XMLTV How to?

fasteddielv · #1 08-22-2003, 12:21 AM

I read over these forums and it's all quite confusing for the new user.
Could someone please provide a "How to Guide" with links to current plug-ins. Or point to a complete How to Page?

Thanks, so much!

Eddie

robogeek · #2 08-22-2003, 03:02 PM

Ask and ye shall receive

Prior to starting, make sure you Exit from SageTV. Don't just put it to sleep, make sure you exit completely.

[EDIT] It might be a good idea to backup your existing SageTV setup before installing the XMLTV plugin (or making other radical changes). If you want to be really safe, exit SageTV and copy the entire SageTV folder (c:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV) somewhere. You could create a SageTVBackup folder in the Frey Technologies folder (c:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTVBackup) and copy everything there so it's easy to find. If you get totally lost and break your SageTV setup, you can just exit SageTV and copy the contents of the SageTVBackup folder back to the SageTV folder.

Step 1

Download and install XMLTV v0.5.16 (the Win32 zip file):

http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=39046

I unzipped mine in the root of c: drive. So I have an XMLTV folder in the c: drive and the xmltv.exe is located at c:\xmltv\xmltv.exe. The .BAT file code I supply further down assumes this is where you have XMLTV installed. If not, the .BAT file code will have to be changed to reflect the proper drive and pathnames for your setup. Bottom line...if you are not familiar with .BAT code then you should install XMLTV on the c: drive as I did

Step 2

Get corykim's xmltv plugin (xmltv.zip) for SageTV:

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...=6589#post6589

Unzip it to your SageTV folder. So you should end up with an xmltv directory inside the SageTV folder something like this: c:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV\xmltv

In the SageTV folder, open the Sage.properties file and look for the following line:

epg/epg_import_plugin=

and change it to:

epg/epg_import_plugin=xmltv.XMLTVImportPlugin

Before going into back into SageTV to test the plugin, make sure you have an XML listings file from XMLTV. And make sure you supply this XML listings in the SageTV directory and that it is named epgdata.xml. If you use my .BAT file code below (See Step 4) for XMLTV, then it will put your listings in the SageTV directory properly.

Step 3

Get the Xerces XML parser file:

http://www.myhtpcresource.net/downloads/xerces.jar

Xerces.jar should be copied into the jre/lib/ext directory of your Java JRE/SDK directories. For example, C:\Program Files\Java\j2re1.4.1_01\lib\ext\ and if you installed the SDK you also need to put it in the SDK directory in c:\j2sdk1.4.1_01\jre\lib\ext\. If you are having problems with this try copying the xerces.jar file to your SageTV installation directory, C:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV\.

Step 4

There is a .BAT file that installs with XMLTV called 'Run update TV listings - US.bat'. You can alter this .BAT file by replacing all of the original code with the new code below (or you can create a new .BAT file with any name/location with the code below) and add it to your Windows Task Scheduler to automatically grab your TV listings and copy the listings to your SageTV directory. The code here is assuming you installed SageTV and SageTV XMLTV plugin to their default locations at c:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV and that XMLTV is installed at c:\xmltv. If this is the case, then your .BAT file would look something like this:

Code:

c:
cd\xmltv
xmltv tv_grab_na --configure --auto-new-channels add --auto-missing-channels remove
xmltv tv_grab_na --listings c:\xmltv\TVDatapre.xml --days 9 --listings-overwrite true
xmltv tv_sort --by-channel --output c:\xmltv\epgdata.xml c:\xmltv\TVDatapre.xml
copy "c:\xmltv\epgdata.xml" "c:\Program Files\Frey Technologies\SageTV"
exit

If your XMLTV and SageTV apps are installed in different locations other than the locations I mentioned above, you will need to change the drive letters and directories in this code to match your setup. If you need help, PM me with the locations of the SageTV directory and your xmltv.exe file and I'd be happy to help

Use Windows Explorer to go to the directory where you put the .BAT file and double click it to run it. If this is the first time you've run XMLTV, you will be prompted for some info about your location and cable or sat service. Subsequent runs shouldn't require user interaction unless your cable or sat service changes. If you don't use the North America grabber (tv_grab_na) then substitute your grabber instead. Now the listings should download and sort. This may take a while depending on how many days worth of data you download and how many channels you are downloading data for. Once completed (the command window will automatically close), verify that the epgdata.xml file is located in your SageTV folder. If not, either you made a mistake somewhere or I goofed up these instructions

Double check your pathnames and look for errors. Once the epgdata.xml file is in the SageTV folder, move on to the next (and final) step.

Step 5

Setup SageTV using the Setup Wizard. From SageTV main menu, press Setup, then Setup Wizard. You will need to complete this step for each tuner card you have. Click Setup Wizard, select 'Add or Modify a Source', select the tuner you want to configure, enter TRIAL as your access code, enter 00000 as your zip code (press enter), Press Select (enter) to continue, select XMLTV Lineup, choose Basic Service (basic/standard) or Extended Basic Service (digital/premium service)...if you're not sure, just pick Basic Service, I don't think it really matters. Then toggle off all of the channels you know you don't have or can't get on your TV tuner and press the right arrow when done. Next select the input you have the source connected to on the tv tuner card. For example, if you have coax from the wall outlet going directly to your tuner card, you would select 'TV Tuner - Cable' or if you have S-Video or Composite out from your cable box to your tv tuner, you would select either S-Video or Composite respectively. Once all tuners have XMLTV Lineup source (if that's what is desired for multiple tuner setups) press Complete Setup, then press Enter, and now you should be good to go.

That should do it. If you download new listings and Sage Guide doesn't refresh with the new listings, you can force a refresh by changing your Channel Setup simply by toggling one of the channels (Channel Setup--> Press Enter twice --> Press Right Arrow key). If that doesn't work, others have been able to get it to refresh by going to Setup Wizard and Remove Source for the tuner(s) with the XMLTV listings and then add the source back in.

If I've missed something or made a mistake, let me know and I'll edit this post

Hope this helps

fasteddielv · #3 08-22-2003, 03:27 PM

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

This is exactly what I need (maybe other new users too).

Can Sage make this a STICKY!

I will follow exactly and note any troubles to make it easier for others.

THANKS A BUNCH!

Eddie

fasteddielv · #4 08-23-2003, 12:31 AM

Advise! Do a system restore point prior to attempting this.

Maybe I screwed it up trying before the above instructions or maybe it just over my head.

Eddie

robogeek · #5 08-23-2003, 08:20 AM

Eddie,

What happened? Did you get the XMLTV data working with SageTV or are you still experiencing some problems? I'll add instructions at the top of my previous post advising how to backup the existing SageTV setup in case something goes wrong while installing the XMLTV plugin.

[EDIT]
I made some edits to Steps 1, 3, and 4 of the instructions to hopefully clear up some confusion. Unless somebody has the know-how to compile all of these programs in an archive and writing an installer, I don't think it can get any less confusing than this

...unfortunately this is just some complicated stuff and even more so for newbies.

Let me know if there's anything else.

evilpenguin · #6 08-24-2003, 11:31 PM

You made a very nice and easy to follow guide, but i'm still having a few problems. I'll just bullet them off for you.

- When I double click the epgdata.xml file in the SageTV directory after I run the .bat file it doesn't display the file properly and gives me an error. I need to drag the xmltv.dtd file from c:/xmltv/ into the SageTV folder to get it to display properly. Should this be nessisary or do I not have something set up properly.

- When you say "Click Setup Wizard, select 'Add or Modify a Source', select the tuner you want to configure, enter TRIAL as your access code, enter 00000 as your zip code (press enter), Press Select (enter) to continue, select XMLTV Lineup, choose Basic Service (basic/standard) or Extended Basic Service (digital/premium service)...if you're not sure, just pick Basic Service, I don't think it really matters." do you mean "XMLTV Lineup" will actually be an option or are we supposed to pick "Dish Network".

Right now I am not getting XMLTV Lineup as an option so, as per the XMLTV site, i'm choosing dish network and it's not giving me my channels.

I've tossed in my savetv_0,_1,_2 files for you in case you wanna take a look at the errors i'm getting.

Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

robogeek · #7 08-25-2003, 10:02 AM

evilpenguin,

You shouldn't need to double click the epgdata.xml file to read it manually...the xmltv plugin knows how to parse the xml (as long as you have the xerces.jar library installed properly in Java). I open it in Wordpad since Internet Explorer usually slows to a crawl, chokes, and dies on such a large file for me. But this shouldn't be the problem.

XMLTV Lineup should show up. Make sure you entered TRIAL as the access code and 00000 as your zip. Don't enter your actual zip code, use 00000.

Double check your Sage.properties file and make sure you have this line exactly as here:

epg/epg_import_plugin=xmltv.XMLTVImportPlugin

And just to be safe, make sure there are no spaces at the end of the line and I believe it is case sensitive.

I checked your log and after checking yours, I checked my log and noticed there may be a bug in RC2 that causes the xmltv plugin to fail. It seems SageTV hasn't updated my Guide with the new data since installing RC2 last week. Closing SageTV and restarting caused my Guide to update, but this may be causing a problem that isn't allowing you to see the XMLTV Lineup option, I don't know. Here is the only obvious error I found in your log:

Mon 8/25 0:15:05.470 Error updating DB file:java.io.IOException: Bad file descriptor

Make sure you have the xmltv plugin installed and that you have an epgdata.xml file in your SageTV directory. Then remove all sources from the Setup Wizard, exit SageTV, and go back to the Setup Wizard and try adding them back in and follow the Setup Wizard instructions in my How-to post and see if that works. If that doesn't work, try a different version of SageTV. If you are running the beta, try installing the last v1.3.x official release to setup XMLTV and then install the beta over it. When going backward in versions you may have to uninstall SageTV and delete the Frey Technologies directory (just to be safe), but installing new versions you don't have to uninstall first, just overwrite everything with the new version.

If you still have problems, you should email your logs with that error to Jeff (support@freytechnologies.com) and he can probably tell you exactly what it means and what is going wrong.

evilpenguin · #8 08-25-2003, 10:49 AM

Thanks for the detailed responce. I'll try all that stuff out when I get home tonight.

Cabalsan · #9 08-27-2003, 08:10 AM

Robogeek: I, like evilpenguin, have the same problem - dishnetwork, direct tv, & atennae only show up as the choices. I've seen 1 site that says go into dishnetwork, and all your channels are there. Um no, not the case at all. It has a channel line up completly diff, starting at channel 100! I can make the epgdata.xml.
I've followed your well thought and detailed post to the letter.

I really think it has to do with the xerces.jar file(s). I followed the link to the plugntester.zip. It did not work as was advertized. Errors about "main" something not found. Others had reported lots of text should appear in the dos box after you type java -cp...... Nothing in mine. I'm not a java expert, so I'm not sure if I need to register it somehow. Alls' I did was download the file xerces.jar and placed the single file in a the directory under the java distro and put that single file into the sagetv dir, as has also been suggested. Java is horrible, it so needs a gui to mess with.

On a tangent, for what it's worth, I have ver 1.3 of sage. Prior, I un-installed it and installed ver 1.4 Beta Rc2. I had to delete it and re-install ver 1.3 as everytime i changed channel, I got this sound glitch - like a popping sound. Reverted back to 1.3 and it was fine. I used the ctrl panel applet to uninstall.

I'm not sure what logs need to post. I have 5 days left on the free preview. They only way to show my channel linup was to change area code to my area code and select the service. Then it works - dont use 00000. But I think its not using the ergdata file I created. It still says zaptoit at the bottom.
Using XMLTV v5.0.16. Should I go find an older version - say v 14???

- Cab

**************
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Cabalsan · #10 08-27-2003, 12:51 PM

Well, I am half way there, I got XMLTV to show up in the setup! Joy! Just 1 lil snag to work trhu and I'm there.

As seen on numorous other ppl's posts abouth the setup - showing DiSh Network, DirecTV & Local Ant. Here is your solution. Let me spell it out, how to get XMLTV to show up.

go into sage.properties

got this section:

epg/epg_import_plugin=xmltv.XMLTVImportPlugin

Put your curser behind the last letter "n" and hit the DELETE key twice. IF this brings the next line up to to where its all 1 word, hit ENTER. This will delete the SPACE after the "xmltv.XMLTVImportPlugin" that you put in when you did CUT n PASTE. You want to make sure that the SPACE you can't see is GONE.

Here's my problem now. I got XMLTV to show up. Went to TV - Cable. The channels were all goofed. My epgdata file is correctly made with the right channels. I see it getting made. So I deleted source and closed out Sage. Reopened it back up. Went thru setup wizard. Did TRIAL. 00000. Got XMLTV. But when it tried "to connect to service" and just hangs here doing nothing.

I had to leave to come back here to work, so will mess with later tonight.
Hopefully this will get fixed with a reboot. We shall see.

Thanks for the posts everybody.

- Cab

robogeek · #11 08-27-2003, 01:02 PM

Cool! I get that 'hang' problem too. The solution I found that works is, when it hangs at the "connect to service" screen, keep hitting the left arrow key until you are out of the Setup Wizard, go back into the Setup Wizard and follow the exact same steps you did previously and it should work. For some reason, leaving the Setup Wizard and going back through lets you get past the "connect to service" screen.

Hope it works for you too

corykim · #12 08-27-2003, 02:58 PM

If you consistently get a hang at "connect to service", then my bet is that either xerces is not being loaded, or it's having trouble locating you xml file. Can you send me the output from the EPG Tester?

One thing to note about EPG Tester: the command that I provided:

java -cp .;Sage.jar PluginTester

assumes that xerces is already in your classpath, such as in the /java/jre/lib/ext directory. If not, you'll get an error like:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/xerces/parsers/SAXParser
at PluginTester.main(PluginTester.java:30)

Correct this error by ensuring that xerces is in your classpath, or add it to your classpath in the -cp flag. Note also, if you don't place the jar file in your /java/jre/lib/ext directory, then you need to specify the whole filename for the jar file, not just the directory.

Cabalsan · #13 08-27-2003, 05:23 PM

Corkyjim,

I can NOT get it to get past the hang on setup. When I tried your plugintester, the class fails - Exception in thread "main" error. I have copied and pasted the xerces.jar file in a few different direcrtoirs. As I have no idea about java, I can NOT install this "class", whatever that means. All I did was extract the zip file called "plugin.zip" to sagetv direcoty. It created a subfolder called "xmltv" with 6 files in it - Channel.class, Show.class & XMLTVmportPlugin.class (& *.java). I have placed xerces in the SageTV folder, in the subfolder xmltv, in the java/lib/ext and still hangs and does nothing.

I think u right on about the XMLTVImportPlugin not loading epgdata into Sage. I have no clue from here on to get it loaded in. I will unistall java and re-install and see if that works.

Thanks foir the help so far.

Robogeek, tried 100x backing out and coming back in to no avail on the setup.

-Cab

Cabalsan · #14 08-27-2003, 09:56 PM

Wel, This i strange.....

I couldn't get it to work - hanging on channel selection - for the lie of me ended up putting SageTV to sleep mode, left huse for 3 hrs. Came back, and tried again. WORKED!! I can NOT explain this behaviur. But it is working. Thank You All!

I only have 1 last NEW problem now.

For some god awful reason 2 channels are fubared! Channel 8 (local ABC) has second audio of the WEATHER!! Channel 9 (WB station) has second audio in SPANISH (SAP). Very Anoying.

On the bright side, I just found under the Detailed setup,a hidden button to tweak VIDEO quality. This is what I have been looking for! I almost swapped out vid cards because of this. I finally tweaked CONTRAST to where the pixelation and grainy quality disappeared. I still need to tweak, but getting there. I wish the tweak slidey was OSD so we could see what we were doing, not guessing and returning. Just a nit.

This product is turnoing out to be the best solution for us DIY TivO'rs.

Thanks to the community for helping me out. This is what the Internet was made for, well that and, um, well nevermind..heh

So anyone got aeasy solution to get rid of secondary audio, let me know. I'de like to get WFAA & WB33 back.

Thanks,

-Cab

justme · #15 08-28-2003, 02:17 AM

A quick forum search on secondary audio turned up lots of stuff. These two links offer several possible solutions. ie driver ver, disable feature set, and a properties file hack.

Driver advice related thread.

A possible solution from Narflex, and a properties file hack that might work are in this thread.

Hopes this helps.

Cabalsan · #16 08-28-2003, 03:00 PM

Great. Narflex's response has worked, so far, changing line to end in 8, not 0 in sage.properties -->

mmc/feature_mask_disable=8

On a side note, Narflex, did you all solve the issue with the channel change producing the crackle/static in ver 1.4.10?

Since I got 1.3 up n running OK, I'm gonna wait untli 1.4 has that glitch worked out. If you want me to help on it, just let me know.

PS I will Definetly register my copy of this software when I get home tonight. And I still have 4 days left on the trial! Your team put togther a rocking little program with a following that is unbellievable. Most forums degrade to flame wars. Every1 here is out to help each other. Great job.

-Cab

reggie14 · #17 08-30-2003, 11:20 PM

I just downloaded the win32 file. When I try to run the bat file, or even just run the xmltv executeable itself, I get the following error:

C:\>C:\xmltv\xmltv.exe tv_grab_fi --configure
Timezone is -0500
cannot mkdir %USERPROFILE%/.xmltv: No such file or directory at /PerlApp/XMLTV/C
onfig_file.pm line 22.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

justme · #18 08-31-2003, 02:03 AM

Weird I just tested the fi grabber on my setup(WinXP,XMLTV0.5.16) and got no error.

What version of XMLTV are you using?
What win version as well?
Also looking at the command you issued... have you tried runnung xmltv from the same directory to which it is installed(C:\xmltv)?

ie
C:\XMLTV>xmltv.exe tv_grab_fi --configure

It shouldn't make any difference, but it's worth a try. It looks like xmltv is having a problem creating your .xmltv directory. This is the directory that holds your config data. You could also try version 0.5.16. I don't know if there were any signifigant changes to the fi grabber in the newer .17 version.

David Lawrance · #19 08-31-2003, 07:42 AM

I got to the point where it hung at setup and I waited five minutes or so. Then, everything proceeded. The disk drive sounded like it was clicking away during the wait. Perhaps something is processing the contents of the program file?

reggie14 · #20 08-31-2003, 08:03 AM

I have WinXP. I've tried both .16 and .17 versions and I get the same error. I also tried running it from its directory and I get the same error. It doesn't matter what command I use either. tv_grab_na gets the same error. tv_sort gives me the same error only with the xmltv.pm file instead of config_file.pm

I was wondering if I need to set the permissions on a directory in any specific way. My drive is formatted ntfs. What else would be preventing xmltv from creating a directory?

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