DVB-S EPG wrong character encoding for Hungarian language (1 Viewer)

[gurabli]

I wouldn't make any recommendation because I don't like the idea of provider-specific code in the EPG encoding detection. If I've understood correctly some of these providers are not DVB-compliant. IMO we should not be adding hacks to support non-compliant providers. The best way to fix such problems is for us to provide the technical information to the provider so they can correct their broadcast stream. If they don't respond or refuse to make changes... well, might have to look for a different EPG source where encoding is known and specified correctly.

I understand your point here, but in practice it is so often not the case. I mean, if a provider is so amateur that they do not even bother to follow the specified standards, they will not change this only because few of us email them to do so. Especially not a provider like DigiTV is, who has a very bad customer support and team, not helpful and professional at all. On the other side, they have lot of subscribers (cheap, and the have the rights for English Premier League and Champions League).
Regarding Polaris Media: they seam to be much more professional, but also bad customer support. They have the exclusive rights for Arena Sport 1-2-3-4 channels on satellite broadcast, and these four channels are the best sport channels I ever came across (and believe me, I follow many of them). Excellent coverage and all the great events from all the sports.

Sorry for the off, it is just an explanation of the situation. I can easily live with wrong diacritics in EPG for these channels (especially since I have correct for UPC, the provider I use most often). I just wanted to contribute to the community with something (in my case, with testing and providing logs and feedback to Vasilich's great work). What is much more realistic, if MePo doesn't find a way to resolve this non DVB-compilant EPG encoding, it will remain bad, as providers are very unlikely to change this. What is interesting, I keep repeating this, that DVBViewer (and DreamBox too) does all the encoding for all these channels properly out-of-the-box, so they either use another approach (which in this case is obviously better) or something that I do not know about, but MePo remains the only that can not display all diacritics properly for each provider.

Strange is, that default MePo install displays non-DVB-compilant EPG correctly (DigiTV, PolarisMedia) and UPC Direct is wrong (which follows the DVB specifications). With Vasilich's patch UPC Direct is now correct, but DigiTV and PolarisMedia are not.

Since in the practise it is much more important for an end user to have a properly working feature, in this the EPG, I believe it should be fixed in some way, if possible. Most of the end users do not really care if the provider follows any specifications or not, they care about if it is working properly on not. Correct me, if I'm wrong.

It remains the question, can this be fixed somehow? If you provide me with new patches, I will gladly test them and provide feedback.

WEBGrab++ remains an alternative, but it is really not as a good solution then the proper DVB EPG.

 

[Vasilich]

DVBViewer (and DreamBox too) does all the encoding for all these channels properly out-of-the-box, so they either use another approach (which in this case is obviously better)

i guess the only way to show properly decoded EPG for such providers (not following specs) is to have a table of them with substitutions of encoding.

 

[gurabli]

i guess the only way to show properly decoded EPG for such providers (not following specs) is to have a table of them with substitutions of encoding.

And can it be done in MePo as well? At least for the two providers I was able to identify as wrong (DigiTV and Polaris Media). I do not see too many complains about not proper characters.

What is strange, that with original release (not using modified files) DigiTV and Polaris Media are correct, but UPC is not. Why could this be? With the patch, UPC is correct, but every other is wrong. Then the original files are not following DVB specifications (as we see that UPC does) and that is why UPC is not correct?

 

[mm1352000]

I understand your point here, but in practice it is so often not the case. I mean, if a provider is so amateur that they do not even bother to follow the specified standards, they will not change this only because few of us email them to do so. Especially not a provider like DigiTV is, who has a very bad customer support and team, not helpful and professional at all. On the other side, they have lot of subscribers (cheap, and the have the rights for English Premier League and Champions League).

Maybe they won't listen... but if you don't tell the provider then they have no chance to fix the problem.

gurabli, please don't get me wrong - I appreciate your contribution.
I also understand your position. Please keep in mind that I don't have access to these streams, I'm not particularly familiar with the EPG code, and I'm not particularly familiar with EPG standards. In other words, I'm not really the best person to ask about EPG problems. I don't know if the provider(s) are compliant or non compliant, I don't fully understand the problem, and I don't know what options are available for fixing the problem. Only, Vasilich asked me a general question about provider identification and I tried to answer it as best I can. I hope the problem is able to be fixed with a general solution that doesn't require provider-specific code.

 

[Vasilich]

@gurabli
pls test hungarian channels with attached TVLibrary. This is stock TVLibrary with only one difference - extra logging into TVService.log:

[2013-11-19 01:11:40,182] [Log ] [13 ] [DEBUG] - DVBTextConverter: converted string with given lang pol(->pol), encoding detected: 28592. resulting string: "Drużyna A - odc. 1, Meksykańska jazda, część 1"

Thus expect DigiTV to deliver proper EPG, and UPC - wrongly encoded.
I need this because i still can't understand how the stock TVLib can properly decode DigiTV. So please post TSWriter_EPG.log and TVService.log after grabbing UPC channel and DigiTV channel.

 

[gurabli]

@gurabli
pls test hungarian channels with attached TVLibrary. This is stock TVLibrary woth only one difference - extra logging into TVService.log:

[2013-11-19 01:11:40,182] [Log ] [13 ] [DEBUG] - DVBTextConverter: converted string with given lang pol(->pol), encoding detected: 28592. resulting string: "Drużyna A - odc. 1, Meksykańska jazda, część 1"

Thus expect DigiTv to deliver proper EPG and UPC - wrongly encoded.
I need this because i still can't understand how the stock TVLib can properly decode DigiTV. So please post TSWriter_EPG.log and TVService.log after grabbing UPC channel and DIgiTV channel.

Hi!
Sorry for the delay, I was not home for a few days. Now I'm back.

I will do the test and post you the logs tonight. If I get this correctly, this time I need to send you the TVService.log file only?

 

[Vasilich]

this time I need to send you the TVService.log file only?

no

So please post TSWriter_EPG.log and TVService.log after grabbing UPC channel and DIgiTV channel.

and please note time when you switch channels

 

[gurabli]

this time I need to send you the TVService.log file only?

no

So please post TSWriter_EPG.log and TVService.log after grabbing UPC channel and DIgiTV channel.

and please note time when you switch channels

Sorry, i have misread it. I will use the TSWriter you have provided, and the TVLibrary file v0 you sent now, and send you the logs, together with the time of starting of channels.

 

[Vasilich]

@gurabli have you had a time to generate logs?

 

[gurabli]

@gurabli have you had a time to generate logs?

@Vasilich I'm terribly sorry for the delay, I had to leave for a few days and it was not planned, and just got back yesterday. I'll try to upload the logs asap, hopefully today!