Schedules Direct EPG (integrated BETA)

[kchase56]

I just switched my system to use integrated SD and just noticed that my Actor/Team Favorites are no longer working. Any ideas what might be going on?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by kchase56

I just switched my system to use integrated SD and just noticed that my Actor/Team Favorites are no longer working. Any ideas what might be going on?

What version of SageTV v9 are you running?

You need to be running 9.0.12 or newer for those to work.

[kchase56]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

What version of SageTV v9 are you running?

You need to be running 9.0.12 or newer for those to work.

I'm running SageTV V9.0.13.536.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by kchase56

I'm running SageTV V9.0.13.536.

Thanks. I found a problem with how we were bringing the actor headshots in since Teams are imported as actors, but because they don't have unique ID's they were being filtered out. I'm working on a fix.

[kchase56]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

Thanks. I found a problem with how we were bringing the actor headshots in since Teams are imported as actors, but because they don't have unique ID's they were being filtered out. I'm working on a fix.

Excellent!

[starfire]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I am actually in the process of working through the channel scan logic in sage (the bit that tries to match scan results up to epg source stations). I'd need examples of the DVB scan results to see if there are ways to improve it. If you could do a scan in sage, with debug logging turned on, and post up the log (for simplicity, and to make for a smaller log, it'd be nice if you could restart the service before and after the scan, so there is less in the log aside from the scan itself), I can take a look and see what can be done.

Did you get any further with this?

Would be great to do a scan in the UK and have the channels in LCN order and mapped to the SD EPG automatically rather than having to do lots of remaps in the channel manager.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by kchase56

Excellent!

The fix has been merged. It will be in the next release of SageTV or you can compile a new Sage.jar for yourself if you're feeling inclined.

[jgsouthard]

I've seen quite a few posts from SageTV v7 users that are anxious about EPG going away and trying to avoid having to upgrade to v9. Until yesterday, I was one of them.

I just completed a two-step migration of my Windows 10 setup from SageTV v7 using SageTV EPG (going away) to SageTV v9 using Schedules Direct EPG, and it was surprisingly painless.

Yesterday I did the v7 to v9 upgrade using the v9 Windows Installer, and the only minor issues were that it reset my Java Heap setting (edited registry to fix) and modified some of my STV settings (took about 15 minutes to fix). All told, about 30 minutes later I was running smoothly in v9. I also had to enter my v7 license key in order to re-enable EPG download.

Today, after making sure all was working correctly in v9, I moved EPG over to Schedules Direct. I used 49studebaker's Import/Export plug in to export my Enabled channels, set up an sdepg lineup on one of my six tuners, scanned but then disabled all of the channels, then imported my previously-exported channel lineup. Once the first tuner was set up, I then switched each of the other tuners to that sdepg lineup. All told, the move to Schedules Direct took maybe 30 minutes, including setting up and paying for my new SD account.

[Malfunction]

No issues at all. I have 3 different registration codes and the original free service didn't work on 2 of them. I gave up. The new system works great! I didn't export my lineup, so I ended up playing with the channels for a couple hours.

[wubdich]

Anybody switched from "SageTV XMLTV Importer" to (integrated) Schedules Direct ? Is it possible to preserve the history of watched airings ?

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by wubdich

Anybody switched from "SageTV XMLTV Importer" to (integrated) Schedules Direct ? Is it possible to preserve the history of watched airings ?

Wiz.bin remains intact, so that data should still be present.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Monedeath

Wiz.bin remains intact, so that data should still be present.

The watched determination has more to do with the external ID's. If the XML data used the same external ID's as TMS, then your watched airings will be preserved. From what I have seen, SageTV doesn't make much of an attempt to resolve watched airings with any fuzzy logic.

[Monedeath]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

The watched determination has more to do with the external ID's. If the XML data used the same external ID's as TMS, then your watched airings will be preserved. From what I have seen, SageTV doesn't make much of an attempt to resolve watched airings with any fuzzy logic.

So while it may remember that you watched a given Episode of a particular program under the previous guide data provider. It is possible SageTV may not know that Season 2, Episode 3 of House under the old guide data provider is the same thing as Season 2, Episode 3 of House under the new provider?

But that being said, the "upstream" provider for the XML Guide Data is the same source that Schedules Direct is using. So there is a decent chance they'll still be identified correctly.

Edit: From what I'm seeing(recently switched over myself), it looks like either the SD EPG is using the same ID's, or SageTV is smart enough to figure out they're the same thing.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Monedeath

So while it may remember that you watched a given Episode of a particular program under the previous guide data provider. It is possible SageTV may not know that Season 2, Episode 3 of House under the old guide data provider is the same thing as Season 2, Episode 3 of House under the new provider?

But that being said, the "upstream" provider for the XML Guide Data is the same source that Schedules Direct is using. So there is a decent chance they'll still be identified correctly.

1. That's correct. It will not know they are the same. Too much logic here would be a very big strain on the scheduler.

2. The only problem you might run into if that's the case is that by default we import the external ID so that they are compatible with the original kind of guide data we used to get from TMS. See this link for more information and how you can disable this if you run into a slew of old shows that you know are watched being shown as not watched.

[Taddeusz]

I've noticed since switching to SD that the "season finale" flag doesn't seem to be showing up any more. Are the premiere and finale flags in SD at all?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I've noticed since switching to SD that the "season finale" flag doesn't seem to be showing up any more. Are the premiere and finale flags in SD at all?

I double-checked the content feed just now and those are definitely coming in and being flagged.

Edit: You should know there's not a lot of them and they aren't really that exhaustive. It's really just whatever TMS gives them.

[rkulagow]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I've noticed since switching to SD that the "season finale" flag doesn't seem to be showing up any more. Are the premiere and finale flags in SD at all?

Please open a ticket at the Schedules Direct website with specific details and I can pull the raw information to see if there's an issue at our side.

[skiingwiz]

I'm not sure how you want reports like this one. If you don't want them cluttering up this thread, let me know.

I'm testing out the GetSDEPGInProgressSportStatus API. I'm getting a strange result. Future events work as expected, returning 3 (future program), but current events are returning 4 (not monitored). I've only tested NHL and NBA, since that's all that's really on now, but the results are the same regardless of which I use. If it matters at all, I'm using the Expression Evaluator in SageTV Studio to call the API. (That shouldn't really make a difference, but it's one more piece of info.)

I built a custom Sage.jar to add some logging of the communication with SchedulesDirect. It shows that the current events are receiving a response of INVALID_PROGRAMID.

What I see for the future events is a response like this:

SDInProgressSport{code=6002, message='The programID you requested has not occurred yet, so isComplete status is unknown.', programID='SP003471650000', response='FUTURE_PROGRAM', isComplete=false, serverID='20141201.web.3', datetime='2017-03-09T02:35:25Z', result=null}

But for a current event it looks like this:

SDInProgressSport{code=6000, message='Could not find requested programID.', programID='SP003471620000', response='INVALID_PROGRAMID', isComplete=false, serverID='Test1', datetime='2017-03-09T02:34:39Z', result=null}

The thing that looks odd to me there is the serverID. When I query for the current event, the serverID is "Test1", for the future event, it's "20141201.web.3". That makes me wonder if it is something on SD's end, maybe?

Any suggestions on where to go from here?

[gordyp]

I have had issues recently with a couple of current shows that have prior shows with the same names, and the metadata getting garbled. The shows are The Magicians and Taboo. SD seems to be getting the correct descriptions in the channel guide and the scheduled recordings list, but once the show is recorded some or all of the info gets replaced with information from the previous series' season and episode. It appears to be ignoring the current air date as it is being changed to the date of the prior series. The name of the file being saved is correct; just the metadata is wonky. I am inclined to think the issue is with Sage rather than SD as everything seems fine until the recording is completed.

Issues with my Team sports favorites was driving me nuts as well; glad to see that I was not the only one.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by gordyp

I have had issues recently with a couple of current shows that have prior shows with the same names, and the metadata getting garbled. The shows are The Magicians and Taboo. SD seems to be getting the correct descriptions in the channel guide and the scheduled recordings list, but once the show is recorded some or all of the info gets replaced with information from the previous series' season and episode. It appears to be ignoring the current air date as it is being changed to the date of the prior series. The name of the file being saved is correct; just the metadata is wonky. I am inclined to think the issue is with Sage rather than SD as everything seems fine until the recording is completed.

Issues with my Team sports favorites was driving me nuts as well; glad to see that I was not the only one.

That sounds like it's phoenix altering the data after the show is recorded. Phoenix has settings to prevent changing metadata in recordings, and is set to prevent it by default, so my guess is that setting was somehow changed.