Atlas Metabroadcast new EPG provider for UK (1 Viewer)

[LJG]

More info here:

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/

This is the company that are now managing the RadioTimes xmltv data feed, which they are keeping going, but possibly not for ever, and they are not updating with new channels, or looking to add the radio channels that have always been missing.

From what I can make out, they are currently working on Atlas 4.0 which will be available as an XMLTV data feed, with an API which are currently free if requested by email.

They seem to be happy to talk to users / developers about how people can use the feed, and seem happy for individuals to use it for free.

Is there any way that we can pick this up to integrate with MediaPortal, preferably within WEBEPG which is much easier for users to configure, without having to run external xmltv grabbers?

The quality of the data looks good (from what I have read on blogs / twitter / forums) as they are keen to keep the same info contained in the xmltv feed, specifically important IMO is season and episode number in this format... Show Name SX, EY/Z.

@mm1352000 hope you don't mind me tagging you in this, I wondered if this would be relevant or possible to all the work going on for TVE3.5?

 

[mm1352000]

Thanks for the tag lisag ... but to be honest I'm completely snowed under. Too many other things to deal with. I can't imagine finding any time to work on integrating this in the near future. Sorry.

mm

 

[LJG]

Ok, thanks for replying though!

 

[Edalex]

For making WebEPG grabber you just need some with regex knowledges like @RoChess. Also as i remember @doskabouter did a patch for WebEPG to support json data so probably he can help in making json grabber.

 

[doskabouter]

Well, if you'll get me an api key, I'll figure the exact settings in the webepg.
I checked, and there is indeed an option to get json so no regex knowledge (although my experience with onlinevideos greatly increased that) is needed.
Just hope that my current xpath implementation in webepg is sufficient to get all the data you'll need.

 

[LJG]

Crikey, that would be excellent, thank you

I am not sure if I can share my API key with you, might it be linked to my email or IP address?

I got mine by emailing atlas@metabroadcast.com and asking for one, it came through on the same day, and there was no charge for it.

There is also a button on this webpage saying 'get your free api key'

http://atlas.metabroadcast.com/

Once I got the key, they advised me to:

'You should enable the "PA" source, this will give you all the main schedule data, including Channel 4 and Channel 5.'

I did that in the admin area of the website, but didn't get any further as I was unable to extract any meaningful xmltv data using xmltv.org.

 

[doskabouter]

Well, I don't think they'll mind a couple of experiments from me with your key (so you could pm me)
If I'm able to get meaningful information out of it, we can always think/ask about redistributing the key. On the other hand, anyone interested in this epg info could get his own key ofcourse.

 

[LJG]

Okay, I'll pm it now!

 

[doskabouter]

As I see it now, an API Key is only needed if you want to change/add data in their datatabase

 

[doskabouter]

I've got some preliminary results here.

I'd only found description, start,end and title (and title mostly holds a date in the samples I've investigated)
You can add channels (just copy and modify the <Channel ... /> line).
the channel id should be what's in "play:channel/title", and siteId should be <id>&amp;<publisher> where <id> can be found in "play:channel/id" and publisher in "play:channel/publisher/key".

The possible values for channel id's and publishers can be found in
https://atlas.metabroadcast.com/3.0/channels.xml?media_type=video&order_by=title&limit=100&offset=0
This gives the first 100 results. For more, just increase the offset with 100


I hope it is clear enough for you to start experimenting and comment on things, if not: feel free to ask