DigiGuide alternative to RT XMLTV

[Whitey]

Originally Posted by starfire

Hi,

I'm really interested in this digiguide importer, currently I'm running radio times grabber via xmltvgui ran by stephane's importer.

The key thing that really annoys me is repeats - can this new importer (and I guess do digiguide themselves) reliably flag repeats to Sage?, if so I'm hooked.


And if I switch, do I need xmltvgui installed at all as I see one of its grabbers is algo digiuide - whats the difference between that digiguide one and the one in this thread? - I'm a bit lost on this

Thanks!

The good thing about digiguide is that you can report errors to them so they can fix them. I have contacted them about first runs being flagged as repeats and they sorted it out

Whitey

[jaminben]

I dont know what I've done but when I look at my movies (TV Guide) I dont have any year info. The films all display the name of the film and then () and thats it.

So all films on TV look like "Timberjack ()"

Anyone got any ideas on how to get back the info which should be in-between the ().

I've attached a screen shot which may explain it a bit better.

Cheers

Ben

[jamesdisco]

Originally Posted by starfire

And if I switch, do I need xmltvgui installed at all as I see one of its grabbers is algo digiuide - whats the difference between that digiguide one and the one in this thread? - I'm a bit lost on this

Thanks!

I'm new to sage and have just got the digiguide solution working. I would use DG2XML.exe as it puts more data in the xmltv file i tried xmltvgui 1st and it missed off things like the star rating etc.

[brewston]

I think I have this working but I followed the instructions at :

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/down...do=file&id=222

But didn't use the 1.0.3 folder which I downloaded originally when I started looking at this. Is it an either or ?

Do I need the digiguide application open on my desktop for the automated run of Stephane's importer ? (BTW - for those who haven't seen it, version 3.0 of his importer can read Sage's frq files to get the channels you've discovered and match them to the XMLTV feed - excellent!)

cheers

Tim

[brettuk]

My repeat infomation isn't working that well. Mock the week, for example, keeps showing as repeats even when it can be a first run.
Can anything be done to fix this? Digiguide does carry repeat infomation (under the programme description if it's a repeat the word Repeat will be in the brackets somewhere) so can we utilise this? Would make life a lot easier!

Thanks

P.S. I've just noticed that this is taken notice of with the <previously shown /> tag. So in that case, can Stephane look at this tag and mark as a repeat? or at least give us the option?

[Nick_W]

Hi,

Like you say I take care of it with the xml file, but Stephane doesn't do anything with it at the moment.

Regards,

Nick.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Nick_W

Like you say I take care of it with the xml file, but Stephane doesn't do anything with it at the moment.

The Importer does use the previously-shown node. However, when this node is not given for a show, it doesn't mean for the Importer that this show is a first-run : it may or may not be, so the Importer use its history to find it out.

When you know for sure that a show is a first run, use the premiere node. When the Importer see a premiere node, it will use the airing date of the show as the original air date (only if it cannot find one in its history).

The First Run / Re-Run behavior works best with show that does have an episode title or episode number. For all other shows, either the information is dropped (shows get an EPGID with a SH prefix), or the Importer use its history.

A real nice trick for live shows is to add an episode title (or in the description) such as "airing of the xx/xx/xx", though it might not be necessary to do this (I was doing it until the information given by providers was complete nonsense : they began to add a "live" flag to series!)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[brettuk]

Originally Posted by StephaneM

The Importer does use the previously-shown node. However, when this node is not given for a show, it doesn't mean for the Importer that this show is a first-run : it may or may not be, so the Importer use its history to find it out.

When you know for sure that a show is a first run, use the premiere node. When the Importer see a premiere node, it will use the airing date of the show as the original air date (only if it cannot find one in its history).

The First Run / Re-Run behavior works best with show that does have an episode title or episode number. For all other shows, either the information is dropped (shows get an EPGID with a SH prefix), or the Importer use its history.

A real nice trick for live shows is to add an episode title (or in the description) such as "airing of the xx/xx/xx", though it might not be necessary to do this (I was doing it until the information given by providers was complete nonsense : they began to add a "live" flag to series!)

Regards,
Stéphane.

Nick are you going to add the premiere node? Could be useful maybe as DigiGuide is pretty reliable for repeat infomation.

Correction: Just been looking through the digiguide data, and it seems that the BBC, ITV, CH4 and Five are pretty good with repeat information, but the rest of the channels are less so. Makes life a bit harder

[Nick_W]

Originally Posted by brettuk

Nick are you going to add the premiere node? Could be useful maybe as DigiGuide is pretty reliable for repeat information.

Whether premiere or previously-shown (I can't see if either make a differnce as long as one or the other is populated), I could add it. However, I don't think digiguide is that acurate.

If there is no repeat tag, what would you like me to do, mark is as first showing? I don't think that will help.

Regards,

Nick.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by Nick_W

Whether premiere or previously-shown (I can't see if either make a differnce as long as one or the other is populated), I could add it. However, I don't think digiguide is that acurate.

If there is no repeat tag, what would you like me to do, mark is as first showing? I don't think that will help.

Generally speaking both tag are welcome as they doesn't mean the same thing (per XMLTV DTD):

* previously-shown : this is a re-run. The absence of this node doesn't mean that the show is a first run
* premiere : this a first run (for that channel at least). The absence of this node doesn't mean that the show is a re-run

Anyway the shows Brett is speaking about are shows without episode title (or meaningful description). So those shows are better without any first run / re-run logic. They are some sort of daily show (or weekly). So there is first run / re run but it is impossible to know for sure what shows are a repeat of another unless an episode title or a meaningful description is added to these shows.

For instance, you have a daily show (Monday through Sunday). First-run is on 18h, show is aired again at 01h and at 11h the next day. The Importer cannot know that airing of 01h and 11h are repeats of the 18h show (all being first runs). The only way the Importer would know is to use "airing of the xx/xx/xx" as an episode title (or in the show description).

Though it is not required to do this for you (you would have to know what to do for every show, this is a lot of editorial work: imho this is digiguide job!) because for these shows the Importer drops completely first run and re-run status. This way users can set up a "record all" job : all airings will be recorded and user can either :

* select a time frame for the recording job (with the example at 18h) in SageTV
* create a rule in the Importer to let the Importer knows that the 18h airing is a first run, all others show not with the 18h time frame being repeats.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[starfire]

I noticed recently that my guide data was running out so decided to investigate whats going on, I initially setup DGXMLTV and the new v3 Sage XMLTV importer and it worked fine and I left it alone.

It appears that epgdata.xml in the DGXMLTV folder was way out of date, so I ran a command shell and executed the program and it complained the web server was not running - shouldn't this have set a bad return code that could have been picked up by Stephane's importer?

I also notice that Stephane's reporter no longer reports into Windows events application log which was useful for checking its status, whats the recommended way of monitoring it now?

Can someone confirm, you have to leave digiguide running if you want the web service active? seems a bit stupid but if thats the way.... at least it fixed the issue for me.

[brewston]

Originally Posted by starfire

Can someone confirm, you have to leave digiguide running if you want the web service active? seems a bit stupid but if thats the way.... at least it fixed the issue for me.

I noticed the exact same thing - I need Digiguide running on the desktop minimized. It doesnt even seem to have a system tray only setting (not that I have looked) I guess I rarely see the desktop, so it doesnt matter

[starfire]

Thanks for the confirmation.

I found under general settings you can set it to minimize to the system tray which helps a bit.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by starfire

I also notice that Stephane's reporter no longer reports into Windows events application log which was useful for checking its status, whats the recommended way of monitoring it now?

Correct, I've left out logging to the event viewer in v3.0. There is now a trace file in the config & log folders (you can open it by clicking on the link you'll find in the "Update Guide Data" menu)

Regards,
Stéphane.

[starfire]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

As DGXMLTV appears not to always set bad return codes (as per my previous post) could you add a check for the timestamp on the xml file to be imported and warn if its say over 7 days old?

Also I don't know whether its possible but if a problem or failure does occur when you run the importer as a scheduled task you will not know without checking the trace files, perhaps you could add some alerting mechanism like email, popup or windows broadcast message? Something to think about anyway

[Nick_W]

Hi,

Yes, DigiGuide needs to run in the system tray all the time. If some problem should occur with the importer (other than user error) I will fix it (and post here), as this is the method of import I use myself

Regards,

Nick.

[starfire]

Thanks Nick.

[brewston]

Anyone else notice, that since moving to digiguide (or maybe it was 3.0 of Stephane's importer as I did them together) that you get the parental rating icons in the web server now ?

cool huh ?

[Nick_W]

Hi,

That's because DigiGuide provide the info, so I export it to the XML file. Stephane's importer has always made use of it, but RT data sucks

Regards,

Nick.

[echoes]

Hi,

I'm quite new to SageTV, and have been experimenting with Birtles's Digiguide grabber and Stephane's importer to get my EPG data. I have a Freeview lineup and a Satellite lineup which work well, but I find the initial set up tiresome (manually editing the frq files) and find that the combination of Digiguide GUI + XMLTV GUI + SageImporter GUI + .frq editing cumbersome, so I'm trying to streamline the process and number of applications needed.

I've just written a digiguide grabber/importer for sage which I am putting through final testing. No bells or whistles yet...

It grabs XML from digiguide much like Birtles' grabber but stores the channel, show and airing data in a 'Sage friendly' format, as opposed to the XMLTV format. These stored data files are then imported into sage using my new importer plugin. I have added support for multiple lineups.

My next task will be to write a GUI for managing lineups, but I propose to have this GUI amend the sage frq files, and also put correctly named logo files in the logos directory.

If anyone would like to have an early release and give me some feedback, that would be appreciated!