Best UK tv guide provider

bigj · 2007-02-15, 14:16

Can anyone recommend a source of guide data for UK that includes series+episode information?

What options are there? :

WebEPG
XMLTV (native)
DVB-T EPG

??

What about the 'commercial' providers eg. tvtv.co.uk ?

chenks · 2007-02-15, 14:34

use the "over-the-air" EPG.
this should give you all the info you need.

Nemulate · 2007-02-15, 14:52

Hi Chenks.

are you sure it gives series/episode number information as I don't recall seeing it anywhere in MP or even in my freeview STB?

chenks · 2007-02-15, 15:02

well i certainly know that Channel4/E4/E4+a has episode information in the EPG.

examples is "Friends" - it has the episode title and brief description.

Nemulate · 2007-02-15, 15:13

Ok sounds like it might be broadcaster dependant then! What skin do you use by the way, maybe mine has different epg info?

Thanks

chenks · 2007-02-15, 15:16

doubt it is a sking issue - i use BlueTwo

TritonT · 2007-02-15, 16:48

I use XMLTV GUI Grabber from http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/. I have this run as a command line scheduled task 5.30am every morning.

It has plugins for different TV guide sources. I take the majority of my channels from Radio Times with a few from bleb.

The file structure from Radio Times is very complete, eg

<programme start="20070217220500 +0000" stop="20070217223500 +0000" channel="UK_RT_1860">
<title lang="en">Never Mind the Buzzcocks</title>
<desc lang="en">Comedy pop quiz with host Simon Amstell and team captains Bill Bailey and Phill Jupitus. The guests include Preston from The Ordinary Boys, soap queen Anne Charleston, comedian Ed Byrne, Guillemots frontman Fyfe Dangerfield, and a special guest.</desc>
<category lang="en">Game show</category>
<length units="minutes">30</length>
<episode-num system="xmltv_ns">.2/6.</episode-num>
<video>
<aspect>16:9</aspect>
</video>
<previously-shown/>
<subtitles type="teletext">
<language lang="en">English</language>
</subtitles>
</programme>

There is even more info for films, such as director, actors, premiere, rating etc. Unfortunately as far as I can tell MediaPortal ignores all of this except title, desc and category. Which is a pity as episode number would be very handy for recordings.

bigj · 2007-02-16, 17:50

The customised recording paths supports series+episode numbers in path.
So MP does support this info. And this is required really for the MyTVSeries plugin to work.

I used to use Birtles, currently I'm currently using WebEPG+RadioTimes grabber - the generated xml file contains fields for Series,Episode etc. But I only see 'unknown' for these fields.

I think that if the Birtles XMLTV output is postprocessed to same format as WebEPG, then MP would pick up series/episode info... Maybe. Though I don't see series number in your example.

(Ideally WebEPG RT scraper should pick this extra RT info up natively).

2007-02-15, 14:16	#1 (permalink)
bigj Portal Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 238 Thanks: 4 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Best UK tv guide provider Can anyone recommend a source of guide data for UK that includes series+episode information? What options are there? : WebEPG XMLTV (native) DVB-T EPG ?? What about the 'commercial' providers eg. tvtv.co.uk ?

2007-02-15, 15:02	#4 (permalink)
chenks Portal Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Scotland Age: 32 Posts: 727 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country: My System	well i certainly know that Channel4/E4/E4+a has episode information in the EPG. examples is "Friends" - it has the episode title and brief description. Last edited by chenks; 2007-02-15 at 15:15.

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2007-02-15, 14:34	#2 (permalink)
chenks Portal Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Scotland Age: 32 Posts: 727 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country: My System	use the "over-the-air" EPG. this should give you all the info you need.

2007-02-15, 14:52	#3 (permalink)
Nemulate Portal Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: IOW Age: 45 Posts: 487 Thanks: 13 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts Country: My System	Hi Chenks. are you sure it gives series/episode number information as I don't recall seeing it anywhere in MP or even in my freeview STB?

2007-02-15, 15:13	#5 (permalink)
Nemulate Portal Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: IOW Age: 45 Posts: 487 Thanks: 13 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts Country: My System	Ok sounds like it might be broadcaster dependant then! What skin do you use by the way, maybe mine has different epg info? Thanks

2007-02-15, 15:16	#6 (permalink)
chenks Portal Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Scotland Age: 32 Posts: 727 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Country: My System	doubt it is a sking issue - i use BlueTwo

2007-02-15, 16:48	#7 (permalink)
TritonT Portal Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 92 Thanks: 5 Thanked 21 Times in 8 Posts Country:	I use XMLTV GUI Grabber from http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/. I have this run as a command line scheduled task 5.30am every morning. It has plugins for different TV guide sources. I take the majority of my channels from Radio Times with a few from bleb. The file structure from Radio Times is very complete, eg <programme start="20070217220500 +0000" stop="20070217223500 +0000" channel="UK_RT_1860"> <title lang="en">Never Mind the Buzzcocks</title> <desc lang="en">Comedy pop quiz with host Simon Amstell and team captains Bill Bailey and Phill Jupitus. The guests include Preston from The Ordinary Boys, soap queen Anne Charleston, comedian Ed Byrne, Guillemots frontman Fyfe Dangerfield, and a special guest.</desc> <category lang="en">Game show</category> <length units="minutes">30</length> <episode-num system="xmltv_ns">.2/6.</episode-num> <video> <aspect>16:9</aspect> </video> <previously-shown/> <subtitles type="teletext"> <language lang="en">English</language> </subtitles> </programme> There is even more info for films, such as director, actors, premiere, rating etc. Unfortunately as far as I can tell MediaPortal ignores all of this except title, desc and category. Which is a pity as episode number would be very handy for recordings.

2007-02-16, 17:50	#8 (permalink)
bigj Portal Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 238 Thanks: 4 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	The customised recording paths supports series+episode numbers in path. So MP does support this info. And this is required really for the MyTVSeries plugin to work. I used to use Birtles, currently I'm currently using WebEPG+RadioTimes grabber - the generated xml file contains fields for Series,Episode etc. But I only see 'unknown' for these fields. I think that if the Birtles XMLTV output is postprocessed to same format as WebEPG, then MP would pick up series/episode info... Maybe. Though I don't see series number in your example. (Ideally WebEPG RT scraper should pick this extra RT info up natively).