XMLTV UK Channel No.s

[RedDom]

I'm using AlanB's RT grabber, but having a bit of a nightmare getting the channel numbers in to sage correctly. I'm using the original xmltv plugin.

in the grabber, I am using the altchanids to map the channel id to channel numer. I'm also sorting the result by channel.

when I look in the resulting xml file i see all the channels listed at the top, with their id which matches the channel number i want. and the display name, they are also in order of the channel id. As are the programs below.
however once imported into sage, they not only have the wrong channel numbers, they are also in the wrong order. I know i can remap them manually, but with 100 or so channels its a bit of a pain, also it seems if i change the lineup at all, the remapping goes a bit wonky unless i delete sage.properties and set up again. As I'm still in the config tweakking stage this is kind of frustrating.
Is there anything that can be done to the xml output to fix this, or use another plugin that works with uk data?

thx
RD

[nielm]

Which XMLTV plugin are you using (some ignore channel numbers)
How is the channel number put in the XML file -- Can you post one of the <channel... definitions from the XML file.

Sage keeps track of channels internally by using the XMLTV ID of the channel (not the name, nor the number) so if the XMLTV ID changes, it will look like a new channel to Sage.

[RedDom]

the channels section originally looks something like this:
</channel>
- <channel id="london.bbc2.bbc.co.uk">
<display-name>BBC2 London & South East</display-name>
</channel>
- <channel id="carlton.com">
<display-name>ITV1 London</display-name>
</channel>

I have used the ability to remap channel ids in the grabber to get
</channel>
- <channel id="2">
<display-name>BBC2 London & South East</display-name>
</channel>
- <channel id="3">
<display-name>ITV1 London</display-name>
</channel>

I was hoping this would then put those channels on those channel numbers which are the ones that i need for tha cable stb channel changes.
I am using an old plugin which works with UK data, I tried a few others including the multi lineup one but they seemed to hang when importing data

thx
RD

[nielm]

If you mean This importer, it does not handle channel numbers.
This one does, but only if the channel number is in the first <display-name>element, and if it is purely numeric, eg:

<channel id="london.bbc2.bbc.co.uk">
<display-name>2</display-name> 
<display-name>BBC2 London & South East</display-name> 
</channel>

If it is in any other format, it will fail to parse the channel number, and the import will appear to hang

Because you were changing the channel ID (not the display-name), sage kept on seeing it as a new channel, and assigning it to a new channel number. Remapping is a pain, but you will only need to do it once...

(there is a multi-lineup one for UK data, modified by me, which might work better at handling channel numbers -- it tries to get a channel number from the ID, and if not then from the display-name elements, and it will not hang if it fails... I have not tested it though!)

[RedDom]

Thanks for that. The modified multi lineup works perfectly if i remap channel ids to channel numbers. Would i be right in thinking, that because i'm using the channel id as the channel number I wont be able to take advantage of the multilineup support because the same channel will have to have a different channel id in order to have a different channel number? Its not a problem at the moment as i am using the dvbrecorder which allows me to remap at the encoder level for dvb.

thx

RD

[nielm]

Originally Posted by RedDom

Thanks for that. The modified multi lineup works perfectly if i remap channel ids to channel numbers. Would i be right in thinking, that because i'm using the channel id as the channel number I wont be able to take advantage of the multilineup support because the same channel will have to have a different channel id in order to have a different channel number? Its not a problem at the moment as i am using the dvbrecorder which allows me to remap at the encoder level for dvb.

Its possible, never tried it myself... I think different channels in different lineups should have different ids, so you may have issues...