WMC Live TV Tuner

[boukmandutty]

Something is definitely sending either an OK or an Enter command. Try disconnecting the WMC machine off the KVM as you suggest to make sure it is not the cause. You could set up the WMC machine for remote desktop access perhaps.

[egeller]

Remote desktop kills WMC, unfortunately. I now have an Xbox 360 connected to the same instance of WMC, so I can monitor WMC and any unwanted scheduling without RDC.

I thought disconnecting the KVM switch had solved it, but I had a channel change near the end of a recording this morning.

Only two recordings are scheduled for tomorrow, so I put another three recordings on the schedule to see what it's doing.

[egeller]

I think I am getting smarter. I installed WinPCAP on the machine running WMC. WinPCAP allows remote network monitoring. I installed Wireshark on a Win 10 VM, not the WMC machine. I now have Wireshark looking for any HTTP messages to port 40510 to the destination machine.

When it happens again I will know if it is coming from a stray channel change via HTTP. If it is not, then I'm thinking I should probably rebuild my Win 7 machine running WMC and probably rethink the hardware involved.

[KryptoNyte]

Is there a command that can be issued via HTTP to an Xbox360 to force a restart? Or maybe a shutdown and startup? I searched the available commands in the website interface for an Xbox360 but wasn't able to find any control at this level.

I'm really struggling with a black screen that appears after either of my Xbox360's have been either sitting idle or playing a television program for more than about 18 hours without a tuning change. All sleep settings on the Xbox's are disabled and I believe I've ruled out network connectivity issues, but I simply can't solve this issue without a restart of the Xbox360.

Without some kind of http command, my only option would probably be to use the USB-UIRT to shutdown and turn the Xbox's back on. I believe ENE had been doing this to some extent with SJQ (and accompanying command file).

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Is there a command that can be issued via HTTP to an Xbox360 to force a restart? Or maybe a shutdown and startup? I searched the available commands in the website interface for an Xbox360 but wasn't able to find any control at this level.

I'm really struggling with a black screen that appears after either of my Xbox360's have been either sitting idle or playing a television program for more than about 18 hours without a tuning change. All sleep settings on the Xbox's are disabled and I believe I've ruled out network connectivity issues, but I simply can't solve this issue without a restart of the Xbox360.

Without some kind of http command, my only option would probably be to use the USB-UIRT to shutdown and turn the Xbox's back on. I believe ENE had been doing this to some extent with SJQ (and accompanying command file).

I looked into this a while ago and (as you mentioned) I ended up using IR. There's nothing you can do with the WMC session to directly manipulate the device since what you see on the Xbox is actually a fancy remote desktop provided by the computer you've connected the Xbox to.

[boukmandutty]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Is there a command that can be issued via HTTP to an Xbox360 to force a restart? Or maybe a shutdown and startup? I searched the available commands in the website interface for an Xbox360 but wasn't able to find any control at this level.

I'm really struggling with a black screen that appears after either of my Xbox360's have been either sitting idle or playing a television program for more than about 18 hours without a tuning change. All sleep settings on the Xbox's are disabled and I believe I've ruled out network connectivity issues, but I simply can't solve this issue without a restart of the Xbox360.

Without some kind of http command, my only option would probably be to use the USB-UIRT to shutdown and turn the Xbox's back on. I believe ENE had been doing this to some extent with SJQ (and accompanying command file).

There is something you might be able to try and perhaps implement in a more sophisticated way than I have been able to. In the past I had to resort to moving away from WMC Live Tuner and use my USB UIRT to change channels on the two ceton echo devices. My problem was that I developed the habit of putting my server to sleep since my Jamaica days when I used to mess around with mythtv. (Power costs a LOT in the developing world.)

When my SageTV server would wake up to record two shows at the same time using the echos (or the two xbox 360s that I used to mess around with) one of the two devices would just not tune. I would get either a black screen or just the wmc home screen.

What I have been experimenting with recently, and it seems to be working so far, is to send that powershell command in the ExeMultiTuner registry file

"PowerShell.exe -Command Invoke-WebRequest -Uri http://localhost:%DEVICE%/tune%20%C2HANNEL%"

I send the command to each device using Eventghost each time an extender logs on to the system (before its time to tune the channel I want to record). That means that for each device I replace the DEVICE part of the command with the port number for extender (40511 or 40512). I also replace CHANNEL part of the command with a zero. The effect is that a zero is sent to the extender and it remains on the channel it was originally on. For one of the devices I have it wait 15 seconds before sending the above command because I suspect the problem I was having might have to do with sending two commands at the same time immediately after the system wakes. It has been working perfectly for me so far.

I think what you might want to do is to find a way more elegant than the above to send the powershell command to your extender to tune channel zero when the xbox wakes up or after a prolonged period. I am assuming that unlike me you know how to script it.

Oh, my system has been sleeping and waking to record with wmc on the same machine. I discovered how to use powercfg to get past the extender keeping the system awake. I know most people keep their system on all the time but I just cant bring myself to do it... Saving power has become a habit I guess.

[KryptoNyte]

First of all, thanks to everyone for their input. It's always interesting to see the various creativity around this joint.

I opted for the IR route, but there is still a bit of manual intervention because I'm too lazy/aging/stupid to research and script with SJQ. I have (2) timed recordings scheduled at the same time, twice a day (at 2am and 2pm, when I'm rarely using this tuner pair). This seems to keep the Xbox's from black screening quite as frequently. Additionally, it's easy for me to see when these recordings are black on just the previews and know there's a problem.

Using ENE's work for guidance, I wrote a modified batch file that power cycles the Xbox's via IR. I installed Unified Remote Server on the SageTV server, and again on my Android phone. I dropped the batch file into the Win 7 Start Menu\Programs\SageTV directory, where I can launch it from my phone with Unified Remote. I wrote another batch file that cycles the SageTV service on and off and stuck it in the same place.

Unified remote essentially gives me the ability to deal with 'black screened' Xbox's, a SageTV memory overload, and even restart the entire Win7 system if need be. It's not great with the manual intervention and the timed recordings, but at least I'm not helpless when I'm not home to manually restart stuff.

Unified Remote opened up a lot of possibilities.

I seem to recall Narflex writing something into SageTV that would look at the recording image and do something afterward, but I can't find it now. I would think a plugin that automatically takes a screenshot "x" seconds after any recording begins could be leveraged in many ways, analyzing the screenshot and then prompting an action as a result, especially for those of us with pesky STB's and the likes.

[boukmandutty]

Do you know if there is a way to get an android device to boot directly into the hdhomerun app to await ir commands for changing channels? I am wondering if I can use it like a set top box. I know so fart that it works manually with the hdpvr 2.

[waylo]

There are a multitude of ways to automate Android to get it to auto run an app. If all you're looking for is a way to get an Android device to boot into a certain app after booting, you can look at Tasker or Automate. The script should be relatively easy to make.

[boukmandutty]

Cant seem to get any of them on install. The Google store says they are incompatible with my device. It seems I might have to root the miibox.

Anyway the device stays on the hdhomerun app until it is unplugged. I am able to change the channels using and flirc usb and a wmc remote configuration.

There are still a few things ir related to be worked out to get it running perfectly thought but I suspect it has to do with the settings in the flirc. Another android tv box that supports numbers keys over ir should do this far more easily.

Is there anyway to chance the channel in the hdhomerun app via network that anyone knows of?

[boukmandutty]

Ok, have it all working flawlessly. Will watch it over the coming week to see how it performs.

For anyone looking to escape the Microsoft twilight zone and your reliance on Windows Media Center as a way to get drm content into SageTV a DRM capable android box that that has both the hdhomerun and the Live Channels app, and of course a hdhomerun prime, provides yet another way to go.

I am currently using two Nvidia Shield Tvs (The mi box was a pain). Both Nvidias output to two hdpvr2 and give 5.1 audio.

I anticipate this would be even better with one of those BM1000's, although they only do stereo I am told. The problem is there is no way to change channels on the android boxes over a network.

For now the Shields need an FLIRC usb unit to change channels. I use the hdhomerun app since it gives better picture quality than live channels in my view and there are certainly less dropped frames. The trick is launch the app when the server wakes to record and exit it when it goes to sleep. I manage to do all this with eventghost.


All credit to this thread for providing an angle to yet another option for those of us who live in regions where literally every channel is drm.

[Zogg]

Maybe this question is best for the OpenDCT thread, I don't know.

For various reasons I want to move my WMC Live Tuner capture from a BM-3000 to an HDPVR2. Is it possible to keep using OpenDCT to tune the WMC channels even though I'm not using a network encoder to capture?

Or will I need to use another method such as EXEMultiTuner->WGET->HTTP to send the WMC tuner commands?

[egeller]

Originally Posted by Zogg

Maybe this question is best for the OpenDCT thread, I don't know.

For various reasons I want to move my WMC Live Tuner capture from a BM-3000 to an HDPVR2. Is it possible to keep using OpenDCT to tune the WMC channels even though I'm not using a network encoder to capture?

Or will I need to use another method such as EXEMultiTuner->WGET->HTTP to send the WMC tuner commands?

My guess is that the answer is no, to using OpenDCT.

You can have the tuning command in OpenDCT, but you will not have a "streaming_url". That will cause OpenDCT not to have access to the video, and it will, most likely, throw a fit.

EXEMultiTuner->WGET->HTTP is the only way I am aware of to tune the WMC instance. Maybe a USB-UIRT could be configured to do the tuning. I remember using that when I used HDPVRs. I retired the USB-UIRT and HDPVR when I moved to Unraid and did not want to deal with it on Linux.

You may want to do a search of the Green Button forums at https://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/

[boukmandutty]

I have found a way to effectively use an android box as a stb and to change channels via a network connection using the ExeMultiTuner plugin and drawing on this thread. This should work with any hdmi capture device attached to the box.

So far I have it running relatively smoothly. My method is crude but I am sure people here will figure out a more elegant way of doing what I outline below.

Steps:

1. Enable developer mode on your drm capable andoird box that is able to view drm channels via hdhomerun. On my device I navigate to the Build number and tap 7 times.

2. Enable network debugging. This option will appear after you do Step 1 above.

3. Download and install Andriod SDK to your path. (You seem to need only adb but I am not sure. I have no experience with things android)

4. When you have adb in place (I installed it and added it to my system path) connect to your android box over the network with the following two commands:

adb start-server

adb connect ip address of your device

On your android box you should see an altert that a connection is being made it. Check the box to authorize and click “OK” to move forward.

5. Feel free to experiment with your network access to the box with the following command for example:

adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_TV

This command should launch the TV app that the recording will be done from (There is the hdhomerun app but I found it too cumbersome for changing channels and was hoping some interested party might figure it out more quickly than I have time to.)

You can change the channel from the terminal with the following command

adb shell input keyboard text channel number

When you are done:

adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_HOME

This command should take you back to the Home screen


6. The next step is making SageTV do this channel chaning on demand. For this we need the ExeMultiTuner plugin. Install it as per usual in the Remotes folder. For the registry input I installed the registry patch from the WMC Live TV hack that ENE provided here and edited it with the following command:

C:\Users\dessaliness-pc\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe -s %DEVICE% shell input keyboard text %CHANNEL%

The path to abd.exe might be different for you depending on how you install it.


7. See step 8 of Kryptonite's instructions of page 2 of this thread for reference!!*
Inside the Sagetv I add a new device and choose ExeMultiTuner plugin for my option to change channels. I then go to the ExeMultiTuner folder that is generated in the Sagetv “Remotes” folder and copy and paste the default StbDevice.ir into that folder. Still in the ExeMultiTuner folder, I change the name of that device to the ip address of my android device and modify the information in the file to match the name (the ip address).

8. Go back to SagTV and be sure that inside remote options for your newly created capture device you have selected the correct remote for the ExeMultiTuner. It should be the one renamed with the ip address of your android box.

9. You should be able to change channels after you restart SageTV Service.


The trick now is to get adb started and the android box connected to it when the computer boots with some script. I use eventghost to get the box running and the tv app launched before SageTV begins recording. If you come up with a nifty more reliable script, please share. To get this started this sequence of commands works for me:

adb kill-server

(Seems to tidy things up for me)

adb start-server

(This starts the server obviously)

adb connect ip address of device

(This connects to your device)

adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_TV

(And this starts the tv app)

If you connect more than one device to the adb server you will have to specify the ip address for the commands issued from the terminal as you play around and experiment. So for example I would change the channel of one of my tuners from the terminal as follows:

adb -s ip address of device shell input keyboard text 780

The channel change command I have for the registry takes multiple ip address into account. Whoever wrote ExeMultiTuner deserves a beer.

[nyplayer]

What Android TV box did you use ? and will this work on a Shield ?

Where did you get the Android SDK ?

[boukmandutty]

I use it on two Nvidia shields.

I just checked and one of the recordings I scheduled last night for testing purposes did not work. I have been testing since this last weekend. I suspect the problem has more to do with the fact that I put my server to sleep instead of keeping it running 24/7 like most of you guys seem to do. For my system the abd server has to get started each time it wakes up, the devices then have to connect and so on.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

I use it on two Nvidia shields.

I just checked and one of the recordings I scheduled last night for testing purposes did not work. I have been testing since this last weekend. I suspect the problem has more to do with the fact that I put my server to sleep instead of keeping it running 24/7 like most of you guys seem to do. For my system the abd server has to get started each time it wakes up, the devices then have to connect and so on.

I got it working using live Channels able to change the channels using adb now need to try using SagetV.

[boukmandutty]

Nice! I look forward on your insights on how to make the SageTV part work better.

I tried using the hdhomerun app instead of live channels but it gave problems. The app pops up a random keyboard on screen especially when the last digit of a channel is 7 it seems. I do think that the quality of the picture using the hdhomerun tv app is better though, but that might be subjective.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

Nice! I look forward on your insights on how to make the SageTV part work better.

I tried using the hdhomerun app instead of live channels but it gave problems. The app pops up a random keyboard on screen especially when the last digit of a channel is 7 it seems. I do think that the quality of the picture using the hdhomerun tv app is better though, but that might be subjective.

Using HdHomeRunn app it brings up the onscreen keyboard .. I thought they both use exoplayer. I have to remember how to use my BM100 capture device.

[boukmandutty]

Yeah it brings up the keyboard when you press enter as you must do in that apt confirm the channel change so when you do for instance:

adb shell input keyboard text 780

You have to add the enter command for that channel change if you want to control the hdhomeurn app. The command thus becomes something like this:

adb -s "ip address of device" shell input keyboard text 780; input keyevent KEYCODE_ENTER

That enter command in some instances triggers an annoying onscreen keyboard instead of sending a simple confirmation. You have to then clear all of that stuff that comes on the screen before you can do anything else.

The keyboard pop up does not automatically disappear like you would expect it should. I have to issue the following command twice to clear the screen:

adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_BACK

I had the same problem when I was using a usb Flirc device to send ir commands to control the hdhomerun app. So now I have confirmed that it was not just wayward ir commands but something about how the app itself is built.