New XMLTV Import Tool

[StephaneM]

Hello Thomas,

Originally Posted by thborchert

what's wrong with the lmgestion website? I cannot load any pages, let alone the importer. Been trying for 24 hours now.

Our service provider has experienced a major outage from yesterday 31/01 18h13 UTC to 01/02 16h43 UTC. All our network activities was down, but all is fine now and you can download the Importer.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by pgitta

No, you can't use dashes or dots in the importer (although it would be nice)

Do you need dashes or dots (or both)? I'll issue an updated version to allow you to use them (and update the documentation as well).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[pgitta]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

Do you need dashes or dots (or both)? I'll issue an updated version to allow you to use them (and update the documentation as well).

Regards,
Stéphane.

Cool. No, Sage doesn't use dots, but requires dashes in the Logical channel number.

The ultimate would be to add a few fields, say...

Example WTTWDT2 Physical ch 47, Logical 11 sub 2

XMLTV Id.....(Friendly) Name.......Call Letters....Physical Ch......Logical Ch....Sub Ch.

Then when the Physical (47), Logical (11), and Sub (2) channels are entered, your app auto generates what Sage is looking for (11-2) and (47-11-2)

further...since everything that ends in "DT" is always the first channel (-1) and DT2 is -2 and so on, your program could read that field looking for DT[whatever, and the sub channel field would not even be necessary as it could know what it's supposed to be.

So if a user entered 47 physical and 11 Logical, the program would look at the call letters and detect the "DT4" and automatically enter into Sage:

11-4 - [47-11-4]
WTTWDT4

then we wouldn't have to modify ANYTHING in Sage! Plug-N-Play.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by pgitta

Then when the Physical (47), Logical (11), and Sub (2) channels are entered, your app auto generates what Sage is looking for (11-2) and (47-11-2) .../... then we wouldn't have to modify ANYTHING in Sage! Plug-N-Play.

I guess I can't do that. EPG Plugins are supposed to give a channel number (it could be a string not just a number so it should accept dash). But I can only give either the physical or the logical (I guess the physical is expected).

I'll ask for clarification about this. I alway thought that ATSC was working the same way as DVB. We have a .frq file that contains all the frequencies found by a scan and each of these frequencies are assigned a channel number (With DVB one frequency host multiple channels, just like your sub channels but they are not part of the same network). And In the Importer you give this channel number and SageTV is doing the mapping itself.

I wonder if EPG plugin can do this at all (I guess that all this stuff is done in the "override" property found in the Sage.properties file).

If you want to test if it works or not, you can modify the C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\3rdPartyGuideData\Lineup.xml to edit the <ss-tmschan>XXXX</ss-tmschan> nodes for one or two channels and replace the XXXX number by a physical channel number like 47-11-2 and see if it gets imported and tune correctly.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[jayrbrown77]

Is the frequency tied into the channel?

Meaning if titan-tv tell's me that CW is 28-1 with freq 22, is it required for the physical channel == 22-28-1 or can it just be 22

If I wanted to place the CW next to my cable station for CW which is 9.

Could I do the following. Logical channel = 9-1 and Physical channel = 22-28-1.

I'm new to this EPG stuff.

Thanks,

J

[pgitta]

Originally Posted by jayrbrown77

Is the frequency tied into the channel?

Meaning if titan-tv tell's me that CW is 28-1 with freq 22, is it required for the physical channel == 22-28-1 or can it just be 22

If I wanted to place the CW next to my cable station for CW which is 9.

Could I do the following. Logical channel = 9-1 and Physical channel = 22-28-1.

I'm new to this EPG stuff.

Thanks,

J

You can't use 9-1 because that is not an OTA digital channel. It's the number I assume your cable people assigned it. The dash-1,2,3 stuff is only for OTA.

That would simply be "9" for the Logical channel

For OTA, yes, you need to spread it out as [22-28-1]

If you just put the freq. 22, how would Sage know which channel you want? 28-1? 28-2? 28-3?

It is all very confusing. For instance, I have an OTA receiver that would tune that channel in as 22-1, 22-2!!!

[jayrbrown77]

ok, thanks

[henk99]

Hi,

I'm in a bit of trouble atm. I had to make a clean windows xp install over the weekend, and so i also had to re-setup sagetv.
First i had setup my xmltv grabber to grab the data, then i installed stephane's latest version of the importer. Stephanes imported thinks everything is fine, and says the import was succesfull, so i can go and setup the videosources.
I then setup the videosources and first set them up without epgdata. This all goes fine and it finds a bunch of channels.
After that i go into source setup again to get the xmltv data in place. Then te problem starts, sagetv cannot find the provider. I have let it search for an hour, but it doesn't find the xmltv file. Normally here it would show XMLTV and i was able to select basic or extended service. Now i can't get there.
Any idea what is happening? Why this is not working?
Perhaps you can point me to things i can check to further find what is wrong?

Cheers,
Henk

[StephaneM]

Hello Henk,

Originally Posted by henk99

After that i go into source setup again to get the xmltv data in place. Then te problem starts, sagetv cannot find the provider. I have let it search for an hour.../...Any idea what is happening? Why this is not working?

Well, the common causes for this are:

* You don't have JRE 1.5 or newer version installed.
* The Importer was installed but SageTV wasn't completely shut down.

Otherwise review the xmltv.log in the SageTV folder (SageTV\SageTV), but normally you shouldn't have any xmltv.log as it seems that the java classes are not loaded at all.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[henk99]

Hi StephaneM,
That was it! I installed the latest Java version and then it went fine.
Thank you for your fast support!

Henk

Originally Posted by StephaneM

Hello Henk,

Well, the common causes for this are:

* You don't have JRE 1.5 or newer version installed.
* The Importer was installed but SageTV wasn't completely shut down.

Otherwise review the xmltv.log in the SageTV folder (SageTV\SageTV), but normally you shouldn't have any xmltv.log as it seems that the java classes are not loaded at all.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[pvogel]

I am trying to use xmltv import plugin here in Australia. It all seems to do the right thing untilI try and get SageTV to use the XMLTV imported.

When selecting source for the tuner (it's a dual DVB-T system) I select "US, Canada or XMLTV guide data with this source" then I choose "Local broadcast" and I get a screen saying " Please select your local broadcast market" but there are no choices displayed.

What should I see here and what could I check to see what's wrong?

Thanks.

Peter

[StephaneM]

Hello Peter,

Originally Posted by pvogel

When selecting source for the tuner (it's a dual DVB-T system) I select "US, Canada or XMLTV guide data with this source" then I choose "Local broadcast" and I get a screen saying " Please select your local broadcast market" but there are no choices displayed.

Please uninstall and reinstall the XMLTV Importer and this time make sure that SageTV is completely shut down.

Also you need to have Java Runtime version 1.5 or newer.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[brewston]

Hiya

I started getting this error in the past few days :

No programs added for channel 'FilmFour +1'


Since I already have filmfour in my channel lineup, does the importer have a facility to add the +1 channels with needing to download them ? (ie take the filmfour listing and time shift byt 1 hr)

Also, I installed the latest version - any instructions on how to use the new categories feature ?

Thanks

Tim

[StephaneM]

Hello,

Originally Posted by brewston

does the importer have a facility to add the +1 channels with needing to download them ? (ie take the filmfour listing and time shift byt 1 hr)

Yes, you can do this with the channel editor, in the "additional channels" tab. You need to create a new channel (the channel ID you'll choose must NOT be the same as your original channel, but you can reuse the XMLTV ID of the +1 channel) and use the "Time offset" column to add the extra hours and finally choose the original channel in the "Same as" column and put the newly created channel on the lineup that used to have the +1 channel (Also disable the +1 channel in the "channels" tab : just get rid of the channel number).

Also, I installed the latest version - any instructions on how to use the new categories feature ?

There is a detailed chapter for this new feature on the "How to use it?" page on my web site. Be sure to check it out first and come here for asking me questions. But basically the categories feature is for rewriting completely the XMLTV categories with a reduced set of categories.Goals are :

* Reduce categories
* Make sure categories are always the same : adjust the filters if the XMLTV categories are changing
* Consolidate categories : Movie and Series should use the same sub categories, Magazine and Educational should use the same sub categories etc...

The Importer will also after each Import tell you (in the Event Log) what XMLTV categoris could not be matched, so you can improve your filters as time goes by.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[brewston]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

Hello,
Yes, you can do this with the channel editor, in the "additional channels" tab. You need to create a new channel (the channel ID you'll choose must NOT be the same as your original channel, but you can reuse the XMLTV ID of the +1 channel) and use the "Time offset" column to add the extra hours and finally choose the original channel in the "Same as" column and put the newly created channel on the lineup that used to have the +1 channel (Also disable the +1 channel in the "channels" tab : just get rid of the channel number).
.

Thanks - I've tried that, my additional channel looks like :

ID : Film4+1 -- it was originally called filmfour+1 on the old lineup
Name: Film4+1
Call Sign: Film4+1
Number: 316
Time: +1
Lineup: 1
Same As: filmfour.channel4.com -- chosen from the drop downlist

The next few days shows the movies but after that i see 'no data' (despite film4 having entries) I suspect the movies from the next few days may be left over from the old entry ?

Thanks for the pointer to the docs on the category feature. I've only just realised I can edit the colours (come from using SageMC for so long)

Tim

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by brewston

The next few days shows the movies but after that i see 'no data' (despite film4 having entries) I suspect the movies from the next few days may be left over from the old entry ?

Have you run the Importer just after creating the channel and forced SageTV to load the data (disabling / enabling a channel in the lineup or with the help of the Web Server plugin. Note: The "force update" through the Web Server Plugin is only used by the Importer during an automated update, not when you click on the Import button)

Thanks for the pointer to the docs on the category feature. I've only just realised I can edit the colours (come from using SageMC for so long)

You can edit the colors in the stock STV and also in SageMC (but it is a manual process : you have to create two image file for each category to colorize in the guide).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[brewston]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

Have you run the Importer just after creating the channel and forced SageTV to load the data (disabling / enabling a channel in the lineup or with the help of the Web Server plugin. Note: The "force update" through the Web Server Plugin is only used by the Importer during an automated update, not when you click on the Import button)

Yes, I re-ran the importer and forced the update through the web server. What files can I check to see if the entries are there ?

Tim

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by brewston

Yes, I re-ran the importer and forced the update through the web server. What files can I check to see if the entries are there ?

All files that get imported by SageTV are in the C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\3rdPartyGuideData folder.

* Lineup.xml : contains the channels to be imported, so check in there that the "+1" channels was created (or you can simply change its name in the Importer to be something different and if you see it in your SageTV program guide you are sure the channel was indeed imported).

* ProgramsXX.xml : contains the show. Nothing to see here, as it contains all the shows but for all channels in your lineup and shows are shared amongst channels (especially for "+1")

* EpisodesXX.xml : contains airing for the shows, you can check here that you have indeed airings for the "+1" channel (check with the "stationnum" node you'll find in the Lineup.xml file)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[brewston]

Stephane

Thanks for that info. It ran overnight and it shows the films OK. Not sure why manually running the importer didn't do it

I have 1 more question :-) in SageMC, the Movies section (under My TV) never used to show me any movies until I noticed in the SageMC settings there was a setting called 'Movie Category'. I set this to 'Film' (due to my XMLTV source being the radio times and thats what we call movies here) and it worked up until the latest update of your importer

I've added the keyword film under movies in the edit categories section and its made no difference

Thanks again

Tim

[StephaneM]

Hi Tim,

Originally Posted by brewston

I have 1 more question :-) in SageMC, the Movies section (under My TV) never used to show me any movies until I noticed in the SageMC settings there was a setting called 'Movie Category'. I set this to 'Film' (due to my XMLTV source being the radio times and thats what we call movies here) and it worked up until the latest update of your importer

This because of a feature of current released versions of SageTV. When SageTV adds a movie to its database (coming from XMLTV or not), it force the main category to be "Movie" (or the equivalent internal translation for French and German that are currently the only released languages).

So as you are running SageTV in English, SageTV expect the main category for movies to be "Movie".

With the newest version of the Importer you can change the main category for Movie (with previous version of the Importer it was not possible, I was also forcing "Movie").

So if you are importing a movie with a main category "Film" and subcategory "SciFi", SageTV will see that "Film" is not "Movie" and so will replace "Film" by "Movie" and "SciFi" by "Film" (so it shift categories to the right). Final result is "Movie / Film" instead of "Film / SciFi". You'll see it clearly in the SageTV UI (wether you use the stock STV or SageMC) that all your movies are now "Movie / Film".

To correct this, just open the categories editor in the Importer, and change the display name "Film" into "Movie" for the "Movie" main category and do the import again (and also force the EPG Update in Sage).

Then in SageMC also revert to "Movie" for the movie category.

This feature will be disabled for XMLTV plugins in a future version of SageTV (I have not checked if this was already the case with SageTV 6.1 beta)

Regards,
Stéphane.