DVBGuide

[TommyGonk]

Hi,

I've been playing around with the DVBGuide app the last few days. This app can capture the 7 day EPG data from Freeview or Freesat (not managed to get Freesat to work yet though). Here's the link http://www.geocities.com/pclareuk/DVBGuide/.

I did a search of the Sage forums and only found two mentions of DVBGuide, thought that was a bit odd as this seems to be a much better way to get the programme guide data.

I'm using DVBGuide with the excellent XMLTVImporter app. I've setup a grabber using the DVBGuide.exe with a command line of '-c634000 -o freeview.xml'. I'm on the Sutton Coldfield transmitter so I use -c634000, that should be the frequency of the BBC1 Freeview group. There's a sample file in the DVBGuide zip for getting Freesat data.

You need the xmltv.dtd file in the same folder where the freeview.xml is created for XMLTVImporter to be able to load it.

I've got that data imported into Sage via the XMLTVImporter and it all looks ok. It takes about 4 minutes to grab the 7 day EPG data, creating a file of about 7meg.

I've been trying to get the Freesat EPG capture using DVBGuide but not had any luck so far. I either get 'no lock' or it gets part of the way through and I get an error about 'no SDT records'.

I did find another app which works with DVBViewer to get the Sky EPG data. That worked and created an xml file of over 70meg, but the file doesn't look like it's an xmltv format file.

Cheers

Gary

[StephaneM]

Hi Gary,

Originally Posted by starlasoft

I did find another app which works with DVBViewer to get the Sky EPG data. That worked and created an xml file of over 70meg, but the file doesn't look like it's an xmltv format file.

You may want to try my DVBViewer Recodred plugin, it does have the ability to save the DVBViewer guide data into an XMLTV file (I don't know if many users actually use the feature). It will do this on a scheduled basis (wake up the PC if needed) and ensure that it will not disrupt any recording going on.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[TommyGonk]

I've played around with the DVB Recorder today but I've not managed to get any data into an xml file. It does tune the channel, grab data and write an xml but it only has a few lines for the couple of channels I've enabled, no EPG data.

Do you have any instructions on how to get the EPG capture working ?.

Thanks

Gary

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by starlasoft

Do you have any instructions on how to get the EPG capture working ?

The way it works is quite simple actually:

* On the schedule you set, the recorder will tune the channel specified and wait for the grab duration. Usually this is during this grab duration that DVBViewer should get the EPG. Of course it's best to tune to the channels where the DVB EPG is located (I think for Freeview there is a dedicated frequency)

* When the grab duration is over the recorder save in the XMLTV file whatever EPG information available in DVBViewer for the channels in the current recorder lineup.

So, if you have EPG in DVBViewer, it should be saved to the XMLTV file.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[TommyGonk]

Got some progress now. I had to upgrade to the latest version of DVBViewer, seemed to sort out the OpenEPGToDVBViewer app pushing the Sky EPG data into DVBViewer.

Trickiest bit is going to be automating the Sky EPG capture. I only want to use DVBRecorder/DVBViewer to get the Sky EPG data. I could schedule the EPG capture from within DVBRecorder but will have to run the OpenEPGToDVBViewer app a few minutes before. I'll have to send a message to that app to simulate pressing the 'Run EPG Update' button.

Is there a command line app similar to DVBGuide that can grab the Sky EPG data and output in xmltv format ?. That would be ideal for using with the XMLTVImporter app.

Thanks

Gary

[Whitey]

Originally Posted by starlasoft

Got some progress now. I had to upgrade to the latest version of DVBViewer, seemed to sort out the OpenEPGToDVBViewer app pushing the Sky EPG data into DVBViewer.

Trickiest bit is going to be automating the Sky EPG capture. I only want to use DVBRecorder/DVBViewer to get the Sky EPG data. I could schedule the EPG capture from within DVBRecorder but will have to run the OpenEPGToDVBViewer app a few minutes before. I'll have to send a message to that app to simulate pressing the 'Run EPG Update' button.

Is there a command line app similar to DVBGuide that can grab the Sky EPG data and output in xmltv format ?. That would be ideal for using with the XMLTVImporter app.

Thanks

Gary

There's an German app called DVBViewer2xmltv that might do what you want but it's designed for MCE/Bladerunner AIUI. What would really be great if sage could integrate openepg grabbing.

Whitey

[TommyGonk]

Thanks for the info, I'll see if I can track that app down.

This is one area where SageTV seems a bit behind some of the other PVR software. It shouldn't be difficult for them to implement Freeview/Freesat EPG data download. It should also make it much easier to get the software setup, if it can find the channel ids the same as a settop box can.

Cheers

Gary

[TommyGonk]

I managed to get hold of a copy of DVBViewer2xmltv, it does work but has a couple of problems. It dumps everything so the xml file is big, about 45meg, and it is very slow, takes 25-30mins to dump the xml for some reason.

The OpenEPGToDVBViewer app already writes epg data and channel info xml files, but they are not in xmltv format. They do have quite a lot of useful information in them though, such as the Sky channel mapping ids in the channel info xml file. Grabbing the EPG data only takes about 20-30secs for the full 7 day EPG.

I'll have a look at writing an app to process the xml files and generate an xmltv format xml file, with some way of filtering out channels I'm not interested in.

Cheers

Gary

[Whitey]

Yeah I have had a play with OpenEPGToDVBViewer and it works really well. If you have the knowledge to convert the xml file it creates to xmltv that would be great. BTW my xmltv file from digiguide is around 90MB so 45MB is quite small.

Thanks

Whitey