XMLTVImportPlugin: Demideus

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by ould

I am presently using this plugin but I am just curious if there is a way to tell the plugin when it should update. i.e. Could I set it to update at like 4am or something like that? Or is it random as to when it updates? I am just curious as ideally I would like to schedule it so it doesn't try and update while I am watching/recording something.

My understanding is that the plugin never changes and the configuration should need to be set up to deal with any lineup issues. Other than that, the only updating is in the periodic "epgdata.xml" located in "Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV". However I also understand that the plugin is set to point to a batch file which then calls the xmltv grabber on a scheduled basis.

Actually I would like to manually control the refresh myself because I plan to transfer the xmltv file offline by means of a USB key (no network). My SageTV pvr is running without a network partly because I don't want to put an antivirus and also I haven't had a chance to run Cat5 wire (no Wifi hub).

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by Demideus

The plugin has been updated.

Great! As always, thanks.

Originally Posted by Demideus

This was a direct side-effect of your assertion that the <date> element actually was filled with dates in some streams. Since Sage actually specifies a year field for movies and the property actually was for adding the year to the title (not the date). I figured that I should make an effort to isolate the year from that date.

However to bring your old situation back for you (more or less) I've added the date.title.decoration and date.title.decoration.categories properties.

If you don't like the date format (it should be using your PC's regional settings) you can override the decoration to something like this {0} ({1,date,yyyyMMdd}) or this {0} ({1,date,dd-MM-yyyy}).

Actually, what I was looking for here, was to get the "full" date back in the show details, not in the title, sorry if I explained it wrong.

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by Demideus

You'll be pleased to know that you don't need to configure the plugin.
If the plugin does not find the xmltv.properties file it'll simply use the defaults.
This means that the xmltv file should be called "epgdata.xml" and should be located in "Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV".

Once the plugin has been installed it will read the epgdata.xml file every 24 hours. (you can force it to start early by deactivating and reactivating one of your channels in Sage's setup menu).

I'm having a little bit of an issue with Sage. Due to virus issues and networking issues, my SageTV pvr is non-networked and I plan to periodically manually upload, via USB key, tge epgdata.xml data.

I installed you plugin files to the SageTV directory and have placed the xerces.jar file in the proper Java folder. I updated the sage properties file to point to the epgxmltv import plugin. I proceeded then to place the epgdata.xml file to the sage folder. Restarted SageTV then wen to configure the video import source and enter 00000 as zip code.

Problem: Sage is looking for a network connection and I get an error message. Sage won't bypass the step and load the epgdata.xml file.

Is your plugin programmed to fire up the network connection? How can I disable that feature?

[ould]

I am having issues automating my EPG updating. I have written a batch file which takes care up all my EPG downloading/merging/renumbering etc. I have tested this batch file extensively to make sure it functions as I intended. However I am having problems when running it automatically. I am running the Demedius plugin and using a combination of Zap2It data and data from satellites.

I have tried to put the batch file in the xmltv.properties file using runbefore=myfile.bat and it appears that it tries to run the file but it's like it does not give it time to finish and just continues with EPG update before my batch finishes, my batch file takes about 15-20 mins(and will be even longer once I add another Satellite provider to the mix) to complete so maybe this is why it doesn't finish. Then I decided to just use windows task scheduler instead and run the batch once a day(not ideal since I don't know when the EPG will update in Sage as it seems to do it whenever it pleases, this really should be configurable in my opinion). When run using the scheduler it seems to get stuck in a never ending loop and I have to control-C to get out of it. So at the moment my EPG situation is really sucking ass.

Anyone have any better solutions to my problem? I would really like this to be all automated and just work as it should. I am almost at the end of my trial period witch Sage and want to have my setup working before I plunk down a substantial amount of money for it.

Thanks in advance.

Kevin

Thanks,

Kevin

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by roxy99

I'm having a little bit of an issue with Sage. Due to virus issues and networking issues, my SageTV pvr is non-networked and I plan to periodically manually upload, via USB key, tge epgdata.xml data.

I installed you plugin files to the SageTV directory and have placed the xerces.jar file in the proper Java folder. I updated the sage properties file to point to the epgxmltv import plugin. I proceeded then to place the epgdata.xml file to the sage folder. Restarted SageTV then wen to configure the video import source and enter 00000 as zip code.

Problem: Sage is looking for a network connection and I get an error message. Sage won't bypass the step and load the epgdata.xml file.

Is your plugin programmed to fire up the network connection? How can I disable that feature?

Your problem might be that you configured the sage.properties file wrong. Take a look at the instructions at the top of this forum for the syntax, but the line you need to have should be something like.

epg_import_plugin=xmltv.XMLTVImportPlugin

Sounds like you may have put something like

epg_import_plugin=epgdata.xml

Again, be sure to check the instructions because I always forget the syntax, and it is case-sensitive.

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by rsagetv99

Your problem might be that you configured the sage.properties file wrong. Take a look at the instructions at the top of this forum for the syntax, but the line you need to have should be something like.

epg_import_plugin=xmltv.XMLTVImportPlugin

Sounds like you may have put something like

epg_import_plugin=epgdata.xml

Again, be sure to check the instructions because I always forget the syntax, and it is case-sensitive.

The exact error message I get is (paraphrase) "Unable to locate zip 00000 please verify internet connection"

I'll double check my caps on the setting on the Sage.properties file. The syntax should be correct though becaue I actually did a copy/paste directly from the forum. of the line:
epg_import_plugin=xmltv.XMLTVImportPlugin


There seems to be two zip files for the plugin. Do I need both? I extracted both the the Sage directory. Also, on Ver 4 of SageTV, there is no Frey technologies\sage directory. There is merely c:\program files\Sage and c:\program files\sage\sage

I assume I am to put the plugin in the c:\program files\sage\sage directory.

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by ould

I am having issues automating my EPG updating. I have written a batch file which takes care up all my EPG downloading/merging/renumbering etc. I have tested this batch file extensively to make sure it functions as I intended. However I am having problems when running it automatically. I am running the Demedius plugin and using a combination of Zap2It data and data from satellites.

Then I decided to just use windows task scheduler instead and run the batch once a day(not ideal since I don't know when the EPG will update in Sage as it seems to do it whenever it pleases, this really should be configurable in my opinion). When run using the scheduler it seems to get stuck in a never ending loop and I have to control-C to get out of it. So at the moment my EPG situation is really sucking ass.

You shouldn't need to merge XMLTV files if you are using Demedius' plugin, the data from multiple files can be merged into your EPG simply by specifiying the file in the xmltv.properties like this:

xmltv.files=1.XML,2.XML,3.XML

This will save you some processing time.

I have tried to put the batch file in the xmltv.properties file using runbefore=myfile.bat and it appears that it tries to run the file but it's like it does not give it time to finish and just continues with EPG update before my batch finishes, my batch file takes about 15-20 mins(and will be even longer once I add another Satellite provider to the mix) to complete so maybe this is why it doesn't finish.

The syntax is run.before=<filename> (notice the "." after the word run). Also if you are specifying a path you need to make all of your backslashes double.
E.G. run.before=C:\\xmltv\\mybat.bat

My suggestion would be to not run the entire EPG update process from Demedius' importer since it takes so long. What I do is run the Zap2it downloads once a day through the task scheduler, then the files are always there whenever Sage decides to update. As long as you are downloading multiple days worth of data it shouldn't matter when Sage updates. Even if you Sage updates at 2am and you don't run your download until 3am, at the worst you will be missing your last days worth of EPG data, just download one more day than you actually need from Zap2it - problem solved.

One other tip, since the MyTheatre EPG data is not as reliable as the Zap2it data, I have a separate batch file that runs just the MyTheatre download. I call this batch file from Demedius' importer using the "run.before" command, this way if I run out of MyTheatre guide data I just go to the video source, disable/re-enable a channel which forced the importer (and the MyTheatre batch file) to run. If you do it this way, you do not need to include the MyTheatre download process in your nightly batch file, since it will run when before Sage updates via Demdius' importer.

Thanks in advance.

Your welcome.

[ould]

Thanks Rsage, I do want to just run my batch file through the task scheduler but for some reason it goes into a neverending loop when run through task scheduler. It works fine if I just double click it in explorer though so I am not sure why task scheduler causes it to go into a never ending loop. and for the record I did have it as run.before=blah.bat I just couldn't remember the exact syntax when posting my question. I guess I need to figure out why task scheduler throws my batch file into a never ending loop. Thanks for the tip on merging the files or not merging the files in this case.

On another note regarding when the EPG updates, I just wish there was a button you could push "EPG Update Now" or something along those lines. Or as I mentioned a field in the properties file EPG Update=4:00am or whatever. That would be nice!!

Thanks again,

Kevin

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by ould

On another note regarding when the EPG updates, I just wish there was a button you could push "EPG Update Now" or something along those lines.

There is a button on the main page of Nielm's web-server if you are using that.

[vuego]

You can force an EPG update in Sage by running the channel setup and disable/enable any channel and press Done. You can see the next EPG update scheduled in System Information.

[roxy99]

Now I am starting to wonder... being in Canada, do I even NEED a special xmltv plugin;

check this out:
http://www.tms.tribune.com/newsrelea...rtainment.html


Maybe I should network that SageTV pc and not have to deal with all the hubalub.

Is it just non-Northamerican's that are less fortunate in that regard or do I still need some form of plugin?

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by roxy99

Now I am starting to wonder... being in Canada, do I even NEED a special xmltv plugin;

check this out:
http://www.tms.tribune.com/newsrelea...rtainment.html


Maybe I should network that SageTV pc and not have to deal with all the hubalub.

Is it just non-Northamerican's that are less fortunate in that regard or do I still need some form of plugin?

Canada and the US television subscribers can use the internal EPG, no need for a plugin.

[roxy99]

You're saying I don't even need it??
I wish someone told me sooner before I wasted a week researching the forums and asking all kinds of useless questions!

[technazz]

Originally Posted by roxy99

You're saying I don't even need it??
I wish someone told me sooner before I wasted a week researching the forums and asking all kinds of useless questions!

Roxy,

Earlier you were asking about using XMLTV grabber to get your guide data on your 'internet' computer and then transfering it to your SageTv computer. Most people assumed your can't use internal EPG service because of this.

Now if you networked your computers then its a different ball game.

Technazz

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by technazz

Roxy,

Earlier you were asking about using XMLTV grabber to get your guide data on your 'internet' computer and then transfering it to your SageTv computer. Most people assumed your can't use internal EPG service because of this.

Now if you networked your computers then its a different ball game.

Technazz

well i picked up some network wire ... we'll see how it goes.

[marneb17]

Aloha,
first of all great work.

EDIT2: Discard my complete post, from here on down. After translating "Spielfilm" to "Movie" it is working!

I have 2 questions.
1) The categories in my xmltv data are stored like this

		<category lang="de">Gaunerkomödie</category>
		<category lang="de">Spielfilm</category>

("Spielfilm" is Movie)

The problem is, that the "Gaunerkomödie" gets written to the first category and "Spielfilm" or "Movie" gets written to the subcategorie, which is not used for defining the color in the epg.
I tried setting up a custom color in the new "help menu" and it works if I put in "Gaunerkomödie" but not for "Spielfilm".
Is there a way for me to change the ordering?
/EDIT2

EDIT: Discard the next paragraph. I thought the star rating would be displayed more prominently. Like next to the title.

The second problem is with the star rating. My xmltv data looks like this:

		<star-rating>
			<value>3/5</value>
		</star-rating>

But no stars show up in my guide. Am I just blind, or is there something not working. How would the stars be displayed if it is working?

/EDIT So yes, I was blind! ;-)

Thanks for your help

Marneb

[marneb17]

Ok, this is getting embarrassing.

But I just saw, that all the genre info is sorted "wrong".
The subcategorie is always the general categorie. Like: soccer/Sports
Sitcom/Comedy, etc.
This would be no problem, if Sage would also use the subcategorie for the coloring, which it doens't.

Is there a way to switch the two?

Thanks again
Marne

[ould]

Hey Everyone,

Well I finally have my import working half decently and it is now mostly automatic, which is nice. But this question is directed at anyone who is exporting data from MyTheatre and importing it using this plugin. I have only a handful of channels for which I am using MyTheatre data and it is being imported, however I am only getting the titles for the MyTheatre data, no descriptions. So just wondering if anyone else is having the same issue.

Thanks,

Kevin

[rickgillyon]

A few questions:
If I wanted to move from the nielm plugin to this one, are there any advantages (other than this one is still actively developed)?

If I did, is there an easy step-by-step process to switch over?

If I'm using the same two xml files (1.xml and 2.xml), would my lineups/mappings in Sage get messed up?
Would I have to re-apply the lineup to the tuner in Sage?

Is it possible with this plugin to influence the filenames that Sage uses for the MPG? Can I get it to include channel number?

Thanks!
Rick

[rsagetv99]

Originally Posted by ould

Hey Everyone,

Well I finally have my import working half decently and it is now mostly automatic, which is nice. But this question is directed at anyone who is exporting data from MyTheatre and importing it using this plugin. I have only a handful of channels for which I am using MyTheatre data and it is being imported, however I am only getting the titles for the MyTheatre data, no descriptions. So just wondering if anyone else is having the same issue.

Thanks,

Kevin

I think I had this same problem when I first configured mine. Eventually the details were populated. Put MyTheatre on a transponder that provides EPG data.