A little software to customize channel lists

[The Gus]

Good morning everybody, I hope I'm using the right section to post this little (pre pre pre pre pre beta version! ) piece of software.

 

This software spinned off the excellent concept by dioveth regarding how to match an original provider's decoder (like the horrible skybox) channel numbers with the dvbv software.

Channelaliasi is a software which resides in the tray area and it simply hooks the keyboard strokes when the dvbv windows is active. I used a keyboard hook since my htpc relies on the vfd imon receiver. Don't really know if a keyboard hook is applicable to other kind of receiver, though. In dvbv optsion be sure that the number keys are not mapped nor the + and - (minus) keys are not mapped neither. This is because the 0..9 and + - keys are used by ChannelAlias to select channel number and to move up and down through channel list (about moving up and down I just prefer to use natively dvbv really since it's faster).

 

Installation: extract the three files into a folder of your choice, put if you wish the executable in the automatic startup folder in order to have it up and running when windows starts.

 

Configuration: All the structure of the channel list(s) is handled by the channelnumbers.ini. For example:

 

 

[ChannelNumbers]

[Groups]

000=SkyItalia

999=CanaliDigitali

998=CanaliInglesi

997=CanaliTedeschi

996=FullList

[Canali Digitali]

Description=Canali Digitale Terrestre

101=Rai 1 (Ita)

102=Rai 2 (Ita)

[CanaliInglesi]

Description=Canali in lingua inglese

101=BBC

102=MTV (Eng)

[skyItalia]

101=RAI1

102=RAI2

103=RAI3

110=Fox (ita)

[Favorites]

Default Group=SkyItalia

 

The example show some groups defined (a group is a list of channels, activable at will and completely indipendend each other) : SkyItalia, CanaliDigitali,CanaliInglesi and CanaliTedeschi. Each group refer to its channel list which is defined in the section with exactly the same name of the group. Each group section has also a value called Description which contains the description of the group as it will be displayed on the osd when that group is selected.

After the Description value there's the actual group channel list. Choose a number and its corresponding channel name. Be careful to match exacly the channel name as it appears on teh dvbv channel list.

The Favorites section will set the defalut group active at program's startup. You may change that by using the combobox on the program main window (just click the tray icon to pop it up)

 

The usage is quite straightforward : at startup the activegroup will be the same as set on favorites; by pressing numeric keys the software will read the corresponding cahennel on the .ini lista and search into dvbv a channel with the same name. Switching the active list is made by selecting its value (in the above example 997 to chosse CanaliTedeschi); it is obvious that the group codes (997,998 etc) are not to be used as channel numbers; it is also requested the presence of the FullList group (casesensitive) which function is to allow free surfing through all the dvbv channels without any list active. To return back to the default group it is necessary to choose channel 000 : in the example, to switch from FullList to SkyItalia, the user must press 0 until SkyItalia is displayed on screen.

Use + an - keys to choose next and prior channel as they're sorted in the group. this is slower than dvbv channel change, so I recommed to sort the dvbv list itself and let dvbv to handle prior and next channels.

 

Forgive me my English and please remember the software is ate very early stage, all your suggestions are higly appreciated in order to make it better. In past days I would automate the mhw epg grabbing but after SkyItalya retuned some channels, it is not clear if mhw is broadcasted anymore on the italian bouquet. If someone has news, please let me know

DVBVChannelAlias.zip

[The Gus]

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Edited January 15, 2008 by The Gus