Looking around a bit, came across this issue for sagetv…
Relevant bit…
DVB has an optional descriptor (tag 0x83) that contains a Logical channel number, as well as a ‘visible’ bit, for the various services (channels) in a stream. Parsing and using these would greatly improve the ability of a DVB scan to match up with the EPG data, since it appears that the LCN’s in the broadcast (at least in the requester’s London market) do match the numbers that Schedules Direct provides.
So apparently there is at least an optional field that might contain the program number.
It is optional, so that doesn’t mean it will be there…but it is possible that it is there on KDG and that the HDHR like Sagetv just doesn’t bother parsing that field.
However being optional indicates to me that program number perhaps can’t be relied on for DVB.
Yes mapping is a pain, I didn’t say it is the most fun thing to do. But it is doable, I did it like 20 times already.
Well, if your HD homerun decides to start with channel 5000 it can’t be Plex’s fault, because they stick to the official channel numbers from the provider. As I understood, the focus is/was on FTA channels, especially in the US and GB. DVB-C also works, but not as good as FTA obviously. One has to accept that probably the majority of Plex users live in the US and therefore support for the more exotic solutions on this side of the ocean still has room for improvements.
Still it works and can be used with a slight effort when mapping the channels. Btw. you can get a list of the KDG channels from https://helpdesk.kdgforum.de/sendb/belegung-16.html and work your way through Plex mapping from there. At least there you can do ctrl+f to search your channel.
I have no clue about the mechanics behind the DVB-C broadcast, so I cannot comment on that.
We acknowledge that the communication with users for the last maintenance period changes was not good and would not have reached all users that were impacted. We should do better next time.
Going forward, we have since made changes so that channels and lineups will maintain their internal IDs when they re-appear after temporary removal. Inadvertent temporary removal of a channel or a lineup can happen and with this change the ID’s will remain the same thus not requiring scheduled recordings to be recreated
@Coxeroni@Wiidesire@mattpr what is the difference in access to the kabel Deutschland services - why do we have channel 5000’s in @mattpr’s case but not for the rest of you ?
With regards to manual mapping of channels - is it needed because of the radio channels sharing the same channel numbers as some TV channels?
I use xteve in combination with a cable set top box (enigma 2 based, brand Vu+).
I have no issues with Radio. I have to map manually, because xteve forwards the channels with ids, based on the sorting in the m3u8 file, which is the basis. It starts with id-1 and counts up.
@sa2000 I just checked old screenshots when I used to own a HDHomeRun Expand and I can confirm that even back in 2016 the channels were in the 5000+ range (see screenshot) so this is not a problem specific to this new guide, it happened to the old one as well.
What appears to be the problem which @mattpr already explained is that Kabel Deutschland (the cable provider) does not transmit a virtual channel number in their signal, ergo the HDHomeRun device assigns a 5000+ range because the actual channel number is unknown.
It doesn’t look like HDHomeRun is overlooking some information from the transmitted signal because I had the same issue with TVHeadend.
My current setup is Fritz! DVB-C tuners -> TVHeadend -> Plex.
Just once I manually assigned each channel in TVHeadend the correct channel numbers from the guide, ergo Plex is picking up the channels perfectly without any manual mapping needed.
So right now a “normal” customer with a HDHomeRun does indeed have to manually map channels. As a possible solution there would have to be a mapping logic behind the scenes based on the channel names. The 5xxx channel number from HDHomeRun can’t be used globally for every Kabel Deutschland lineup because it just assigns the channel numbers based on the scanning order, so it would be different for almost every lineup.
What could be done though (only additionally when the channel numbers do not match the guide numbers) is using the channel name for the mapping logic. As an example, the channel HSE24 HD is always HSE24HD (HSE24 HDTV (Germany)) in the specific local guide lineup.
Yeah. I keep thinking there must be a better option than string matching. String matching heuristics tend to be pretty brittle and fail regularly…but perhaps there is a lot of consistency with these channel names (sort of like callsigns for broadcasters in the US KEYT, WNBC, etc). However even if it is a bit brittle, it sounds like the whole EPG setup is already quite brittle anyway with all the regional variations.
@sa2000 said: The design is that we auto map channels and where there are issues, we raise these issues and try to resolve - like what was done by creating 200 Kabel Deutschland lineups and if there are still errors there - we correct these.
Matching on “callsign”/string might actually allow plex to simplify a lot because the programming on the major stations isn’t necessarily changing from one cable provider/region to the next (or is it?)…just the program numbers and frequencies used to deliver those channels via various regional cable distribution networks. So if plex can ignore the program numbers for DVB-C and just use “callsigns” (for lack of a better word)…then maybe much fewer EPG splits to maintain?
I mean 200 splits for KDG alone?! Crazy. I am guessing most of those are just different program number mappings and not that the fundamental guide is different. On the other hand, I guess they wouldn’t do these splits unless there were legit problem reports with the auto-mapping…which means there are some german plex folks out there that apparently are getting program numbers from whatever hardware they are using…otherwise no one would complain and there wouldn’t be 200 EPG splits for KDG. Right? Anyway that’s my logic.
Would be interested to know what hardware they are running for tuners if they are getting the program numbers automatically.
One other angle to look at… the HDHR does show program and guide info. Not sure if this is coming over the wire or downloaded separately and mapped. If it comes over the wire, then perhaps there are some additional “tricks” that could be leveraged in order to do the mapping…like looking at the next program names on a given channel. If it is downloaded out of band and then mapped…HDHR seems to do a better job of automapping everything together…so perhaps they have figured out another approach we haven’t thought of.
Maybe in the end this won’t matter if Plex has fixed the updating to migrate DVRs automatically when they change EPGs (so I don’t silently lose my DVR and have to delete and recreate). As I said the manual mapping sucks but if I only had to do it once or twice I never would have bothered to suggest that things could be significantly improved.
