Missing Guide Data

[revengineer 125]

So I have been playing with xmltv guide files created by epq123 which uses Schedules Direct as the data source. I find that the emby Live TV guide is missing for many channels, even though they seem to be included in the the xmltv file, which I checked using the online viewer at http://www.xmltv.co.uk/viewer. In contrast, the emby Live TV guide does show these channels if I use Schedules Direct as the guide source in emby. I have checked the channel mapping tool and the missing channels are not in the list for selection. I believe that a lot of the missing guide data is associated with stations (station IDs) that are mapped to two channels. This is on Comcast cable in the US. Is this a bug? Or any suggestions how to resolve or debug this?

[garyan2 53]

There is no guidance out there on how to handle a single station on multiple channels. A lot of generators will simply create multiple channels with the exact same data (and waste a lot of space). I had decided to just list all channel numbers that station was on and let the consuming program figure it out. Worst case, I figured a manual mapping may be needed which is no worse than if I hadn't included any of the channel numbers for the station.

 

No channel numbers:

<channel id="EPG123.42676.schedulesdirect.org">
  <display-name>KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>KVOADT (KVOA-DT)</display-name>
  <display-name>NBC</display-name>
  <icon src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedulesdirect/assets/stationLogos/s28717_h3_ba.png" width="360" height="270" />
</channel>

All channel numbers (current method):

<channel id="EPG123.42676.schedulesdirect.org">
  <display-name>KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>KVOADT (KVOA-DT)</display-name>
  <display-name>4.1 KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>4.1</display-name>
  <display-name>1004 KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>1004</display-name>
  <display-name>NBC</display-name>
  <icon src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedulesdirect/assets/stationLogos/s28717_h3_ba.png" width="360" height="270" />
</channel>

Separated/Distinct channel numbers (requires different channel ids):

<channel id="EPG123.4-1.42676.schedulesdirect.org">
  <display-name>KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>KVOADT (KVOA-DT)</display-name>
  <display-name>4.1 KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>4.1</display-name>
  <display-name>NBC</display-name>
  <icon src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedulesdirect/assets/stationLogos/s28717_h3_ba.png" width="360" height="270" />
</channel>

<channel id="EPG123.1004.42676.schedulesdirect.org">
  <display-name>KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>KVOADT (KVOA-DT)</display-name>
  <display-name>1004 KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>1004</display-name>
  <display-name>NBC</display-name>
  <icon src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedulesdirect/assets/stationLogos/s28717_h3_ba.png" width="360" height="270" />
</channel>

The last option, which would really be guaranteed to work, will significantly increase the size of the XMLTV file which is why I opted not to do it that way. 

[Luke 37060]

Currently we do require the latter option.

[garyan2 53]

I just checked the behavior in emby and see that the station is still available to map but it uses the last channel number in the data. In my example, that would be 1004.

[revengineer 125]

There is no guidance out there on how to handle a single station on multiple channels. A lot of generators will simply create multiple channels with the exact same data (and waste a lot of space). I had decided to just list all channel numbers that station was on and let the consuming program figure it out. Worst case, I figured a manual mapping may be needed which is no worse than if I hadn't included any of the channel numbers for the station.

 

No channel numbers:

<channel id="EPG123.42676.schedulesdirect.org">
  <display-name>KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>KVOADT (KVOA-DT)</display-name>
  <display-name>NBC</display-name>
  <icon src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedulesdirect/assets/stationLogos/s28717_h3_ba.png" width="360" height="270" />
</channel>

All channel numbers (current method):

<channel id="EPG123.42676.schedulesdirect.org">
  <display-name>KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>KVOADT (KVOA-DT)</display-name>
  <display-name>4.1 KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>4.1</display-name>
  <display-name>1004 KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>1004</display-name>
  <display-name>NBC</display-name>
  <icon src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedulesdirect/assets/stationLogos/s28717_h3_ba.png" width="360" height="270" />
</channel>

Separated/Distinct channel numbers (requires different channel ids):

<channel id="EPG123.4-1.42676.schedulesdirect.org">
  <display-name>KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>KVOADT (KVOA-DT)</display-name>
  <display-name>4.1 KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>4.1</display-name>
  <display-name>NBC</display-name>
  <icon src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedulesdirect/assets/stationLogos/s28717_h3_ba.png" width="360" height="270" />
</channel>

<channel id="EPG123.1004.42676.schedulesdirect.org">
  <display-name>KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>KVOADT (KVOA-DT)</display-name>
  <display-name>1004 KVOADT</display-name>
  <display-name>1004</display-name>
  <display-name>NBC</display-name>
  <icon src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/schedulesdirect/assets/stationLogos/s28717_h3_ba.png" width="360" height="270" />
</channel>

The last option, which would really be guaranteed to work, will significantly increase the size of the XMLTV file which is why I opted not to do it that way. 

 

Thank you for laying out the details of your code. I think together with @@Luke's response we understand why the guide data show as missing in emby. There does not seem to be a simple workaround. Would you consider an optional switch in your software to produce the listing as required by emby? 

 

I just checked the behavior in emby and see that the station is still available to map but it uses the last channel number in the data. In my example, that would be 1004.

 

I checked my mapping options again and I can confirm your report. I do see that the station name is also included as channel 11.1 in my listing for the OTA tuner, which is not part of my test setup, and this is available for selection. I missed this because I was looking for numbers in 800 and 1000 range.

[garyan2 53]

Something I would have to really look at. EPG123 was originally developed for WMCs MXF schema which is way more efficient than the XMLTV schema. What I do right now is pull the data from SD, create the MXF from that data, and then create the XMLTV primarily from the MXF. If I was just creating the XMLTV file directly from the SD data, it would probably be a simple change to do what you ask. I suspect the changes in my code will be non-trivial, but I will look.

[revengineer 125]

Something I would have to really look at. EPG123 was originally developed for WMCs MXF schema which is way more efficient than the XMLTV schema. What I do right now is pull the data from SD, create the MXF from that data, and then create the XMLTV primarily from the MXF. If I was just creating the XMLTV file directly from the SD data, it would probably be a simple change to do what you ask. I suspect the changes in my code will be non-trivial, but I will look.

 

Ah, I thought it might be trivial. I played a little more with the emby mapping and realized that I can map the guide manually to multiple channels. Since this is a one time deal, this seems to be the better route than having you modify the epg123 code.

 

@Luke: The manual mapping would not be so painful if the available guide options were listed in alphabetical order. Currently they seem to be randomly mixed and mapping becomes painful for a large number of channels/guide options.

[Luke 37060]

Yes that will be improved. Thanks.