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[eapool]

I am working on a plugin for serial control of set top boxes.  I have it working for the direct tv box and it can be customized for other boxes (as long as the protocol is known).  I will post it in the next few days, after I get a little more testing done and some better documentation.  However, it will not change the channel when MC wants to record something.  It only works for live tv. This is where I need help:

1) What event can I use to determine when I recording starts.  I have looked at the wiki and it does not appear that MCC_NOTIFY_TV_RECORDING_STARTED (34083) is being sent.   I am using RegisterWindowWithRouter and I am seeing other events notifications, but I am not see 34083.  I do see MCC_NOTIFY_TV_CHANNELS_CHANGED (34082) whenever a recording starts and when it ends.  I could use this, but that leads to my next question.

2) Where can I find the information about current recordings?  To do the live tv, I can look at the current playlist, but I don't know where the current recording information is located.  Ideally, I would like which tuner and which channel, that would allow me to send the channel to the correct box.

So, please, if anybody has this info, let me know.  I really want to get this serial control plugin working and right now, it is sort of useless, since it only works for live tv.

Thanks,

Alex

[Matt]

Are you using MCWS (Media Center Web Service) at all?

I think we might be able to add information about TV recording there.

However, if Media Center is doing the recording, it seems like the channel change should be initiated by us.  I know we can do this with IR blasters.  I wonder if we could support a third-party method approach as well without much trouble?  Any suggestions?

[eapool]

I am using the COM interface, but if the information was made available in the MCWS, I can try to find a way to incorporate it.

I agree Media Center should initiate the change.  I was thinking about trying to read the recording schedule file and initiate channel changes based on that, but that has a whole lot of issues.  Mainly, if the user cancels the recording, the plugin wouldn't know about.

The IR blasters have some limitations, so I prefer to use the serial interface.  I am hoping to build in some additional functionality in the communcation interface.  With serial, I can confirm the STB is on, and issue a turn on command, etc.  I can also confirm that the channel has been changed.

With the testing I have done, it appears that MC just sends the commands out the ir blaster and assumes that the channel changes.  The plugin that I have developed, doesn't interfere with this, it just gives a more robust method of communication with the STB.

I have no idea how hard this would be to implement, but if the requested channel and tuner were made available to third parties, I don't think it will interfere with MC at all.  Since the IR blaster is one way communication, it doesn't care if the signal gets to the STB at all.

Thanks,

Alex

[eapool]

Matt,

I looked at MCWS and I don't see any reason that I couldn't use that method, except that it doesn't appear (currently) to support events.  If there was a place where I could get a list of the available tuners and then poll them for current channel,  that would work.  I prefer to use events for things like this, but polling should work.

Anyway, those are my thoughts,

Alex

[eapool]

Ok, I have made a little bit of progress.  I have figured out how to get the input source from the database.  I have been saying tuners all along, but technically, I am really only concerned about the tv input cardss (like the Colossus).  Serial control for a OTA tuner doesn't make much sense.  Anyway, I am modifying my plugin to pull a list of the available tv input cards.  So, all I have left to find is away to determine which channel MC wants the associated Set Top Box tuned to.  I don't think this is stored in the database anywhere, but if it is, let me know.

Thanks,

Alex

[cncb]

Are you using MCWS (Media Center Web Service) at all?

I think we might be able to add information about TV recording there.

A while ago I requested that the TV recording schedule be accessible via MCWS.  It would be great if that could be added.

[eapool]

Is there any update on this?  I know there have been a couple other requests for this type of information for displaying on VFD/ LCD, etc. 

Thanks,

Alex

[Matt]

This is on Yaobing's list, but he's a bit back-logged right now.

[Yaobing]

As Matt mentioned, I will be working on this.

We use a STB channel type ""Set Top Box" for channels that are from an STB.  These channels are in the database as other types of channels.  They carry two additional fields with them: MF_TV_PLAYBACK_DEVICE ("Playback Device") and MF_TV_PLAYBACK_CHANNEL_KEY.  The first one is the video capture device that captures the signal from an STB.  The second is the database key that represents the "channel" on the capture device to which the STB is connected (SVideo, Composite, Component, etc.).  I mention these since you asked.  However, I don't think the plugin really needs this information.  MC automatically starts the associated video capture device, and starts recording on the associated channel, whenever an STB channel is to be recorded.  The tricky part is only to signal the STB device so it changes the channel. 

From MC's point of view, the STB device is a "black box" out there.  It is not even connected to the computer directly, so MC does not really know what it is.  The only link is the IR blaster.  We rely on the user to put the IR blaster to the receiver of the right device.  That is why we only fire the IR blaster and have no way of knowing whether that IR blast has accomplished the channel change. 

The MF_TV_CHANNEL field of an STB channel actually contains the entire tv channel id string coming from an xmltv file.  We assume that string contains the channel number (at or near the beginning of the string).

Will it be sufficient for MC to send out an event some how (maybe via MCWS, or sending an MCCommand?) to indicate that an STB channel is being played?  Alternatively, MC could just send out a STB channel number to indicate "we want the STB to tune to this channel". Either way, it probably is not a problem if the user only has one STB.  MC currently only supports one STB device but we are considering supporting multiple STB devices.  In that case, we may need user inputs on what STB devices they have (but how do we identify these devices?). 

[eapool]

Thanks for the info.  If you could trigger an event, in either format, indicating that MC "wants the STB tuned to this channel" that would be perfect.  If that isn't possible with a reasonable amount of effort, I can poll a field for the desired channel.  If (when) you add support additional STBs, then we will need to add some indicator to identify which STB to use.

Regarding multiple STB, in my plug-in, I am setting everything up to be based on the message the user wants sent.  So, if they setup a channel change message, the user needs to indicate which PLAYBACK_DEVICE (as configured in MC) they want the plug-in to monitor for channel changes. I am planning to give the user a drop down box of choices.  This drop down will be populated from the values in the MF_TV_PLAYBACK_DEVICE field.  When I recieve a change channel event, determine which PLAYBACK_DEVICE and I send the message as configured by the user.  With only one STB, this isn't neccessary, but I want to be ready to support multiple STBs, when available.

I hope this clarifies what I am looking for and thanks for looking into this,

Alex

[eapool]

Bump.  I would really like to get some way to control my STB and other external devices using serial or HTTP.  If I could get some method to get this information from J River that would be great.

Thanks,

Alex

[eapool]

Bump.

I know I haven't brought this up in over a year, but I am still hoping for something on this.  I 'missed' a recording today because the stb tuned to 25 instead of 245.  Very frustrating after a long day to sit down to watch a show and find out it wasn't recorded.

Thanks,

Alex

[JimH]

The STB must have dropped the 4.  Maybe a slight delay between numbers would help.

[eapool]

Maybe a slight delay between numbers would help.

Is this something user configurable? 

Thanks,

Alex