Importing epg123.mxf to Excel

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tirebiter

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Importing epg123.mxf to Excel

#1

Post by tirebiter » Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:32 pm

Hi all,

Every Sunday, I scan the TV guide for shows I want to watch in the coming week, especially premieres. I used to search through zap2it listings, which was tedious and trouble prone.

I recently came up with another approach as follows:

1. Edit out the newline chars in a copy of the mxf file.
2. Import selected fields from the mxf file into a free developer's edition of Microsoft SQL Server. Two tables are built, one for channel info and the other for shows.
3. Export selected columns from the tables (using a join to merge channel and show info) into a flat file.
4. Import the flat file into Excel (a newer version that supports over 64K rows)

The Excel spreadsheet is easy to filter and sort to find shows and movies that are premiering. I can also locate actors, genres, etc.

I don't know if there's an easier way, but this works for me. I'll be happy to provide more detail if there is interest.

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garyan2

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#2

Post by garyan2 » Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:45 pm

In WMC with EPG123, on the TV Strip, you can select 'Search', 'Categories', and 'Premieres' to see all Series Premieres, Season Premieres, and Miniseries Premieres. I can't remember if I have movie premieres in the movie category or not... at one point I'm sure I did. This was probably one of the best suggestions from the community and I personally use it a lot.
- Gary
Keeping WMC alive beyond January 2020. https://garyan2.github.io

NOYB

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#3

Post by NOYB » Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:58 pm

What Gary said plus in add recording can have it automatically schedule based on Actor, Director, Movie Title, Program Title, or Generic Keyword. Then just look at the recording schedule to see what it found.

tirebiter

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#4

Post by tirebiter » Tue Sep 22, 2020 6:22 pm

@Gary. I use that feature a lot too, but for my weekly planning, I like to have the information in a separate list program (ListPro) that I can confirm later the shows were recorded. In addition to WMC, I am still a diehard ReplayTV user. So I record shows on both units. The DVArchive app exports shows to a PC in mpeg format. When I was doing a lot of business travel, I'd copy the shows to a tablet to watch on the airplane, subway, train. Back in the day, people would be surprised to see me watching the previous night's shows.

Plus, Excel's grid is easier to view than WMC's list which requires each entry be expanded individually.

@NOYB - The Wish List option in the Add Recording page is probably the best feature I've ever seen. I currently have 70 entries of actors and movies. It's great to see what it finds. I'm presently going through a Una Merkel phase right now :)

Whoever programmed that feature knew what they were doing. For example, I have Sally Field in the list, but I hate The Flying Nun. All I had to do was click on one entry of the show and select Delete Series. This works on movies too. When I click to delete Smokey and the Bandit, it never reappears. But the guide shows the (I) Information icon indicating that it would have recorded it.

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#5

Post by Space » Tue Sep 22, 2020 10:29 pm

I never knew about the "Delete Series" option on an Actor recording. Wouldn't selecting "Delete Series" just delete the entire Actor Series and not just that series but continue to schedule other series/movies/programs that that actor was in?

Also, probably not what you are looking for, but I use this to find season/series premieres of shows. It doesn't always have everything (such as if the show was aired previously on a different platform or another country) but the guide data also may sometimes be missing some of these, so checking both makes missing these less likely.

tirebiter

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#6

Post by tirebiter » Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:07 am

AFAICT, WMC treats shows that are selected via a actor in the wish list as series. So when you delete it, it only removes that show, and nothing else by that actor. However, it also remembers single event items, like movies.

It was designed by someone who understood what people would/wouldn't like.

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#7

Post by tirebiter » Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:10 am

I've seen the futon critic list before. It's not bad. I prefer not seeing what's on the streaming services for this purpose because I'm building weekly lists of broadcast shows. However, I do subscribe to some of the streaming services too, and it's good to know what they have on.

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