DVBGuide Setup for UK DVB-T

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Mujja

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DVBGuide Setup for UK DVB-T

#1

Post by Mujja » Mon Feb 08, 2016 10:11 am

This guide will take you through the steps to generate a .xmf file to load in to WMC and setup as scheduled task for daily updates

Find the frequency for your local DVB-T transmitter

1) Visit https://ukfree.tv/prediction to find the frequency for your local DVB-T transmitter

2) If your correct location isn't shown enter your postcode and click Predict

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3) Find your closest transmitter on the map and double click it

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4) Scroll down the page and make of note of the frequency of the first MUX. I only needed one MUX, it carried the guide data for ALL channels. In the example below the value you need is 498000.

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Add the frequency to DVBGuide and generate the .xmf file

1) Download DVBGuide from my Google Drive. I've removed unnecessary batch files and added findrepl.bat to modify the .xmf to remove the first line, without thing loadxmf fails.

2) Unzip dvbguide.zip to C:\dvbguide

3) Open the C:\dvbguide folder, find W7MCGyuideUpdate.bat, right-click and Edit

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4) Replace the highlighted value with the frequency from your transmitter (do not remove -c) and save.

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5) Run a test to make sure it works. In the C:\DVBGuide folder hold SHIFT and right-click in an empty space. This will give you an extra option in the menu "Open command window here"

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6) In the command window enter the name of the bat file. The script will take around 5-10 mins to run. Check there are no error messages once it's complete.

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Add DVBGuide data to channels

1) In WMC open the guide, highlight a channel and right-click or press Info on remote

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2) Select Edit Listings

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3) Scroll through the list until your find a listing for the channel appended with "-DVBGuide". I already have the DVBGuide option selected for BBC ONE HD which is why it doesn't show in the image below but you get the idea. I replaced the guide data for my channels, including SD channels even though WMC was using the same source (DVB-T transmitter) for the SD channels.

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Setup a scheduled task

1) Start the Task Scheduler, it should be in your Start Menu or a search should find it.

2) From the Action pane on the right select Create Basic Task

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3) Give the task a name

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4) Set the task frequency

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5) Set the time when you next want the task to run

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6) Set task action

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7) Set the program options as below

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8) On the summary page check "Open the Properties" and click finish

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9) This step is optional, my HTPC is always logged in with the correct account and is used for nothing else. If you use WMC on a shared computer then this may be a good idea.

On the Properties, General tab select "Run whether user is logged on or not".
Check the User is correct
Check Hidden so the command window doesn't pop-up

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10) When you click OK a Window will pop up asking for the User's password

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WMC optimisation

The DVBGuide manual says after the .xmf file is loaded the WMC the shell needs to be restarted for the data to appear. On Windows 8.1 I didn't need to do this but have enabled it just in case.

DVBGuide takes around 10 mins to generate and load the xmf file. I've set my task to run at 03:00 and WMC optimisation at 03:30.

1) In WMC go to Settings, General andOptimisation

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IT Troll

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#2

Post by IT Troll » Mon Feb 08, 2016 2:39 pm

Nice guide, I am sure people will find it helpful, thanks for posting.

Much of this solution should also work for DVB-S tuners. It will just need the tuning parameters on the DVBGuide command changing as appropriate (see DVBGuide manual for details).
Are you a Recorded TV HD user or want to give it a try? Check out the new community-made update; Recorded TV HD v2.1.1

DainHarper

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#3

Post by DainHarper » Tue Feb 09, 2016 12:08 am

So, on DVB-S, this downloads OTA more than just "now and next" information? Are we talking a day, or a week, or more?

It's difficult for me to experiment with new systems as I only have one satellite feed to the house, and changing Media Center setups usually breaks more than it fixes... But if this pulls data direct from the transmitter, that data is at least 10 days long, and it is of equivalent quality to the (oft absent) MCE data, then, um..., why isn't this the default?

Mujja

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#4

Post by Mujja » Tue Feb 09, 2016 10:57 am

DainHarper wrote:why isn't this the default?
From what I've read the MCE guide is 14 days long, DVB-T is 7 days and, if what you say is correct DVD-S, is 10 days.

I've read the MCE data is preferred as it included extra information for series recordings. From my own experience MCE doesn't always correctly detect if a show is new or a rerun and records both. If using the transmitter data means duplicate recordings then it's nothing new.

I have a DVD-S2 tuner in my HTPC which I've never used because of missing guide data. I might set that up again today and update this guide with the line to add to the batch file.

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IT Troll

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#5

Post by IT Troll » Tue Feb 09, 2016 11:18 am

Yes it should give you the full over-the-air broadcast EPG - however long that is. For Freeview it is 7-days. You could just try running the DVBGuide command without the batch file. This would allow you to see what it captures without actually importing it into Media Center.

Satellite and Freeview HD OTA EPG is "protected" with Huffman compression. The decoding tables for these are only licensed to approved manufacturers. The only reason EPGCollector and DVBGuide can capture these is because someone sat down and reverse engineered the decoding tables. I guess this came to late for Media Center.

The Freeview SD EPG is just "plain text" which is why Media Center can capture this itself.

The repeat flag is a nice idea but does have problems. A show is often flagged as being repeat because it has been shown before on another channel or in a other region. What is doesn't take into consideration is what channels you receive and if it is new to you. US TV shows are the worst because they often come to UK terrestrial after showing in the US and on UK satellite.
Are you a Recorded TV HD user or want to give it a try? Check out the new community-made update; Recorded TV HD v2.1.1

Cheenis

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#6

Post by Cheenis » Tue Feb 23, 2016 8:35 pm

Firstly, big thanks for putting this guide together!! I'mfed up with the MS feed breaking/ not being updated at random.

Secondly... Help! I'm using DVB-S so I've input the following to the W7MCGuideUpdate file:

DVBGuide -as -c11427830 -ph -mQPSK -s27500000 -y3002 -z3003 -o mcguide.mxf

I've tested it and got this:
Writing XMLTV file <mcguide.mxf>...
Removing first line...
Loading... 0%Error: The following error was encountered while processing the file. Aborting.

For security reasons DTD is prohibited in this XML document. To enable DTD processing
set the ProhibitDtd property on XmlReaderSettings to false and pass the settings into
XmlReader.Create method.

Any thoughts on how I resolve this error please?

All help greatly appreciated!

Cheenis

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#7

Post by Cheenis » Sun Feb 28, 2016 4:46 pm

No thoughts on this then I guess? Any body know how I can set the prohibitDtd property on the XMLreadersettings? Or even how to access those settings please?

daveh28

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#8

Post by daveh28 » Fri Mar 10, 2017 10:43 am

Thanks for the guide to this.
I can make it work on Windows 7 OK.
However on Windows XP it downloads the guide, but then fails with "Error Loading Guide".
Any ideas in how to fix this, please?
------------------
Windows Event Viewer shows:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Media Center Guide
Event Category: None
Event ID: 0
Date: 08-03-2017
Time: 17.58.32
User: N/A
Computer: MEDIACENTRE
Description:
Event Info: Unexpected error during load: System.FormatException: Bad file format. Cant find section
at Microsoft.Ehome.Epg.Helper.XmlHelper.ReadToSection(XmlReader Reader, String SectionName)
at Microsoft.Ehome.Epg.Loader.Xml.GuideXmlLoader.Run(Object[] arrArgs)
at Microsoft.Ehome.Epg.Loader.GuideLoadManager.LoadImp()
Process: MCGuideLoad.exe
Object Name: Media Center Guide


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: c8 51 8c df 1a 0e c4 d0 ÈQ?ß..ÄÐ
0008: 33 23 bc 38 19 53 88 01 3#¼8.S?.
0010: 04 30 bd 7b b3 b0 38 0f .0½{³°8.
0018: fd 8c ff bd 9f bf e2 20 ý?ÿ½?¿â
0020: e1 2b 85 90 d3 39 b0 41 á+?Ó9°A
0028: 75 29 d0 34 18 92 13 f6 u)Ð4.?.ö
0030: d5 69 e3 57 1f b7 ae 01 ÕiãW.·®.
0038: ca f4 dd 5d 2c 1d 76 70 ÊôÝ],.vp
0040: 95 e9 bb 87 7b 45 a6 8e ?é»?{E¦?
0048: d6 73 6f 57 0a 21 61 28 ÖsoW.!a(
0050: 81 3f e6 ee 9c e9 d3 79 ?æî?éÓy
0058: 96 52 dc f4 01 cc c1 d9 ?RÜô.ÌÁÙ
0060: b9 25 7b 9e be 0c 5e a4 ¹%{?¾.^¤
0068: f7 98 8d d4 a9 99 52 cb ÷?Ô©?RË
0070: 2b 02 a4 b7 4c d8 3b 65 +.¤·LØ;e
0078: 9e 07 88 3d 25 67 2c bf ?.?=%g,¿

m100

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#9

Post by m100 » Mon May 08, 2017 6:33 pm

Had DVBGuide listings working for a while, now getting this error repeatedly

Full reinstall get same issue WMC listings working for now as an alternative


From running W7MCGuideUpdate.bat (right click in explorer window) I get this

Code: Select all

DVBGuide
========
(c) Copyright 2006-2012  Conquest Consultants
Version 0.96 (Sep 23 2012)

DVB tuner discovery...
Tuner 1:        <7231 BDA DVBC Tuner>, DVB-C
Tuner 2:        <7231 BDA DVBC Tuner>, DVB-C
Tuner 3:        <7231 BDA DVBT Tuner>, DVB-T
Tuner 4:        <7231 BDA DVBT Tuner>, DVB-T, *** BUSY ***
Tuner 5:        <7231 BDA DVBC Tuner>, DVB-C
Tuner 6:        <7231 BDA DVBC Tuner>, DVB-C
Tuner 7:        <7231 BDA DVBT Tuner>, DVB-T
Tuner 8:        <7231 BDA DVBT Tuner>, DVB-T, *** BUSY ***

Finding first available DVB-T tuner...
Tuner:          <7231 BDA DVBT Tuner>

Tuning receiver...
Carrier:        682000 kHz
Bandwidth:      8 MHz

Acquiring signal...
Present:        TRUE
Strength:       +58.0 dB
Locked:         TRUE
Quality:        100%

Getting Program Association Table...
ERROR - PAT not found
Removing first line...
The system cannot find the file specified.
C:\Users\mce\Downloads\DVBGuide\findrepl.bat(784, 4) Microsoft JScript runtime e
rror: Input past end of file

Loading... 0%Error: The following error was encountered while processing the fil
e. Aborting.

Root element is missing.

Chuterix

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#10

Post by Chuterix » Mon Jul 10, 2023 8:48 pm

You have dead links.

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IT Troll

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#11

Post by IT Troll » Mon Jul 10, 2023 9:16 pm

Well you did necro a 7 year old thread. :P
Are you a Recorded TV HD user or want to give it a try? Check out the new community-made update; Recorded TV HD v2.1.1

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