Changing Channel Mapping Ids Causing Blank Guide

[craigrs84]

I've encountered the same issue twice in one month: for some reason the id numbers are changing that are used to map XMLTV guide data. This causes an empty guide and failed recordings.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture a before and after of the XMLTV guide data but I have before and after screenshots (see attached images starting with XMLTV channel #28).

Do you have any ideas why this would occur? Is it something the EPG provider controls? (I'm using mc2xml with the microsoft guide).

Thanks!

[sub]

The channel IDs in an xmltv file are not suppose to change. If they do change, its going to break any app that relies on the data.

Like you say, you'll probably need to keep some current xmltv files to compare with later ones if you think it's changed again.

[cncb]

This has been a long time problem for me as well using the WMC guide data. I have noticed that the IDs for the guide channels are of the form: IX.N.microsoft.com. 'X' is the channel number we can choose from which sometimes seems to change while 'N' is a longer number that seems to remain the same (see attached image). Would it be possible to just look at the N number when matching for Microsoft data?

[johnsonx42]

I frequently have this issue too, and I think cncb has nailed the reason for it. Some small lineup change will cause the channel numbers to shift a little, and half my guide goes blank. Luckily the main network channels all have low numbers and aren't affected, as the renumbering usually takes place starting with higher channel numbers.

(despite what my sig says, I'm using mc2xml these days, not schedules direct)

[sub]

This has been a long time problem for me as well using the WMC guide data. I have noticed that the IDs for the guide channels are of the form: IX.N.microsoft.com. 'X' is the channel number we can choose from which sometimes seems to change while 'N' is a longer number that seems to remain the same (see attached image). Would it be possible to just look at the N number when matching for Microsoft data?

That'd be a bit of hack, but I guess I could add something like this.

Can you supply a sample xmltv file that has numbers in this format?

[cncb]

Can you supply a sample xmltv file that has numbers in this format?

http://1drv.ms/1kCVSSW

[johnsonx42]

here's the beginning of my XMLTV.XML, up to and including the first <Programme> definition. My full file was too long to upload; why is the size limit for .7z smaller than the limit for .zip?

[cncb]

That'd be a bit of hack, but I guess I could add something like this.

Any chance you could implement this hack?

[cncb]

Pretty please? I just had to remap most of my channels today. The only way I can tell this needs to be done is by suddenly missing guide data for some of the channels and I don't always see this right away.

[sub]

Sorry, I meant to reply the other day. I haven't done anything with it yet, but its a solid *maybe*.

To be honest, it's a pain in the arse these IDs are changing. They're not supposed to. I've had a quick look how I could fix, but haven't found a clean place to fix it yet. I'll try to fix it for the next release if I can though.