DVB-S, No EPG

[dilbert2k]

Hello,

Newbie here! I've a Pinnacle 7010ix card in a Win7 x64 box. After some difficulty, I have managed to get the four DVB tuners scanned. But I am only getting minimal DVB-S EPG info - eg the next one or two programmes only, and even that is only for some channels. The EPG seems to show programme timeslots, but with just the text "(no show details)". DVB-T EPG seems fine.

I'm in the UK, and have scanned 'Astra 2A, 2B, 2D', with DVB EPG Broadcast.

Any ideas please?

thanks!
D2K

[sub]

I'm not in the UK, so not familiar with those specific channels, but your channels might not be broadcasting a multi-day epg. They may only be transmitting the now/next info, in which case this is all you'll get in GB-PVR. Instread you'd have to use an xmltv epg.

[dilbert2k]

Hi Sub,

Thanks for the reply.

I'd rather not use an XML EPG if possible, because I assume(!) that the feeds are not updated if broadcast times change due to for example, overruning sports events. Is there a feed you'd recommend? I will search the forums now too though :-)

The channels I'm interested in watching are the main UK channels - eg BBC, ITV so I'd be surprised if they don't broadcast EPG data.

I have discovered a second issue this morning - although I've successfully scanned 2 DVB-T tuners and 2 DVB-S tuners (all on the Pinnacle card), I don't seem be able to record from two DVB-T sources at the same time. Should I be able to? Any pointers on this one please?

Thanks again!

D2K

[martint123]

I think the UK only broadcasts "now and next" on DVB-S. I think both the Sky And Freesat EPG's use a proprietary format and broadcast on a dedicated stream.

Certainly other software like dvbviewer only shows now and next in their EPG.

I've just looked at BBC1 here and only now and next is available.
I don't think even the now and next get updated in anything like realtime for short notice show time changes! Not like the old terrestrial PDC thingie.

[imilne]

The Freesat EPG data is sent encrypted and can't be understood by gbpvr. You've said you're not keen on xml, but I'm afraid that for now, it's really your only choice.

You can either use the Radio Times stuff via xmltvgui, mc2xml, or my personal favorite, DVBGuide, which *can* understand the broadcast EPG, and will grab the data for all the channels in about 30s, and then save it to xml for importing into gbpvr.

sub, I believe the encryption on this EPG is fairly lightweight, and with DVBGuide (amongst others) having already decoded 99% of it, perhaps it wouldn't be too difficult to add support within gbpvr. Saying that, nice as it would be to have it, it's fairly low priority. I can provide any data streams/dumps/etc you might need though.

[dilbert2k]

I've just looked at BBC1 here and only now and next is available.

I'm not even getting Now/Next for BBC1 :-)

Anyhow, I will investigate XML plugins.

Cheers
D2K

[tmrt]

I have similar problems getting EPG with TechnoTrend CT-3650 CI DVB-C + T USB 2.0 CI with GBPVR. I still do not understand why it does not work since the original software fetches the data.

Fortunately, I found a command line tool http://www.dvbguide.com to dump EPG data into an xml file, which is then imported into GBPVR. I start it from UpdateEPG.bat. The solution is not foollproof since the tuner might be recording during EPG update. Starting it on wakeup might be a better idea.

[ReggiePerrin]

Hi

I use DVBGuide to capture the Freesat EPG as others have described above. I tried the other tools, radiotimes and mc2xml, but they didn't have listings for some of the channels.

My system also has a Pinnacle 7010ix tuner in it, so to help you out this is the contents of my updateEPG.bat file.

Code:

C:
CD \EPG
DVBGuide -as -u5 -c11427830 -ph -mQPSK -s27500000 -y3002 -z3003 -o freesat_epg.xml

This dumps the EPG into a XML file called freesat_epg.xml in the subdirectory c:\EPG (I store the DVBGuide program files in this directory as well). You then use the XML file as the EPG source for the two Sat tuners.



I've forgotten what half the switches on the DVBGuide.exe commandline are for, but I do remember that without them it tried to donwload the guide from the first tuner it found (possibly the DVB-T tuner, which was bad ).

(Edit:- I checked and you may have to change '-u5' to '-u4', or '-u3', and so on; to get it to find a sat tuner. I have more than one tuner card in my system, hence tuner number 5)