A thread for the Aussies....

[charli181]

Well, If the New Zealanders can do it, so can we..... This is a thread just for Australian issues.

I' ll start with one...

I get every other FTA (free to Air) EPG updatel except Channel 10 in Sydney when using the DVB-T EPG Grabber. Is anyone else experiencing this at the moment. I had data all the way up until monday night (although not accurate) and today nothing at all. I have restarted the TV Server & clicked "Refresh EPG" to no avail. I am running SVN from 23/2/08 and there are no errors in my logs.... Any comments from the other aussies on this as I am wondering if this is a Channel 10 problem.

[and-81]

I use Big Kevs guide downloader, never bothered with DVB-EPG to be honest.

[charli181]

ahhh, god bless big kev..... in more ways than one....

[penfold]

Big Kev's seems to do the same crash that a few people seem to be having - its a fresh install to. I'm just waiting for him to get back or whatever.
What versions do you guys run?

[and-81]

I'm using his Oz Tv Guide Download version 0.1.1.14 ... it was the first version that seemed to work reliably for me, so I stopped upgrading it after that ...

I know that's not fair on Big Kev because it deprives him of feedback on the newer versions, but I was at a stage where I needed some stability in my TV Server, so I couldn't afford the gamble... Maybe if the heat comes off a bit I can experiment some more.

[StarTV]

Hi all,

I'm still very fresh with MP and I'm trying to get my head around how all the magic happens in the background.

Spending a lot of time (too much in fact) reading these forums and I'm getting confused due to the lack of documentation on how stuff works in MP but then what do expect when you get something for free?

EPG is one of the things I'm trying to get to work on MP. I have some questions which I hope you guys can help me with.

1. Does DVB EPG in MP work properly in Australia (Sydney )? Or should I just not bother with it?

2. Is anyone still using Big Kev's Oz TV guide? If so, what is your EPG source?

3. Anyone using WebEPG? What grabbers are you using?

I just want to see what success or failures people have experienced using the available EPG applications. I hope these questions point me in the right direction before I start to spend the time setting up the EPG. I don't want the WAF to go down.

Thanks!

[charli181]

I am using the DVB-T to grab my EPG.

7,9,10 all have guides at least 5 days long. Sometimes though sometimes 1t o 2 hours worth of data maybe missing for 10HD.

channel2 shows 24 hours woth of data but is very comprehensive

SBS do not know as I can not get it (old VHF antenna only)

I use Big_Kev's Web Guide which gives me a web site that I can browse to over the internet and schedule my programming on the TV Server. Note that Big_kev's stuff is for TV Server (aka TVEngine 3) only i think. It also has a feature included in it to grab epg from the web if desired. I think there is a default listing for syd epg grabbing in there as well.

Note that there are differences in the formating between DVB-T and EPG grabbed from xml. here are the ones I have noticed:-
* some channels on DVB-T list all programms in CAPITALS. xml listings look Normal.
* some Channels on DVB-T will show movies as MOVIE in EPG and you have to hover over it to see the actual title of the movie. xml usually shows the title in the epg.

In my opinion, each has their merits and downsides so it comes down to preferences. My internet is flakey sometimes so this is the main reason for DVB-T and also hopefully to cover last minute changes in programing guides (although not very likely)

[guytpetj]

I'm using Angusmann's Guide Digger. The latest version works very good and allows plenty flexibility to deal with different time zones, dupicate channels etc.

The program is a bit slow compared to Big Kev's solution, but it gives me the flexibility I need.

New Australian TV guide source

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by charli181

I am using the DVB-T to grab my EPG. 7,9,10 all have guides at least 5 days long.

I haven't yet tried grabbing from DVB-T transmissions, so I am curious to know how it works? Do you have to be watching each channel each day to get the updated EPG, or do the channels each broadcast all of the other channel's EPG too?

If you actually have to be tuned to each channel in turn to get the EPG for that channel, how long is it necessary to be tuned for, to get all 5 days of the EPG?

[charli181]

Originally Posted by Taipan

I haven't yet tried grabbing from DVB-T transmissions, so I am curious to know how it works? Do you have to be watching each channel each day to get the updated EPG, or do the channels each broadcast all of the other channel's EPG too?

If you actually have to be tuned to each channel in turn to get the EPG for that channel, how long is it necessary to be tuned for, to get all 5 days of the EPG?

I am using the TV Server and in the general settings there is a tab for EPG grabbing via the DVB stream. There are 2 options there "Grab when idle" and "Grab when timeshifting". I have both enabled.

This means that when I am not watching any TV, the cards are still tuning to each channel and grabbing the EPG. There are timings in there and I have set for a timeout of 5 minutes which seems to be enough to get all 5 days in that time. It usually takes about 15-20 minutes to get all the channels and then just appends as it finds new entries.

The Grab when timeshifting is just that, when you tune to a channel, it will start grabbing the epg data pretty much straight away.

NOTE:- each channel only bradcasts its epg for its station. (i.e. ABC, will provide EPG for ABC1, ABC2, ABC TV Sydney, ABD HD TV)

On the TV Server if you go to the manual control section, you can watch the status of the cards and will see it going into EPG grabbing mode. If it is grabbing data when you decide to watch TV. It will stop the grabbing and tune to your selected channel as this is higher priority of course.
I think it only uses the first TV Card so if you have multiple tuners it will only use the one with the highest priority. This may have been improved - not too sure.

They have made improvements with DVB EPG grabbing with the latest svn's which make it more stable and reliable.

If you click on this link MP Web Interface - Main Menu this will take you to my epg grabbed solely from the DVB-T card. Please don't schedule any recordings...