How to access transmitted EPG data

DingoJunio · **23rd November 2007, 08:31 AM**

ABC, NINE and TEN are now transmitting several days worth of EPG data (I'm currently getting data from yesterday, Nov 22, through to Nov 30). SEVEN intends to be transmitting the data by Jan 1.

The advantage of this data is that it is continually transmitted, and is as up-to-date as you can get. The disadvantage of this data is that it is more sparse than we might like.

The data is, however, very easy to access assuming you have a tuner card that works with DVBGuide. DVBGuide, available from here, will output transmitted EPG data as XMLTV files which you can use with Media Center using a variety of approaches discussed elsewhere on this forum.

EPGGuide is a command line program, but very easy to use once you know the parameters to pass. Use the following command lines to get the EPG data for the various free-to-air channels (read the PDF that goes with EPGGuide to know what these parameters mean, and for other parameters that may be useful to you). Note: I'm running this in Brisbane. Also, I'm assuming (not having used it before) that DVBGuide will give me all the information that is available, and any holes in the data are information the networks aren't transmitting, not information DVBGuide doesn't give you...

ABC

DVBGuide -b7 -c226500

This gets me ABC, ABC2 and ABC HD guide data. I get start time and stop time, of course, plus title, description, category and aspect ratio.

SEVEN

DVBGuide -b7 -c177500

SEVEN are not currently transmitting guide data.

NINE

DVBGuide -b7 -c191500

NINE guide data is hopeless. The Title field is sometimes not the actual title of the show, but something like "(*Special Time*)", and the Description field is the title of the show. The title is always in uppercase, and often the title and description fields are the same. Sometimes the description field contains the name of the episode.

Apart from start and stop time, and the dubious title and description fields, I get audio information (always just "stereo" in the data I have).

TEN

DVBGuide -b7 -c219500

TEN provides start time and stop time, of course, plus title and description. The title is the name of the show. The description seems to be reasonable and episode specific. The episode name is not provided.

I don't receive SBS, and I can't be bothered looking up the frequency - I'm sure someone else can provide it.

I hope this information proves useful to some people. I'm excited that the networks are finally transmitting EPG data, but I sure wish it was more comprehensive.

Dingo

lemonato · **24th November 2007, 02:33 PM**

So how would you go about importing that data into mce?

Not that i'd want to do that or anything

Dizzy · **24th November 2007, 02:53 PM**

this is great news another step towards a more accurate reliable epg, how does the newly broadcast epg data go in terms of accuracy towards start and stop times?

lemonato · **24th November 2007, 03:10 PM**

It's the same as any other tv guide, shows generally start and stop on the hour/half hour.

I'm more interested in having accurate program listings (especially for the HD channels)

DingoJunio · **24th November 2007, 03:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dizzy

this is great news another step towards a more accurate reliable epg, how does the newly broadcast epg data go in terms of accuracy towards start and stop times?

It's the usual "advertised time"... In other words, often 10 or 15 minutes before the show ACTUALLY starts (in the evening, anyway).

So the big advantage is that it should be the most up-to-date information available. Perhaps the ideal would be if IceTV and the our Free*EPG friends (and whoever else) could find a way to use this information to semi-automatically validate the information they're already providing (I sure don't see it, in its current form at least, replacing either IceTV or Free*EPG, except for people who are satisfied with the level of information it provides).

Dingo

DingoJunio · **24th November 2007, 03:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemonato

So how would you go about importing that data into mce?

This I've had no experience with, as I've always used IceTV or Free*EPG. But my understanding is you can use Bladerunner or QuickGuide for the purpose of making the EPGGuide data available to Media Center. I don't know what the current state of either of those programs is, but I'm sure there are plenty of people in this forum who are experienced in the use of one or the other. Forum searches bring up plenty of hits.

Quote:

Not that i'd want to do that or anything

Of course you wouldn't!

Dingo

mike351 · **29th November 2007, 11:59 PM**

Has anyone with a Dvico DVB-T Lite been able to get this working yet? When I run the program using the appropriate command line all I get is "unable to connect tuner/decoder to mpeg stream".

I'm running Vista and using the Dvico drivers that are available for download off this site.

Mike

Bryce · **1st December 2007, 03:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike351

Has anyone with a Dvico DVB-T Lite been able to get this working yet? When I run the program using the appropriate command line all I get is "unable to connect tuner/decoder to mpeg stream".

I'm running Vista and using the Dvico drivers that are available for download off this site.

Mike

Hi Mike
I had the same problem when I first ran DVBGuide,.
You need to install the Dvico MCE Mpeg2 decoder.
Do a new setup and use the latest Dvico version.FusionHDTV3.63.01 official version.
Midway through the setup it asks you to install MCE Mpeg2 decoder. Click O.K.
and wait for the install to complete. Be patiant it takes a while.
When finished reboot your system. Then setup the Dvico program.
Should be good to go after that. This option worked for me.

The Dvico site also suggest to use the MCE decoder tool. Information Here

For people who find typing the settings into the run command a total bore.
I threw together a batch file to ease the pain.
One for Sydney and one for Brisbane.

Instructions
Download zip file to your system.
Then unpack zip file to the root of drive C: (Batch file) Then send a shortcut to the desktop.
Also place the DVBGuide.exe file in to the root of drive C:\
Double click on the batch file SydneyEpg.bat / BrsbaneEpg.bat

Use Notepad or a Dos editor to change the settings in the batch files.
Feel free to modify the batch files to improve them and post here.

I had trouble getting the time zone settings to work in dvbguide. eg. -t +1100
Without this feature my listings times are out when written to file.
If anyone can help me with that it would be appreciated.

The batch file, creates files for each station. ABCepg.xml TenEpg.xml etc.
With some help, somone may know of a way to combine the xml files into on main file. eg. listings.mxl
When updating the batch file looks for the old listings file eg. ABCepg.xml deletes then updates the said file.

Try it out enjoy.
The main program dvbguide creates one file and then overwrites that file when updating.

.

lemonato · **2nd December 2007, 05:36 PM**

I have also made a slightly simpler batch file that just collects all the epgs from the broadcasters in my area (except sbs as they only have N&N) and renames the files as dvbepgstationname.xml

As far as compiling them into one file goes, i just edit them in notepad. Taking the third line (channel id...) to the 2nd last line (before </tv>) copying that info into another epg file and so on.

With the compiled version you should have something like this

Quote:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE tv SYSTEM "xmltv.dtd">
<tv generator-info-name="DVBGuide" generator-info-url="http://www.geocities.com/pclareuk/DVBGuide/" source-info-name="DVB-T broadcast EPG" date="20071202071752 +0000">
channel id blah blah blah
blah blah (all the info you have compiled from the other epgs)
until the final line where you should have
</tv>

Also don't forget to compile your channel ids into a single file

Then it's just a matter of getting a utility like bladerunner to feed this info into the program of your choice

Bryce · **3rd December 2007, 12:08 PM**

Thanks lemonato
That saved me a lot of time trying to work it out.

You might find this of interest.
TVG for Windows.
A Windows program to display television listings.

Bryce

null_pointer · **3rd December 2007, 09:28 PM**

For anyone having problems with the DVBGuide tool you can try the EPGScan tool I put together, it does basically the same thing as DVBGuide:

http://forums.dvbowners.com/index.php?showtopic=8676

I was having crashing problems with DVBGuide so I wrote a new open source tool to grab the EIT EPG data.

Bryce · **3rd December 2007, 11:39 PM**

Hi null_pointer

EPGScan sounds like an impressive tool.
I've looked through the folders and notes supplied with the programme.
I'm not able to find the information i need to start and run the programme.
Are there any notes on running EPGScan I can be directed to?

EPGScan /? /? /?

Bryce

null_pointer · **4th December 2007, 05:50 AM**

run it from the command line with no arguments and it will give you a usage printout and a list of detected devices that can be used.

bbboy · **13th February 2008, 09:09 PM**

Where are people at with using the transmitted data from the stations as EPGs? Can Vista MCE access them easily yet?

Sorry, I'm not very saavy in this sort of thing, but would love to get the accuracy of an EPG directly from the stations! The dream really!