Webepg for dummies

[SwissBuster]

After a few weeks struggling to get webepg to work, I finally have WebEPG running successfully. I thought others could benefit from my learning...

Note that I'm using Vista32 with a single seat TV server. Your setup, and solution, might be different. I got webepg working on MP RC1, several SVN releases, and now with RC2 as well.

Start by reading the Wiki guide, particularly the configuration steps at the bottom of the page.

First things first: go to MP configuration, and under plug-ins, activate WebEpg grabber. Click OK. Now go to TV Server configuration, click on plug-ins. Make sure XmlTV is activated as described here.

Next, you need to configure webepg to download data for your chosen channels. Make sure the webepg-config file is in the MediaPortal program folder (typically C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal). Double-click to launch the program and you should see a window similar to the Wiki guide configuration point 2. If you are using TV server (and most of you are), you need to add channels manually as described under point 3, and then ignore point 4. Follow steps 5-9. This is a little tedious, but you only need to do it once.

Saving creates a file called webepg.xml. This is typically saved under C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal. It's useful to make a backup of this in case you need to reinstall MP or TV server. You would just need to copy your backup to the file directory shown here.

Go back to C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal. Click on the webepg.exe file. Note that under Vista you may have to select 'run as administrator' for this to work. Either way, it doesn't appear to do anything, but it does create several files in the background:
1. A log file (typically found under C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\Logs) called webepg.log, which describes what data is being grabbed. When finished, this should end with a line that says something like 2008-07-13 09:07:50.617319 [Info.][WebEPG-xmltv]: WebEPG: Finished.
2. While it's grabbing, a file called TVguide-writing.xml is updated. In my case this is at C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\XMLTV.
3. When finished, TVguide-writing.xml is copied as TVguide.xml to C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\XMLTV.
Note that is some cases these files might be under different locations, for example hidden somewhere under C:\Users. The best method to find them is using advance search in Vista making sure Vista also searches for 'non-indexed, hidden and system files'.
In my case, with 30 odd channels and 5 days of grabbing, this process takes about 10 minutes to complete.

Now go back to TV server config and select plugins > XmlTV. You should see a window similar to the image under the settings chapter here.
1. Make sure the path is correctly pointing to where your TV guide is, and that this folder contains the xmltv.dtd file. In my case this is C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\XmlTV.
2. For Switzerland, I needed to 'Apply Timezone Compensation' of -2 hours (that's minus two). This is important to make sure the TV program data is displayed at the right time!
3. Hit the 'force import' button. After a few seconds, you should see information in the 'Import status report'. If you don't have a number of channels, programs and 'File imported successfully' message, you probably need to go to the mapping tab next. If the file was imported successfully, you're good to go!

Mapping tab: You need to make sure you have mapped the channels to the new TVGuide.xml file (TV-Server Config > XMLTV > Mappings). Click load, which will take a few minutes. Then make sure you map each channel in the 'Guide Channel' list (the channels you selected in your webepg-config) to a channel in the 'Visible in TV guide' list. Most of the time (assuming you use similar names in WebEPG and as TV channels) the channels will be mapped automatically, but make sure everything has mapped right. Next, click on the save button (important). Go back to the Settings tab and run the 'force import' again; hopefully it now works.

Click OK to close TV server config, and start MP. Don't expect a fully populated TV guide immediately, as it takes a while to load the data.

Anyway, hope this was useful. Feel free to post updates, corrections, or questions and maybe we can use this to improve the Wiki Guide.

[smithdc]

This guide is awsome, please sticky!. I have spent the last couple days trying to find out how to get it all setup nicely. The problem i found was finding how to setup the tv-server to work with the webepg.

Just one thing I would like to add.

To get the webepg to update:

MP - Config
Plugins
Web EPG Grabber - Right Click and click disabled, then right click and click config.

The settings in this window will schedule the webepg up run and update which will then automatcily feed though to the details in the tv server as it checks ever min for a new file.

Is this right?

[level20peon]

Hey,

maybe using the forum search would have helped you to prevent such struggle. I created a howto some time ago. See this for more info


-level20peon

[SwissBuster]

Originally Posted by smithdc

To get the webepg to update:
MP - Config
Plugins
Web EPG Grabber - Right Click and click disabled, then right click and click config.

The settings in this window will schedule the webepg to run and update which will then automatically feed though to the details in the tv server as it checks every min for a new file.

Is this right?

I'm glad you added this. I wanted to but haven't successfully run the auto-update yet.

I looked for the auto-update everywhere and found it by accident yesterday. I have activated it but haven't tested it yet. I suspect I'll get an error because it won't 'run as administrator'. Another (less neat) option is to schedule the task to run in Windows.

Anyone want to pitch in on this one?

Originally Posted by level20peon

Hey,

maybe using the forum search would have helped you to prevent such struggle. I created a howto some time ago. See this for more info


-level20peon

Believe me, I used the search button until the batteries in my keyboard ran out. I used your post to get further along the line, but even with all my searches I couldn't get WebEGP working.

[nicksti]

Hey!

Thank you for the Tutorial. I will try it at evening.
But one question. Is it possible to grab EBG-data for some channels with WebEpg and some with the standard-grabber, becouse
There are not all channels included in the WebEpg.

Does this work by anybody?

[SwissBuster]

Originally Posted by nicksti

Is it possible to grab EBG-data for some channels with WebEpg and some with the standard-grabber, because not all channels are included in the WebEpg?

Sorry, don't know. But I suspect its all-or-nothing with WebEPG. If you're up for some minor programming, you can customise WebEPG to grab data from pretty much any website, as described here.

Meanwhile, auto-updates are working for me now! As smithdc said, in MP Config go to plugins, right click on Web EPG Grabber, enable it, then click config to setup a schedule for your grabbing. This will automatically update tvguide.xml in tv-server.

For me, this only worked once I had bypassed the 'run as administrator' prompts (this is a Vista issue, not MP). If you want to, you can disactivate user access control in Vista so that the 'run as administrator' command is never needed. See a full description here. For me, any security risk is worth it to get rid of those popup warnings!

[umlaut]

Big thanks for the tutorial!
I suggest the wiki article on this site could be updated with this info. The current version descibes the procedure as it is done in 0.2.3.0 and some major changes i.e where the files go have been made in 1.0 RC1.

Without the help of this post I wouldnt have figured it out even if I did get it to work in the previous version of MP.

[rsbrux]

Since installing RC2, this doesn't work for me any more. I have reviewed all of the settings without finding anything amiss.
TVguide.xml gets written, but the information never appears in MP. Any ideas?

[Spragleknas]

Did you enter correct path in TVServer config?

[rsbrux]

Yes.