free EPG ??

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aucklander

477 posts

Ultimate Geek

#23616 4-Jul-2008 09:23

Hi all!

Please have a look at this little application I found:

http://www.tvxb.com/

It generates an XMLTV file and it appears to work for TV1, TV2 and C4. I did not try to pass the file to Media Portal yet, so I cannot confirm the format is compatible, but the author claims it is. However, reading the xml file, there is dates, show names, descriptions, appears to be OK. It remains to be seen if MP will understand all the info contained in there...

Someone who understands how the software interogates the websites might be able to add (fix?) TV3 (it is there but not working as the web page format changed since the creation of the software and it returns only empty entries for TV3) and of course all the other channels. C4 appear to work as well (only show names and times, no descriptions).

All web page creators out there... please help with this! Should be so easy for someone who knows how to "disect" a web-page...

I emailed the author already (Hong Kong) but he checkes the emails for this subject every 4-5 weeks.

mobo Intel DH55PJ, RAM: 4GB RAM, Nova-T 500 HD + Avermedia Trinity tuner card, Geforce 520 video, 120GB SSD Sandisk + 640 WD + 1000SG, Win7 Home Prem 64-bit, Media Portal 1.15.0; BTC 9019URF Cordless Keyboard, Panasonic 55" (HDMI cable), HTPC Case Silverstone Grandia GD05B.

sbiddle

30853 posts

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#142841 4-Jul-2008 09:32

There are plenty of working sources for EPG's - I certainly wouldn't bother wasting my time trying to mess with something that obviously doesn't work properly.

xmltvnz is certainly the most popular web scraper - check out www.reven.co.nz

Or you can just look here on Geekzone where a user has written a script to download the EPG available from hairy.geek.nz (which itself is extracted from the DVB stream on Freeview's DVB-S service) and use it in GB-PVR, DVBViewer or Media Portal.

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amphibem

138 posts

Master Geek

#142842 4-Jul-2008 09:34

I tried this at some stage last year when I was first trying to get an EPG into VMC, but found [url=http://www.reven.co.nz]xmlTVNZ[/url] much better. Am still using xmlTVNZ now, its written and mantained by a New Zealander for just New Zealand TV and has an active community, with reven himself using answering calls for help within a few days.

Is anyone in NZ actually using tvxb?

Edit: Too slow, and how come I can't insert links?

aucklander

477 posts

Ultimate Geek

#142915 4-Jul-2008 12:02

I got version 2.5 off that web site and it appears this is not supported anymore, you have to have version 3.0, which is not free?. What donation is expected? $5? $50? On top of that I do not have a PayPal account...

Can anyone help with an xmlTVNZ schedule, just to test how it integrates with MP, and how the info is used by MP (what info displays on the screen, and if the recordings are not all named "manual" anymore); I am not asking for the whole software for free from anyone, just the file it creates, which after 4-5 days is useless anyway, right? The replies for the other link are all complaining something is wrong... Provided everything works as expected, I will get the software, of course.

Please do not imagine I will ever ask for this file again, it will definetely not become a weekly habit !!!

The landline was faulty at home, fixed by telecom, but woosh (my ISP) said they need up to 5 working days to restore the service !!! something to do with the dsl signal to be re-enabled by telecom...

amphibem

138 posts

Master Geek

#142919 4-Jul-2008 12:19

Here is a copy of a up-to-date tvguide.xml, see how this goes. I have it working in MediaPortal and it is very easy, especially coming from mythtv!

As far as the donation goes, only a small amount is required (I gave $15), and it can be done directly with a credit card.

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?1kp10mmtxm9

Disrespective

1924 posts

Uber Geek

#142929 4-Jul-2008 12:45

When you use Reven’s grabber you have to use a program called Bladerunner Pro as well. You just need to register at their site and that’s not too rough. You need to do a little configuration to get the two to talk to each other nicely and output what you want but it’s really very easy and there are plenty of how-to’s.

As for Reven’s service, I figured what I paid was the least I could pay for the benefit of ongoing local support and constant updates and fixes to the code that he does. The current release candidate is said to be very close (this could still be months away though really) to a public release also so anyone who’s been without since ver. 2.5 will be able to get it free of charge.

Reven’s forums are full of people who have used xmlTVNZ with pretty much every different Media Center option out there so there will be plenty of help if you needed it for MediaPortal. I myself, have been using xmlTVNZ for a year or two now with MediaPortal and aside from xmlTVNZ hiccupping a few times when TV companies change their website without telling reven to change his code to work it has worked flawlessly.

I have attached my latest tvguide.xml file here for you to try another one to check.

http://www.filedropper.com/tvguide

amphibem

138 posts

Master Geek

#142936 4-Jul-2008 12:57

If he is just using it with MediaPortal there is no need for BladeRunner, just add the xmltv plugin to the TVServer config and point it to the tvguide.xml file. I remembered that you do also need another file that is supplied with the xmlTVNZ zip, it doesn't get updated by the grabber but apparently MP needs it. See here for download: http://www.mediafire.com/?mhw5yj4zx9z. Place it in the same folder as the tvguide.xml file and you are good to go.

sbiddle

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#142944 4-Jul-2008 13:24

Blade Runner is only required if you are wanting to import an XML file into Windows MCE or Vista MCE, it is not required for any other TV software.

Disrespective

1924 posts

Uber Geek

#142967 4-Jul-2008 14:25

Apologies about the misleading Bladerunner info. I used to use MCE and just never thought it would be as simple without it.

[edit]Apologies for the hijack but I've found that i don't seem to be able to schedule a task to do the xmlTVNZ grab from just the getlistings.bat file. Is there a simple way to do this and thus not need bladerunner to be a scheduler?

aucklander

477 posts

Ultimate Geek

#142968 4-Jul-2008 14:26

Thanks a lot for the files and advice!!
I will see how it goes.

amphibem

138 posts

Master Geek

#142969 4-Jul-2008 14:29

I use a .cmd file, see below:

'xmlTVNZ.exe tvguide.xml -days 14 default_tv1 sat_tv2 sat_tv3 default_c4 default_prime default_tvnz6 default_tvnz7 default_tvnzsportextra default_maori'

I have no idea what the difference between a .bat and a .cmd are but this works for me, using Windows Task Scheduler to run this command every second day.

aucklander

477 posts

Ultimate Geek

#143547 7-Jul-2008 08:02

Thank you for the EPG "sample"... It is working (now). An interesting observation: now that EPG info is detected, when I press "record" during a live tv I get two options in media Portal:
- record this show
- record until manual stop
This is cool!!

However, I did not find it easy to add the functionality, it did not work just by adding the tvguide.xml file to the required folder (plus activating xmltv plugin and addind the other ".dtd" file). When it finally showed the EPG sceen, the times were all wrong. I had to add "+19" as time correction to get the times right, I do not know why.

But is working now, restarted pc several times since then, all is fine.

amphibem

138 posts

Master Geek

#143550 7-Jul-2008 08:19

Glad to hear you got it working. Strange about the time offset though, I don't have that problem. Time to donate and have an EPG all the time then!

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

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#145485 9-Jul-2008 15:40

There is another solution

Metalinc's EPG Grabber works with Mediaportal / GBPVR / DVBViewer

The forum link is here
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=83&TopicId=20400

I couldn't get xmltvnz to work last time i tried it, but this worked ok, although i did turn off UAC in control panel first. Also if you test the program too many times you get banned from the server for a period of time (to prevent overloading the server)

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

aucklander

477 posts

Ultimate Geek

#149903 21-Jul-2008 15:07

Last minute development:

I installed this over the week-end: http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utility/Djkxml
and it works.

It created the xml file from the first attempt.
The only issue I had: it was not properly imported by Media Portal straight away. I compared the file structure with the xmltvnz file and there are some diferences preventing Media Portal to import the data: the channels are stored as codes, not as names.

I do not have the xmltvnz 3.0, I tried the 2.5 some time ago but it does not work (for all channels), not being maintained anymore.
In xmltvnz 2.5 file, you have lines like: channel_id="01" but in the 3.0 version I think they are like: channel_id="tv1".

I used DJKXML, and all I had to do after that is to replace all the occurences of the string "01" with "tv1" which is what Media Portal expects to find. Maybe is my setup only, I am not sure. The codes are listed on the site where you go and download the DJKXML from.

That is a lot of "keyboard work", to replace all the strings as described above. So after more research, I found a free tool which automates this process. You only define the rules once and it saves them in a text file with entries like this:
"01"="tv1"
"02"="tv2"
"36"="tvnz6"
......
......

just replace the codes as described on the web page with the channel names, same way Media Portal expects them to be. If there is interest, I can post my "translation" of the codes. I have DVB-T channels only, no DVB-S or analogue.

Now, I run the DJKXML file and after 2-3 minutes it creates the tvguide.xml file (it might be created with a diferent name, I do not remember). Then I run the free tool to replace all the strings as described above. If the author can make the changes I talked about in the source code, that will be much easier. Or maybe other people do not have a problem with the codes the way they are...