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[Ark :D]

So, as I've mentioned before on here, my wife is a relentless TV addict.  I used to run 3 total HTPC's (1 "server", 2 "satellite" lightweight PC's), with the server running NextPVR 3.6.6, and all 3 running Kodi 15.2.  We moved away from that setup to MC 21 specifically because she disliked the EPG from our old setup and we had one frustrating issue where, if multiple people were watching different TV's at the same time, occasionally a channel change would happen on the wrong TV.  But that's neither here nor there.

My question is this;  in peoples' experience, what is the "best" EPG out there?  By "best", I guess I mean a combination of most accurate, with the most detailed information.

My wife bitches because she used to be able to see the original air date of a re-run and other things that seem to have gone away since Microsoft moved to Rovi in 2015.  (For the record, we were Windows Media Center users since the original Ceton InfiniTV 4 was released in 2010).  As far as I know, the following are options we've either tried in the past or could try now:

• WMC's legacy - My wife still considers this the best of the bunch and frequently wishes we could go back to it.
• Rovi - what we're using now;  seems ok, but with less detail than MS legacy, and this issue with DST has me uneasy.
• Schedules Direct - We used this for the period of time we had NextPVR/Kodi.  Seems to be the least detailed of the bunch.
• Zap2It XMLTV - I've dabbled with this but nothing more.  I noticed there's an option to request more detailed data, as well as images.
• Zap2It XMLTV using TVGuide.com - Haven't touched it.  Better/same/worse than Zap2It?

I will say this:  I have no idea if the content in the EPG's above is limited by the capabilities of NextPVR and/or JRiver Media Center, and if anything can be done about that.  What I mean is, is the ability to request more detailed program information pointless because JRiver won't display it?  That kind of thing.

Just looking for some insight from people that know more about EPG's than I do!  Thanks in advance!

[CountryBumkin]

I think the problem is that the "data sources" we have available is not consistent. Like you mentioned, the old WMC had good data then Microsoft changed to Rovi.
The built-in data source for JRiver is Rovi (via mc2xml program) therefore it is the same as you would get if you were still using WMC. However the way the data is displayed in the Guide may be different.

I have tried several of the EPG data providers/methods, and I settled on Schedules Direct. (Note that SD is not supposed to be used with JRiver because JRiver is a commercial product, but it works if you have it). SD has a "JSON" format that is very good. The Commercial version (for use with JRiver) of SD is PercData, but PercData doesn't yet offer the JSON format (yet).

I tried Zap2xml but did not find any compelling reason to switch from SD to it.

There are two "data enhancement" programs, XMLTVDb and EPG Collector. I have used XMLTVDb and it does a good job. I have not used EPG Collector.
The XMLTVDb program takes your existing "xmltv.xml" file and adds data (if there is anything missing) files by adding TheTVDB.com season/episode numbers as well as year and series id to the xml file. This enhancement may be enough for you.

I don't think there is a "best" EPG. It depends on what is important to the User (ease, cost, data, etc.).

The built-in mc2xml (Rovi) source is "easiest" to use. The SD and PrecData sources have a little better data (IMO) but require paid subscriptions. The XMLTVDb and EPG Collector data enhancement programs are free but require additional setup work.

[Ark :D]

Good info.  I will look into XMLTVdb, thanks for the suggestion.

[RoderickGI]

Good summary CountryBumkin.

PercData need to get their JSON option sorted out if they want people to respect the SD T&Cs (if they haven't done it yet), and MC needs to start using the JSON capabilities. I don't think Yaobing has implemented the JSON calls yet.

I have used both the EPG Collector and XMLTVDB metadata improvement capabilities, and concluded that they both worked about the same. However, EPG Collector has had some big improvements in matching records on TheTVDB that XMLTVDB may not cope well with, so EPGC may be better now.

As I haven't used EPG Collector just to improve and externally sourced XMLTV file, I can't say that this would be without problems. I both collect and improve EPG data all within EPG Collector.

I think the only way to get really good EPG data is to pay for a curated EPG service. We have one of those in Australia, IceTV, but I don't know of any in the USA. I suspect that Gracenote do curate their data better than Rovi, but they never provided all their best data via zap2it, since it was/is a free service. Schedules Direct and PercData also use Gracenote data, and if you use the JSON capabilities I suspect you get better data than Rovi can ever provide, but still not the same data if you were a full commercial user, such as perhaps SnapStream.

[Yaobing]

I started implementing JSON for PercData a while back, only to find out that it does not support JSON.  So the situation will not improve until PercData provides JSON service.

[Castius]

I made an account with zap2it. So far it's been stable. but i don't have a good comparison for the detail level,

my zap2it cmd line that looks like this.
zap2xml.exe -u zap2xmluser@email.xx -p password -D -e -r 5 -s 1

you can also get the channel icons with this.
zap2xml.exe -u zap2xmluser@email.xx -p password  -D -e -r 5 -s 1 -I -i icons

But they are pretty small gifs. Also some are actually png files with gif extension.
Some have transparency that is not supported in JRiver yet. so ehh

I'm getting season and episode data but i don't see original air date.

[CountryBumkin]

It doesn't look like MC provides the original air date. I could not find an appropriate "field" that could be added to the display (via ... file info panel).

In the xmltv.xml data I get, there is a data field  "<previously-shown start=yyyymmdd000000 />".

Which looks mostly correct for this date. However, it is not 100% accurate, for example, as the "NBC News" broadcast shows a 2005 year, and "Saturday Night Live" (current show) has a 1975 date listed here. Etc.

[Yaobing]

Original air date should be in Date field in MC.

[CountryBumkin]

Yup, "Date" works perfectly. Thanks.

I would have expected "Date (release)" to be the correct field. But it doesn't really matter as long as the info is available somewhere.

[imeric]

Yaobing as I suggested before you may want to change the default in the file info panel for theater view to show original air date.

More info here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=102798.msg713659#msg713659

Snapshot on how to enter it manually attached.