No Series info from xmltv (1 Viewer)

[gwatkins]

It would appear that I am suddenly unable to get tv show series (season) numbers from the xmltv epg data. I have my series recording format set like %title%-S%series%-E%number% and when the file names are created the look like this Title-S-E123. The series number is never there. I am using xmltv with mc2xml. Any ideas what's wrong?

 

[mm1352000]

Any ideas what's wrong?

Nope. Way more information required in order to have any idea.
For example:

• What mc2xml source are you using? (SchedulesDirect, Microsoft legacy etc.???)
• Does the XMLTV file contain series/episode info?
• Where are the TV service logs? (...which might show series/episode info being thrown away, if it is not compatible)

 

[gwatkins]

Thanks for your quick reply. I am using Microsoft legacy. I am sorry but I'm not familiar with the format of the xmltv log. What should I be looking for?

 

[mm1352000]

I didn't mention any XMLTV log.
Perhaps you could simply zip and post the XMLTV file (tvguide.xml) and TV service log files?

 

[gwatkins]

Sorry, I didn't mean to say log. I think you are on the right track. I don't see a series number in the tvguide.xml. The episode-num section only shows a single number. i.e. <episode-num system="onscreen">408</episode-num>. It should be 4.08. Is this a problem with the source I am using or maybe mc2xml.exe isn't parsing properly?

 

[mm1352000]

Right, so TV Server's XMLTV plugin would interpret that example as episode number 408... without series number information.
I can't tell you if that is a problem/change with/to the Microsoft service or mc2xml. Presumably if this was working previously and you didn't update mc2xml then the breaking change was the Microsoft service or their source(s). There's absolutely nothing we as MP can do about this. Your options would be to:

1. Customise our XMLTV plugin to split the current number out into series and episode numbers.
2. Report the problem to mc2xml and Microsoft and hope that somebody can investigate and/or fix it.
3. Switch to a different data source.

 

[gwatkins]

I think my best option would be to switch. Any recommendations? Schedules Direct?

 

[mm1352000]

Sorry, I don't feel comfortable recommending guide data sources for another country. IMHO there's no way to get a good feeling for the strengths and weaknesses of TV guide data sources unless you try them yourself. It would be a different story if you were asking about NZ TV EPG data sources. Hopefully somebody else will chime in... or you could just evaluate the options for yourself.

 

[gwatkins]

No problem. Thanks for helping out.