Channel mapping

[mlcarson 13]

I love that channel mapping now has a manual override feature in Emby where I can remove mappings and essentially map to whatever I want.  I don't like that it's still essentially tied to Channel number.  I get the reason -- if you're mapping off from a source that you're familiar with it makes sense to use the local channel number as an index.  If there's no match, the system basically goes to matching by tvg-name.   This has the effect though of screwing up automatching if you use a channel number scheme that differs from the source.

I've been using Channels DVR because of their TV Everywhere capability and decided to redo my channel numbering based on their mappings. Up to this point I had been mainly mapping to a Comcast numbering scheme since they were my last provider.  There were a lot of exceptions due to dual time zone options and I didn't really have their scheme committed to memory and wasn't using my HDHomerun Prime's for their channels so got rid of it.  I changed the Channels DVR channel mapping and then went to Emby to do the same.  I didn't expect to see all of the mismatches.  Since I was using channel numbers in the 6000 range and Dish network has channels in that same range, the channel-numbers matched before tvg-name even if tvg-name is a perfect match. It seems like tvg-name should be the first mapping attempt and channel-number would be the fallback to prevent this situation.   Overloading the channel-number variable for the purpose of source guide matching and display sorting causes issues.    It can at least be manually bypassed now but since the guide source lists are indexed by channel-number and have to be manually searched -- that process leaves a lot to be desired.

Consider making channel-number a secondary index or creating an option like Channels DVR did with tvc-guide-stationid mapping to a gracenote id avoiding all ambiguity.  If Channels DVR was the greatest, I wouldn't still be using Emby.   I'm just pointing out a problem that I had and where I think improvements could be made.  As a counterpoint example, Channels DVR doesn't support the tvg-shift variable which is extremely useful in getting accurate guide data whereas Emby does.

 

 

 

[Luke 37116]

Hi, channel number is already a secondary matching criteria. We support tvg-id that can be used to map to a tuner channel id.

[mlcarson 13]

This isn't exactly clear.   I've been using the following tags: tvg-name and channel-id.   Tvg-name would be something like "FUSION" and channel-id would be "6016".

If I have Dish Network as the guide source, Emby sees 6016 from Channel-id and maps that to channel 6016 which is XMBLEND.   If I add tag tvg-id as 247, it maps to the correct guide data but changes Channel-id to 247.    What's the secret formula in tagging to assign a channel number of 6016 and to also automatically have it map to 247 as "FUSION" without resorting to a manual channel mapping or having the channel number or the channel name change?

Channel-id mapping seems to be the primary matching criteria followed by tvg-name if there is no matching channel-id.

Also, this is very difficult to test.  It seems like once a channel mapping is made, it sticks regardless of what changes are made to the M3U file.

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by mlcarson

[Luke 37116]

You could use tvg-chno for channel number.

[mlcarson 13]

7 hours ago, Luke said:

You could use tvg-chno for channel number.

So tvg-name for display name, tvg-chno for channel number, and tvg-id for channel-mapping?

[Luke 37116]

Yes that's correct.

[mlcarson 13]

It may be correct but it doesn't work.

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-name="NASA" tvg-chno="6067" tvg-id="286" tvg-shift="0"

I'm using the above in my M3U file.  Picking tvg-name of NASA, tvg-id of 286 is NASA on Dish Network, tvg-chno of 6067 is a channel number used by Dish Network.  The idea is to get 6067 mapped to 286.  I get channel number 6067 but it maps to XMRJAZZ which is what channel 6067 is in the guide data. 

Channels always map to the equivalent in the guide data source regardless if it's channel-id or tvg-chno.

[mlcarson 13]

Alright, I'm going to answer my own question here.   This is the ONLY way I was able to make this work automatically (without manual channel mapping)..   I had to get the Dish Network TVG-ID's from the Emby API

/LiveTv/ChannelMappingOptions

This requires a parameter for the provider which was "addb3066cb9f4123922a2b3c131fd5d6" without the quotes.

I got this from:

/LiveTv/Manage/Channels

It doesn't require a parameter and will list all of the channel detail including the provider id.

So once I got the Name to ID mapping from the ChannelMappingOptions query, I could download the entire listing and reference NASA in this case which has a tvg-id of "66085".

Modify the M3U as follows:

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-name="NASA" tvg-chno="6067" tvg-id="66085" tvg-shift="0"

These numbers are the same numbers that Channels DVR calls the GraceNote Id's.   So tvg-id is the equivalent of tvc-guide-stationid.

So that's the answer.  Use tvg-id the same as you would tvc-guide-stationid and that seems to work.  You still need tvg-chno rather than channel-id or channel-number for the channel number.

[Carlo 4330]

Yes that's correct it's the Guide/GraceNote (for you) ID.

[mlcarson 13]

This REALLY needs to be added to a channel-mapping FAQ.