WMC Live TV Tuner

[boukmandutty]

Hey, what version of windows are you running and what version of the app?

Do care to share the command you use to input the channel number?

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

Hey, what version of windows are you running and what version of the app?

Do care to share the command you use to input the channel number?

I'm running Windows 10 latest build and fully up to date. Not sure what version of the app as in Winders it's hard to tell, but on my test laptop it's a fresh install so must be the latest.

I moved the channel checking into the AutoIt script and I have attached a zip file with everything. The path in the script is "C:\scripts\" so if these are put anywhere else just edit the script, change the path, and recompile with AutoIt. Then just call it with "hdhrview <channel>". The batch file startHDHRview.bat will execute the actual app, and it's called from the AutoIt script and then the script sets the channel.

On my laptop I have EventGhost installed and I have OpenDCT sending simple web commands to EG to run the command "hdhrview <channel>" to start it, and "hdhrview 0" to end it.

I put a lot of notes in the script so it should be fairly easy to figure out how it works, but let me know if you have any question.

[boukmandutty]

Finally had time to play with it. It works well it seems, but since I don't use a spare pc to record off my testing of it only went so far. Have you had any problems with it?

Also, Is there are reason why evoking the script directly from opendct should not work?

I got my hands on two BMI3000 type tuners, messed around with them and fell in love (goodbye hdvpr2 with sweet 5.1 audio). I found that I could use the opendct pretuning_executable line to power on my android box for live tv. I could then use the tuning_executable line to evoke the required channel. In both cases my adb command is long.

sagetv.device.-508499920.pretuning_executable=C\:/Users/dessaliness-pc/AppData/Local/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb.exe -s 192.168.1.215 shell input keyevent KEYCODE_WAKEUP

And...

sagetv.device.-508499920.tuning_executable=C\:/Users/dessaliness-pc/AppData/Local/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb.exe -s 192.168.1.215 shell am force-stop com.silicondust.view; monkey -p com.silicondust.view -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER 1; sleep 5; input keyboard text %c%; input keyboard text 0; input keyevent KEYCODE_DEL; sleep 2; input keyevent 66;

Couldn't your tuning_executable line in opendct config look something like:

C:\Scripts\hdhrview.exe %c%

Mine is far more complicated for those android boxes as you can see and they work without a flaw. I only use eventghost to power on the android boxes now. I could actually use opendct to do it if I wanted to I think.

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

Finally had time to play with it. It works well it seems, but since I don't use a spare pc to record off my testing of it only went so far. Have you had any problems with it?

Also, Is there are reason why evoking the script directly from opendct should not work?

I got my hands on two BMI3000 type tuners, messed around with them and fell in love (goodbye hdvpr2 with sweet 5.1 audio). I found that I could use the opendct pretuning_executable line to power on my android box for live tv. I could then use the tuning_executable line to evoke the required channel. In both cases my adb command is long.



And...


Couldn't your tuning_executable line in opendct config look something like:



Mine is far more complicated for those android boxes as you can see and they work without a flaw. I only use eventghost to power on the android boxes now. I could actually use opendct to do it if I wanted to I think.

OpenDCT should be able to run the command just fine if you're on the same PC. In my case I needed to send the command to a laptop, and since I know EventGhost it was really easy to just use it. I could post some instructions on a barebones EG setup, it's really pretty easy to set up.

My system hasn't been flawless, though. I had one recording the other night that didn't work at all. I haven't had time to look at it though.

I think it's close to usable though.

[boukmandutty]

I think you should be able to install sagetv on the laptop and then configure and share the tuner there as a network tuner. If you configure the sharing properly your server will be able to see and use the tuner and the channel changing will be done locally on the laptop when a request is made from the server. I suspect that might be more reliable than eventghost.

I used to play around with sharing tuners that was a while back but it has been some time.

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

I think you should be able to install sagetv on the laptop and then configure and share the tuner there as a network tuner. If you configure the sharing properly your server will be able to see and use the tuner and the channel changing will be done locally on the laptop when a request is made from the server. I suspect that might be more reliable than eventghost.

I used to play around with sharing tuners that was a while back but it has been some time.

I have a shared Sage tuner on my HTPC, but honestly I think it's more involved to install Sage and set up the tuner and the service than it is to install EventGhost and add the webserver plugin.

There's only one little trick in the EG action to run the command program where you enter a python string to strip off the channel number to send as an argument, but it's not difficult. I will try to do a set of instructions soon in case anyone wants to try it.

The only problem I'm having is that my program keeps getting deleted for some reason. I have no idea why but it's happened at least twice now. Everything else is still in the folder, but that one executable just goes away. It might be an AutoIt problem.

Edit: I just added a command to recopy the program into the scripts folder every time before trying to run it, so it will always be there. Simple fix although it shouldn't be needed.

[boukmandutty]

I had the same thing happen to a Sagetv launcher I made to jump into Sagetv from windows media center on my old windows 7 client box. This was before I started exploring ways around the drm problem I faced. The script was made with AutoIt.

After some recent updates of Microsoft Security Essentials the exe generated by AutoIt is read as containing a trojan virus. Specifically:

Detected item: Trojan:Win32/Azden.A!cl

This is either some kind of error or the program AutoIt has indeed been infected with something that deploys a trojan with each exe it generates.

[Zogg]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

I had the same thing happen to a Sagetv launcher I made to jump into Sagetv from windows media center on my old windows 7 client box. This was before I started exploring ways around the drm problem I faced. The script was made with AutoIt.

After some recent updates of Microsoft Security Essentials the exe generated by AutoIt is read as containing a trojan virus. Specifically:



This is either some kind of error or the program AutoIt has indeed been infected with something that deploys a trojan with each exe it generates.

I also had this issue and did some googlefu. Take a look at https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/t...omment=1437693 . There's just a similarity between your app and a virus, probably because someone took a similar script/program and modified it.

The linked post has suggestions for compiling to hopefully not get the error. I also read in that thread that you can add comments and/or unused variables just to change the code enough that it won't flag as a virus. I just tried this on mine and it worked.

[KryptoNyte]

I am looking at making the upgrade to SageTV 64 bit. I just looked through the instructions for this once again and it appears that everything here should still work in the 64 bit version. Anything that I'm missing or tips?

[KryptoNyte]

The upgrade to 64 bit was fairly painless. EXEMultiTunerPlugin is included with the 64 bit installer. I did [almost] nothing from the instructions in the first post to this thread. I use OpenDCT for my Ceton Tuners otherwise - I did nothing with OpenDCT, it just kept working with whatever SageTV version was running.

I did have to do a couple things with EXEmultituner:

1) Copy my *.ir files from
C:\Program Files (x86)\SageTV\Common\RemoteCodes\EXEMultiTunerPlugin
to
C:\Program Files\SageTV\Common\RemoteCodes\EXEMultiTunerPlugin

2) Because SageTV 64 bit created new registry entries in a different place, I had to find that location and manually add the command line as a STRING value. See attached image.

[KryptoNyte]

I'm definitely going to need to figure out a way to automate the stop command so that these Xbox360's don't keep running continuously. They just smoked a hard drive. The bigger problem is that the 360's go black after a time, and a channel change doesn't get them back, so it requires a reboot of the 360.

Did someone say that they had a batch routine that would run as a Windows Scheduled event that would check the recording folder to see if the size has changed, and if no change it would issue a command (in my case to reboot the 360's)?

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

I'm definitely going to need to figure out a way to automate the stop command so that these Xbox360's don't keep running continuously. They just smoked a hard drive. The bigger problem is that the 360's go black after a time, and a channel change doesn't get them back, so it requires a reboot of the 360.

Just curious - You are using the Xbox360s as tuning devices?

--John

[KryptoNyte]

The 360's are media display devices, acting as a Windows Media Center extender. SageTV tunes the channel on the 360's (which are using WMC), then a capture device (like an HDPVR or HDPVR2, or some network capture device as talked about in this thread) grabs the audio and video as a file that SageTV recognizes as the show recording.

In most cases, a user would have a couple HDHomerun Prime or Ceton tuners dedicated to just WMC for this task. You can run WMC on the same machine that operates your SageTV server, or any other PC on the network.

[EnterNoEscape]

I'm not surprised everything went well. I'm sorry we still don't have any easy way to turn the 360's off.

[boukmandutty]

If one is using opendct couldnt it be set to send an ir shut off command to the xbox when the tuner is not being used? And then one to turn it back on minutes before it needs to record?

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

The 360's are media display devices, acting as a Windows Media Center extender. SageTV tunes the channel on the 360's (which are using WMC), then a capture device (like an HDPVR or HDPVR2, or some network capture device as talked about in this thread) grabs the audio and video as a file that SageTV recognizes as the show recording.

In most cases, a user would have a couple HDHomerun Prime or Ceton tuners dedicated to just WMC for this task. You can run WMC on the same machine that operates your SageTV server, or any other PC on the network.

Nice! I have not yet had to go this route. I am getting all my channels via HDHR Prime, HDHR Quatro, or HDPVR2s hooked to other sources. Do you have a pointer to how you are tuning the Xboxes? (I feel like I may have asked this before, but I can't find my notes.)

--John

[KryptoNyte]

Actually EnterNoEscape does a pretty great job explaining things in the first post of this thread (page 1). He does link to a later post that further explains some additional detail on how to use EXEMultiTuner to help SageTV tune the 360's. You'd have to thank EnterNoEscape for getting this all together for Sage users.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

If one is using opendct couldnt it be set to send an ir shut off command to the xbox when the tuner is not being used? And then one to turn it back on minutes before it needs to record?

Maybe. Actually, it probably just needs to issue the stop command when a specific tuner is released. The more I think about it, maybe a shutdown would be good, and then a restart as you suggest - those things take quite a bit of power. Interesting idea.

[KryptoNyte]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

I'm not surprised everything went well.

Yeah ... it's almost like someone already thought this through before I got anywhere near it.

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by KryptoNyte

Actually EnterNoEscape does a pretty great job explaining things in the first post of this thread (page 1). He does link to a later post that further explains some additional detail on how to use EXEMultiTuner to help SageTV tune the 360's. You'd have to thank EnterNoEscape for getting this all together for Sage users.

Doh! I had completely blanked on the earlier part of this thread, . Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

--John