Samsung TV Plus for Channels [retired]

[speedingcheetah]

Isn't that what Channels DVR server is already doing though? Or supposed to be doing.
As i mentioned, even manually trigger of refresh in Channels sometimes does not result in guide data.
No errors are shown in the logs.

How does setting a OS level task accomplish what a third party software does internally?
Task manager? Do you mean Task Scheduler? My server is running on Win 11.
I have never used a cron job. If i recall, that is a Linux thing.
scheduled task is the windows equivalent

EDIT: I also have a 2nd server, that is Linux based, and it has the exact same issues with Guide data.
So it not a Windows thing.

[chDVRuser]

@speedingcheetah

Isn't that what Channels DVR server is already doing though? Or supposed to be doing.

Supposed to. Have you looked at the log to see if it's refreshing the guide data every hour, day after day?

@speedingcheetah

Task manager? Do you mean Task Scheduler? My server is running on Win 11.

Yah, Task Scheduler in Windows, Task Manager in Synology, cron in unix/linux.

Anyway, if you want to try it.
You can use this curl command to refresh the xmltv guide data for a source in Channels DVR
Not sure in Windows Task Scheduler if you can use curl as the command or if it has to be curl.exe

curl -s -XPUT http://<ip-of-channels-server>:<port>/dvr/lineups/XMLTV-LineupName

To find the LineupName, look at http://<ip-of-channels-server>:<port>/dvr/lineups

In my case, it's XMLTV-Pluto for my M3U-Pluto source

http://192.168.1.4:8489/dvr/lineups
{"M3U-Pluto":"XMLTV-Pluto","VIRTUAL":"X-VIRTUAL"}

So I use this command in my cron job to refresh the guide data

curl -s -XPUT http://192.168.1.4:8489/dvr/lineups/XMLTV-Pluto

[speedingcheetah]

@chDVRuser

Supposed to. Have you looked at the log to see if it's refreshing the guide data every hour, day after day?

yup, it has these lines every hour

2024/03/12 19:34:15.993153 [DVR] Fetched guide data for XMLTV-Samsung in 315ms
2024/03/12 19:34:16.131376 [DVR] Indexed 101 airings into XMLTV-Samsung (14 channels over 6h32m17s) + 28 skipped [98ms index]
2024/03/12 19:34:16.134047 [DVR]   pruned 19 replaced airings in 2ms.
2024/03/12 19:34:16.543102 [DVR] Fetched guide data for XMLTV-Pluto in 407ms
2024/03/12 19:34:17.930329 [DVR] Indexed 2152 airings into XMLTV-Pluto (54 channels over 24h30m0s) + 35 skipped [1s index]
2024/03/12 19:34:17.932963 [DVR]   pruned 84 replaced airings in 2ms.

[chDVRuser]

If it is refreshing every single hour it must be a problem at the source https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/

Next time you get low on guide data, check that source site to see if the xml guide file is up to date.

[speedingcheetah]

Thats what i keep thinking and saying. Channels is pulling what is there, but what is there is lacking.
The xml may be "updated" as in changed on the server url, but is it being updated with new future guide data. Seems at times, more often of late, it is not, even though the last updated time stamp says it has been. The user that maintains that i think has posted on this thread in response to issues reported.

[chDVRuser]

The way I would check is look at the first line in the xml file for the timestamp when it was created.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE tv SYSTEM "xmltv.dtd"><tv generator-info-name="www.matthuisman.nz" generated-ts="1710291943">
is Wednesday, March 13, 2024 01:05:43 UTC

Then look for an airing about 5 1/2 hours from that. start="202403130630...
<programme channel="USBB1500001GD" start="20240313063000 +0000" stop="20240313070000 +0000">

You can tell by the airing start= time if it's old or new listings

[chDVRuser]

@chDVRuser

Next time you get low on guide data, check that source site to see if the xml guide file is up to date.

Is he updating them every hour now?

[matthuisman]

its been set to update every 59 mins for as long as i can remember
But if there program data hasnt changed since 60mins ago, then the generated xml may not differ

[tarianjed]

Have you actually done this or is this all hypothetical? When I try to do what you are describing it isn't possible.

[kcossabo]

Thank You for the work on this.

If I google for my local NBC it lists that it is on Samsung on channel 1035. On my guide it is the bay area NBC not Washington DC NBC.

Is there a regionalization within the USA?

[kyl416]

Yes the local news channels and WeatherNation are regionalized on Samsung TV Plus, so the m3u playlists from mjh.nz only have what is local to the IP address he used to generate them.

[kcossabo]

@kyl416 Thank You

By default, the service will retrieve data for us region.

I am on the East Coast of the USA

region codes is broken

https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/regions.json

My IP Address is location of Virginia, but I get California (West Coast) News, not East coast.

I will try my actual Samsung TV to see what I see there.

[chDVRuser]

@kcossabo

region codes is broken

https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/regions.json

There is no https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/regions.json file on his website
Are you thinking https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/app.json ?

I did find a link here GitHub - matthuisman/samsung-tvplus-for-channels: Samsung TV Plus for Channels to the file you mentioned. Appears it was removed from his website. Regions are the two letter country codes as seen in https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/app.json and the first two letters of the filenames at Index of /SamsungTVPlus/

There is nothing to break down the U.S. into time zone, state or city.

[kcossabo]

@chDVRuser - correct I was using the link on the github.

OK so it is just broken. I am in no way on the West cost and 'local' is streaming bay area (San Francisco) news.

[chDVRuser]

So, it's like kyl416 says. Matt is probably pulling them from Samsung using a server located (or geo-located) in San Francisco (or thereabout).

@kyl416

the m3u playlists from mjh.nz only have what is local to the IP address he used to generate them.

[babsonnexus]

@tmm1

The docker just downloads the online version

@Fofer

We've learned that the docker version of Samsung+ offers zero advantage over just using the direct URLs from i.mjh.nz. The docker is merely passing along the same m3u and the same XML file, without massaging or inserting any additional metadata.

@babsonnexus

As covered above, all the Docker does is copy the m3u and XML guide data to a local location and set up a page to view it.

This is no longer true. @matthuisman made an update to the Docker specific for Channels:

PBS Kids now DRM?

new docker container pushed that will ignore the drm channels

I can confirm this. Here is what the number of stations looked like before and after the update:

You can see the specific code on the git:

I highly recommend using the Docker method now, unless you want to manually manage the DRM stations yourself.

@DemonLourde

ATM I have 26 channels on Samsung TV that are using it

[matthuisman]

Let me try to explain.

The playlists at i.mjh.nz already do not contain the widevine channels.
eg. https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/gb.m3u8

My kodi addon in theory can support Widevine channels and also want quick access to a short EPG overview. So I generate app.json with everything it needs to use: https://i.mjh.nz/SamsungTVPlus/app.json

I recently allowed that file to contain the widevine channels so I can try get them working in Kodi.
Currently they dont - so Kodi addon was updated to ignore them for now.
All WV channels will have a "license_url" key

However, I forgot this docker container also uses the app.json to generate its playlist.
Its just easier to parse than downloading and modifing the existing playlists.
And it contains every region etc.
Just easier to use that.

So, for a few weeks - the docker container was outputting this widevine channels that just wont work in Channels. I fixed this by skipping them in the docker container.

The end product should basically be the same between docker container or direct playlists.
The docker container does allow filtering channels etc though

UPDATE:
Oh actually, the Widevine channels are showing in the playlists. What the heck...
They shouldnt be. Let me fix that. Sorry!

[babsonnexus]

@matthuisman

The playlists at i.mjh.nz already do not contain the widevine channels.

@matthuisman

The end product should basically be the same between docker container or direct playlists.

That's not what I'm seeing, though. If I look at the "all" or the "us" m3u8's on i.mjh.nz, I can see the Widevine channels. For instance, PBS Kids and Movie Hub are right there.

The changes you made to the Docker definitely filter them out.

[matthuisman]

that was my bad. I was talking rubbish!
The common method to generate playlist does ignore widevine channels but found samsung script wasnt telling it these were wv channels.

Fixed now

[babsonnexus]