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More => Old Versions => Media Center 17 => Topic started by: BrianD on November 10, 2011, 10:52:13 pm

Title: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: BrianD on November 10, 2011, 10:52:13 pm
Hi,

Currently I use JRMC16 for all my media around the home (which is working great) except watching & recording live TV.  For this I use Windows MediaCenter, not because I want to but because MC does not work as smoothly (channel switching) with my TV tuner card (VideoMate Compro single tuner DVB-T card) as WMC does but also mainly because I can't access & view the Free to Air program guide.  This frustrates the hell out of me because I want to be able to use MC for all my media needs.

WMC seems to grab the guide from the free to Air broadcast signal (i think, someone may be able to tell me if this is correct or not).  Can somebody please tell me if it is possible to access the EPG over FTA from within MC or tell me how others are scheduling their TV recording.  I am in Adelaide, Australia.

Any help appreciated.
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: imugli on November 10, 2011, 10:57:59 pm
You're right, WMC does pull the EPG from the OTA signal, however MC doesn't have this capability.

I use IceTV (paid subscription) but you can find links to free ways to do this in this post

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=60412.msg407830#msg407830

Cheers,

Justin.
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: raym on November 10, 2011, 11:07:42 pm
My opinion: the ICETV subscription is money well spent. I don't bother with any of the scrapers/"freebie" guides anymore as I found them too unreliable.
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: BrianD on November 10, 2011, 11:08:10 pm
Thanks, I will look into this over the weekend when I get a chance but I would like to know from the JR team if the OTA guide functionality will make its way into the product or if structurally it is not possible.  It seems these days that access to such everyday basic fuctionality should be simple for the end user (as it is with WMC, BTW this is the only thing that WMC does well).  
The work that JR is now doing with the Grid View for the EPG looks fantastic.  If I could get the guide loaded into this grid OTA then I would ditch WMC altogether which would make me very happy.  It is a bit clunky switching between the 2 apps all the time.
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: imugli on November 10, 2011, 11:11:47 pm
My opinion: the ICETV subscription is money well spent. I don't bother with any of the scrapers/"freebie" guides anymore as I found them too unreliable.

I didn't try the free scraper road, but agree re IceTV. 
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: BrianD on November 10, 2011, 11:20:44 pm
Does IceTV run as a separate application that you access outside of MC or does it integrate so that the guide is available from within MC.
If external then this is the same as using WMC TV recording.
If the guide can be shown within MC then this is something like what I am after (always better to have it native inside MC though).  Maybe IceTV can run as a service in the background & MC can access the data etc.
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: pauly139 on November 10, 2011, 11:49:34 pm
I use IceTV for my guide as well, and once setup it all works automatically.

I use WebGet (an Ice TV app) to download the guide in XML format, which MC runs for me once per day, and then imports the guide.
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: imugli on November 10, 2011, 11:57:05 pm
I use IceTV for my guide as well, and once setup it all works automatically.

I use WebGet (an Ice TV app) to download the guide in XML format, which MC runs for me once per day, and then imports the guide.

Yep. Webget is easy to set up - am happy to provide my command line setup if you like - and it just runs in the background daily.
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: jmone on November 11, 2011, 12:04:43 am
I use the freebie method but I have no idea how all the scripts work as I just copied the whole preconfiged setup from rpalmer68!  It runs once a day as a windows task and MC imports the XML results.
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: BrianD on November 11, 2011, 12:18:31 am
Yep. Webget is easy to set up - am happy to provide my command line setup if you like - and it just runs in the background daily.

I have just joined up for a 30day free IceTV subscription.  If you could send me a link to the webget download and provide the command script that would be great.

Thanks for your help
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: imugli on November 11, 2011, 05:59:24 am
Download it from here:

http://support.icetv.com.au/entries/20108166-setting-up-icetv-and-sagetv (ironically  ;) )

The exectutable is the path to where you save webget.exe

The command line arguments are:

http://iceguide.icetv.com.au/cgi-bin/epg/iceguide.cgi?op=xmlguide&days=7 -u *user* -p *password* -o *output file*.xml

Load xmltv results from:

*output file*


Output file and executable path need to include drive (eg c:\webget.exe, c:\tvguide.xml).
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: astromo on January 16, 2012, 06:32:48 am
I use the freebie method but I have no idea how all the scripts work as I just copied the whole preconfiged setup from rpalmer68!  It runs once a day as a windows task and MC imports the XML results.

jmone, where's this preconfigured setup located that you mention? Is it posted on the forum?

I've done a couple of searches and come up empty. I'm keen to see if I can get a free EPG to work to get the most out of MC17 and hopefully ditch Win 7 MCE in the process.

Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: JimH on January 16, 2012, 06:38:45 am
rpalmer68 is a user.  You could search for him here and send a private message.
Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: struct on January 16, 2012, 06:46:18 am
epgstream.net has a free downloader that works well with mc.  you dont need to make a donation for the free bit as mc can activate it once a day.  i use this but my brother says that icetv is money well spent. dont watch much live tv myself so dont want to subscribe to icetv. setup is quite straightforward. post again if you need more info.
craig

Title: Re: How to get FTA TV guide in MC in Adelaide Australia
Post by: astromo on January 17, 2012, 02:34:43 am
rpalmer68 is a user.  You could search for him here and send a private message.

Thanks for that. Already ahead of you. PM sent a few days ago. Will try to tap into struct's knowledge http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=67156.msg465849#msg465849 (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=67156.msg465849#msg465849) and work it that way. Hopefully once the configuration is done once, then it can be left alone to just work.

I love life when it's hassle free and I can take on this kind of demeanour    8)