a1tv-helpers

This is a collection of scripts for importing channels of Austrian IPTV A1 TV (a.k.a. A1 Xplore TV) into MythTV and Tvheadend.

As Tvheadend can be used as a PVR backend for Kodi, these scripts enable to watch and record A1 TV within Kodi. Kodi (formerly known as XBMC) is a popular Media Center software for Linux, Windows and Android and it is also used as the media player within OSMC (the successor of Raspbmc), LibreELEC, OpenELEC, XBian and more. All of them can be run on a Raspberry Pi.

Personally I currently use a Raspberry Pi 4 with Raspbian Stretch, Kodi and Tvheadend to watch and record A1 TV and it works really well. Before that I used a Media Center PC with MythTV, but development of MythTV seems to progress only slowly, so I wouldn't recommend it any more.

Source: https://github.com/Bronkoknorb/a1tv-helpers

Prerequisites

This README assumes you are using Debian/Raspbian or some derivative like Ubuntu.

Install ruby and required libraries:

sudo apt-get install ruby ruby-dev
sudo gem install rest-client

If the second command fails with "ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.", it should help to install make and build-essentials first:

sudo apt-get install make build-essentials

Compatibility

These scripts have been tested with the following versions:

• Tvheadend version 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2
• Kodi version 16 and 17
• MythTV version 0.27

Overview

• create_mythtv_m3u.rb - Convert A1 TV channel list to an m3u file compatible with MythTV
• tvheadend_import.rb - Import A1 TV channels into Tvheadend (for viewing them in Kodi)
• tvheadend_channelnumbers.rb - Setup channel numbers in Tvheadend (and Kodi)
• create_channummap.rb - Create default channel numbers for A1 TV channels
• tvheadend_xmltv.rb - Setup XMLTV IDs with channels so that EPG data is available in Tvheadend (and Kodi)

create_mythtv_m3u.rb

A1 offers up-to-date channel lists in m3u file format at epggw.a1.net. Unfortunately the m3u format from A1 is not directly compatible with MythTV. This script will convert the A1 TV channel list to a m3u file suitable for import into MythTV.

Configuration: Please adapt the following configuration values within config.rb:

• A1TV_SOURCE_M3U_FILE_URL: The source m3u file from A1
• CHANNEL_TABLE: Used for mapping channel names to XMLTV IDs (for associating EPG data)

Usage:

ruby create_mythtv_m3u.rb > channels.m3u

You can import the generated m3u file using the MythTV Backend Setup.

tvheadend_import.rb

This script will import A1 TV channels as Muxes into Tvheadend (using its RESTful JSON API).

First you will need to create a Network within the configuration of Tvheadend: Open the Web UI of Tvheadend (typically http://localhost:9981) and go to Configuration -> DVB Inputs -> Networks. Click Add and select IPTV Network as type. Set the Network name to "A1 TV". Make sure to also set a value for Max Input Streams: It's the number of streams that A1 allows you to watch in parallel (typically just 1). For the other settings the default values should be okay.

After creating the new Network you will need to find out its unique identifier (UUID). As this does not seem to be possible within the Web UI, you'll have to look it up in the file system:

sudo ls /home/hts/.hts/tvheadend/input/iptv/networks/

This assumes that your Tvheadend runs as the user hts (default in Ubuntu). The UUID is an arbitrary string of letters and numbers, e.g. "b46f6b35d6823d227644add3ee071eee".

Configuration: Please adapt the following configuration values within config.rb:

• A1TV_SOURCE_M3U_FILE_URL: The source m3u file from A1
• TVHEADEND_BASE_URL: Base URL of the Tvheadend Web UI
• TVHEADEND_NETWORK_UUID: Needs to be set to the UUID of the Network created before

Usage:

ruby tvheadend_import.rb

After the script has executed successfully, go to the configuration Web UI of Tvheadend again: Configuration -> DVB Inputs -> Muxes should contain a Mux for each channel. Tvheadend now needs to gather data about each Mux. You will have to wait until the Scan Result is OK and the Scan Status is IDLE for every Mux. This will take quite some time.

If some Muxes get a Scan Result of FAIL, TVHeadend couldn't successfully open the stream. In that case you can try to force a retry by setting the Scan Status to PEND (pending) again.

For each Mux with an OK status, there should now also be a Service under Services. That is still not enough :-) - you will then need to map each service to a Channel:

Go to Configuration -> Channel / EPG and click on Map Services. Now the channel list should fill up automatically with all A1 TV channels.

For watching these channels in Kodi (XBMC) please refer to: http://kodi.wiki/view/Tvheadend_PVR

tvheadend_channelnumbers.rb

This script will set up the channel numbers in Tvheadend by using a given channummap.json file that maps channel names (resp. Mux names) to channel numbers. The file channummap_example.json contains a sample mapping. The script create_channummap.rb (as described below) can be used to automatically create such a channummap.json file for A1 TV.

Configuration:

• A channumap.json file has to be created first.
• Please adapt the following configuration values within config.rb:
  • TVHEADEND_BASE_URL: Base URL of the Tvheadend Web UI

Usage:

ruby tvheadend_channelnumbers.rb channummap.json

create_channummap.rb

This script will automatically create a channummap.json file based on the channel numbers as defined by an m3u channel list offered by A1. The resulting file can be used as input for the tvheadend_channelnumbers.rb script described above. It can be used as is, or can be manually adapted to change the channel numbers.

Configuration: Please adapt the following configuration values within config.rb:

• A1TV_SOURCE_M3U_FILE_URL: The source m3u file from A1

Usage:

ruby create_channummap.rb > channummap.json

tvheadend_xmltv.rb

This script will associate XMLTV IDs with the channels defined in Tvheadend so that EPG (electronic program guide) data can be automatically fetched.

You will first have to correctly set up XMLTV grabbing within Tvheadend. Currently the free data supplied by xmltv.se works quite well with A1 TV. Most of Austrian channels are available.

Update: Unfortunately xmltv.se is no longer freely available. An alternative source is described in the next section.

Install XMLTV utilities if you do not already have them:

sudo apt-get install xmltv-util

This should also include the grabber tv_grab_eu_xmltvse which is compatible with xmltv.se. To configure this grabber for use within Tvheadend first log in as the user which runs Tvheadend (defaults to hts in Ubuntu):

sudo su hts

Then configure the grabber:

tv_grab_eu_xmltvse --configure

You will be asked some questions: Set the Root URL for grabbing data to http://xmltv.xmltv.se/channels-Austria.xml.gz (for Austrian channels). The Directory to store the cache in can stay on the default (/home/hts/.xmltv/cache). Simply select all channels.

Afterwards the grabber needs to be activated in Tvheadend. If you just installed the XMLTV utilities, you will have to restart Tvheadend:

sudo service tvheadend restart

Next, go to the Web UI and open Configuration -> Channel / EPG -> EPG Grabber: Under Internal Grabber select XMLTV: Sweden (TVZon) and save the configuration. You will then need to ensure that Tvheadend runs the grabber at least once. The Cron multi-line property controls how often the grabber is run. You can either wait for the configured time to pass or set it temporarily to the next minute (e.g. set it to 53 19 * * * if the time is currently 19:52). Then wait a few minutes for the grabber to finish. In newer versions if tvheadend you can simply click on "Re-run internal EPG grabbers" to run it immediately.

If everything worked out fine, you should then be able to associate XMLTV IDs with the channels. Go to Configuration -> Channel / EPG -> Channels select one of the channels, click Edit and choose one of the available sources in the EPG source drop down menu.

It's boring to manually set this for every channel and this is where the script tvheadend_xmltv.rb comes to rescue:

Configuration: Please adapt the following configuration values within config.rb:

• CHANNEL_TABLE: Used for mapping channel names to XMLTV IDs. You will have to manually update this when new channels get added to A1 TV.

Usage:

ruby tvheadend_xmltv.rb

After the script has executed successfully, each channel should be associated with an EPG source. Open Configuration -> Channel / EPG -> Channels to verify that. The next time the grabber is run by Tvheadend the EPG data should get populated. (Note: Of course you can again force a run of the grabber with the trick described above.) :-)

tv_grab_a1tv.sh

Luckily a member of the A1 Community provides EPG (electronic program guide) in XMLTV format data at https://a1.epg.wb1.xyz/

This simple script downloads the data and can be used directly as a XMLTV grabber by Tvheadend.

Install XMLTV utilities if you do not already have them:

sudo apt-get install xmltv-util

Tvheadend uses the program tv_find_grabbers to find available grabbers. For this tool to find our script, it needs to be copied (or symlinked) to /usr/bin/tv_grab_a1tv:

sudo ln -s "$(pwd)/tv_grab_a1tv.sh" /usr/bin/tv_grab_a1tv

Next, go to the Web UI and open Configuration -> Channel / EPG -> EPG Grabber: Under Internal Grabber select XMLTV: A1 TV, activate it, and save the configuration. Click "Re-run internal EPG grabbers" to run the grabber. Check the log at the bottom of the page.

If everything worked out fine, you should then be able to associate XMLTV IDs with the channels. Go to Configuration -> Channel / EPG -> Channels select one of the channels, click Edit and choose one of the available sources in the EPG source drop down menu.

Then run the grabber again, and it should download the EPG data and associate it with the channels.

Questions / Contributions

If you have problems or questions then please open an Issue on github.

Feel free to fork the repository and create pull requests for improvements and additional scripts.

Author

Hermann Czedik-Eysenberg
a1tv-helpers@hermann.czedik.net