HDHR2MXF and HDHR3-CC Tuners

[garyan2]

Anyone here with HDHR3-CC tuners and an active SiliconDust DVR Service subscription tried out the HDHR2MXF program? Did it work for you?

If anyone wants to give it a try to see if it will create the XMLTV and MXF file, you can download the portable version of epg123 from here. Just place the hdhr2mxf.exe and Newtonsoft.Json.dll files in a folder and run hdhr2mxf. This will only create the files and will not touch WMC or your system.

Any help you can give to verify this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

[tluxon]

I'll give it a shot. Anything you want me to watch for?

[garyan2]

Actually, this has all been resolved, thank you for the offer. Do you happen to have both a HDHR-CC and HDHR-US tuners on you network? I'd like verification that works as intended with giving 2 lineups in the MXF file.

[tluxon]

I copied the files to a temporary folder and ran hdhr2mxf in a PowerShell Window. The responses I got were:

Found HDHomeRun CONNECT QUATRO HDHR5-4US (10762F81) with firmware 20190621.
Found HDHomeRun PRIME HDHR3-CC (1316D974) with firmware 20190621.
Found HDHomeRun RECORD () with firmware .
Found HDHomeRun RECORD () with firmware .
HDHomeRun DVR Service is active.
Using available 14-day XMLTV file from SiliconDust.
Writing the MXF file to "hdhr2mxf.mxf"

Generated .mxf file contains 2 lineups, 336 services, 5732 series, 38400 programs, and 0 people with 8557 image links.
Execution time was 00:00:18.3803026

[garyan2]

Excellent. Could you send me the hdhr2mxf.mxf file to support@garyan2.net? I'll take a look and make sure everything is correct.

[tluxon]

The file was 28 MB in size, which was too large for my email server. I put it on my share server and sent a link to it instead.

Thanks,
Tim

[garyan2]

Thanks! MXF is perfect... looks like you can get your guide from SiliconDust for both CC and OTA lineups.

[viper]

Gary,
I do not have the HDHR dvr subscription. I believe in an earlier thread you had mentioned that 24 hour data is provided for free with HDHR for both OTA and Cablecard channels.

Is there any way to make hdhr2mxf work without dvr service and just using the 24 hour free listings? I am getting the following output. I have an HDHR prime and just got a connect (have not set that up as yet).

Found HDHomeRun PRIME HDHR3-CC (1319AA9A) with firmware 20180817.
Found HDHomeRun RECORD () with firmware .
HDHomeRun DVR Service is not active.
HDHR2MXF is not configured to download guide data using JSON from SiliconDust.

Generated .mxf file contains 0 lineups, 0 services, 0 series, 0 programs, and 0 people with 0 image links.
Execution time was 00:00:02.2191270

[garyan2]

The original incarnation of HDHR2MXF would use their JSON slice guide to create a guide with only 24-hours if you did not have a DVR service subscription. Shortly after I announced this, the CTO of SiliconDust contacted me. Short story is their JSON servers weren't designed for this kind of task, a developer for a Kodi plugin did the same thing a couple months ago that generated 12.5 million requests to the servers out of a total 14 million for the month. Because of that, they offered the 14-day xmltv downloads for DVR users and will possibly block the JSON usage to their Apps/Hardware only.

Since I was kinda asked not to do that, they offered something better (though for DVR users only), and there is a possibility that it will "break" in the near future, I disabled the JSON 24-hour guide in the program.

[Space]

I would love if SiliconDust would publicly announce their continued support for WMC (Win7, Win8). Especially with their "upcoming" 6 tuner HDHR Prime. I believe there was one report here of someone who called SD for support and they indicated that they did not support WMC anymore (not sure if this was official or just one support person giving his opinion).

[annonymous9999]

So if you have an HDHOMERUN but not the DVR service this is a NOGO to get guide data?

[garyan2]

So if you have an HDHOMERUN but not the DVR service this is a NOGO to get guide data?

As far as HDHR2MXF goes, that is correct.

[viper]

I have 3 HDHR that cost me close to $400 - if they are advertising that I get free 24 hours listings I don’t understand how we are violating their policies or how we are generating millions of queries.

Maybe you can check is there is a physical HDHR device on the network and then should be ok to get 24hr listing

[mmortal03]

I have 3 HDHR that cost me close to $400 - if they are advertising that I get free 24 hours listings I don’t understand how we are violating their policies or how we are generating millions of queries.

Maybe you can check is there is a physical HDHR device on the network and then should be ok to get 24hr listing

Yeah, it's definitely unfortunate that it was somehow overloading their system. How would that even happen, when they already serve that 24-hour slice data up to everyone that's running their cards and software? Is it because people who don't own HDHR cards were made able to access it?

Reason being, I was hoping to find a way to get the 24 hour programming into WMC, which would possibly work around a complicated issue with ServerWMC functionality breaking without at least *some* guide data, but I guess that's not going to be an option.

[viper]

Well that’s the point if Gary can confirm that there is a physical hdhr device on the network then we are entitled to 24 hr data - I think his code already does that.

Gary can pull the 24 hr data he has just disabled that option on request from SD.

I hope Gary would reconsider enabling that option for legitimate owners of HDHR - instead of disabling the option outright disable it if the program cannot identify the HDHR device on network

Not sure if SD apps are also using JSON to pull in data - if they are probably difficult for them to lockout Gary’s code.

If they are using some prop API for their own software (which would be very easy for them to do) then Gary is right they could block it anytime. I hope SD does not screw their longtime loyal users - they have generally been good about it

[tonywagner]

Reason being, I was hoping to find a way to get the 24 hour programming into WMC, which would possibly work around a complicated issue with ServerWMC functionality breaking without at least *some* guide data, but I guess that's not going to be an option.

If you just want a placeholder guide, that should be no problem. A simple script could generate an MXF file with generic listings. It would probably only need one channel in the MXF file, and you could associate that one channel's listings with all of your channels in WMC / EPG123.

[tonywagner]

Yeah, it's definitely unfortunate that it was somehow overloading their system. How would that even happen, when they already serve that 24-hour slice data up to everyone that's running their cards and software? Is it because people who don't own HDHR cards were made able to access it?

I suspect most people aren't using the Silicondust software to watch TV, unless they also subscribe to their DVR service. So when an unpredictable number of free users start hitting their servers, it has an impact. (And I could be wrong, but I don't think Silicondust has ever promised EPG data available outside their apps.)

[viper]

Well if they have sold 20 million HDHR they should have servers to handle that load - it’s really not that expensive or difficult to do.

I would think they would be happy if they had an install base that large using regularly as more people would possible sign up for their DVR service

I highly doubt HDHR + WMC is a really significantly large install base otherwise Microsoft would not have killed WMC

Oh yes they have - just read on their website
The whole idea behind hdhr prime with CC when I bought it was no reliance on any third party - that’s how it was meant to be.

They have always marketed their products to be fully usable (including guide data) without using their software

[garyan2]

Look, I can sit here and try to describe how the HDHomeRun app works, how it gets its' guide, and do some public math on how many requests a single household may generate and then compare it to the additional downloads a user would create for a WMC guide. But I'm not going to. Bottom line is SiliconDust politely asked that we (developers) not do this, and I will respect that request.

The 24-hour guide is there for the HDHomeRun App, and no one is entitled to it for use outside its intended purpose.
https://www.silicondust.com/live-tv/#compare

[mmortal03]

Reason being, I was hoping to find a way to get the 24 hour programming into WMC, which would possibly work around a complicated issue with ServerWMC functionality breaking without at least *some* guide data, but I guess that's not going to be an option.

If you just want a placeholder guide, that should be no problem. A simple script could generate an MXF file with generic listings. It would probably only need one channel in the MXF file, and you could associate that one channel's listings with all of your channels in WMC / EPG123.

Thanks, yeah, something maybe with hour long placeholders -- I'll have to see if I can figure it out with EPG123. The creator of ServerWMC would like to avoid fixing stuff that breaks when not having guide data, and he *already* had a setting to do something like this when it didn't, but it looks like it's broken when doing instant recording within Kodi. I'll see what I can come up with.