UK EPG data - Anything but XMLTV/RadioTimes?

[Mark SS]

So I'm reasonably new to Sage (2 months), having been a UK Tivo user for 4 years, and following a reasonably succesful test period have now ordered the kit to build a full-time HTPC (Zalman case looks superb!). The one thing it looks like I'm going to miss is decent EPG data.

The poor quality of the data is only really shown up with the help of neilm's webserver plugin (thanks for that and all the others neil!) and the IR suggestions feature it includes. The naming of shows is inconsistent, the categorisation is often incorrect and plenty of shows are assigned "no genre".

Digiguide appears at first glance to be far better but from an evening of googling there doesn't appear to be anyway of integrating it with Sage. Is there a way? Are there any other options?

On a similar note, when are Sage going to shore up the PVR capabilities of the software. i.e. when am I going to be able to convince sage that although I like to watch the news, I am never going to want it to be an IR suggestion?

Lastly, I spend alot of time working in away from home (Germany mostly) and am currently enjoying UK tv via the placeshifter with a pretty good picture considering its via 256kbps upload from UK ADSL. Could of done with this 8 months when I first came out here!

[nielm]

TVTV is supported natively by sage and has different guide data (I would not say it was better)... but it is:
* subscription based
* 60 channel limit
* no +1 channels (for Sky)
* problematic last time I looked ..

[rickgillyon]

Originally Posted by nielm

TVTV is supported natively by sage and has different guide data (I would not say it was better)... but it is:
* subscription based
* 60 channel limit
* no +1 channels (for Sky)
* problematic last time I looked ..

Last time I looked, it didn't seem to support multiple lineups either...

[Mark SS]

Latest issue with Radio Times data seems to be the +1 channels. The +1 channel shows quite often don't have the same episode id as the regular channels, so sage wants to record them both.

I've not had any luck with the birtles grabber post processor for +1 channels, is it me or is it broken?

[nielm]

RT does not provide any episode IDs -- this is done by the XML plugin / importer...

[Mark SS]

The plot thickens!

So what can be done to resolve the issue with +1 shows being deemed different by Sage? Am I going to have to resort to learning some basic Lua?

[rickgillyon]

I don't know, but the shows repeating on C4 after More4/E4 have the same problem, plus the three repeats a week on E4. Unless you restrict them by day/channel, you always get multiples. It's just a pity RT don't put an ID on a show...

Have you posted your problems with +1s on the birtles.org.uk forum? I'm sure he'll help if he can.

[nielm]

IIRC, the XMLTV plugin(s) generate the EPGID using either:
Show Title + Episode Name
or
Show Title + Date/time (if no epsiode name)
So airings with the same show title/episode name should get the same EPGID.


The best solution to +1 channels would be in the XMLTV plugin itself -- tell the plugin to create both the normal and a +1 channel from the XMLTV data for the channel. It should then easy enough for the plugin to use the same show ID's when creating the 2 showings...

I don't think any of them can do this (I don't have +1's so I don't have the problem) but demideus' plugin is the most configurable -- you could always ask if he could add it.

[birty]

yep, i'm happy to help you get the +1 generator working, if you want to add channels then its quite simple to do by editing the lua script in scripts/uk_rt/ukrt_plus1_gen.lua and editing the section:

local availablechannels={
		{name="More4+1",offset=1,id="1959"},
		{name="FX+2",offset=2,id="1461"},
		{name="Paramount Comedy+1",offset=1,id="1061"}
		}

for example to generate e4+1 change the code to:

local availablechannels={
		{name="More4+1",offset=1,id="1959"},
		{name="FX+2",offset=2,id="1461"},
		{name="Paramount Comedy+1",offset=1,id="1061"},
		{name="E4+1",offset=1,id="158"},
		}

the ids can be found in settings\uk_rt\channels.lua

[Mark SS]

Thanks folk, got the grabber working as required now. I think the order of the scripts was causing the problem, +1 generator needs to be run after uk_rt_alt_rt script.

Certainly makes more sense to use a +1 generator script than the Radio Times provided data as the +1 channels seem to be missing data quite often. What happens with Sage now there are two channels with the same number in the guide?

Birty, any chance of a script to change categories for particular shows? RT always has lots of "No Genre" shows so a text file which had something like the following to do the remapping would be quite useful.

92
{
"Eastenders" | Soap
"Planet Earth" | Documentary, Nature
}
1959, 1161
{
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" | Sitcom
}

I currently pay £10/month for a Tivo subscription (until I've got everything working properly with Sage), I'd happily pay the same for a decent epg feed for Sage!

[birty]

try this: http://www.birtles.org.uk/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=133
let me know if you have any problems

[Mark SS]

Fantastic, thank you very much.

[Mark SS]

Have tried the new script, looks to be almost there. Taking the Planet Earth entry as example:

<category>Documentary, Nature</category>
<category lang="en">Documentary</category>

The first line appears to have been added in by the plugin, the seconds was already in the data. I guess ideally the output would be:

<category>Documentary</category>
<category>Nature</category>

Or is the correct format for XMLTV as follows?

<category>Documentary, Nature</category>

[birty]

the script adds new categories rather than replacing the existing ones so if you change the script to
{Progs={"Planet Earth"},Cat="Nature"}
I'm not sure if sage can handle more than one category anyway

[Mark SS]

Thanks Birty. Sage appears to handle multiple category entries ok in so much that they are displayed correctly in the program info.

<category lang="en">Documentary</category>
<category lang="en">Nature</category>

results in "Documentary / Nature" displayed in the info.