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[cherrald]

Is this function available to work similar to windows media centre?

I don't want some website address, I just want it to get the info from the relevent TV Station over the air.

I queried this a few versions ago and was told it's not available. I've had media centre since version 8, and it makes it hard to be an "all in one" media centre if I can't use the TV Program Guide to record and view etc.

Surely this functionality can't be too hard to add.

[pauly139]

Hi

The functionality you want is available, however not via OTA. I subscribe to IceTV which MC connects to and reads the TV Guide from in the background. So once it is setup I don't need to do anything. So the net result is the same, except I pay an annual subscription to IceTV for their service.

HTH
Paul.

[struct]

egstream also has a free download tool.  very easy to set up, a one line batch file to run it and mc loads the data daily. it is not ota but works and free if don't want to donate. there are more details on forum.

[jmone]

I think the OP point was that now there is a reliable (ish) EPG being broadcast OTA, is JR looking at grabbing this info directly (not using other 3rd party code or grabbers) so to enable native support for both:
- Building the EPG in MC and
- Updating the EPG on the fly for programs running late etc.

[cherrald]

Exactly!

So is this going to be available?

[stewart_pk]

I love JRiver but Windows Media Center smacks it real hard for TV viewing here in Australia.

[Z0001]

OTA EPG for MC18 would be killer. I want something that works as reliably as MC without the need for addional set up externally, ICE is nice but is $100 a year, so this is a real put off when all that it would be used for is the guide.

I find the quality of MC TV better than WMC, but the guide function of WMC would be the  trump card if I could get good reception from it!

Please please please OTA EPG for MC18!

[astromo]

I hear you brothers & sisters.

I too can't see the point in paying out for an EPG when the data is freely available from the interweb but had difficulties in making the external EPG scraping process work. Look here for a rundown of that experience:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=72202.0
Thanks to the assistance from imugli, I was able to nut it out. Like many of these things, if you make one slightly wrong step that's all that it takes to prevent the process from working.

So, even though the function you're after is not inherently part of MC17, you can make it work with the functions that are on board ... for free  

While I'm here, I agree with the collective that making this function a "quick setup" option within MC18 would be an improvement in the right direction to kick WMC out of the ball park...  

[ThoBar]

I'll weigh in and vote for this too...

[azz123]

+1

TV is the only thing holding me back from going 100% away from WMC. Also in AU.

I also use IceTV for WMC - its far more reliable (in my experience) than the interweb.

[pauly139]

+1

Just forked out $100 for another 12 months of of ICE EPG here in Aus. Really sucks.

Paul.

[Z0001]

Can anyone shed some light on the specific steps I need to go through to set up a regular EPG  download into MC with epgstream? Their site talks about launching the executible From command line, batch file or windows task scheduler, but surely I want MC to do this? Appreciate any thoughts.

[Matt]

I personally really like the idea of OTA guide data.

And in fact Media Center has pretty nice support for it in ATSC land.  The problem is that the OTA guide data is often terrible.

Is the OTA guide information in Australia good?  Does it go out a couple weeks?

[rpalmer68]

I personally really like the idea of OTA guide data.

Is the OTA guide information in Australia good?  Does it go out a couple weeks?

Yes the data is pretty good, I run scripts now to gather the OTA aand and create an xmltv file MC can then import.

Most stations broadcast the next 7 days, some a day or two more but none go out two weeks.

[jmone]

It is pretty good.  I had a play with three formats a few months ago, and the best was probably the commercial IceTV download as it is hand built (but ver expensive), then the script Richard runs that combines some screen scraping with to fill in any missing EPG data.  I'm currently running a pure EPG grabber and surprised just how complete it is.  I did post in the Beta team some links on the format used etc but I'm on my phone at the moment.

[raym]

+1

Just forked out $100 for another 12 months of of ICE EPG here in Aus. Really sucks.

Paul.

Subscribe and get it at a discount - I think it's 30% off.

OTA guide data sucks IMO. IceTV is money well spent.

[jmone]

Plus it is not Australia that uses this EPG format though I think there are two different standards used in the DVB-T world.

Raym, I found the OTA EPG when from crap to OK earlier this year when they relaunched it with some of the HW MFRS.MC should include support.

[astromo]

Subscribe and get it at a discount - I think it's 30% off.

OTA guide data sucks IMO. IceTV is money well spent.

As with all things in life, good vs bad is relative and dependent on your point of view. The free method of accessing the OTA EPG as per:
http://epgstream.net/xmltv-download/
... scroll down to the section for Oz (+see quote below) and my previous post in this thread - does a good enough job for me.

My yardstick is my TV junkie partner. If she complained, I might get concerned. The OzTiVo data with the epgstream.net delivery work well enough via JR MC's relevant import function - just a bit tricky to set up for a noob.

Info from epgstream.net - Australia
OzTiVo

OzTiVo is an Australian Community-driven TV Guide. The Guide was created so that personal video recorders (PVRs) in Australia can obtain electronic program guide (EPG) data. Currently, the TV Guide provides data in XMLTV format and in OzTiVo slice format.

The data is freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. OzTiVo do require payment to receive this data.

OzTiVo’s guide relies on a community of volunteers to create and upload guide data to the guide’s database, and to clean and edit the data via a web interface.

I personally really like the idea of OTA guide data.

And in fact Media Center has pretty nice support for it in ATSC land.  The problem is that the OTA guide data is often terrible.

Is the OTA guide information in Australia good?  Does it go out a couple weeks?

Matt, jmone sounds to be on the ball and you've got additional resource potential from rpalmer68. You can see from the OzTiVo info above that there is a level of horsepower that works to generate a reasonable standard of freely available EPG data. From my limited knowledge, the Australian federal government mandates timely release of EPG data from the various TV stations in a format that can at least be scraped by those with the wherewithal.

From a dum@ass, "I just want the goods" user what I can make work with what you've provided is OK but if you guys can come up with a better deal straight out of the box that's configured with the flick of a JR MC switch, then I think you can see that you've already got votes in support. To coin an Ozzie phrase, the "rest will follow like sheep, mate". Go for it ...