SearchLite - Yet Another NPVR Genre Maker

[mvallevand]

Attached is the first beta of SearchLite with genre searching support

To enable it, there is a small program called GenreLite.exe installed in the NPVR Program File folder. This program is designed to create a separate database of genres from your XMLTV and Schedules Direct (SD.xml) file. It has only been tested on my XMLTV files so if it doesn't work could you please upload your XML file and I can see if I can add it.

You can run this at anytime by running GenreLite with no options, however once you have confirmed it is working you can add it to the PostUpdateEPG.bat file

To access genres in SearchLite, Select Genre on the Menu, hit Green or use Alt-G. Doing this a second time show genres filter for movies. Hit it a third time to get back to normal searching.

Not all XMLTV files have complete genre information, but it is possible to link with IMDB genres. It increases the size of the database but it only takes a few minutes and I find it worthwhile to do (probably quarterly will be enough)

To get the required files for IMDB

1) go to http://www.imdb.com/interfaces#plain,
2) select a source
3) download genres.list.gz & ratings.list.gz
4) Using 7zip. untar these to get genres.list and ratings.list
5) Copy genres.list and ratings.list to DataDirectory\Plugins\SearchLite
6) Run GenreLite -i
7) Repeat in 3 or 4 months.

If you don't have an XMLTV file (you use only DVB or ATSC data, I can probably link to IMDB genres too. I'd need to get a copy of your npvr.db3 file to test first.

Martin

[Reddwarf]

What if I have multiple xmltv files, will it use all of them?

[mvallevand]

What if I have multiple xmltv files, will it use all of them?

Yes, my EPG uses 4 different files. I expect I will have to tweak the Movie filter for foreign languages though.

Martin

[Reddwarf]

Yes, my EPG uses 4 different files. I expect I will have to tweak the Movie filter for foreign languages though.

Martin

Ok, I'll give it a try.

[mvallevand]

This utility is clearly a niche tool, but is anyone using it? Here's a sample SearchLite movie/genre search with the standard radiotimes EPG data using a new feature in GenreLite to add the star-ratings from IMDB to your npvr.db3 I won't bother documenting how to do this if there is no interest. (it works fine for me so I am quite happy!)

Martin

[johnsonx42]

I guess I don't understand how this interacts with the new Genre features in NPVR. Do the star ratings provided by GenreLite appear in the regular program descriptions or only when viewed via SearchLite?

[mvallevand]

There are two ways to use genreLite with and without offline IMDB data. Without the data it creates an external database based on the EPG data in npvr.db3 that allows genre searching in SearchLite. Genres searches can be filtered to just movies.

Using IMDB data, it enhances the star-rating feature of NPVR for movies/films by getting ratings for movies that don't have a star-rating in the db I get about 20% more, but for some data like the Radiotimes data it is probably 90% better This makes the dot searching in SearchLite more thorough. IMDB data also provides more genres then in the EPG, since IMDB has more diversity. Using the Radiotimes data that Science Fiction category won't exist they only have a genre Film.

Martin

[gEd]

I have download genres.list and ratings.list, run genrelist -i and I now have a 91MB newgenre.db.

Code:

[SIZE=2]C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR>GenreLite -i
C:\Users\Public\NPVR\
Data Source="C:\Users\Public\NPVR\Plugins\SearchLite\NewGenre.db3";Version=3;New
=True;
C:\Users\Public\NPVR\
Data Source="C:\Users\Public\NPVR\npvr.db3";Version=3;New=True;
Attach Database 'C:\Users\Public\NPVR\\Plugins\SearchLite\NewGenre.db3' as genre
s
imdbgenre
True
Done
step 1[/SIZE]

However the star rating column in EPG_EVENT has not been updated . Is there another step that I need to do?
Don't forget, my "movie" genre=Film b/c of Brians patch to fix the RT XML source.

Thanks for adding this feature Martin, it is much appreciated.

Also, in the searchplugin, I am struggling to understand its modus-operandi. If I press ALT-F to bring up the list of genres, I guess I was expecting when I press enter over a genre for it to bring up a list of shows for that genre but it always just brings up the complete list of shows.

Interestingly, I see you have entered "Science Fiction" but I get "Science_fiction" which made me wonder if we were running different versions. I am on 1.4

[mvallevand]

Hi gEd there was something missing you need to indicate that there is no uniqueID in your EPG as follows

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<settings>
  <PluginSettings>
    <SearchLite>
          [b]<UseUniqueID>false</UseUniqueID>[/b]
          <Offline>false</Offline>      
    <!--Language>en</Language-->
    </SearchLite>
  </PluginSettings>
</settings>

Then rename the to list files (they should now be name.list.ok) and run genreLite -i again.

Alt-G (not Alt-F) toggles the genre, movie/genre search, and then returns to the search bar. If you enter text in the search bar it will also turn back search mode.

Once you have a genre list you would select Science Fiction from the list and drill down from there.

Martin

[gEd]

tried that (plugins\searchlite\searchlite.xml)

It doesn;t appear to be processing the ratings. there is no reference to rating in the genrelite output and ratings.list is not being renamed to ok but genre.list is.

genrelite.exe date is 2 Jan 2012 - is this the right one?

[edit]: updated to 1.4.4 and it is working. Guess I have not updated the plugin. sorry about that.
[edit]: 167 records with a star_rating.