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[marko]

Looking up info for the BBC's "Africa"...



But, thetvdb.org has this: http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=265145 , complete with MC banner ad across the top!

So, why is MC not getting this information?

[Sandy B Ridge]

No, I think the TVDB lookup is dependent on Series number and episode number for the data. I don't think the EPG can automatically save these. If you add  series number and episode number manually you get good data.




SBR

[glynor]

Somehow (and I don't profess to know how) SageTV does get Season and Episode numbers for almost every single recording it makes out of the program guide data that it gets.

I don't know how it does this, but it does.

Maybe it does some kind of crazy lookup on something like TVDB?  Maybe their guide data is just better?   It can't be that someone who works there is hand-coding them, because Sage has been shut down for a long time now and it still works right.  I'm sure you could look in their forums for details, but in any case...  For basically everything except "live" events and "news programs" (like CBS Nightly News or The Daily Show) it gets season and episode numbers, and the lookup happens in MC automatically as Auto-Import picks up the files.

It would be nice if MC could figure out how Sage is pulling this off and incorporate it.  Automatic Metadata for recorded shows is a need-to-have feature of a PVR, IMHO.

[nwboater]

Somehow (and I don't profess to know how) SageTV does get Season and Episode numbers for almost every single recording it makes out of the program guide data that it gets.

I don't know how it does this, but it does.

Maybe it does some kind of crazy lookup on something like TVDB?  Maybe their guide data is just better?   It can't be that someone who works there is hand-coding them, because Sage has been shut down for a long time now and it still works right.  I'm sure you could look in their forums for details, but in any case...  For basically everything except "live" events and "news programs" (like CBS Nightly News or The Daily Show) it gets season and episode numbers, and the lookup happens in MC automatically as Auto-Import picks up the files.

It would be nice if MC could figure out how Sage is pulling this off and incorporate it.  Automatic Metadata for recorded shows is a need-to-have feature of a PVR, IMHO.

Thanks Glynor for expressing this so well. I have had the exact same success in getting metadata from Sage, and no success at all in MC. I have been battling this each time I leave Sage and try to use MC for TV recording. I have posted several times about it and the most response I have gotten from JRiver is that the information needs to come from the EPG. It has been very frustrating!

You have a wonderful idea that JRiver should figure out how Sage does it. Gosh I'll even loan them a copy of Sage with serial #.

One other thing about this: All movies that I import from Sage get picked up as Movies Sub Type by Carnac. When recording in MC I have to go to Tagging, tell MC it's a Movie, then do a Get Movie info. All this doesn't seem very appropriate in a high quality PVR.

Also with Sage I get Covers for most everything recorded from TV, not the screen grabs that MC gives.

Here's hoping some progress can be made on this.

Thanks,
Rod

[glynor]

So... I looked into it a bit more, and I figured out "how" they're doing it.

Their guide data is just better.

Their guide data comes from Zap2It, and it includes the Season and Episode numbers.  This is easy to see, if you just visit the Zap2It website and check the current listings for yourself.  Click on one of the shows (a drama or whatever) and it'll have Season and Episode numbers.

That must be served via their API too, ergo, it is available.

Probably not global (I don't know what all Zap2It covers), but in the US at least, the guide data from SageTV has always been quite nice.  Not perfect, of course, but as-good-as-or-better-than any DirecTV or Cable Company box I've had in my time.

So... The question is:  Can we pay for better/easier guide data?  I wouldn't mind paying a modestish yearly fee, if it would guarantee good data will keep coming down that pipe, even if I switch providers and whatnot.  Sage used them, and apparently the deal was good enough that they'll keep letting me (and nwboater) use the data for the one-time price we payed way back when, all the way to now without further payment or hassle.

Not saying it needs to be that good of a deal, but perhaps some kind of a deal can be worked out?  They have a License Our Content link way at the bottom of their page, which is linked to an email address.  Just saying.

[nwboater]

Good detective work Glynor! Have you finally made the big switch from Sage?

I also wouldn't mind paying a modest fee to have good data.

Thanks again for jumping on this.

Cheers,
Rod

[glynor]

Good detective work Glynor! Have you finally made the big switch from Sage?

Nope.

I have two HD-PVRs now.  And two cable boxes.

And, I'd want this to be fixed too.

SageTV is a steaming pile of fail every time I actually try to use it for anything other than scheduling new recordings.  But it is recording reliably and the files come into MC basically fully tagged.

Except for Live TV (for which I have no-end of trouble with the SageTV Client misbehaving, quality problems, and other horse-pucky), I'm fine with it.  I'd rather have it all integrated into MC, but...  I need the USB-UIRT to be able to blast zones to my two cable boxes separately, and I need good metadata to happen automatically, or it'd be a step backwards.

[nwboater]

Nope.

I have two HD-PVRs now.  And two cable boxes.

And, I'd want this to be fixed too.

It would sure be nice if TV could get some more love!

Cheers,
Rod

[Sandy B Ridge]

 Can we pay for better/easier guide data?

The UK has digiguide. There is an API although I think the API is only open to commercial interests. Their iPhone app uses it apparently as well as DVBLink.

There is a hack for the Windows Frontend which saves an XMLTV but it's a bit clunky. I'll have to investigate further the quality of the XMLTV data that it generates.

SBR

[marko]

Thanks Sandy. That did it.

Digiguide is awesome. I've had it installed here for more than ten years now. There was a chap on their forums, Paul Something-or-other IIRC, who tried to provide a script that would allow for marking a program for recording, and have MC record it. It was a long time ago now that I tried to get this going with him, back in the day when there was TV in MJ8, so I don't know if he's still doing it. I wonder if it's worth trying again now that MC has matured as much as it has...

[BillT]

Paul Webster. His script worked brilliantly with Nebula DigiTV but it doesn't seem to have been updated for years. http://www.spidersweb.freeserve.co.uk/dab/dabdig.htm. That was the only reason that I used Digiguide, and as it doesn't seem to integrate with NPVR properly and they seem to be emphasising smartphone interfaces I haven't kept my subscription going.

[JustinChase]

I've brought this up previously also, but the guide data that we do have already includes year and episode name.  These are available in the TVDB, so if MC could be a bit smarter about it's lookups, it should be able to lookup by episode name (and year), and not require season and episode numbers for the lookup, but could then populate them also as part of the results it brings back into MC, along with description, etc.

[nwboater]

I've brought this up previously also, but the guide data that we do have already includes year and episode name.  These are available in the TVDB, so if MC could be a bit smarter about it's lookups, it should be able to lookup by episode name (and year), and not require season and episode numbers for the lookup, but could then populate them also as part of the results it brings back into MC, along with description, etc.

Also if it would only be as smart for TV that it records as it is for that which it imports, Carnac would identify a movie as a Movie and give it the proper Sub Type. Once that's done it would easily get the correct metadata and cover.

Cheers,
Rod