List order of channels
#16
Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately this is not something my NAS supports.
I'm actually using a freesat (DVB-S) rather than freeview - my vbox is the xti-3332 model.

I'm now considering ditching the VBox and buying a dedicated freesat recorder box such as the Humax HDR-1100S instead - at least until the Kodi plugin is more stable and usable. I bought the vbox in the hope that I could bring all my entertainment needs into kodi :-(
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#17
I dug into the channel numbering / ordering issue a little further, and have come to the conclusion that this is more of a vbox issue rather than an issue with kodi or the addon.

The vbox does not send the channel numbers anywhere in the xml of the API call, so kodi has nothing to work with.

Kodi really needs channel numbers to be able to order the list of channels correctly, as the option to use the backend channel ordering doesn't work well where two channels have the same number. This is where the problem lies - because the vbox returns the channel number as 0 for most channels, though other channels have a completely random number. Where two channels have the same number then kodi will order those channels alphabetically, regardless of your "use backend channel order" option.

Here is an example of the content coming back from my vbox in the API call:
Code:
<channel id="www.BBC%20One%20Yorkshire.co.un">
    <display-name>BBC One Yorkshire</display-name>
    <display-name>TV</display-name>
    <display-name>002007ff1933</display-name>
    <display-name>Free</display-name>
    <icon src="http://192.168.0.166:55555/images/tv_icon.jpg"/>
    <url src="http://192.168.0.166:55555/BBC%20One%20Yorkshire"/>
</channel>
<channel id="www.BBC%20Two%20England.co.un">
    <display-name>BBC Two England</display-name>
    <display-name>TV</display-name>
    <display-name>002007fd189e</display-name>
    <display-name>Free</display-name>
    <icon src="http://192.168.0.166:55555/images/tv_icon.jpg"/>
    <url src="http://192.168.0.166:55555/BBC%20Two%20England"/>
</channel>
<channel id="www.ITV%20Yorkshire.co.un">
    <display-name>ITV Yorkshire</display-name>
    <display-name>TV</display-name>
    <display-name>0020080527b0</display-name>
    <display-name>Free</display-name>
    <icon src="http://192.168.0.166:55555/images/tv_icon.jpg"/>
    <url src="http://192.168.0.166:55555/ITV%20Yorkshire"/>
</channel>
<channel id="www.Channel%204_3.co.un">
    <display-name>Channel 4</display-name>
    <display-name>TV</display-name>
    <display-name>002007f923fe</display-name>
    <display-name>Free</display-name>
    <display-name>10238</display-name>
    <icon src="http://192.168.0.166:55555/images/tv_icon.jpg"/>
    <url src="http://192.168.0.166:55555/Channel%204_3"/>
</channel>

In this example BBC One, BBC Two and ITV are all given a channel number of 0, and Channel 4 is given a channel number of 10238. Though in the vbox backend I numbered these channels as 1,2,3 & 4. It seems that if a 5th display-name attribute is present then the vbox plugin uses this, otherwise it uses 0 as the channel number. I think what the vbox sometimes sends in the 5th display name attribute is possibly the freesat frequency - but it certainly isn't the channel number Undecided

I thought of a workaround to this, whereby an extra option is added to the addon "Set channel numbers using backend channel order". When checked, this option will simply use a counter, and as channels are added it will increase the channel number by one, rather than using the completely meaningless channel numbers returned by the vbox.

As I have 3 different kodi devices it actually ended up quicker to write a workaround in the addon, than go round each device and manually order the 130+ channels within kodi ;-)

I have already coded this and tested it successfully, so will submit a pull request for it to be included in a future release.

This is very much a workaround to the shortcomings of the vbox api, and it's obviously not going to give you the correct channel numbers if you like to have gaps in your channel numbering. But if you have all the channel numbers sequential, with no gaps then the channel numbers will come out nicely.
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#18
@jahutchi I believe that the 5th <display-name> tag is holding the channel number, not sure why you only have it on the last channel
Looking at my list all the channels have the appropriate LCN number

PHP Code:
<tv generator-info-url="www.vboxcomm.com" generator-info-name="vbox">
<
channel id="www.BBC%20ONE%20Lon.co.un">
    <
display-name>BBC ONE Lon</display-name>
    <
display-name>TV</display-name>
    <
display-name>T-GBR-303310441044</display-name>
    <
display-name>Free</display-name>
    <
display-name>1</display-name>
    <
icon src="http://192.168.1.90:55555/images/tv_icon.jpg"/>
    <
url src="http://192.168.1.90:55555/BBC%20ONE%20Lon"/>
</
channel>
<
channel id="www.BBC%20ONE%20HD.co.un">
    <
display-name>BBC ONE HD</display-name>
    <
display-name>TV</display-name>
    <
display-name>T2-GBR-303340844484</display-name>
    <
display-name>Free</display-name>
    <
display-name>101</display-name>
    <
icon src="http://192.168.1.90:55555/images/tv_icon.jpg"/>
    <
url src="http://192.168.1.90:55555/BBC%20ONE%20HD"/>
</
channel>
<
channel id="www.BBC%206%20Music.co.un">
    <
display-name>BBC 6 Music</display-name>
    <
display-name>Radio</display-name>
    <
display-name>T-GBR-303310441680</display-name>
    <
display-name>Free</display-name>
    <
display-name>707</display-name>
    <
icon src="http://192.168.1.90:55555/images/radio_icon.jpg"/>
    <
url src="http://192.168.1.90:55555/BBC%206%20Music"/>
</
channel
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#19
@jahutchi which firmware version are you using? The addon used to number the channels sequentially before because the fifth <display-name> element was only added in a later firmware version.
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#20
I'm using firmware v2.48 - which is the latest according to this page: http://www.vboxcomm.com/shop-support/download.html

Here are the full details from System > Status > Software Versions:

SW Version: XTI_VB.2.48
Linux: 2.6.32.42_stm24_V4.0-HDK7111_7111-STSDK
Kernel Image: VB04
Boot Loader Image: 2.1.18
Disk Image: IVB-2.0-25

I wonder whether the issue I'm seeing is model-specific - mine is the Freesat Dual Tuner model (XTi-3332).

It does not give the correct channel number in the XML for any channels - many don't have a 5th display-name tag, but just have four display-name tags as shown in my previous post. For those that do have a 5th display-name tag this has a completely meaningless number - it is NOT the channel number I've set in the backend, and looks to be the freesat frequency.
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#21
Okay, I see. Your PR should definitely solve this then.
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#22
Smile 
Just to let you know - v2.50 of the firmware is available and I have just upgraded my VBox to this version.

One massive improvement I've noticed in this version is that you can edit the Local Channel Numbers (LCNs) in the channel list.

I have just gone through my channel list and set all the LCNs to their correct numbers (most were set to -1).

Following this I can see that these channel numbers all come through in the channel list XML - in the 5th display-name tag, so are set correctly in kodi by the vbox addon.

This is certainly a great improvement - especially for users like myself with the satellite tuner-based models, since the LCNs get set to some random number by default.
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