With EPG Collector and XMLTV you can grab USA ATSC Over The Air (antenna) TV Guide/EPG info directly from the TV station without using a network connection. EPG Collector grabs the OTA EPG data and creates a TvGuide.xml file, XMLTV imports the EPG into MePo. This works for my local USA ATSC TV stations. I don't know if this will work for cable/QAM, but I don't think cable sends the needed EPG info. The ATSC EPG has some limitations. 1. For my local stations the ATSC EPG provides basic Program Time, Program Title, and Description but does not have SubTitle, Episode Name, Episode Number, or other info. This is the EPG data you see when you push the "Info Button" on your TV remote control. Some channels provided limited EPG data. My ABC channel has Description = ProgramTitle. 2. The ATSC EPG data provides 12 hours of data for most channels, a few channels provide 1-2 days of data. Since most channels only have 12 hours of data you need to run the grabber 2 or more times a day. See attached EPG_CollectorLog.txt file for more details. 3. EPG Collector is not integrated with MePo TV Server so you need to use Windows Task Manager to run the Collector and control how MePo and Collector share the ATSC tuners. On my test system I have 1 ATSC tuner, so I can only View, Record, or EPG grab 1 station at a time. you can find EPG Collector at http://sourceforge.net/projects/epgcollector/ See the attached file EPG_CollectorSetup.txt for some setup info if you want to give EPG Collector a try. ********** Download files from http://sourceforge.net/projects/epgcollector/files/ I used V4.0 "EPG Collector V040000 Install.zip" and "EPG Collector v4.0 Fixpak 1.zip", I did not try the ".msi" file. For testing I made a folder "C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\EPG Collector" and unzipped the files to this folder. This includes "ReadMe 4.0.txt" and "Release Notes 4.0.txt" files with useful information. Suggest you do some reading if you want to give EPG Collector a try. You also need ".NET Framework 4", I'm a control freak and went to Msft to download/install dotNetFx40_Full_setup.exe. If you use HD Homerun ethernet ATSC tuners and Windows Firewall you need to allow network access for "EPGCentre.exe" and "EPGCollector.exe". See ReadMe and google "windows firewall program exceptions" for help. I use McAfee Firewall and allowed full access when requested. This does not apply to ATSC tuners using PCIe, USB, etc. You need to set the MePo TV Server to support Advanced Tuning Options with "idle state" = "Stop Card" so MePo will not block access to the ATSC tuner when it is not in use. See wiki http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/141_Configuration/TV-Server_Configuration/02_TV_Servers ********** Initial EPG Collector setup EPG Collector supports "Administrator" and "User" privileges. See Readme. I used "Administrator" and the following folders Program Files C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\EPG Collector Data Files C:\ProgramData\Geekzone\EPG Collector 1. Use a file browser to open "C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\EPG Collector", right click EPGCentre.exe to run as "Administrator". 2. Select File > "Create Collection Parameters" > "Custom Parameters". If you want to modify an existing setup use "Change Collection Parameters" and open your ".ini" file. This starts the EPG Collector configuration program. 3. Select "Tuning" and enable "Delivery System" = "ATSC", "Provider" = "North America - Terrestrial" and "Collection Type" = "PSIP". You need to set the "Channel" and "Add" your ATSC "RF channels" for EPG grabbing. To find the "RF Channels", start MePo "TVServer Config", select "TV Channels" and the "Channel Group" you plan to use. The "Channel Number" column has the "RF Channel" for each of your Channels. In EPGCentre "Add" all the needed RF channels for your Channel Group, they will show up in the bottom of the EPGCenter configuration. You can "Delete" if needed. When you are done you should have a list of RF Channels with Channel Numbers(Frequency), "North America - Terrestrial", "ATSC Terrestrial", and "PSIP". 4. Select > "Output" to see/modify the TVGuide.xml file path. I used the default "C:\ProgramData\Geekzone\EPG Collector\TVGuide.xml" and left all setup boxes with the default "unchecked" settings. See ReadMe file if you want to make changes. I left all the other EPGCentre settings at default, see ReadMe if you want to make changes. To save your setup, select "File" > "Save As" and a file name. I used "EPG CollectorTest.ini". This gets saved in the Data Files folder. ******** Run "Collect EPG Data" to grab EPG and generate tvguide.xml Press "save", "run" at top of screen and select "Collect EPG Data" to grab EPG data for the configured RF Channels. With 11 channels this takes about 10 minutes. The log window will show progress during the grab run. The data folder will have an updated "EPG Collector.log" file with the results of the EPG grab (open with notepad) and a tvguide.xml file. My tvguide.xml file is about 550KB with 27 channels and 833 EPG entries. You can open the .xml file with a web browser (double click) to view the EPG grab results. If the EPG grab worked the log file will show "Exiting with code = 0". If the exit code is not 0 see the ReadMe. (search for "Exit code" for a list of exit codes). You can close the EPGCentre program and start MePo TV ServerConfig ********* MePo XMLTV setup. See Wiki http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/141_Configuration/TV-Server_Configuration/13_Plugins/XmlTv 1. Select XMLTV > General and set "folder path" with your TvGuide.xml path. I used "C:\ProgramData\Geekzone\EPG Collector" 2. Select XMLTV > Mappings, set your "Channel Group" in "group", set the "partial match" checkbox, and press "Load/Refresh" to load channel mapping info into XMLTV. Most channels mapped (green), I needed to use the "guide channel" dropdown list to fix a couple of channels. When the mappings are done press "Save" and "Load/Refresh" to reload the channels. 3. Select XMLTV > General, set the "Import new tvguide.xml" and "delete old programs" checkboxes and press "import". The import status report will show the results in about a minute. 4. To enable automatic MePo EPG update when tvguide.xml file is modified you need to restart the TV Server. Select "Manual Control", press "stop service" then "start service". When the TV Server restarts press "OK" to exit the TV Server Config program. note: For EPG debug during testing, you can Select "Manual Control" and press "Refresh EPG" to erase the old EPG data saved in the TV Server database before you do a new import. ********* Windows Scheduled Task You need a windows scheduled task to run EPG Collector a few times a day. Google "windows scheduled task" for setup info. For vista64 I did the following to run as "adminstrator" using my folders/paths. Modify as needed for your setup. You should test your task setup using the "run" option to verify it works. Look at the EPG Collector log files (exit code) and Task history to confirm the task works and a new tvguide.xml file was generated. General: I "set" the following, Run whether user is logged in or not, Do Not store password, Run with highest privileges. Triggers: set 2 or more times to run the task, I set a trigger every 4 hours at Hour:07 (7 minutes after the hour) so MePo could grab the tuner to watch/record at the start of the hour. EPG Collector would run at Hour:07 if the tuner was idle. Actions: Program: "C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\EPG Collector\EPGCollector.exe" Arguments: /ini="C:\ProgramData\Geekzone\EPG Collector\EPG CollectorTest.ini" Start in: I left this blank