Solved! - Has SchedulesDirect stopped supporting WinXP?

[MarkHotchkiss]

Hi,

I'm a NextPVR user with a subscription to SchedulesDirect. A few days ago, my SD-JSON service stopped working. Over at the NPVR forums, the issue was tracked down to SchedulesDirect having moved the SD-JSON service to servers that did not support any of the encryption supported by WinXP. There are a whole bunch of us that are stuck without our PVRs because of this change.

Is there a plan to remedy this? I wouldn't mind going without encryption, as I don't think there is anything very secret about what is being broadcast over the air.

Thanks for an otherwise great service.
Mark

[rmeden]

No.,

It really depends on your application. Even If SSL on Windows Explorer isn't supported, that doesn't mean a grabber uses it.

I build both XMLTV grabbers (tv_grab_zz_sdjson_sqlite and tv_grab_sd_json) for xmltv.exe on a Windows XP virtual and they work fine.

Robert

[MarkHotchkiss]

Hi Robert,

Will either of thos work with NextPVR?

The native (simple) NextPVR functionality doesn't work that way, although you can crowbar XML in. I'm trying to avoid that. Since most of my XP machines have been migrated to Linux, maybe it's time to give Myth a try.

[rmeden]

So your question is not "Has Schedules Direct stopped supporting WinXP", but "Does NextPVR on WindowsXP still support Schedules Direct?"

Totally different question.

I can't answer that one... Have you asked the NextPVR folks?

Robert

[emveepee]

It isn't NextPVR as much as .NET. It is something about TLS 1.0 negation that is failing in IE and .NET on XP. I suspect SD is no longer supporting 3DES ciphers which I think should be turned back on for paying customers.

Martin

[MarkHotchkiss]

Yes, Martin hit the nail on the head.

Most XP applications depend on .NET, and it is .NET's cyphers that SD no longer supports. So in effect, SchedulesDirect is abandoning all XP customers, regardless of the software that they are using, by abandoning those cyphers.

Is there a reason for abandoning those cyphers? It certainly isn't security, as ATSC programming data isn't very sensitive content.

[MarkHotchkiss]

Ok, I've looked at implementing the older XML API, but I won't survive the drop in WAF when the artwork goes away (She's a very 'visual' person).

I can't upgrade WinXP, but I might be able to switch to Linux. In effect, that's starting over from scratch.

Hunting for more options . . .

[rmeden]

The SD-JSON service didn't drop TLS 1.0... if anyone did it was Amazon.. the service uses the Amazon load balancer.

We're seeing what we can do. Can NextPVR accept an XMLTV feed? If so, you can use an XMLTV utility to get data from SD-JSON or SD-DD (if in the US/Canada)

Robert

[sub]

We're seeing what we can do. Can NextPVR accept an XMLTV feed? If so, you can use an XMLTV utility to get data from SD-JSON or SD-DD (if in the US/Canada)

Sure - switching to xmltv, or upgrading Windows were the options we gave on the NextPVR forums when the cause of the problem was first identified. They're not ideal options, but they are there if SD's new load balancer can't be configured to be compatible with .NET on XP.

This combination had worked fine until the recent SD load balancer change.

[emveepee]

Can NextPVR accept an XMLTV feed? If so, you can use an XMLTV utility to get data from SD-JSON or SD-DD (if in the US/Canada)

Aside from the minor inconvenience setting up the issue for me is it is not not a 100% replacement as users will lose their art downloading and sports extending functionality this way.

It is not TLS 1.0 (since it still works for me on Vista), as I wrote I think it is more likely 3DES ciphers or perhaps related to SHA256

Martin