Fixing the sports plugin

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DavidinCT

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#141

Post by DavidinCT » Thu Jul 13, 2017 1:17 pm

Glad your still looking at this... Would love to have this working again !
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

jachin99

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#142

Post by jachin99 » Wed Aug 23, 2017 11:54 pm

I'm in the middle of some down time at work, and between certifications so I've been able to play around with some hobbies. I've fired up msvs c# and played around with the sample apps, and I've been working pretty heavily on start menu integration. The documentation on this stuff really isn't geared for someone like me so I spend days doing trial and error. I was able to build this today, and this isn't much yet but I've at least come this far. These don't lead to any application but just figuring out the start menu took quite a bit because its changed a few times since MCE 2005. I'm also documenting how I do things. I'm also on the lookout for some free to use sports artwork for the start menu
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#143

Post by jachin99 » Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:09 pm

Found a conversation about accessing the guide on the old TGB. Here is a link: https://web.archive.org/web/20070731181 ... d/559.aspx
It looks like someone posted a VB script to read guide data as well.

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Crash2009

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#144

Post by Crash2009 » Sun Sep 24, 2017 2:59 am

http://assassinhtpcblog.com/wmcplugins/

Thought you might enjoy this one.....

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DavidinCT

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#145

Post by DavidinCT » Sun Sep 24, 2017 2:59 pm

Crash2009 wrote:http://assassinhtpcblog.com/wmcplugins/

Thought you might enjoy this one.....
That was a great site years ago. Still has some links to some WMC software but, has not been updated in years. I guess Maybe that is a good thing (as they would take it down)
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

jachin99

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#146

Post by jachin99 » Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:34 pm

Here is a link talking about the "unofficial" WMC guide tool. https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?t ... &page_no=2 I'm trying to get that page up on the web archive but the US web archive at least needs a lot of love. Here are some other links talking about the unofficial WMC guide tool

https://mobilewares.wordpress.com/2009/ ... %E2%80%A6/

https://mobilewares.wordpress.com/2009/ ... windows-7/

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#147

Post by jachin99 » Tue Jan 02, 2018 4:11 pm

I think i found the "unofficial" guide api, and its right here on these forums. viewtopic.php?f=44&t=97&start=20 I was browsing the old TGB.com and I came across a post describing how the sports lounge fetched data from the guide db while the fox sports app used a third party server. I never tried to use the guide tool but I wish I'll need to put this on my to do list.

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#148

Post by jachin99 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 4:04 am

After playing around with bolting features to WHS 2011 the only logical conclusion I can come to is that sports schedule.mxf is where the onlater tab and possibly the scores tab gets it's data. To understand my theory you can look in the programdata/ehome folder and see two separate sports folders. Sports which contains an mxf file and sports v2 which has cabinet files. Because cabinet files are used to install features and updates in windows and the fox sports app appears in the extras gallery I can only assume the file that I'm looking for to get guide data in the on later sports lounge wmc tile is the sportsschedule.mxf file. Now who now's how to actually put something in there to test this idea

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#149

Post by jachin99 » Thu Jan 04, 2018 5:04 am

I looked into some of the packages folders in ehome, and it looks like everything has already been extracted. Its a wild guess but maybe mcupdate.exe or something similar is its own self contained package extractor. i tried running parts of aboddi's package extractor just for the fun of it, and I got a bunch file not found errors. What i really need help with at this point is making an mxf file out of sports only guide data, and loading it into the sportsschedule.mxf in order to see what happens. I started toying around with the guide tool, and it looks like its pretty easy to add rows to the guide in and of itself. Getting the data I want into said row will be the real trick.

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#150

Post by jachin99 » Fri Jan 19, 2018 12:56 am

Capture.PNG
I used the guide editor to enable category grid rows in the EPG. I did this by changing the sports, drama, etc. categories from WMIS to I think user added. Here is a screenshot. I'm still looking for a way to get relevant data into these categories, and I wonder if injecting guide data into sportschedule.mxf, and then using loadmxf to add it to the guide will get ON Later working in the sports experience AND this grid row. I don't have much time to work on this because I have started school again but I can tinker with it every now and then.

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#151

Post by jachin99 » Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:42 pm

I had a few more minutes to toy around with the guide editor. Under Merged lineups, I can the Sorts, Comedy, CBS Primetime, CBS Classics, Drama, and News LISTINGS from WMIS to User Added under the TYPE column. Interestingly enough there is also an option to make the WMIS Broadband so I wonder if this has something to virtual tuner mapping or if that is wishful thinking on my part. I can change the listing for any one of those to a channel that has existing guide data, and the newly mapped guide data will show in the guide but WMC will not tune to that channel. This makes me believe that the LISTINGS column only relates to TV Guide data but does not give tuner information. Looking under the SOURCE CHANNELS column, when I click on any entry, i get an exception, and that column reads 0 devices vs 3 devices for channels with guide data. I should also add that I changed the user blocked state column to enabled for these channels.

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#152

Post by jachin99 » Sat Feb 17, 2018 4:01 am

Well, it looks like I might be getting closer. If you look at this screenshot, its telling me access is denied when I try to use loadmxf on the sports data store. SO MAYBE I HAVE FOUND THE GUIDE TABLES. I used gugglugg's store explorer to dump the guide's tables for me. If I can take ownership of this data store, then maybe I can get on later working.
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#153

Post by Crash2009 » Sat Feb 17, 2018 5:17 am

Try opening with testrights.... higher privledges than admin

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#154

Post by jachin99 » Sat Feb 17, 2018 5:30 pm

I took ownership of the assembly and tried loading g my epg123 mxf file but at the very end of the mxf import it gave me an object reference not set to an instance of an object error. I think the mxf file needs to be tweaked a little. I have a full weekend and but I'll try loading sports schedule.mxf into it next time. It looks like I can make this work with enough poking around.

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Crash2009

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#155

Post by Crash2009 » Sun Feb 18, 2018 1:46 am

Go to your Win10 WMC files

right click testrights and run as admin

Then use the testrights window to run the commands that you posted in the picture

testrights automatically takes ownership of anything.

The Chainsaw

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/thread ... st-1267310

Posts 5756 -5764 It is only 9 post to read.

https://forums.mydigitallife.net/thread ... st-1257959

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DavidinCT

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#156

Post by DavidinCT » Sun Feb 18, 2018 4:55 pm

jachin99 wrote:I took ownership of the assembly and tried loading g my epg123 mxf file but at the very end of the mxf import it gave me an object reference not set to an instance of an object error. I think the mxf file needs to be tweaked a little. I have a full weekend and but I'll try loading sports schedule.mxf into it next time. It looks like I can make this work with enough poking around.
Nice find so far... Looking forward to seeing progress !
-Dave
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Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

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#157

Post by jachin99 » Wed Feb 21, 2018 3:11 am

I found the markup for the message about the sports experience ending in the on now tab. That should be easily replaced with media center themer. Its in ONNOW.mcml and it looks like this
<ctl:StaticText Name="Info" Visible="false" WordWrap="true"
Content="As of December 10, 2013, the Windows Media Center Sports experience will no longer be available. Please visit http://support.microsoft.com/KB2901043 for more details. You can still find all your favorite Sports news through your internet browser at http://www.msn.com/sports.
Font="font://sportsglob:Alert.MessageText"
Color="color://sportsglob:Alert.ContentColor">
<Layout>
<AnchorLayout SizeToHorizontalChildren="false" SizeToVerticalChildren="false"/>
</Layout>
<LayoutInput>
<AnchorLayoutInput Horizontal="Center" Vertical="Center" Top="NowPlayingArea,0" Bottom="NowPlayingArea,1" Left="NowPlayingArea,0" Right="NowPlayingArea,1"/>
</LayoutInput>
</ctl:StaticText>

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#158

Post by jachin99 » Thu Feb 22, 2018 3:27 am

I got WMC to take an MXF file in the sports database!!! I have a screenshot to share later but I have to get some sleep. The file was blank so nothing showed up in on now but WMC completed the command successfully!!!

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#159

Post by jachin99 » Fri Feb 23, 2018 3:35 am

I changed the namespace of my EPG123 mxf file to Microsoft.MediaCenter.Sports.Data.Sporti ngEvent and the guide took the file but nothing shows in on later. The good news is gugglugs object store explorer exposes EVERYTHING in the guide database as far as I can tell. I think it's a matter of finding the correct xml tags or namespace that is used by on later which could take quite a while if it's just me. While poking around I found all kinds of entries for the guide DB though including leagues season dates, and quite a bit more.

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#160

Post by jachin99 » Fri Feb 23, 2018 3:36 am

It would also be EXTREMELY helpful if I could open the sports schedule or sports mxf file and look at what xml tags it uses.

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