[thatguy7669]

for that to work the "plugin://"-protocol would have to be supported. i don't know if that is possible from the plugin level of this plugin (add the "plugin://" parameter to the types of supported protocols), or if it would need to be added as a supported protocol to the base pvr code of xbmc.

[traflaz]

for that to work the "plugin://"-protocol would have to be supported. i don't know if that is possible from the plugin level of this plugin (add the "plugin://" parameter to the types of supported protocols), or if it would need to be added as a supported protocol to the base pvr code of xbmc.

afedchin, could this be done? What do you think? You're the expert!

Thanks

[afedchin]

for that to work the "plugin://"-protocol would have to be supported. i don't know if that is possible from the plugin level of this plugin (add the "plugin://" parameter to the types of supported protocols), or if it would need to be added as a supported protocol to the base pvr code of xbmc.

afedchin, could this be done? What do you think? You're the expert!

Thanks

No, It isn't possible. As I said later the addon doesn't open any links/url, the addon provide stream url to the pvr manager only.

[thatguy7669]

that's what i thought....would have been nice though, i must admit.

@traflaz: just search the net. there are plenty of good (high quality) & stable links for bbc news 24.

@afedchin: thank you for an awsome addition to xbmc. i had tried to get the iptv plugin to work for vdr, but that requires an external player and wound up being far to complicated imho.
the only hard part with your plugin is finding the correct epg sources.

[dhead]

@afedchin,
This is great, just what I was missing.

I'm using tvheadend for dvb-t and I was missing support in tvheadend for mms streams of internet radio.
I was in the process of compiling a headless no x-org vlc client and set the vdr-plugin-iptv with external player and this addon saved me allot of trouble.
The combination of tvheadend for dvb-t and iptvsimple for all the diferent internet streams that not supported by tvheadend (but does by xbmc) making it all one integrated solution and all is control able by smartphone remote like yatse.


I haven't test the addon thoroughly but here few remaks:
1. Please push this to XBMC official repository, this is a must to have addon.
EDIT: I've the the proper PR on Github, so it's a wip.
2. From the info on the readme I'm guessing your addon doesn't play nicely with other pvr clients, if this is true then please fix that.
EDIT: Found the answer, 1.0.0 built against old libs, I compiled 1.0.1 and it played nicely (almost) with tvheadend enabled.
3. Can I set a channel as radio station and not tv channel ?
EDIT: Found the unswer in the code, no, I would love to see such option.
4. Support for asx, asp would be nice, I have few of these.
5. I thought that when choosing a local url for the m3u the addon will read the logos from there, it seems it try yo find them at ".xbmc/addons/pvr.iptvsimple/icons/".
EDIT: I didn't saw the option set the icons folder, still I believe for local m3u it's better to have it use the same location of the m3u.
6. It would be a good idea to support a web link for the tvg-logo tag or through the xml.
7. For ease of use I would love to have the option to load the m3u url from file, thus it would be easy to configure your clients without keyboard and you still use an online m3u that constantly updating.

Big thanks.

[dhead]

Didn't got an answer yet on my previous post but here are few ideas.
To avoid spamming github I decided to post here, I would love to get a response from others and from the addon creator.

Feature Suggestion:
1. Adding more than one m3u file.
2. Radio channels support.
3. Fetching logos, store them locally, and with the use of a md5 tag in the m3u the local logos will be updated when newer available.
4. Loading links to m3u and xmltv from a file.
5. Auto restart a stream when a disconnect occurs and support multiple links to a stream.
There are some streams that are disconnecting after some time when played in XBMC but not on the stations sites with a browser, others use different containers like asp, asx and smil file create a playlist with different urls for the same stream and they auto rotating between the urls to keep the stream alive, if only one of these url is used then the stream will be stoped after few minutes.

Issues I've encountered:
1. The addon seems to seize xbmc's channels list and removing tvheadend channels, tested with a manually compile v1.0.1 (used Frodo's xbmc-pvr-addon repository).
2. When using a remote m3u url the channels list didn't auto update editing the m3u even when reseting the pvr database, I used dropbox and github for this test.

For me this addon is the one last piece missing in xbmc, I would love to see this working flawlessly.

[afedchin]

@dhead, I'm sorry for delay with answer.

1. Please push this to XBMC official repository, this is a must to have addon.
The PR is already created. Here you can monotiring its status.

2. From the info on the readme I'm guessing your addon doesn't play nicely with other pvr clients, if this is true then please fix that.
Some people reported that iptvsimple and tvheadend work correctly together but someone reported that not. I need more time to investigate this issue.

3. Can I set a channel as radio station and not tv channel ?
I'm going to implement this feature in future releases.

4. Support for asx, asp would be nice, I have few of these.
The addon doesn't operate any stream, so support for asx should be implemented in xbmc player.

5. I thought that when choosing a local url for the m3u the addon will read the logos from there, it seems it try yo find them at
By default the addon trying find logos from its folder .xbmc/addons/pvr.iptvsimple/icons/ but if you set the folder path in settings it will read logos from there.

6. It would be a good idea to support a web link for the tvg-logo tag or through the xml.
I'll examine thoroughly the possibility of this.

7. For ease of use I would love to have the option to load the m3u url from file, thus it would be easy to configure your clients without keyboard and you still use an online m3u that constantly updating.
You can setup the m3u url in settings. At the start the addon checks that m3u is changed and if it is true then the addon will update local m3u cache. But in fact (I don't know why) channel list doesn't update even reset PVR database.

Feature Suggestion:

1. Adding more than one m3u file.
At this time I don't see how implement this in settings.

2. Radio channels support.
In the feature releases.

3. Fetching logos, store them locally, and with the use of a md5 tag in the m3u the local logos will be updated when newer available.
The addon just provide the logo url/path to the pvr manager. In fact if logos stored locally and if logo is changed then xbmc automaticaly update the logo in the channel list.

4. Loading links to m3u and xmltv from a file.
Please provide me more information why would you want this?

5. Auto restart a stream when a disconnect occurs and support multiple links to a stream.
Unfortunately, there is no possibility to detect of disconnection because the addon doesn't operate with any stream.

Thank you for your suggestions and reports.

[dhead]

@afedchin,

Thanks for your reply.
Loading links to m3u and xmltv from a file is great feature when you're setting your device with no keyboard available, and for new xbmc users this makes then whole process much more easier.

I'm not a programmer and have no idea in C++ nor OO but I played a little with your code.
I've added initial support for radio channels, I didn't checked how my changes affecting epg and didn't looked at the channels groups code.
https://github.com/dhead666/xbmc-pvr-addons

I tried different things and I think that maybe the iUniqueId is the cause of the problems with tvheadend, I've changed the initial value for iUniqueChannelId.

[dhead]

I tried different things and I think that maybe the iUniqueId is the cause of the problems with tvheadend, I've changed the initial value for iUniqueChannelId.

It's not definitely the cause, but if I change iUniqueChannelId then the next time the pvr database will update tvheadend channels will apear.
So at first run of the newly compilied iptvsimple addon tvheadend channels available, restarting xbmc will make the tvheadend channels disappear, manually updating xbmc will bring back the channels.

Without the code change tvheadend channels aren't available (if your m3u list more channels than tvheadend), manually updating pvr database doesn't help.

[afedchin]

@dhead,

Thanks for help.

Loading links to m3u and xmltv from a file is great feature when you're setting your device with no keyboard available, and for new xbmc users this makes then whole process much more easier.
Ok, I'll consider the possibility of this feature.

As for channels disappear, can you try pvr.demo (only for testing) and tvheadend addons together without iptvsimple?

[dhead]

With pvr.demo I've the same issue as with your addon after the iUniqueChannelId change.
Meaning when reseting the pvr database tvheadend channels appear but when closing and start xbmc instance tvheadend channels aren't available anymore.

[afedchin]

I have tested the iptvsimple and pvr.demo together (I don't have posibility to test any others). They work correctly. So I think this is tvheadend issue or I missed something...

[dhead]

Using pvr.demo with iptvsimple give the same results as before, now iptvsimple channels aren't available on pvr.demo shows.
When reseting the pvr database iptvsimple channels apear, closing and starting makes iptvsimple channels dissapear.

I'm running xbmc 12.0 on linux, compiled a clean versions of iptvsimple and pvr.demo from your github repository and also compiled both with xbmc-pvr-addon sources from Frodo tag on opdenkamp github repository.

Probably need more users testing this.

[thatguy7669]

@afedchin

the plugin plays smoothly with both vdr plugins (vnsi/xvdr). i've found it to be best to allow the first plugin you choose to initialize completly (finish loading the epg database) before starting the second one.

one question i do have: how should epg genres be defined in your plugins xmltv file for xbmc to recognize them?

example for films:

Code:

<genre>film</genre>

<GenreType>film</GenreType>

<genre>0x10</genre>

<GenreType>0X10</GenreType>

<genre type="0x10">film</genre>

<genre GenreType="0x10">film</genre>

<genre>16</genre>

<GenreType>16</GenreType>

<genre type="16">film</genre>

<genre GenreType="16">film</genre>

[afedchin]

@thatguy7669,

Yes, the debug log shows that pvr manager starts updating channels and groups after initializing the first pvr client and before/while the second one initializing. So the channels dissapear from second client. I think two pvr clients will be work fine after pvr manager changes.

Currently the addon supports only text string of genre. It may be specified into <category> tag. as example:

Code:

<programme start="20130117134000 +0400" stop="20130117152000 +0400" channel="300123">
    <title>Pirates of the Caribbean</title>
    <desc>Description</desc>
    <category>Movie</category>
</programme>

I think support <genre> tag with xbmc genre type in xmltv is a great idea. I'll add this feature in future releases.
Thank you for great idea.