Bleb.org XMLTV lisitings

[Bubster]

Hi,

Bleb.org now has an option to output its UK TV listings in XMLTV format.

It doesn't carry all the regional channels, but does have pretty decent coverage of the main satellite/cable channels. The listsings also don't provide extra detail like actors, etc., but do give the programme descriptions.

The best thing about it is that you simply send it a web query and it will package up your channels into a compressed zip file containing the XMLTV file, which only takes a few seconds to download.

The query page is here: http://www.bleb.org/tv/data/listings?help

The page gives full instructions on formatting your query to get the channels you want.

All it really needs now is some way to call it from a batch file so you can automate the process.

One remaining issue is that the SageTV importer doesn't like Bleb's XMLTV format, as it doesn't put a time zone in the start/end times, and the importer expects one.

One way to fix this is to search for [00"] and replace with [00 +0000#] (you need to remove the square brackets).

That's a bit of a pain, so I have a modified version of the importer that will accept the times exported by Bleb which I can upload somewhere if people are going to use it. I've also sent a copy of the changes to the maintainer of the importer, to see if he will include it in future versions.

Cheers,

- Neil.

[taylormadearmy]

Here's a useful exe that'll automate the download for you:

http://www.de-bugger.com/Misc/DGBleb.htm


Could you provide me with your updated importer (I was pleased to see you fix here:))

I tried searching for 00" and replace with 00 +0000# - but I still don't seem to be getting any data... Any ideas..?

Thanks!!

[Bubster]

I think I might have mis-typed the search & replace there. The [00 +0000#] should have been [00 +0000"]. Don't know where I got the # from, sorry.

I've uploaded the fix to my website here:

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~nstewart/Show.class

Just replace the file "Show.class" in your "SageTV/xmltv" folder with the downloaded one and it should accept Bleb's xmltv data as-is (i.e. without the +0000).

Just make sure to put your epgdata.xml file back the way it was, without the # mistake. ;)

Also, Sage only gets the epg data every so often, so it might not take the data without you resetting its fetch time somehow. I'm not sure of a good way to do this, short of wiping your prefs/wiz.

Hope this helps.

- Neil.

[taylormadearmy]

That did it - Ta!

You know of any way to change the order of the channels?

[Bubster]

No, I think it orders them by the channel number you map to on the tuner, and that's your lot. :(

I think a channel priority system would be a good idea, where you assign a priority to your channels and it puts the ones with highest priority at the top of the list, but I don't think there's anything like this yet.

- Neil.