STV Import: Favorite Channel Lists

[kha]

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

There are only 2 ways that I see that I could do that:

1. Make the Custom1 button a global "Listener" and then any press of the button will take you to the EPG display. But that would eliminate the use of the button in any other menu by anyone else - at least I think it would.
2. I could put this functionality on the Guide command. But if I do this then I don't see how I would be able to allow the default operation of the Guide command which returns the display to the current time and date. I guess I could make the Custom1 button have this functionality but that might cause confusion for others.

Neither way is in my opinion a great option but #1 would be the least intrusive. If I do that then it will be lock into Custom1. I'll have to think about this for a while. Maybe I can think of a way for option #2 - which would be my preference - if I can figure a way to do it.

BobP.

Hello Bob,

I can see how option 2 can become confusing for people who would like to use an original Guide command functionality. I would favor option 1 - having Custom1 button as a global listener. As I understand, right now it is active only on an EPG screen. I don't know all the technical difficulties involved in making this button a global listener. But if it's possible that would be the best. If Custom1 button, as you mentioned, is used by another add-on, its functionality on the EPG screen has already been changed by your add-on. In addition, you've already made the choice of the button to be used configurable in Sage.properties (Custom1, Custom2, etc) - this should help one to avoid conflicts with other add-ons if any.

Once again, thank you very much for your great work!

Regards,

MK.

[BobPhoenix]

OK I have uploaded version 0.8 to the downloads section. It adds the capability to use one of the Custom commands (1-5) as a replacement to the Guide command. I.E. if you press the CUSTOM button defined in your properties for this plugin from any menu it will take you to the Guide menu. If you are in the EPG guide menu already it will switch to the next channel guide selection. This also fixes a bug introduced in 0.7 that caused the numeric text entry on a new channel list not to work - sorry about that. This also fixes a bug introduced with the new beta 4.1.7 which caused the channel configuration menu to disappear.

This does NOT fix the ability to import over itself or allow importing in any other STV but the default - not yet anyway. I am working on these options but I do not have an ETA on when I might be done.

Please install this import on a fresh copy of the default STV that does not already have this import loaded. Also report any problems with this pluging here and I will do what I can to resolve them.

BobP.

P.S. I removed the stvi file from the post above since it had the Numeric Text Entry bug I introduced in 0.7 - opps.

[kha]

Hello, Bob.

Thank you very much! Everything is working great!

Regards,

MK

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Alfiegerner

Hi BobPhoenix,

Any chance of a release for SageMC users? Apologies if this is asking too much

I've looked over the documentation for SageMC and I think I can do this - won't know until I actually install it and see though. But I have a question. It looks like you get a lot of filtering options in SageMC already - may not be by channel though - but would this plugin really be useful in SageMC? Just asking.

BobP.

[Alfiegerner]

I'm sure you'd make a lot of people happy with this as an addition to SageMC

You're right, there are filtering options already in SageMC, but its is done based on genre. I can't speak for others but for me that's not very useful. Being able to switch quickly between groups of channels would be much better.

[bbig119]

Originally Posted by Alfiegerner

I'm sure you'd make a lot of people happy with this as an addition to SageMC

You're right, there are filtering options already in SageMC, but its is done based on genre. I can't speak for others but for me that's not very useful. Being able to switch quickly between groups of channels would be much better.

You have another vote for implementing it for SageMC

[BobPhoenix]

I'll see what I can do. From what I've read the import capability has been removed for STVi files but it looks like maybe you can rename them to STV and still import them? Guess I'll find out.

BobP.

[BobPhoenix]

Well give me about a week to a week and a half and I will have a version for SageMC. Doesn't look too hard. That release will most likely not be able to be installed on top of itself. Sometime after I hope to be able to import into either STV and install on top of itself. But that will take me much longer I think to implement so am not going to hold up a version for SageMC for that.

BobP.

[Alfiegerner]

Thanks BobPhoenix, really looking forward to it.

[BobPhoenix]

Status update:

Going to need the rest of this week and maybe some of next - sorry. Had a HD crash and am still recovering. I still hope to have this done by next weekend. It is working on MCE for me now but I am trying to make the popup menus to look more like MCE style where possible plus still have to make it importable which is where I think most of my time will be now.

BobP.

[BobPhoenix]

Status Update:

Sorry had the flu for the past week so haven't made any progress on this. Will be resuming this tomorrow.

BobP.

[BobPhoenix]

Well I finally have the SageMC version of this plugin complete. It should install on either the release version or the latest build of SageMC as long as the SageTV version is 4.1.3 or greater - needs to be able to import XML. To import into the release version change the .xml extension to .stv and import it. You can also import this on top of itself without causing problems. If you encounter any problems let me know and I'll see if I can find and fix them. The configuration screen is in the same customize menu as the regular plugin. I was not able to implement the Global "Custom1" button since SageMC has all of the Custom buttons defined in one menu or another and I didn't want to disable their functionality. In the Guide menu Custom4 was already used so for this SageMC implementation only the Custom1 button is defined to cycle through the lists. Sorry about the limitations. Get it from this post only. I will include this in the next release of the regular plugin so that you can just download one file. NOTE the only thing you might need from the regular plugin is the documentation. The STVi's are independant of each other and have no files that are common.

BobP.

Edit: Attachment removed because it is now included in the download section. Links are in the first post in this thread.

[Alfiegerner]

Hey thanks Bob, I really love this feature. Looks to be working well in Sage_MC.

[BobPhoenix]

New version has been uploaded with a couple of bugs that have been fixed as well as some new features:

• Fixed Bug: While watching a video if you bring up the EPG guide and you have video background or window enabled the EPG guide becomes locked and the SageTV GUI needs to be rebooted to change the Favorite Channel List. - fixed after version 0.9

• Fixed Bug: In the options menu of the EPG guide the rows and columns were broken after the import. This was introduced in version 0.8 and has been fixed (hopefully to never return) in version 0.9.

• New Feature: FCL's can now be stored on the Server (the default) and can be copied to and from Server and Client

• New Feature: FCL's can now be cycled thru in the EPG guide with the SageTV Guide command as well as the Custom1 thru Custom5 commands. The Guide command retains it's default function if not selected or if a quick second press of the button is used

• New Feature: When setting up your FCL's in the setup menu you can enter a number to jump the display directly to the channel number

• SageMC Version with the same features as the regular STV version and also has the same ability in the Guide by Channels menu as the regular Guide menu in SageMC

• New Feature: ability to be re-imported over itself. It cannot however be imported over previous versions - Except for the SageMC version which has always had this capability

Let me know about any problems in this thread please.

BobP.

[Zorglub]

Hi,

Thank for this, it is one reason I switch from BTV to Sage !!!

One thing:

I have two tuner with different lineup that share the same channel number but different channel (i.e. one tuner has channel 200: Fox, the other has channel 200: CBS)

When I choose the channels to set the favorite, whatever I do, both channel get put in the list, even if I select only one.

Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong ?

Thanks !

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by Zorglub

Hi,

Thank for this, it is one reason I switch from BTV to Sage !!!

One thing:

I have two tuner with different lineup that share the same channel number but different channel (i.e. one tuner has channel 200: Fox, the other has channel 200: CBS)

When I choose the channels to set the favorite, whatever I do, both channel get put in the list, even if I select only one.

Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong ?

Thanks !

I don't know that it is a bug but it is the behavior I am experiencing as well. I have some HD channels that "share" a channel with SD channels at least as far as Sage is concerned (i.e. FoxHD is channel 24 and another SD channel is 24 as well). I think the new version of Sage which maps the channels correctly to a unique frequency will alleviate that problem for me.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Zorglub

Hi,

Thank for this, it is one reason I switch from BTV to Sage !!!

One thing:

I have two tuner with different lineup that share the same channel number but different channel (i.e. one tuner has channel 200: Fox, the other has channel 200: CBS)

When I choose the channels to set the favorite, whatever I do, both channel get put in the list, even if I select only one.

Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong ?

Thanks !

I'll see what I can do to fix this. I don't have this situation so I'm going to have to let you test anything I come up with. Most likely will not be until the weekend before I can start this tho - Sorry.

BobP.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Zorglub

Hi,

Thank for this, it is one reason I switch from BTV to Sage !!!

One thing:

I have two tuner with different lineup that share the same channel number but different channel (i.e. one tuner has channel 200: Fox, the other has channel 200: CBS)

When I choose the channels to set the favorite, whatever I do, both channel get put in the list, even if I select only one.

Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong ?

Thanks !

I was able to reproduce this problem so now on to fix it. This is going to take a while as I am going to have to change how I store the list of channels to include the Channel Name in addition to the channel # in the properties files. Or possibly another option is to change to StationID instead of Channel number. I liiked using the channel number because then it was possible to edit the properties file and add the channels that way but this bug will change that anyway. Will be the weekend for a fix. Sorry about that.

BobP.

[BobPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Zorglub

Hi,

Thank for this, it is one reason I switch from BTV to Sage !!!

One thing:

I have two tuner with different lineup that share the same channel number but different channel (i.e. one tuner has channel 200: Fox, the other has channel 200: CBS)

When I choose the channels to set the favorite, whatever I do, both channel get put in the list, even if I select only one.

Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong ?

Thanks !

New version has been uploaded. It adds no new functionality just fixes this bug. The format of the channel lists has been changed to the StationID so it will no longer be easily editable outside of the plugin. It will automatically convert the lists on the Server and any that are located on the local PC. You must install this new version on all PC's on your SageTV network including any MVP's that you were using the old version with. Please report any problems.

BobP.

[BobPhoenix]

OK new version available in this post only until I can make changes to the SageMC version. When that is done I will put this version on the download page. This is only the STVi it does not contain the PDF manual so you will still need to download that for further instructions. I am only documenting the new functionality on this post. When I get the SageMC version done plus any fixes that need to be done I will update the documentation on the regular download.

This version has several new features:

• Plugin is located in FavoriteChannelListsv1.0.0-NoManual.zip and the graphics displaying the new features are in NewGraphics.zip.
• If you have the restrictions enabled and Parental controls turned on then you will not be allowed to play a video or LiveTV that was not recorded from the channels that the program guide was restricted to. If you want to play one of those videos you must enter the Parental Lock code before playback will commence/resume.
• The playback screen is blanked out until the correct Parental Lock code has been entered - for channels that are not on the "RestrictTo" channels. And Playback is paused until the correct code is entered. If the wrong code is entered - or no code an error popup will be displayed and when you select OK you will exit the Media Player display.
• You will not be allowed to type in a channel number that is not on the approved list.
• You will not be allowed to changed the channel with the Channel Up/Channel Down commands to a channel that is not on the list.
• If you use the previous channel button to go to a channel that is not on the approved list you will have to enter the Parental Lock code or exit the Media Player.
• You may now sort your channels in a Favorite Channel list into any order you want and it will display in that sequence in the regular program guide.
• Also you may restrict the Channel Up/Channel Down commands to stay on the current Favorite Channel List. When it gets to the end of the list it will wrap around to the other end of the list automatically. This is turned off by default but can be changed from the Options menu in the Favorite Channel Lists configuration screen.
• The sequence of the channels in a list is now listed on the Favorite Channel Lists configuration screen directly above the green selected icon.
• This is compatible with the miniguide V0.96 by jbuszkie. But the miniguide must be installed prior to this versions install.
• If the miniguide is installed A single Guide button press can bring up the mini guide and further presses will cycle to a new Favorite Channel List and update the mini guide. To stop the display of the mini guide you will now need to press the guide button twice quickly. This assumes you are using the Guide button to cycle the Favorite Channel Lists in the Program Guide. If you use a Custom1-5 button then the mini guide will behave like normal in regards to the Guide button. Also note: you can still change to use the arrows to popup the mini guide - that hasn't changed.

If you have problems please post to this thread. I think I locked down all the ways that a video can be played in the SageTV3.xml GUI but if I missed any please document how you were able to play back a resticted video without having to enter the Parental Lock code. Also the SageMC version of this pluging will likely take me longer 1+ months to complete because I have no more time off from work to work on this so my time will be limited - sorry about that. I have attached some graphics to this post for you to see what the changes will look like.

Edit found some incompatibilities: This is not currently compatible with my Custom Time Skip pluging I will work on a fix but will not be before the weekend most likely - opps! Also just found some SageTV 5.0.x compatibility problems as well. If you use 4.1.12 what I developed this on it will work fairly well I think. I'll try to fix these problems by this weekend. I would wait until I get the next version unless you are still on 4.1.x of SageTV for now - sorry about that. I'm not going to remove the file - at least not yet as it is possible it might work well enough for some of you until I get the fix done. But be warned you will have weirdness when using the channel changing in the Media Player - Channel Up/Down direct channel entry for one. Also if you have the restrictions enabled and type the wrong Parental Code when asked it will ask again a second time - which was not intended. I will work on all of these problems before I upload another version - Sorry about that.

Edit2: Took less time then I though. Except for the incompatibility with my Custom Time Skip plugin. I think all the other compatibility problems are gone. If you find any problems let me know. I uploaded a new version at 2:52 am that should resolve the problems I described above. I changed the name of the Zip file slightly so that there would be no problem with it getting replaced. The new Zip file has an underline instead of a dash. If you downloaded the earlier version please get this new version it will work much better.

BobP.

Edit: the zip files were removed because the documentation and the plugins are now updated to the current version on the regular download in the first post of this thread.