Repeat episodes not recognised in UK using OTA EPG

[mvallevand]

I dont think any pvr could cope with this!

True. You might want to look at Schedules Direct. I am not sure about their UK support, but the unique ID support is superb for the shows that I record.

[bilbopvr]

I have been playing about with the epg collector options and have changed the setting of the episode tag on the output tab to "full content reference id" and for the freesat collection I do get a <episode-num system="crid"> for each episode, nothing on the sky setting though, I still get the duplicates using the freesat xml, these both get scheduled yet the crid is identical:

<programme start="20170107210000 +0000" stop="20170107220000 +0000" channel="7701">
<title>Celebrity Big Brother</title>
<desc>Presents all the drama from the CBB House, which has been given a colourful pop-art makeover. How will the All Stars and the New Stars get on? (Ep 6)</desc>
<category>Show</category>
<rating>
<value>G</value>
</rating>
<audio>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
<episode-num system="crid">RH4G . V3O4IKM . </episode-num>
</programme>


<programme start="20170108031000 +0000" stop="20170108040000 +0000" channel="7701">
<title>Celebrity Big Brother</title>
<desc>Presents all the drama from the CBB House, which has been given a colourful pop-art makeover. How will the All Stars and the New Stars get on? (Ep 6)[S]</desc>
<category>Show</category>
<rating>
<value>G</value>
</rating>
<audio>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
<episode-num system="crid">RH4G . V3O4IKM . </episode-num>
</programme>

So if I read what both of you are saying I only need to replace crid with dd_progid and all will be well??

[sub]

Looking at the code, I don't think <episode-num system="crid"> is used at all. <episode-num system="xmltv_ns"> is used.

[jcjefferies]

Why would this have to be removed? As long as the broadcaster always uses "G_SKYB1475581 . G_S32915255 ." to identify that show, that is all NextPVR needs to be able to tell that one airing of a show is the same as another airing. You'd only need to remove this "SKYB1475581" if they're changing continuously, in effect making one airing look like it's not the same as another airing.

Yes Sub I do see your point that I should not need to remove the Series_ID but its well over four years since I looked at the problem and at the time removing the series_ID cured the problem!!

I think Sub added the ability to import EPG Collector data around 2012 and remember posting quite a bit as it didn't seem to work. My son wrote a script to process the xml file from EPG Collector mainly to remove the Series_ID before NextPVR read it and it worked!

However since then there have been changes to both NextPVR and EPG Collector which stopped it working for a few days until I devised a work around!

Around two years ago the default NextPVR xml import mode started adding the title and other characters to the ID I think for those people importing Series/Episode number data. Thankfully Sub had kept the original import method if I changed the "system" to system="dd_progid".

Then last year for some reason a new version of EPG Collector started using system="crid". I searched for info on XMLTV "Standards" and the nearest thing I found was a page of examples! So I just added a Find & Replace to change "crid" to "dd_progid"

Someone starting now does not have to ensure the "Unique_ID" format is compatible with existing recordings like I have to so it should be much simpler! I would suggest :-

1) In EPG Collector experimenting with various options under "Format of episode tag" to see what is produced in the xml file.

2) Import the different format xml files into NextPVR to see what is in the "unique_id field in the database.

3) Using Notepad do a find and replace on the xml file and change the system= to "system="dd_progid" and see how that imports into the database. The original default "system" was system="xmltv_ns" so it may be worth seeing what that produces in the database!

Best of luck!

Chris

[jcjefferies]

I have been playing about with the epg collector options and have changed the setting of the episode tag on the output tab to "full content reference id" and for the freesat collection I do get a <episode-num system="crid"> for each episode, nothing on the sky setting though, I still get the duplicates using the freesat xml, these both get scheduled yet the crid is identical:

<programme start="20170107210000 +0000" stop="20170107220000 +0000" channel="7701">
<title>Celebrity Big Brother</title>
<desc>Presents all the drama from the CBB House, which has been given a colourful pop-art makeover. How will the All Stars and the New Stars get on? (Ep 6)</desc>
<category>Show</category>
<rating>
<value>G</value>
</rating>
<audio>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
<episode-num system="crid">RH4G . V3O4IKM . </episode-num>
</programme>


<programme start="20170108031000 +0000" stop="20170108040000 +0000" channel="7701">
<title>Celebrity Big Brother</title>
<desc>Presents all the drama from the CBB House, which has been given a colourful pop-art makeover. How will the All Stars and the New Stars get on? (Ep 6)[S]</desc>
<category>Show</category>
<rating>
<value>G</value>
</rating>
<audio>
<stereo>stereo</stereo>
</audio>
<episode-num system="crid">RH4G . V3O4IKM . </episode-num>
</programme>

So if I read what both of you are saying I only need to replace crid with dd_progid and all will be well??

The important thing is to see what is in the database! I suspect NextPVR does not know what to do with "crid" so suspect the unique_id entry is blank. Try changing it to "dd_progid" using Find & Replace with Notepad.

Chris

[bilbopvr]

Yes that has worked ,

episode-num system="crid">RH4G . V3O4IKM . </episode-num> >> episode-num system="dd_progid">RH4G . V3O4IKM . </episode-num> no repeats picked up

using xmltv_ns I was still getting repeats for some reason, but I suspect this particular show is the issue.

[jcjefferies]

Using xmltv_ns as the "system" was the original default import method but after a NextPVR update some years ago added the title and other things to the ID which was when I started using dd_progid.

If it seems to be working then you need to skim through the EPG_EVENT table and look out for blank or odd entries in the unique_id column. There will be blanks such as when a channel is off air like BBC FOUR is during the day. I do remember having problems with Channel 4 channels using characters in the ID which NextPVR didn't like. I also remember having a problem with one of the lesser known channels I think from USA which used some odd characters in the "episode-number" so had to delete that channel.

For some unknown reason I recently had problems with duplicate recordings on BBC TWO HD and found the unique_id was blank on several occasions. I tried mapping to Freesat xml instead of the Freeview version and also mapping to the SD version but it still happens occasionally.

Chris

[sitush]

I realise that this is an old thread but I'll revive it just to note that MythTV manages to detect duplicate broadcasts and automatically select an alternate, including on +1 channels and alternate day/times, if there is a conflict. It does this straight off the UK OTA EPG, ie: without recourse to xmltv etc. I'm not sure *how* it does it but there is certainly no need for the user to skim through the MythTV database to make changes etc.

[sub]

I realise that this is an old thread but I'll revive it just to note that MythTV manages to detect duplicate broadcasts and automatically select an alternate, including on +1 channels and alternate day/times, if there is a conflict. It does this straight off the UK OTA EPG, ie: without recourse to xmltv etc. I'm not sure *how* it does it but there is certainly no need for the user to skim through the MythTV database to make changes etc.

NextPVR does this automatically aswell, if you're using the Schedules Direct EPG. You wouldn't need to fiddle databases etc. It can't currently use the xmltv crid identifier though, to do the same for user using the xmltv EPG, so the above discussion was a users attempt to work around this and make it work (in a situation it was never intended to work).

[sitush]

Yeah, but I was referring to simple OTA EPG. No SchedulesDirect, no XMLTV etc, just the over-the-air info. I had it working perfectly ok this way for four years under MythTV. I only installed NextPVR as a potential replacement last Friday.