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Anole

Last reply Nov 20, 2007 · posted in Free To Air (FTA) Discussion

EPG on FTA

lumpkin666 said:
That's why I bought my dreamboxes... now I just gotta get my lazy butt in gear and write some software to gather guide info from about 2 gazillion places to fill in the epg on the dreamboxes.

Okay, that's a bit of a challenge.
But, with that same info, anyone else (not a Dreambox user) could have a laptop with a custom guide,...
...using links to TitanTV (or other internet sources)

The problem is, we all have different interests in channels, and different birds we can receive.
But, how 'bout the GloryStar users?
They may be trying to work toward a broadcast EPG, but I suspect the cooperation to do that is an uphill battle.
At least that's a fixed set of channels.

As a proof-of-concept, how about a way to do a computer-upload of a guide to all the Mercury II's through their serial port?
If you manually did it once a day, you might be able to have an EPG good for several days into the future.
With so few channels, maybe you could do a weekly upload.
SatAV, are you listening?

Now, I know the down side is that many in that user-base may not be computer-comfortable.
But for those households where someone is, can you imagine the excitement?

If anyone wants to really discuss this idea, open a new thread and we'll hash it out.

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digiblur

Nov 16, 2007

If the channels are also on DishNetwork you could dump their EPG nightly via XML with TSReader. Then have another program massage the data to what you need.

Of course you'd have to write conversions from their TIDS and SIDS to what the FTA channels are.

lumpkin666

Nov 17, 2007

digiblur said:
If the channels are also on DishNetwork you could dump their EPG nightly via XML with TSReader. Then have another program massage the data to what you need.

Of course you'd have to write conversions from their TIDS and SIDS to what the FTA channels are.

I'd started down that road at one time, but I could not find a decent location that had a large number of channels that I wanted for the guide. What happens is that for each of the RTN stations (for instance), you have to get lineups from a number of areas just to pull the channel data for that one channel. This is not that big of a deal, except that you end up pulling the xml data for the entire channel lineup about 15 times... and dish has a LOT of channels. I couldn't actually get 15 locations worth of data downloaded in one night - I'm sure my process was not efficient, but it's still slow, and you still only have 15 channels of data.

rv1pop

Nov 17, 2007

I am not home right now to looking in my notebook, but I have noticed that Daystar, GCN? and TBN (as well as several other network on GloryStar have monthly newsletters with schedules, but they just list the program(er) and not what the subject is IE; James Robison - which may be his regular ministries' program with guests, a vitamin pitch, or the water or soup bowl beg. The first I might watch, the others NO.

TBN sends out a daily email, with the Praise The Lord details, they schedule weeks in advance, but finding out who/what is on in a few days is not easy. (Vern Jackson is supposed to sing every Thursday.) I don't know if this is what you would want.... Believer's Voice of Victory Program gives a list at least two weeks in advance and they can tell us what is scheduled way in advance, but that can change.

Just my thoughts!

Anole

Nov 17, 2007

minor timing glich

One thing that came to mind is related to the viewer's time zone.

You can see that guide data for an east coast TV station, might need to be corrected for a west coast viewer.
On the other hand, if the viewer was tracking a west coast TV station which carried the same satellite feed, he might not have to correct the time.
This would be a problem if using Titan TV, I think, but maybe not so much for Schedules Direct.
I'm uncertain how it would impact use of Dish's EPG stream as source.

Probably just a minor thing to keep in the back of your mind for the future.

digiblur

Nov 17, 2007

lumpkin666 said:
I'd started down that road at one time, but I could not find a decent location that had a large number of channels that I wanted for the guide. What happens is that for each of the RTN stations (for instance), you have to get lineups from a number of areas just to pull the channel data for that one channel. This is not that big of a deal, except that you end up pulling the xml data for the entire channel lineup about 15 times... and dish has a LOT of channels. I couldn't actually get 15 locations worth of data downloaded in one night - I'm sure my process was not efficient, but it's still slow, and you still only have 15 channels of data.

If you are trying to grab the EPG from DishNetwork, you just need to tune to the right transponder on the bird. If you tune to any TP you'll only get the guide for 2 hours on every channel in the system.

I have a scheduled task that kicks off TSReader and pulls the 44 hour guide from 110W for every channel. It's huge but it doesn't take long. I have a custom program that narrows it down to the TIDS and SIDS I need for TV viewing.

Here's where the EPG and EEPG is.

36861 - EPG [EPG] - EchoStar9 121W TP 21 ConUS beam - Available
36861 - EPG [EPG] - EchoStar8 110W TP 21 ConUS beam - Available
36861 - EPG [EPG] - Anik F3 118.7W TP 07 ConUS beam - Available
36861 - EPG [EPG] - EchoStar7 119W TP 19 ConUS beam - Available
36861 - EPG [EPG] - EchoStar9 121W TP 21 ConUS beam - Available
36861 - EPG [EPG] - EchoStar5 129W TP 17 ConUS beam - Available
36861 - EPG [EPG] - EchoStar1 148W TP 19 ConUS beam - Available
36861 - EPG [EPG] - EchoStar3 61.5W TP 29 ConUS beam - Available
36862 - EEPG [EPG] - EchoStar7 119W TP 18 ConUS beam - Available

lumpkin666

Nov 17, 2007

digiblur said:
If you are trying to grab the EPG from DishNetwork, you just need to tune to the right transponder on the bird.

You know.. I was making it WAY too darn hard. I have a DVB card and could do that, but instead I wrote programs to extract the information from the web via soap requests .. stupid.. stupid.. stupid..
That's what happens when you're a software developer - everything can be solved by software.. even if it doesn't make sense to do it that way *laf*

Anole

Nov 20, 2007

what receiver to start with?

Well, on a Dreambox linux based FTA receiver, or on a PCI card, getting the computer to do the guide lookup (even if it has to access the internet) wouldn't be so much of a challenge.
How many such receivers do we folks have as opposed to stand-alone boxes.?
I have a card and a USB device, but kinda gave up on 'em last year.

Now, as to the FTA receivers, which ones would have the storage space to hold a decent guide for... what? .. your 100 favorite channels?
And let's be reasonable, you don't really need to have all channels in the favorites, so 100..200 might be do-able (correct me if you disagree!)

Only two types of receivers that I know of have storage for the big EPG projects (500+ channels?) like the hackers run.
Those would be the receivers with a hard drive (well, some), and the Coolsat 6000 with the big ram.
There are probably more, but those are the only ones I've run across with such capability.
Neither are all -that- common among the members, from what I've read on this forum.
I don't have either, but with all the nice improvements to the Visionsat IV-200, I might be persuaded.

Anyone know of another receiver? The Mercury II got enough ram?

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reubenray

Last reply 4 minutes ago · posted in Computers and Gadgets

Laptop Shutting Off When On Battery?

Lately my eight year old Dell laptop has been shutting off even when I have a full battery. I have had to keep it plugged up all the time to keep this from happening. Any idea what is causing this? I replaced the battery about three years ago.

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arlo

31 minutes ago

A recalibration might be needed. Even if it shows full, the individual cells may have become unbalaced. And the BMS chip in the battery reports false information to the pc.
Try this. Start it up in the bios/uefi and leave it there until the battery dies and it shuts off.
It might just keep running longer than in Windows. Or run for a short while and shut off.
If it's the first case. Probably just needs a balancing. If the latter, the pack might just be dead.
Not throwing stones but perhaps just a cheaply constructed battery with substandard cells. Could be.

Patience. Keep restarting it in bios/uefi until it won't fire up anymore.
Then plug the charger in and let it complete a full charge. And see what happens. If it's better.
Do the same thing one more time. Run it until it dies dead-dead. Then just let it charge, pc shut off.
When charged, it might be better. It might not be.

There are bench jigs that read the actual BMS and override it to let a tech manually monitor and charge the separate packs. They can also reset any "time bombs" in it that cause an otherwise good pack to show bad.
Maybe Santa will be good to me some year.

You might just need a new battery. Maybe the PC power management chip is going. A Dell common thing.
Leaving a laptop plugged in with a full battery is known to reduce the life. Asus for one recommends that you don't leave the charger plugged in all of the time even when shut down. And setting Windows to charge the battery to 85% instead of 100% increases life.
That's all I got.

dishstaller

4 minutes ago

arlo said:
That's all I got.

That was quite enough....I definitely learned something from your post. Thanks

Scott Greczkowski

Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge

Last reply 9 minutes ago · posted in The Chit Chat Club

Song Name Game Part 3!

Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne

Get it?

An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....

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TRG

Pub Member / Supporter

Last reply 13 minutes ago · posted in Computers and Gadgets

Starlink Router question

I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

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b4pjoe

Saturday at 2:12 PM

TRG said:
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

If you can't get into the router to reserve an IP address just don't use DHCP on the device that needs connected and assign it to a specific IP address in the network settings.

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HipKat

Saturday at 11:07 PM

TRG said:
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

They are not. Your best bet is to set up a third-party router, attached to the Starlink for your server, that you can get into, like a Linksys, etc

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Foxbat

Sunday at 12:44 AM

TRG said:
…it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.

The Starlink V5 Install Kit I just got comes with the Mini Router. It is pretty limited in what it can do. For example, it can provide only one IP subnet at a time, no Guest Network, but it does support the pass-thru to a third-party Router. You can also split the Wi-Fi into separate 5 GHz & 2.4 GHz SSIDs to help some IoT devices that don't support 5 GHz bands to work.

The larger Starlink Router that still comes with the V4 Kit does support a Guest Network with separate IPv4 Subnet, but it's $120 from Starlink. And it still won't do DHCP Reservations.

harshness

Sunday at 11:46 AM

If you can restrict the DHCP address space to assign addresses to one end of the subnet (i.e. x.x.x.50+), you can manually assign the IP address on pretty much any operating system. This is a default behavior on several popular routers. As the Router Mini only supports 235 devices, I expect that's already done.

Another option is to use a router that supports PoE to power the antenna. This article discusses that option (under PoE Power heading):

Starlink V5 Is Here: What RVers Need to Know

Overview of the new Starlink V5 model along with comparison to the previous V4 model along with a recommended setup for mobile internet users.

mobilemusthave.com

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Foxbat

13 minutes ago

Now that I've had the v5 kit with the Mini Router, it's not as bad as I first thought. Yes, no DHCP reservations, but you can set up multiple SSIDs that have separate IPv4 subnets, and like the big brother, you can select from 192.168.x.0/24 or 10.x.0.0/16 (where "x" is 1-4).

You can also split a subnet and have different SSIDs for the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels to handle some IoT devices. I haven't discovered what subnet the 2nd NIC on the router assigns, I'm guessing it's the first subnet.

dishstaller

Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter

Last reply 13 minutes ago · posted in The Chit Chat Club

I think we could all use a laugh - Rodney Dangerfield on Carson

Good...simple humor. Enjoy

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E92AtfTLge4

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJy0WnejlF4

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Jimbo

Today at 12:37 AM

Not Rodney, but a laugh ...

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WHEcmortfK0?feature=share

dishstaller

13 minutes ago

Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.

dishstaller

Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter

Last reply 23 minutes ago · posted in The Chit Chat Club

At least 64 dead in Spanish passenger train collision

Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

At Least 64 Dead After Two High-Speed Trains Collide In Spain | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

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Jimbo

Yesterday at 11:24 AM

dishstaller said:
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

At Least 64 Dead After Two High-Speed Trains Collide In Spain | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

They will have to look at the switching sections to determine WHY 2 trains were on the same track ... at the same time.

dishstaller

23 minutes ago

Thought this article might be of interest to some of you who might travel via train.

The safest seat to sit on in a train

Safety experts have shared top tips on train safety after a fatal railway crash in Spain killed 69 people, including where the safest place is in an emergency.

www.dailymail.com