Channel Changing and 4 digits and exemultituner

[mike1961]

Hello - I'm using the exemultituner to change the channel on Verizon DCT 2500 boxes and it works fine for up to 3 digits but I can't seem to get it to change in the 4 digit channel range. It keeps trying to tune the box but continues to tune it to the wrong channel.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Mike

[CollinR]

You have 4 digits in your program guide? Might make sure in your detailed setup that 4 digits is enabled as the defaults are 3. I figured this only effected inputs but it may have an effect on outputs too.

Whats actually doing the tuning? I use exemultituner.dll with EventGhost and thus far haven't had any issue but it's Eventghost that pulls apart the digits and transmits them.

[mike1961]

I tried setting it up for 4 digits in both the detailed setup, custom setup as well as video sources, remote control setup and what happens is when I try and select a four digit channel from the program guide it only tunes three numbers at the box.

Mike

[jchiso]

What hardware are you using to send the command?

[CollinR]

Yeah what is multitunerplugin interfacing with, it willl send only one command and it's the complete channel. It's not sending 1 ... 0 ... 0 ...0 to get to 1000 it just passes 1000 to whatever application you use.

If you have a USBUIRT I can get you going in EventGhost pretty dang quickly.

[Taddeusz]

I don't mean to hijack a threat but using EventGhost sounds like the solution to the problem I've been having with FireWire tuning on my server.

The problem I have is that it appears that Tim Moore's channel changing utility strips the leading zeros from the channel its given. As a result two digit channels take longer to tune because my STB is waiting for a third digit before changing the channel. I think if I could rig something up to have individual commands sent rather than a single string I might be able to get this to work better.

How do I go about configuring this to work? I've never used EventGhost before.

[CollinR]

Install the latest beta EventGhost

Add in the plugins, Network Event Reciever and SageTV.
examples use port 1024 (default) and password 1234.

Redo your exemultituner to point at:
/path/to/EventGhost.exe -n 127.0.0.1:1024 1234 %DEVICE%.%CHANNEL%

In EventGhost, under context create a folder called STBs. Under this create a folder for a STB you have connected.

Paste this into the folder.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<EventGhost Version="908">
    <Macro Name="STB1-Attention">
        <Event Name="TCP.STB1.*">
        </Event>
        <Action>
            EventGhost.PythonScript(u'event = eg.event.string\nparts = event.split(".")\nif len(parts) == 3 and parts[-2] == \'STB1\':\n    device = parts[-2]\n    channel = parts[-1]\n    print device\n    if channel.isdigit():\n        channel = channel.zfill(3) \n        for digit in channel:\n            eg.TriggerEvent(\'Num\' + \'-\' + digit,prefix=device)')
        </Action>
    </Macro>
</EventGhost>

That should work for STB1 you will need to modify for STB2...

When SageTV makes a channel change request it will come into EventGhost something like:
TCP.STB1.101

That macro will break this down into parts and regenerate events for each digit in the channel. So that comes in and almost instantly this will come out.

STB1.Num-1
STB1.Num-0
STB1.Num-1

Learn all the required commands into Eventghost by creating macros to output them, 0-9 and Enter basically. For a command line application use the System>Start Application action and add your command line parameters.

Num-1
Num-2
so on...

Now drag your STB1.Num-1 EVENT from the left pane of Eventghost and put it inside the Macro for 1

This should be dupliacted for each STB folder.

[Chaos~Theory]

Originally Posted by CollinR

Install the latest beta EventGhost

Add in the plugins, Network Event Reciever and SageTV.
examples use port 1024 (default) and password 1234.

Redo your exemultituner to point at:
/path/to/EventGhost.exe -n 127.0.0.1:1024 1234 %DEVICE%.%CHANNEL%

-- SNIP!--

Now drag your STB1.Num-1 EVENT from the left pane of Eventghost and put it inside the Macro for 1

This should be dupliacted for each STB folder.

CollinR,
Thanks for the great instructions on how to setup Eventghost! 'That part' went smoothly..... I just can't seem to get SageTV to talk to it.

I setup exemultituner as I read to in another post:

1. Drop exemultituner.dll into the common folder.
2. Create a folder under RemoteCodes for exemultituner. (EXE Tuner Plugin)
3. Create zero length files with the names of each cable box. (STB1, STB2.....)
4. Set each video source to their name. (STB1, STB2...)

One thing that was fuzzy was where to put the key. I saw it put under "Frey Technologies/SageTV/EXETunerPlugin" & "SageTV/SageTV/EXETunerPlugin" .... so to be safe, I did both. I then put in a string named 'command', then entered:
C:\Program Files (x86)\EventGhost\EventGhost.exe -n 127.0.0.1:1024 1234 %DEVICE%.%CHANNEL%

Did I miss something or do something incorrect? I just can't get it to work! When I run the 'command' at the prompt: "C:\Program Files (x86)\EventGhost\EventGhost.exe -n 127.0.0.1:1024 1234 STB1.111"
It works fine!

Any ideas?

Thanks!

-Chris

[CollinR]

I'm thinking its an issue with your path, might reinstall EventGhost somewhere easier on the system. You can also iirc call the eventghost.exe for this purpose by itself. So you might just simply copy your EventGhost.exe to root and call it as
C:\EventGhost.exe -n 127.0.0.1:1024 1234 %DEVICE%.%CHANNEL%

[Chaos~Theory]

Originally Posted by CollinR

I'm thinking its an issue with your path, might reinstall EventGhost somewhere easier on the system. You can also iirc call the eventghost.exe for this purpose by itself. So you might just simply copy your EventGhost.exe to root and call it as
C:\EventGhost.exe -n 127.0.0.1:1024 1234 %DEVICE%.%CHANNEL%

Thanks Collin.... I'l give that a try! Is there a way to test that Sage is even sending out a command for EG to pick up? Something like sending data to a text file or a browser instead of EG?

Also! I had a question about you python script. I have a problem with my STB where if you enter three ones (111) it only picks up two! I dunno why.... but if I put in four ones (1111) it will then take it as 111.

My question is if I could get the script to see when I hit three ones, it will add the fourth one? I did python a *very* long time ago.... longer then I care to admit to. I know it's an: if x=y then blah, blah, blah.... I just forget how it's written!

[Chaos~Theory]

(sigh)

No luck! It still doesn't work.... is there maybe some other part that I'll missing?
How, exactly, does EXETunnerPlugin.dll work?

I know that the command itself works, beacause if I run it straight on the command prompt:

C:\EventGhost\EventGhost.exe -n 127.0.0.1:1024 1234 STB2.114

.... it works!

So I just can't get sage to send the command. Ugh! This drives me crazy! All I want to do is have EG send the commands through a USB-UIRT directly so I can also so use it for other things, too. I'm sure the problem is something simple, or stupid.... That's what usually is with me.

If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks for your help.... I greatly appreciate it! If there's anyone who'd need help.... it *would* be me!

-Chris

[Taddeusz]

Does EventGhost need to be running all the time for this to work? Or can EventGhost work as a service? The reason I ask is that I'd like to try this out but my server is completely headless. So any program that needs me to be actually logged into the computer all the time is a no-go.

[CollinR]

Originally Posted by Chaos~Theory

(sigh)

No luck! It still doesn't work.... is there maybe some other part that I'll missing?
How, exactly, does EXETunnerPlugin.dll work?

I know that the command itself works, beacause if I run it straight on the command prompt:

C:\EventGhost\EventGhost.exe -n 127.0.0.1:1024 1234 STB2.114

.... it works!

So I just can't get sage to send the command. Ugh! This drives me crazy! All I want to do is have EG send the commands through a USB-UIRT directly so I can also so use it for other things, too. I'm sure the problem is something simple, or stupid.... That's what usually is with me.

If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks for your help.... I greatly appreciate it! If there's anyone who'd need help.... it *would* be me!

-Chris

I dunno how it works and it was very confusing when I set it up too, it took several attempts mostly related to paths changed since v2 or whenever the multitunerplugin.dlll was made. It works, it's solid, it's a bitch to get going even though surprisingly simple.

You have your regestry key, your Common\RemoteCodes\ *.ir files and thats basically it.


EventGhost as a service...

I dunno Bitmonster says no but I'm thinking if all you have is the USBUIRT and Network Sender/Receiver plugins. It probably actually would work I just haven't tried it.

Some of the default plugins though could definately cause an issue so I can see it not working too.


I have my machine autostart for this and a couple other processes.

[Taddeusz]

Just a small update on my own problem. I solved it by using a command-line script rather than EventGhost. I'm remoting in from home so I can't exactly tell yet but so far it seems to be working as it should. Here is what is in the cmd file:

@echo off

if %2 lss 100 goto :twodigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2
goto :eof

:twodigit

if %2 lss 10 goto :onedigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2
goto :eof

:onedigit

c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 0
c:\gethd\channelw %1 %2

My exemultitunerplugin command is as follows:

c:\GetHD\channelw.cmd %DEVICE% %CHANNEL%

The reason for all this is because either channelw or my STB strips the leading zero from the command. The result was that there was a longer delay when tuning two-digit channels. Although if I issue a zero by itself it gets sent. So I can send a zero by itself first and then the actual channel in separate commands. This leads me to believe that it is the program stripping it rather than the STB. But I'm happy it's working as it should now.

Edit: I've modified the code for one digit channels.