Setting up SageTV in Australia

[h8dk97]

Hi there,

Could someone help me to setup SageTV. I've installed it but it doesn't detect any free-to-air channels, how do you configure that?

Also I've tried to use xmltv plugin with JavaXMLTV. I manually copied one of the generated files to sagetv directory and it seemed to work, but how do you automate it so that sagetv accepts all the files - 7 files, each for one day.

Thanks in advance.

[carlgar]

You might want to view the cannot get PAL_B Channels or XMLTV to work (http://forums.freytechnologies.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=37034#post37034) thread. If that doesn't help you should try searching for Australia.

[h8dk97]

Well, didn't get much info from that thread. Would be nice if someone who got SageTV and WinTV PVR350 working in Australia posted step by step instructions - how to setup channels and how to feed JavaXMLTV files into xml plugin. I've tried to use one of the files and it worked.

[hoadie]

Hi,

I'm running with at PVR-250 in a server and PVR-350 in a client and haven't had too many dramas getting it all to work, the key things being to make sure that the country code is set to 61 as per the instructions in the post above, installing the XMLTV plugin and getting a decent XMLTV feed.

I'm using something called TVHarvest from this site http://www.odgregg.homeip.net/ however he appears to have taken it off his site while he's away on holidays. Send me an email if you want a copy of it.

The steps for getting this working are pretty much as follows (bare in mind this is mostly from memory):-

1. Configure TV Harvest for your area and run.
2. Copy LISTINGS2.XLM file generated by TVHarvest into your Sage program directory and rename to EPGDATA.XML
3. Install the XMLTV plugin
4. Check the country code is set to 61 (see thread above)
5. Start Sage and configure your tuner(s) as per the instructions in the user's guide. Go in to LiveTV Guide to confirm Sage has succesfully read the XMLTV file. If you see "no data' then you've probably missed a step. Don't bother trying to watch TV yet - the channel mapping will probably be out.
6. Due to the way Microsoft map the channel numbers for Aus TV, the channels listed by Sage don't match what we know them as, so you need to remap your channes through the Channel Setups. In Sydney (and I guess most capital cities), the channels will map as follows:

3: ABC
9: Channel 7
11: Channel 9
12: Channel 10
15: SBS

Unfortunately NineMSN don't seem interested in providing Channel 31 info for, Sydney at least

Once all channels have been mapped and are enabled, select Done with Channel Setup and you should be able to watch / record TV.

Let me know if this works for you, and if anyone sees anything I've missed please let me know.

[hoadie]

Copy of my TVHarvest.exe.config file

<configuration>
<appSettings>
<!-- Number of days of listings into the future to get -->
<add key="days" value="7" />
<!-- Number of days of listings in the past to keep (older ones are deleted) -->
<add key="pastdays" value="1" />
<!-- true or false, indicates if XML should be written to a single file or not -->
<add key="SingleFile" value="true" />
<!-- Path to output the listings to (must have trailing "\")
Default is "c:\Program Files\myHTPC\data\tv\listings\"
but you may have to create those sub folders -->
<add key="path" value="c:\tv\listings\" />
<!-- Credentials to use for proxy server (if you have one set in IE and
it requires a username and password -->
<!--
<add key="ProxyUser" value="username" />
<add key="ProxyPass" value="password" />
-->
<!-- URL for NineMSN tvguide, you MUST update this for your state (ie. change the "88"
to the number appropriate for your location. eg. "101" for Perth)

Visit http://tvguide.ninemsn.com.au/ and view a TV Guide for your area will get
you this URL, but replace the date part (eg. "04042003") with the string "(date)" -->
<add key="GuideURL" value="http://tvguide.ninemsn.com.au/guide/(date)_73.asp?channel=free" />

<!-- Specify the timzone string for the XML, you may need to adjust this or remove it compeletely -->
<add key="Timezone" value="+1000" />


<!-- URL for NineMSN tvguide popups. You should not change this -->
<add key="PopupURL" value="http://tvguide.ninemsn.com.au/cu/default.asp?pid=(pid)" />

</appSettings>
</configuration>



Below are the codes used by TVHarvest/NineMSN for each region around Australia, courtesy of the DVB Owners forum


126=ACT
63=Broken Hill
66=Central Coast
67=Griffith
69=Northern NSW
106=Remote & C'tral NSW
71=Southern NSW
73=Sydney
74=Darwin
108=Remote & C'tral NT
75=Brisbane
78=Gold Coast
79=Regional QLD
114=Remote & C'tral QLD
81=Adelaide
107=Remote & C'tral SA
82=Renmark
83=Riverland
85=South East SA
86=Spencer Gulf
88=Tasmania
90=Eastern Victoria
93=Geelong
94=Melbourne
95=Mildura/Sunraysia
98=Western Victoria
101=Perth
102=Regional WA

[h8dk97]

Hi hoadie,

Thank you for your reply. I've tried to send you an email yesterday but not sure if it worked. Will try now again. Could you please let me know if you haven't got it.
Thanks again.
Regards,

Jerry

[h8dk97]

Hi hoadie,

I finally got it working, had to manually add channels to the registry. But I still have few problems:

1. Tvharvest does not work with WinXP SP2. Is there newer version or perhaps some other program for either Windows or Linux?

2. The remote control of my PVR350 is not responsive at all, sometimes it doesn't respond at all. I've checked the key mappings in SageTV, looks ok. Is that a "normal" problem with 350 remotes?

Thanks.

[hoadie]

Hi,

I wasn't aware of any issues with TVHarvest and XP SP2 - I have no problems at all using SP1.

In anycase, this is available for Linux

http://www.onlinetractorparts.com.au/rohbags/xmltvau/index.html

Regarding the remote, I had no problems with it on my PVR-350 or 250. If anything I find it a little slower now I'm using a USB-UIRT but it was always responsive before.

Ben

[PaulG]

errr.... TVHarvest is working fine for me... WinXP SP2

[h8dk97]

Sorry, my mistake. I forgot to install .NET :)

[hoadie]

TVHarvest can be downloaded from

http://www.users.on.net/~alfalfa/tvharvest.zip

[hoadie]

See updated TVHarvest.exe.config settings above, ie

<!-- URL for NineMSN tvguide popups. You should not change this -->
<add key="PopupURL" value="http://tvguide.ninemsn.com.au/cu/default.asp?pid=(pid)" />

[h8dk97]

See updated TVHarvest.exe.config settings above, ie

<!-- URL for NineMSN tvguide popups. You should not change this -->
<add key="PopupURL" value="http://tvguide.ninemsn.com.au/cu/default.asp?pid=(pid)" />

Thank you. Didn't realise the url's changed.

[PaulG]

See updated TVHarvest.exe.config settings above, ie

<!-- URL for NineMSN tvguide popups. You should not change this -->
<add key="PopupURL" value="http://tvguide.ninemsn.com.au/cu/default.asp?pid=(pid)" />

Yes Thank you for that.... I've been wondering for the last few days why my SageTV guide wasn't updating.

The WAF is improving once again