Mailing List Archive: On-air guide vs XMLTV

On-air guide vs XMLTV

May 15, 2014, 7:12 PM

Post #1 of 4 (1220 views)

Hi guys (again)

Please don't blast me for a common question: I find nothing definitive
in the archives.

I believe I have tv_grab_nz-py working.

I will say what I did, incase it is helpful for someone else (or stupid,
so you can correct me). I found zero docco about this on the web:

Ran it in from ~ with the configure option
It created a .xmltv directory with selected channels in tv_grab_nz-py.conf
mv this directory to /home/mythtv
symlink this dir back to ~/.xmltv
symlink /home/mythtv/.xmltv/tv_grab_nz-py.conf to
/home/mythtv/.mythtv/Freeview.xml
symlink ~/.mythtv to /home/mythtv/.mythtv

Maybe there is a command line option to specify the output, but I
couldn't be arsed finding it, so probably would stuff it up in the
future too... I think this will help me later.

OK, now I noticed something interesting:
In the EPG I seemed to be getting extra information for channels marked
"useonairguide" in mythweb. This information showed up as programme
categories in parenthesis after the title in the guide. If I uncheck
"useonairguide" and look at the programme info (press "I" on the
frontend) I can't see it anywhere. I am (vaguely) aware that the guide
data allows for much more detail than is provided OTA, so I wondered if
this was simply being put in its rightful place by xmltv-proc-nz (Thanks
hads for all the work you've put in on these scripts!)

Some information is still present, and the EPG changes programme colour
as appropriate, but I'm sure it was better before.

As I lamely attempt to describe what I'm seeing I seem to be talking in
circles. It's like the useonairguide flag functions the opposite way to
what I'm expecting.

This is a bad email. I will try to explain better if I have not been clear.

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Re: On-air guide vs XMLTV [ In reply to ]

stephen_agent at jsw

May 16, 2014, 12:23 AM

Post #2 of 4 (1186 views)

Permalink

On Fri, 16 May 2014 14:12:48 +1200, you wrote:

>Hi guys (again)
>
>Please don't blast me for a common question: I find nothing definitive
>in the archives.
>
>I believe I have tv_grab_nz-py working.
>
>I will say what I did, incase it is helpful for someone else (or stupid,
>so you can correct me). I found zero docco about this on the web:
>
>Ran it in from ~ with the configure option
>It created a .xmltv directory with selected channels in tv_grab_nz-py.conf
>mv this directory to /home/mythtv
>symlink this dir back to ~/.xmltv
>symlink /home/mythtv/.xmltv/tv_grab_nz-py.conf to
>/home/mythtv/.mythtv/Freeview.xml
>symlink ~/.mythtv to /home/mythtv/.mythtv
>
>Maybe there is a command line option to specify the output, but I
>couldn't be arsed finding it, so probably would stuff it up in the
>future too... I think this will help me later.
>
>OK, now I noticed something interesting:
>In the EPG I seemed to be getting extra information for channels marked
>"useonairguide" in mythweb. This information showed up as programme
>categories in parenthesis after the title in the guide. If I uncheck
>"useonairguide" and look at the programme info (press "I" on the
>frontend) I can't see it anywhere. I am (vaguely) aware that the guide
>data allows for much more detail than is provided OTA, so I wondered if
>this was simply being put in its rightful place by xmltv-proc-nz (Thanks
>hads for all the work you've put in on these scripts!)
>
>Some information is still present, and the EPG changes programme colour
>as appropriate, but I'm sure it was better before.
>
>As I lamely attempt to describe what I'm seeing I seem to be talking in
>circles. It's like the useonairguide flag functions the opposite way to
>what I'm expecting.
>
>This is a bad email. I will try to explain better if I have not been clear.

The "useonairguide" option means to use the tuners to collect EIT
data. It should never be mixed with using downloaded data via
tv_grab_nz-py, as they clash with each other. That is likely what is
happening for you. Each channel should be set up to use only one
source of EPG. The DVB-S channels have good EIT data - it is possible
to use that alone as a source for your EPG, just using the
useonairguide option and enabling tuners to be used for EIT
collection. I have never done that, but I have used epgsnoop to get
EPG data from the DVB-S EIT streams once a day and that worked quite
well. I still do that for my Sky EPG data.

If you do start using DVB-T, you will find that those channels only
have now/next EIT data (the currently playing programme and the next
one), which is useless. The full EPG on DVB-T comes via the MHEG5
stream on each channel. We were not originally able to get the MHEG5
data, until mhegepgsnoop was written (a big thank you to David
Moore!). Now, the data from MHEG5 is the best source of EPG, and is
the source used (where possible) by tv_grab_nz-py. The downloaded EPG
has also had additional processing done to it, for example to do some
fixups for some of the silly things done by the people providing the
EPG data, like remove "All New " from the front of some programme's
names. So the downloaded EPG is the best option, unless you are
trying to run MythTV from somewhere without Internet access.

So I would recommend turning off all your useonairguide settings. If
you are OK doing SQL, this would do it in one command:

update channel set useonairguide=0 where useonairguide!=0;

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Re: On-air guide vs XMLTV [ In reply to ]

stevehodge at gmail

May 16, 2014, 12:43 AM

Post #3 of 4 (1185 views)

Permalink

On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 7:23 PM, Stephen Worthington <
stephen_agent@jsw.gen.nz> wrote:

> The "useonairguide" option means to use the tuners to collect EIT
> data. It should never be mixed with using downloaded data via
> tv_grab_nz-py, as they clash with each other. That is likely what is
> happening for you. Each channel should be set up to use only one
> source of EPG. The DVB-S channels have good EIT data - it is possible
> to use that alone as a source for your EPG, just using the
> useonairguide option and enabling tuners to be used for EIT
> collection. I have never done that, but I have used epgsnoop to get
> EPG data from the DVB-S EIT streams once a day and that worked quite
> well. I still do that for my Sky EPG data.
>

One thing to note: if you've got multiple copies of the same channel
getting guide data from different sources (e.g. One on Sky using Sky data
and One on Freeview using downloaded data) you want to make sure the data
from each source is identical for that channel. If your Sky data has "All
New Two and Half Men" and your downloaded data has been sanitised to "Two
and Half Men" then the scheduler will not be able to use those channels
interchangeably when recording that show (unless you've set up a custom
rule). IMO it's best to use a single data source for all common channels.

> So I would recommend turning off all your useonairguide settings. If
> you are OK doing SQL, this would do it in one command:
>
> update channel set useonairguide=0 where useonairguide!=0;
>

Yes, turn it off. You can just do "update channel set useonairguide = 0;"
(don't need the where clause). Or do it through MythWeb.

Cheers,
Steve

Re: On-air guide vs XMLTV [ In reply to ]

apelly at monkeymasters

May 16, 2014, 3:51 PM

Post #4 of 4 (1182 views)

Permalink

On 16/05/14 19:23, Stephen Worthington wrote:

> So I would recommend turning off all your useonairguide settings. If
> you are OK doing SQL, this would do it in one command:
>
> update channel set useonairguide=0 where useonairguide!=0;

Your recommendation is good enough for me. Done. Thanks Stephen.

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