Queries re: importing

[Cranberry]

Hi,

I've finally become fed up enough with the unreliability of ArgusTV to move to something else, so I'm trying to import my recordings from ArgusTV.  These are .ts files, each with an associated .arg file (which is an XML file of tags specific to ArgusTV, some of which correspond to ones in NextPVR). I wrote a Python script to find the recordings and generate an importable XML file, but it doesn't seem to work as I expected.  For ease of testing, I only have one episode to import.  It does appear to import successfully, but it doesn't seem quite right.  In the scheduled recordings page it shows the recording (and I can play it from there), but it does not show any programme info (description or episode data), despite it seeming to be present if I open the database in a DB browser and browse the SCHEDULED_RECORDINGS table.  This is sub-optimal for 2 reasons - firstly I would end up with lots of recordings without being able to tell them apart, and secondly it won't prevent NextPVR from re-recording the same episode again (which happens to be tomorrow). I've attached the .arg file and the transformed xml file I'm trying to import, hopefully someone can shed some light on the problem, please ?

[mvallevand]

Years ago I wrote an ArgusTV importer so I know it is possible.

- I would try adding <OID>0</OID> and <ChannelOID>0</ChannelOID> markup to the <Event> block, it doesn't look like a valid EPG Event.

- it is <SubTitle> not <Subtitle>

- looks like you swapped the recording and EPG start and stop times. For Kodi especially setting the duration correctly is important.

Unless you set the unique id correctly you will still get duplicates. Not sure what sub use's for OTA.

Martin

[Cranberry]

Thanks for the advice, Martin. I made the suggested changes and it now shows the episode details for the programme I imported, but (as you expected) it still wants to re-record the same programme later today. I was hoping that since the new name would be the same as the old name it would decide not to do that, but that's not the case. I am using Schedules Direct for my EPG (mostly), but I've no idea how they generate their unique ids. If possible, I'd just revert to the less safe option of not recording a programme if the file name it would create already exists, but I don't see any options for that.

[mvallevand]

I assumed you were using OTA, since you are using Schedules Direct have a look at NextTool https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/NextTool specifically the --makeunique option. It should help avoid duplicates.

Martin

[Cranberry]

Ok, so i ran "nexttool.exe --makeunique" and the log shows that it updated the one recording I've imported. However, despite the fact that it now seems to contain the same unique id and md5 as the pending one, it still appears it's going to record it again ? I restarted the nextpvr service but it was no different.

[mvallevand]

Did follow the instructions on the wiki and add this to the PostLoadEPG script? After that you need to rerun the update EPG to remove and reschedule recordings. This will then be automatic going forward.

Martin

[Cranberry]

I read it, yes, but I hadn't added the script yet because it's already updated the unique id of the only program I'd imported, so it would make no difference for this case I was trying to test (I will, of course do it once I've imported all of my existing recordings). I'd not really thought enough about how NextPVR must work because it's logical that it would only update its recording schedule after doing an EPG update, and it had not done one yet. I've forced that now and the pending recording has been removed. Thanks very much for your help!

[mvallevand]

I wanted to make sure that you tested the script. Too often people test the command line and not the script and don't understand why things don't work as they should.

Martin