Windows 7 3rd Party EPG (via loadmxf)

[Niall]

Hi,

I'd thought I'd start a new thread about this since the other one was discussing a few topics...

Anyhow please discuss your success/attempts/progress on figuring out how to inject 3rd party EPG data into Windows 7 Media Center on this thread..

As per other thread - I've worked out how to load in a 3rd party epg schedule via loadmxf.exe (and figured out the mxf schema's for this data) - but can't yet get the new services/channels appearing in the 'Edit Listings' screen for a channel (which means the data isn't yet visible).

I've started writing a xmltv 2 mxf converter as well (the easy bit) - but need to sort the problem above..

Also - it's possible to directly modify the metadata on existing epg entries (see example screen below where I edited the ABC Dig! channel schedule entry - and have edited titles/description/star rating/language/nudity etc).








Also - another user has been playing around with the custom logo's for channels - see this link for more - but they are trying to get around some issues to make it usable :



Would be great if any other users/developers can see what they can come up with..

cheers

Niall

[logifuse]

Possibly one of the reasons why the imported data won't show up is because the service isn't trying to update the guide due to it thinking no "downloadable" guide is available for the postcode? I remember the old trick for 3rd party EPGs was to use 0000 for the postcode - maybe something along those lines is needed?

Justin

[epgStream]

Hey Niall,

I'm just back from holidays and got your message. Unfortunately I've only just downloaded Windows 7 this morning so haven't had a chance to attack the EPG infrastructure yet! First assault should be on the weekend ...

Media Center looks soooo pretty!


Thanks,

Ken

[Astrotoy7]

thanks for looking into this so quickly chaps! The second we get custom epg into mce Im ready to switch on my main rig - whose hardware combo has acquitted itself nicely thus far (other test rigs not so good)

@Ken(banger?) hope you had a nice holiday! If you think the default theme is pretty - check out the black one (see my sig)

I hope Bryce has a squiz at it too, he seems to be another member with some great insight into how epg works

astro

[kiffies]

Pardon my ignorance, but is there a specific reason why you guys are trying to use a 3rd party epg instead of the EIT?

[saxnix]

The EIT is usually sparse when it comes to info included. By having the ability to tap into a 3rd party epg, the hope is that the 3rd party epg will have better, more detailed info.

One example; For the series' I record, the EIT currently doesn't seem to correctly indicate if the show is a repeat. Correct EPG will show/flag something as a repeat and it won't be recorded (if you have it set that way).

The EIT works - but isn't as good as a 3rd party EPG.

[Antzzz]

Also it helps those of us who live in NZ that want to watch Freeview NZ over DVB-T, as it seems that MS don't support the flavour of MHEG5 used for the EPG data here. Here EIT is used is used for Freeview DVB-S only, and I don't have a satellite dish...

Keep up the great work guys, there are a few of us in NZ hanging out to get this going on Windows 7!

[SCOOBY_666]

Also, EIT doesn't work particularly well in the UK. For EIT Data to load for a particular channel, you must have viewed it for around 2 minutes, ONLY then will the data populate for that particular channel. To do this on all the channels would take an age...

If you shut your computer down, sleep, hibernate...you need to re-do it for all the channels.

The data the MS provides is 50% missing and they take months to respond....so a 3rd party app like the one being developed would be a 'god send' for UK users.

So keep up the good work guys...I wish I could help...but the best I can do with my limited knowledge is to test and provide feedback.

[Astrotoy7]

Pardon my ignorance, but is there a specific reason why you guys are trying to use a 3rd party epg instead of the EIT?

Apart from the detail aspect, those with payTV/sat capture via analogue setups can only get the guide working with such third party workarounds. Id say pretty much everyone here in Oz capturing foxtel/austar etc onto an analogue card is using epgstreams tvguide pack and oztivo or similar feed to set their channels up. There is simply NO other way to do it.

astro

[kiffies]

Has anyone tried with icetv? Otherwise I can give that a crack when I get home.

[dgaust]

The way the guide is imported is completely different. Neither IceTV nor FreeEPG work at the moment.

EIT data is complete and utter garbage.....

[Nigel Roden]

Yes - and it won't work. It will only capture the EIT data at this stage. These two posts over at theicetv forums have followed the questions asked of the support team.

http://www.icetv.com.au/iceforum/index.php?topic=1206.0

http://www.icetv.com.au/iceforum/index.php?topic=1479.0

Also this post at the green button follows this topic:

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/2/2...howThread.aspx

Cheers,
Nigel

[Niall]

Hey -

good news at last!...

I've now loaded in a batch of continuous epg data and ...drumroll... have it visible in the UI. I wrote an xmltv2mxf converter - and sourced data from an OzTivo/XMLDownloader xmltv file (which has some user star ratings to play with).

There's a bunch of stuff to clean up mainly getting all the custom metadata attributes set from Genres etc - but the basic title/subtitle/description/time info is all there..

I also need to do a lot more testing - specifically what happens when the EIT guide is auto updated - and how to garbage collect old schedule entries (not sure if that happens automatically). And essentially I'm not 100% sure I'm not doing any dangerous changes to any metadata I shouldn't be..

It's a bit of a messy implementation so far (well feels that way anyhow as I need to reproduce a fair bit of existing tuning/channel info in the mxf) - but at least it will do everything automatically from the generated mxf file (via loadmxf.exe -i etc ... nothing else to do). Currently you don't actually need to goto 'Edit Listings' as the mxf file is doing all the mapping for you.

I also have some custom logo's coming up for the channels (as per what they were doing on screenshot above from tgb - except the logo needs to be displayed on the bottom for tunable channels - not where the channel number is seems to only be for internet tv channels). I'm gonna have a play with adding other imagery in for specific shows (looks pretty straightforward if the function has been enabled in the 7MC beta UI).

There's quite a few things to sort before I can let anyone play with it (so please don't ask) - and I'll post some screenshots soon.

Niall

[Niall]

Some screenshots (post importing guide data).. excuse the horrible red borders that the win7 sniping tool added..

Note that I've assigned listings from ABC against the SBS Radio 2 channel (so that I don't interfere with existing EIT guide data - and I was recording Heroes while I was messing with everything)...

EPG View - showing a Program with Title/Subtitle/Description and a Channel Logo :




EPG View 2 - showing a Movie that has a rating / year / description.




EPG View 2 - popup details for the movie. (note that supplying a logo/image for the actual program doesn't seem to be working on the current version of 7mc) - however note that the default thumbnail is for a movie - not a standard show :




minibrowser EPG with custom data/logo etc :




Recorded TV Show - note that it actually has an episode title etc marked against it (you don't get this with EIT data) :




enjoy!

Niall

[MAYANKEL]

Hey Niall, congrats, you are doing a great job.

I'm sure you know it but you can modifie some key in regedit to get all the data from AMG for your movies. It must have the title in English and the release year, and then you get the complet Cast and, of course the cover for this movie and view it in the "more info".

The key is:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Settings\MCE.GlobalSettings]

And the value is:

"systemGeoISO2"="US"

Thaks again for your great job and effort.

Mayankel
Spain