[split] USA EPG

[bufulo]

This thread has me totally confused. It started out discussing how to get EPG from TitanTV and that is where my interest is - getting ANY EPG for ATSC/OTA channels in the US. The OTA EPG only gets 2 days for a few channels and never updates unless I manually go into the TV Guide. Without a functioning EPG, I don't see the point of a PVR. Isn't the idea to make life easier? Where is the best place to read about the current state of EPG and NextPVR so that I have a chance of getting it to actually work?

[mvallevand]

This thread is about using the Titan Guide with NextPVR not as a guide for NextPVR.

Most users in North America subscribe to Schedules Direct to avoid the issues with OTA. For the price, a cup of coffee a month, it it well worth it.

Martin

[sub]

This thread has me totally confused.  It started out discussing how to get EPG from TitanTV and that is where my interest is

This isn't about getting the TitanTV EPG into NextPVR. It's a small addon utility so that you can use the existing TitanTV web site to schedule recordings in NextPVR.

- getting ANY EPG for ATSC/OTA channels in the US.  The OTA EPG only gets 2 days for a few channels and never updates unless I manually go into the TV Guide.

Unfortunately the ATSC EPG is notoriously crappy. Most people in that part of the world get a Schedules Direct account, which will give you multiple weeks of listings, with good extra info (like season/episode numbers and artwork etc).

Without a functioning EPG, I don't see the point of a PVR.  Isn't the idea to make life easier?

Totally agree. Unfortunately you're trying to use the ATSC EPG which is very very limited. There are better EPG options.

Where is the best place to read about the current state of EPG and NextPVR so that I have a chance of getting it to actually work?

NextPVR supports multiple EPG sources including Schedules Direct, XMLTV, and DVB/ATSC EPG.

Schedules Direct or XMLTV would be best in North America.

DVB/ATSC over-the-air EPG is pretty useless in North America, where they often only transmit half a day or so of listing at a time. Most of the rest of the world would get a week or so of listings from the over-the-air listings.

[FM5]

This thread has me totally confused.  It started out discussing how to get EPG from TitanTV and that is where my interest is - getting ANY EPG for ATSC/OTA channels in the US.  The OTA EPG only gets 2 days for a few channels and never updates unless I manually go into the TV Guide.  Without a functioning EPG, I don't see the point of a PVR.  Isn't the idea to make life easier?  Where is the best place to read about the current state of EPG and NextPVR so that I have a chance of getting it to actually work?

Basically, this has nothing to do with the EPG tv listings in NextPVR.  It will not put tv listings into the NextPVR EPG.  

This thread started with dayvboy wondering if he could use the TitanTV website to schedule recordings instead of his NextPVR EPG.  He already has full and proper EPG(s) in NextPVR, but he likes the TitanTV layout and customizability better.

At first, I thought this was a way to schedule recordings from TitanTV without already having a full and proper EPG in NextPVR.  But it wasn't.  But now, through mvallevand magic, it can do that too.  It can only do manual-type recordings, but it's so much nicer than doing them through NextPVR since in NextPVR you have to schedule the time/date/channel/duration instead of just two button clicks using TitanTV.

From the start, I thought this utility program would be a much bigger benefit to people who don't have any EPG in NextPVR (and don't want to get Schedules Direct or similar) than it does for people who already have a full and proper EPG in NextPVR but like TitanTV's layout better.  
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I don't have a full and proper EPG in my NextPVR. I already look at TitanTV for tv listings anyway.  (Actually, I was using a different online TV guide but switched to TitanTV because of this.)  I have ATSC OTA and set manual recordings, (mainly non-streamable shows, certain sporting events, one-off shows, the Olympics, etc).  Even in that sense, NextPVR is great and makes life easier because having a glorified VCR is better than not having a VCR, and it records in HD, and can do other things too.  And now it can record shows with two easy button clicks on TitanTV. 

Also, daily or weekly TV shows tend to always air at the same time every time, so even if I record an entire TV season, one manual schedule and change it to record daily/weekly takes care it. 

If you want a full and proper ATSC EPG in NextPVR, you have to pay for Schedules Direct or similar, or try one of the scraper methods and hope the TV listings sites don't do something to break the method.  Or, in theory, one TV tuner could be dedicated to downloading 8 (or whatever you get locally) hours of EPG and do it 3x every day, to have at least a constant 8 hours of EPG. Downloading the EPG can conflict with recordings scheduled at the same time, so it would need its own dedicated tuner to avoid potential conflicts.

[FM5]

 The OTA EPG only gets 2 days for a few channels and never updates unless I manually go into the TV Guide. 

You can set NextPVR to update the EPG at whatever time you want, and set it to update multiple times every day if you want.  

If someone only cared about, let's say, having an updated EPG for this evening's tv listings, they could set the EPG to auto update at 5pm, and then at 5pm the tv listings would be there for today for 5pm through midnight or so.  And then have the auto update repeat again tomorrow at 5pm.  

It won't let the person see further into the future that way, and future recordings can't be set through it and would have to be done manually (or through TitanTV's website), but "what's on tv tonight" might be enough for some people.

[bufulo]

This thread is about using the Titan Guide with NextPVR not as a guide for NextPVR.

Most users in North America subscribe to Schedules Direct to avoid the issues with OTA.  For the price, a cup of coffee a month, it it well worth it.

OK, thanks.  Could you give a brief description of how it works?  I see there is a DLL and an EXE but how do those even get used?  Does NextPVR just run every DLL and EXE in it's root?  I'm not a Windows programmer (embedded systems, C and assembly mostly) but I thought there would also have to be some configuration/setting change for NextPVR to even bother looking.

So is this basically just a utility that imports a special named file (exported from Titan TV) whenever the EPG update occurs?

[BrettB]

This thread is about using the Titan Guide with NextPVR not as a guide for NextPVR.

Most users in North America subscribe to Schedules Direct to avoid the issues with OTA.  For the price, a cup of coffee a month, it it well worth it.

OK, thanks.  Could you give a brief description of how it works?  I see there is a DLL and an EXE but how do those even get used?  Does NextPVR just run every DLL and EXE in it's root?  I'm not a Windows programmer (embedded systems, C and assembly mostly) but I thought there would also have to be some configuration/setting change for NextPVR to even bother looking.

So is this basically just a utility that imports a special named file (exported from Titan TV) whenever the EPG update occurs?

Really, if you live in the USA and want a simple, straight-forward PVR solution, you just need to use Schedules Direct. You aren't going to want to have to go to another site, select things to record, then go back to NextPVR and import a file with a list of recordings to schedule.

Plus the SD service gives you great quality data with season/episode, etc. and fast, accurate artwork.

You can get a free trial for SD to see how it works.

[bufulo]

sub
Totally agree. Unfortunately you're trying to use the ATSC EPG which is very very limited. There are better EPG options.  NextPVR supports multiple EPG sources including Schedules Direct, XMLTV, and DVB/ATSC EPG.DVB/ATSC over-the-air EPG is pretty useless in North America, where they often only transmit half a day or so of listing at a time.
Most of the rest of the world would get a week or so of listings from the over-the-air listings.

Yeah, I see only a few hours for most channels.  I thought maybe that was a NextPVR problem since some do populate out 2 full days and didn't understand why others didn't.  A week would be nice.  I messed around with MediaPortal for a while and looked at a few others and NextPVR seems to be the only genuinely active product for Windows these days.  I'm setting up my first HTPC.  I like the simplicity (as in no extra crap to please everyone and their mother with no thought to the overall picture) I'm finding in NextPVR so far and just need to get the EPG working, probably with XMLTV

[mvallevand]

It's not brief but there is a wiki on this https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/NextTVPI I just wrote the code and didn't expect anyone to use it and leave it to these guys to document.

I still think a real guide with Schedules Direct is the bet choice. You can get free XMLTV files using zap2xml, zap2epg, mc2xml but it just isn't worth wasting my time explaining how to use them given that SD is so easy. Feel free to use your own time Another choice was recently posted here https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=63586 and the author might be willing to help you out but again be prepared to spend time.

Here locally OTA I can get hours, a day or two, up to a week and no guide data at all depending on the channel, nothing to do with NextPVR.

Martin

[BrettB]

I messed around with MediaPortal for a while and looked at a few others and NextPVR seems to be the only genuinely active product for Windows these days.  I'm setting up my first HTPC.  I like the simplicity (as in no extra crap to please everyone and their mother with no thought to the overall picture) I'm finding in NextPVR so far and just need to get the EPG working, probably with XMLTV

NextPVR is very actively being developed and supported. Most posts with questions/problems on here get a response within hours if not minutes!

And, seriously, if you want ease and simplicity, just use Schedules Direct. It is totally built-in to NextPVR so doesn't require any extra scripts, files, etc. and it works extremely well.