New XMLTV Import Tool

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Mahoney

Problem is that whether I select the Freeview or the Analogue lineup in Sage, I get the Analogue channels and numbers.

I only take a quick look to your files and they seems ok to me.

Do you means that in the SageTV program guide you see the Analogue numbers only (but channels are tuned correctly) or that if you only enable one source (for instance the Sky source) and choose the right lineup you still have analogue numbers and channels are not tuned correctly.

If you are in the first case, I cannot do anything for that: SageTV is choosing the number for a channel that is on more than one lineup, however it will get tuned properly on each tuner.

For instance I have two lineups, on three sources. I have some channels on the two lineups, for instance :

* Direct8 on lineup 1 is on channel number 8
* Direct8 on lineup 2 is on channel number 26

Depending on how I set up source, SageTV will display in guide, Direct8 as "8" or as "26", but it will tune it to the right number on each source.

I think that the first source set up gets precedence over the remaining.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Mahoney

1) When adding this importer as a task, allow the user to specify a password so the don't have to be logged in for it to run. I knew wher to go to edit this, others might not.

If I remember correctly : I can't do this because on Windows XP Home, users might no have a password associated to their account. Moreover : the task scheduler will often loose the password (it happened countless times for me with Windows XP, I guess this is related to the "Windows cannot save user profile etc..." error we often see in Event Viewer).

Also, the Importer is cleary warning the user that the task will not run if current user is not logged on. I will develop this issue on my Web site and put it in the FAQ.

2) Issue a warning before closing the edit channels box if any work has been done and not persisted. First time through I thought "Update" just saved, so I was clicking it as I went along and when I needed to exit briefly I closed the window, to lose 10 minutes work as some of the channels still had errors.

You mean when clicking on the "Cancel" button there should be a message stating that "Channels not saved, are you sure you want to discard your changes?", or do you mean that when you clicked on the "Update" button editor closed itself and has not saved your settings (and that the Wizard enabled the "Next >" button)?

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Mahoney]

I clicked on the "Update" button and nothing happened (there were errors in the setup, no number given to a channel). I assumed it had persisted it, as no error message was given. I then clicked the windows 'x' box and the window closed - but of course it had not persisted the data, so my work was lost.

I now understand that if "Update" does not close the window and enable the "Next" button it means the data is not in a persistable state. But it would have been nice if something had made that clear to me the first time. Just a suggestion. Perhaps rename the "Update" button to "Finish"? And pop up a warning if you click it when the data is in an invalid state?

[Mahoney]

It means that in SageTV I go to a tuner, choose the lineup as "Freeview" and in the channel list where you can enable and disable channels it shows me the channels (and channel numbers) I would expect had I chosen "Analogue". It ought to show me 18 channels, with BBC1 as number 1 and BBC2 as number 2; instead it shows me 5 channels with BBC1 as number 23.

If I choose "Analogue" or "Sky" I am shown the channels I was expecting to get in the channel enable/disable screen.

This is not in the "Guide" part of SageTV - just in the channel select. It was time for bed so I didn't explore any further last night.

Are you confident that the plugin can handle three lineups from one XML file, where the channels all overlap? I get BBC1 from channel 101 on my Sky set top box, channel 1 on my two digital tuners and channel 23 on my analogue tuner.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Mahoney

Are you confident that the plugin can handle three lineups from one XML file, where the channels all overlap? I get BBC1 from channel 101 on my Sky set top box, channel 1 on my two digital tuners and channel 23 on my analogue tuner.

Yes it do works for me, I have three lineups: Analogue, Satellite and DVB. (Though I only use two of them).

Send me the content of your C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\3rPartyGuideUpdate folder zipped to lmgestion@hotmail.com and will take a look at what the Importer produced and how SageTV loads them.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[henk99]

Hi,

I have done a donation, but how do i then get the version that enables scheduling?

Cheers,
Henk

[Mahoney]

Ah... sadly I decided to "fix" this by ditching the Analogue lineup. If I try to put it back in and get the problem again I'll let you know, but I'm afraid my quota for swearing at the PC rather than spending time with my wife is getting dangerously used up!

[StephaneM]

Hello Henk

Originally Posted by henk99

I have done a donation, but how do i then get the version that enables scheduling?

You should have received an e-mail (e-mail address used on PayPal) with the download link to the full version. You have to download this version, uninstall the one you use (you will not loose any settings) and install the new one.

Check your "Junk E-mail" folder if you have one, If you cannot find this e-mail, please go to my site and click on the "Write to us" link on the bottom of page to send me a message saying that you have not received the e-mail (include the name and e-mail used in PayPal).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[kdorff]

I like the BTV interface better, but maybe because I am used to it. With SageTV I use the SageMC STV otherwise the native SageTV interface is not nice.

Wow thanks for turning me onto SageMC STV. I am now using the SageMC 16x9 and it looks GREAT. Now, if I can just figure out how to do an automatic transcoding into Xvid / Divx and keep the transcoded version in place in the Recorded Shows... I have seen some talk about this and just need to do some playing around. I also have plans to look at the nVidia DualTV tuner card to help improve picture quality over my PVR-250s, although, maying just upping my bitrate and then transcoding will solve my whole problem. I really miss the automatic transcode that was available with MythTV.

It is probably the video decoder. If you have not yet tweaked SageTV, you are using the SageTV MPEG2 decoder and it doesn't support hardware acceleration. So you'll have to use NVIDIA decoder for instance (Personally I use the SnapStream decoder)

I am now using the SageTV decoder, but, I got a video card that is far more capable and am using the DVXA options - works much better now. Will continue to tweak it.

[Alfiegerner]

Hi Stephane,

I had another go tonight at using the importer but I am still getting the outofmemory errors. They occur when I set my card up in sage and import the channel lineup for my larger lineup, consisting of 129 channels. It hangs in the 'importing programmes' screen. If I back out through the previous menus I can then see the channels have been imported but then I will continue getting out of memory errors and high cpu usage eventually locks up sage.

I have attached the sage log to see if you can spot what the error might be. Do a search for 'OutOfMemoryError' and you should find it. I have enabled java logging through the control panel but can't find where the logs are put. Any ideas?

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Alfiegerner

I have attached the sage log to see if you can spot what the error might be.

It's a heap size problem. Basically the heap is full and garbage collector can't free memory. So I have modified the Java classes a little bit to reduce object create, setting object to null after use etc.. (so making the java code awful). Send me your e-mail address to lmgestion@hotmail.com and I will send you back the new classes to test. If this works, I'll release an updated version.

Note: When SageTV impor the data the heap size is 199 MB total (150 used), and after Import it falls back to 50 used.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by kdorff

Now, if I can just figure out how to do an automatic transcoding into Xvid / Divx and keep the transcoded version in place in the Recorded Shows....

For automatic operation I don't know. But manually it's pretty easy, all you need is :

* AutoGK
* GNU File Utils

Use AutoGk to compress to DivX / Xvid. Put the resulting avi file where the original MPEG is. Then use the "touch" utility from GNU to change the creation date of the avi file to be the one of the mpeg file. Then in SageTV just delete the MPEG recording. After a few minutes, your recording will be there again and this time associated to the avi file.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Alfiegerner]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

It's a heap size problem. Basically the heap is full and garbage collector can't free memory. So I have modified the Java classes a little bit to reduce object create, setting object to null after use etc.. (so making the java code awful). Send me your e-mail address to lmgestion@hotmail.com and I will send you back the new classes to test. If this works, I'll release an updated version.

Note: When SageTV impor the data the heap size is 199 MB total (150 used), and after Import it falls back to 50 used.

Regards,
Stéphane.

Thanks Stephane, e-mail sent.

[zeltak]

Hi

Great program, ive just donated . i have a question though. i live in Israel and i connect through an antena with winpvr 150. when i dont use a xml file and set the sage tv config i get all the channels well. if i use the the new XMLTV importer (i tried it both with tvxb and a local israeli script) the xml info works vet well yet all the channels get stuck on one channel (cnn or vh1 for example) and i see the same channel in all my channels (i get 50 cnn channels instead of the normal channels) with the correct xmltv data guide for each one. can anyone help me set it up? its driving me mad.

best wishes

Zeltak

[StephaneM]

Hello,

Originally Posted by zeltak

i live in Israel and i connect through an antena with winpvr 150. when i dont use a xml file and set the sage tv config i get all the channels well. if i use the the new XMLTV importer .../... all the channels get stuck on one channel .../... i see the same channel in all my channels

It appears to me that when you typed the channel number in the Importer Channel Editor you choose the wrong ones.

The channel number you must type here are the RF number. For instance when you don't use XMLTV, SageTV scans availabe channel on the PVR 150 Inputs, when it's done it show you a channel list with channel numbers : these are the right channel number.

Also verify that when you set up your video source you are choosing the correct option :

* Use Tuner on Capture Card to tune Antenna/Broadcast
* Use US, Canada or XMLTV Guide Data with this Source
* Local Broadcast (Over-The-Air)
* Pick your XMLTV Lineup
* Wait until SageTV loads channels and guide data
* Verify in the list that all channels does have the right number

Regards,
Stéphane.

[zeltak]

Hi again and thank you for the answer. if by RF channells you mean the numbers 1-250 that sage tv gives me then ive did that. the funny thing i forgot to say is that the first time i did it by that method it all worked well and i got the epg data and channels working very well but after one restart when sagetv came up i have the correct data for the epg but still see the same one channel on all other channels. now in the sagetv setup i can see all the correct channels (70 Vh1, 108-sports chanell etc...) yet when i hit view i get VH1 in all channels..its driving me a bit mad . thx for your help again and for your great program. hope i can work our a solution

best wishes

Zeltak

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by zeltak

the funny thing i forgot to say is that the first time i did it by that method it all worked well and i got the epg data and channels working very well but after one restart when sagetv came up i have the correct data for the epg but still see the same one

Well I see two possibilities :

* Either SageTV thinks that you are using a Set Top Box connected through your computer by the Coaxial input of your PVR 150 and as it should it locks the tuner to one frequency (and want to change channels on the set top box through a IR blaster)

* Or the PVR 150 doesn't work as expected (but I doubt it)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Alfiegerner]

Hi Stephane,

I'm afraid I'm still having problems with those new classes you e-mailed me.

My line up with 17 or so channels works fine.
My lineup with 129 channels still stalls at the importing program data screen and I get the following errors:

2006-05-13 20:09:18	Sat 5/13 20:09:14.830 EPG Expanding Cable Lineup at Sat 5/13 20:09:14.830
2006-05-13 20:09:18	Sat 5/13 20:09:15.728 WarlockRipper logged in OK.
2006-05-13 20:09:30	Sat 5/13 20:09:26.047 Error updating with EPG Plugin:java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
2006-05-13 20:09:30	Sat 5/13 20:09:26.048 ERROR Updating EPG Source Cable Lineup
2006-05-13 20:09:30	Sat 5/13 20:09:26.688 ErrorText:expand called on Cable Lineup at Sat 5/13 20:09:14.829 expandedUntil=Sat 5/13 20:07:01.475 confirmedUntil=Thu 1/1 1:00:00.000

Also in log file I am seeing these errors:

2006-05-13 20:08:09	Sat 5/13 20:08:06.086 ERROR: Stack pointer is invalid in parser!
2006-05-13 20:08:09	Sat 5/13 20:08:06.089 EXCEPTION in getValueAsObject:java.lang.Exception: EvaluatorVisitor.getValue(): Error during evaluation

but I do not know if they are related. If I can be of any help let me know.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Alfiegerner

I'm afraid I'm still having problems with those new classes you e-mailed me.../...My lineup with 129 channels still stalls at the importing program data screen

Ok, then send me the content of your C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\3rdPartyGuideData in a zip file to lmgestion@hotmail.com (Of course I'm interested in the data with the 129 channels lineup).

I will see then if I can import these data on my PC without problems, and if not try to see if I can improve it.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[Alfiegerner]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

Ok, then send me the content of your C:\Program Files\SageTV\SageTV\3rdPartyGuideData in a zip file to lmgestion@hotmail.com (Of course I'm interested in the data with the 129 channels lineup).

I will see then if I can import these data on my PC without problems, and if not try to see if I can improve it.

Regards,
Stéphane.

Thanks Stephane, e-mail sent.