Non-Docker source for PlutoTV and Stirr m3u playlists and EPG

[jkr4m3r]

Ugh, looks like my hourly refresh ditched the extra listings not long after I posted that. Curious what others are seeing.

[jkr4m3r]

At the risk of talking to myself, it seems the length of the listings varies with refreshes.

[Wally_Bkg]

I'm new to channels and am quite impressed. I use the TV Everywhere with our TV provider and really like the automatic commercial skip. I also setup HankLloydRight's PlutoTV no docker links as a "custom channel" and it appears to be working nicely, except.

My problem is the automatic commercial skip doesn't seem to work on the PlutoTV recordings. It appears to have made the edl files but when I play the recording back it doesn't automatically skip. Does anyone have a clue what is causing this? I'm playing back with the channels app in a FireTV stick.

[babsonnexus]

@Wally_Bkg

My problem is the automatic commercial skip doesn't seem to work on the PlutoTV recordings.

Sounds like your problem is with Commercial Detection. Check out more relevant threads for info on that:

BETA: Smart Commercial Detection for TVE & Pluto

With v2021.12.22.0148 we are testing a new smarter commercial detector, which works on some streaming channels. Instead of using comskip to scan video, this new detector uses a more traditional approach similar to how Pi-hole works. We can detect patterns on some channels where the advertising content comes from a different place. I have tested this with some Discovery channels on TVE, and some of the channels on Pluto. Share your own experiences below. Log output for traditional comskip: 2…

Is commercial detection possible with Pluto TVE?

I just installed the Pluto Docker and I’m loving the integration! That said, is it possible to get commercial detection working for recordings with these channels? It’s not a big deal, however it sure would be nice…

Commercial Skipping Choices

Both Comskip and the new smart Commercial Detection work very well most of the time. In general, the source channel makes the difference so prioritizing recordings to a source produces the best results. I've done this using Favorites yet there are individual shows that seem to break the pattern. An example of what I do is I have the science channel fevered via TVE while my HD Home Run is top priority. It would be great if: There was a selection of which commercial skipper to use for each c…

Commercial detection - where to provide feedback?

Is the commercial detection algorithm homegrown or written by someone outside of the channels team? I ask because there’s one channel (NFL Network) where commercial detection consistently doesn’t work due the presence of a consistent sports ticker that runs even during network ads. The only commercials detected are the ones inserted by the local cable company.

[Wally_Bkg]

The same problem @jonares had back in December happened to me a few days ago with plutoTV.

~$ ping nocords.xyz
PING nocords.xyz (104.21.96.58) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 104.21.96.58 (104.21.96.58): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=9.64 ms
64 bytes from 104.21.96.58 (104.21.96.58): icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=9.46 ms

shows no connectivity problem.

Visiting the nocords.xyz site and copying the m3u URL I can download playlist.m3u:

wget https://nocords.xyz/pluto/playlist.m3u

Gets me:

~$ ls -l *.m3u
-rw-rw-r-- 1 wally wally 375363 Jan 28 08:33 playlist.m3u

My TVE channels are still working fine.

[chDVRuser]

Would be nice to know what the i/o timeout value is in Channels DVR.
I got the same transient i/o timeout for the fancybits guide server on a guide fetch this morning
dial tcp: lookup tmsdata.fancybits.co: i/o timeout

[tmm1]

lookup means dns, it's trying to connect to your dns server and failing. dns timeouts are usually 1-2s

[chDVRuser]

Thanks. I know that. Wanted to know what the timeout value was since that's also what @Wally_Bkg and @jonares were talking about.

@jonares

invalid source url: Get "https://nocords.xyz/pluto/playlist.m3u ": dial tcp: lookup nocords.xyz: i/o timeout

[tmm1]

dns is also typically over udp. the error says tcp that means the udp timed out first then it fallbacks to tcp and that failed too. it failed in the dial phase which means the server never responded to the connection request

[HankLloydRight]

When you try to ping nocords.xyz you’re only hitting a Cloudflare edge node and not the origin server. To test actual connectivity to nocords.xyz to see if it’s up, just go to the website in a browser.

[MikeBear]

Make SURE your Channels server is on a RESERVED IP address. I setup a new phone for my wife this past week, and last time she turned it on, it grabbed the same IP address as my Channels server. That caused all sorts of issues due to the address conflict. I had to go back into my router settings, re-reserve the IP address for the server, and reboot the wife's phone, then reserve that address so her phone won't go hunting again.

[Wally_Bkg]

When I type nocords.xyz in the address bar of Brave browser using the computer running the Channels DVR server the site comes up fine, although there is a delay of a couple of seconds. Repeating the add source again still gets the timeout error, which since the Ubuntu I use defaults to a "caching" local DNS, so with it freshly in the cache it shouldn't be an issue with the time it takes for a DNS lookup.

doing: dig nocords.xyz gives:

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-Ubuntu <<>> nocords.xyz
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 48475
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;nocords.xyz.			IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
nocords.xyz.		300	IN	A	172.67.173.152
nocords.xyz.		300	IN	A	104.21.96.58

;; Query time: 267 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.1.1#53(127.0.1.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Jan 30 14:29:04 CST 2024
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 72

So seems the udp lookup doesn't fail and seems reasonably quick at 267 msec, certainly doesn't account for the delay in Brave opening the page.

I'm still stumped. It had been working fine

[Wally_Bkg]

The computer running my Channels DVR server has been locked to this IP address on my router pretty much since day I installed Ubuntu 16.04 on it, i.e. many years. and it hasn't changed. Still at 192.168.1.73, if it wasn't the webpage on my wife's computer we use to view the guide and select the recording wouldn't work: http://192.168.1.73:8089/admin/settings/sources

[HankLloydRight]

Since it seems that you’re the only one having this issue, it has to be a local config, network, or DNS problem.

[chDVRuser]

Not familiar with Ubuntu, but can you clear its local DNS cache and try again?

Another user had to reboot their NAS for the same issue with FrndlyTV Frndly TV for Channels - #971 by mexicanmamba

I had a log entry showing DNS lookup timing out after 5 seconds (transient) [ERR] No stations available in lineup X-M3U during guide data download - #2 by chDVRuser

P.S. nocords.xyz opens in Brave here in less than one second.

[Wally_Bkg]

Reboot did nothing. Since Brave works there is noting wrong with DNS or Networking. Question is what could be screwed up in the Channels DVR setup to cause the problem?

For reference, I was playing with the source->settings for plutoTV to try and change the pluto numbers 9000+ to something < 6000 for the TVE channels. While doing this my Internet provider had an outage, and all the ongoing activity on this old Ubuntu 16.04 eventually crashed it. When I rebooted the plutoTV source was broken.

[chDVRuser]

Just as a point of reference, I added Pluto to one of my Channels DVR docker container Sources.
Brave browser dev tools shows it took the server 2.10 seconds to add the source using the PUT method.

2024/01/30 15:46:23.177429 [M3U] Refreshed lineup for PlutoforChannelsnocords with 372 channels
2024/01/30 15:46:25.258441 [DVR] Fetched guide data for XMLTV-PlutoforChannelsnocords in 453ms
2024/01/30 15:46:43.144376 [DVR] Indexed 11763 airings into XMLTV-PlutoforChannelsnocords (372 channels over 30h0m0s) + 217 skipped [16s index]
2024/01/30 15:46:43.158688 [DVR]   pruned 162 replaced airings in 14ms.
2024/01/30 15:46:43.311299 [IDX] Pruned 14 expired groups from XMLTV-PlutoforChannelsnocords in 22ms.

[Wally_Bkg]

Just for grins I added

104.21.96.58 nocords.xyz

to /etc/hosts

And then plutoTV started working. Clearly Channels DVD needs some way to lengthen the "timeout" value for DNS lookups.

[HankLloydRight]

@Wally_Bkg

Just for grins I added
104.21.96.58 nocords.xyz

As I said above, that IP address is a Cloudflare Edge node for their reverse proxy network and not an address to the origin server. I would advise not to add it to your hosts file to bypass your own local faulty/slow DNS. Cloudflare can and frequently changes their edge servers and the DNS for nocords.xyz can and does change all the time. As soon as it changes, your little hack will stop working. You've put a band-aid on the problem, but you haven't actually fixed the problem, which is clearly your local DNS. ("It's always DNS.")

[Wally_Bkg]

I can't fix any problem with my Internet provider's DNS. From their point of view the problem is Channels DVR code for not waiting long enough since it does work if you wait a bit more.

I'm still on the Channels DVR "free trial" with all the uncertainty of ATSC 3.0 I suspect this solution is not really viable for us.

Here is my "break out" of potential savings from "cord cutting":
My wife demands all the "premium" movie channels that U-Verse offers except MGM+/Epix (they have a "free trial" weekend three or four times a year, with their limited catalog she can record all they have that she wants during these trials). We pay $270/month (after this month's $11 increase) it breaks out like this:
GB fiber Internet $65
U-Verse U300 $150
Taxes & fees (DVR box rental, local channel access, etc). $55

We can get all her premium channels with streaming (we can stream them now as part of U-Verse):
HBO Max $16/month, or $20/month for their 4K content.
Showtime/Paramont+ $12/month or $120/year
Starz $10/month
CineMax $10/month

Dropping U-Verse we'd have:
$70 GB fiber Internet (lose a $5 "bundle discount" we have now)
$48 or $54 per month for the premium streaming.
A potential savings of ~$150/month minus what it takes for local channels and DVR

IF I can find a good OTA antenna and location for it, Channels DVR and HDHR would be the cheapest solution, ignoring the initial cost for HDHR box and antenna at $8/month for Channels DVR for a saving of $142/month after the equipment is paid for. But with the ATSC 3.0 situation buying an HDHR may not be a good long term move unless simucast of ATSC 1.0 ends up being mandated.

Plan B gets local channels with a "cloud DVR":

1. YouTubeTV $73/month (my brother-in-law does this.
2. DirectTV Stream $80/month + tax for the base package (my neighbor does this)

Going plan B cuts the potential monthly savings in half.

I'll mess around with the OTA antenna issue a bit more while the free trial is in effect, but it is not rocket science to run a cron job to update the /etc/hosts entries for nocords.xyz once a day or after a periodic nslookup specifying the nameserver to avoid /etc/hosts usage. So it is not as much of a "hack" as what is likely going on inside of Channels DVR and/or nocords.xyz