MceEpg2XmlTv

[whurlston]

After the long run with this project, another developer has released a utility (mc2xml) that is much faster and doesn't require Media Center. In light of this, I've decided to shut down this project. Thank you all for the support you gave since I started the project.








For posterity's sake:

Latest builds will be posted to the wiki page: http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utility/MceEpg2XmlTv

Setup packages will be Setup-YYYYMMDD.XX.zip where XX is the build number for that day. They will include the command line utilities and the GUI.

Myself or one of the other developers will post an update in this thread when a new build is available.

The following will be moved to the wiki shortly. If you use the GUI, these options will be set automatically.

MceEpgDownloader
Current Version: 1.0.0.6

This will force MCE to download and use the specified headend ID.

Usage:
MceEpgDownloader.exe list-headends will list your available lineups and their headend IDs.
MceEpgDownloader.exe [HeadendId] will download the specified headend. Replace "[HeadendId]" with the headend ID you want.
MceEpgDownloader.exe reload-prefs will download the latest atscchannels.xml and reload *prefs.xml files. Not relevant to GB-PVR. This is for HDHomeRun/MCE users.

MceEpg2XmlTv
Current Version: 1.0.1.1

This will export your current epg into an XMLTv compliant file with the headend id as the filename. It will NOT perform a download, only a conversion. It will NOT affect the operation of Media Center.

Usage:
Create a folder inside the Configs folder with the name of your choice. Place the config.ini, include.txt, exclude.txt and renumber.txt you want to use inside the folder you just created. See the Configs\Samples folder for explanations of the files.

Example:
MceEpg2XmlTv config=MyConfig will look for files in the Configs\MyConfig folder. If this option is not used, "Configs\Default" will be checked.

All config.ini options can be used as command line options. Command line options override config settings.

Additional command line options:
include= -- The include file to use. If the file is not in the default or specified config folder, you can use a path.
exclude= -- The excludefile to use. If the file is not in the default or specified config folder, you can use a path.
renumber= -- The include file to use. If the file is not in the default or specified config folder, you can use a path.
showprogress -- Cannot be used if logging the output to a file.

Edit the Common\ChannelList.txt file to add icon url's for channels. The format is "callsign,url". Use one entry per line.

Ratings icons should be place in the Common\RatingsIcons folder. Icon files should be named the same as the rating with a ".gif" extention. There is nothing that uses the rating icons currently that I am aware of but that may change. Included in the zip file are the VCHIP icons.

A log will be output to the screen. If you want to log to a file, simply append " > logfile.txt" to the end of the command/options (without quotes).

[pcostanza]

You might have mentioned this before while you were working on this but does this effect the use of Media Center? While I don't really use MC in Vista much, it's a good back up in case of problems. Will running your prog cause any problems or halt the use of Media Center?
Thanks for all your hard work with this and the Y TV app!

[InVermont]

Is there any way to get Vista to download EPG info without having a tuner card in it? I have a machine dedicated to GB-PVR (XP), but a Vista machine as my general home machine

[whurlston]

You might have mentioned this before while you were working on this but does this effect the use of Media Center? While I don't really use MC in Vista much, it's a good back up in case of problems. Will running your prog cause any problems or halt the use of Media Center?
Thanks for all your hard work with this and the Y TV app!

MceEpg2XmlTv.exe will not adversly affect the use of Media Center at all. All it does is read the epg files and output the data in an xml form. The upcoming downloader is what will be making changes to your MCE configuration, which is why I decided to separate the functions into 2 apps.

Is there any way to get Vista to download EPG info without having a tuner card in it? I have a machine dedicated to GB-PVR (XP), but a Vista machine as my general home machine

Yes there is. There are some registry settings that need to be changed. I can't remember which ones offhand but I will let you know later today.

[mvallevand]

Consider this a beta version. It is working with Vista but I have not tested it with 05 yet. Place the exe in your \Windows\ehome directory. If you are sending the output to a system directory, you MUST run as Administrator.

Works great here in ON Canada and my clear QAM show up too.

You might be able to help though since I installed MCE my machine is waking up in the middle of the night to d/l the EPG. Do you know if the download can be controlled manually? I'd want to do the following

net start ehsched
rem somehow d/l epg data
MceEpg2XmlTv.exe dir=\foobar
net stop ehsched

Martin

[whurlston]

I know how to initiate the download in programming but not with any existing command line. I am going to be writing a second app that will start the services, initiate a download, run the converter and then stop the services. It will also perform downloads of multiple lineups. It will probably be about a week before it's complete though.

[mvallevand]

I know how to initiate the download in programming but not with any existing command line. I am going to be writing a second app that will start the services, initiate a download, run the converter and then stop the services. It will also perform downloads of multiple lineups. It will probably be about a week before it's complete though.

Thanks that would be perfect.

Martin

[whurlston]

Is there any way to get Vista to download EPG info without having a tuner card in it? I have a machine dedicated to GB-PVR (XP), but a Vista machine as my general home machine

Here are the registry settings to enable the EPG. You can edit the registry directly or save the following to a text file with a .reg extention and import it. It should work for Vista and MCE05.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\ProgramGuide]
"fAgreeEPGPrivacy"=dword:00000001
"fAgreeTOS"=dword:00000001
"fGetEpgData"=dword:00000001
"fEpgDataAvailable"=dword:00000001
"fDisableAutoFavorites"=dword:00000000
"fUsageTracking"=dword:00000000

[cameluk]

Not working for me

Only way I could setup a guide was to borrow a card from GBPVR machine
Setup the channels I want, pulled down the epg, checked in Media Center that the channels I selected were present. Not all of them have epg data

When I run the application the program bombs out

[jldet5]

I was able to set up the guide using custom set up and manual configure of line up. I have a USB tuner connected but no antenna.

Looks like VISTA MCE will keep the guide auto updated so now all I have to do is set up a shared folder across the router and start using this program. Looking very promising