[solved] tvguide.xml not importing australian channels (1 Viewer)

beatnut88

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January 15, 2012
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I was having so many problems with MP1 that i elected to reinstall windows 10. I was able to get the tv epgs fine before but with the latest installation - the beta - when I went to scan for tv channels I was presented with something I hadn't seen before - which was SAP Announcements and a list of non-Australian countries!!
I dug around and got xlmt and installed as per instructions but it won't import the tvguide.xml
I don't understand why there is this change in the first place nor why I had no need for xlmt before.
so no TV!
I am at my wit's end. should i simply regree to an earlier version of MP1 and hope that the thing rights itself?
Must have happened to other people I guess
HELP!!

Neil
 

gavrrr

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February 2, 2020
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You sound like you know Media Portal really well. I'm in Australia and I need to migrate away from Windows Media Center which I've used for years. WMC did everything I wanted so is MP a good replacement for WMC? I'm running a PC on Win 7

I have tons of TV shows already recorded with WMC. Will MP play all those shows easily?

Will MP read the TV guide to select show to record etc?

I have a HTPC with a twin tuner. Will MP allow me to record 2 live shows while I watch a recording, pause Live TV etc etc just the same as WMC?

Thanks in advance
 

beatnut88

Portal Pro
January 15, 2012
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Hi
I managed to solve the problem - I had forgotten to install the tuner driver
I have been using MP1 for about 10 years
Looked at Kodi last week
Not for me
MP can play most media formats so shouldn’t have a problem with WMC
Not sure if MP can record 2 shows at once
Try it
I just bought a Laser set top box as a backup
Only $40 from officeworks
MP is simply brilliant as a MC
My only gripe is that it won’t automatically play the next file in a folder
But MPC-HC will
Install MP
You’ll love it
Neil
 

CyberSimian

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    I need to migrate away from Windows Media Center which I've used for years. WMC did everything I wanted so is MP a good replacement for WMC?
    I used Vista WMC for five years, before moving to MP1 six years ago. Comparing WMC and MP:

    (1) MP uses only one tuner per MUX. This means that with two tuners you could simultaneously record all channels from MUX A plus all channels from MUX B (assuming that your hard disk could sustain the data rate). :)

    In contrast, WMC uses one tuner per channel. With two tuners you could simultaneously record no more than two channels. :(

    (2) WMC's handling of padding (pre-padding and post-padding) was extremely irritating -- it would drop pre- or post-padding in order to minimise tuner usage. To force WMC to use separate tuners for consecutive recordings and retain the padding, it was necessary manually to edit every recording reservation to add extra padding. :mad:

    In contrast, MP does not drop the padding when there are consecutive recordings. :)

    (3) MP can extract the EPG from the data broadcast with the TV programme, if your broadcasters transmit this in a compatible fashion. In the UK this works very well to provide a full 7-day EPG. :)

    I don't know whether Australian broadcasters do the equivalent. If they do not, you will need to use an internet EPG and setup MP to import it daily.

    (4) WMC's EPG included "series link" information, plus "repeat" information. This would allow WMC to record all of the episodes in a series, and to avoid recording episodes that were repeats or which had already been recorded. :)

    In contrast, MP supports only repeated recording, in various flavours. So this is inferior to WMC. :(

    (5) MP records programmes in the form of TS files, but it can handle DVR-MS and WTV files. However, you will need to place them in the "Videos" section of MP, and not in the "Recorded TV" section. :)

    (6) Every media-center application in existence will have things that you like, and things that you don't like. The challenge is to find the media-center application that best matches your particular preferences. Or to put that another way, there are likely to be things about MP that you don't like, but MP may still be a better match for your preferences than other media-center applications that are available.

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    HTPCSourcer

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    Or to put that another way, there are likely to be things about MP that you don't like, but MP may still be a better match for your preferences than other media-center applications that are available.
    Just to add one small thing to this: MP2 offers a WMC-like skin that is probably the closest you can get to when compared to using the true WMC.
     

    wjw

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    If the lack of sophisticated recording of TV series etc. is important then look at one of the add-on plugins available for MP1 (maybe MP2 as well but as I don;t use that I can't say) called TV Wishlist. Very full set of recording options and in my view in some ways better than anything WMC had. It's rarely mentioned in these forums and I cannot understand why as it has worked for me for many year without fault. If you do go down that route DO read the instructions carefully to understand all the options properly.
     

    CyberSimian

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    If the lack of sophisticated recording of TV series etc. is important then look at one of the add-on plugins available for MP1 called TV Wishlist.
    I keep meaning to get around to looking at "TV Wishlist", but I have not done so yet :(. However, it cannot be as good as WMC. The reason is that the WMC EPG has series and episode ids that allow WMC to identify episodes in a series and repeated episodes, whereas MP cannot use series and episode ids even if they are present in the EPG.

    Although not common, the BBC in the UK sometimes schedules a series where the programme titles are all different. This might be a series of independently-produced programmes which address a single theme (and so the BBC schedules them as a series). The WMC EPG can handle this, by means of the series id :). The MP EPG cannot handle this, because it uses only the programme title to identify programmes in the series (so all programmes in the series must have the same title). :(

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    wjw

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    In my defence I did say "in some ways". This means that in other ways it can be better.

    The real issue should be that the native MP functionality isn't very good - and the Series link facility is not and clearly never will be incorporated in to MP. So, something better is needed - and that something is TVWishlist.

    Again, read the instructions. Yes, it's based on text searching titles - but not necessarily limited to an exact match. You can specify partial matches. You can also specify an "includes" option to pick up anything that includes such as "David Jason". There are other options on the search too.

    However, for me the main advantage has always been that you are not limited to scheduling only those items that actually in your EPG. As it's not based on the series link data you can create a wish for something you know about - and then just wait for it to turn up. I've done this very successfully, most notably for a TV comedy series that I came across while in America but which was not being shown in the UK. Four years later one of the channels I don't normally watch or monitor picked up that series (5 Spike or 5 USA as I recall) and the TVWishlist function found it and started recording. This also applies, of course, across series shown once a year (eg The Big Bang Theory). It's been many years since I had Sky with the series link option but as I recall I would need to watch out for the starting the new series each year and setting the recording up. If you're limited to the one week in advance EPG and happen to be away for more than one week........

    With TVWishlist once it's in the database it stays there until you delete it.

    In that respect - if no other - it's better that anything WMC or any other EPG-based method can be.
     

    CyberSimian

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    In that respect - if no other - it's better that anything WMC or any other EPG-based method can be.
    I still beg to differ. :eek:

    WMC had "keyword scheduling". Many users never found it, because they confused it with "keyword searching", which WMC also supported. "Keyword searching" would search the EPG for programmes satisfying the specified search criteria, but not schedule to record any of the programmes found (you had to do that manually).

    With "keyword scheduling", you could (for example) specify Record all programmes that have "Big Bang Theory" in the title. This would then schedule to record programmes entitled "The Big Bang Theory" and programmes entitled "New: The Big Bang Theory". (I might want to do this if I were a new convert to the "The Big Bang Theory" and wanted to record all episodes.) WMC would record all episodes without recording duplicates (by virtue of using the episode ids in the EPG to exclude duplicates).

    One facility that WMC lacked was wild-card matching. :(

    The real issue should be that the native MP functionality isn't very good - and the Series link facility is not and clearly never will be incorporated in to MP.
    I am hoping that one of the MP2 developers will step up to the challenge and add support for using the series ids and episode ids that are present in some internet EPGs, and also present in some broadcast EPGs (such as the UK broadcast EPG). If an MP2 developer adds this to "TV Server" for MP2, it ought to become available for us MP1 users too. :D

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

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