Fixing the sports plugin

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jachin99

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Fixing the sports plugin

#1

Post by jachin99 » Mon Mar 06, 2017 5:35 pm

Has anyone tried to change the now dead sports plugin? I am guessing when MS cut it off, they shutoff the feeds for it but I'm not sure if they deleted any files to break it also. I have restored my sports plugin using media center studio, and the only strip that works is the now playing selection. From my very limited understanding, I am thinking one might be able to change a few feeds, and get this up and running. If that doesn't work, maybe developing a new plugin that displays new feeds under the sports tab would work. Any guidance on how I could do this? There are a ton of sports RSS feeds out there, and I'm hoping I can plug some of these in to WMC

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Crash2009

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#2

Post by Crash2009 » Mon Mar 06, 2017 11:21 pm

I remember having the Sports Strip. It had a nice look to it. I spent more time with Internet TV, one of the other features that was removed by the same update. The last time I saw either of them was in 2011 or 2012.

Use the search (top right corner) for everything this site has on the subject of Sports Strip.

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#3

Post by jachin99 » Tue Mar 07, 2017 7:31 pm

So from what I gather so far from browsing around some of the sports folders in Win7, it uses MCML to display feeds that are now dead from I'm guessing fox sports. I'm hoping if i can learn enough about developing for WMC (And in general) i can modify the addresses in the sports plugin file to include new feeds. Is this a crazy idea, or something that might work? BTW, I'm using wordpad to view files, and some of text is not being displayed accurately so I would like to also fix this. Is my encoding wrong in wordpad or do I need a completely separate document viewer?

Thanks

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#4

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Mar 08, 2017 1:36 am

jachin99 wrote:So from what I gather so far from browsing around some of the sports folders in Win7, it uses MCML to display feeds that are now dead from I'm guessing fox sports. I'm hoping if i can learn enough about developing for WMC (And in general) i can modify the addresses in the sports plugin file to include new feeds. Is this a crazy idea, or something that might work? BTW, I'm using wordpad to view files, and some of text is not being displayed accurately so I would like to also fix this. Is my encoding wrong in wordpad or do I need a completely separate document viewer?

Thanks
If I was going to jump in to a project like this, I think I would throw Win7 on a spare box, and DONT LET IT UPDATE. Un-plug the Ethernet until you have time to disable WIFI and disable the Update Service. This would give you WMC with Internet TV and the Sports Strip. This would give you a good base to find out how it works.

What kind of files are you viewing in Wordpad? Internet Explorer does XML so it's readable. Notepad++ (NotepadPlus) is a good one to have. Ceton's Diagnostic will give you a great overview also, you don't need the tuner to install the diag, last tab on the right (enable advanced logging)....don't forget to shut it off-it might fill your whole hard drive. When its done, it will make you a zip file-open the zip and you can get a pretty good view of what is going on behind the scenes.

Here is a sample of whats in the diag, how to turn it on and run it.
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CetonTVDiagnostic001.jpg
CetonTVDiagnostic002.jpg
CetonTVDiagnostic004.jpg

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DavidinCT

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#5

Post by DavidinCT » Wed Mar 08, 2017 3:13 pm

jachin99 wrote:Has anyone tried to change the now dead sports plugin? I am guessing when MS cut it off, they shutoff the feeds for it but I'm not sure if they deleted any files to break it also. I have restored my sports plugin using media center studio, and the only strip that works is the now playing selection. From my very limited understanding, I am thinking one might be able to change a few feeds, and get this up and running. If that doesn't work, maybe developing a new plugin that displays new feeds under the sports tab would work. Any guidance on how I could do this? There are a ton of sports RSS feeds out there, and I'm hoping I can plug some of these in to WMC
WOW, Exactly what I was wondering for YEARS. The built in one was very simple but, could link to data if needed. It was a quick app to find out current scores and one of my favorate apps during baseball season (and football). There is a ESPN app for WMC but, it just seems to have the high school scores and for the most part, I dont care about.

I could dump Win 7, PRE sp1 in a VM with no network card... It's possable.

What do you need from me to get this project up ? Would LOVE to get a simple app like this working in WMC, or a replacement that works exactly the same.
-Dave
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Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

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#6

Post by jachin99 » Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:42 pm

I think what would help the most right now is to go through WMC folders, and find anything you can that relates to the sports plugin. See if you can find any differences between when the plugin died, and when it was working. From browsing around the forums, I saw that some had problems with it before it was officially killed off. Maybe if we know more about it what happened leading up to its death, we can pinpoint what went wrong. From what little i know about this kind of thing, the plugin likely relied on an xml feed via RSS from Fox sports. Because XML feeds are so basic, they are really hard to completely break, and will still work to some extent, even if the program that presents data to the user changes.

The sports page that presents current sports on tv right now still works for me so, I'm guessing that gets its data from whatever guide you have setup in WMC. I'm on EPG123 but I wonder what would change if it were presented ROVI data. Would the now playing break or would the now playing and on later both work? Currently the on later isn't working for me.

Here is a link with a ton of sports feeds in it. https://github.com/baseballhackday/data ... -and-ideas

The EULA for sports if there is one might also give us a hint about where the data comes from

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#7

Post by DavidinCT » Wed Mar 08, 2017 7:20 pm

jachin99 wrote:I think what would help the most right now is to go through WMC folders, and find anything you can that relates to the sports plugin. See if you can find any differences between when the plugin died, and when it was working. From browsing around the forums, I saw that some had problems with it before it was officially killed off. Maybe if we know more about it what happened leading up to its death, we can pinpoint what went wrong. From what little i know about this kind of thing, the plugin likely relied on an xml feed via RSS from Fox sports. Because XML feeds are so basic, they are really hard to completely break, and will still work to some extent, even if the program that presents data to the user changes.

The sports page that presents current sports on tv right now still works for me so, I'm guessing that gets its data from whatever guide you have setup in WMC. I'm on EPG123 but I wonder what would change if it were presented ROVI data. Would the now playing break or would the now playing and on later both work? Currently the on later isn't working for me.

Here is a link with a ton of sports feeds in it. https://github.com/baseballhackday/data ... -and-ideas

The EULA for sports if there is one might also give us a hint about where the data comes from
OK, let me see what I can do here if I get some time this week... should not take that long...

MCML is not that hard to understand as it's pretty much formatted like XML files
-Dave
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#8

Post by DavidinCT » Wed Mar 08, 2017 9:16 pm

Installed a Win7 x32 (no SP)into a VM for testing (no network connection) NO sport strip or not in the options to enable it.... Hmmmmm

Maybe I need a older ISO ?
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#9

Post by jachin99 » Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:14 pm

I used media center studio to restore mine

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Crash2009

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#10

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Mar 08, 2017 11:42 pm

My Win7 Ultimate x64 had Sports and Internet TV prior to an update. Not sure which update, but it was likely SP1. As I recall, the update knocked me out in the fall of 2012. (Sept-Oct)

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#11

Post by jachin99 » Thu Mar 09, 2017 12:21 am

When I did a search for topics about this plugin I came across some mentioning that MS announced the end of the sports strip in an update announcement. I can't remember the name of the announcement but it wasn't sp1

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#12

Post by DavidinCT » Thu Mar 09, 2017 12:30 am

Crash2009 wrote:My Win7 Ultimate x64 had Sports and Internet TV prior to an update. Not sure which update, but it was likely SP1. As I recall, the update knocked me out in the fall of 2012. (Sept-Oct)
I found a 7600 disc for Windows 7 (x86)! this is the ORIGINAL RTM release version. I am installing it on a VM right now. When I build it, There is NO network card with it, so it can not take ANY WMC updates.

This should have everything as on release day (I was on the beta team/tester for Windows vista and Windows 7 WMC).

The only problem could be that the Sports thing could be contained in a DLL as it was a built in part of WMC...

Maybe ?

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\Packages\SportsV2

SportsTemplateCore-2.cab inside this.... Microsoft.MediaCenter.Sports.UI.dll
jachin99 wrote:When I did a search for topics about this plugin I came across some mentioning that MS announced the end of the sports strip in an update announcement. I can't remember the name of the announcement but it wasn't sp1
Correct, it was in a update but, I believe it came down as a WMC update, not in a SP, WMC was able to be updated directly in some cases, so all they had to send down was a kill command.
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#13

Post by DavidinCT » Thu Mar 09, 2017 1:11 am

I cant get it to show up... I tried Media Center studio and it's checked to show the strip, with scores checked.... Hmmmm....

Media Center reset toolbox requires .NET 4.0 or higher installed...I installed it and ran it, Sports strip is checked... any idea ?

and when I say nothing is installed, nothing is INSTALLED. See attached image to show the version I am running...
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#14

Post by jachin99 » Thu Mar 09, 2017 1:32 am

I noticed it showed up when I hit restore defaults in media center studio. Are you using media center studio fix as well?

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#15

Post by DavidinCT » Thu Mar 09, 2017 1:41 am

jachin99 wrote:I noticed it showed up when I hit restore defaults in media center studio. Are you using media center studio fix as well?
Tried that, There is NO need to use MC fix here...on this VM there is no connection to the internet. I'm going to give it internet and see what it does...

No luck, not even the DLL for it... crap.

Is yours all set with a TV tuner and such ? I am testing this on a VM (as I don't want to be screwing with my main HTPC for this type of stuff), this is Windows 7, NO windows updates, the original release from 2009 (build 7600).
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#16

Post by jachin99 » Thu Mar 09, 2017 1:58 am

Mine is connected to the internet, and gets updates. If they stripped sports from a guide update then I doubt it will happen again now.

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#17

Post by jachin99 » Thu Mar 09, 2017 2:23 am

Here are the folders I have found so far that relate to sports,
In C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\Packages I see SportsSchedule, and SportsV2
Under Sports Schedule, there is a sports schedule folder, and SportsSchedule.enc
Within that second SportsSchedule folder is SportsSchedule.mf

Under Sports V2, there are ScheduleSupplement, SportsTemplate, and SportsTemplateCore folders, along with those same names .cab files

Under Schedule Supplement, there is ScheduleSupplement.mxf
Under SportsTemplate, there is FoxSports.sdp
Under SportsTemplate Core, there is MicrosoftMediaCenter.Sports.UI.dll

I hope that helps

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#18

Post by jachin99 » Thu Mar 09, 2017 2:24 am

The folders might be there for everyone, but the links aren't registered in whatever xml file writes the start menu

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#19

Post by DavidinCT » Thu Mar 09, 2017 2:28 am

jachin99 wrote:Here are the folders I have found so far that relate to sports,
In C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\Packages I see SportsSchedule, and SportsV2
Under Sports Schedule, there is a sports schedule folder, and SportsSchedule.enc
Within that second SportsSchedule folder is SportsSchedule.mf

Under Sports V2, there are ScheduleSupplement, SportsTemplate, and SportsTemplateCore folders, along with those same names .cab files

Under Schedule Supplement, there is ScheduleSupplement.mxf
Under SportsTemplate, there is FoxSports.sdp
Under SportsTemplate Core, there is MicrosoftMediaCenter.Sports.UI.dll

I hope that helps
Yea, I guess this means something, under my C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\eHome\packages there is nothing.

I know WMC better than most people but, this one I never played with, as getting it to download a program that is no longer done or supported. This is something that Microsoft would delete the download option, this is why I am wondering.

Riddle me this. DO you have the Sports strip with everything there in WMC ?

This is the question if anyone has the "scores" showing up, even if it does not fully work (isn't that what we are after ?)

On, my Dedicated HTPC, all the folders show up but, and the Sports strip is in WMC but, only the ESPN thing is showing and all the other things are checked, so MS must of disabled them in some way.

We need to get it active and then see the files on where it's pulling it's data from.

Giving up for the night, as I have other things I need to be doing...like catching up on some TV, the point of having WMC in the first place :)
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#20

Post by jachin99 » Thu Mar 09, 2017 3:22 am

I'm in the same boat. One thing to check for when you get a chance is a sports.cab file. If it's there see if you can open or extract it with something like 7zip. It might be the installer

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