Channel Logos not showing up

[marioK59]

Hello, I need some help setting up channel logos on MythTV for Osx. Recently got MythTv working. I have a HDHomeRun tuner connected to Comcast Cable with a cable card. I have a Schedules Direct membership and have downloaded all the correct channels. Then I go to the Cannel Editor through MythSetup and click on Icon Download which downloads all the icons. However, when completed the Icons are not showing up next to the channels or when I use the Frontend Application or Kodi. I did find the Channels folder on -/Users/myname/.mythtv/Channels. This folder contains the icon PNG files which I assume are the downloaded icons.
When I try to open up one of the files, however, I get the message: The file “bbc_america.png” could not be opened.It may be damaged or use a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize." I assume this is why the Icons are not showing up.

Any help would be appreciated . Thanks.

[bill6502]

Hi,

If the backend is running as user mythtv, rather than myname, then the icons won't be
found. See this: https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Channel_ico ... l_Location

If the test mentioned there (<backend>:6544/Guide/GetChannelIcon?ChanId=<chanid>)
fails, then the icons won't work. I can't speak to the "damaged" message you're getting.

[Disclosure, *buntu user here.]

[pvr4me]

See the following thread:

https://lists.gt.net/mythtv/users/608306

tldr: The service that Myth uses to retrieve icons has changed it's terms of service and is preventing retrievals.

Craig

[marioK59]

Got it. Is this why the channel icon png files downloaded to my \.myth\channels are not opening up?
One workaround I found that seems to work well with Kodi is that I copied my channel icon folder from my Windows machine(also .png files) and copied this to my Mac and created a channel icon folder there. I then pointed to this folder under the PVR settings within Kodi. I don't see an easy way to do this with MythTV, though. If the icon download doesn't work, seems like the only other solution is to choose an icon file path for each channel which can be cumbersome. Hopefully, there will be a fix. Thanks.

[pvr4me]

Got it. Is this why the channel icon png files downloaded to my \.myth\channels are not opening up?
One workaround I found that seems to work well with Kodi is that I copied my channel icon folder from my Windows machine(also .png files) and copied this to my Mac and created a channel icon folder there. I then pointed to this folder under the PVR settings within Kodi. I don't see an easy way to do this with MythTV, though. If the icon download doesn't work, seems like the only other solution is to choose an icon file path for each channel which can be cumbersome. Hopefully, there will be a fix. Thanks.

I think you do have to manually specify the icon path; otherwise Myth won't know which file to associate with a particular channel.

There may be a bit of a short cut (untested). When you drag and drop a file into the Terminal window, it automatically fills in the complete path. You should be able to copy and paste that into mythtv-setup by using Command-Tab to flip back and forth between the two programs.

Personally, I'm not that fussed about the lack of icons. It just doesn't make it high enough on the list for me to spend time on.

Craig

[marioK59]

Noted, thanks. Agree that not worth spending too much time on this but wanted to make sure that I was not missing something on the set up.

[bill6502]

For those tripping across this thread that do want to use icons:

Only the name of the file is stored in the DB. Prior to 0.27 it was a full path.

The icons must be in the .mythtv/channels directory of the user that the backend
runs as. If they're in your own directory (and the backend isn't running as your
user) they won't be found. Some users choose to link the mythtv user's channels
directory to their own. See the Wiki cited above for how.

[pvr4me]

For those tripping across this thread that do want to use icons:

Only the name of the file is stored in the DB. Prior to 0.27 it was a full path.

The icons must be in the .mythtv/channels directory of the user that the backend
runs as. If they're in your own directory (and the backend isn't running as your
user) they won't be found. Some users choose to link the mythtv user's channels
directory to their own. See the Wiki cited above for how.

Interesting!

For Myth installed by the all-in-one installer, the appropriate location should be:

Code: Select all

/opt/dvr/var/mythtvuser/.mythtv/channels

For me, that directory is empty; my icons were under the home directory of the normally-logged-in user. I'll have to think about how to handle this better going forward.

Craig

[bill6502]

Hey Craig,

Thanks for the all-in-one path, I'll add it to the Wiki. Unless I hear different, I'll
take the proper user name to be exactly what you typed above, as opposed
to the "typical" mythtv user name.

I think lots of users run mythtv-setup etc. as their own user rather than user
mythtv and end up with some unexpected results. The link solution will work,
but may be hard to automate as user names change. Another solution (that I
haven't tried in ages) is to forget about the built-in ChannelIcons Storage Group
being used here and create one that points elsewhere.

[pvr4me]

Hi Bill:

The backend is run by root but the environment is set up so that HOME points to that directory. This is under OS X's launchd system.

I really should switch to using a non-root user but I'm afraid the migration could be...difficult. Given that I like to spend _some_ time away from the computer, I haven't felt motivated to mess with a working config.

Craig

[marioK59]

Hi Bill, regarding your statement "I think lots of users run mythtv-setup etc. as their own user rather than user
mythtv and end up with some unexpected results" - My mythtv-setup is run as "myname" if you are referring to the user on Activity monitor. My backend is run as root. I tried running the mythtv-setup as root as mentioned in the wiki - :Run mythtv-setup as the same user that runs mythbackend and get a new set of channel icons. They'll be stored in the directory above."

This did not make a difference regarding icons showing up- still downloaded to /user/myname/.mythtv/channels as above but not visible(being able to open). I also followed the instructions regarding creating a link:
sudo mkdir /var/mythtv/channels
sudo chown <user>:<group> /var/mythtv/channels
ln -s /var/mythtv/channels ~/.mythtv/channels

This created the different channels directory and the link but also did not result in my icons showing up on the frontend. Did I do this correctly?

[bill6502]

Just updated the Wiki to mention the path from Craig (even though the instructions
specify that the value of HOME and/or MYTHCONFDIR are to be used.) So, in your
case, you'd remove the (empty) directory /opt/dvr/var/mythtvuser/.mythtv/channels
and then ln --symbolic ~myname/.mythtv/Channels /opt/dvr/var/mythtvuser/.mythtv/channels.
Doing the above as root (sudo), most likely.

You may need to restart the backend, but don't think so. Then try the test
from your browser. If that works, you should be OK. Take note of the Wiki
about the backend user being able to write to the directory in the link. Since
it's running as root, that shouldn't be an issue.

[marioK59]

I followed your instructions. Removed directory /opt/dvr/var/mythtvuser/.mythtv/channels and then with terminal ran this command sudo ls - s myname/.mythtv/Channels /opt/dvr/var/mythtvuser/.mythtv/channels.
This created a link between the 2 folders. I then stopped the backend and again went to the Channel editor and clicked on section to download the icons. it downloaded all the icons to myname/.mythtv/channels. The downloaded icons are png files as before and I am unable to open it. I get the same error as in my initial message and the icons are not showing up on the Frontend.

[bill6502]

Hi,

That command is wrong, but assuming it's just a typo and the
files are visible in /opt/dvr/var/mythtvuser/.mythtv/channels then
it's likely the issue Craig brought up earlier about lyngsat. Assuming
you've gone through the Wiki. The mysql test is also a good one to
see if the file names are stored correctly.

The proper test is the one I've mentioned earlier. Try it from your
browser (<backend>:6544/Guide/GetChannelIcon?ChanId=<chanid>)

[marioK59]

Entered in browser 127.0.0.1:6544/Guide/GetChannelIcon?ChanId=<chanid> and received error 404 Not Found message.