Disabling channels is a pain in the butt

[wayner]

Does anyone have a way of quickly disabling channels on your system. It is a pain in the putt to go into the source setup and manually disable hundreds of channels.

I see that in the sage.properties that there is an entry like this:

epg_data_sources/838481/unavailable_channel_nums=394,395,351,396,473,550,352,551,354,398,431,552,355,399,432,553,356,433,554,357,434,555,358,435,359,436,437,438,19,360,361,362,364,1,365,366,367,400,565,368,401,369,402,403,404,602,405,406,407,608,490,371,372,333,410,179,411,653,412,610,413,414,612,419,341,100,102,663,346,500,666,667,668,428,509,

Could you just use something like Excel to create a list of dozens or hundreds of numbers and just append this to this entry in the properties file? In an ideal world it would be nice to dump a list of the channel nums and names into a spreadsheet and then just be able to do a quick copy and paste to disable channels. Or even a channel management page in the web UI where it was easy to quickly

There is also an entry for unavailable stations, does that have to be populated in conjunction with the unavailable channel nums?

Or does anyone have another idea on how to do this?

This is almost analagous to BMT, but it is Batch Channel Tools.

[Opus4]

There is an option to disable all channels, but then you'll need to go through & enable the ones you want again.

[wayner]

Yes, so depending on how many channels you use that may not be much easier.

I am looking at pulling the JSON data from a Sagex GetChannels query into Excel and then having a binary field for channel enabled. That could be used to create a csv list of channels that you want disabled which could be pasted into the properties file.

Assuming that I understand how this works correctly. Not sure if there would be issues with logical/physical channel.

[UgaData]

F.W.I.W. Not exactly what you're looking for but there is a plug-in for Exporting and Importing channel line-ups.

[deanm]

Originally Posted by wayner

Yes, so depending on how many channels you use that may not be much easier.

I am looking at pulling the JSON data from a Sagex GetChannels query into Excel and then having a binary field for channel enabled. That could be used to create a csv list of channels that you want disabled which could be pasted into the properties file.

Assuming that I understand how this works correctly. Not sure if there would be issues with logical/physical channel.

I have done something very similar but in a MySQL DB. Wrote my own SDEPG Importer then I write the data in to STV using my custom master list.

Mainly done this for IPTV to combining multiple lineups.

Dean

[wayner]

Originally Posted by UgaData

F.W.I.W. Not exactly what you're looking for but there is a plug-in for Exporting and Importing channel line-ups.

I used that in the past but if I remember correctly, it had some limitations. And I want to do a more wholesale job with disabling a bunch of channels that I would never watch.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by wayner

I used that in the past but if I remember correctly, it had some limitations. And I want to do a more wholesale job with disabling a bunch of channels that I would never watch.

It works fine, but you need to do a tiny amount of manual manipulation to the saved files. I use it, because I have three different tuning sources, aka lots of blacked-out channels.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

This is almost analagous to BMT, but it is Batch Channel Tools.

BMT has a channel editor for enabling/disabling channels in batch. I used it all the time.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

BMT has a channel editor for enabling/disabling channels in batch. I used it all the time.

Cool. Is it easy to find in BMT, and can you save the lists?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

Cool. Is it easy to find in BMT, and can you save the lists?

I'm going to guess, no, if you are asking the question

I actually don't have BMT or sagetv setup at all right now, so I can't say for sure where it is in the menu... it's one of the tools like viewing system messages, packages, etc.

I used to use it quite often because I only wanted to see channels on my system that I actually watched instead of the 100s of useless ones that I'd never watch, etc.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by stuckless

I'm going to guess, no, if you are asking the question

I actually don't have BMT or sagetv setup at all right now, so I can't say for sure where it is in the menu... it's one of the tools like viewing system messages, packages, etc.

I used to use it quite often because I only wanted to see channels on my system that I actually watched instead of the 100s of useless ones that I'd never watch, etc.

oops, lol - forgot you are an ex-Sager. Sorry

[wayner]

Originally Posted by stuckless

BMT has a channel editor for enabling/disabling channels in batch. I used it all the time.

I have used that in the past, but it appears that it is broken for me, at least it is on 2 of my 3 servers. When I click on Configure-Channels I get failed to load on two of my systems. On another system it works. There doesn't seem to much rhyme or reason - it fails on a Java 8(old jetty) and Java 11(new jetty). The system that works is Java 8 with new Jetty.

The systems that don't work have both OTA and cable lineups as they both have HD-PVRs and HDHRs as tuners. The one that works only has the HDHR as a tuner. I wonder if there is an issue with loading multiple lineups? I took a look in the logs and can't see an obvious issue.

Even if it did work you still have to click individually for every channel. In a spreadsheet you could do a copy and paste to a few hundred cells in like two seconds, or make a large selection and press Ctrl-D to do a fill down?

But I have been a spreadsheet jockey since Lotus 123 in 1986 so when your tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail!

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by wayner

I have used that in the past, but it appears that it is broken for me, at least it is on 2 of my 3 servers. When I click on Configure-Channels I get failed to load on two of my systems. On another system it works. There doesn't seem to much rhyme or reason - it fails on a Java 8(old jetty) and Java 11(new jetty). The system that works is Java 8 with new Jetty.

The systems that don't work have both OTA and cable lineups as they both have HD-PVRs and HDHRs as tuners. The one that works only has the HDHR as a tuner. I wonder if there is an issue with loading multiple lineups? I took a look in the logs and can't see an obvious issue.

Even if it did work you still have to click individually for every channel. In a spreadsheet you could do a copy and paste to a few hundred cells in like two seconds, or make a large selection and press Ctrl-D to do a fill down?

But I have been a spreadsheet jockey since Lotus 123 in 1986 so when your tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail!

yeah, same here - just tried it, and all I got was ‘no channels available’ or the like.