Attn : Sub - Idea for getting EPG listings

[Iceman89610]

Hi Sub,

I have been following this project closely in the background and have seen how it has progressed. I have also been keeping an eye on the MediaPortal project and in my honest opinion, your software seems to be leaps and bounds ahead of them and I will be wanting to use it in the near future when I move away from Media Center 2005 completely. I am using MediaPortal at present but your project is looking so much better so I want to jump ship so to speak.

Now one of the things that I have noticed on your project is that you are using Xmltv to get the epg data to the screen (i think thats correct). Now over of the MediaPortal project, they seem to have finally moved away from this and a guy by the name of DJBlu has been working on an alternative way of getting the listings to the EPG for users of SKY & Freesat and it seems to be working very well. As I understand it, SKY broadcast the data for the EPG, hidden inside the background music and DJBlu has worked on a way to extract this data and import it into an sql database I believe and from this database they are able to get the listings to the screen by means of a modified TsWriter.

To bring your project along is there anyway a similar thing could be done as I think it would make getting EPG listing far far easier for your users. I have attached the latest TsWriter file that the MediaPortal project seems to be using for you to have a look at. It might also pay for you to check out the following forum as there is loads of info there on this : http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/develo...epg-43261/

I thank you for the work you are doing on this project and hope that with ideas like this, we can make it the ultimate pvr software.

[elite]

I believe this is already possible with freeview - see here

Not sure if this is implemented with freesat/sky though... - this might give an insight..

HTH

[Iceman89610]

Hi,

Yes I had already seen those but I think you are missing the point. I don't want to use XMLTV. Its unreliable and flakey to say the least plus if the site you are grabbing from goes down or changes something, you lose access to the data as I found before when MediaPortal was on this route. I believe this is why they have gone down their current route with regards to the epg and I must say, it's a brilliant idea. The data is always there because this is how SKY get the data to their boxes.

I think with a little bit of work, GBPVR could make use of this and get rid of XMLTV altogether and be much much better (just my 2p's worth).

[sub]

Yes I had already seen those but I think you are missing the point. I don't want to use XMLTV.

He wasnt meaning XMLTV. The app supports various EPG sources, not just XMLTV. The page he linked to also mentions the DVB EPG, where the app gets the EPG directly from the DVB stream. It doesnt currently support the proprietary mechanism used by Freesat, but it does support standard DVB EPG used in the majority of countries, including the UK Freeview. I'll probably extend it to support the Freesat proprietary stuff in the future though.

[Iceman89610]

Yeah, I've seen the epg parser before and to be honest, its not perfect (yet) but if you look that the info I gave you, MediaPortal have managed to do it from 1 file that "automatically" updates itself within the time period specified by the user and other than that, requires no user interaction at all....... it just works. Can you not do this for your app??

[sub]

Can you not do this for your app??

As I mentioned above, I probably will add freesat EPG support at some stage. It'll just be an extension to the exist DVB EPG support.

The mediaportal file is no good to me. Its for another app and wont work with GB-PVR.

[DJBlu]

Sub,

I can help you if you want to integrate Sky EPG into your software.

The TS writer is C++ however I have C#/VB.NET source available.

I see you are in New Zealand. If you can upload a PID recording from Sky's default transponder I will run it through the software I have, It will then be a matter of getting the huffman table and the categories sorted.

Let me know.

djblu@djblu.plus.com

If any users from India use this software then please I need a TS dump from Tata Sky's default transponder.

20 seconds is usually enough. Thx.

[sub]

I see you are in New Zealand. If you can upload a PID recording from Sky's default transponder I will run it through the software I have, It will then be a matter of getting the huffman table and the categories sorted.

GB-PVR already reads the New Zealand SkyTV EPG. They just use the standard DVB EIT tables.

I'm hoping to add support for the Freesat EPG though, so if you've got any source code you can donate, which doesnt come with incompatible licensing, then I'd be happy to take it as a head start.

[DJBlu]

Freesat is just DVB-EIT on pids 0xBBA and 0xBBB on transponder 11426Mhz 28.2e

The only difference is the titles and descriptions are huffman encoded.

Do you use C++?

http://www.rst38.org.uk/vdr/

Take a look there for the huffman tables and the decoding source.

If you do in the future wish to implement Sky UK and Italy's EPG then drop me a line.