TV Listings - Support Thread

[Shannon]

This looks like a really promising plug in and I appreciate you taking the time to write and publish it

I Have a fairly simple question for you though. The documentation you wrote states,

"The usage is quite simple. Just call the executable with the path to your xmltv-source as parameter. Example:
XmltvIcons.exe c:\xmltv.xml"

I have "absolutely" no idea how to generate or find the file xmltv.xml. I have nothing named anything similar anywhere in any subdirectory in GbPVR. How / what is this file and how do I create it, find it, or generate it?

Thank you
Shannon

[kaizen]

Shannon -

What are you using to 'retrieve' your listings? I use I-XMLtv which is listed in the wiki as TV Guide Supercharger http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utili...percharger.

This works with the Zap2It listings and grabs info like Ratings, Episode details, Release Date, etc. to really make the Listings more useful. It's not as hard as it looks to set up and is well documented for ALL levels of user.

The by product of this is that in making the TVguide.xml file, one of the intermediate steps is the xmltv.xml file your question was about. Be aware however that it seems that US listings don't support the programme icon element (as if the spelling of 'programme' wasn't a tip off ) so don't be disappointed if the only thing you see is Channel Icons.

Earlier in the thread someone described a manual method for creating the program icons, but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

Hope this helps!

[alibert]

Hi,

thank you kaizen for the explanation. You are also able to display images that are located in a directory on your local filesystem. This is described under "Use additional resource directory" on the wiki.

-alibert

[Shannon]

Hi,

I just what 99% of everyone else uses here in the US -- Zap2it and the default GbPVR application that gets the listings for us.

I think I have to create this file manually -- which is weird and very complicated -- the plug in just isn't worth that much manual work.

I just downloaded and installed the application you use, and it deleted my listings and wouldn't pull down my Zapit listings. I followed the directions in the readmenow -- but -- it didn't work as indicated in the instructions. From what I gather -- this plug in needs several applications and a great deal of manual intervention to work.

It looks neat -- but there is virtually no documentation regarding this thing... It's just not ready for prime time -- and I've been using GbPVR for 2 years now.

Thanks for replying though
Shannon

Shannon -

What are you using to 'retrieve' your listings? I use I-XMLtv which is listed in the wiki as TV Guide Supercharger http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utili...percharger.

This works with the Zap2It listings and grabs info like Ratings, Episode details, Release Date, etc. to really make the Listings more useful. It's not as hard as it looks to set up and is well documented for ALL levels of user.

The by product of this is that in making the TVguide.xml file, one of the intermediate steps is the xmltv.xml file your question was about. Be aware however that it seems that US listings don't support the programme icon element (as if the spelling of 'programme' wasn't a tip off ) so don't be disappointed if the only thing you see is Channel Icons.

Earlier in the thread someone described a manual method for creating the program icons, but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

Hope this helps!

[alibert]

Hi,

I think I have to create this file manually -- which is weird and very complicated -- the plug in just isn't worth that much manual work.
[...]
From what I gather -- this plug in needs several applications and a great deal of manual intervention to work.
[...]

in order to use the TV Listings plugin, you do not need to configure anything. Just place the dll-file into your "Plugins" subdirectory, and you are ready to use it with your existing epg data.

For the programme image part to work, you have to do something, that's right. But "I-Xmltv" won't help you with the icons, as the zap2it data doesn't seem to support the <icon> element.
As quoted by kaizen, it only adds some additional textual information to your epg:

This works with the Zap2It listings and grabs info like Ratings, Episode details, Release Date, etc. to really make the Listings more useful. It's not as hard as it looks to set up and is well documented for ALL levels of user.

Regarding the TV Listings plugin, you do not need "I-Xmltv" at all. And you also won't need the tool "XmltvIcons".

For those people like you that do not have information about images for programmes in their epg-source, I added an additional possibilty to display images for programmes:

Use additional resource directory:
Here you specify a path to a directory where additional programme-images are stored. The plugin will then look in this directory for an image-file when it opens the details-popup. For example, an image called “A-Team.jpeg” will be displayed when a programme with title “A-Team” is opened. Possible image extensions are .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp.’‘’
Important: Invalid filename characters in the titles are removed when looking them up, so if you want to add an image for the show “CSI: New York”, you should name the image-file “CSI New York.gif”. Trailing spaces are also removed from the title.

You can specify this directory in the configuration form of the plugin.

-alibert

[Carlito]

I have also created a utility called ProgramImageTool, which will automatically download images into your gbpvr installation directory under media/art.
You can use this to download the icons for you without having to manually find them.

[kaizen]

Hi,
I just downloaded and installed the application you use, and it deleted my listings and wouldn't pull down my Zapit listings. I followed the directions in the readmenow -- but -- it didn't work as indicated in the instructions. From what I gather -- this plug in needs several applications and a great deal of manual intervention to work.

It looks neat -- but there is virtually no documentation regarding this thing... It's just not ready for prime time -- and I've been using GbPVR for 2 years now.

Wow, I'm kinda surprised, becuase I thought it was extrememly well documented (even segmented into docs for each level of expertise) and I had it up and running in seconds. It really makes both the default TV Guide and Alibert's TV Listings shine, becuase the content is so much richer - but Alibert is right when he says that you really don't need to config it; it should work as well with your Zap2It direct as it does with my I-XmlTV.

And actually I-XMLTV has been around longer than GBPVR has, it was only recently adapted for use with GBPVR.

[kaizen]

I have also created a utility called ProgramImageTool, which will automatically download images into your gbpvr installation directory under media/art.
You can use this to download the icons for you without having to manually find them.

I've used this and while it works quite well I'm always surprised at what it DOES find images for (shows without ratings) and what it DOESN'T find (High rated shows for example).

Can you tell me why this happens? I'm just curious...

[Carlito]

I've used this and while it works quite well I'm always surprised at what it DOES find images for (shows without ratings) and what it DOESN'T find (High rated shows for example).

Can you tell me why this happens? I'm just curious...

Not really sure. I just grab images from epguides.com. It all really depends on what images they have.

[Jim_]

Hi,

I just what 99% of everyone else uses here in the US -- Zap2it and the default GbPVR application that gets the listings for us.

I think I have to create this file manually -- which is weird and very complicated -- the plug in just isn't worth that much manual work.

I just downloaded and installed the application you use, and it deleted my listings and wouldn't pull down my Zapit listings. I followed the directions in the readmenow -- but -- it didn't work as indicated in the instructions. From what I gather -- this plug in needs several applications and a great deal of manual intervention to work.

It looks neat -- but there is virtually no documentation regarding this thing... It's just not ready for prime time -- and I've been using GbPVR for 2 years now.

Thanks for replying though
Shannon

Hi Shannon
Are you talking about TV Guide Supercharger / I-xmltv?
If you followed the directions in ReadMe-NOW.txt from “Setup instructions:” to “Done!” and it didn’t work for you, I’d like to find out why.
(post the problem in the I-xmltv thread or send me a pm).
If you didn’t follow the directions supplied, I can’t help you.

Jim