DirecTV Osprey/Gemini Boxes

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#177

I don't think so at all. I think the solution is very clean as just sending an invisible keystroke every three minutes. It's very easily scriptable and has been reliable.

I have it implemented an ah4c with a keep alive. I just have to kind of tweak it so it isn't a keep alive script anymore and it's just a mandatory make this problem go away script. Once I have some energy I'm going to test in ah4c and try to get it working there. I also did a ton of work on the channel number tuning scripts to kind of make them a little bit more reliable and resilient if you want I can share those with you so you can test them since I know you use those a lot.

Like I know I shared something a little while ago but I kind of redid them again because I was having failures with the ones I shared a a few days ago.

The idea though would just have a shell script run that sends the invisible keystroke every three minutes. It uses minimal resources and is really cleanest solution. With ADB Tuner it isn't even a question. It's already built into the config and I shared the actual configuration I'm using that gets around everything in the first post of this thread.

#178

I understand what your saying. I have other reasons for possibly pursuing something like an adb bridge. I do not have any channels w/ sub channels. I'm curious if an average gemini user can enter the channels with the remote, or do you have to use the guide or voice command? if the remote can be used to enter the channel# , I'd then like to know if a usb or bluetooth keyboard can also.

#179

So if you have overflow channels you can't enter them with a remote. You have to use the guide that's why deep linking is really good if you've got overflow channels because they work with Channels.

Like an average Gemini user has no way of accessing any sub channels or overflow channels without using like the actual guide to navigate to them manually.

#180

ok thanks. :+1:
silly me for thinking that since directv put a dash on the remote, that they would use it in their programming.. lol :clown_face:

#181

I would think they would but the dash really seems to do very little.

I tried so many ways to tune one of those channels and it was just impossible.

Regardless, I just wrote with Claude a couple of scripts that replicate what I did with ADB tuner. I'm going to hang on to them for a little while though and maybe open up PR once more people start seeing this issue.

#182

Here's a subnumbering topic that came up a couple of years ago with a possible solution. I never tried it but maybe it gives you guys some ideas.

#183

If anyone runs into this I don't want to open a PR because I'm kind of in love with the new ADBTuner development build until someone tells me these are good but here are scripts that should resolve this issue if anyone hits it which I expect others to hit soon because it is a server side flag 100 percent.

Edit: I tested everything and opened a draft PR until this rolls out to more people and becomes needed.

2 Likes
#184

I think I'm going to mark my scripts ready for review. Does anyone have any objections? Sorry for the tag, but I'd really appreciate any input from @bnhf as a maintainer of ah4c.

Did an A/B test today with ADBTuner and confirmed that without the heartbeat, I get these reloads still. And it seems like this is going to hit more people, so it might be better to get the new ah4c scripts out there before it reaches a larger crowd.

I just tested out the deep linking script set, and it's working great. Right now, I'm playing around with the channel number scripts that I wrote that are completely refactored, and so far, they have been tuning reliably.

#185

The scripts look good. The only change I'd request is to use keycode names (like KEYCODE_ZENKAKU_HANKAKU) rather than numbers (like 211). IMO, this keeps the scripts more human readable -- and avoids having to look them up. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#186

Thanks, I will update that.

#187

I marked it ready for review and made that change. The only thing is, there's a match encoder URL function in the Deep Links script that I did not take out. I wasn't sure if that's needed. It doesn't seem to do anything.

#188

That function is used in other scripts, but not this one -- so yes, you can remove it.

Also, a small style request:

Please put a blank line after the end of each function -- another thing that makes for improved readability.

After that, feel free to submit a PR.

1 Like
#189

Thanks. I also cleaned up some more Fire TV leftovers that don't really need to be there for the Osprey boxes. Just some more dead code. I added that white space as well and removed that function. So far, everything's tuning nicely!

I actually got a call yesterday from DirecTV's executive team, and supposedly I'm going to hear from some advanced technical support, so at least I'll be able to find out what is going on on their end that caused this. I decided to contact their social media support, and that got things escalated for me. So, I don't know if this is like something that's really going to roll out, but it's been affecting my 10 boxes for over a month now. So, I imagine it's going to hit more people soon. Or I'm just very, very, lucky!! :joy:

#190

Personally, I have to wonder how good of an idea it is to bring executive visibility to our niche usage. Unless I've misunderstood your latest posts, everything works fine when using the boxes connected directly to a TV and using a remote, no?

#191

Somewhere in the Castle le Jean here in Miami, my firetv and onn puck is chugging along.

I still can't believe you got TEN Osprey boxes. :smiley:

My electric bill would bankrupt me...and also the electric in general would go out frequently in my unit :smiley:

#192

I wasn't intentionally bringing executive visibility.

I was actually having wedging issues when entering a channel number too quickly with my boxes connected to a TV as well. And actually, the executive department got contacted before I figured out the fix. I basically told them that I don't need help anymore.

If anyone else calls me, I'm probably just going to ignore it. What happened was, I contacted them on Twitter because I was at a complete loss and ready to cancel. Then the day after that, I figured out the problem with Opus 5. Then yesterday I got a call randomly from the executive department. I tried to tell the woman that I really don't need help anymore.

#193

But yeah, they were pretty insistent on like looking into this, and I basically told them I don't want to anymore because I solved it, and I'm just going to ignore their calls at this point.

Edit: I just got the call with them and I told them that I don't need help anymore. So, no need to worry.

#194

so the current scripts/osprey/dtvosprey is outdated and I have my own custom so I welcome a fully baked new one. I would request an env toggle for the 3min keystroke though, so we don't have to turn it on until needed.

#195

It's actually baked into the script. So you can just change it to whatever value you want or remove the value. I didn't make it a toggle because eventually it seems that it's just going to be needed. People are going to wonder why their streams are reloading five minutes in. This one should tune better, particularly for channel numbers. I think it will also be a bit more reliable.

#196

I agree with the env toggle. I’d prefer turning it on when it’s required rather- might need it tomorrow or next year.

My deep links work so good now.