mc2xml Digital Channels

[235301]

I have had GBPVR setup on my system for several years now and have never been able to get the digital channels to work for the guide. Here's what I have:

-On my cable system channels 1000-1100 are the clear QAM local channels. Example: 1004 is channel 4.1 for OTA.
-I have my system setup so channel 104 is my digital 4.1 channel(channel 4.1 is the OTA channel for this digital channel). Video/audio works fine on this channel, only the guide doesn't work(this is just an example, the guide doesn't work for any of my digital channels, it only works for analog channels 1-99).
-I setup a renumber file for mc2xml where 1004:4.1 to remap channel 1004 in the guide to 4.1 on my system.
-I setup mc2xml so that it maps channel 1004 from the guide to channel 4.1. So in the xml file from mc2xml we see "4.1 WTMJDT1" and this is also what we see as the channel name in the guide in GBPVR. However, no love, no program listings in the guide.

I am hoping someone can explain how the values in the mc2xml.xml file map to the guide in GBPVR so that I can figure this deal out and get the guide working for the digital channels(as I stated earlier the guide works great for all the analog channels).

Thanks!

[Snooze]

I don't think GBPVR recognizes the "." numbering format (i.e "4.1") in the guide. You will see that you cannot change them in the channels tab of config (change to 4.1 will not take either). I think you want to renumber like this 1004:104 then you should see your Digital channel EPG at channel position 104.

[235301]

I got it to work. Here's what I had to do:

-Actual channel numbers in gbpvr are irrelevant. So even though my channel in gbpvr is 104 it has no meaning when setting up xmltv.
-In my ren(renumber) file for mc2xml I had the following entries:
1004:4.1
WTMJDT:WTMJDT1

In gbpvr this channel shows up as the following:

4.1 WTMJDT1

In the channel guide coming from Microsoft or TitanTV this channel is listed as 1004 WTMJDT. So we have one line(1004:4.1) to map the channel from the channel guide from TitanTV to the program guide in GBPVR and one line(WTMJDT:WTMJDT1) to map the channel name from TitanTV to the channel name in GBPVRs channel guide.

Hopefully this helps anyone struggling to put this together.

[dennit]

I have had GBPVR setup on my system for several years now and have never been able to get the digital channels to work for the guide.

They should work fine, so it's just a configuration problem.

-On my cable system channels 1000-1100 are the clear QAM local channels. Example: 1004 is channel 4.1 for OTA.
-I have my system setup so channel 104 is my digital 4.1 channel(channel 4.1 is the OTA channel for this digital channel). Video/audio works fine on this channel, only the guide doesn't work(this is just an example, the guide doesn't work for any of my digital channels, it only works for analog channels 1-99).

This part sounds good. You clearly realize that GBPVR needs integer numbers (104, not 4.1).

-I setup a renumber file for mc2xml where 1004:4.1 to remap channel 1004 in the guide to 4.1 on my system.

This isn't right.

-I setup mc2xml so that it maps channel 1004 from the guide to channel 4.1. So in the xml file from mc2xml we see "4.1 WTMJDT1" and this is also what we see as the channel name in the guide in GBPVR. However, no love, no program listings in the guide.

Here is your problem. (I congratulate you on getting as close as you have - you're almost there!) You have told mc2xml to change the XML file to match the channel name you see in GBPVR's guide. The channel name you see in GBPVR, however, is the "display_name" and GBPVR matches the "name" of the channel to the data in the XML file, not the "display_name."

It's simple to fix. Just change your mapping in mc2xml so it maps the data to the name of the channel, not the "display_name." Then your guide will work and you will still see "4.1 WTMJDT1" in the guide.

Now, how to figure out the "name" of the channel .... I would just get SQLiteSpy, look in the channel table of gbpvr.db3 and look at the "name" column. It should be the first entry in the XML file for that channel (maybe "WTMJDT1") You may not even need the mapping name step in mc2xml.

I am hoping someone can explain how the values in the mc2xml.xml file map to the guide in GBPVR so that I can figure this deal out and get the guide working for the digital channels(as I stated earlier the guide works great for all the analog channels).

The "name" of a channel is set when you first import an XML file. The display_name is usually either blank or the same. You can change display_name to anything, but the "name" must match the XML file for the guide to work. The channel number in GBPVR has no relationship to any of this.

edit: BTW, the XML file has several "names" for the each channel, but refers to them as "display-name." The lines in the XML file look like this: <display-name>WABC</display-name>
These lines are matched to the "name" field in gbpvr.db3. I've never figured out if gbpvr looks at all the lines in the XML file, or only the first one, when trying to match them up.

[dennit]

-Actual channel numbers in gbpvr are irrelevant.

Correct.

In gbpvr this channel shows up as the following:
4.1 WTMJDT1

This is irrelevant, too. The only relevant pieces are the "name" in GBPVR and the <display-name> in your XML file (see above). (If you haven't changed the "display_name" in GBPVR, then what you see in the Guide is the "name.")

[235301]

Perhaps I added some extra steps that weren't needed but the bottom line is I am now getting my digital stations in the program guide. I also had to split the xml into 2 different files: 1 for the analog cable and 1 for digital terrestrial. Also note that it's not enough to update the xml file via mc2xml, you also have to go into config and update the epg for each of your cards.

[235301]

Perhaps I added some extra steps that weren't needed but the bottom line is I am now getting my digital stations in the program guide. I also had to split the xml into 2 different files: 1 for the analog cable and 1 for digital terrestrial. Also note that it's not enough to update the xml file via mc2xml, you also have to go into config and update the epg for each of your cards.

[dennit]

Perhaps I added some extra steps that weren't needed but the bottom line is I am now getting my digital stations in the program guide. I also had to split the xml into 2 different files: 1 for the analog cable and 1 for digital terrestrial. Also note that it's not enough to update the xml file via mc2xml, you also have to go into config and update the epg for each of your cards.

It's great that you've got it solved. I was just trying to help you figure out what was going on. I know how complex it can seem, despite the fact that it's fundamentally very simple - match the "name" in GBPVR to the <display-name> in the XML file.

I agree that it makes sense to split your XML - analog vs. digital. That's how I do it too. The best setup always seems to be one in which the XML for a tuner has all the channels and only the channels that match the tuner for that XML. When a second tuner can tune some, but not all of the the same channels, it's best to remove the duplicates from its XML and only get data once for each channel.

As to updating the xml file via mc2xml, you are right, that just changes the XML file, not GBPVR. It should update GBPVR at night when it does the guide update, but until then it won't show up in the Guide. You can go into config and update the epg for each of your cards (as you did), or you can run the update EPG function from inside GBPVR or from the tray icon.

[joseosoria]

hello can anybody help me please? i have no idea how to get channels with mc2xml.
the problem is i live in the caribean , but mexico has my same channels(same channels for latino america) i get to a point where i put 22440 and mx and press ok , the black box does something, then it appears the mexico's cable companies. i choose sky, all my channels and programs are there(i copied the name that appears in this company and opened another tab with it and yes, sky has all my channels names and the same programing as my cable provider in here) then i see "downloading, etc, 6, channels, 2,895 programs , bla, bla, bla" and 2 files are created .xml and .dat.
i created a.chl with numbers 252,323 ,251,320,303 (animal planet , discovery etc, as i saw them in sky tv listing)just to test it.
i open the .xml file and it says "error while prosecing the .dat file"
i open the .dat file and i see this : SKY Mexico (Digital)
FaZwBPbP5kcBYsJfRTVv5/dLZdMjTGekXVJmla57NvLQRGud9Wv4WxzsAG8XZLwY
so where are the channels?
jose