I mean what you see on this screen:
I know that if you have a scheduled recording on a TVE channel and the channel has a problem, obviously the recording fails. Is it the only time the server checks and reports that the channel is not available?
Or does the scan always have to be triggered manually at other times as shown in the screenshot?
If the authorization token from the TVE provider has expired when attempting to tune a channel, Channels will re-authenticate at that point in time. Otherwise, re-authentication must be done manually.
Channels does not periodically attempt to verify that the tokens are current, or that the stream is currently working.
Thank you for this explanation.
In the context of a script, would it be a bad idea to force a rescan of the channels at specific intervals for the purpose of checking TVE availability?
By "bad idea" I mean: would that be considered abusing the system, either Channels or the TV providers?
I delete Chrome data and do a full rescan Everday at 6:05 am and get notified of the number of active Channels .. It drops any channels it cannot authorize. I can then manually check them. I rather that they are dropped then have it fail when a recording starts.
Snippet ...
2024/08/11 06:08:23.908086 [TVE] Channel scan 148/160 DAL-CBSNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.916344 [TVE] Channel scan 149/160 SAC-CBSNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.925685 [TVE] Channel scan 150/160 BAL-CBSNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.933965 [TVE] Channel scan 151/160 NY-ABCNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.942050 [TVE] Channel scan 152/160 LA-ABCNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.949674 [TVE] Channel scan 153/160 SF-ABCNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.957961 [TVE] Channel scan 154/160 CHI-ABCNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.965046 [TVE] Channel scan 155/160 PHI-ABCNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.973251 [TVE] Channel scan 156/160 HOU-ABCNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.981352 [TVE] Channel scan 157/160 FRESNO-ABCNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.990271 [TVE] Channel scan 158/160 RALEIGH-ABCNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:23.997943 [TVE] Channel scan 159/160 MIA-CBSNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:24.008385 [TVE] Channel scan 160/160 DET-CBSNEWS successful
2024/08/11 06:08:24.008385 [TVE] Channel scan finished after 3m14s: 151/160 channels available
That's good to know, thanks.
That's the part that I'm thinking of automating and provide notification options.
Well, to be clear, I want to automate the whole process: trigger the scan, check the results, and optionally notify the user. Also add retries for individual channels that would fail to authenticate on the first try and they were previously working.
Pretty much similar to my script that detects lineup changes but, in this case, confirm TVE availability.
Doing it every morning seems to be a good time.
When I have time, I'll play around with this. 
It depends on your provider. For instance, Spectrum will stop authenticating after a certain number of calls to its auth server are made, forcing you to wait up to 48 hours before it will authenticate additional channels.
Thanks, that's good to know.
To start, I will try once every morning and see how well that works for me.
I use this in my OliveTin email alerts, it catches when a cookie is expired and there is a rescan. The email will also include other errors if the authentication fails.
[TVE] action=error_response
Personally I think a script to reauthorize is a bad idea and is going to trigger some providers to think people’s servers are bots. I can pretty much guarantee this is going to cause major issues with spectrum and Hulu at the very least. Seems like a lot of risk of losing the channels you really watch just so you can get a notification that a channel you never watch is having issues or has been dropped. Imo
These are all valid points. Thank you for that.
I have been using a Script for XFINITY for over a year and have not had a problem thinking it is a bot. You are just assuming that to be the case.
Yes I know you mentioned that before. Spectrum for example can’t complete an add new source without failing channels half way through and it takes a couple days to get them all done. This is guaranteed to eff up a spectrum source. People are already having a hard enough time with Hulu, this would be a disaster for them. I’m just saying the tools already exist in olive tin to catch a channel having trouble a couple minutes in. It’s just my 2 cents and it’s worth what you paid for it. You do you.
What is the big deal use it if you want no one is forcing anyone to use it. Geez come on man.
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