[plugin] XMLTV Importer

[AndyQ]

Stéphane,

A question about categories.

For films, my XMLTV file has Film for the category tag, however these aren't recognised by the movies category search in BTV.

Any idea why?

Cheers
Andy

[StephaneM]

Hello Andy,

Originally Posted by AndyQ

For films, my XMLTV file has Film for the category tag, however these aren't recognised by the movies category search in BTV. Any idea why?

Simply because the keywords BTV expect to see are not the ones used in your XMLTV file.

You can modifiy the category keywords in BTV, but it is rather a non easy process and can lead to breaking the guide import process (category matching is made right after loading the program guide and if if fails then program guide import fail as well).

So it's better to use the WebGuide to search through categories.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[sharkeef]

Stephane,
I'm having trouble importing xmltv listings to btv. The channel lineup updates properly but, the no listings are imported. Log output is below. The lineup is associated with a video source. .Net framework 1.1 and 2.0 are installed on my pc. I am running BTV SE Version 3.7.0. I have an active lifetime Snapstream.net subscription. Do you have any idea what the problem might be? Thanks

[1/16/2006 19:48:01] Guide Update started.
[1/16/2006 19:48:04] Guide Updater Service: Initializing...
[1/16/2006 19:48:04] Guide Updater Service: Getting data from Third Party Source...
[1/16/2006 19:48:04] Guide Updater Service: Processing new data...
[1/16/2006 19:48:06] Guide Updater Service: Setting base channel lineups...
[1/16/2006 19:48:07] Guide Updater Service: Processing data complete. Loading new data...
[1/16/2006 19:48:07] Guide Loader FAILED: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
[1/16/2006 19:48:07] Guide Updater Service: Data load into database tables failed.

[StephaneM]

Hello,

Originally Posted by sharkeef

[1/16/2006 19:48:07] Guide Loader FAILED: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

It seems to me taht this error means that BTV is not setup correctly : one of the COM component that is responsible for loading guide data (XMLTV or SnapStream.Net) is not registered properly.

Do you have installed any other version of BTV other than the one you are using now?

Try to uninstall BTV, reboot and install it again (backup your C:\document and settings\all user\application data\snapstream\beyond tv directoy to not have to reconfigure BTV after setup).

If this not work you'll have to contact SnapStream support.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[sharkeef]

Thanks for the response. I think you are correct. I tried switching back to the internal updater and am now getting the same error there. I'll reinstall btv.
fyi...
I just installed visual studio .net 2005 on the pc last week. I wonder if that broke something in btv.

[avidav]

Stephane,
I installed xmltv and the importer and all works well; I can see the imported data in BTV (ver 4.1). The one thing I can't seem to be able to configure is to make the link between the guide channel and the tuner channel on which the program I want to record is being broadcast.
In other words, I configured BBC1 to be on channel 1 on the guide (to match the setup of my TV), and I configured BBC1 to show on channel 1 on BTV. However when I schedule a recording on BBC1, I get a recording of a Dutch channel (at the correct times).
Any idea what may be wrong and how to fix it?
Thanks.

[StephaneM]

Hello,

Originally Posted by avidav

I configured BBC1 to be on channel 1 on the guide

I think this is where you are making a mistake. The channel number you must type in the Importe Channel Editor is not a "logical or user" number, it is exactly the "channel number", that is one used to deduce the Radio Frequency of the channel so as the tuner in your PC can tune to the channel (Or if you use an external set top box this is the number you must type on the set top box remote so as the set top box will tune the channel you want).

For instance in France the first historical public channel is TF1 and since TV exists in France we are used to use number 1 as the channel number, whereas the real channel number of TF1 is 25 (in Paris neighborood).

Regards,
Stéphane.

[avidav]

I think I see the point. Point the importer to the physical tuner channel and not the "logical" channel.

So this brings another question to close the loop:
If my tuner performs a scan, finds a live channel on tuner channel #1, nothing on tuner channel #2 and #3 and TF1 on tuner channel #4, should I point the TF1 importer to channel 4 (=tuner channel 4) or to channel 2 (second "live" channel the tuner detected)?
Thanks.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by avidav

If my tuner performs a scan, finds a live channel on tuner channel #1, nothing on tuner channel #2 and #3 and TF1 on tuner channel #4, should I point the TF1 importer to channel 4 (=tuner channel 4) or to channel 2 (second "live" channel the tuner detected)?

You'll point it to number 4. The easiest way to find the correct number for Aerial / Cable channels is to let BTV autotune during the Setup Wizard. It will find all your channels. Then launch the BTV Viewscape and write down for each channel the channel number BTV found, you'll then use those numbers in the XMLTV Importer.

Regards,
Stéphane.

[avidav]

So one last question: how do I control the channel order in the btv4 guide? I still want the guide to follow the same channel order as my TV.

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by avidav

how do I control the channel order in the btv4 guide?

You can't. Beyond TV does not offer any sorting or re-numbering of channels.

[FoxBat]

Originally Posted by avidav

So one last question: how do I control the channel order in the btv4 guide? I still want the guide to follow the same channel order as my TV.

Please look at following link that show how you can have a custom channel order in Beyond TV with XMLTV.

http://www.snapstream.com/Community/...s/customorder/

I have used it and it runs without any problem in BTV4.

[Ivo-G]

Originally Posted by avidav

So one last question: how do I control the channel order in the btv4 guide? I still want the guide to follow the same channel order as my TV.

Try this program out, it has done the trick for me!: FreqShifter v1.0

Available from http://www.webshifter.net/

[avidav]

Salut Stephane,
I applied FoxBat's method (sorry Ivo-G, that was before I saw your post) and it worked fine, with one exception: since then I lost the BTV menu item called "Program Guide", and I can no longer do an update; I always get the following error message: "Unable to start Beyond TV update: Unable to connect to BTV Web Admin (Server was unable to process request)".
I CAN access WebAdmin manually, at http://localhost:8129, and I do not have any Firewall limiting the access. And it did work until I did the channel remapping in registry.
I unistalled and re-installed BTV - still the same situation.
So, any idea what may have gone wrong, what can be done to restore the "Program Guide" menu item to BTV and why would the server not be able to process my simple request?
Heeeeelp!

[StephaneM]

Originally Posted by avidav

I applied FoxBat's method .../... and it worked fine, with one exception: since then I lost the BTV menu item called "Program Guide", and I can no longer do an update; I always get the following error message: "Unable to start Beyond TV update: Unable to connect to BTV Web Admin (Server was unable to process request)".

Well basically, you screwed up your computer / registry. I do not recommended you to alter DirectShow frequencies through the registry, because I don't have tried this myself and it seems to me that there is more than one frequency table (for each country, and for cable / aerial) and that is potentially a source of confusion (for BTV).

My best advice to you would be to use System Restore to the point before you try to change the frequency table and wait for Snapstream to offer a real "channel sort" option.

Regards,
Stéphane.