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Questions about guide files
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:17 pm
by jachin99
When EPG123 creates my guide data, what kind of file does it create? Is it a .db file or an xml file. If it is XML, what tool does EPG123 use to create said file? Is it mc2XML or some other program? Where is this guide file located, and how does windows media center fetch it, and display it?
Re: Questions about guide files
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:35 pm
by Space
The file EPG123 creates ultimately is an MXF file (it also creates several thousand cache files), which is in XML format.
EPG123 IS the tool that creates it, it does not use any external tool (unless you are talking about external libraries, then I think it does use them, but not sure which ones).
This file is located (I believe) in the same folder as the EPG123 program itself (wherever you put it).
WMC does not directly fetch or display anything from this file in real time. After the MXF file is created, it uses the LoadMXF.exe program (a program from Microsoft that comes with WMC) to load/merge the file in to the WMC database.
Re: Questions about guide files
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 4:25 pm
by jachin99
Where can i get a list of channel IDs, and what can I open and mxf file with that will make it human readable? Can i use something like notepad++
Re: Questions about guide files
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 5:31 pm
by jachin99
Does it use schedules direct's JSON format or XML format. I need to look at a guide listing, and see what kind of information a given listing houses. There must be some way to do this given guide data can be sorted into years, genres, etc. I figured out the guide listings problem.
Re: Questions about guide files
Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:11 pm
by garyan2
You can use any text editor to view the contents of the .mxf file. As stated above, it is in XML format. To understand the structure, refer to this page by MS.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 76338.aspx
Re: Questions about guide files
Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:57 pm
by jachin99
Does Loadmxf run everytime I click on TV guide In WMC or open WMC itself?
Re: Questions about guide files
Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 1:55 am
by garyan2
jachin99 wrote:Does Loadmxf run everytime I click on TV guide In WMC or open WMC itself?
No and No. The loadmxf utility, as far as I can tell, is strictly there for 3rd parties to import mxf files into the database. The mcepg.dll contains its own internal loadmxf routine.
Basically, there is no need to run loadmxf so often since all information is available in the database already.