Unable to edit EPG (1 Viewer)

[TonyJM]

Hi all...

Sorry for being such a noob to this but I have spent two weeks on this so really need some help...

I have set up media portal (great product - thanks!!) and have a quad tuner DVB-T card. All works great... except the EPG.

I struggled to get it working initially and somehow managed it... initially using the standard WebEPG plugin, but soon realised that there are some massive problems with my EPG data... I noticed that BBC One and BBC Two were showing the same data - BBC1 is right and BB2 is wrong. So I re-mapped BBC2 to show the same as BBC2 HD - but even when I updated it, it still showed the same wrong data. So I disabled WebEPG expecting the EPG to disappear and it didn't... still showing incorrect listings. So I hunted about in MediaPortal TV Server config and think the EPG data was being fed from the broadcasters signal... eventually I disabled this and the EPG vanished, as wanted.

So I started again and decided that the xmlTV / mc2xml was the better route. I followed the idiots guide here...

http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_..._TV_Setup/4_TV_Guide_Setup_(EPG)/XMLTV_mc2xml

I selected the Microsoft Legacy EPG data source as until 2 weeks ago was using Windows MCE and I never had any issues with the EPG. All seemed OK, but again BBC1 and BBC2 shows the same programmes. I even re-mapped BBC2 to a completely wrong channel, deleted the .dat file and re-imported the EPG data and its still wrong!!!

I am slowly losing the will to live but with all the guide errors the system is not reliable enough ATM.

Can someone point me in the right direction as it must be something I am doing wrong.

Incidentally I am running MediaPortal PVR in Kodi as a fronted, but have fired up the MediaPortal app instead and the EPG data is exactly the same (wrong) in here too - so I am sure its not a Kodi issue.

Again not relevant but I am in the UK.

If I can work out how to configure and use this successfully I would look at using a paid for data source!!

Thanks in advance.

 

[wjw]

Incidentally I am running MediaPortal PVR in Kodi as a fronted, but have fired up the MediaPortal app instead and the EPG data is exactly the same (wrong) in here too - so I am sure its not a Kodi issue.

I'm not really sure what this means - I will assume you mean the MP TVServer but not the MP Client. My experience is only with the complete MP product set. I use mc2xml with Schedules Direct as my data source. I can assure you that the guide data is correct. SD offer a 1 week free trial so you can see how it works for you. If you choose to do this, make sure you select the json service, then select the European Freesat lineup and enter the first part of your postcode. As I say, this is what I use and the EPG is right.

If after this you have the same problem, then it is definitely a mapping issue.

You might also want to read this thread as well as this one.

 

[Robert Kulagowski]

The XMLTV project now has an official JSON->XML conversion program at http://files.xmltv.org

 

[wjw]

Indeed it does - and it's what I actually use in practice. However, for anyone trying this out for the first time - mc2xml is a lot easier to configure and change options.

 

[TonyJM]

Thanks guys... yes WJW thats exactly what I mean - I am using MP TV Server but not veiwing using the MP frontend - although when I do watch using the MP frontend the EPG on this is also wrong. I cant understand why when I manually map a different channel line up to BBC 2 - it still shows the same data in the EPG.

I like the idea of Schedules Direct and will have a go with their 1 week free trial and if it fixes the problem will subscribe to it.

Its interesting you say you are using mc2xml as this is what I am using and when I Change the mapping the EPG doesnt change at all... so for example if I change mapping on BBC 2 to ITV (a completely different UK channel) I still see the BBC1 line up... so it doesnt change at all

I will keep playing and look at the links given - thanks and if anyone else has any ideas, please feel free to chip in

 

[wjw]

It doesn't matter which grabber you use. However, just to be sure, when you talk about changing the mapping - you are referring to changing the mapping in MP TVServer inside the XMLTV plugin? And when you do make a change, you do click the Save button?

Also, be aware that if you want to have such episode and series number data as exists in the EPG data you will need to do a little processing before presenting the dowlnoaded xml file to the TVServer import process (covered in one of the other threads).

As a matter of curiosity on my part - why Kodi rather than MP Client?

 

[nfox]

Just out of curiosity, why not use the DVB-T EPG? I know it's not as detailed as it could be, but it is mostly accurate.

 

[mm1352000]

Just out of curiosity, why not use the DVB-T EPG? I know it's not as detailed as it could be, but it is mostly accurate.

...and it's free.

 

[TonyJM]

Hi All... OK, I have had another look and still can't get it right - tonight it got worse... some scheduled recordings didn't run and when I looked in EPG guide in MP and Kodi they say "No Information Found". I guessed that this was because it initially only imported 3 days worth of EPG, so it got me thinking - and I think I have it sorted (hopefully).

I sat down last night and started from the begining again and am sure its my lack of understanding thats the problem. I deleted everything and set it up again using SchedulesDirect free 7 day account and mc2xml. After I finished the "idiots guide" sure enough the EPG was visible again and had much more accurate data - including no issue with BBC1 & BBC2 being the same!

Then it struck me... If I am right, the first time you run mc2xml it creates the DAT file to let mc2xml know what channels to import and the mappings - but to update the EPG I believe I need to delete the tvguide.xml file, re-run mc2xml to re-import data to xmltv.xml, then rename xmltv.xml to tvguide.xml and hit the import in MP TVServer. If thats right I missed this final step completely which is why nothing has been updating!

When I get home tonight I am going to write a small batch file to run mc2xml from the command line with the argument -o tvguide.xml, so hopefully this should be an end to my woes - and SD will get another paying customer as their data source has been the best so far!

Also - why Kodi? Well, the reason I went for this was that it was much slicker than Win MCE and properly catalogues my 600+ backed up DVDs on the local disk, and hundreds of backed up CDs... so it is a really good all-round media center in my opinion

Anyway - I hope what I say above is right and assuming so, I knew it would be a user error.

I will update the outcome, hopefully, later

Thanks all

 

[TonyJM]

Just spotted the query about why not using the DVB-T EPG data - the reason being that I couldnt get it to work accurately and dont belive they offer 14 day guide - I think its only a 2-3 day listing