NPVR Service Keeps Stopping

[sub]

And on the topic of the 'new flag', I asked Support at IPTV-EPG about that. They said:

"We don't have a "new" tag. We have a "premiere" tag IF the source provides it. We also have a "previousshown" tag for repeats IF the source provides that info."

It appears that NextPVR doesn't recognize or pay any attention to these tags. Could that be added, please?

It does already support a 'new' tag for xmltv sources.

You'd have to provide a sample xmltv for me to add support for the others.

[NND]

My .xml file is attached.

[sub]

The <new> and <previously-shown> tags are already supported. I couldn't find any occurrences of <new> in your xmltv file though, and only two of the channels have any <previously-shown> data in the listings...so in general, you're probably going to get a lot of repeats trying to record only new shows.

All shows are assumed to be new unless we know for sure they're not.

[Graham]

They said: "We don't have a "new" tag. We have a "premiere" tag ...

I couldn't find any occurrences of <new> in your xmltv file though,

Does this ... https://github.com/XMLTV/xmltv/blob/master/xmltv.dtd ... suggest that <premiere> is valid in xmltv?

[NND]

Please note there are many occurrences of <premiere/> in the file, such as this one:

</programme><programme start="20190731000000 +0000" stop="20190731010000 +0000" channel="ABC7KABCTV.us">
<title lang="en">Eyewitness News 5PM *</title>
<desc lang="en">Local news, sports and weather</desc>
<category lang="en">News</category>
<premiere/>
<subtitles/>

It is <premiere/> I would appreciate you looking for and treating the same as 'new'.

[sub]

Please note there are many occurrences of <premiere/> in the file, such as this one:

</programme><programme start="20190731000000 +0000" stop="20190731010000 +0000" channel="ABC7KABCTV.us">
<title lang="en">Eyewitness News 5PM *</title>
<desc lang="en">Local news, sports and weather</desc>
<category lang="en">News</category>
<premiere/>
<subtitles/>

It is <premiere/> I would appreciate you looking for and treating the same as 'new'.

As mentioned, shows are treated as new unless otherwise known, so in effect these shows are already going to be treated as new.

The problem is that it can't safely assume the absence of this <premiere/> tag means that the show isn't new. ie, it may mean that your xmltv source just doesn't know if it's new or now. The app will make some assumptions about the absence of the <new/> tag meaning a show is a repeat (which could be extended to <premiere/>), if the xmltv indicates it is from a source that is known to reliably have this information (Schedules Direct, or zap2it). In your case, the xmltv doesn't indicate the source of the data, so it's assumed all shows are new, unless they have <previously-shown/>.

[NND]

Hmm. So, am I understanding you correctly, that if the xmltv comes from either Schedules Direct or zap2it, and a show has neither a <new/> tag nor a <previously-shown/> tag, it will be assumed to be a repeat. But, if the xmltv comes from any other source, that assumption will not be made, and all such shows will be treated as new? If so, that is very inconvenient, and is what leads to me having to record and delete many unwanted repeats every day. One example would be Pawn Stars, for which my xmltv typically contains the following:

</programme><programme start="20190801130000 +0200" stop="20190801133000 +0200" channel="HistoryChannel.us">
<title lang="en">Pawn Stars</title>
<sub-title lang="en">Getting a Head</sub-title>
<desc lang="en">The Pawn Stars are presented with a 1969 Buick Skylark. Chumlee and the Old Man look at a Civil War field desk with captured Confederate documents. Rick is shown a human shrunken head</desc>
<credits>
<actor>Rick Harrison</actor>
<actor>Richard Harrison</actor>
<actor>Corey Harrison</actor>
</credits>
<category lang="en">Reality TV</category>
<icon src="cdn.tvpassport.com/image/show/960x540/26789.jpg"/>
<rating system="US">
<value>TVPG</value>
</rating>

This obviously has neither a <new/> tag (which my provider doesn't use anyway), nor a <premiere/> tag (which they use instead), nor a <previously-shown/> tag. My preference would be to have any show missing either a <new/> tag or a <premiere/> tag to be treated as a repeat.

As I have previously stated, my xmltv source is IPTV-EPG.com, which I have been using quite successfully for about two years now. I'd prefer to stay with them if possible. There doesn't seem to be any indication in the xmltv file as to what source it has come from, although many of the channel icons do show: <icon src="http://static.iptv-epg.com/ (followed by the specific channel address).

Is there any way you could extend your default assumption about non-new shows in an xmltv file from SD or zap2it to my xmltv files as well?

[sub]

This obviously has neither a <new/> tag (which my provider doesn't use anyway), nor a <premiere/> tag (which they use instead), nor a <previously-shown/> tag. My preference would be to have any show missing either a <new/> tag or a <premiere/> tag to be treated as a repeat.

The problem with this is that the vast majority of xmltv sources have none of these tags, or only have them on certain channels, and assuming all shows are repeats would have much worse default results (ie, recordings not happening etc). Trust me, a lot of thought has gone into this default behaviour over the years. It's safer to assume a show is new if you don't know for sure.

Is there any way you could extend your default assumption about non-new shows in an xmltv file from SD or zap2it to my xmltv files as well?

Many xmltv sources have generator line at the top of the xml, which I can use to tell it apart from other types of xmltv files, so I can do special case logic like for zap2it and Schedules Direct, but yours doesn't have a generator line identifying the type of data.

Do you use a url for your xmltv file, or are you feeding it to NextPVR from a local file? I could possibly make it behave similar to SD or zap2it xml, if I know it's coming from a specific internet site.

...however, is this the case for all your channels? If they're making their IPTV epg sources from a variety of locations, like UK channels with listings that come from broadcast data, you could find things unexpectedly worse...

[NND]

Hi. I use a URL for the xmltv file. It comes from http://iptv-epg.com/xxxx-xxxxxx.xml.gz (x's substituted). I will happily continue to record "All" shows for those that never have a <premiere/> tag, but for those that do, it would save a lot of work to be able to record "New Only"! : )

Alternatively, if you can provide a sample of the generator line created by either SD or zap2it, I will ask the guys at IPTV-EPG.com if they can add something similar at the top of their files also.

[mvallevand]

How will you determine that you can select new only if you can't be sure that the series data will contain the premiere tag?

Martin