EPG outside US: What are my choices?

[Moskus]

I'm living in Norway, and I'm wondering what is the best method to get EGP data into SageTV.

Right now I'm using XMLTV and the (or "a") XMLTV Plugin for SageTV. But for some reason XMLTV is missing about half of my 15 channels.


There's a lot of webpages on the net that has the channels I'm looking for. Is there a way I can use XMLTV (or anything else) to grab program data from these webpages?



Or is there a better method to get EPG data for Norway?

[voidpt]

I know what you're talking about. Been using XMLTV a long time. But the _no part of it is not very good maintained as of now. So I've looked for alternatives myself. What I'm running now is a grabber developed by a Norwegian guy. It is located at this URL:
- http://tvgrabber.heiigjen.com/
Just now the site is down, for some reason. You will need to register to get access to the util (TVGrabber). But it is donation/free. Can be a little difficult to get through the interface at start. Good thing is that it has most channels in Norway/Sweden, and it creates a XMLTV compatible file directly.

Give it a try, if the site gets up again that is

[Moskus]

Ah! I found the link to that page, but it didn't work so I was afraid it was just like o2grabber (which hasn't "alive" for some time now).

I'll check regulary for TVgrabber.

[voidpt]

Yeah. I used o2grabber myself a period. But then it died away. I can't really predict the future for TVGrabber, but we'll see. For now it's serving it purpose. If the site don't get online in day, PM me, and I'll send you a copy of the program.

[mariOwing]

Over here http://mc2xml.110mb.com/ there is a program that takes listing directly from the server Microsoft uses for MCE and converts them into XMLTV-files. Most of the "normal" Norwegian channels are in there (I have Canal Digital Cabel and it has listings for about 28 of the 35 channels).

I am not sure if it's 100% legal, or in violation of some licence agreement, but I figure that since I own a licenced copy of Vista Media Center which I can't use since
a) It can't run on or interact with Windows Home Server in any way
b) It can't use my DVB-C card
I download and use the epg data anyway since I feel I have payed for them...

The program works great and the listings are of quite good quality.

If you prefer to use the "original" xmltv program you could try no_gfeed. Unfortunately it doesn't have all the channels, but the for the channels it has data the listings are very good.

[Moskus]

I'm running Windows Home Server... thanks for the option, but I won't even try it if it doesn't run.

TVgrabber works without problems at all.

[steven017]

Try out TVxb. It works well for me. I'm using it to grab EPG information from a couple different pages. It might take a bit of time to sort it out so it works perfectly, but otherwise it works great. It may even work for you right after you install it without the need for making any specific changes to the ini file.

Steve

[Moskus]

Looks good, allthough might require a little tweaking...

[voidpt]

Originally Posted by mariOwing

Over here http://mc2xml.110mb.com/ there is a program that takes listing directly from the server Microsoft uses for MCE and converts them into XMLTV-files. Most of the "normal" Norwegian channels are in there (I have Canal Digital Cabel and it has listings for about 28 of the 35 channels).

Originally Posted by steven017

Try out TVxb. It works well for me. I'm using it to grab EPG information from a couple different pages. It might take a bit of time to sort it out so it works perfectly, but otherwise it works great. It may even work for you right after you install it without the need for making any specific changes to the ini file.

Thanks for good tips. Didn't know about these. Will keep these in my bookmarks if I need to move on from my current solution. Always good to have backups.

[mariOwing]

Originally Posted by Moskus

I'm running Windows Home Server... thanks for the option, but I won't even try it if it doesn't run.

Just to be clear; the MC 2 XML program runs 100% without any issues on any (Windows) operating system. I run it on Windows Home Server myself. I was just saying that I don't know if downloading the tv-listings from Microsoft and using it in a "non-media center edition enviroment" is legal. But it works great and since the listings are used by an official Microsoft OS my quess is that the listings won't disapear anytime soon, which is known to happen to other xmltv-solutions :-)