Tools and other software EPG-Buddy a new EPG Tool with easy usage. (2 Viewers)

[DeBenedictis]

I am using MediaPortal 2, with over the air reception. I have mapped my channels, and then excluded all but the major networks. When IMDB was still providing schedule information, I had no issues pulling, recording and watching any of the channels. Since IMDB became unavailable, I have switched to EPG Buddy. I have set-up the schedule pull with TV Guide. This mostly works OK. The mostly is that while the ABC, NBC, & Fox schedules pull and display appropriately, the CBS station (WGCL) will not display a schedule. I have used EPG Buddy to link my station (WGCL) with the CBS schedule (CBS-5943) on TV Guide (just like with ABC, NBC, etc). When I check the download log file (EPG-Grabber.TVGuide.TVGUIDE_1.XML), I can see that the CBS program information has been downloaded correctly, but when I open up MediaPortal 2, the TV Guide shows “No program data” for the CBS station. What’s causing this single channel to not load (display) correctly?

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

I can see that the CBS program information has been downloaded correctl

That's good as this proofs EPG-Buddy has done it's job properly.

What’s causing this single channel to not load (display) correctly?

The most plausible reason is wrong or missing mapping inside the TV Engine's xmltv plugin. Please open the setuptv app and have a look at the xmltv plugin to check if the CBS channel is mapped to the correct channel from your data... As long as data is downloaded it always is possible to map it to a channel, even if the automatic mapping did not work for whatever reason...

 

[DeBenedictis]

I have checked and confirmed that the mapping inside MediaPortal's TV Server Configurations - XMLTV Plugins, for the CBS station (WGCL) is correct (Tuning Channel WGCL is matched to guide channel WGCL). In EPG Buddy, under Schedule - TVGuide.com, when I select CBS-5943 it shows that the channel setting is for WGCL. And as I mentioned before, the CBS schedule information is downloaded correctly in the file: EPG-Grabber.TVGuide.TVGUIDE_1.XML. This seems to be all the right mapping. Is it possible to look at a data or xml file to confirm this mapping? Note that you mentioned "TV Engine's xmltv plugin", which I assume is the MediaPortal's TV Server Configurations program - correct me if I am looking at the wrong program.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

which I assume is the MediaPortal's TV Server Configurations program

The Configuration program (setuptv.exe) is to configure the TV engine. You may be more familiar in call the TV engine "TV Server "as in MP1, but that not really is correct when it comes to MP2 as it is no stand alone server but running inside the MP2 server.

The XMLTV plugin finally is an addon to the TV engine that is delivered and installed together with the TV engine. That's why you find it in the "Plugins-" Section of the configuration app... This plugin imports the EPG data in an standardized format named XMLTV and maps the data from this XMLTV file to the used channels.. Every (or nearly every) TV App is able to import data in this XMLTV format. You can use the data downloaded by EPG-Buddy in XMLTV format not only in MediaPortal but also in e.g. TVHeadend, JRiver, NextPVR, ArgusTV, DVB-Viewer,....

For usage of this data in MP (1 or 2 didn't matter) the XMLTV plugin is responsible.

EPG-Buddy grabs data from various sources (like in your case tvguide.com or in my case tvspielfilm.de) that all uses different data formats and transfers the data into the XMLTV format. For user comfort the used channel names in the resulting XMLTV file can be adjusted to match the names in your TV app... As an extra it is possible to add season and episodes numbers for recognized series/episodes to the resulting data as most if not all of the available data sources are not providing this information in a useful way... That's all EPG-Buddy does.
If the data is downloaded properly (as you have seen in the resulting xml file) the issue couldn't be found on the EPG-Buddy part (and also not on the tvguide.com side)... The only place where this issue can be caused is the configuration inside the setuptv app...

If you like me to have a deeper look you best send me your whole EPG-Buddy installation folder (in a zip archive) by PM. Probably I can then see what's wrong on your setup...

 

[DeBenedictis]

Thanks for your assistance. I have zipped the whole EPG Buddy file; perhaps more than you needed. History note: I used MediaPortal 2 for a couple years until the IMDB change. I set-up with TVGuide, but this issue (unable to download CBS schedule) caused me to switch to Plex, which overall was not satisfactory. So I appreciate you helping me get back with MediaPortal.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
At first, you're using a very old version of EPG-Buddy. As there are lots of fixes in the newer versions I strongly would recommend to upgrade your EPG-Buddy installation. Simply download the most recent version 0.4.2.8 from our Repo (Link is in first post) and run the installer. Normally it upgrades your setup without breaking your config. But as you have missed around 5 or 6 released versions in meantime, it is possible that the changes are to big and some things must be configured again. This you need to try yourself, I fear..

Everything is ok on the EPG-Buddy site. All data is downloaded and processed correctly. The channel "CBS-5943" is mapped to "WGCL DIGITAL TELEVISION (WGCL-TV)" . This means, tvguide,com named this channel "CBS-5943" and it is named in your TV engine "WGCL DIGITAL TELEVISION (WGCL-TV)" . As I don't know how your service provider (local cable or satellite or terrestrial or...) has named this channel I don't know if this is correct. TV engine normally names the channels as they are named by the service provider. You may have a look at the mappings in the XMLTV part running the setuptv.exe if all channels are mapped properly. This is the only thing I can imagine being wrong...

 

[Pledget]

Just a quick note in case its useful to anyone else trying to use EPG Buddy with webgrab using radiotimes.com as a UK source...

Since 2018/06/05 this has been failing to acquire listings with errors about not being able to open a tls/ssl socket. see thread:
Radio Times UK - No Index? | WebGrab+Plus

Updating the version of webgrap+plus within the EPG Buddy directory to 2.15 beta seems to fix the issue:

Beta V2.1.5 | WebGrab+Plus

Regards

David

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
Thanks for the hint. We will upgrade WebGrab+Plus in the next version of EPG-Buddy. Until it's ready this can be the solution, not only for Radio Times but for other WebGrab sites using HTTPS...

 

[Anthony Gagnon]

I just found this tool yesterday. I love that it helped me correct the season and episode numbers to my zap2it tvguide.xml file so MP1 can add them to filename titles.

Currently, zap2it appends an "*" to new shows as an option. This allows me to schedule only new episode recordings of series TV Shows, instead of recording reruns also in the United States.
Is there any plans to allow EPG-Buddy to have a "ignore" options (like ignore the trailing "*" or "new" at the end of title names)?
This would keep the "*" in the tvguide.xml or lst file created, but when searching tvdb it still finds the correct title and gives the season and episode number.

Though, I just got this working on my machine this morning, I think that EPG-Buddy is not working correctly for "new" shows from looking at the lst file it creates.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

Is there any plans to allow EPG-Buddy to have a "ignore" options (like ignore the trailing "*" or "new" at the end of title names)?

There are already trailing chars that are ignored, e.g. "()". But those are removed from the data completely... Up to now we had no feature request for ignoring chars during TVDB search but leave them in the data. I can't promise anything but I will have a look if and how this can be added in one of the next versions of EPG-Buddy...