task Scheduler set in Windows to update EPG same time each day to avoid the EPG Upddate walk/creep.


ForceEPGUpdate.bat

C:\GnuWin32\bin\wget.exe "http://<web ui username>:<web ui password>@<sagetv server name>:<web ui port #>/sage/GlobalCommand?command=ForceEpgUpdate"

[davidk21770]

Originally Posted by graywolf

check out the import/export plugin. export will create a <tuner name>.export file
then you can disable all channels, change the extension to .import, then import (from the edit channels options)


Also, you might want to upgrade to the latest V9.1.5. If i recall, there were enhancements (including SD EPG) since 9.0.4

Be very careful with this plugin. I ended-up with a lot of cross channels from my OTHER line-up appear in the wrong lineup when I tried to use it. I was glad that I made a zip of my install so I could just delete it, unzip the saved one then I ended sorting the channel list on the channel that sage uses and just going down the list and manually adjusting the channel enables.

[davidk21770]

Originally Posted by graywolf

Download time works same way as with SageTV EPG does. It is a function of SageTV no matter the EPG source. Behaviour is 24 hrs once the last EPG update COMPLETES. That is why you have EPG Update wlak/creep in Start Time.

I do the same thing wanting same time for update to start. I have a Task Scheduler set in Windows to update EPG same time each day to avoid the EPG Upddate walk/creep.


ForceEPGUpdate.bat

C:\GnuWin32\bin\wget.exe "http://<web ui username>:<web ui password>@<sagetv server name>:<web ui port #>/sage/GlobalCommand?command=ForceEpgUpdate"

Thanks! It has settled-out and is working the way the old sage did (creep and all ). But I'll checkout your solution as it looks much better than my manual one!