Schedules Direct EPG (integrated BETA)

[rickgillyon]

epg_data_sources/6835103/epg_class=WarlockRipper - this line is from sage.properties, the value isn't a period it's WarlockRipper.

As I've been trying to say, I think the XMLTV plugin uses WarlockRipper.

epg/custom_data_source_class=

Blank. These are all the same in last month's backup as they are today.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

epg_data_sources/6835103/epg_class=WarlockRipper - this line is from sage.properties, the value isn't a period it's WarlockRipper.

As I've been trying to say, I think the XMLTV plugin uses WarlockRipper.

epg/custom_data_source_class=

Blank. These are all the same in last month's backup as they are today.

You are correct, WarlockRipper does load EPG plugins when they exist. I combed over the code that the Schedules Direct additions might in some strange way break loading EPG plugins and I can't find a logical reason why it would come even close to causing a problem. The only way those changes could cause a problem as designed would be if you have (sdepg) appended to your source or the class name was SDRipper for some reason.

I'll load up the XML EPG plugin when I have some time and see what happens.

[rickgillyon]

No hurry on my account, it doesn't seem to have broken anything. Hopefully next weekend I'll have the time to set up sdepg properly...

[boukmandutty]

Quick question. Would this restore the TV Shows Editorials to someone using the Schedules Direct Plugin?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by boukmandutty

Quick question. Would this restore the TV Shows Editorials to someone using the Schedules Direct Plugin?

Editorials are not a part of this yet, but it's on my radar. I am however concerned that I will not be able to gather enough data from Schedules Direct to generate good editorials, so I would not get your hopes up.

[Zogg]

Thanks for this timely update, as I'm getting my server(s) set up and working and it was a convenient time to stop and undo my trickeration to get the SD EPG plugin working.

So far so good!

[cncb]

I suppose it is recommended to start using this instead of the older Schedules Direct plugin? What is the correct procedure to get rid of that plugin and all the data associated with it?

[rickgillyon]

The old plugin no longer works with this version. Just uninstall it within Sage. As ever, back up first.

[cncb]

Do I need to manually remove my video sources/lineups first?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by cncb

Do I need to manually remove my video sources/lineups first?

You should be able to change directly from using a plugin to Schedules Direct. If you want to be extra clean about it, I would remove all of the plugin lineups first.

[maceie]

Was moving the server and saw this as I was 1/2 way through setting up XML importer, so gave it a go.
I've got it running OK, except the UK HD channels are showing garbage for descriptions and sometimes just have no data instead of any program name. Image attached.
I recall this being the same in OTA EPG as well, but unsure if it's me or SD.
Can anyone else in UK confirm they can get Freeview HD EPG with SD?
Great work though, I've been using Digiguide and really don't want to kepe using it to import xml as it's a time suck when things change.
SAGETV-epg.jpg

Edit - Looks like the SD EPG hasn't been downloaded yet, so it's using OTA EPG. I'm missing the new files except sdauth in SAGETV folder.
Edit2 - I had a custom frq file that seemed to be causing trouble, so removed tuners and readded as standard. EPG now mostly empty so I'll leave it a bit.
How long should it take to populate on initial run and on what schedule?

Edit3 - Looks like it's working now. EPG seems fully populated and isn't garbage. Although as I'm doing it all remotely I can't be sure it's tuning correctly. Will check when I get home.
Edit4 - yeah, all good. my frq file had different channel numbers against the SD import, so I just edited the frq so they were all correct. May be a better way to do it, but it worked for me.

[UgaData]

Originally Posted by cncb

Do I need to manually remove my video sources/lineups first?

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

You should be able to change directly from using a plugin to Schedules Direct. If you want to be extra clean about it, I would remove all of the plugin lineups first.

I did this upgrade yesterday and for the most part all went well.

If your already using the SD Plugin, things won't auto magically just work(at least they didn't for me). You will need to at least edit your video source(s) and explicitly choose the SD option for EPG. My guess is that the sources using the old SD Plug-in revert back to the licensed EPG server after this upgrade.

On my first attempt, all seemed well enough, I only changed the guide data source on 1 tuner and left the other 3 alone (I also did not remove the SD plug-in before upgrading).
Everything seemed to work until, an hour or so later, when I started to get an error about not having a valid license for the EPG server. (I do have a valid license or 2 but I am no longer using them).

Unfortunately, rather than just editing my video sources and leaving it at that, I went and disabled the old plug-in then uninstalled it (I don't remember if I deleted the tuners or not). It asked to restart Sage after the uninstall and I did and was never able to get Sage to start again, it would hang at - initializing the service - fwiw I do run the service.

I am running Sage in a Windows 7 instance in a 2012 R2 Hyper-V core VM and I just deleted the the problem VM and replaced it with the backup I made prior to the upgrade and tried it again.

The second attempt, I removed the all video sources (tuners) and uninstalled the plug-in before upgrading. This time it went as expected. Yeah, I had to edit the channel lineup in Sage, time consuming but if it makes for less headaches later, works for me.

Any hope in the future we can save our channel lineup configuration in Sage so we can re-apply it after rebuilds or re-installs or anytime the Video
Sources are redone?

FYI - I certainly don't think it is necessary to remove the tuners or Video Sources as part of the upgrade, or even to remove the old plug-in, I just can't leave things alone sometimes and try fixing them til they break.

[cncb]

Does removing all the sources remove all the lineups too, or do I need to delete something manually in the .properties file?

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by UgaData

Any hope in the future we can save our channel lineup configuration in Sage so we can re-apply it after rebuilds or re-installs or anytime the Video
Sources are redone?

FYI - I certainly don't think it is necessary to remove the tuners or Video Sources as part of the upgrade, or even to remove the old plug-in, I just can't leave things alone sometimes and try fixing them til they break.

I'm not completely certain, but I think there's a plugin for that.

Also, based on the description of your experience, you may have experienced an unrelated bug that was just fixed a few days ago regarding XMLTV plugins.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by cncb

Does removing all the sources remove all the lineups too, or do I need to delete something manually in the .properties file?

Removing all of the sources referencing a lineup will remove the all lineup details from Sage.properties. You can also get the same effect by changing all of your sources to not use a lineup.

[rickgillyon]

Well, that's me just spent the last 5 hours replacing the old XMLTV plugin and configuring/mapping my two lineups, and reworking favourites. So far, it's looking really good, the data is much better and first run/rerun is working, which is a first for me.

One small issue, not sure if I can fix this, or if it's a general Sage feature: the channel names in the guide are really obscure. They are all 8 characters or less, e.g. see 1.png attached, the channel is BBC News with an id of BBCNWHD. In the guide, 2.png, we only see the id not the description. In the last plugin I could adjust the ids for the stations, can we here? I'll cope but there will be complaints...

Thanks for all the work on this btw, it's some achievement. Us non-North-American types have been waiting for something like this for a LOOOOONG time.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by rickgillyon

One small issue, not sure if I can fix this, or if it's a general Sage feature: the channel names in the guide are really obscure. They are all 8 characters or less, e.g. see 1.png attached, the channel is BBC News with an id of BBCNWHD. In the guide, 2.png, we only see the id not the description. In the last plugin I could adjust the ids for the stations, can we here? I'll cope but there will be complaints...

Thanks for all the work on this btw, it's some achievement. Us non-North-American types have been waiting for something like this for a LOOOOONG time.

What you are seeing is exactly how it has always been in SageTV. This is what is referred to as the short (callsign) name of the station. SageTV also has the long (descriptive) name of the station, but it's not used as much. I couldn't find an example of where quickly, but it is available in the API and this feature is providing it to SageTV. I believe the right place to change this behavior if desired would be in a UI mod.

I'm glad it's working well for you. There are still more updates to come.

[pukka]

so far a week in and everything has been working great.

Just one questions about the categories that are imported.

we have some custom views for recordings and filter them based on category with SD they are more category's per show. so its not working as expected.

so previously a children's show would have only "children" in the category now it has "educational / children" just looking at another it has "educational / children / animated" or "comedy/ children / animated"

this also means any films with children in the category is also shown on our children's view

Is they a better way to use the recordings? or filter them. I know I could use custom category's but that's not a long term fix and requires me to make changes to each of the programs

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by pukka

so far a week in and everything has been working great.

Just one questions about the categories that are imported.

we have some custom views for recordings and filter them based on category with SD they are more category's per show. so its not working as expected.

so previously a children's show would have only "children" in the category now it has "educational / children" just looking at another it has "educational / children / animated" or "comedy/ children / animated"

this also means any films with children in the category is also shown on our children's view

Is they a better way to use the recordings? or filter them. I know I could use custom category's but that's not a long term fix and requires me to make changes to each of the programs

If they are TV recordings, you should also have the parental rating from the airing. That combined with the category children should very much narrow things down. Were you originally getting your guide data from using your SageTV license or another provider?

Edit: I notice you're in the UK, so you were probably using XMLTV. Unfortunately there will be differences. I'm trying my best to model this as closely as possible to how SageTV licensed users get their guide data since that's technically the standard. Any reasonably tweaks to the process may be added as optional extras, but there will not be a lot of them.

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by EnterNoEscape

What you are seeing is exactly how it has always been in SageTV. This is what is referred to as the short (callsign) name of the station. SageTV also has the long (descriptive) name of the station, but it's not used as much. I couldn't find an example of where quickly, but it is available in the API and this feature is providing it to SageTV. I believe the right place to change this behavior if desired would be in a UI mod.

Cheers, I can only find the long name in the Video Source screens. Maybe someone can add it to the Malore extras? I know, always hopeful...