Best Freesat Guide

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NWW

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Best Freesat Guide

#1

Post by NWW » Thu Oct 04, 2012 5:09 pm

Hi,

I'm experimenting with Freesat Guide data. I'm using it over DVBLink 4.5.1

WMC Guide: I love the fact that it has the "Repeat" flag, original air date, and the HD Flags on some channels. The lineup I'm using is Sky Digital BBC London

EpgCollector: HD Flags where it has to, downloading over the satellite (no internet connection necessary), HD Flags on the appropriate channels/programs.

I would love your input on this, as I can't decide...

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#2

Post by bobbob » Thu Oct 04, 2012 6:08 pm

not on your list but i would recommend purchasing the digiguide addin and a digiguide sub. its worth it imo

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holidayboy

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#3

Post by holidayboy » Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:18 pm

I tend to flip flop between Digiguide and MS data.

I very rarely watch channels that lack MS data tbh.

I keep meaning to give epgcollector a go again (it's been 18 months or more).

I'm interested in others' thoughts too. :)
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NWW

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#4

Post by NWW » Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:21 pm

Would you guys mind posting a picture of the 100-108 range of channels? Just for comparison's sake. (If possible, with BBC One HD, Channel 4 Hd and ITV HD, I want to see if the flags and the repeat are there)

Thanks in advance. If others could share their thoughts too, that'd be nice.

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#5

Post by holidayboy » Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:35 pm

Will try to tomorrow, on my phone now.

I know that I do get missing HD flags on ITV1 HD and C4 HD stuff using MS data, the BBC channels flag HD stuff OK.
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#6

Post by CyberSimian » Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:55 am

NWW wrote:If others could share their thoughts too, that'd be nice.
I use Freeview (not Freesat), currently on Vista. Hence I use the Microsoft EPG downloaded from the internet (since the broadcast Freeview EPG can be retrieved only by Windows 7, and not by Vista).

The Microsoft downloaded EPG is good, but not perfect:

(1) The "Repeat" flag is correct most of the time, but not all of the time. For example, I have occasionally noticed a "Panorama" programme being flagged as a repeat merely because it was postponed from the previous week(!). Also, certain series are notorious for a completely useless repeat flag (for example, the various "CSI" and "Law and Order" series on Channel 5). Channel 5 sets this flag to "Repeat" for those series that were premiered on a pay-to-view satellite channel, even though they have not been broadcast before on a free-to-view terrestrial channel. I buy the "Radio Times" each week (other listing magazines are available), and RT's repeat flag is generally more reliable than the downloaded EPG (but even RT occasionally gets it wrong).

So the upshot is that you have to check each day's/week's recordings to verify that you are not missing or erroneously recording a programme due to an incorrectly-set repeat flag.

(2) Original broadcast date would be a useful piece of information to have, but certain channels show the date when they first broadcast it on their channel (e.g. Dave),and not the date when it was first broadcast on the BBC/ITV/Channel 4/5. So original broadcast date is fairly useless on some channels.

(3) The downloaded EPG has cast lists, movie release dates, and movie star-ratings, all of which the broadcast EPG lacks.

(4) The broadcast EPG can (in principle) respond quickly to last-minute programme changes. The downloaded EPG is unlikely to respond as quickly (or at all).

(5) Occasional problems arise with the downloaded EPG, and the EPG in Media Center stops updating. (On Windows 7, MC will use the broadcast EPG to fill the gaps; on Vista the gaps remain empty.)

(6) The broadcast EPG provides 7 complete days; the downloaded EPG provides 14 days.

(7) The broadcast EPG does not require an internet connection (useful if you are going on an extended camping holiday with a solar-powered HTPC).

(8) The broadcast EPG will continue to be available when Microsoft finally decide to stop paying for the downloaded EPG and discontinue it.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

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#7

Post by bobbob » Fri Oct 05, 2012 10:36 am

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/39548367/Capture.PNG out of order i'm afraid (but in my preferred order) and still partway through assigning the logos following a rebuild

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#8

Post by mark1234 » Fri Oct 05, 2012 10:44 am

CyberSimian wrote:(4) The broadcast EPG can (in principle) respond quickly to last-minute programme changes. The downloaded EPG is unlikely to respond as quickly (or at all).
Just to confirm that I have seen this happen on a couple of F1 races which were extended due to rain. The changes picked up both the extension to the current programme and, in one instance, the switch from BBC1 to BBC2 for the end of the race. Media Centre didn't automatically schedule the new BBC2 programme to record though.

You are clearly in the hands of the broadcaster updating this information. If they don't update the EPG, nor will Media Centre. It's still better than the downloaded guide though where there is no chance of getting any last minute changes. My examples were on BBC channels over Freeview.
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#9

Post by holidayboy » Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:43 am

All MS data:
guide_snip.png
guide_snip2.PNG
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#10

Post by holidayboy » Thu Oct 18, 2012 5:14 pm

Just a quick update - after this thread started, I re-installed EPGCollector (I used v2 a while back and later moved to DigiGuide) and so far I like it.

I'm using it to pull the full Sky EPG down and then load it straight into MC without any other software, you can add a custom flag to the data which makes finding the correct one in the edit listings menu easier.

I now have full Sky series link for ITV1 HD (the other half can now set all of her 'drama' stuff recordings as series recordings, rather than each episode separately) and we get proper HD flags for all of the HD channels!

I've only set ITV1 HD and C4 HD to the data so far, I'll gradually do the rest at my leisure. You do lose the OTA override, but I've rarely been affected by last minute changes to be honest anyway.

One other drawback is that you seem to get less info and cover art for movies, I guess importing via BSEPG could maybe help with that.

Definitely worth a look anyway:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/epgcollector/
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#11

Post by NWW » Thu Oct 18, 2012 5:28 pm

holidayboy wrote:Just a quick update - after this thread started, I re-installed EPGCollector (I used v2 a while back and later moved to DigiGuide) and so far I like it.

I'm using it to pull the full Sky EPG down and then load it straight into MC without any other software, you can add a custom flag to the data which makes finding the correct one in the edit listings menu easier.

I now have full Sky series link for ITV1 HD (the other half can now set all of her 'drama' stuff recordings as series recordings, rather than each episode separately) and we get proper HD flags for all of the HD channels!

I've only set ITV1 HD and C4 HD to the data so far, I'll gradually do the rest at my leisure. You do lose the OTA override, but I've rarely been affected by last minute changes to be honest anyway.

One other drawback is that you seem to get less info and cover art for movies, I guess importing via BSEPG could maybe help with that.

Definitely worth a look anyway:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/epgcollector/
That's what I did as well:

BBC: all WMC guide
5: all WMC guide
4: C4HD & 4/7: EPGCollector, rest WMC guide
ITV: all but ITV1HD from WMC.

Seems to be the best so far, but no 'repeat' flag on those channels unfortunately, and only 7 days >< 14 on WMC

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#12

Post by holidayboy » Sat Oct 20, 2012 4:02 pm

I noticed yesterday that the collector has options to lookup meatadata on tmdb and thetvdb sites, have you tried this at all?

I might give it a go - cover art and ratings would be nice.

Edit:

It definitely helps a lot, you get to choose either poster style or thumbnail for TV series and movies, ratings and cover art show up below the guide grid once you include the metadata lookup in an epg run. Great stuff.
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#13

Post by NWW » Sun Oct 21, 2012 8:51 am

holidayboy wrote:I noticed yesterday that the collector has options to lookup meatadata on tmdb and thetvdb sites, have you tried this at all?

I might give it a go - cover art and ratings would be nice.

Edit:

It definitely helps a lot, you get to choose either poster style or thumbnail for TV series and movies, ratings and cover art show up below the guide grid once you include the metadata lookup in an epg run. Great stuff.
I tried it, but looking through all of the movies from the Sky Movies channels takes a looooong time... I might give it another try, to see if it helps.

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#14

Post by holidayboy » Sun Oct 21, 2012 8:59 am

I used the channels tab in the configuration tool to exlude everything and then just select the channels that I have in the guide.

The first run took about 40 mins while the databases and image caches were built but now a full epg run only takes about 8 mins.
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#15

Post by NWW » Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:12 am

holidayboy wrote:I used the channels tab in the configuration tool to exlude everything and then just select the channels that I have in the guide.

The first run took about 40 mins while the databases and image caches were built but now a full epg run only takes about 8 mins.
I will try that out. Thanks for the info.

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#16

Post by NWW » Sun Dec 02, 2012 12:25 pm

Well, I tried the movies + TV Shows lookup, and I got to say, C4HD and ITVHD do look colourful!

It's a shame that sky only provides 7 days EPG... Also, does anyone know of a way to add the Season/Ep n° to shows? I set the Big Bang Theory to record, but I don't know in what order to watch them (C4HD, E4 + a Belgian and a French Channel) That would improve quite a lot the guide for me.

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#17

Post by Crispy » Mon Jan 07, 2013 1:49 pm

I'm still using EPG Collector and BSEPG. The direct import and metadata sounds good have try it out on the second PC and then introduce it over to the main PC.

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#18

Post by mark1234 » Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:22 pm

NWW wrote:Also, does anyone know of a way to add the Season/Ep n° to shows? I set the Big Bang Theory to record, but I don't know in what order to watch them (C4HD, E4 + a Belgian and a French Channel) That would improve quite a lot the guide for me.
Digiguide data includes the season/episode numbers.
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#19

Post by bobbob » Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:31 pm

damn double post
Last edited by bobbob on Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#20

Post by bobbob » Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:32 pm

mark1234 wrote:
NWW wrote:Also, does anyone know of a way to add the Season/Ep n° to shows? I set the Big Bang Theory to record, but I don't know in what order to watch them (C4HD, E4 + a Belgian and a French Channel) That would improve quite a lot the guide for me.
Digiguide data includes the season/episode numbers.
this is one of the reasons why i like Recorded TVHD. it does this for me. but from my 3+ year usage of Digiguide epg data, while it does show the episode numbers in the windows guide viewer it rarely transfers these to MC. In fact i raised this as a request a couple of years ago and was told it wasn't possible. sometimes the episode number is included within the program description though so maybe you're seeing it here?

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