Roll Call for Canadians - Guide listings for Canada

[olyar15]

I'm not sure why you have to force Sage to update the EPG manually. Sage updates the EPG periodically, and as long as you have current listings in you XMLTV file, it should update automatically. I find that Sage can be a bit problematic if the XMLTV file becomes outdated, in which case I have to do a manual update. Otherwise, I just download the XMLTV data using the Windows scheduling, twice a week, each time downloading a week's worth of data. That way I am sure to always have current EPG data.

[davey_fl]

thanks charles. Are you using shaw? Did you get Sage changing channels properly with the cable box?

[olyar15]

Yes, I am using Shaw. I have the digital cable box, but I just use the analog cable signal into my Hauppauge card, so I don't have to worry about Sage being able to change the channels on the cable box. The main reason I got the cable box was to watch the HDTV channels.

Occasionally, I'll also use it to watch another channel if Sage is busy recording a show on a different channel. I could get a 2nd TV card, but it happens so rarely that there will be 2 shows that I want to record simultaneously that it isn't worth it to me.

[davey_fl]

well it's a new year lets hope we can get epg support supported for sage!

[exdirtfarmer]

Another vote for Canadian EPG. I'm currently running mythtv with XMLTV's guide loading from zap2it.com and got bit by a couple of bugs but it works well enough, updating nightly. I am sold on trying Sage TV, although mythtv has been very solid, configuring /updating/recompiling kernels wheres a guy out afterwhile. MediaMVP support sounds pretty yummy.

:Cheers:
Alan

[joedornan]

Originally posted by davey_fl
well it's a new year lets hope we can get epg support supported for sage!

Here here davey_fl!

I'd even consider paying a special fee...

Cheers.
-Joe

[Fluffdaddy]

A special fee always helps getting the ball rolling........I would consider that also.
A small a special fee, that is

[davey_fl]

I agree. I don't mind xmltv (when it works) but I do like SS's integrated canadian epg (also using zap2it). Hey is anyone here using their sagetv with a bell expressvu 4700? My 4700 is RF and I'm trying to figure out if it will also accept IR so I can use USB-UIRT...

thx

davey_fl

[eggman51]

Has anyone considered developiong something that reads the Snapstream EPG and imports it into Sage?

I am far too stupid for such a thing, but it seems like it's feasible.

I would gladly write off the $100 CDN I paid for Snapstream to get better picture, multiple tuners and Client access - particularly in the 2.0 UI framework.

The only things missing from Sage for me, in order of importance:
1. Canadian EPG
2. Highly Usable UI
3. Remote Scheduling

AFAIK 2.0 adds #2 and #3 but no word on Canadian EPG.

XMLTV just won't do for me, partly due to my lazyness and partly due to the fact that my wife simply will not use this if the EPG is not rock solid, it's her favorite aspect of the set top box.

eggman

[pawn]

Has anyone considered developiong something that reads the Snapstream EPG and imports it into Sage?


That's a pretty damned good idea.

The plugin ability of Sage should allow for this. Have you looked at the SS data? Is it binary or ASCII?

[eggman51]

I believe Snapstream EPG is mdb hehe (access).

There is a Snapstream community member who has written a plug in to add PPV info for a US Satelite provider into the Snapstream EPG, so it certainly can be read if it can be written to!

I would love someone much smarter than me to take this on!

eggman

[davey_fl]

anyone experience a slow down in the xmltv grab? Mine runs at 4 am and when I get up at 7 it's still going! This is only in the past week. I grab 200 channels, 7 days worth from zap2it...

thx

[pawn]

Yep, noticed it.

I just notice the time stamps on my files which are becoming more and more removed from the time I schedule the download to start.

Strange though: I manually downloaded the listings last week at about 10:00pm. I grab about three hundred total channels for two separate providers, and it pulled down and sorted in about 45 minutes.

Maybe too many people are scheduling for late at night.

[joedornan]

Hi folks,

Thanks for all the tips and encouragement of going with sage & xml cdn listings. I just wanted to let folks know that for now I chose to purchase Beyond TV because of the integration of Cdn listings, but that I will play around with the (superior in all other ways) sage. Maybe 2.0 will be worth switching! (in other words I'm staying tuned).

Cheers,
-Joe

[camel]

Count me in!

Currently waiting for two things, in order of importance:

1) MediaMVP full client support. This is the show stopper for me as having a PC in the living/family/bedroom just will not fly :-(

2) Canadian listings. Would very much like having integrated listings. I can deal with the XMLTV issues but others in the family could not... and manually entering times/dates isn't that much of an issue if you can enter for multiple tuners through one interface. I'm just tired of running between VCRs in different rooms and coordinating recording schedules, ensuring there are tapes, and praying that there's enough tape left when going on vacation. That being said, I wouldn't mind paying a nominal $ amount for Canadian listing, especially if there was some sort of guarantee that once a set number of users were registered it would become cheaper (or free).

[Kainroh]

This may just be the showstopper for me.

I'm a newbie to PVR's.

But I'm determined to build a PC based PVR (as there is no TIVO or REPLAYTV here in Canada). At this moment I am doing the research to make this happen, buying a capture card and some software to control it all.
The card is a cut and dried decision, PVR-250 all the way, the software on the otherhand is the big question mark.

As I see it, my options are:

1)BeyondTV
2)SageTV

From the pretty pictures I see on each respective Website, they both look pretty similiar, with similiar functionality. But hearing that SageTV doesn't natively support Canadian listings and BeyondTV does, my decision seems that much easier...

Perhaps one more buyer for BeyondTV and one less for Sage...

IMHO Canada is a HUGE potential market for PC based PVR and lacking the native EPG support is really a deal killer.

Yes, I understand that there is a cludge using XMLTV or some such like that, but this seems like a monumental task as it is, building an HTPC, without the added headache of XMLTV.

How many others like me out there, that have passed this software by, to shop at your competitor. And how many more will it take before "they" become the de facto standard...

As I see it, Frey has no option but to offer Canadian EPG.
That, or risk loseing market share, and becoming another one of the Information Super-Highway's speed bumps...

I hope this rant actually makes it to someone who can make a difference, because I really do prefer the feature-set of the V2 SageTV...

[mikbro]

Kainroh,

I would recommend you try them both, they both have eval versions you can test - so why not?

I have used (at different times) both the XMLTV and the official US listings. XMLTV really is not that difficult once you are used to it, and can be fairly automated.