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Full Version: [RELEASE] PseudoTV Addon: Virtual EPG and TV Channel Surfing Script
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PseudoTV
Channel-surfing for XBMC
Development Blog
Repository
Latest Development Version
Donations for this addon gratefully accepted.

Detailed HTPC setup using PseudoTV
This also has a manual on how to use PseudoTV. Thanks to Milkman for this amazing guide!

This script gives you the ability to define your own TV channels and watch all of your media just as you would watch normal cable. Use the electronic program guide to see what's on, or to start watching anything you see.

Setup your own list of channels by configuring the addon and opening the channel configuration utility. You will be able to select from a variety of built-in channel types, or you can select a smart playlist that you've made to be a channel.

It is suggested (although not required) that you turn on the web server. This will reduce the amount of CPU usage that PseudoTV takes.

Try it out, give suggestions or add bug reports to github.


Screenshots:
Image

Image


Install from the official XBMC.org repository, under the Programs section.


Controls:
To access the EPG, press the Select key(enter). To close the EPG, press Previous Menu (escape). And to exit the script, press Stop. Pressing number keys followed by Select allow you to skip directly to the channel number of your choosing.

To change channels, use the arrow up and down keys.


Changelog:
2.1.0: Include the season and episode in the title of the show. A bunch of bug fixes. Addition of Metropolis skin, as well as skin updates, all from Steveb. A fix for colors from Josebiro, and a fix for missing textures from lambda81.

2.0.0: Advanced channel rules and channel sharing. Also includes directory channels and background loading. Many little optimizations, tweaks, and bug fixes. Addition of the Xeebo skin from Steveb.

1.2.1: Primarily a lot of bug fixes. AVI parser issue, webserver port use, lowered background processor usage, and more. Additionally, you can now use left and right arrows to skip backward or forward 30 seconds. You will also be asked to turn on the webserver if it's not on. Skin additions and changes from Steveb and Zepfan.

1.2.0: Channel resume options added (real-time, resume, and random). Background updating of channels to maintain at least 5 days worth of programming. Fix for many (although not all) issues related to nightly builds. Addition of spanish translation (thanks CyberXaz). Update to Night skin (thanks Steveb).

1.1.0: Added the channel configuration tool. Added an FLV parser. Allow use of the OSD. Improved channel changing speed. Several important bug fixes. User can now refresh the channels on every startup. Improved skinning ability. Can now specify a custom channel logo directory. Updates for most skins (thanks Sranshaft and Zepfan).

1.0.1: The Previous Menu key can be used to exit the add-on (important for the Apple TV users). Update to the Refocus skin (Sranshaft).

1.0.0: Use preset playlists to fill in channels (thanks to Jtucker1972 for presets and images). Determine video durations even if XBMC doesn't know it. Quite a few bug fixes. Additional skins (thanks to Sranshaft and Zepfan). Ability to always display channel icon (thanks to Sranshaft).

0.2.0: New default skin and an info window, both thanks to Sranshaft. An icon, thanks to Bridgman. Mixed playlists now work. Channel icons. Random misc changes and fixes.

0.1.5: Properly resume (sort of) when starting the script. Fixed an issue with getting the duration on Windows machines. Gave skinners the control over where buttons are placed.

0.1.4: Now support TV show-type smart playlists, as well as movie sets (thanks to TheOddLinguist). Display music video info in the EPG.

0.1.3: Fixed several behavioral problems with the EPG, as well as a few freeze issues.

0.1.2: More freezing problems resolved, this time on Windows systems.

0.1.1: Fixed a freeze when the channel has movie sets.
thanks for releasing this!

how do you actually view the epg? it loads the playlists and starts playing a movie but i dont see the epg. And most buttons dont work on my mce remote when the videos playing.


edit: OK button shows epg, must have being the only button i didnt press before i posted! The windows icon button seems to get disabled though using the script.

edit2: tv show playlist must be by episodes not tv show, seems to work ok now.


Script has use potential though! cheers.

Would be cool if people share the smart playlists they have created for different genres etc.
Yes, the Ok button shows the EPG. Most buttons are disabled, primarily because I won't be able to react to whatever they do. For example, if I allowed the OSD, I wouldn't be able to catch if the user stopped the video.

Speaking of which, pressing Stop is how you exit the script. I didn't want to make it be Previous Menu, because that's how you get out of the EPG, and the user may accidentally press it twice.

As for the TV issue you're seeing, I'm not sure. I'm able to use TV playlists without any issue. If an episode has no duration then that episode will just be ignored. The only issue arrises if no episodes have a duration. If you still have problems, turn on debug logging, run the script, and send mentor log.
Very cool. Will try it out as soon as I can and will let you know how everything goes. Now I know what I'll be doing tomorrow...making this fit in with reFocus. Laugh Thanks a lot!
Argh! I'm not getting any love with this addon. It gets to the Updating Channel List window and just hangs. I left it for a good 10 minutes thinking it might need a bit longer the first time. I uploaded a debug log here. Really hope to get this working!
Sranshaft Wrote:Argh! I'm not getting any love with this addon. It gets to the Updating Channel List window and just hangs. I left it for a good 10 minutes thinking it might need a bit longer the first time. I uploaded a debug log here. Really hope to get this working!

same here.

really looking for this script to work.
Okay, a quick update as to what is happening. The addon starts and displays the updating channel list. I can see the playlist is loaded and the first episode is loaded but paused. Pressing play starts the episode but with only audio. There is no video and the Updating Channel List dialog is still visible. Pressing stop changes the dialog text to View: List. Canceling the dialog has no effect and I have to force quit XBMC.
What the script does is start the smart playlist so that XBMC can process it, then it pauses the video while it takes out all of the necessary information. It does this for each "channel" that you have. It won't do it all of the time, only when you start it with a new channel and after it has deemed that it needs to reread the smart playlist (or if the option to force is on).

The behavior you're seeing is at least partially expected. While the playlist is being read the video should be paused. If you unpause that won't matter. Pressing cancel should work after a few seconds. Of course the expected behavior is also to continually update the progress bar and finish.

Can you try one thing? I'm not sure how you installed it, but it looks like the addon directory is called Jasonra-XBMC-PseudoTV-03a88da. Can you please rename it to script.PseudoTV and then restart XBMC and retry? I'm not sure if it will help, but it will help me narrow down the issue.
Removed all traces of the addon in the appdata folder and re-installed. It's named correctly as script.PsuedoTV but it's still not working.

Operating system: Windows 7, 32-bit.
Its working fine for me on Ubuntu. Try with one simple smart list like this if you have movies:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="movies">
<name>Comedy Channel</name>
<match>all</match>
<rule field="genre" operator="is">Comedy</rule>
<limit>100</limit>
<order direction="ascending">random</order>
</smartplaylist>
Hmm...I was having this same problem. I had three playlists, two "episode" types filled with random TV shows and one "movie" type set to "Comedy" genre. The movie playlist was Channel 2...and it would always freeze at 33%. I'm guessing that means it would freeze on that playlist. I removed it, leaving just the two episode playlists, and it's working fine. I'll try a few things and post a debug log if I can't figure out what's happening. [I took a quick look in the debug log, but I didn't see anything about the movie playlist.]
moontan77 Wrote:Its working fine for me on Ubuntu. Try with one simple smart list like this if you have movies:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<smartplaylist type="movies">
<name>Comedy Channel</name>
<match>all</match>
<rule field="genre" operator="is">Comedy</rule>
<limit>100</limit>
<order direction="ascending">random</order>
</smartplaylist>

That's exactly how I set mine up though I have it for episodes and reduced limit to 10 to see if it helps speeds things up. I only have the one channel setup.
@TheOddLinguist: You said you were able to get it working. Can I ask what oerating system you're using. I'm wondering, if you are using Ubuntu like Moontan is, whether the problem I'm seeing is OS related.
Just an update on my personal attempts to solve this...

If I make my errant movie playlist out of just movies, it seems to be okay. However, if I make a playlist of movies in sets, I get an error saying "Timeout waiting for video to start". Playing the playlist on its own, however, works just fine.

Sorry if none of this is helpful; I'm just so close. hehe
@Sranshaft: I'm currently running this on a Windows 7 32-bit machine.