Plugin: mc2xml EPG Plugin

[kricker]

So I uninstalled the plugin and re-setup the tuner. After downloading the lineup I did not do a channel scan. All my channels tune fine and the guide is fully populated.

Slugger, you hit the nail on the head. When I did a channel scan Sage was adding the physically tuned channels and grabbing their data from the streams. How/why I don't know. But it appears to be working great now. So I guess the moral is, with a OTA tuner, don't do a channel scan.

One again thanks for all the quick replies, and for pointing me in the right direction.

[Fuzzy]

well, some are going to need the scan files to be in the sage folder to get the tuning frequencies right... but removing and replacing them might be what it took to get it to NOT use the OTA lineups. I think there's also an option in the properties file to ignore in-stream guide as well.

My guess is, sage will prefer the in-stream over the EPG plugin sources... which would be bad in this case.

[kricker]

I did leave the .frq file in the folder just in case. I left that part out.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

My guess is, sage will prefer the in-stream over the EPG plugin sources... which would be bad in this case.

No, SageTV uses the Zap2it-provided listings when it can. If the EPG data from the stream is being used, that usually means that SageTV has no Zap2it listings for the station and that the station needs to be remapped to the correct one with a Zap2it ID.

Look at the station ID for the channel(s) in question & if they are less than 10,000, then they definitely need to be remapped. For the obligatory manual reference, see the comment about this in the "Remapping Stations for EPG data using ATSC or QAM Digital Tuners" section \, pages 171-172.

- Andy

[kricker]

Originally Posted by Opus4

No, SageTV uses the Zap2it-provided listings when it can. If the EPG data from the stream is being used, that usually means that SageTV has no Zap2it listings for the station and that the station needs to be remapped to the correct one with a Zap2it ID.

Look at the station ID for the channel(s) in question & if they are less than 10,000, then they definitely need to be remapped. For the obligatory manual reference, see the comment about this in the "Remapping Stations for EPG data using ATSC or QAM Digital Tuners" section \, pages 171-172.

- Andy

I'm not quite sure what is going on. But I can tell you this. If I download the lineup but skip the channel scan, the lineup downloaded from Zap2it, matches EXACTLY with the previous .frq file scan results. For example, channel 6-1 is 26-6-1. Now the guide works perfectly.

As soon as I run a channel scan, The guide begins to populate with "No Data", and the channel list becomes a mess. I'll get duplicate channels, but the ones scanned will have channel names pulled from the .frq file. These may or may not match with the Zap2it names (Stations name "qubo" versus call sign "WPXK-DT"). This was causing the confusion. I could map the results from the scan to the Zap2it lineup, but then I have a bunch of extra channels listed in the channel setup.

As it stands now, I have a clean channel setup list and a perfectly working guide. For my Dad, that is what matters.

As this discussion has gone of track, Opus4, can you move the relevant parts of this to a new thread?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Opus4

No, SageTV uses the Zap2it-provided listings when it can. If the EPG data from the stream is being used, that usually means that SageTV has no Zap2it listings for the station and that the station needs to be remapped to the correct one with a Zap2it ID.

Look at the station ID for the channel(s) in question & if they are less than 10,000, then they definitely need to be remapped. For the obligatory manual reference, see the comment about this in the "Remapping Stations for EPG data using ATSC or QAM Digital Tuners" section \, pages 171-172.

- Andy

But where to epg plugins fall into this mix?

[Slugger]

For those using this plugin, you may be interested in the "fixes" directory in the svn repository. This directory contains the latest and greatest filter scripts I'm using to tweak the XML processing of the listing data. This is how I experiment with parsing fixes until I'm satisfied the fix is required and is correct. Once I'm happy with the fix then it will eventually be rolled into the core plugin, eliminating the need for the filter script.

Where possible, this is how fixes will first appear for XML processing. Some fixes have to be implemented in the plugin code, such as the original air date fix released earlier today in build 1675. However, some fixes can be addressed with filters and this is how I test them until I'm satisfied, at which point I roll the filter script into the plugin code itself.

If you want to keep up and use the latest fixes I'm experimenting with then grab them from svn. I'm using the following wget command in a daily cronjob to pull in the latest filter scripts (on my production Sage server, which is also using this EPG plugin for its data).

wget -q -r -nH -P /opt/sagetv/server/plugins/mc2xmlepg/ --cut-dirs=4 -l2 --no-parent -A.groovy http://sagetv-addons.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/mc2xml-epg/fixes/

Running this will add the latest versions of filters to your plugin install, which are immediately used by the plugin on the next EPG update (i.e. no need for a plugin and/or Sage restart). One caveat: This wget command does not remove filters that are removed from svn.

Also, if you have any additional fixes for the scripts in svn or you have additional filters you think should be rolled into the plugin code base then please let me know.

[Slugger]

I've whipped up some filter scripts that add season and episode number data to the EPG data received from mc2xml. It grabs this data from thetvdb.com.

If you want to help test this feature please PM me your email address - I should have something testable by week's end. Please note that you will be required to register with thetvdb.com and obtain your own API key to use these scripts (I will not be sharing my API key at this time). Once you have your API key then PM me your email and I'll send you the scripts once I've tested them a little more.

[NetworkGuy]

I installed the plugin as describe and it seemed to work. When it tried to update the UPG data I found an error in the log file.

Suggestions?

John

[Slugger]

The plugin is unable to find mc2xml.exe in the system path. Did you do the mc2xml verification step?

http://code.google.com/p/sagetv-addo...l_Installation

mc2xml must either be in the system path or you must configure the plugin and point it to the mc2xml.exe file.

[NetworkGuy]

That was it. mc2xml was on the PATH, but I am running SageTV as a service and if I remember correctly, when running as a service, it does not use the PATH. I just pointed to the location and it seems to be working fine.

One more quick question, is "First Run" supported?

Thanks,
John

[HelenWeathers]

Originally Posted by NetworkGuy

One more quick question, is "First Run" supported?

I've been using this plugin for 3-4 weeks now and my First Runs all have worked just fine.

[Slugger]

Just uploaded a new version of the plugin, which includes support for season and episode numbers via thetvdb.com. Only the licensed version of the plugin will process S/E data. From the release notes:

* Add season & episode number support via thetvdb.com (available only in the licensed version of the plugin). This feature should be considered experimental, but appears stable in my env. This feature is turned off by default and must be enabled by the user.

Feedback on the tvdb.com functionality is welcomed.

[HelenWeathers]

Updated to Build 1715 last night.

With this new release, there is now nothing that I miss from the stock SageTV EPG. The season/episode data (to me at least) is well worth the one time subscription/donation fee needed to unlock this feature.

Thanks for all your work on this Slugger.

[wayner]

@slugger - does this plugin make it easier to add dummy data to your EPG?

I have some video cameras connected to Sage via a video switch and older Hauppauge PVR-150 and mapped to channels 991-994. In the EPG these show No Data. It would be great if I could have them show "Baby's Room", etc and to manually configure the length of each "show". Can I do that using mc2xml?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

@slugger - does this plugin make it easier to add dummy data to your EPG?

I have some video cameras connected to Sage via a video switch and older Hauppauge PVR-150 and mapped to channels 991-994. In the EPG these show No Data. It would be great if I could have them show "Baby's Room", etc and to manually configure the length of each "show". Can I do that using mc2xml?

Easy is relative/subjective. To me, it's rather easy, but to some it may not be. To do this, you'd have to:

1) Run the licensed version of the plugin; only the licensed version will process user installed groovy scripts (or build from source, etc.)

2) Write the appropriate groovy scripts necessary to generate a) Show objects and b) Airing objects to insert into the EPG.**

3) Drop the groovy scripts into the plugin dir so that they are processed by the plugin on each EPG update

If you're comfortable writing groovy scripts for SJQ then I don't see why you'd have any issues with this. There is some work required, but it's quite doable.

** The Show and Airing objects are NOT the Sage API objects, but instead wrappers used by the plugin. The details on these objects are explained in the plugin user guide, Advanced Features section.

[Slugger]

For licensed users of the mc2xmlepg plugin, you will be able to edit the tvdb id series of programs via the web interface.

The tvdb season/episode number feature attempts to find shows using a "best guess" based on an exact title match. This isn't perfect and sometimes the plugin will not find a tvdb id for a show or it will find the wrong one. If this is the case, simply load a recording or airing of the show in the web interface and modify the tvdb id number at the bottom of the page. Once it's updated, the S/E data should be pulled in properly on the next EPG update.

NOTE: The web editor is available starting in the just released web UI update (v2.31).

EDIT: Even though the web UI update may not prompt for a restart after upgrading, this tvdb editor will not work until Sage is restarted.

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by Slugger

For licensed users of the mc2xmlepg plugin, you will be able to edit the tvdb id series of programs via the web interface.

The tvdb season/episode number feature attempts to find shows using a "best guess" based on an exact title match. This isn't perfect and sometimes the plugin will not find a tvdb id for a show or it will find the wrong one. If this is the case, simply load a recording or airing of the show in the web interface and modify the tvdb id number at the bottom of the page. Once it's updated, the S/E data should be pulled in properly on the next EPG update.

NOTE: The web editor is available starting in the just released web UI update (v2.31).

EDIT: Even though the web UI update may not prompt for a restart after upgrading, this tvdb editor will not work until Sage is restarted.

Quick question. For the new tvdb support, do I still need to register with tvdb.com to get my own API key? Or is that not a requirement? Also, I'm trying to get the tvdb support to work (I have a lifetime license key), and I'm getting the following issue in my sagetv log:

Thu 12/29 14:11:33.205 [EPG@1f2e6d8] Error updating with EPG Plugin:java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\plugins\mc2xmlepg\tvdb

I noticed the mc2xmlepg\tvdb directory does not exist... do I need to manually create it?

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by LehighBri

Quick question. For the new tvdb support, do I still need to register with tvdb.com to get my own API key? Or is that not a requirement? Also, I'm trying to get the tvdb support to work (I have a lifetime license key), and I'm getting the following issue in my sagetv log:

Thu 12/29 14:11:33.205 [EPG@1f2e6d8] Error updating with EPG Plugin:java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\plugins\mc2xmlepg\tvdb

I noticed the mc2xmlepg\tvdb directory does not exist... do I need to manually create it?

You do not need a tvdb api key - mine's now embedded in the plugin src code.

That directory needs to exist, it should have been created on the first run of the tvdb code. I'm guessing you found a bug - I've opened a ticket here. I'll fix it for the next update. For now, create that directory manually.

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by Slugger

I'll fix it for the next update. For now, create that directory manually.

Great. I manually created the directory and it's working great. Well done... definitely a great plugin!