Tools and other software EPG-Buddy a new EPG Tool with easy usage. (4 Viewers)

[Anthony Gagnon]

Looking to see if it can be added in future releases is all I ask.
Thanks for reply and the tool!

 

[Anthony Gagnon]

One more question. I'm in the USA and just got the TVGUIDE.com EPG data working with EPG buddy.
Is there an option to flag "New" Episodes with TVGUIDE and EPG Buddy?
For now I've been using an unholy mix of zap2xml that appends a "*" and TVGUIDE.com in EPG buddy to get this done. For Networks I know need the new flag appended, I use zap2xml and TVGUIDE for everything else, but it'd be nice to have the option in EPG buddy if possible?
This kind of is a follow on question/idea from my previous question, but perhaps there's something I'm missing? Is there an easier way?

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
This "new" flag depends on the EPG data source (tvguide.com in this case). If they have those flags they can be used. But if they don't have, there is no way to achieve this from inside EPG-Buddy (or any other EPG grabbing tool).

 

[Anthony Gagnon]

If they have those flags they can be used. But if they don't have, there is no way to achieve this from inside EPG-Buddy (or any other EPG grabbing tool).

My apologies for not being direct or clear; I guess I was kind of beating around the bush. I think TVGUIDE.com does, in fact, have the "new" flag in the guide data (at least I see entries marked as new on the web). But I didn't see an option to store the title name with "*" or new appended to the title like zap2xml allows for the xml data used in Media Portal.
Is this a feature that can be added to EPG-Buddy? Of course, if the feature is added, those appended title flags would have to be skipped if one would like to use TVDB data also.

 

[Lehmden]

As far as I know those "new" flags are not included in the delivered EPG data... I can't use tvguide.com myself (living in Europe) so I'm not 100% sure this is valid for tvguide.com but during development I didn't noticed this ever.
In general the data on the website and the data that is downloaded via an API is not necessarily be the same. Normally they aren't identical as many things are from different importance for usage on a website and for usage in a TV tool...

Excerpt for the WebGrab module no other EPG data source is scanning a whole website for data. That's the reason why WebGrab is so slow. compared to the other sources. All other sources EPG-Buddy offers are providing the data as a direct download in an easy to read (for a computer, of course) format like xml or json. So the data shown on the website and the data downloaded by EPG-Buddy are most likely not identical.

 

[Anthony Gagnon]

As far as I know those "new" flags are not included in the delivered EPG data...

Thanks again for your reply and help in understanding the situation.
I decided to try using zap2xml to see if the "new" flags is possible. I found it is possible.
zap2xml is located here:
zap2xml
*Note: I used this one since my anti-virus software (McAfee) warns me when trying to go to mc2xml site: mc2xml.tk

The results was it does show the "*" added for new shows:
<programme start="20180630190000 -0600" stop="20180630200000 -0600" channel="I9.1.12818.tvguide.com">
<title lang="en">Taken *</title>
<sub-title lang="en">Viceroy</sub-title>
<desc lang="en">The Season 2 finale: With Hart in grave danger, the team must find their own way to stop Ramsey before his plan to assassinate a senator starts a war with international terrorists.</desc>
<date>20180630</date>
<category lang="en">Series</category>
<url>Taken</url>
<episode-num system="common">S02E16</episode-num>
<episode-num system="xmltv_ns">1.15.</episode-num>
<new />
<rating>
<value>TV-14@LV</value>
</rating>

For my test, this was faster than EPG-Buddy when grabbing the data. This also means it is possible. But I understand that you're not able to test it's use since you're not in the US, or available to comment on using zap2xml instead.
However, I was thinking EPG-Buddy was easier to set up for the average user, so if there was a way to include the option of appending "*" to the titles, then other users can take advantage of it easily.

That's the reason why WebGrab is so slow. compared to the other sources.

Does this mean that EPG-Buddy uses WebGrab internally for TVGUIDE data?

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
I found some remaining ".json" files from tvguide.com and had a deeper look . I can't see any obvious data related to mark a "new" show. There are some data that has no "clear" meaning, so probably this information is somehow hidden inside this cryptic data... As this is something unique on tvguide.com (other sources used inside EPG-Buddy didn't have those data) I don't know if we can encrypt this without any chance to use tvguide.com for real... At least it will take a longer time period until we may have a solution, if there ever is one.

For my test, this was faster than EPG-Buddy when grabbing the data.

This is as expected as EPG-Buddy compares the downloaded data with TheTVDB.com to add all missing season/episodes numbers because lots of them if not all are missing in the delivered data. This takes up a serious amount of time. Afaik zap2xml didn't do this so it must be faster a lot. There is an option to disable the TVDB compare completely. If you set this EPG-Buddy should be as fast as zap2xml. And that's also the reason why you can configure every channel individual if it should be compared with TVDB or not. On sports-, documentary-, news-, teleshopping-... channels you don't need to run this time consuming compare as there are no "series" aired on those channels...

Does this mean that EPG-Buddy uses WebGrab internally for TVGUIDE data?

No, not for tvguide.com and not for any other source you can select individually. Here the data directly provided in "json" or "xml" format by the website is downloaded and used. If you want to use WebGrab from inside EPG-Buddy then you need to select WebGrab as EPG data source... WebGrab mainly is meant for the few remaining channels not getting data from one of the "fast" sources... Example, I'm using "tvspielfilm.de" as main data source but use WebGrab as an additional source for the 3 remaining channels that are not covered by "TVSpielfilm"...

 

[Anthony Gagnon]

Hi.
I found some remaining ".json" files from tvguide.com and had a deeper look . I can't see any obvious data related to mark a "new" show. There are some data that has no "clear" meaning, so probably this information is somehow hidden inside this cryptic data... As this is something unique on tvguide.com (other sources used inside EPG-Buddy didn't have those data) I don't know if we can encrypt this without any chance to use tvguide.com for real... At least it will take a longer time period until we may have a solution, if there ever is one.

Thanks for having a deeper look. Unfortunately, I can't offer any assistance on this. I'm not sure what a ".json" file even is
Good luck if you choose to continue to try to decrypt the file and pursue a solution. I'd be happy to test things if you make any progress.

This is as expected as EPG-Buddy compares the downloaded data with TheTVDB.com to add all missing season/episodes numbers because lots of them if not all are missing in the delivered data. This takes up a serious amount of time. Afaik zap2xml didn't do this so it must be faster a lot. There is an option to disable the TVDB compare completely. If you set this EPG-Buddy should be as fast as zap2xml. And that's also the reason why you can configure every channel individual if it should be compared with TVDB or not. On sports-, documentary-, news-, teleshopping-... channels you don't need to run this time consuming compare as there are no "series" aired on those channels...

At the time I had TVDB off for all channels with the global toggle available. The speed it runs isn't a huge concern, since I write the tvguide data in off hours of non-use at like 1am MT.

Thanks again for your continued correspondence and for looking into this.

 

[Lehmden]

I'm not sure what a ".json" file even is

If you have a look inside your EPG-Buddy installation folder (with explorer or similar) you will find a sub- folder named "EPG-Grabber.EPG". When you look into this you will see some more folders named after the EPG soures you are using. This is the download cache from EPG-Buddy and here you will find (among other things) the raw data downloaded from the websites. In at least one of the sub- folders there should be a bunch of files with extension .json
Json ( JavaScript Object Notation ) is a pure text file with a special serialized content for easy reading by a program. In short it is a way to transfer data in a simple text document. Due to the special notation it's human and machine readable.
Tvguide.com is delivering the EPG data in .json format. Most (if not all) TV tools need the EPG-data in xml format (another way to store data in a simple text file). So EPG-Buddy needs to convert the data from the json file into an xml format before they can be used in MP, Argus, DVB-Viewer, TVHeadend,NextPVR, JRiver,... Zap2xml is doing a very similar task, by the way...

JSon is the "more modern" format but up to now not that often used as xml.. It has less overhead and can be read faster a bit, that's why it will be more common in future...

 

[fritzelly]

Can I ask what are people using for UK listings?