Hauppauge HD-PVR & Colossus Support (4 Viewers)

[mm1352000]

I think you're pretty much on the right track for a start.
Use the preview button with each channel in the list to find the right input (the one that has video and possibly audio). I suspect it will be one of the YRYBY channels. Once you've found the right channel, edit it and change the audio setting from "auto" to the correct setting. You many have to restart TV Server for the setting to take effect. Once you've figured that out then you're ready to get your channels.

There are 3 options:
1. Use SchedulesDirect and have the channels created automatically with the associated EPG mappings sorted.
2. Use another source (XMLTV based) to get EPG and a DB script to create the channels.
3. Use another source (XMLTV based) to get EPG and add each channel manually.

Those are probably in order of pain from lowest to highest.
The net outcome of all of those approaches would be a DB with one channel record and one tuningdetail record for each channel supplied by your cable provider. The tuning detail would be a carbon copy of the tuning detail associated with the [tweaked] channel created by the "add s-video channels" button (except the channelID would be different). The channel records would be named and numbered as per the names of the channels. If that all seems too complex then I'd highly recommend you go with the first option. There is a chance that I could write some kind of script to automate this, however I'm not making a promise (because I may not be able to keep it) and you may find it just as difficult.
The following threads may be helpful if you go with SD or for getting EPG working:

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...pport-53/freaking-epg-schedules-direct-46584/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/newcomers-forum-240/epg-listings-usa-94990/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...exico-epg-plugin-updated-august-2010-a-26951/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/electronic-program-guide-67/working-free-us-epg-56712/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...iaportal-epg-guide-setup-north-america-94798/

 

[luci5r]

I think you're pretty much on the right track for a start.
Use the preview button with each channel in the list to find the right input (the one that has video and possibly audio). I suspect it will be one of the YRYBY channels. Once you've found the right channel, edit it and change the audio setting from "auto" to the correct setting. You many have to restart TV Server for the setting to take effect. Once you've figured that out then you're ready to get your channels.

There are 3 options:
1. Use SchedulesDirect and have the channels created automatically with the associated EPG mappings sorted.
2. Use another source (XMLTV based) to get EPG and a DB script to create the channels.
3. Use another source (XMLTV based) to get EPG and add each channel manually.

Those are probably in order of pain from lowest to highest.
The net outcome of all of those approaches would be a DB with one channel record and one tuningdetail record for each channel supplied by your cable provider. The tuning detail would be a carbon copy of the tuning detail associated with the [tweaked] channel created by the "add s-video channels" button (except the channelID would be different). The channel records would be named and numbered as per the names of the channels. If that all seems too complex then I'd highly recommend you go with the first option. There is a chance that I could write some kind of script to automate this, however I'm not making a promise (because I may not be able to keep it) and you may find it just as difficult.
The following threads may be helpful if you go with SD or for getting EPG working:

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...pport-53/freaking-epg-schedules-direct-46584/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/newcomers-forum-240/epg-listings-usa-94990/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...exico-epg-plugin-updated-august-2010-a-26951/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/electronic-program-guide-67/working-free-us-epg-56712/
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...iaportal-epg-guide-setup-north-america-94798/

Ok, I seem to have progressed based on your instructions. I discovered that I was getting my Cable programming on "YRYBY#1". Following your advice, I clicked "Edit" on that - there I saw multiple options:

I edited each & changed the Audio source to SPDIF in #1. I'm receiving audio via SPDIF/Optical input.

The rest of everything that you explained sounds so complicated to me, that I'm severely discouraged!! I honestly thought it would be as simple as getting the Colossus configured with MediaPortal and then receiving Live TV just like WinTV or MC7. SchedulesDirect sounds like the easier way to go but costs $20/yr which I'm going to pass on.

I'm still going through some of the threads you've listed but I have to be honest - this is going over my head a bit and I honestly thing it was going to be this hard to get TV going with MediaPortal.

Thanks - I'm not giving up just yet.

 

[mm1352000]

Ok, I seem to have progressed based on your instructions. I discovered that I was getting my Cable programming on "YRYBY#1". Following your advice, I clicked "Edit" on that - there I saw multiple options...

Interesting - there should only be one per channel. Please delete all except the first one.

I edited each & changed the Audio source to SPDIF in #1. I'm receiving audio via SPDIF/Optical input.

I could be wrong, but I think you want SPDIF #2. SPDIF #1 is the audio that comes through HDMI.

The rest of everything that you explained sounds so complicated to me, that I'm severely discouraged!! I honestly thought it would be as simple as getting the Colossus configured with MediaPortal and then receiving Live TV just like WinTV or MC7.

My understanding is that WinTV and MC7 only allow you to watch the channel that is "currently" tuned on your STB (or external tuner). If that is the case then you *can* receive live TV like WinTV or MC7 once you have the YRYBY channel configured. That is assuming that your codec settings in MediaPortal config->Codecs & renderer->TV tab are set up correctly.

If you want the full cable lineup in MP (which is what I thought you were going for) then you have to add the cable channels somehow... and you have to set up MP to control your STB... and most people would want EPG information. Those three things are the things that are the complicated bit, and unfortunately since I don't live in the US and I don't have anything (let alone a Colossus) with a blaster (which is what you use to control your STB) I am really unable to offer advice about anything other than the first part (getting the channels into MP).

Thanks - I'm not giving up just yet.

I'm glad to hear that and I'm here to help in whatever small way I can. I'd like for it to be easier, but it isn't a 5 minute streamlined process yet if you want the full cable lineup...

@WileE: how is that guide coming along?

 

[luci5r]

Ok, I seem to have progressed based on your instructions. I discovered that I was getting my Cable programming on "YRYBY#1". Following your advice, I clicked "Edit" on that - there I saw multiple options...

Interesting - there should only be one per channel. Please delete all except the first one.

I edited each & changed the Audio source to SPDIF in #1. I'm receiving audio via SPDIF/Optical input.

I could be wrong, but I think you want SPDIF #2. SPDIF #1 is the audio that comes through HDMI.

The rest of everything that you explained sounds so complicated to me, that I'm severely discouraged!! I honestly thought it would be as simple as getting the Colossus configured with MediaPortal and then receiving Live TV just like WinTV or MC7.

My understanding is that WinTV and MC7 only allow you to watch the channel that is "currently" tuned on your STB (or external tuner). If that is the case then once you have the YRYBY channel configured then you *can* receive live TV like WinTV or MC7. That is assuming that your codec settings in MediaPortal config->Codecs & renderer->TV tab are set up correctly.

If you want the full cable lineup in MP (which is what I thought you were going for) then you have to add the cable channels somehow... and you have to set up MP to control your STB... and most people would want EPG information. Those three things are the things that are the complicated bit, and unfortunately since I don't live in the US and I don't have anything (let alone a Colossus) with a blaster (which is what you use to control your STB) I am really unable to offer advice about anything other than the first part (getting the channels into MP).

Thanks - I'm not giving up just yet.

I'm glad to hear that and I'm here to help in whatever small way I can. I'd like for it to be easier, but it isn't a 5 minute streamlined process yet if you want the full cable lineup...

@WileE: how is that guide coming along?

AHA!!

Believe it or not, this post of yours cleared up a LOT for me! First I must appreciate your persistent effort in helping me out.
I now have Cable Programming in my Media Portal!!! Thanks to you - I was able to configure everything to the point where I could finally get programming in MediaPortal.

I also discovered what was making things complicated - You are 100% correct!!! Indeed - on WinTV or MC7 we can only watch the channel that is currently tuned on the STB!!! And quite honestly that is *ALL* I thought we "Could" do - and that is *ALL* that I was trying to accomplish. Simply for I did not know you could do more!!!

I understand now all this EPG business!! You're actually trying to run the Guide and thus switch to programming of choice from within MediaPortal - rather then relying on your STB!!! Fantastic - now that I have accomplished getting programming in MediaPortal - I would love to go ahead and get the EPG & the rest situated.

Let me backtrack a tad: you were right, indeed I needed SPDIF #2. Also, yes I deleted the other choices. After that I could get the cable programming in MediaPortal.

Regarding EPG, I followed a post in one of the threads you posted and I was able to get an xmltv.dtd & xmltv.xml (which I renamed to "tvguide.xml") using an mc2xml program. I imported the guide using the "XMLTV" plugin and it said "516" imported.

When I go into MediaPortal - I can still watch live TV - however, when I click on TV Guide - I get "No Data Available". Do you know what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!!

 

[mm1352000]

AHA!!

Believe it or not, this post of yours cleared up a LOT for me! First I must appreciate your persistent effort in helping me out.
I now have Cable Programming in my Media Portal!!! Thanks to you - I was able to configure everything to the point where I could finally get programming in MediaPortal.

I also discovered what was making things complicated - You are 100% correct!!! Indeed - on WinTV or MC7 we can only watch the channel that is currently tuned on the STB!!! And quite honestly that is *ALL* I thought we "Could" do - and that is *ALL* that I was trying to accomplish. Simply for I did not know you could do more!!!

I understand now all this EPG business!! You're actually trying to run the Guide and thus switch to programming of choice from within MediaPortal - rather then relying on your STB!!!

Exactly.
Some people are okay with situating the STB close enough to the HTPC that they can directly change channels on the STB and have the one channel in MP. That works okay for live TV watching, however that won't get you guide info in MP (which is sometimes annoying in its own right), and the lack of guide info makes scheduling recordings very unfriendly unless you do it within the STB (which in some ways defeats the purpose of hooking everything up to a central HTPC in the first place)...

Fantastic - now that I have accomplished getting programming in MediaPortal - I would love to go ahead and get the EPG & the rest situated.

Let me backtrack a tad: you were right, indeed I needed SPDIF #2. Also, yes I deleted the other choices. After that I could get the cable programming in MediaPortal.

Regarding EPG, I followed a post in one of the threads you posted and I was able to get an xmltv.dtd & xmltv.xml (which I renamed to "tvguide.xml") using an mc2xml program. I imported the guide using the "XMLTV" plugin and it said "516" imported.

Excellent - that is a *big* step in the right direction.

When I go into MediaPortal - I can still watch live TV - however, when I click on TV Guide - I get "No Data Available". Do you know what I'm doing wrong?

I can sorta still help you with this part. What you've done is basically chosen option 2 or 3 (as described earlier) for your channel setup. You have your guide data source sorted. To see that guide data you have to create and map channels in MP to channels in the guide. If you don't already know about it then I think -->this<-- XMLTV wiki page will help you understand that part a little better. As a test, you could theoretically map the YRYBY channel to any one of the channels available from the guide, save the mapping, reimport the tvguide.xml, and then see guide data (allow a couple of minutes for MP to update the DB with the data).

If you can get your head around that then hopefully you might understand what I meant about the pain of adding channels to MP. Your goal is basically to "copy, paste and rename" the YRYBY channel for each channel in the guide. The difficulty is how to do that in such a way that it doesn't take all day/night. If you're skilled in DB manipulation you could write a script to "magically" add them (option 2). Otherwise it is a case of adding them manually. It might be a good idea to see if you can create a handful of your most watched channels first just to get yourself up and running...

The process is (in the TV Channel list):
1. Click "add".
2. Select "analog".
3. Enter the name in the top box.
4. Create a tuning detail.
5. Set the channel number to the number that you'd want to key in on the remote if you were switching to the channel.
6. Frequency is 0.
7. Cable/antenna doesn't really matter. Cable probably makes more logical sense, but it has absolutely no effect for a Colossus.
8. Country should be USA, although again it might not make any difference.
9. The VCR input tick box doesn't seem to have any effect either.
10. Select YRYBY #1 for video input.
11. Select SPDIF #2 for audio input.
12. Save.

Then it is a case of "rinse and repeat". I hope that makes sense...

 

[luci5r]

AHA!!

Believe it or not, this post of yours cleared up a LOT for me! First I must appreciate your persistent effort in helping me out.
I now have Cable Programming in my Media Portal!!! Thanks to you - I was able to configure everything to the point where I could finally get programming in MediaPortal.

I also discovered what was making things complicated - You are 100% correct!!! Indeed - on WinTV or MC7 we can only watch the channel that is currently tuned on the STB!!! And quite honestly that is *ALL* I thought we "Could" do - and that is *ALL* that I was trying to accomplish. Simply for I did not know you could do more!!!

I understand now all this EPG business!! You're actually trying to run the Guide and thus switch to programming of choice from within MediaPortal - rather then relying on your STB!!!

Exactly.
Some people are okay with situating the STB close enough to the HTPC that they can directly change channels on the STB and have the one channel in MP. That works okay for live TV watching, however that won't get you guide info in MP (which is sometimes annoying in its own right), and the lack of guide info makes scheduling recordings very unfriendly unless you do it within the STB (which in some ways defeats the purpose of hooking everything up to a central HTPC in the first place)...

Fantastic - now that I have accomplished getting programming in MediaPortal - I would love to go ahead and get the EPG & the rest situated.

Let me backtrack a tad: you were right, indeed I needed SPDIF #2. Also, yes I deleted the other choices. After that I could get the cable programming in MediaPortal.

Regarding EPG, I followed a post in one of the threads you posted and I was able to get an xmltv.dtd & xmltv.xml (which I renamed to "tvguide.xml") using an mc2xml program. I imported the guide using the "XMLTV" plugin and it said "516" imported.

Excellent - that is a *big* step in the right direction.

When I go into MediaPortal - I can still watch live TV - however, when I click on TV Guide - I get "No Data Available". Do you know what I'm doing wrong?

I can sorta still help you with this part. What you've done is basically chosen option 2 or 3 (as described earlier) for your channel setup. You have your guide data source sorted. To see that guide data you have to create and map channels in MP to channels in the guide. If you don't already know about it then I think -->this<-- XMLTV wiki page will help you understand that part a little better. As a test, you could theoretically map the YRYBY channel to any one of the channels available from the guide, save the mapping, reimport the tvguide.xml, and then get guide data (allow a couple of minutes for MP to update the DB with the data).

If you can get your head around that then hopefully you might understand what I meant about the pain of adding channels to MP. Your goal is basically to "copy, paste and rename" the YRYBY channel for each channel in the guide. The difficulty is how to do that in such a way that it doesn't take all day/night. If you're skilled in DB manipulation you could write a script to "magically" add them (option 2). Otherwise it is a case of adding them manually. It might be a good idea to see if you can create a handful of your most watched channels first just to get yourself up and running...

The process is (in the TV Channel list):
1. Click "add".
2. Select "analog".
3. Enter the name in the top box.
4. Create a tuning detail.
5. Set the channel number to the number that you'd want to key in on the remote if you were switching to the channel.
6. Frequency is 0.
7. Cable/antenna doesn't really matter. Cable probably makes more logical sense, but it has absolutely no effect for a Colossus.
8. Country should be USA, although again it might not make any difference.
9. The VCR input tick box doesn't seem to have any effect either.
10. Select YRYBY #1 for video input.
11. Select SPDIF #2 for audio input.
12. Save.

Then it is a case of "rinse and repeat". I hope that makes sense...

I GOT IT!!!!

Thank You - Thank You Very, Very Much!! Followed your instructions to the T - added 3 channels to begin with - All 3 channels are now showing up in my Guide with next 7 days worth of programming. I can click any program to record!! This is amazing!!

Now I have to ask you this - perhaps the Last bit -

"If you're skilled in DB manipulation you could write a script to "magically" add them (option 2)."

Obviously adding the 100's of channels manually is undoubtedly going to take all day/night. You say "DB Manipulation" - my first question is, are we talking MySQL? If we are, then I may be able to work some magic. I have MySQL/PHP experience. What exactly are we talking about here to add/map all these channels automatically? Is there some write up on this - or could you give me some direction what exactly it is that I have to do?

Thanks - Can't appreciate this enough.

PS: This should be a sticky!!!

 

[mm1352000]

I GOT IT!!!!

Thank You - Thank You Very, Very Much!! Followed your instructions to the T - added 3 channels to begin with - All 3 channels are now showing up in my Guide with next 7 days worth of programming. I can click any program to record!! This is amazing!!

Fantastic, and you're most welcome!
(Just to be clear: although you can see the guide data you can't actually control the STB yet, so recording would potentially record the wrong channel. Fixing that requires setting up the blaster, which is the bit I can't help with...)

Now I have to ask you this - perhaps the Last bit -

"If you're skilled in DB manipulation you could write a script to "magically" add them (option 2)."

Obviously adding the 100's of channels manually is undoubtedly going to take all day/night. You say "DB Manipulation" - my first question is, are we talking MySQL? If we are, then I may be able to work some magic. I have MySQL/PHP experience. What exactly are we talking about here to add/map all these channels automatically? Is there some write up on this - or could you give me some direction what exactly it is that I have to do?

Well if you know MySQL then it might not be very hard after all!
To answer your question: yes, it will either be MySQL or SQL Server, depending on what DB you chose when you installed TV Server. The syntax should be quite similar. Unfortunately I'm at work at the moment so I don't have access to a DB schema to tell you *exactly* what statements you'd require. Having said that I can give you some tips:

- the two tables you'll be interested in are "Channel" and "TuningDetail"
- each Channel record is associated with one or more TuningDetail records through a channelId foreign key column in the TuningDetail table
- for the Colossus (or HDPVR) it would be a one to one mapping - one tuning detail per channel
- each TuningDetail record will be exactly the same apart from the channelId foreign key reference, the channel number (lcn I *think*) and the primary key (id)
- the Channels records will be very similar too - the only differences *might* be the id and name

If you're okay with PHP then it should be possible to create a loop over a list of cable channel names and numbers that inserts one tuning detail and one channel for each cable channel. You may even be able to parse the XMLTV file to get channel names and numbers out. It might be a little tricky to get the foreign keys right, but you could potentially use a loop variable for the channel id which would make things simpler. Pseudo-code (sorry, I only know Perl, and please forgive the channel examples ):

my @cableChannels = (['CBS', 1], ['NBC', 2]);
my $i = 0;
foreach my $channel (@cableChannels) {
insertChannel($i, $channel);
insertTuningDetail($i);
}

sub insertChannel {
// execute SQL to insert a channel record with a given id, name and number
}
sub insertTuningDetail {
// execute SQL to insert a tuning detail linked to a channel with the given id
}

[Edit: You could also add code for mapping the channels to the Colossus, but to be honest it is easier to that in TV Server configuration with one click. As far as mapping the XMLTV channels to MP channels goes: if you use the exact names from the XMLTV file when you create the channel records then the plugin will be smart enough to guess the correct mappings. You can always tweak the MP channel names after the mapping is set up if you don't like the XMLTV guide names...]

 

[luci5r]

Fantastic, and you're most welcome!
(Just to be clear: although you can see the guide data you can't actually control the STB yet, so recording would potentially record the wrong channel. Fixing that requires setting up the blaster, which is the bit I can't help with...)

Ok - I didn't realize that was the case. But definitely good progress for me here.
Is there thread/support discussion somewhere regarding setting up the IR Blaster to switch channels on the STB? I guess that would be critical in order to make the EPG recording work so I have to definitely pursue that.

To answer your question: yes, it will either be MySQL or SQL Server, depending on what DB you chose when you installed TV Server. The syntax should be quite similar. Unfortunately I'm at work at the moment so I don't have access to a DB schema to tell you *exactly* what statements you'd require. Having said that I can give you some tips:

- the two tables you'll be interested in are "Channel" and "TuningDetail"
- each Channel record is associated with one or more TuningDetail records through a channelId foreign key column in the TuningDetail table
- for the Colossus (or HDPVR) it would be a one to one mapping - one tuning detail per channel
- each TuningDetail record will be exactly the same apart from the channelId foreign key reference, the channel number (lcn I *think*) and the primary key (id)
- the Channels records will be very similar too - the only differences *might* be the id and name

If you're okay with PHP then it should be possible to create a loop over a list of cable channel names and numbers that inserts one tuning detail and one channel for each cable channel. You may even be able to parse the XMLTV file to get channel names and numbers out. It might be a little tricky to get the foreign keys right, but you could potentially use a loop variable for the channel id which would make things simpler. Pseudo-code (sorry, I only know Perl, and please forgive the channel examples ):

my @cableChannels = (['CBS', 1], ['NBC', 2]);
my $i = 0;
foreach my $channel (@cableChannels) {
insertChannel($i, $channel);
insertTuningDetail($i);
}

sub insertChannel {
// execute SQL to insert a channel record with a given id, name and number
}
sub insertTuningDetail {
// execute SQL to insert a tuning detail linked to a channel with the given id
}

[Edit: You could also add code for mapping the channels to the Colossus, but to be honest it is easier to that in TV Server configuration with one click. As far as mapping the XMLTV channels to MP channels goes: if you use the exact names from the XMLTV file when you create the channel records then the plugin will be smart enough to guess the correct mappings. You can always tweak the MP channel names after the mapping is set up if you don't like the XMLTV guide names...]

Ok - A LOT of information here to digest; I'll have to go slow & step by step.
First of all - yes, I did indeed choose MySQL during installation. I can write a program in PHP and perform whatever is necessary on a mySQL database. I think the problem right now is that I don't quite understand what it is that I exactly have to do.

Let me ask you a basic question first - this process of "Mapping", either via MediaPortal using "rinse & repeat", or via PHP/MySQL -- Is this something that will have to done every time I update the Guide Data?? Or is this something that only needs to be done once & that's it?

I know that I have to get Guide data roughly every week or 2 weeks (using the mc2xml method) and import fresh guide data into MediaPortal. For this I will be lookig into some Windows Task Scheduler or Batch File options to automate this process. If the "Mapping" has to be done just once - maybe it's better to just use the rinse & repeat & get it over with. If it has to be done every time - then I have to absolutely look into the PHP/MySQL solution.

That aside - I'm trying to make sense of your clarification on the mapping code. I understand there are 2 tables, Channel & TuningDetail. The records in the Channel will be associated with records in TuningDetail based on a key "ChannelID" that will link the 2 records together. I can use JOIN in mySQL to join 2 tables based on a key. I think here's my confusion:

a) Is all the data that I need "already" in the Channel & TuningDetail tables? Or am I getting data from "somewhere" and entering it into these 2 tables?
b) Do I need to get the date from the tvguide.xml? In other words - is that XML file the "source" of my data? Or can I ignore that file for this process?

I guess, here's an easy way to understand this ...

i. Where am I getting the Data from?
ii. What data am I trying to get?
iii. Once I have the data - where am I inserting it?

Once I get clarity on this - then perhaps I can start looking into the PHP/MySQL code required to achieve this.

Again - let me assert very strongly - you have been a tremendous help in this process for me; I can't begin to express how much I appreciate your help & support.

Thanks.

 

[mm1352000]

Ok - I didn't realize that was the case. But definitely good progress for me here.
Is there thread/support discussion somewhere regarding setting up the IR Blaster to switch channels on the STB? I guess that would be critical in order to make the EPG recording work so I have to definitely pursue that.

Like I said, I really have no idea about this stuff. I *think* what most people are using is IRSS, but I'm not sure about that. If I'm right then this wiki page (or maybe this one more specifically) and the IRSS release thread might be a starting point. IRSS has its own forum section - I'm certain that would make for interesting reading, however I'm not certain that I wouldn't be sending you on a "wild goose chase".

@<other readers>: Any advice would be *much* appreciated!

Ok - A LOT of information here to digest; I'll have to go slow & step by step.
First of all - yes, I did indeed choose MySQL during installation. I can write a program in PHP and perform whatever is necessary on a mySQL database. I think the problem right now is that I don't quite understand what it is that I exactly have to do.

Okay - sorry I'll try and go slower.

Let me ask you a basic question first - this process of "Mapping", either via MediaPortal using "rinse & repeat", or via PHP/MySQL -- Is this something that will have to done every time I update the Guide Data?? Or is this something that only needs to be done once & that's it?

Let's be clear: there are two mapping processes:
1. Linking the channels that you create to the Colossus
Channels have to be mapped to tuners so that MP knows which tuners to use when you want to view those channels. Creating and editing this mapping is ***really*** easy. See here for info. This only has to be done once, and is as quick as clicking one button.
2. Linking the channels in the guide info to the channels in MP
In order to know how to populate the guide correctly MP has to know where to get the data for each channel from. That is why there is a mapping in the XMLTV plugin - to explicitly link MP channels to guide channels. This also only has to be done once, as long as the guide channel names don't change. The plugin is "smart" in that it can guess the mappings automatically if the MP channel name closely matches the guide channel name. It would be smart to make use of that so you don't have to manually set the mappings for 100's of channels. That is why I suggested creating your MP channels with the same names as the guide channels to start with.

I know that I have to get Guide data roughly every week or 2 weeks (using the mc2xml method) and import fresh guide data into MediaPortal. For this I will be lookig into some Windows Task Scheduler or Batch File options to automate this process.

Yep, that is sensible.

If the "Mapping" has to be done just once - maybe it's better to just use the rinse & repeat & get it over with. If it has to be done every time - then I have to absolutely look into the PHP/MySQL solution.

I think you've missed the point of the MySQL and PHP. The purpose is to *create the channels in MP*. If you don't have channels then you don't see any guide info and you can't create either of the two kinds of mappings. You have to create the channels before anything else.

This is also a one time thing. You already know how to do it from the instructions I gave you earlier (the messing around in the TV channels list), so you could do it manually. However, like you said it would take all day for hundreds of channels. Since you know MySQL and PHP you may be able to write a script that can *create the channels* in the MP DB (which is what the UI does behind the scenes).

That aside - I'm trying to make sense of your clarification on the mapping code. I understand there are 2 tables, Channel & TuningDetail. The records in the Channel will be associated with records in TuningDetail based on a key "ChannelID" that will link the 2 records together.

I guess you could think of that as a third kind of mapping. A channel (as you see it in the UI) consists of a channel record + one or more tuning details. A channel record in the DB is the logical representation of channels in the UI. Tuning details are ways to access/tune a channel - you need separate tuning details because some people can get the same "logical" channel from satellite, digital terrestrial and/or analog terrestrial broadcasts. With your Colossus there is only going to be one tuning detail per channel. The tuning detail tells MP how to "tune" the channel on the Colossus.

a) Is all the data that I need "already" in the Channel & TuningDetail tables? Or am I getting data from "somewhere" and entering it into these 2 tables?

I *think* you're getting the data from "somewhere" and putting it into the tables. I say "I think" because I'm not 100% sure that the list of guide channels is not somewhere in the DB. The most straightforward answer is to assume that the data is not in the DB and you have to create the records.

b) Do I need to get the date from the tvguide.xml? In other words - is that XML file the "source" of my data? Or can I ignore that file for this process?

The date is irrelevant as you're only creating channels. If you are smart enough with your PHP you could extract the channel names and numbers from the XML. That is all that would be relevant - just the channel names and numbers. For all intents and purposes this has nothing to do with getting the guide working. It just might be convenient (if you are able) to use the guide data as a source for your channel list.

ii. What data am I trying to get?

Channel names and numbers. For example:

CBS, 1
NBC, 42
ABC, 13

(numbers made up)

iii. Once I have the data - where am I inserting it?

You are creating one record in the Channel table and one record in the TuningDetail table for each channel that you want in MP.

i. Where am I getting the Data from?

For the TuningDetail records:
You copy the tuning detail for the YRYBY channel and use your preferred channel number in the "lcn" column.

For the channel records:
1. Your own knowledge of the channels that you can receive.
2. The channel list in your STB.
3. A website/magazine listing the channels that are available in your area.
4. The channels in the guide data.
...
There are many options. It is all about what is most convenient for you. If you're going to create the channels in the DB with a PHP script then it makes sense to me to use data that is already electronic and easily usable so you don't have to type out a list of 100's of channel names and numbers. That is why I suggested the guide data as a potential source. Not only that - if you take the names from the guide data then creating the 2nd mapping mentioned above (MP channels to guide channels) should be automatic.

The channels records in the guide data will look very roughly like:

<channel id="I10436.labs.zap2it.com">
<display-name>13 KERA</display-name>
<display-name>13 KERA TX42822:-</display-name>
<display-name>13</display-name>
<display-name>13 KERA fcc</display-name>
<display-name>KERA</display-name>
<display-name>KERA</display-name>
<display-name>PBS Affiliate</display-name>
<icon src="file://C:\Perl\site/share/xmltv/icons/KERA.gif" />
</channel>

(taken from XMLTVFormat - XMLTV)

The data that you might choose to use as the name and number will depend on what your data looks like and whether there is even a number available. I can't really second-guess how "rich" your XML file will be (having full guide info with [for example] actor or host names, release years etc. is rare - most data is bare minimum).

Again - let me assert very strongly - you have been a tremendous help in this process for me; I can't begin to express how much I appreciate your help & support.

No problem - its what I'm here for.
I'm hoping other people will benefit from our discussions in the future. This is almost turning into a patchy sort of guide...

 

[luci5r]

mm,

This time I have understood the process very clearly & vividly. I now know exactly what I have to do! I took your post, contents of my tvguide.xml and the tv server configuration panel - I went through your explanations & looked at the corresponding process in the other 2 windows - and quite honestly, this was the only way I could truly understand the process. I can admit this is a bit complicated, nevertheless, I have understood what needs to be done here.

Let me start at the beginning.

Like I said, I really have no idea about this stuff. I *think* what most people are using is IRSS, but I'm not sure about that. If I'm right then this wiki page (or maybe this one more specifically) and the IRSS release thread might be a starting point. IRSS has its own forum section - I'm certain that would make for interesting reading, however I'm not certain that I wouldn't be sending you on a "wild goose chase".

I'm still working on this but you did point me in the right direction - not a wild goose chase at all! Indeed, IRSS is what I needed. I was able to get IRSS installed and also learned about what I need to do, using the "TV3 Blaster Plugin", to blast the Set Top Box using the remote within MediaPortal. I'm having a little problem right now not getting anything in my Port settings - but that is a separate matter and I'll be working to resolve that. I did want to confirm to you that you did indeed point me in the very correct direction and anyone in my position needs to be looking at IRSS & TV3 Blaster Plugin to get the IR Blaster situated & working with MediaPortal.

Let's be clear: there are two mapping processes:
1. Linking the channels that you create to the Colossus
Channels have to be mapped to tuners so that MP knows which tuners to use when you want to view those channels. Creating and editing this mapping is ***really*** easy. See here for info. This only has to be done once, and is as quick as clicking one button.
2. Linking the channels in the guide info to the channels in MP
In order to know how to populate the guide correctly MP has to know where to get the data for each channel from. That is why there is a mapping in the XMLTV plugin - to explicitly link MP channels to guide channels. This also only has to be done once, as long as the guide channel names don't change. The plugin is "smart" in that it can guess the mappings automatically if the MP channel name closely matches the guide channel name. It would be smart to make use of that so you don't have to manually set the mappings for 100's of channels. That is why I suggested creating your MP channels with the same names as the guide channels to start with.


I think you've missed the point of the MySQL and PHP. The purpose is to *create the channels in MP*. If you don't have channels then you don't see any guide info and you can't create either of the two kinds of mappings. You have to create the channels before anything else.

This is also a one time thing. You already know how to do it from the instructions I gave you earlier (the messing around in the TV channels list), so you could do it manually. However, like you said it would take all day for hundreds of channels. Since you know MySQL and PHP you may be able to write a script that can *create the channels* in the MP DB (which is what the UI does behind the scenes).

As I stated above, I now understand the process.

Using PHP/MySQL - I need to first "create" the channels. This I can do by actually pulling out the Channel Name & Number from the tvguide.xml (using PHP) and the creating a loop procedure to run through all the channels & creating their corresponding tuning details - all this will insert All the channels in the Channel & TuningDetail table in the MySQL database.

Once this is done; I can fire up the TV Server Configuration. Since I'll be using the same Channel names as in the guide, the Mappings section of the XMLTV plugin should be able to match up the channels dynamically (This I saw does happen indeed - it is 'smart', in essence). Once that is done & saved - I need to import my guide so that all information/programming for each mapped channel is imported.

Once this is done, I can use the TV Mapping section to map All my channels to my Colossus card.

I guess once I have the PHP/MySQL script creating all the channels for me in the Channel & TuningDetail tables - which is somewhat of a programming par - the rest is really not that hard.

For the channel records:
1. Your own knowledge of the channels that you can receive.
2. The channel list in your STB.
3. A website/magazine listing the channels that are available in your area.
4. The channels in the guide data.

You are correct - I understand this now. I will be (at least hoping) to use option #4. Using my tvguide.xml to pull out names & numbers and feed into Channel & TuningDetail tables.

I'm hoping other people will benefit from our discussions in the future. This is almost turning into a patchy sort of guide...

I second this; I wouldn't even call it that patchy - we're really going step-by-step here. This should be very helpful to a lot of people.

If I'm successful in my effort (as I have been thus far starting from scratch & getting both Live TV & TV Guide working with MediaPortal/Hauppauge Colossus) ... I would not mind working on a Wiki for this process. This is clearly a somewhat complicated & tedious process - but the more I'm understanding it - the more easier it's getting to proceed.

I'll update you with how I'm making out; and of course - don't be surprised to see me back here with Questions!!

Thanks!!