SlingBox Channel-Changer Server

This is a wrapper around the Slinger Server which allows channel-changing capabilities when controlled by the SlingBox-TV Guide web app.

In this sense, a wrapper app enhances or extends the capabilities of an existing application by providing additional features or functionalities.

Slinger Wrapper in action

Table of Contents

• Overview
• System Architecture
• How it works?
• Installation
• Configuration
• Contributing
• License
• Credits
• Disclaimer

Overview

The Sling Server Wrapper (the wrapper) extends the Slinger server by:

• circumventing Slinger's CORS policy and accepting channel-changing request from the SlingBox-TV Guide app located anywhere on internet.
• preserving the state of the server between requests, allowing users to see the currently selected channel of their Slingbox devices. (This functionaliy was available in the original SlingPlayer™ application.)

Naming convention: the terms "Sling Server Wrapper", "Slinger Server Wrapper", "wrapper" and various combinations are used interchangeably in this document.

Notes:

• The "Wrapper" is not a replacement for Slinger; it is an extension of it, and it requires Slinger to be installed and running on the same machine.
• Using the "Wrapper" does not interfere with Slinger setup and usage; it can be used in parallel with it by the users who want to use the SlingBox-TV Guide enhanced remote control mentioned above.
  

System Architecture

System Architecture - Slingboxes, Slinger Server, Slinger Server Wrapper, TV Guide Web App, TV Guide Data Source

This wrapper is a part of a wider system, as shown in the above diagram.

The system consists of:

• Slingbox Devices: The devices controlled by the system.
• Slinger Server: The server that communicates with the Slingbox devices and provides the API for controlling them.
• Slinger Server Wrapper: This wrapper, extending the Slinger Server with the capabilities described above.
• TV Guide Web App: A web application providing a TV Guide for Slingbox devices and a remote control for them.
• TV Guide Data Source: A data source for the TV Guide Web App providing the TV Guide data.
  
  

Where to get these components?

• Slingbox devices: Discontinued by Sling Media, available on the second-hand market.
• Slinger Server: Open-source app created by Gerry Dazoo, downlodable from its GitHub repo.
• Sling Wrapper: Open-source app created by Bradut Dima, downloadable from this GitHub repo.
• TV Guide Web App: Open-source app created by Bradut Dima, downloadable from its GitHub repo
• TV Guide Data Source To be created by the user, hosted anywhere on the Internet. Specific instructions provided in the TV Guide Web app repo.

How it works?

Slinger Server Functionality

System Architecture - Slinger Server

The functionality of the Slinger Server is documented in its own GitHub repo.
The simplified diagram above shows the main components of the Slinger Server and how they interact with each other.
It can be seen that even when integrated with the wrapper, the Slinger Server functions as a standalone application that does not require any other components to be installed on the same machine.

Slinger Server WRAPPER Functionality

System Architecture - Slinger Server and Slinger Server Wrapper

The Slinger Server Wrapper is a .NET Core application running on the same machine (same folder actually) as the Slinger Server.
It is a wrapper around the Slinger Server, providing the following functionality:

• Starts the Slinger Server
• Reads the configuration of the Slinger Server (from config.ini or unified_config.ini) and uses it to configure itself.
• Reads the console output of the Slinger Server to identify the events generated by it, and uses these events to update the state of the wrapper. These events are:
  
  • Streamming in progress
  • Streamming stopped
  • Channel changed
  • Slingbox bricked
  • Remote control locked
• Communicates with the channel-changer SlingBox-TV Guide website to notify about any event and to provide the current wrapper state, so that the UI can indicate the selected channel or display info about server events.
• Accepts change-channel requests from the SlingBox-TV Guide website, and uses them to control the Slinger Server.

Installation

The Sling Server Wrapper is provided as a single Windows-executable file named RunSlingServer.exe that can be downloaded from this repo.
(Mac and Linux users could probably generate an OS-specific executable, but this has not been tested.)

• It doesn't need to be installed,
• It only needs to be run from the same folder on the machine where the Slinger Server is installed.

To run the Sling Server Wrapper, download the following items on the same folder where the Slinger Server is installed:

1. The Sling Server Wrapper executable file - from the Download page of this repo,
2. The js directory - from this repo,
3. The HTML files for the remote controls - from this repo.

Notes: the js folder and the HTMLS remote control files are optional, but very helpful when using the wrapper, because:

• They can read the the wrapper's status from file SlingBoxStatus.json, and use that info to assign a URL reference to the "TV Guide" button of the remote-control page, so that it can launch the channel-changer TV Guide app
  (Otherwise you will need to hard-code this in your remote control page),
• They display the current slingbox name (useful when multiple slingboxes are controlled by the same wrapper and same remote control form)
• Allow implementing other possible features, such as displaying the current channel in the remote-control page.

Probably, in the future, accessing the server status will be delegated to querying the Wrapper instead of reading this file.

Once the above files are downloaded, you can run the Sling Server Wrapper by double-clicking on the RunSlingServer.exe file [Run as Administrator].

At FIRST RUN, the wrapper will:

• Create a configuration file named appsettings.json in the same folder where it is located.
  Initially, this file contains default settings, among them being Slinger's configuration file: config.ini. You may change later these settings as explained below.
• Read the Slinger configuration file from appsettings.json, which by default is config.ini.
• Read from config.ini:
  • The list of slingboxes, with their names, types and VideoSources
  • Slinger's urlBase and port number
• Generate the file SlingBoxStatus.json based on the actions above

After the first run, your Slinger folder will appear as follows (new items highlighted in red):

Slinger Wrapper Components: JS, HTML files, RunSlingServer.exe, etc.

Configuration

Prerequisites:

• You will need to create a TV Guide web site somewhere on your local machine or on the Internet.
• You need to have a functional Slinger server, on a Windows machine.

For demo purposes, I created two TV Guides apps on my server:
http://tvGuideAnalogue.dima.mobi/TvGuide.html
http://tvGuideDigital.dima.mobi/TvGuide.html
[They will NOT work for you because they are configured to work with my Slingbox devices, but you can use them as examples.]

As explained, once you run the Sling Server Wrapper for the first time, it will create the files appsettings.json and SlingBoxStatus.json with default settings.
You will then need to modify appsettings.json and maybe config.ini in order to work with your particular Slinger Server configuration.

Update config.ini

IMPORTANT The Wrapper works only with the unified_config.ini STRUCTURE !
The name of the config file is irrelevant as long as you copy and paste the body of unified_confi.ini into it.

Naming convention: in this document will use the term config.ini to refer to Slinger config file, regardless of the name you use it on your machine.

In the following example, we see a configuration file with the unified_config.ini format that contains the list of slingboxes and the server info.

; This a unified config.ini for three slingboxes

[SLINGBOXES]
sb1=sling_1
sb2=sling_2
sb3=sling_3

[sling_1]
sbtype="Solo/Pro/ProHD"
password=admin1    

ipaddress=192.168.1.254
port=5001

;valid range = 0..16 
Resolution=12

;Valid Values 1, 6, 10, 15, 20, 30, 60   depending on resolution
FrameRate=25

;Min 50 Max 8000
VideoBandwidth=8000

;Min 0 (auto) max 63
VideoSmoothness=63

;--------------------------------------------------------
;ProHD:   0=Tuner  1=Composite   2=S-Video   3=Component
;--------------------------------------------------------
VideoSource=1
StartChannel=800   
;RemoteLock=yes
tvGuideUrl=http://192.168.1.10/TvGuideDigitalCanada/TvGuide.html  <-- When using a specific TV Guide 
Remote=remote_Digital.html


[sling_2]
sbtype="Solo/Pro/ProHD"
password=admin2

ipaddress=sling2.domain.com
port=5002

Resolution=12
FrameRate=25
VideoBandwidth=2500
VideoSmoothness=63
VideoSource=0
;RemoteLock=yes
Remote=remote_Analogue_ProHD.html

[sling_3]
sbtype="Solo/Pro/ProHD"
password=admin3   

ipaddress=sling2.domain.com
port=5003

Resolution=12
FrameRate=25
VideoBandwidth=2500
VideoSmoothness=63
VideoSource=0
;StartChannel=0.                            <-- Doesn't work with Analog Tuner
Remote=remote_Analogue_ProHD.html


[SERVER]
port=54321
maxremotestreams=5
URLbase=myslings
enableremote=yes

Make these changes in config.ini

• Update the name of the remote control files as remote_Digital.html and/or remote_Analogue_ProHD.html

  • remote_Analogue_ProHD.html is an adaptation from Slinger project's \CustomRemotes\ProHD_Tuner.txt for use with analog video-sources and automatically adds a dot to the channel number, as indicated in Slinger documentation for analogue tunners.
  • remote_Digital.html is an adaptation from Slinger project's remotes.txt, where the number buttons have been removed.
    

• If you want to continue using your current remote controls, you may consider adding a "TV Guide " button, adding a reference to the JS folder and include a few HTML elements in their pages:

  • (Keep using your remote:) Add a reference to JS foler

    <script src="/js/slingerplayer.js"></script>

• • (Keep using your remote:) Include the ID titleElem in the title element to be populated automatically with your slingbox name:

  <h2 id="titleElem" class="title" >
      
  </h2>

• • (Keep using your remote:) Include an element contaning "Status:%s" string, which will trigger Slinger Server to replace it with its status.
    This element will help SlingBox - TV Guide to know immediately when the slingbox has stopped streaming, otherwise will have to wait for 100 seconds of server inactivity.

  <div id="slingStatus" style="color: Transparent; font-size: 1px">
      <!--DO NOT REMOVE: MAGIC string replaced by Slinger with server status.-->
      <label>Status:</label>Status:%s
  </div>

• (Optional) In case some of your slingboxes require a specific TV Guide page, different from the rest, then add the entry 'tvGuidUrl':

tvGuideUrl=http://192.168.1.10/TvGuideDigitalCanada/TvGuide.html  <-- When using a specific TV Guide 

Update appsettings.json

After the first run, you will need to stop the Wrapper to make a few changes in appsettings.json

The settings in this file are used by the wrapper to configure itself and to communicate with the Slinger Server and the TvGuide web app.
Some of these settings are committed automatically by the wrapper into the SlingBoxStatus.json file.

This is the default appsettings.json configuration file generated by the wrapper at first run:

{
  "AppSettings": {
    "Version": "1.0.0",
    "SlingboxServer": {
      "ExecutableName": "slingbox_server.exe",
      "Arguments": [
          "config.ini"
      ]
    },
    "TvGuide": {
      "TvGuideUrl": "http://localhost:80/TvGuideWebSite/TvGuide.html",
      "SlingRemoteControlUrl": "http://localhost:5196/api/v1/tv-channel"
    },
    "RemoteControlIrCodes": {
      "Ch+": "4",
      "Ch-": "5",
      "Last": "56"
    }
  },
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Microsoft.AspNetCore": "Warning"
    },
    "LogFilePath": "logs/log-channel-change-{Date}.txt"
  },
  "AllowedHosts": "*",
  "Kestrel": {
    "Endpoints": {
      "Http": {
        "Url": "http://localhost:5196"
      }
    }
  }
}

Update AppSettings.SlingboxServer section

 "SlingboxServer": {
   "ExecutableName": "slingbox_server.exe",
   "Arguments": [
      "config.ini"
   ]
 },

• Update the name of the config file passed to Slinger if it is different from config.ini (example: you may write here unified_config.ini instead).

Update AppSettings.TvGuide section

 "TvGuide": {
   "TvGuideUrl": "http://localhost:80/TvGuideWebSite/TvGuide.html",
   "SlingRemoteControlUrl": "http://localhost:5196/api/v1/tv-channel"
 },

• Update the URL of the TV Guide web app to match your own.
  TvGuideUrl is the URL that will be used by the wrapper to communicate with the TV Guide web app to send/receive channel-change requests
  If you haven't configure a TV Guide web app web page, you may use http://tvGuideAnalogue.dima.mobi/TvGuide.html for demo purposes
  (note: this will not work for you, but it's helpful to see how it can be integrated with the wrapper via a remote-control page)
  If you have multiple slingboxes, the wrapper will, by default, use this TV Guide URL for all of them, but this can be overriden for each slingbox, as described above, in the Update config.ini paragraph.

• SlingRemoteControlUrl is the URL that points to the location of the Sling Wrapper.
  Update it if it is different from the one in the example above.
  Normally, this should be the same as the Slinger URL, except for the port number.
  If you want to modify the port number, you will need to also update it in the Kestrel configuration section in this file file accordingly.

IMPORTANT: When using the TV Guide from a different computer or a mobile device within your local network or on the Internet::

1. Ensure the URLs above do not reference localhost (as this only works within your computer).
2. Confirm that the URL in SlingRemoteControlUrl can be accessed from the URL in TvGuideUrl, and vice versa.

This ensures bidirectional communication between your Wrapper and the TV Guide app.

Update the AppSettings.RemoteControlIrCodes section (Remote Control IR Codes)

 "RemoteControlIrCodes": {
   "Ch+": "4",
   "Ch-": "5",
   "Last": "56"
 }

Update the IR Codes for the remote control buttons if you use a digital streaming source and your PVR uses differents codes.
For example, the "Last" button which is used to display the last channel, is mapped to the IR code 56 by default, but may have different value on your configuration, or may not be active at all.
If is not active, assign it the value "-999" to disable it.

Please note that some of the channel-changing buttons in the complex remote controls defined in the Slinger project are not interpreted by the Wrapper in the current version:

• Channel numbers: 0...9
• Arrow Up / Down
• Arrow Left / Right
• Page Up /Down
• ...etc.

Therefore, using these buttons may cause desynchronization between Slinger and the Wrapper, leading to TV Guide displaying different selected channels than the actual ones.

Update Kestrel section

  "Kestrel": {
    "Endpoints": {
      "Http": {
        "Url": "http://localhost:5196"
      }
    }
  }

The wrapper is a Web API application, and it uses the Kestrel web server to listen for requests.
In this section you can update the port number used by the wrapper.

If you want to use HTTPS, you will need to update the configuration accordingly and you will need to provide a certificate for the wrapper.

Avoid using HTTPS if your TV Guide web app is not also using HTTPS because some browsers will block the requests from the Wrapper to the web app.
(may work with Chrome, but not with Firefox)

Here is an example of the the config file with an HTTPS endpoint:

  "Kestrel": {
    "Endpoints": {
      "Http": {
        "Url": "http://localhost:5196"
      },
     "Https": {
        "Url": "https://localhost:7064"
      }
    }
  },
  

Update Logging section

"Logging": {
   "LogLevel": {
     "Default": "Information",
     "Microsoft.AspNetCore": "Warning"
   },
   "LogFilePath": "logs/log-channel-change-{Date}.txt"
 },

This section tells the Wrapper to log its activity in the file specified in the "LogFilePath" property.
You can update the path and the name of the log file if you want to.
(Logging to file functionality is currrently broken, will fix it sometime)

About SlingBoxStatus.json

This file stores a simplified form of the server status- it contains only values relevant to SlingBox - TV Guide channel changer app.
It has been created by the Wrapper at first run with information gathered from config.ini and appsettings.json and will be updated by the Wrapper whenever it detects an event while reading the Slinger's console.
Note: Do not modify this file!

{
  "slingBoxes": {
    "sling_1": {
      "slingBoxId": "sb1",
      "currentChannelNumber": -1,
      "lastChannelNumber": -1,
      "isAnalogue": false,
      "lastHeartBeatTimeStamp": null,
      "tvGuideUrl": "http://192.168.1.10/TvGuideDigitalCanada/TvGuide.html" <-- from config.ini
    },
    "sling_2": {
      "slingBoxId": "sb2",
      "currentChannelNumber": -1,
      "lastChannelNumber": -1,
      "isAnalogue": true,
      "lastHeartBeatTimeStamp": null
    },
    "sling_3": {
      "slingBoxId": "sb3",
      "currentChannelNumber": -1,
      "lastChannelNumber": -1,
      "isAnalogue": true,
      "lastHeartBeatTimeStamp": null
    }
  },
  "urlBase": "myslings",
  "tvGuideUrl": "http://192.168.1.10/TvGuideWebSite/TvGuide.html",          <-- from appsetting.json
  "slingRemoteControlServiceUrl": "http://localhost:5196/api/v1/tv-channel" <-- from appsetting.json
}

The file above stores a snapshot of the status of the wrapper server which contains:

• The three slingboxes defined in config.ini: "sling_1", "sling_2" and "sling_3"

• The settings of each slingbox:

  • slingBoxId: The ID declared in config.ini.

  • currentChannelNumber: The number of the channel that is being streamed by the slingbox.
    The value -1 indicates that the slingbox has not streamed yet since the creation of the file SlingBoxStatus.json

  • lastChannelNumber: The number of the previously streamed channel.
    It is used by the wrapper to switch to this channel when the "Last" button has been pressed/clicked/touched on the remote control page.
    Tested succesfully with analogue video-sources but had issues with a digital one where, instead of last channel, the PVR displays a selection of the last 5 channels to select from.

  • isAnalogue: (true or false) = The type of video-sources, identified by the wrapper based on the Slinger documentation.
    For example, a video-source is considered analogue for slingboxes of type "Pro" or "ProHD" when VideoSource = 0.
    Furthermore, this setting is used by the wrapper to identify the channel-changing info when reading Slinger's console output and sending commands to the TV Guide.
    

  • lastHeartBeatTimeStamp: The last time when the wrapper has detected Slinger console output for a specific slingBox device.
    This setting let TV Guide know if a certain slingBox is still streaming or not, so that it can adjust its UI accordingly (change the aspect of the channel buttons on the web page, etc.).
    The wrapper will automatically change this value to null if it is older than 100 seconds, based on the fact that, every 90 second, Slinger display on its console information about each of its slinboxess that are currently streaming.
    The values of this setting can be either null or the date-time of the last event in the format "2023-12-07T18:54:05".

  • tvGuideUrl: (optional) This setting indicates that the TV Guide URL for a certain slingBox is different than the server-wide TV Guide URL (See the explanations about config.ini).
    In the example above, the configuration of slingbox_1 which has a digital video-source:

    • uses the TV Guide with the URL http://192.168.1.10/TvGuideDigitalCanada/TvGuide.html
    • instead if the server-wide URL for analogue channels http://192.168.1.10/TvGuideWebSite/TvGuide.html defined at the bottom of the file for all other slingboxes.

• The server-wide settings in SlingBoxStatus.json are:

  • urlBase: From config.ini - see Slinger's documentation.

  • tvGuideUrl: From appsettings.config, this is the URL of the channel-changer SlingBox-TV Guide.
    Unless it is overrriden at SlingBox level as shown above for sling_1, this URL will be used by the the remote control of each slingbox to open the TV Guide page.

  • slingRemoteControlServiceUrl: From appsettings.config, this is the URL of the Slinger Wrapper.
    It will be passsed to the TV Guide so that it wiil be able to communicate back with the Wrapper.
    

Summary: The server status values in the file SlingBoxStatus.json are automatically synchronized with:

• Settings from configuration files config.ini and appsetting.json
• Events resulted from reading Slinger's console output
  

Therefore, any modifications should be made in these configuration files and NOT in SlingBoxStatus.json.
Otherwise, the changes will be overridden..

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

If you want to contribute, please contact me first to discuss the changes.

This is a .NET Core 7 app compiled as a standalone, self-contained executable. Therefore, it does not require .NET to be installed on users' computers.

It cannot be upgraded to .NET Core 8 because the new framework does not allow creating such executables capable of communicating with SignalR (as of December 2023).

This app originated from two separate projects - one serving as a pass-through for post requests from TV Guide to Slinger, and the other as a Slinger console reader.
After successfully mediating communications between Slinger and TV Guide, these projects were merged into the current one, resulting in certain architectural irregularities.

This is a personal project, and I don't have a lot of time to work on it.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details

Credits

• Slingbox by Sling Media - the device that streams TV channels over the Internet
  "Slingbox" is a trademarked term associated with products and services provided by Sling Media, a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation.
  The Slingbox is a line of devices that allow users to remotely view and control their cable or satellite television.
• Slinger Server - open source server that controls the SlingBoxes, created by Gerry Dazoo
• Slinger Player - video player that streams from the Slinger, created by Gerry Dazoo
• SlingBox Channel-Changer TvGuide - TV Guide with channel-change capability, created by Bradut Dima
• AI Assistants - used to generate code, documentation and proofreading.
  • OpenAI ChatGPT3
  • JetBrains AI Assistant
  • Microsoft GitHub Copilot
• Draw.io - used to create diagrams

Disclaimer

All trademarks, logos and brand names are the property of their respective owners.
All company, product and service names used in this app and documentation are for identification purposes only.