VBOX DVR tuning issue for Sydney Australia

llo36 · August 4, 2022, 1:59am

We have a working theory. We have one more test to confirm it, once done we should have a solution in play. Just hang in there, we are close to a resolution and I will get the appropriate team on to it once confirmed.

llo36 · August 10, 2022, 7:58pm

Hi everyone, I have sent a report with the issues to VBox for urgent attention outlining the investigation I have done and review required with Plex. The issue is due to an incorrect url call from plex, and the team will investigate were is is being pulled from. We will provide a solution as quickly as possible.

sa2000 · August 11, 2022, 8:19am

Thanks for all your help. I presume we are picking the url from the information we get back from
http://192.168.0.115:55555/devices/vbox-4952/channels
where for channel 7 it returned to us these 3 different instances

<Channel drm="0" channelIdentifier="7 Sydney" name="7 Sydney(" number="7" type="tv" triplet="1013:0502:0520"/>

<Channel drm="0" channelIdentifier="7HD Sydney" name="7HD Sydney" number="70" type="tv" triplet="1013:0502:0524"/>

<Channel drm="0" channelIdentifier="7 Sydney_1" name="7 Sydney" number="71" type="tv" triplet="1013:0502:0521"/>

and the one of the three that we would use is the one for the number that is enabled by the user in the server DVR Setup screen and mapped to the EPG xmltv channel

llo36 · August 11, 2022, 9:50am

Yes. But hold off on your side right now as we are running some additional tests with the VBox development team to see if there is an error in the report you are getting.

llo36 · August 13, 2022, 8:01pm

I have confirmed the channel lists are reported properly in VBox using all m3u and m3u8 as well as direct url which all play the channels correctly. However, I am unable to interrogate the url you provided for the channel list. I have requested the information from VBox devel team to see if I can find where the data is being mis interpreted.

Looking at your url strings i can see the 7 Sydney (7) and a second entry for 7 Sydney_1 (71) which appears to have whats needed for playback. However, I note that 7 Sydney has ( in its name. When you call the channel are you pulling the number 7 or the name? I suspect the name which will fail as VBox will not see 7 Sydney( in its list only 7 Sydney - http://192.168.0.153:55555/7%20Sydney.

The same issue for the 7 HD channel as it is not 7 Sydney_1 but 7 SydneyHD - http://192.168.0.115:55555/7HD%20Sydney

So somewhere the channel identifier is being misread and the name and identifier is all wrong so it pulls a non existent stream. But that is assuming it is pulling the stream based on name not identifier. I need more info on how Plex is pulling the stream url?

I am attaching the m3u8 (open in notepad) files from two separate users having the same issue. It appears that VBox is sending the right data, but I am waiting on the VBox devel team to send me the interrogation url so I can see if it is or if its malformed in the output. I doubt this as the channel list for plex is supposed to be written by the m3u8.

I cannot pinpoint where the issue is because the data in the Vbox is all listed correctly, but is not in plex, but plex should be pulling from the Vbox source, but this does not seem to be the case.

User one m3u8 file

User 2 m3u8 file

We need to check the pull information between Plex and VBox against these list and see if we can see why the Plex channel identifiers are wrong.

digitv · August 14, 2022, 1:03am

In the meantime is there any workaround by setting it differently? There seems to be alot of options for where the epg is coming from and how plex reads this, does anyone have it working properly and share steps to set it up?

sa2000 · August 15, 2022, 7:39am

We get the channel list through the api using url like this one
http://192.168.0.146:55555/devices/vbox-4952/channels

You can do this yourself using curl - the specific device identifier is the IP Address + the string vbox-4952 - the latter appears to get set by the vbox from the Ethernet Mac Address - the last 4 characters

So you can do this yourself to see what PMS would get back from the vbox

eg
curl -o vbox-4952_channels.xml http://192.168.0.146:55555/devices/vbox-4952/channels

The channels in this response are presented to the user in DVR Setup on the channel mapping screen with the vbox tuner channels appearing on the left side and on the right side are the channels that they got mapped to for the sydney xmltv epg data

The dvr channel list is presented in number order - the channel vcn number which comes from the number field in the response
e.g. for this one, the vcn is 1
<Channel drm="0" channelIdentifier="10 HD_1" name="10 HD" number="1" type="tv" triplet="1014:0602:0621"/>

The user can disable or enable channels appearing on the DVR setup page
From this xml response we use the channelIdentifier for tuning requests

The vcn (number) is mapped to the entry in the EPG xmltv data for the channel number through the lcn value, eg

 <channel id="1.yourtv.com.au">
          <display-name>10 HD Sydney</display-name>
          <lcn>1</lcn>
          <icon src="http://img-store-prod.switch.tv/images/1926ec55-6651-45fc-ae56-ee212b56990c/10HD.png" />
 </channel>

llo36 · August 15, 2022, 9:12am

Not at this stage. Testing has not confirmed the EPG being mapped, or the channel being named differently solves it. this is because Plex uses SSDP NOTIFY. We are still resolving, just hang in there,

llo36 · August 15, 2022, 9:18am

So Plex uses SSDP NOTIFY, and the data is returned via the vcn and mapped to the lcn for the EPG. However, the channel name is the stream that Plex calls via the Notify function. can you provide derails of what you get from the NOTIFY call for 7 Sydney?

As I see from your example, the name= and the channelIdentifier may return different results, so if the 7 Sydney is returning 7 Sydney_1 then either the Notify from VBox is wrong, or the mapping is wrong in plexs side. What do you see when you make the call? When I test I see correct mapping for NZ, but cannot test Sydney as I don’t have a test bed on site. If you do not either, then we will have to try and arrange with a customer.

sa2000 · August 15, 2022, 1:49pm

I expect that Plex Media Server is only using the Notify for getting the url for the channel list http://192.168.0.146:55555/devices/vbox-4952/channels - this url is probably in the DVR Discovery SSDP Notify packet.

I do not have the SSDP data captured - user would need to run wireshark to capture the discovery and what the vbox is sending. I do not expect us to be using SSDP for channels - it is just for the higher level DVR discovery

As this is not an xmltv issue - you can manually map it to any EPG channel and see how we tune the EPG channel

llo36 · August 15, 2022, 9:50pm

For users using the 4 series units (not for the 3442 yet) a new firmware has been released to address the changes in the new plex version that has caused some issues. For those having playback issues please try this on the 4 series and see if this resolves the issue? I have tested on our test beds and it is working well. This may not resolve Sydney and I need someone to confirm if it does?

3442 users, I have requested a patch based on the new version to see if this assist the notify issue.

The new version is 2.68.8 and is not in Beta as I have confirmed it works for users. It can be downloaded from VBox Communications - Australia and New Zealand

Just a reminder to users, Adonis Technology, my firm, is the distributor for VBox, not the manufacturer, and any support assistance we provide is based on our knowledge and experience, I am not an employee nor affiliated with VBox other than the distributor. The assistance provided in this forum is my own, I am not paid, nor rewarded for it in any way, and I am at the mercy of VBox’s timing to do any updates based on my recommendations for Au and NZ.

digitv · August 16, 2022, 9:50am

Thanks for the effort. Waiting on the 3442 update.

Rhubarb_home · August 19, 2022, 7:06am

Me too

digitv · August 31, 2022, 9:52am

Has there been any update to this… getting reminded every month I’m paying for Plex pass subscription that I bought a dud solution

nickelslol · September 1, 2022, 8:10am

No update we are waiting for them to update on the advice.
If you’re only using Plex for this feature just stop paying until it’s fixed

digitv · September 1, 2022, 11:55am

Yes, but can’t test it without a Plex pass

sa2000 · September 5, 2022, 10:07am

Are you actually saying that disabled channels in the DVR on the vbox still show up in the response to Plex Media Server on this request:?

http://192.168.0.146:55555/devices/vbox-4952/channels

nickelslol · September 5, 2022, 11:07am

I have no idea what you mean

All I said is we are waiting for the vbox update, that @llo36 said was requested.
Would have hoped it would have been actioned by now but like said he can only suggest updates not make them

sa2000 · September 5, 2022, 11:43am

I had assumed that the issue was due to incorrect channel selection in Vbox DVR setup that led to the wrong channel 7 coming through the api to us from the request we make to the vbox through this url http://192.168.0.146:55555/devices/vbox-4952/channels and that by having the right channels enabled / disabled on the Vbox - then your mapping to the xmltv would work

Anyway - lets wait and revisit when Vbox make the changes

nickelslol · September 5, 2022, 12:05pm

I have enabled just one channel on vbox and only that channel on Plex and it still didn’t work

Really hoping this potential update fixes the issue haha

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VBOX DVR tuning issue for Sydney Australia

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