TV recording not displaying episode titles or going into series (1 Viewer)

Percy

Portal Member
May 7, 2019
15
5
40
Home Country
England England
After much testing with MP1 and MP2 (moving from MCE) I have finally got MP2 up to a standard where it is now active and my wife can use it.

Now I have one issue I can't seem to figure out, on a TV recording it groups them perfectly (example I will use is Number Blocks).

So in recording I have Number Blocks, when I enter this I just get many episodes called Number Blocks (rather than episode titles or numbers)

Likewise the above series does not appear in 'Series'.

Anything I can do to get this working as expected?

On my previous WMC install I was running recorded tv HD which grouped everything and everything and added a title/series/episode etc so I was hoping I could get similar functionality in media portal.
 

HTPCSourcer

Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • May 16, 2008
    11,418
    2,335
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Hello,

    Advanced movie and series management happens outside of the TV Recording area and is subject to adequately naming your files. Please see the Wiki for further details, e.g. Series. You should also understand the concept of media sources.
     

    Lehmden

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • December 17, 2010
    12,553
    3,934
    Lehmden
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Hi.
    You can achieve an automated scrapping of your TV recordings, if you use separate subfolders for recurring recordings (= series) and one time only recordings ( = movies). See:
    Tv Engine Setup
    especially the part about recordings...

    The correct scrapping depends on proper file naming. Especially for series you need to have season and episodes numbers in the filename. For this you a) need to use them in the filenames for recordings and b) they must exist in your EPG data... The later is a bit tricky as most EPG data sources are not delivering season and episodes numbers in a format MP can read... But some tools, e.g. EPG-Buddy can add those numbers to the raw EPG data before they are imported into the TV engine...

    But this setup is not too reliable because you can not clean up the files before using them. At least everything you like to keep better is prepared properly (= named right and enriched with local metadata and fanart, e.g with tMM or Media-Buddy) and moved into a "real" media source. This way you will have a clean and nicely filled library with no errors...
     

    Percy

    Portal Member
    May 7, 2019
    15
    5
    40
    Home Country
    England England
    Thank you so this has got me going, Looked at file naming and Series/episode data isn't being labelled so I guess my EPG isn't up to it (UK Freeview/Freesat OTA)

    Tried EPG buddy but can't seem to get a UK EPG source, on can it enrich my current EPG?

    tMM and Media-Buddy look interesting but I assume they need a reasonable level of data to feed in which my current EPG may be lacking.

    Previously (WMC) I was using the digiguide.tv EPG on the premium service, it seem I can get this working with the £14.99 a year option which I am not against for a working/stable/supported EPG, seems this will work but can't see any recent posts on the subject.
     
    Last edited:

    CyberSimian

    Test Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • June 10, 2013
    2,849
    1,771
    Southampton
    Home Country
    United Kingdom United Kingdom
    Tried EPG buddy but can't seem to get a UK EPG source
    I use the EPG that is broadcast with Freeview (DVB-T), as I prefer not to bother downloading the EPG from the internet. But I believe that "Schedules Direct" provide a good quality EPG for the UK (and for the USA and other countries). The catch is that the EPG is not free -- it costs about £20 per year. However, it is highly regarded by the remaining users of WMC (the native WMC guide is now of poor quality).

    Just as a comparison: if you purchased the "Radio Times" listings magazine every week, it would cost you over £100 for the year. Even if you purchased the cheapest available ("TV Choice"), it would still cost you £32 per year. So £20 per year for a high-quality EPG that can be used with MP does not seem outrageously expensive. (y)

    I think that "Schedules Direct" offer a 7-day free trial. So it might be worthwhile investigating further.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    Percy

    Portal Member
    May 7, 2019
    15
    5
    40
    Home Country
    England England
    Sounds good, will look into that don't mind paying for something which works.
     

    Lehmden

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • December 17, 2010
    12,553
    3,934
    Lehmden
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Hi.
    can't seem to get a UK EPG source
    You can use EPG-Buddy with the "WebGrab" module for UK TV. There is a looong PDF available describing the usage of EPG-Buddy in detail. As I'm not living in UK I don't have a clue of which websites are delivering the best data for UK. My first try would be "horizon.tv" as it has many programs for many European channels...
    In general over the air EPG is not that good at all... It only has EPG for very few days and the data normally is of poor quality. But it's easy to get so it's widely used. But if you want more (and identifying of recorded series episodes definitely is more than the basic usage) it did not fulfill all needs.

    tMM and Media-Buddy look interesting but I assume they need a reasonable level of data
    As both programs are downloading the data by themselves only a clean identify is needed. Personally I name all movies "tt1234567.ts" where "tt1234567" is the IMDB ID of the movie. And Series Episodes I name s01e03 (assuming it is the third episode of season 1). The series name is grabbed from the subfolder, something that can be done even with poor EPG data... This pre-renaming I do by hand if necessary (means no season and episodes number was available in EPG data) and then run Media-Buddy over the files. If they are too big (most TV recordings are way too big for the delivered quality) the videos are transcoded (to save space and bandwith) renamed to my preferred naming scheme and are enriched with local metadata (so called .nfo files) and local fanart (backdrops, cover, clearart, logo, banner,...) with only one mouse click... MP2 then uses those local metadata and fanart to import the videos properly without any extra online search...

    Schedules Direct
    As far as I remember is SD not delivering XMLTV compatible data. You need a special plugin for TV server if you want to use SD (similar as with clickfinder for Germany). And this Schedules Direct plugin don't work in MP2, if I remember right... So you better test if you can use the SD data in MP2 at all before buying.
     

    Attachments

    • English_EPG-Buddy Manual.zip
      2.1 MB

    Percy

    Portal Member
    May 7, 2019
    15
    5
    40
    Home Country
    England England
    Seems all the once decnt sources in EPG buddy are no longer working (UK wise)

    It appears I can use MC2XML to create the xml file from SD, will activate a SD trial and give it a go.
     

    Percy

    Portal Member
    May 7, 2019
    15
    5
    40
    Home Country
    England England
    Success... I think...

    Used MC2XML to get the XML file from SD and managed to import it.

    Now I have managed to map most channels but what happens to the ones that aren't mapped?

    Looking at my TV guide the mapped channels have titles going further into the future which shows the xlmtv import worked.

    But what are the DVB EPG bits doing, will they just fill gaps (unmatched channels) or over write the first 7 days of the TV guide.
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom