Windows Media Center 2005 - EPG for Irish TV

Graham

I'm starting to get a few PMs asking how to get the MCE EPG (electronic program guide) working for Ireland, so I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread rather than answering the same questions individually.

I know Microsoft announced they will be launching an official EPG for Ireland this year but there's no sign of it yet. In the mean time it is possible to put together your own fairly reliable EPG.

It does take a bit of setting up, but once it's done it works very well.

Updating your EPG is a 2 stage process:

1) download the program data (TV listings) for all your channels
2) import the data into MCE

I use XMLTV to download the program data and QuickGuide to import it into MCE.

You can download XMLTV here:

XMLTV

You can download quickguide (and read the instructions) here:

QuickGuide

I've attached a short "how to setup xmltv" document to this post which should be enough for most people to configure XMLTV to retrieve all of their channel data.

If you're using NTL Digital (Dublin), let me know as I've got this configuration already setup so I can just post the config file. If you've got quickguide working for another TV Provider perhaps you'd add to this post, no point everyone reinventing the wheel.

TIP - when you've got MCE working nicely (without an EPG) take a backup before you start any of the EPG stuff. It's quite ease to make a mistake and realise you have to reinstall MCE from scratch. Use microsofts built in backup even if it's only backing up to your hard disk.

If you've any questions, feel free to add them here. I'll try and help.

G

40coats

I don't use this method at all anymore, editing the tuningoverride.xml is much more reliable and easier to do (as long as you can live without listings for TV3, Setanta and TG4). Full insructions are somewhere in the media centre thread. As for the official Irish release, it's still coming but not quite ready yet.

Graham

Great to hear you got it working 40coats. I wouldn't want people to think for a minute the way I do it is the only way.

I'm not sure I'd agree with the "much more reliable" though as I've had no problems at all since I got everything setup correctly. In fact the MCE EPG I have at the moment is usually more accurate than the NTL Digital box.

BTW are you subscribed to NTL or NTL Digital?

Perhaps we could use this thread to support people trying either methods.

OhPinchy

Thanks Graham - I'll be setting up an MCE machine with NTL Digital in a few weeks when I get back from the US (where I'm getting me some Extenders for $180 a pop ) so it sounds like your file will be a major help to me. I'll PM you my email address and that would be sweet if you could send it on, thx

40coats

Graham wrote:

Great to hear you got it working 40coats. I wouldn't want people to think for a minute the way I do it is the only way.

I'm not sure I'd agree with the "much more reliable" though as I've had no problems at all since I got everything setup correctly. In fact the MCE EPG I have at the moment is usually more accurate than the NTL Digital box.

BTW are you subscribed to NTL or NTL Digital?

Perhaps we could use this thread to support people trying either methods.

Hi Graham, I'm still just on analog NTL. I definitely find the hacked override better, I had to set up the smart guide a fair few times when I was using it, kept losing my settings. Using the override uses media centers own guide data, so searching and filtering work better (in fact I don't think they worked for me at all the old way) and you don't get truncations in the program info. Just seems to me to be a much more solid experience.

PowerHouseDan

How do you go about doing it your way Coats.

40coats

powerhousedan wrote:

How do you go about doing it your way Coats.

Grabbed this from SoSolid's instructions in the other thread:

There is a file in the C:\Windows\ehome folder called MCETuningOverrides.xml which does what is says, and overrides any frequencies for known cable/satellite systems with manual frequencies. I messed around with it and it worked fairly well. You need to set up your guide as being in the U.K. and change one of the <TuningSpaces> entries to look like
<AnalogTVTuningSpace Id="44" UniqueName="Irish Cable" ... and pop in your channel frequencies.
The "44" overrides the known frequencies for the UK and only scans for the specific frequencies in the file. This file only applies to analogue cable/off-air and not digital STBs.
For analogue, rerun the TV setup, tell it you're in the U.K., on "Cable or Digital Cable", and give it a Belfast post code BT61 7QZ (don't just give it any code), and when it asks what type of service, select Cable line-up for the UK. This will download all EPG data for about 245 channels (everything from Adult Channel to Zee TV, except for TV3 and TNaG). Then you need to assign Guide listings to each channel, i.e. tell it that BBC1 is to be associated with the EPG data for "BBC1 Northern Ireland", and so on for the rest of your channels. If you have a dual-tuner card (or two single-tuner cards), you can watch-one-record-another (or record two at the same time).

If you're an NTL digital person, do the same as above except tell it you have a set top box. Also the MCPC doesn't scan for channels. You have to match the three-digit ntl channel number to the Guide data in a similar fashion to the above.

Graham

Any idea how you would tell MCE that you have an STB tuned to a specific frequency, but still need the IR blaster to change channels 40coats, powerhousedan is a bit stuck at the mo. He has a STB connected on a single analog channel.

40coats

I'm getting digital put in this weekend so will hopefully be able to answer you then. Might be worth pinging SoSolid if he's still about.

PowerHouseDan

Setup Guideguide problem i have my channelinfo.xml and my tvlist.xml
my when i try to run quickguide i am getting a Encrypted epg file at: F:\windows\ehome\output\1606ae05-bc98-49ff-88a9-7ae7eee407b7.xml.enc.xml

ANyone have any ideas? Or anyone have the sky digital files make things alot easyer

Graham

That's what your supposed to get Dan, that XML file is the EPG data that's been encrypted into the Media Centre format, quickguide should then try and import that xml file into MCE.

Are you getting any error messages? Have you changed the quickguide conf file to point to the encrypted EPG xml data?

PowerHouseDan

I am only getting that what i just said What part of the quickguide config do i change to point to F:\windows\ehome\output\1606ae05-bc98-49ff-88a9-7ae7eee407b7.xml.enc.xml?
This is my curremt setup
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<!-- Defines the location of the XMLTV File-->
<add key="XMLTVFile" value="tvlist.xml" />
<!-- Defines the location of the ChannelInfo File -->
<add key="ChannelInfo" value="ChannelInfo.xml" />
<!-- Defines the location of the TVXML Schema -->
<add key="XMLTVSchema" value="XMLTV.xsd" />
<!-- Defines the location of the xml parts to be included -->
<add key="EPGXMLWriterPartsPath" value="EPGXMLWriterParts\" />
<!-- Defines the output directory where to store (intermediate) xml files) -->
<add key="EPGOutputPath" value="{APPDIR}\output\" />
<!-- The numeric id that is used for 'no data' programs (i.e. the program that fills a timegap) -->
<!-- DO NOT CHANGE, UNLESS YOU GET CONFLICTING KEYS -->
<add key="NoDataProgramID" value="2000000000" />
<!-- The texts that are used for 'no data' programs (e.g. "No Broadcast"). -->
<add key="NoDataTitle" value=" " />
<add key="NoDataDescription" value=" " />
</appSettings>
</configuration>

Graham

Hi Dan,

that all looks ok to me, I'll compare it to mine when I get home this evening.

You shouldn't need to run quickguide again. Running quickguide does two things:

1) Takes XMLTV source and encrypts it.
2) Imports encrypted xml and imports it into MCE.

The 2nd step starts automatically upon completion of the first. Are you returned to a dos prompt after running quickguide, or are you running it from Windows so the Dos window closes automatically?

If you're running it from windows rather than from a DOS prompt, you're likely to miss any error messages.

If neither of the above reply, run quickguide again and leave it for a few minutes, if you dont see "Completed Successfuly" or an error message, quickguide is still doing stuff.

PowerHouseDan

I got a dos error from dos rather than a quickguide error, i dont get succesful.......... just a pop up error i will post in a min

PowerHouseDan

I get a popup error after encrypeted epg file.



Heading: QuickGuide.exe - Common Lanuage Runtime debugging services
Message:Application has generated an exception that could not be handled

Process Id=0xb60(2912), Thread id=0x38c(908)
Ok To terminate
cancell to debug...

Graham

I was just going to post the link to the green button thread where the author of quickguide offers support when I noticed you'd already found it.

Perhaps try removing all but one channels from your channelinfo.xml file and see if that works. Feel free to zip up your channelinfo.xml and send it over, I'll take a look.

PowerHouseDan

Right the debug error was the caspol.exe -s off which i didnt do right the guide is now working just need to sort it out, i delete a few channels as i thought it was making errors..

Thanks for your Help Graham

Legend

Graham

No problem Dan, glad to see your almost there.

PowerHouseDan

I am now fully there have my full epg guide, and recording the whole lot well worth the hassle

Graham

Fantastic news Dan, glad it all worked out in the end, congratulations.

PowerHouseDan

1 question if i am going from scart to composite to my pvr should there be a delay there is about a 1-2 second delay fro whats on the tv compared to the pc?

Graham

Can't say I've ever noticed a delay Dan but I don't think I've ever compared direct TV to TV via MCE.

pmorddny

Hi, I'm on NTL analogue and I'm using XMLTV and Quickguide to generate the EPG. My problem is that the stations are no longer tuned in correctly when I run Quickguide.

I use MCEReload to clear all my settings. I then set the region to Ireland and tell it to rescan all the channels. I seems to work fine except for a couple of 'Unknown' channels (how can I change those 'Unknown' channel names?). I can see RTE1 and RTE2 fine. However, when I run Quickguide, the channels are still there, but are no longer tuned. Should I be doing something with MCETuningOverrides.xml?

I'd use the Belfast solution but TV3 and TG4 are coming up as 'Unknown' when I try this... ugh!!!!!

If anyone has some files they could send me, I'd be a happy camper. I'm pulling what's left of my hair out, and the heat ain't helping either...

Graham

I know this is resurrecting an old thread but I hear rumblings that an update to Windows MCE 2005 is due in the next couple of weeks.

A few bug fixes, and apparently a load of additional countries to be added to the EPG

40coats

Don't know the dates (or at least I don't know if I'm allowed to say them) but I now have a fully working Irish epg, not long to wait now boys.

FrankGrimes

Thats good to hear. I'm probably going to order my MCE machine in today or tomorrow. Just to be sure - if I buy MCE 2005 now will I be entitled to the upgrade (i.e. is it free), or should I hold out until the next release?

40coats

FrankGrimes wrote:

Thats good to hear. I'm probably going to order my MCE machine in today or tomorrow. Just to be sure - if I buy MCE 2005 now will I be entitled to the upgrade (i.e. is it free), or should I hold out until the next release?

It's free.

Graham

You have the official Irish EPG 40coats?

40coats

Graham wrote:

You have the official Irish EPG 40coats?

I sure do, still a few minor issues to fix from the content side. The pain (it was for me anyway) of smartguide is nearly over.

PowerHouseDan

How if ya dont mind me asking? We're All Friends on Boards

40coats

powerhousedan wrote:

How if ya dont mind me asking? We're All Friends on Boards

I'm on the team that's been doing the Irish release (I've had very little to with it personally unfortunately). I'll say no more, don't want to get myself in trouble. I'll try and find out if I can post a release date yet.