Emby Live TV needs work? Or is it me?

[Carlo 4560]

Super easy to automatically remove VOD content.

Fast drag and drop of whole groups of channels from one group to another. Mass updating of channels. Mass automated matching of channels to other EPGs. Super easy re-ordering of channels by group, alphabet or other method. Creation of channels numbers starting with numbers outside a range already in use, etc...

It's not only what it does but how it does things.  You can for example bulk move channels that are hidden to the bottom of a list to get them out of your working area condensing the channels you are interested to the top of the list. You can do things lik compound sorts, meaning you can sort lists alphabetically while they still stay grouped. An example is having a sort of channels that are visible and also a sort of hidden channels but they stay grouped by visible/hidden. etc...

You can add or remove other m3u or xml guides easily in m3u4u while such actions utterly destroy xTeVe setups. Working with multiple m3u's in xTeVe can require an instance of xTeVe for each while m3u4u can easily handle multiple sets independently or together as one list. It does a lot of thing easily that you would struggle with in xTeVe if you can do it at all.

Edited January 18, 2022 by cayars

[CharlieMurphy 92]

xTeVe is a nightmare as far as arranging channels. I wish it would just take an m3u, change the URLs to point to itself, and output the m3u in the same format it received it. Instead it messes with channel order and strips out info other than a couple tags. I would love for xTeVe to get an update to make channel order manageable, or just to leave the m3u as it is. I'm currently trying to learn how to use TVHeadend as a way to replace xTeVe, but it looks like TVHeadend modifies the m3u as well.

[EODCrafter 181]

1 hour ago, Spaceboy said:

what does m3u4u do for you that xteve does not?

Where did xTeVe enter this Discussion?

[EODCrafter 181]

xTeVe is useless because it deactivates PPV Channels as soon as the name changes....BIG NO-GO!

[BillOatman 596]

7 minutes ago, EODCrafter said:

xTeVe is useless because it deactivates PPV Channels as soon as the name changes....BIG NO-GO!

That's really a problem with the piss poor data from providers.  xTeVe needs something static to indicate that it is a current channel and not a new one.  What providers are supposed to do is keep the channel name the same, and provide show info in the xmltv file.  Not change the channel name for each and every PPV event.  If that were the case for PPV that you noted, and is also true for sports packages, you wouldn't see all the channel flopping.  The author does respect CUID if it exists in the m3u entry.  Think of it as a guid for the channel and is used as that static element it needs to know if it is an existing channel or not.  Few providers (I know of only 1) and a few apps that generate m3u files provide that data however.

Edited January 18, 2022 by BillOatman

[CharlieMurphy 92]

xTeVe absolutely butchers m3u files though, even if it gets a pass on channel name changes

[BillOatman 596]

7 minutes ago, CharlieMurphy said:

xTeVe absolutely butchers m3u files though, even if it gets a pass on channel name changes

In some ways it needs to, to avoid collisions when dealing with multiple providers.  But I haven't used xTeVe in quite a while so haven' seen it's m3u either.

[EODCrafter 181]

56 minutes ago, CharlieMurphy said:

xTeVe absolutely butchers m3u files though, even if it gets a pass on channel name changes

It uses that HASH that links to the urls.json for security, but for the most part, the m3u is intact.

1 note: my original m3u just contains channel ID, Channel Icon, and link to stream.

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="AandE.usd" tvg-name="US: A&E" tvg-logo="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Tapiosinn/tv-logos/master/countries/united-states/a-and-e-us.png" group-title="US-ENTERTAINMENT", US: A&E
http://192.168.1.8:9003/live/test/test/1000137.ts

JC, What is it stripping out of yours?

Edited January 18, 2022 by EODCrafter

[BillOatman 596]

I would not call that butchering.

1) It added a TVG_id to link to the xmltv entries.  I believe Emby and the others require xmltv entries to display channels.
2) Added a group, which really helps if you have a lot of channels (not so much with Emby yet, but for things like TiviMate it's huge), and the channel name at the end (same as the tvg-name)
3) It changes the link to point to itself in this case so that it can provide buffering and only use 1 provider stream no matter how many of its clients are watching the same show.  I think if you turn off the self streaming it will redirect the client to the providers stream.

All worthwhile additions IMO. Remember xTeVe was not written to be a simple channel editor.  It was written to trick Plex into playing IPTV by spoofing as a HDHomerun.

[Spaceboy 2573]

2 hours ago, EODCrafter said:

Where did xTeVe enter this Discussion?

read the post i quoted

[Spaceboy 2573]

2 hours ago, EODCrafter said:

xTeVe is useless because it deactivates PPV Channels as soon as the name changes....BIG NO-GO!

not for me it doesnt. i have a script that pulls down my m3u and inserts a unique channel ref so i can retain these channels

[Spaceboy 2573]

3 hours ago, cayars said:

Super easy to automatically remove VOD content.

Fast drag and drop of whole groups of channels from one group to another. Mass updating of channels. Mass automated matching of channels to other EPGs. Super easy re-ordering of channels by group, alphabet or other method. Creation of channels numbers starting with numbers outside a range already in use, etc...

It's not only what it does but how it does things.  You can for example bulk move channels that are hidden to the bottom of a list to get them out of your working area condensing the channels you are interested to the top of the list. You can do things lik compound sorts, meaning you can sort lists alphabetically while they still stay grouped. An example is having a sort of channels that are visible and also a sort of hidden channels but they stay grouped by visible/hidden. etc...

You can add or remove other m3u or xml guides easily in m3u4u while such actions utterly destroy xTeVe setups. Working with multiple m3u's in xTeVe can require an instance of xTeVe for each while m3u4u can easily handle multiple sets independently or together as one list. It does a lot of thing easily that you would struggle with in xTeVe if you can do it at all.

so nothing in terms of function then. ease of achieving the function, agreed. but i have what i want using xteve and i'm happy to trade off that ease for the security of doing it offline

[EODCrafter 181]

14 minutes ago, Spaceboy said:

not for me it doesnt. i have a script that pulls down my m3u and inserts a unique channel ref so i can retain these channels

I Helped develop a Python script with one of our users but they also change the URL of the Stream sometimes and that kills that process. Does yours use the Hash of the URL to create the Unique ID? Your VERY fortunate that your Provider never changes the URL, or maybe you have another solution....Please share!

Edited January 18, 2022 by EODCrafter

[EODCrafter 181]

import urllib.request
import hashlib
import os

#Provider URL to download M3U file
url = 'http://my.iptv:826/get.php?username=FITH&password=#########&type=m3u_plus&output=ts'
#File path where to save the newly create M3U file.
filePath = 'C:\\Users\\bugma\\Documents\\TV SERIES.m3u'

# Get M3U file from provider
response = urllib.request.urlopen(url)
data = response.read()
providerM3uFile = data.decode('utf-8')

#Open and overwrites the file if it exist, if it doesnt exist it creates a new one
fo = open(filePath, 'w', encoding='utf-8')

#Addes CUID to every line. CUID = MD5 hash of the channel URL
m3uLines = providerM3uFile.split('#EXTINF:-1')
#Delete #EXTM3U line
del m3uLines[0]
newM3uFile = '#EXTM3U' + '\n'
for m3uLine in m3uLines:
    #Filter channels that you want to include by group title.
    #This assumes that your provider uses the group-title= property to identify gropus, if not change it
    if ('group-title="TV SERIES"' in m3uLine):
        m3uLine = m3uLine.replace('TV SERIES','TV')
        channelInfo = m3uLine.splitlines()[0].strip()
        channelUrl = m3uLine.splitlines()[1].strip()
        hash = hashlib.md5(channelUrl.encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
        newM3uLine = f"#EXTINF:-1 CUID=\"{hash}\" {channelInfo.strip()}\n{channelUrl.strip()}\n"
        newM3uFile = newM3uFile + newM3uLine


#Write newly create file to a file in the OS
fo.write(newM3uFile)
fo.close

 

[Carlo 4560]

1 hour ago, Spaceboy said:

so nothing in terms of function then. ease of achieving the function, agreed. but i have what i want using xteve and i'm happy to trade off that ease for the security of doing it offline

I just gave a bunch of functions that are not doable in xTeVe or will have you pulling your hair out trying to achieve.

I know for my own environment xTeVe will not work for a few reasons, least of which is the channel numbering it insists on using that duplicate my existing OTA/Cable lineups.

I'm not "pro" for either solution as the user should pick the solution that works and makes their life easier. Given a choice between the two if they both work I'd use xTeVe as it's nice to have everything under your own control. I only spoke up originally as someone made it sound like they weren't trustworthy and there is no information anywhere that I'm aware of to back that up. 

Edited January 18, 2022 by cayars

[Spaceboy 2573]

38 minutes ago, cayars said:

I just gave a bunch of functions that are not doable in xTeVe or will have you pulling your hair out trying to achieve.

I know for my own environment xTeVe will not work for a few reasons, least of which is the channel numbering it insists on using that duplicate my existing OTA/Cable lineups.

I'm not "pro" for either solution as the user should pick the solution that works and makes their life easier. Given a choice between the two if they both work I'd use xTeVe as it's nice to have everything under your own control. I only spoke up originally as someone made it sound like they weren't trustworthy and there is no information anywhere that I'm aware of to back that up. 

didnt read anything that i havent achieved with xteve or manually. your first point is a core function of xteve so you kind of lost my interest after that...

just 2 points:

• it doesnt insist on any channel numbering. you can set them to be whatever you like
• filtering out VOD is a core function of xteve

[Carlo 4560]

I could say the same thing. There isn't anything in xTeVe that I can't do directly in Emby.   But that's only part of the story. It's not about what's possible or not but what's easy to do and what works easily when you want to do do several combines things.

I don't want to have to set every single channel manually to the channel number which is the only way to do it in xTeVe. If I need to start my numbering at 2000 or something other than it's default.  If I later touch xTeVe in any way my channel numbering is completely blown.  I've spent way to many hours battling xTeVe to not know how it works.

M3u4u makes quick work of many jobs that really can't be done in xTeVe in a meaningful way. I can for example work with 5 different m3u files setting up grouping and default numbering, then take all 5 lists and combine them into 1 list keeping everything I've done in the separate lists intact. If I want to have news start at channel 200 and kids channels start at 300 it's easy.  I can start premium channels at 500 & sports at 800.  This is hours of work in xTeVe and will require manual updates any time you touch or modify your channel list.

That's just one little feature but many things are easy to accomplish like this.

Can you quickly and easily find duplicates? How about sorting those dupes by resolution, codec or bitrate to easily choose which channels to use and which to have as backup channels?

Can you augment and preview your guide from multiples sources viewing results in real time to choose which to use as defaults and which to use for specific channels?  Again, super simple.

These are two different programs with different feature sets.  They have many basic overlapping features but do things differently.

Options are good, so each person can choose what works for them the best.

 

[Spaceboy 2573]

25 minutes ago, cayars said:

I could say the same thing. There isn't anything in xTeVe that I can't do directly in Emby.   But that's only part of the story. It's not about what's possible or not but what's easy to do and what works easily when you want to do do several combines things.

I don't want to have to set every single channel manually to the channel number which is the only way to do it in xTeVe. If I need to start my numbering at 2000 or something other than it's default.  If I later touch xTeVe in any way my channel numbering is completely blown.  I've spent way to many hours battling xTeVe to not know how it works.

M3u4u makes quick work of many jobs that really can't be done in xTeVe in a meaningful way. I can for example work with 5 different m3u files setting up grouping and default numbering, then take all 5 lists and combine them into 1 list keeping everything I've done in the separate lists intact. If I want to have news start at channel 200 and kids channels start at 300 it's easy.  I can start premium channels at 500 & sports at 800.  This is hours of work in xTeVe and will require manual updates any time you touch or modify your channel list.

That's just one little feature but many things are easy to accomplish like this.

Can you quickly and easily find duplicates? How about sorting those dupes by resolution, codec or bitrate to easily choose which channels to use and which to have as backup channels?

Can you augment and preview your guide from multiples sources viewing results in real time to choose which to use as defaults and which to use for specific channels?  Again, super simple.

These are two different programs with different feature sets.  They have many basic overlapping features but do things differently.

Options are good, so each person can choose what works for them the best.

 

i asked what you could do in m3u4u that you couldnt in xteve. the correct answer is - nothing but its easier.

[Carlo 4560]

No, there is a lot as I've already mentioned. You keep acting like the things I've mention can be done in xTeVe when they can not.

[Spaceboy 2573]

13 minutes ago, cayars said:

No, there is a lot as I've already mentioned. You keep acting like the things I've mention can be done in xTeVe when they can not.

no. you were correct with this statement

1 hour ago, cayars said:

But that's only part of the story. It's not about what's possible or not but what's easy to do and what works easily when you want to do do several combines things.

thats it

[Carlo 4560]

Glad you agree with both of those statements now.

[Spaceboy 2573]

18 hours ago, cayars said:

Glad you agree with both of those statements now.

i agree you are a tedious little man. how's that?

[cncb 25]

On 11/2/2021 at 3:13 PM, cayars said:

Once some of this is addressed it will go back out for another round of testing that likely will be expanded to get good coverage for the different broadcast standards and to test the new hardware options. Then it will likely go out to anyone who wants to participate with testing.

That is speculative and could change of course.  It's going to be a monster release and have some new things you hardly see in any other program. Certainly not all the features this has in one program.

Is this still coming anytime soon?

[Carlo 4560]

Luke has been making a lot of changes to the present server live tv wise. This includes how streams are handled to revamping how the present live tv plugin system works. The new plugin framework has essentially turned other systems into "tuners" that give Emby access to additional channels without additional baggage.  Instead of the server having to handle all these plugins a bit differently they all work the same now interface wise and essentially do the job of a tuner by adding channels to Emby Server.  The scheduling, recording, guide handling and other logic that was often part of a plugin is no longer. Now the plugin present the channels to Emby and the Emby Server handles everything else. This provides a simpler pipeline with less overhead using common code for less chance of issues.

New features like direct access to Hauppauge tuners at a low level without the current software stack that was previously developed and tested can integrated now using the new plugin framework. Same with the low level HDHomeRun code that we all liked during testing.  That too can be added via the plugin interface and bring it's faster tuning and new news feature set to Emby. A lot of development, time and testing went into the previous project and the new plugin framework is almost perfect for bringing much of that new functionality to the present system.

So "Is this still coming anytime soon?"
I could say it's already happening piece by piece, just differently.

[Spaceboy 2573]

still the best stuff outstanding though