I-xmltv: TV Guide customization & Zap2It EPG utility.

[Jim_]

I don’t want to sound harsh, but please start a new thread for this off topic discussion in the support forum. I don’t want the I-xmltv thread cluttered up with this stuff.

As suggested in my post above, confirm with sub that TV Guide has a “movie genre” using xmltv, and that I-xmltv has anything to do with your issue.
Thanks
Jim

[Jim_]

I don’t want to sound harsh, but please start a new thread for this off topic discussion in the support forum. I don’t want the I-xmltv thread cluttered up with this stuff.

As suggested in my post above, confirm with sub that TV Guide has a “movie genre” using xmltv, and that I-xmltv has anything to do with your issue.
Thanks
Jim

My apologies guys, re-reading this I did sound snappy and harsh.
I understand it’s impossible for someone trying my utility (I-xmltv) to know if a missing feature, problem, or a change is due to GBPVR, xmltv, or I-xmltv.
In the future I’ll PM sub with any GBPVR question that I dont have the answer for, or simply ask him to check it out in this thread.
I’m also (slowly) updating post #1 in this topic with links to important threads so people don’t have to read the entire thing to catch up.


Ok, back to the original question, movie genre, xmltv, GBPVR and the native Zap2It plugin….
I don't have any way of knowing how GBPVR interacts with Zap2It using the native plugin or xmltv. TVGuide is simply an xmltv file with things added to the visible fields, genre fields are not changed by the I-xmltv utility.

To the best of my knowledge xmltv doesn’t send a movie genre.
I’m guessing that the other stand-alone xmltv guides I have find movies by using the “MV” starting prefix in the Unique-ID field.
I’m not sure if Zap2It sends a movie genre to GBPVR when its using the native plugin, or if sub simply creates one using “MV” from the Unique-ID field?
In either case I haven’t worried about it because movies are very easy to spot (and search for) using I-xmltv, and I don’t want my movie channels to be a single color. I prefer knowing what genre type a movie is, not just another indicator that it’s a movie.

Starting with GBPVR version 97, sub imported the Unique-ID when using Zap2It xmltv. Maybe movie genre can be added in the future?
I'm sure sub is very busy with the new release, but I’ll send a PM pointing to this question.
Jim

[sub]

As suggested in my post above, confirm with sub that TV Guide has a “movie genre” using xmltv, and that I-xmltv has anything to do with your issue.

GB-PVR just uses whatever genre the XMLTV file supplies. It doesnt have any knowledge of what they mean though, they're just text that gets saved. So...if your XMLTV file contains a genre called movie, then it'll be saved with the program.

[Jim_]

GB-PVR just uses whatever genre the XMLTV file supplies. It doesnt have any knowledge of what they mean though, they're just text that gets saved. So...if your XMLTV file contains a genre called movie, then it'll be saved with the program.

Thanks sub, I sent the PM and you have already replied!
The original xmltv download doesn’t contain a movie genre, so I guess xmltv must be removing it before the file is saved. I’ll ask Robert (xmltv) if this is something that can be fixed in the future.

One last question.
I could write a small utility that would add movie (and pilot) to the xmltv genre list.
If I understand correctly, “Season Pilot” would then be recognized and added as a useable genre in the GB database?

Thanks again,
Jim

[Jim_]

Sub, I didn’t want to do a quick edit because you are so fast a replying!

I guess what I'm asking in a round about way is.
Would it be better for me to add movie as a new feature in I-xmltv, or for you to add it using the Unique-ID field so all xmltv users would be supported.

[sub]

The original xmltv download doesn’t contain a movie genre, so I guess xmltv must be removing it before the file is saved. I’ll ask Robert (xmltv) if this is something that can be fixed in the future.

My understanding is that zap2it doesnt supply a movie genre, but this can be determined show identifier. You'd need to ask Robert to add an option adding a 'movie' genre if the show identifier starts with 'MV'.

Would it be better for me to add movie as a new feature in I-xmltv, or for you to add it using the Unique-ID field so all xmltv users would be supported.

I'm not keen on adding all sorts of hacks to the XMLTV support for zap2it special cases. The XMLTV standard already handles genre information, so I think asking Robert to add this information at the source is a much better idea than me doing it.

One last question.
I could write a small utility that would add movie (and pilot) to the xmltv genre list.
If I understand correctly, “Season Pilot” would then be recognized and added as a useable genre in the GB database?

A genre is just some textual string. You can create one called “Season Pilot” if you want.

[Jim_]

My understanding is that zap2it doesnt supply a movie genre, but this can be determined show identifier. You'd need to ask Robert to add an option adding a 'movie' genre if the show identifier starts with 'MV'.

Thanks, that’s how I assumed it was being done using the native plugin.
I doubt Robert would want to change the xmltv format either because it would cause compatibility problems with other xmltv guides.
I’ll look into adding it as a feature (that can be disabled in the future) using I-xmltv.

Jim

[sub]

He wouldnt really have to change the XMLTV format at all, but rather add an additional genre called 'movie' if the unique ID starts with 'MV'. Its would be a pretty painless change for him to make.

[Jim_]

Installing this updated I-xmltv.exe will add "Movie" as a genre in xmltv files, for GBPVR.
Simply replace your existing I-xmltv.exe with the one in the zip.
No other changes are needed.

The result.

Code:

<date>1993</date>
    [B]<category lang="en">Movie</category>[/B]
    <category lang="en">Drama</category>
    <length units="minutes">154</length>
    <episode-num system="dd_progid">MV036987.0000</episode-num>

I'll hold off on adding it to the wiki until I've looked into adding a "Pilot" genre.
Let me know if it's what you wanted.
<edit> 9/13/06
Removing attachment, this feature is now included in version 1.2 on the wiki.

[roy]

Works great, thanks.