ChannelsDVR guide data in transient use

[JSBerg]

Hello everyone,

I have an interesting/really different use case that I was hoping you could help me with.

I am getting ready to move full-time into a camper van while traveling across the Americas (and eventually beyond).

I’ve already setup a SiliconDust tuner in the van and I have started using Channels on my iPad and iPhone to watch the local news or catch a show or sporting event on a rainy day, but I’m thinking about using ChannelsDVR to capture some content while on the road.

I was pleased to see that Channels find it’s guide data automatically once it knows the channels in the local area once I’m somewhere new and connect. I assume it’s downloading the guide data directly from the TV channel signal but not sure.

Now the question - while I know that ChannelsDVR gets its guide data from other sources, since I am moving to different regions all the time, can ChannelsDVR get the same guide data and “record” content from OTA channels once it has found a signal, downloaded the guide data (from the OTA channel but maybe from the extensive guide data) and match wanted content with what’s in the newly acquired guide? Can it do this without intervention? or could a script trigger the required action(s)?

Does that make sense? Is that something DVR could do?

[tmm1]

Hi, very interesting use case.

I was pleased to see that Channels find it’s guide data automatically once it knows the channels in the local area once I’m somewhere new and connect. I assume it’s downloading the guide data directly from the TV channel signal but not sure.

The guide data in the app comes from SiliconDust. When you scan for channels it uploads those channels to SD along with your device id, and they do some auto matching on their side. Then all apps including ours get the right data for your channels.

Now the question - while I know that ChannelsDVR gets its guide data from other sources, since I am moving to different regions all the time, can ChannelsDVR get the same guide data and “record” content from OTA channels once it has found a signal, downloaded the guide data (from the OTA channel but maybe from the extensive guide data) and match wanted content with what’s in the newly acquired guide? Can it do this without intervention? or could a script trigger the required action(s)?

At the moment, you would need to do this manually. Basically you would scan for channels on your HDHR, then go to the DVR interface and refresh your tuner and enter the zipcode for your new location to download the correct data.

[JSBerg]

Thank you. So two questions:

There is no way to use the OTA channel guide info for the DVR and I assume this is because of the accuracy/completeness of the information, correct?

Would there be a way to “automate” the new scan, ZIp code “setting” and guide download using something like a command line locally or remotely (from another box)? I’m already working to set some conditions based on location and state, to adding a DVR command line would be a “simple fix”.

Thanks.

[tmm1]

Sure, you can automate like this:

curl -XPOST http://127.0.0.1:8089/devices
curl -XDELETE http://127.0.0.1:8089/dvr/lineups/XXXX
curl -XPOST --data-binary ‘{“LineupId”:“USA-OTAZZZZ”}’ http://127.0.0.1:8089/dvr/lineups/XXXX

Where XXXX is your HDHR device ID, and ZZZZ is your new zipcode.