EPG grabbers

[sandyj]

Does anyone in New Zealand use a EPG grabber, if so what service do you use and is it even required anymore.

[DylanHall]

I don't believe there is another way to get EPG data in NZ. I think the EPG stuff built into Sage is all US centric.

I get my data from http://nzepg.org/freeview.xml.gz

There used to be another XMLTV listing which included Sky TV but that was taken down after lawyers got involved. I imagine that data is still floating around somewhere, but I don't have Sky so I've not tried to track it down.

To use the XMLTV data you'll need a plugin to support it.

I'm using Linux so I'm limited to a rather elderly plugin (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44688). There is something considerably friendlier available for windows, but I don't recall it's name. I imagine a quick search of the forums should turn up something

Dylan

[JREkiwi]

For Freeview DVB-T, the xml file Dylan mentioned is the best. It gets massaged to fix up all the issues with variable show names etc.

For DVB-S I use EPG Collector to grab data.

As an XML importer I use LM Gestions' one.

John

[sandyj]

[QUOTE=DylanHall;509370]I don't believe there is another way to get EPG data in NZ. I think the EPG stuff built into Sage is all US centric.

I get my data from http://nzepg.org/freeview.xml.gz

DO you know who creates this data and maintains it is it accurate ?

[sandyj]

Hi John
What does your solution do that's different to just getting the basic EPG from the Satellite signal I think I am missing something here. It would appear that you extract the EPG from the signal into an XML file then re-import it, do you do something with this before doing this step.

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

For Freeview DVB-T, the xml file Dylan mentioned is the best. It gets massaged to fix up all the issues with variable show names etc.

For DVB-S I use EPG Collector to grab data.

As an XML importer I use LM Gestions' one.

John

[DylanHall]

I did some reading on this a while ago, so hopefully I've recalled it correctly.

The Freeview setup in NZ is using a different format for EPG data over DVB-S than it does over DVB-T.

The EPG over DVB-S has been around for a while and lots of tools exist to extract it. I believe the XMLTV file mentioned earlier is sourced from the DVB-S data. I used to hang around on the MythTV NZ mailing list where the author of the tool that does the massaging posts occasionally. The tool corrects common problems in the data (inconsistent names, poor separation of the series name from the episode name, etc) and also adds in more detailed descriptions for some programs (movies I think, maybe via IMDB or similar?).

The upshot is a better source of data than relying on the DVB-S EPG data alone.

As for the DVB-T data, they encode is using something called MHEG (not to be confused with MPEG). MHEG appears to be more like a programming language than just EPG data. I think the best comparison would be something like Adobe Flash. The TV/Set top box downloads the MHEG data which includes how to render the information in addition to just the actual EPG data. This is why the program guide on all the approved Freeview DVB-T devices looks the same.

Just to tease, they also include some EPG data in the older format on DVB-T, but only around 2 hours worth so not a lot of use for scheduling purposes.

[sandyj]

Thanks for the info Guys I will try this out once the DVB-t gets going fully in Nelson they are still in the testing phase at the moment.

[Fuzzy]

Does WMC have proepr guide data? You might be able to use MC2XML to generate it that way.

[sandyj]

Just thought I would say a big thanks to everyone here I have got the whole thing up and running with 2 HDhomeruns Dual's DVB-T giving me 4 tuners all together.
I am using both LM Gestions donation version and the EPG Collector software. The whole thing is automated and is reliable so far. The picture quality is also great now I am using the HD tuners I can notice a real difference over the DVB-S tuners I had been using before.