Zap2it option ?

An evolving, supported alternative to Rovi
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Space

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#21

Post by Space » Thu Nov 16, 2017 3:22 am

After the transition to Rovi, I also had the long wait to view the guide after pressing the guide button (it took maybe a minute to display), but this was on the main server, not on an extender (which I don't have). I had the problem for a long time, but it eventually went away. I'm not sure when or why it stopped since I shied away from using the guide because of this problem.

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Scallica

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#22

Post by Scallica » Thu Nov 16, 2017 12:58 pm

Space wrote:After the transition to Rovi, I also had the long wait to view the guide after pressing the guide button (it took maybe a minute to display), but this was on the main server, not on an extender (which I don't have). I had the problem for a long time, but it eventually went away. I'm not sure when or why it stopped since I shied away from using the guide because of this problem.
The image file sizes were too big.
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DavidinCT

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#23

Post by DavidinCT » Thu Nov 16, 2017 1:58 pm

I want to try this to see if it's a viable option....Just for giggles on my test partition.

Gary, Can I just download the XML from this to a folder and have EPG123 import it with my selected channels at a time, or does it require a SD account to run ?
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garyan2

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#24

Post by garyan2 » Thu Nov 16, 2017 2:14 pm

DavidinCT wrote:I want to try this to see if it's a viable option....Just for giggles on my test partition.

Gary, Can I just download the XML from this to a folder and have EPG123 import it with my selected channels at a time, or does it require a SD account to run ?
The XMLTV file will not import because it is not a valid MXF file. Both are XML but have totally different schemas. That is the old code I would have to pull out and rework to do that conversion from XMLTV to MXF. At that point, it can be imported using loadmxf.exe or the epg123Client.exe.

EPG123 will be totally ignorant of the contents, so it will be all up to the user when generating the XMLTV file to filter out unwanted channels and lineups.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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DavidinCT

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#25

Post by DavidinCT » Thu Nov 16, 2017 5:53 pm

garyan2 wrote:
DavidinCT wrote:I want to try this to see if it's a viable option....Just for giggles on my test partition.

Gary, Can I just download the XML from this to a folder and have EPG123 import it with my selected channels at a time, or does it require a SD account to run ?
The XMLTV file will not import because it is not a valid MXF file. Both are XML but have totally different schemas. That is the old code I would have to pull out and rework to do that conversion from XMLTV to MXF. At that point, it can be imported using loadmxf.exe or the epg123Client.exe.

EPG123 will be totally ignorant of the contents, so it will be all up to the user when generating the XMLTV file to filter out unwanted channels and lineups.
Thanks as always for your help ! I totally forgot about the schemas, in my mind a XML is a XML...D'oh I should know better.

Would something like this help ?

https://github.com/raydouglass/xmltv-to-mxf

Just seeing if it can make it easier to do. So in this process..

1. Download XMLTV
2. Convert XMLTV to XMF
3. Import in WMC via loadmxf.exe

This could be completely automated via batch files... Nice...
-Dave
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garyan2

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#26

Post by garyan2 » Thu Nov 16, 2017 6:28 pm

DavidinCT wrote:Thanks as always for your help ! I totally forgot about the schemas, in my mind a XML is a XML...D'oh I should know better.

Would something like this help ?

https://github.com/raydouglass/xmltv-to-mxf

Just seeing if it can make it easier to do. So in this process..

1. Download XMLTV
2. Convert XMLTV to XMF
3. Import in WMC via loadmxf.exe

This could be completely automated via batch files... Nice...
Looking at the description for xmltv-to-mxf, it will get you there. It appears to be a bit limited on what makes the conversion, but it will get you your guide listings. Just not images?, keywords, actors, and maybe other things like audio, languages, ...? I haven't tried it or looked at the source code to see what it does/does not do.

Basically, you will have a basic guide with no categories/keywords to search and no artwork. Some program details will probably not be present either.

For a proof of concept, it will definitely work. This is similar to what I did 2 years ago before building EPG123... batch file to download/create the xmltv, my home-grown utility to convert to mxf, and import to WMC using loadmxf. It was a heck of a lash-up, but it worked. If you do try it out, you might gain some more appreciation for how complete the EPG123/SD combination is. (You never know what you have until you lose it.)

EDIT: Some of the cobwebs shook loose, and I believe I recall the author (Ray Douglas) contacting me shortly after EPG123 came out. He pretty much stopped developing it at that point since EPG123 was further along as a viable solution to the Rovi issues. IIRC.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

Space

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#27

Post by Space » Thu Nov 16, 2017 9:43 pm

Scallica wrote:
Space wrote:After the transition to Rovi, I also had the long wait to view the guide after pressing the guide button (it took maybe a minute to display), but this was on the main server, not on an extender (which I don't have). I had the problem for a long time, but it eventually went away. I'm not sure when or why it stopped since I shied away from using the guide because of this problem.
The image file sizes were too big.
After the Rovi switch, there were complaints from extender users about the images being too big. That was fixed relatively quickly when they reduced the quality/size of the images.

I continued to have the problem I described for a long time after this fix was made, so that was not what fixed my problem, unless they further reduced the size of the images much later.

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DavidinCT

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#28

Post by DavidinCT » Fri Nov 17, 2017 12:28 am

garyan2 wrote: Looking at the description for xmltv-to-mxf, it will get you there. It appears to be a bit limited on what makes the conversion, but it will get you your guide listings. Just not images?, keywords, actors, and maybe other things like audio, languages, ...? I haven't tried it or looked at the source code to see what it does/does not do.

Basically, you will have a basic guide with no categories/keywords to search and no artwork. Some program details will probably not be present either.

For a proof of concept, it will definitely work. This is similar to what I did 2 years ago before building EPG123... batch file to download/create the xmltv, my home-grown utility to convert to mxf, and import to WMC using loadmxf. It was a heck of a lash-up, but it worked. If you do try it out, you might gain some more appreciation for how complete the EPG123/SD combination is. (You never know what you have until you lose it.)

EDIT: Some of the cobwebs shook loose, and I believe I recall the author (Ray Douglas) contacting me shortly after EPG123 came out. He pretty much stopped developing it at that point since EPG123 was further along as a viable solution to the Rovi issues. IIRC.
Don't worry, I have very high appreciation on what you are doing. I also have a appreciation of how Media Center used to be, Zap2 it was rock solid, all art worked, all items worked...back in the day...sigh... Thanks again
-Dave
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DavidinCT

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#29

Post by DavidinCT » Tue Dec 05, 2017 2:03 pm

Anyone (current ROVI users), give this a shot ? The data is here to try it (I would not set a primary machine for this test).. Would love to see it as a "backup" option for "free" data for people who are suffering for the ROVI nightmare but, not willing to pay extra for guide data.
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DavidinCT

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#30

Post by DavidinCT » Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:23 pm

Does the newer versions of EPG123 offer the option to convert a Convert XMLTV to XMF and import it in ?

I have Windows 8.1 w/WMC on another partition on my PC wanted to try some things here..

Thanks ?
-Dave
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garyan2

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#31

Post by garyan2 » Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:28 pm

DavidinCT wrote:Does the newer versions of EPG123 offer the option to convert a Convert XMLTV to XMF and import it in ?

I have Windows 8.1 w/WMC on another partition on my PC wanted to try some things here..

Thanks ?
Not yet. I only worked on the creation of an XMLTV file in the configuration GUI ... next will be the import of an XMLTV file in the client GUI.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

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DavidinCT

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#32

Post by DavidinCT » Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:36 pm

garyan2 wrote:
DavidinCT wrote:Does the newer versions of EPG123 offer the option to convert a Convert XMLTV to XMF and import it in ?

I have Windows 8.1 w/WMC on another partition on my PC wanted to try some things here..

Thanks ?
Not yet. I only worked on the creation of an XMLTV file in the configuration GUI ... next will be the import of an XMLTV file in the client GUI.
Cool, thanks for the update. Can it be batched out (command line, or scvhedule task)or will this only be an option via the GUI ?
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garyan2

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#33

Post by garyan2 » Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:54 pm

It will be available by command line as well so you can batch it. At a minimum it will be a '-x xmltv_file.xml' to import ... may even add another switch to save the MXF file.
- Gary
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DavidinCT

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#34

Post by DavidinCT » Mon Feb 19, 2018 4:06 pm

garyan2 wrote:It will be available by command line as well so you can batch it. At a minimum it will be a '-x xmltv_file.xml' to import ... may even add another switch to save the MXF file.
Thanks as always ! Looking forward to it.
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

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#35

Post by Kick4U » Thu Dec 27, 2018 1:30 am

Hello! Thanks for EPG123; it works great.

I would very much like to see this import ability of XMLTV files directly in this software.

Keep up the great effort!

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