EPG info sent to XBMC

[MR.K]

I'm not really interested in a solution that gets the relies on artwork URLs being provided in the EPG, since the majority of people will not have it in their EPG.

If I was going to do anything with it, I'd just use some generic URL pointed back at the NextPVR server, and if that URL was called, it'd attempt to find the artwork at that time, in the same way the NextPVR TV Guide does. This of course works on the assumption that XBMC only calls the URL for shows you try to view, rather than wanting the artwork for everything in the EPG (since it'd perform like crap if that was the case)

I'd tried putting in a URL like this, but as mentioned above, XBMC never called it. I'm not familiar enough with the XBMC side of things to know how to get XBMC to request the image at that URL.

Hi Both martin and sub,

Please bare with me and sorry for being a pain in ..., could be just as simple that I don't understand it.

BUT :-) what the guys are saying in WMC is that they enhance the Microsoft EPG data source with XMLTV where they get a image URL in the xml file. Then that URL is passed to XBMC just as any info on the show. To my understanding will say.

I don't mean to have the artwork for all shows in the EPG (as one of the pages I showed you implied) just when you click one of the program and the "programme info" shows in XBMC, the call could be exactly the same as for the call to the title, time, genre and info, but one more for the url instead. That would effect all users of XBMC and is just to simply implement it in the Skin.

If the same thing could be done where the url would be inserted, XBMC would show the picture from the URL supplied (not call NextPVR to fetch it). The picture to the right (the small url picture) is that I just pasted in an url in the place holder that for the moment shows the tv channel logo.

Hope that make sense

Ps Sub when you said that XBMC never called it, how will he call for ex. a show info? Douse XBMC call only when the info dialog is open, I guess it has something to do with the $INFO[ListItem.Plot] or is it getting all the info at startup?

[sub]

Hi Both martin and sub,

Please bare with me and sorry for being a pain in ..., could be just as simple that I don't understand it.

BUT :-) what the guys are saying in WMC is that they enhance the Microsoft EPG data source with XMLTV where they get a image URL in the xml file. Then that URL is passed to XBMC just as any info on the show. To my understanding will say.

I don't mean to have the artwork for all shows in the EPG (as one of the pages I showed you implied) just when you click one of the program and the "programme info" shows in XBMC, the call could be exactly the same as for the call to the title, time, genre and info, but one more for the url instead. That would effect all users of XBMC and is just to simply implement it in the Skin.

If the same thing could be done where the url would be inserted, XBMC would show the picture from the URL supplied (not call NextPVR to fetch it). The picture to the right (the small url picture) is that I just pasted in an url in the place holder that for the moment shows the tv channel logo.

Hope that make sense

Remember, NextPVR does not have a URL to the artwork in it's EPG data, so it cannot supply that URL to XBMC.

If read your suggestion correctly, you're saying I should update the database to include a URL with it's EPG data, and store this if the EPG source has it, so that it can be supplied to XBMC when the EPG data is requested. I was saying I'm not keen on going down that path, because very few people have an EPG source with artwork URLs, so wouldn't work for many users (and lead to lots of support posts). This is why I suggested the alternative approach I mentioned, which will work for everyone, regardless of whether your EPG has artwork URLs, using the same method as NextPVR's TV Guide.

Ps Sub when you said that XBMC never called it, how will he call for ex. a show info? Douse XBMC call only when the info dialog is open, I guess it has something to do with the $INFO[ListItem.Plot] or is it getting all the info at startup?

XBMC effectively says to the addon "give me the EPG data", and I load up a list with all the attributes populated (name, description, start time etc). I tried a test of loading the URL, but nothing ever seemed to call that URL.

I have no idea when XBMC calls the URL, but it didn't seem to call it at all, even when I view a shows details in the TV Guide. I was guessing it was a case of the either the default confluence skin not using it, or nothing at all uses that URL at this stage. I don't know.

[MR.K]

Remember, NextPVR does not have a URL to the artwork in it's EPG data, so it cannot supply that URL to XBMC.

If read your suggestion correctly, you're saying I should update the database to include a URL with it's EPG data, and store this if the EPG source has it, so that it can be supplied to XBMC when the EPG data is requested. I was saying I'm not keen on going down that path, because very few people have an EPG source with artwork URLs, so wouldn't work for many users (and lead to lots of support posts). This is why I suggested the alternative approach I mentioned, which will work for everyone, regardless of whether your EPG has artwork URLs, using the same method as NextPVR's TV Guide.

XBMC effectively says to the addon "give me the EPG data", and I load up a list with all the attributes populated (name, description, start time etc). I tried a test of loading the URL, but nothing ever seemed to call that URL.

I have no idea when XBMC calls the URL, but it didn't seem to call it at all, even when I view a shows details in the TV Guide. I was guessing it was a case of the either the default confluence skin not using it, or nothing at all uses that URL at this stage. I don't know.

I see, NextPVR is only getting it's EPG data from the streams on EIT? So even if I use a xmltv file in NextPVR it wont update the data in the database to include those items? Bugger.

I will try to find out the XBMC's side of it and if it can be accomplished!

Thanks for your time

Ps. The confluence skin will most likely not have it as the programme info windows only shows the Chanel logo in place.

[sub]

I see, NextPVR is only getting it's EPG data from the streams on EIT? So even if I use a xmltv file in NextPVR it wont update the data in the database to include those items? Bugger.

Nothing to do with EIT vs xmltv.

The database has a table for holding the EPG entries. That table has spaces for stuff like name, description, start time, end time, genre etc. It doesn't have a space for an artwork url, so even if your xmltv file has an artwork url, this info isn't going to copied into the database (so isn't available in NextPVR's EPG data to give to XBMC).

To get this artwork url into the database, I'd need to extend the database to have a space for this data, and change the routines that load data from xmltv files to look for this info, and saved it to the database. I'd also have to update the routines that load EPG data to load this new info, and change the routines that send data to XBMC to include this new info, and change the XBMC addon to extract this info and pass it to XBMC. ie, a fair bit of work. As mentioned though, I don't think this is the way to go since most people don't have artwork info in the EPG.