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Guide Data for steaming Services


smills

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smills

Is there any way to select guide data for streaming services like Philo, Youtube TV, Sling, ATT TV, etc. ???

There are plenty of us that prefer the Emby UI   and  use M3U  tuners to get to our accounts on those services.

 

Regards,

-Scott

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None of those services will work inside of Emby as far as I know since they are proprietary services.

So there would be no guide data in Emby for them.

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  • 1 month later...
Netfool
On 7/24/2020 at 3:01 PM, cayars said:

None of those services will work inside of Emby as far as I know since they are proprietary services.

So there would be no guide data in Emby for them.

Any chance of coming up with record-by-time-and-channel as a scheduling method?  There is a bunch of news programming on Sling I'd love to be able to access through Emby.  I didn't know you could get there with an M3U tuner.  I need to explore that!

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Netfool
On 7/24/2020 at 2:57 PM, smills said:


There are plenty of us that prefer the Emby UI   and  use M3U  tuners to get to our accounts on those services.

@smills, is there a tutorial on how to set that up somewhere?

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smills

@Netfool  I am ntot sure that there is a single way to do it  and I am not aware of a guide

The way I do it  is via ChannelsDVR.  Getchannels.com

Channels  has TV Everywhere integration.  So if your TV provider gives you access to the networks channels via TV Everywhere then you can integrate those into ChannelsDVR.  It is a great feature of that ChannelsDVR product.

Then once you have a a TV source setup in Channels DVR has the ability to publish a M3U file and act as a proxy for that source for other devices/software.

I have channels DVR installed on the same system as my Emby Server.  I have configured Philo as a TV Everywhere source in channels  and then I just point Emby to a M3U tuner at 
http://localhost:8089/devices/TVE-Philo/channels.m3u

 It works great.

I know it seems like Channels is a competitor to Emby  but really I do not think of it that way.  The Emby UI is so much better IMO,  the Media Library Management is so much better, and it is so extensible with the various plugins that can be created.  Channels really shines in it's Live TV integration where it can use HDHR Tuners, has native Locast Integration, and has Native TV Everywhere Integration.  So I sorta use Channels  as a software tuner device for Emby but that costs me an additional $8 a month or $80 a year.

I would certainly be willing to pay more for Emby Premiere, at least as much as I do for Channels if it had Locast and TV Everywhere Integration lie Channels.  But right now with $5 for Emby, $5 month for Locast, $8 a month for channels, and integrate with Pluto for free +HDHR for  backup if broadband is down  I get a LOT of TV for $38 a month all integrated into Emby. 

 

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smills

@Netfool it is super easy.  Let me know how it works for you.

One limit of ChannelsDVR  is that they do not allow you to use a generic M3U as a TV Source as they do not want to be linked with any shady/pirate IPTV services.  For TV sources your choices are HDHR, Locast, TV Everywhere.     

So if you have a M3U source you will set that up directly in Emby or your will have to use some other proxy program like Telly or Xteve to make your M3U source look like a HDHR to Channels - but why bother with that if your end goal is to view it all in Emby anyway.

 

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Netfool
3 minutes ago, smills said:

One limit of ChannelsDVR  is that they do not allow you to use a generic M3U as a TV Source as they do not want to be linked with any shady/pirate IPTV services.  For TV sources your choices are HDHR, Locast, TV Everywhere.   

So my plan is to set up the Channels Plus DVR and feed it with Sling.  Mostly I'm interested in having a source for CNN, MSNBC & Fox without the DirectTV or Comcast overhead.   My media store in on the LAN,  so as long as I can set up an Emby Library pointing at the directory where the Channels DVR stores things, I think I'll be ok.  (Plus or minus some possibly non-trivial metadata issues).     The SLING cloud DVR is absolutely infuriating!  It mostly ...but not always, refuses to let you pause recordings or FF through ads.  The fact that it's not consistent drives me up the wall.

I'm happy with the way Emby Server is handling HDHR so I'll probably leave that in Emby. Although if the ad-skipping feature of the Channels Plus DVR works well, I'll probably revisit that decision.

My primary Emby Server is running on an NVIDIA Shield Pro (an Android TV box), but I also have one I use for testing plugins on a small linux box.  Both use the same media store.  I'll test on the linux machine and report back here.

You've been an immense help!  Thank you!

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smills

@Netfool   I predict you may fond Sling to be  absolutely infuriating!  with their lack of TV Everywhere ennoblement.  I certainly did.

With Channels supporting TVE good TCE enablement is a must have for any pat TV provider for me.

Youtube TV  and ATT TV now have decent TVE enablement.  I can speak to those directly as I have used them.   Philo also has good TVE enablement and that is what I am currently using.   Vidgo avertises TVE enablement  and I may give their free trail a try to see how good their TVE coverage really is.

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garyan2

I would agree with your assessment of SlingTV and TVE. I did a trial with Channels DVR and the TVE options were basically nothing. Definitely not worth $8/month. I had a link to a spreadsheet online that maintained a listing of all the OTT services, available channels, and authorized TVE options at some point. I'll try and see if I can find that again.

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garyan2

Well that was a bust. The spreadsheet was on streambuzz.net which is no longer. But, I did find this for the TV Everywhere availability for the OTT services.

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Netfool
5 hours ago, smills said:

@Netfool   I predict you may fond Sling to be  absolutely infuriating!  with their lack of TV Everywhere ennoblement.  I certainly did.

With Channels supporting TVE good TCE enablement is a must have for any pat TV provider for me.

Youtube TV  and ATT TV now have decent TVE enablement.  I can speak to those directly as I have used them.   Philo also has good TVE enablement and that is what I am currently using.   Vidgo avertises TVE enablement  and I may give their free trail a try to see how good their TVE coverage really is.

@smills  Thanks!  That list gives me a starting point!  I'm willing to dump Sling in an eye-blink if I can find a provider with the very few channels I'm interested in.  ..and If the TVE and Channels combo gets me there, that's a huge win.  @garyan2's link isn't particularly encouraging as to finding what I want, but I'll keep digging and if I get it all working I'll report back here.   (...actually I'll report back either way in hopes of helping those who follow.)

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Netfool

@smills The setup was actually quite easy.  You pointed me in exactly the right direction.  Thank you!

I've got MSNBC working the way I wanted it to.  CNN doesn't appear to have an M3U interface. Comedy Central and the Cartoon Network do.  Cartoon network oddly, has individual guide feeds for each of the different Adult Swim cartoon series they run late at night.  The puzzle is TCM, they have an M3U interface, but don't accept Sling credentials.  The do have a picklist of acceptable credentials.  I'll browse that list and see if I can find an online provider.  ...mostly it looks like small cable companies. 

There is an implementation problem pouring the MSNBC feed into my media store.  It's pointed at a directory in my network storage, and Emby Server, at least on the Nvidia Shield, doesn't detect when new files are added.  That makes it necessary to run a library scan about once an hour.  Sadly you can schedule scans at one hour intervals, but you can't schedule scans of individual libraries, and you can't schedule them for x minutes past the hour.  If those two things were possible the integration would be pretty seamless.  Maybe @cayars or @Happy2Play will have a suggestion as to how to work around that problem.  If not I'll file a feature request.   I also think a TV Everywhere plug-in would provide a huge value-add for Emby-Server, at least in the North American market.  There are some pretty comprehensive electronic program guide services out there, and that has to be the hard part.   I'll dig around and see if I can find some info on how to write a plugin.  I'm not an expert coder, but I have some friends who are, and maybe I can interest them in the idea.

Edited by Netfool
typo
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Netfool
On 8/25/2020 at 10:03 PM, garyan2 said:

I would agree with your assessment of SlingTV and TVE. I did a trial with Channels DVR and the TVE options were basically nothing. Definitely not worth $8/month.

The TVE options on sling are dissapointing, but for me just getting MSNBC justifies the expense.   The goal here is to ditch DirecTV, and with a political junkie in the family, losing that wasn't an option.  So even with the $8/month I come out well ahead.   But a TVE plugin for Emby would be a winner I think.

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smills
1 hour ago, Netfool said:

The TVE options on sling are dissapointing, but for me just getting MSNBC justifies the expense.   

Now I have seen it all.  The selection of a streaming service based on the availability of MSNBC.

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Netfool
9 minutes ago, smills said:

Now I have seen it all.  The selection of a streaming service based on the availability of MSNBC.

When there's a political junkie in the house MSNBC, CNN and Fox are must haves. ...and not being able to get to CSPAN except on YouTube is frustrating.

Edited by Netfool
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  • 2 months later...
ElroyPaisley
On 8/27/2020 at 6:26 PM, Netfool said:

  I also think a TV Everywhere plug-in would provide a huge value-add for Emby-Server,

This this this this this.   If Channels can do it, surely some amazing coder can do it, right?   What a game changer to be able to add TVE functionality to Emby.  Any idea if this is in the works at all? 

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Just feed Emby the ChannelsDVR m3u files and use it like that. Works well now this way already.

Emby just treats it like any other tuner and it just works.  You can also add Locast this way as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Quick update.

 

Channels DVR  as a tuner/source for Emby is still working great.

Previously  I had a tuner setup from Philo in Channel DVR, and one for Locast, and one for each TV source in Channels.

Now I simply have a single source setup  in Emby using the "ANY"  device in Channels.

http://localhost:8089/devices/ANY/channels.m3u?format=ts

Mapping all the guide data is still a pain.  I sure wish Channels would provide the local guide database in XMLTV format for other apps to grab.  Alternately we need to get a good app written to take the JSON  guide data Channels will provide and convert it to a XMLTV file for us.

Regards

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  • 1 month later...
all4dom

I was reading my newsfeed & channels dvr, everywhere appeared. If I understand it correctly, I can install channels on my emby server, give it access to my streaming services & I would be able to watch them through emby on my roku, fire tv & apple tv? I would also be able to record with emby dvr? 

I cant get ota in my area but if I could view all that through emby that would be great.

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Yes if CDVR's everywhere has a login for your provider(s). You could download and try it.  If you get your TV service working through it then most certainly it can work through Emby (and quite well).

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