Channel mapping

[mlcarson 13]

I thought I knew how this worked but now I'm not so sure.   I've got an M3U file with multiple guide sources all using Emby Guide Data.   My understanding is that all guide sources are tried in the order that they are entered for channel matches and the first match wins.  Any subsequent matches on additional guide sources are just discarded.  I think that's still the case with guide data but it doesn't seem to be the case with the channel logo's because that now appears to be last match wins.

 

My understanding of matching is the following.   Channel-id seems to be the highest priority match when present for cable TV/Satellite providers followed by tvg-id and then tvg-name.  The problem I have at the moment is that I introduced a channel numbering conflict with a guide source.  I want to have this guide source match before my M3u provider because Emby provides better guide data.  I might be able to break the automatching by nullifying the tvg-id and then manually selecting the guide sources on the Emby Guide source.  The only other option that I can think of is splitting the M3U file up and only allowing specific guide sources on each file which is probably the least convoluted way.  Any better way of handling this?

 

The channel logo thing has got me the most confused.  My preference would be to eliminate them entirely since that allows for much easier guide reading.   Is the logo really determined by last match wins?  Or is an M3U channel list always going to get their logos from the M3U provider.  I currently have no tvg-logo field in my M3U file.   Putting a null value in with tvg-logo="" still grabs a logo. 

[ErikaJ 65]

Good Day...I went through this same experience with my provider's m3u file and I did find a way to eliminate the auto mapping and control the mapping to the "correct" guide data source. I use MB guide data source as well. I also have guide sources for USA channels, UK channels, German channels and OTA channels. In a short answer here is what I did after so many different tries on eliminating/controlling the auto mapping.

 

First, here is and an examble of my m3u file the way it comes from my provider... 

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="msnbc.us" tvg-name="MSNBC" tvg-logo="http://picon.helixhosting.ninja/1682.png"group-title="USA NEWS NETWORKS",MSNBC
http://#########.net/#####/XXXXX/142687

 

Now here is the same example as above but using notepad++ to edit certain elements...

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-chno="00007" tvg-id="msnbc.us" tvg-name="MSNBC" tvg-logo="http://picon.helixhosting.ninja/1682.png" group-title="MOVIE NETWORKS" tvg-shift="+0",MSNBC http://#####net/#####/XXXXX/142687

 

First, I added a tvg-chno="whatever channel number" so that you can control where this particular channel stream shows up in your EPG. This way I was able to put the channels I mostly watch at the very top of my EPG instead of their random appearance. 

 

Next notice that my channel number is 00007 (still channel 7). The reason for prefixing the channel with zeroes is because my guide data's have certain intervals with missing channel numbers. To clarify, MB Guide Data USA-DITV, I noticed that the channel array started from 001 to 888 then jumped to 2010 to 2195. Then there was a major jump to channel 9560. So channels from 3000 to 9500 were not indicated nor explicit. The GBR-1000450 guide started their channel lineup from 101 to 976. This meant that channels 3000 to 9500 were also clear to use and would not match to either of my data guide providers. In this example channel 00007 was not in either of the guides.

 

For the logos, depending on how you obtained your m3u, most providers provide the accompanying logo unless you specified otherwise in your download. If you want to correct an incorrectly displayed logo, go to Metadata Manager in your dashboard. Then find the Live TV section and expand it if it isn't already expanded. Then within that expansion find the channel you want to change the logo for, CNN for instance, click on it and a new windows opens up on the right hand side. Then click on the 3 dots at the top then click on edit images. And there you are.

 

I created my own channel logos so that they all would have the same look and not blend into the background. I used PS to make them. Have fun and cheers...

 

 

 

 

 

[mlcarson 13]

So I use channel-id rather than tvg-chno.   Are you saying that matching doesn't happen on tvg-chno and that it only controls channel order?   I imagine that they do the exact same thing.  I know that channel renumbering is a way out of this.  I suspect that breaking up the M3U file into multiple files (creating multiple TV sources)  with separate guide sources will work too since it eliminates the conflict.   I created the files last night but haven't actually tried them yet.  The only bad ramification of breaking up what would be a single TV source into multiple TV sources would be the inability to  properly enforce the simultaneous stream limit. 

 

The specifics in my case are Comcast vs BEV channel numbering.  I use Comcast channel numbering in the 1100-1899 range.  This isn't a big issue since if I have the Comcast guide source first since it wins.  The problem occurs when there a couple of channels that Comcast doesn't carry that I want to stick in the guide on an unused Comcast channel number near similar channel content.  It turns out that BEV does have the same channel number and it'll match based on channel number.  Your trick of adding a preceding zero to the channel number does prevent the match and still maintains order so kudos to you on that since it's an easy fix. It turns out that decimal suffixes also prevent a match so appending ".0" or ".1" also works.  This is a better solution than where I was headed. 

 

The logos are being downloaded with the guide data and my last guide provider is that of my M3u provider which is why I'm getting the idea that last wins on the logos.   So, I can temporarily change one by editing the metadata but it gets reset each time the guide data is refreshed.

[ErikaJ 65]

Good Day...As described previously, my m3u does not have the channel-id parameter which is one of the reasons I use the zero prefix Once that is set I then add my Emby Guide Data and start the mapping. I check this first setup for incorrect signal/streams because sometimes the stream may not be working so I make the change to another stream of the same content and handle them accordingly. Again, I only have one m3u but it feeds me streams from several countries but most of the ones I normally use are those from USA and UK. After I get the USA streams mapped I then move on to the UK (in my case) streams and map those. Again I check for correctness and move to the next country of streams and so forth.

 

When done I end up with a perfect EPG indicating streams from several countries and timed correctly. 

 

As for the logo issue you are having, I have not experienced that so I cannot comment on what may be the issue. My logos do not change even when resetting or restarting the server. I use my own logos which could be the reason but I do have a couple that are the originals from the provider and they do not change. Thanks for the suffix trick I may need to give that a go to see if that works better for some channels. Cheers...

[mlcarson 13]

Is there any way of separating the matching/key functions of tvg-name and channel-id from the display functions?  I'm pretty sure the answer is no.  As cited earlier these are both used for matching but are also important for display of guide data.  If I'm matching on tvg-name, I'm also displaying that as call letters rather than a more meaningful name like CBS.

 

Also looking for an explanation as to how tvg-logo works.   tvg-logo in the M3u file seems to be overwritten by logos in the xmltv guide data provider or maybe even the Emby guide data providers.  So is there any reason at all for tvg-logo to be in the M3U file?

[ErikaJ 65]

Good day...In the past when I was using Schedules Direct for providing my XML file, I would get something like this...

 

<tv source-info-name="Schedules Direct" generator-info-name="mc2xml" generator-info-url="mailto:mc2xml@gmail.com">
 <channel id="I202.58646.schedulesdirect.org">
  <display-name>CNNHD</display-name>
  <display-name>202 CNNHD</display-name>
  <display-name>202</display-name>
  <display-name>CNN HD</display-name>
  <icon src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedulesdirect/assets/stationLogos/s58646_h3_aa.png"width="360" height="270" />
 </channel>
 

So the channel id for CNN is as noted above. My assumption was always that the matching occurred between the display name from XML file and tvg-id from m3u file. But I am not certain of what the match happens upon because the XML file varies from provider. Therefore, I am of the opinion that match happens between tvg-id (m3u) and display-name (XML). But again I could be completely wrong. 

 

As for the logos, obviously in my case where I use my own custom made logos and since they do not get overwritten, I suspect that the parameter tvg-logo (m3u) has no bearing unless there is no logo parameter defined. Here is a sample of my EPG with my custom logos. I like the uniform look. Cheers...

 

[ErikaJ 65]

Here is a link to my thread regarding my experiences with Live TV setup...https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/74239-live-tv-setup/

[mlcarson 13]

So how are you specifying your own logos? Are you just using XMLTV files from Schedules Direct and no Emby Guide Sources?

 

I specify an XMLTV provider as my last provider as a URL.  If I download the XMLTV file and examine it, I can see the icon sources.  The first thing that the XMLTV file does is an icon to channel id" mapping for every channel in their listing.

<channel id="bbcnews.uk"><display-name>UK | BBC NEWS</display-name><icon src="http://offlinenow.xyz/uklogo/bbc-news.jpg"/></channel>

 

I've been seeing this as last wins because I've got no way of seeing how "Emby Guide Data" is packaged/distributed but my understanding is that it also attempts to distribute tv logos.  I know that the explicit definition of tv-logo in the M3U file is overwritten or never used.

My "tvg-id" in my M3U file would typically match that of the "channel id" in the XMLTV file.  This is by design since that's how the primary match is done for guide data.  The other field for matching in this XMLTV file is display-name which would map to the "tvg-name" in my M3U file. 

 

I create my own M3U file via spreadsheet and it consists of about 150 streams.  The only fields that I include in it are: tvg-id, tvg-name,channel-id, and tvg-shift unless I manually put a tvg-logo field there for testing. It's not ideal since it won't capture changes made by the M3U TV source provider. I could probably write something to automate the process but so far it's not been worth the trouble.  Up until this point though, I was using HDHomerun Prime's as my primary TV source and the M3U source as a supplement.  I've now reversed that and will probably eliminate the Prime's entirely.

[ErikaJ 65]

Good Day...My logos WERE originally specified as c:\emby\logos blah blah since I have them on the local host machine. However, now I just specify them through MB using their Metadata Manager scheme. I no longer use SD since MB provides the same guide source data and is more convenient. My IPTV provider gives me around 2800 streams from various countries but I eliminate many of them except the UK, GBR, and USA streams. I only use about 150 streams and record as much as possible because of my work schedule. Cheers..