Some EPG-related questions

[fkirungi]

Hello,
I have searched here and on external resources but I can't find answers to my questions. I'm ready to read any references.
I have NextPVR on an Asustor NAS. My m3u playlist has 10 IPTV channels, all playing nicely in NextPVR. I used the import m3u feature and selected "none" for the EPG. For each EPG file, I have 3 formats on hand (compressed XML in gz format, uncompressed XML, and a URL that is automatically updated and can return compressed or uncompressed XML) but I will ultimately use only one, the most appropriate. So far so good.
Here is the problem. Despite various efforts, all my 10 channels read "none" for EPG. (See screenshot). So the PVR part doesn't work. This is what I attempted:
1. Nothing happens when I click on the channel name or "none". I seem to have seen "none" being clickable at one point (maybe I'm dreaming) but I can't figure out again how I got that screen.
2. With one channel selected, when I click on the wrench icon and select "Add XMLTV...", my EPG is added to NextPVR but not associated with any channel. (See screenshot). Clicking on the saved EPG makes no association: nothing is saved. I would expect NextPVR to associate the selected channel with the uploaded EPG.
3. When I click on "Advanced Tools">>Auto Map, nothing seems to happen or get saved.
4. I read on the Emby forums Sub recommending deleting all the channels and importing the m3u playlist afresh with its EPG. (I don't use Emby). This doesn't seem to apply to me as I have one m3u link with 10 channels and 10 EPG files, one per channel.
So here are my questions:
a) How do I associate a specific channel with a specific EPG?
b) Is an EPG required to schedule and record a specific programme? I want to record all news channels at the top of every hour for 30 mins. I can edit raw script, if I know what to do.
c) How do I schedule/record recurring programmes that are not series, e.g. news.
d) Related to the above, my NextPVR folder has two sub-folders: buffer and config. Recordings is missing. Will it be created automatically or do I create it manually?
Sorry for the long post.
Fideri

[mvallevand]

Did you manually add each of your XMLTV source files Unfortunately it can't be a URL or a gz file and you need to create the XMLTV file in the UpdateEPG script. With 3 source you would probalby need to automap three times assuming tte Name matches. With only 10 channels I would do each of them manually by clicking the wrench.

Martin

[BrettB]

I have NextPVR on an Asustor NAS. My m3u playlist has 10 IPTV channels, all playing nicely in NextPVR. I used the import m3u feature and selected "none" for the EPG. For each EPG file, I have 3 formats on hand (compressed XML in gz format, uncompressed XML, and a URL that is automatically updated and can return compressed or uncompressed XML) but I will ultimately use only one, the most appropriate. So far so good.
Here is the problem. Despite various efforts, all my 10 channels read "none" for EPG. (See screenshot). So the PVR part doesn't work. This is what I attempted:
1. Nothing happens when I click on the channel name or "none". I seem to have seen "none" being clickable at one point (maybe I'm dreaming) but I can't figure out again how I got that screen.
2. With one channel selected, when I click on the wrench icon and select "Add XMLTV...", my EPG is added to NextPVR but not associated with any channel. (See screenshot). Clicking on the saved EPG makes no association: nothing is saved. I would expect NextPVR to associate the selected channel with the uploaded EPG.
3. When I click on "Advanced Tools">>Auto Map, nothing seems to happen or get saved.

First off, having separate XMLTV files for each channel is very unusual so your process will be a bit clunky...

I'm pretty sure that NextPVR will not uncompress/open a .gz file as an XMLTV source file. And it definitely won't take a URL and pull it from the URL. You are going to be responsible for creating an UpdateEPG script file which will download the 10 uncompressed XMLTV files and put them in a directory on the local system. You need to make sure that each one always gets the same filename since that is how NextPVR will find the file.

It sounds like you are on the right track with #2. You use the wrench icon to edit the channel details. Then you are going to use the Add XMLTV... option to point NextPVR to the XMLTV file which you downloaded in the UpdateEPG script. Typically, you would just need to that part once to point it to the single XMLTV file which would contain listings for all of the channels. But, in your case since you have separate files for each channel, you'll need to use that Add XMLTV... option to add each of your 10 XMLTV files as possible EPG sources. Now, after you have done that part, then that particular XMLTV file should show up in the Source dropdown list between the None option at the top and the "...Add Schedules Direct Lineup...". If it is not showing up there, then I am guessing that there is a problem with your XMLTV file format which is preventing NextPVR from properly reading and parsing it. If that is the case, then you will need to post a set of your logs (from the Settings | Log Files button) which covers your attempt to add an XMLTV source. It would also be good to post the XMLTV file that you tried to add. (Note that attachments must be .zip files and must be under 2MB.)

Once you have the proper XMLTV file in your Source list, you would select that. Then the next line (after "Source") on your Edit Channel Details pop-up screen should be "Mapping". That is where you make the mapping between the channel in NextPVR and the channel listing in the XMLTV file. However, in your screenshot, I don't see the "Mapping" line displayed. My guess is that you screen resolution is set too low and the pop-up dialog box is getting cut off. There should also be "Save" and "Cancel" buttons in the lower right corner of that pop-up dialog box under the "Mapping" field. Try changing the resolution on your monitor to a higher resolution and see if the entire Edit Channel Details pop-up gets displayed.

[sub]

I'm pretty sure that NextPVR will not uncompress/open a .gz file as an XMLTV source file. And it definitely won't take a URL and pull it from the URL.

Sorry, wrong on both of these.

I'm using https://i.mjh.nz/nz/epg.xml.gz as the epg source for my NZ IPTV streams.

[sub]

3. When I click on "Advanced Tools">>Auto Map, nothing seems to happen or get saved.

This likely means the channel names don't match the names in your XMLTV file, so it can't do it automatically.

You mentioned only having 10 channels, so probably not a big deal to manually map the channels. ie. click the cog, select your xmltv source, and choose the channel from the drop down, then hit save.

I read on the Emby forums Sub recommending deleting all the channels and importing the m3u playlist afresh with its EPG. (I don't use Emby). This doesn't seem to apply to me as I have one m3u link with 10 channels and 10 EPG files, one per channel.

This can help, if the m3u and xmltv urls were meant to go together. (ie, they sometimes contain extra info, like the 'tvg-id' which is only available when importing them both at the same time, and tells application which goes with which)

[fkirungi]

Thanks everyone for the quick responses. Helpful indeed.
@mvallevand and @BrettB, I will get rid of the gz and URL file formats. This is very easy for me.
@BrettB, that was very comprehensive. I went through all the steps as you outlined until I got the "mapping" dialog box.  The text box which has  "mapping" is empty and the arrow head icons in that box yield nothing. Am I supposed to type in the XML path manually which already appears in the "source" box? Note that both "save" and "cancel" buttons remain grey. I would expect the "save" button to have another colour to indicate that it is active. (See screenshot). Clicking the "save" button does nothing?
@sub, you have given  me an idea to combine all the 10 XML files into one.
Fideri

[mvallevand]

You add your local XMLTV files in Settings->Access. I never knew that sub added direct http support for http downloading of files, but I tested and local .gz files will not be automatically expanded so you would need to script it. If you had uploaded the logs which helps us with issues you would see the issue local files must be XMLTV

Code:

2025-04-11 08:51:29.971    [DEBUG][20]    Loading XMLTV from: c:/temp/nz.gz
2025-04-11 08:51:30.007    [ERROR][20]    System.Xml.XmlException: '', hexadecimal value 0x1F, is an invalid character. Line 1, position 1.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String[] args)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseRootLevelWhitespace()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at NShared.XmltvEPGSource.GetMappings(String file)

You can merge all the source files but if you do that you have to do it for each EPG update.

Martin

[BrettB]

@BrettB, that was very comprehensive. I went through all the steps as you outlined until I got the "mapping" dialog box.  The text box which has  "mapping" is empty and the arrow head icons in that box yield nothing. Am I supposed to type in the XML path manually which already appears in the "source" box? Note that both "save" and "cancel" buttons remain grey. I would expect the "save" button to have another colour to indicate that it is active. (See screenshot). Clicking the "save" button does nothing?

No. The selection in the "Mapping" line would be to a specific channel in the XMLTV source listed in the "Source" line. I am guessing that if your "Source" is now getting set correctly and the "Mapping" drop-down isn't being populated, then there is something about the XMLTV file that NextPVR isn't liking or understanding.

As I said in the previous message: "If it is not showing up there, then I am guessing that there is a problem with your XMLTV file format which is preventing NextPVR from properly reading and parsing it. If that is the case, then you will need to post a set of your logs (from the Settings | Log Files button) which covers your attempt to add an XMLTV source. It would also be good to post the XMLTV file that you tried to add. (Note that attachments must be .zip files and must be under 2MB.)"

[fkirungi]

Thank you @mvallev and @BrettB. I will try the options mentioned and report back.

[fkirungi]

Update: It turns out my xml file was bad. I used a simple, dummy xml file and that worked! Thank you all for pointing me in the right direction.
Another thing that almost tripped me up: If you are using an Asustor NAS, the system may create for you an extra folder called "Video" and put NextPVR recordings there.
Another thing that Sub might consider if it appears on many installations: The "Save" button remains grey, like the "Cancel" button on the "Edit channel details" dialog box after adding the relevant XMLTV file. See screenshot. In my opinion, it should change color to indicate that it is active. It otherwise works as expected.