recording from streaming services (Hulu etc.)

[brent76]

Here's what I came up with, in case it helps anyone out. The batch file takes the channel number sent to it from Sage/ExeMultiTuner, then looks for a match in the csv file. Then it calls a program that I wrote (ptune.exe) to do the actual tuning. The csv file was written for the $16 program package, but can be easily modified to work with the $20 package.

Ptune.exe can also be called as a scheduled task in order to stop Philo when Sage is no longer using it. I have it scheduled to run every 5 minutes. If Philo is in use, it does nothing. If SageTV isn't using Philo it sends the "home" command to the Roku. It requires SageX in order to be able to check the recording status in Sage.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by brent76

Here's what I came up with, in case it helps anyone out. The batch file takes the channel number sent to it from Sage/ExeMultiTuner, then looks for a match in the csv file. Then it calls a program that I wrote (ptune.exe) to do the actual tuning. The csv file was written for the $16 program package, but can be easily modified to work with the $20 package.

Ptune.exe can also be called as a scheduled task in order to stop Philo when Sage is no longer using it. I have it scheduled to run every 5 minutes. If Philo is in use, it does nothing. If SageTV isn't using Philo it sends the "home" command to the Roku. It requires SageX in order to be able to check the recording status in Sage.

Just so you know Brent Philo doing away with $16 package

[brent76]

Originally Posted by SHS

Just so you know Brent Philo doing away with $16 package

I received an email from them. People that are on the $16 package can keep it if they want, but starting May 6th, the $20 package is all that they'll offer to new customers.

I'd post a csv file for the $20 package if I knew for sure what all of the channels were and what order they are in the Philo guide.

Fortunately the csv file is easy to edit. The first column is just a label. The batch file doesn't use it, but having it there makes it easier to keep track of things. The second column is the channel number from the program guide in Sage. The third column is the position in the Philo guide. It's sequential starting with the number 1.

One gotcha is when Philo changes their channel lineup. When they do, it throws off the channel order causing the wrong channels to be tuned. Not hard to fix, but a bit of a pain, none the less.

[SHS]

Originally Posted by brent76

I received an email from them. People that are on the $16 package can keep it if they want, but starting May 6th, the $20 package is all that they'll offer to new customers.

I'd post a csv file for the $20 package if I knew for sure what all of the channels were and what order they are in the Philo guide.

Fortunately the csv file is easy to edit. The first column is just a label. The batch file doesn't use it, but having it there makes it easier to keep track of things. The second column is the channel number from the program guide in Sage. The third column is the position in the Philo guide. It's sequential starting with the number 1.

One gotcha is when Philo changes their channel lineup. When they do, it throws off the channel order causing the wrong channels to be tuned. Not hard to fix, but a bit of a pain, none the less.

I heard that all user even the one's on $16 package have move to $20
Any way nice work

[mgpaulus]

@brent76: I know I'm reviving an old thread, but I'm interested in doing this for some channels that I can get either through Philo or FrndlyTV. But, I have a question about one thing you mentioned: "I'm using the Philo lineup from Schedules Direct."

My question is, how/where are you getting that channel lineup? I'm not seeing anything on SD that allows me to subscribe to the Philo lineup, so I'm guessing I'm missing some crucial piece of information, or some important step. Would you care to share how you subscribed to the Philo lineup?

Thanks,

Mark

[will]

Originally Posted by mgpaulus

My question is, how/where are you getting that channel lineup? I'm not seeing anything on SD that allows me to subscribe to the Philo lineup, so I'm guessing I'm missing some crucial piece of information, or some important step. Would you care to share how you subscribed to the Philo lineup?

Hello Mark,

I haven’t used SageTV to record from Philo in a few years but what I used to do is map a cable guide to Philo. Back when I set this up in 2019, you wouldn’t find streaming services in SD so I would select a random service, such as Comcast in NYC.

In my batch script, which controlled the Roku hooked up to a HD-PVR, it would recognize the channel input passed through, e.g., channel 110, as AMC, then send the correct keyboard presses via the web API interface to the Roku to tune Philo to the live broadcast of AMC.

It sounds much more complex than it really is. In an earlier post in this thread I linked to another post with the batch script and instructions.

Good luck in getting this setup.

[mgpaulus]

Originally Posted by brent76

Here's what I came up with, in case it helps anyone out. The batch file takes the channel number sent to it from Sage/ExeMultiTuner, then looks for a match in the csv file. Then it calls a program that I wrote (ptune.exe) to do the actual tuning. The csv file was written for the $16 program package, but can be easily modified to work with the $20 package.

Ptune.exe can also be called as a scheduled task in order to stop Philo when Sage is no longer using it. I have it scheduled to run every 5 minutes. If Philo is in use, it does nothing. If SageTV isn't using Philo it sends the "home" command to the Roku. It requires SageX in order to be able to check the recording status in Sage.

Hello @brent76,

I'm wondering if you can give me a couple of pointers on how to build your ptune.exe from the source code? Do you have a make file, or can you give me your command line invocation of the fpc compiler?

I do C/C++/Java development, so I'm familiar with the concepts, but I'm not at all familiar with this compiler, and I haven't looked at Pascal since college (Yeah, that was back in the dark ages, when dirt was still clean). I can probably figure out the syntax of the language enough to get done what I need to do, but any pointers on the actual build steps would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

PS: I'm trying to use this with FrndlyTV, and FrndlyTV goes directly into the program guide, so the UP; RIGHT initial keystrokes takes me to the "On Demand" menu, which is not where I want to be. I need to comment those lines out and recompile to see if it will behave as expected.)

[wayner]

Love the Pascal reference! I learned Pascal in Comp Sci, but my major was Elec Eng and we used Fortran 77 or Machine/Assembly on Motorola 6800 and similar CPUs.

[mgpaulus]

Just as a follow up:

The ptune app provided above does not work for the FrndlyTV channel. I haven't looked at the Philo TV app yet, maybe I will sometime and compare how they behave. But, for now, I have forked ptune.pas and created a frtune.pas, with its own frtune.csv. If I feel I have it solid enough sometime, I may post it as derivative of ptune.

Also, I have found that most of the channels (Not all, sad to say) appear to be in my local version of the Dish Network, so I have created a copy of DISH in my SchedulesDirect area with only the channels that FrndlyTV offers enabled.
I had to do this b/c my XFinity lineup doesn't cover very many of the FrndlyTV channels.


My last step is to put this all together, by creating a new tuner in Sagetv pointing to the batch file (that I modified to use frtune instead of ptune), and hooking in the DISH listings and then see if I can actually make it all work. But, it's dinner time, so that's a task for another day.