Too stupid to figure this out for USA (3 Viewers)

[RonD]

Glad you got Schedules Direct working, the EPG setup is a frustrating part of MediaPort setup.

In the imdb.com tv listings you need to set your zipcode and then select 1 of the cable providers to get local listing even if you are using over the air (antenna). I used Comcast to get the station names from the listing so I could update the WebEPG grabber file.

 

[TLD]

Now this info I would like to see in the wiki

What do you think

Good idea Paranoid Delusion, i am trying it now and it seems to work (it's not done scraping yet though).

Don't forget to click save should be add at the end.

 

[TLD]

Thanks....
The website imdb, only lists the generic eastern US channels...none of the local ones.

I did get schedule direct working!!!!! Now I need to figure out how to sort the channels so they make sense...and number them like I was used to.

Did you put your zip code in?


You can edit the channel names in TV Server configuration to be whatever you like, (just click on the channel name in the channel tab and click edit then rename it at the top of the popup window) you can move the channels up or down by dragging them.

 

[TLD]

I just checked and WebEPG does work when following RonD instructions, but i find it not as complete with local channels as mc2xml as it only gave me the series names with no title on some local channels. Same problem as WebGrab+Plus.

 

[RonD]

A comment on the default US imdb_com grabber file. This tries to open a sublink to get a "Genre:". This increases the web traffic/pages by 5-10 times compared to just getting the basic listing. With just the basic listings, 10 channels, 14 days takes under 5 minutes and generates about 10 MB of web traffic. With all the sublinks it took over an hour to run and generated over 100 MB of web traffic.

There is also a bug in the grabber. You need to edit the start="Genre:" and change "Genre:" to "Genres:".

I've been working on a modified grabber that removes the "Genre: sub-link" but adds the SUBTITLE (episode) to get a cleaner version of the imdb_com grabber and a "readme" file with setup info. I can upload this tomorrow but maybe we should move this to the WebEPG forum sections.

 

[RonD]

TLD,

on the "missing data", if look at the www.imdb.com listing for the suspect day/channel/show, does the WebEPG have the same data or is some info missing.

 

[TLD]

Yeah, we have kinda hijacked this thread,

Thanks for the tip about (You need to edit the start="Genre:" and change "Genre:" to "Genres:".)

The missing data I'm looking for is the episode subtitle, and it shows in a popup window on the www.imdb.com TV listings site when you hover your pointer over the arrow by the episode name.

We should move over to the WebEPG forum sections. as it could help other folks.

EDIT: i started a thread over there, It would be great if you could upload your .xml with the subtitle scraper in it.
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...ode-subtitle-in-to-my-epg-with-webepg.108341/

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Hi RonD

Rather than move thread, it might be worthwhile starting a new one under the appropriate part of the forum, the title of this one needs changing, ie adding USA in it, just for search purposes, but as its content is a bit mixed, and certainly the first few posts have nothing in relation to the work you are doing.

ps. I like what you have found out so far regarding this, keep at it

Regards

 

[Jordanf]

In the interest of driving myself crazy, I am trying to set up the EPG as described...

In step 2- I could not find that file (www_imdb_com.xml) nor did my system have- "\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\WebEPG\grabbers\US folder"

I had enable webepg on the tv server setup, but the directory or files are not on my computer...did a full computer search as well.

I think all of us in the United States is having / has had this same problem. The WebEPG grabber files included with MP do not work as-is, but the good news is that it can be fixed. It's not that hard once you figure it out.

$25/year is not a lot of money to pay for having the convenience of SchedulesDirect. But personally, my goal in building my own HTPC was to do it all with free software, so I went with WebEPG and the IMDB TV website. The www_imdb_com.xml file just needs to be edited and customized for your own area, TV provider and channels. Here's how I did it:

Step 1: Go to http://www.imdb.com/tvgrid . Enter your zip code and TV provider. You should see the complete listing for all your TV channels.

Step 2: Find the www_imdb_com.xml file in your \Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal TV Server\WebEPG\grabbers\US folder, open it in Notepad. You will see a few lines that look like this:

<Channel id="wwwww" siteId="xxxxx/?zip=yyyyy&amp;tv_prov=zzzzz" />

Here, wwwww=the name of the channel (should be the same as listed in TV Server); xxxxx=the name of the channel as shown in the left-hand column of the IMDB website (TBS, MSNBC, etc.); yyyyy=your zip code; zzzzz=the codename of your tv provider (it's shown in the url of the IMDB TV listings)

Step 3: Remove those lines from the xml file and replace them with new lines. Each channel needs its own line, following the template listed in the code above. The zip code and TV provider should be the same on each line. When you're done with all channels, save it as an xml file with the same filename.

Step 4: In TV Server Configuration, go to Plugins -> WebEPG. Map all of your channels using your new www_imdb_com.xml file. When that's done hit Grab Now and it should work.

Once I got this working it worked great and I never had to mess with it again.

By the way, the reason WMC does it automatically without any trouble is because Bill Gates paid millions of dollars to set up an EPG data service just for WMC. So if someone could donate that kind of money, I'm sure we could make the same thing for MediaPortal.

 

[Jordanf]

now...for some reason I can't watch live TV..."card busy" no card avaiable?