Tools and other software EPG-Buddy a new EPG Tool with easy usage. (3 Viewers)

[CyberSimian]

I get an MSSQL Error

Hmm. By default, the MP installer installs MySQL, not MSSQL. Minor differences between the products might result in MySQL working while MSSQL does not. Although both were supposedly supported at one time, I am not sure that that is true any more. I would suggest uninstalling MP and MSSQL, and re-installing MP, accepting the default of MySQL. This may not make any difference, but we are clutching at straws.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[joecrow]

Is there any possibility of using EPG Buddy in conjunction with MariaDB which is the default DB for MP 1.34?

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
Yes, as MariaDB is 100% compatible with MySQL. Simply use the MySQL Option

 

[joecrow]

Hi.
Yes, as MariaDB is 100% compatible with MySQL. Simply use the MySQL Option

Many thanks, it did not work initially but just needed a resave of the mappings and all was ok.
Followed an update from MP 1.33 to 1.34 with a manual change from MySQL to MariaDB.

 

[LabradorRetrieve]

I've tried setting up EPG Buddy to use tvguide.com, but haven't been able to get it to work.

Is this working for anyone else in the USA, as of Sept 2024?

Here are some details...

• I have a tvguide.com account and I'm able to login manually to their website.
• I'm following the EPG Buddy PDF instructions, and with my tvguide.com login credentials defined, when I restart EPG Buddy the EPG data screen is left blank.
• The interesting side effect is that when I try to access tvguide.com website with a web browser, I then get "access denied, error 504". After about 1 hour, the tvguide.com website lets me login manually again. So it seems that EPG Buddy is not the best of buds with Tvguide.com
• Has anyone else experienced this behavior?
• Up until last year I had been using xmltv to download EPG data from tvguide.com. This all worked fine, and I would happily set this up again. However when I try to download xmltv (XMLTV mc2xml) the link can't be reached.

TIA for any help on this.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

Is this working for anyone else in the USA

I have no clue. We have no access to any tvguide.com account so we can not test and probably fix any issues any longer.
You better use anything different for your EPG. As both of us who wrote EPG-Buddy don't use regular TV any more (only streaming), there will be most likely no more upgrades in future. The source is open and included in the installer, so someone else may take over the project. But from our side there will be most likely no new versions, sorry.

 

[joecrow]

But from our side there will be most likely no new versions, sorry.

Sad news, I have been using EPG Buddy in conjunction with TV VSpielfilm for a while now it is working great, keep my fingers crossed nothing changes to screw things up.

 

[LabradorRetrieve]

Hi.

I have no clue. We have no access to any tvguide.com account so we can not test and probably fix any issues any longer.
You better use anything different for your EPG. As both of us who wrote EPG-Buddy don't use regular TV any more (only streaming), there will be most likely no more upgrades in future. The source is open and included in the installer, so someone else may take over the project. But from our side there will be most likely no new versions, sorry.

Is there a copy of mc2xml squirreled away anywhere that can be downloaded? As I mentioned the links in the MediaPortal documentation reference a dead webpage.

If EPG-Buddy doesn't support tvguide downloads, and mc2xml is no longer available, then at least for the USA there aren't any options for broadcast EPG support in MediaPortal.

 

[CyberSimian]

If EPG-Buddy doesn't support tvguide downloads, and mc2xml is no longer available, then at least for the USA there aren't any options for broadcast EPG support in MediaPortal.

Schedules Direct works with MediaPortal. The catch is that it is not free, but I think that the annual fee is quite modest (around $20 to $30).

For Europe and elsewhere in the world, Schedules Direct provides only the JSON form, which MP cannot use. But for the USA, Canada, and (I think) Mexico, Schedules Direct provides the XML form, which MP can use.

I have never used Schedules Direct, so I hope that the information given above is correct.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

provides only the JSON form, which MP cannot use.

If the JSON format is the only issue, there are many JSON to XML converter. Lots of them are free to use and/or Open Source. It should be no big deal to convert the JSON file into XML format.

For many European countries you best can use Easy-EPG Lite, a python tool to provide a really good EPG in xmltv format. The tool is platform independent and is running on any systems (including Windows) with installed Python 3.x. It offers a rich EPG for DACH Countries and also for UK, France, Italy and some others. Aside this it's free and really fast, faster than EPG-Buddy. To be honest. for a few year I've used Easy-EPG myself as external XML Source in EPG-Buddy, not the in-build TVSpielfilm. But since my DVB-S hardware no longer is working (a tree has grown between the DVB-S antenna and the satellite) I only use Waipu TV wich has a full blown EPG included. So no need for any external EPG any longer.

The regular version of Easy-EPG provides a Web-GUI at http://localhost:4000 and delivers a standard XMLTV file that can be used in every known TV Server solution, I'm aware off. There also is a special Kodi Addon version of Easy-EPG. But this only makes sense if you are using Kodi's own IPTV Simple TV Solution. For TVHeadend, DVB-Viewer, TVMosaic, NextPVR and of course MediaPortal TV Server you can use the regular WEB-GUI version...