XMLTV Episode number?

[davejohnson]

I use Digiguide to display listings for all the channels which I watch and although it is not integrated into my PVR I find it an invaluable tool. You are able to carry out various searches (programme name, actor, series etc. etc.) and use markers to indentify the programmes which you prefer. In the vast majority of cases it shows the series and episode numbers. There are at least two weeks listings and in fact on 'Dave' it shows listings up to the end of March.

[zehd]

I'm a little confused but I still wanna get involved with this thread.

While I was in Australia I was dismayed by the EPGs available. The data seemed to be all over the place, and the info was hit or miss.

I have played with a couple of sat boxes there, and think I know what you guys are talking about with the show info in the stream. I was able to see only current and next show information. I think you guys are trying to get THAT info, because the birtles and RT data is suspect...

Let me ask: Are you guys talking about two things: the birtles/RT XMLTV downloadable xmltv, and the dvb-s data that is found in the stream?

[zehd]

I use Digiguide to display listings for all the channels which I watch and although it is not integrated into my PVR I find it an invaluable tool. You are able to carry out various searches (programme name, actor, series etc. etc.) and use markers to indentify the programmes which you prefer. In the vast majority of cases it shows the series and episode numbers. There are at least two weeks listings and in fact on 'Dave' it shows listings up to the end of March.

Apparently you can export the digiguide data to xmltv and then import it into gb-pvr if you want the data integrated

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/archive/...12783.html

edit:

http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12783

I'll be writing a wiki page with instructions on digiguide and using the xml converter. I'll be updating the Enhancer to work with digiguide to give you season and ep info, and I'll be working on some logic to automatically remove episodes that have already been shown, if the digiguide doesn't show New/Repeat info.

I have no idea what digiguide costs, but I guess good data costs money.

[bgowland]

Let me ask: Are you guys talking about two things: the birtles/RT XMLTV downloadable xmltv, and the dvb-s data that is found in the stream?

The original question was about getting reliable XMLTV data for Season/Episode. Although there is provision for this in the XMLTV standard, it's optional both for the data provider and also for the grabber writers. Consequently whatever your source/grabber combination is, the data may or may not be there in the first place and, even if it is, if the grabber doesn't parse it then you're not going to get it anyway.

The thread has gone sideways slightly by talking about EPG data carried in the DVB stream (specifically UK DVB-T, aka Freeview). The latest 'thing' for Freeview is an initiative called Freeview Playback. Effectively devices that are compliant are simply DVB-T PVRs, i.e., hard-disk based recorders with DVB-T tuners in them. To gain the right to claim they're Freeview Playback devices, they must support certain features - one of these is 'Series Link' recording which means when a user selects to record a programme which is part of a series, the FP box prompts to ask the user if they want to record all episodes. The effect is that recordings aren't based on a timeslot and, in theory, if Episode 1 has already been recorded, any repeats of that episode won't be (although the latter isn't specifically mentioned in the spec.).

ReddogOne's argument is that there must be Series (Season) info somewhere in the stream - an argument I wasn't disputing - I just hadn't found it when dismantling Freeview EPG tables recently.

Well....actually, it turns out I had found it, sort of. It seems to be carried in what's called a content identifier descriptor. Looking further into this, however, it seems each broadcaster is using a different format and are defining their own private CRIDs (content reference identifiers). The most easily recognisable is used by Channel 4 (and associated channels) where the CRID is suffixed /nnn where nnn is the episode number. The rest of the CRID seems to be unique for each season but isn't immediately obvious, e.g., all episodes of Season 6 of Friends being shown on E4 have 24653 as the first part of the CRID whereas Season 9 (currently on Channel 4) is showing 32055. As an example of the broadcasters having their own formats - the third episode of Season 1 of 'Ashes to Ashes' on BBC ONE shows 54BZUA - hmmm, work out episode number from that. :confused:

Cheers,
Brian

[zehd]

The original question was about getting reliable XMLTV data for Season/Episode. Although there is provision for this in the XMLTV standard, it's optional both for the data provider and also for the grabber writers. Consequently whatever your source/grabber combination is, the data may or may not be there in the first place and, even if it is, if the grabber doesn't parse it then you're not going to get it anyway.

The thread has gone sideways slightly by talking about EPG data carried in the DVB stream (specifically UK DVB-T, aka Freeview). The latest 'thing' for Freeview is an initiative called Freeview Playback. Effectively devices that are compliant are simply DVB-T PVRs, i.e., hard-disk based recorders with DVB-T tuners in them. To gain the right to claim they're Freeview Playback devices, they must support certain features - one of these is 'Series Link' recording which means when a user selects to record a programme which is part of a series, the FP box prompts to ask the user if they want to record all episodes. The effect is that recordings aren't based on a timeslot and, in theory, if Episode 1 has already been recorded, any repeats of that episode won't be (although the latter isn't specifically mentioned in the spec.).

ReddogOne's argument is that there must be Series (Season) info somewhere in the stream - an argument I wasn't disputing - I just hadn't found it when dismantling Freeview EPG tables recently.

Well....actually, it turns out I had found it, sort of. It seems to be carried in what's called a content identifier descriptor. Looking further into this, however, it seems each broadcaster is using a different format and are defining their own private CRIDs (content reference identifiers). The most easily recognisable is used by Channel 4 (and associated channels) where the CRID is suffixed /nnn where nnn is the episode number. The rest of the CRID seems to be unique for each season but isn't immediately obvious, e.g., all episodes of Season 6 of Friends being shown on E4 have 24653 as the first part of the CRID whereas Season 9 (currently on Channel 4) is showing 32055. As an example of the broadcasters having their own formats - the third episode of Season 1 of 'Ashes to Ashes' on BBC ONE shows 54BZUA - hmmm, work out episode number from that. :confused:

Cheers,
Brian

I really apreciate the time you've taken to bring me up to speed. Indeed I was off topic with my offerings. I will still look into the pay alternative though. Good luck digging through the stream...

[ReddogOne]

Well....actually, it turns out I had found it, sort of. It seems to be carried in what's called a content identifier descriptor. Looking further into this, however, it seems each broadcaster is using a different format and are defining their own private CRIDs (content reference identifiers). The most easily recognisable is used by Channel 4 (and associated channels) where the CRID is suffixed /nnn where nnn is the episode number. The rest of the CRID seems to be unique for each season but isn't immediately obvious, e.g., all episodes of Season 6 of Friends being shown on E4 have 24653 as the first part of the CRID whereas Season 9 (currently on Channel 4) is showing 32055. As an example of the broadcasters having their own formats - the third episode of Season 1 of 'Ashes to Ashes' on BBC ONE shows 54BZUA - hmmm, work out episode number from that. :confused:

OK I think I can see (from your description) what they are doing. As with Sky the season CRID as no relation to the actual season number. It is a unique or should be) number that just ties a series together.

For a series (or season) could be season 6 of buffy but it could also be a season of French surrealist art house where series has no meaning. The BBC did this on Sky recently.

By the number being unique means the series is recorded by identifying the season CRID only.

On Sky a 4pm show has a different series number to the 8pm repeat so you won't record duplicates so maybe Freeview is doing the same or the software just doesn't record things it already recorded.

What I guessing (a big guess) is that the 'episode' ID is a way for finding alternate showing when the original one you wanted clashed! So if 124564/001 clashes it can look for the same 'episode' ID for an alternate.

Extra info...

I believe another system used is that the program/series and episode numbers are given for an event and the software itself chooses what to record (kind of harvests the season from the stream) in whatever order it finds them but shows them in the correct order in the recorded items list.

The Freeview way of doing things seems to be somewhere between this system and the one used by Sky.