TV M3U - add support for tvc-guide-stationid

[bruor 43]

Hello,

I've had great success using dispatcharr with Emby.  

But the TVG-ID field they provide is only used internally within the app for guide data so it can be mapped to XMLTV files imported into the app. 
It has the ability to fill in the Gracenote StationId for channels you configure: 



But, they publish this Gracenote StationId into the M3U as a tag named tvc-guide-stationid

@Lukeany chance you would consider adding the ability to parse/match on this tag the same way you do on tvg-id?

Edited May 27, 2025 by bruor

[emveepee 132]

A Gracenote Id still need to be a channel lineup so it takes two values.

Martin

[bruor 43]

Emby works fine with tvg-id set to gracenote, it will detect and populate using the internal guide data as soon as you add a provider that contains that ID.

I'm asking them to look for it in one more place. 

[Luke 42077]

Why did they have to go and add another attribute?

[emveepee 132]

It's a ChannelsDVR thing they support Gracenote I guess it works for them but is far from standard.

 

[bruor 43]

Yeah, it's not ideal that they are using a custom tag for that. I've raised a feature request on their discord but not sure if it'll get much traction.  I was told that the TVG-ID field in that screenshot is only used for matching guide data within dispatcharr, so I'm surprised that they publish the gracenote data into the M3U at all. 

For now I've written a proxy that fetches and overwrites the tvg-id with the tvc-guide-stationid if one exists.

 

[Luke 42077]

So is it really just an innocent alias? Or will the next thing be that it gets imported but doesn't result in guide data and then the next thing will be that we'll have to support their convention...

[bruor 43]

I'm asking them for confirmation on what that field is, where they get it and if they are planning to keep exposing it in the foreseeable future.  It seems like their community uses channels DVR to manage channel lists and guide data feeds that they import into dispatcharr, so I think that field is likely passed to them via m3u from channelsdvr and they are just exposing it in the UI and giving users the ability to edit it there if needed.

For my iptv provider, when dispatcharr creates channels from the m3u, the gracenote ID field is empty, which results in a processed/mapped M3U from dispatcharr that looks like this. 

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="1000" tvg-name="abc.spark.ca" tvg-logo="http://localhost:9191/api/channels/logos/66/cache/" tvg-chno="1000" group-title="Canada",abc.spark.ca

If I fill in the gracenote field in the UI it adds this tag 

tvc-guide-stationid="75117" 

When I fetch their M3U through my proxy it results in Emby receiving this and the station is auto mapped to emby guide data as long as I have a guide provider added that contains data for that gracenote id

#EXTINF:-1 tvg-id="75117" tvg-name="abc.spark.ca" tvg-logo="http://localhost:9191/api/channels/logos/66/cache/" tvg-chno="1000" tvc-guide-stationid="75117" group-title="Canada",abc.spark.ca

 

[jesmannstl 0]

With that field in the m3u alone in Channels DVR it will pull the Nielsen/Gracenote guide data automatically without having to set a lineup since the gracenote ID is unique to a channel no matter which guide contains it. Like CNNHD will be tvc-guide-stationid="58646" it doesn't matter if it's a Directv, dish, spectrum, xfinity, streaming service, or small town cable company EPG the call sign and Gracenote ID is the same. So in Channels it just builds the EPG with the 58646 alone. As the other poster stated if it's in there as tvg-id or if the tvg-name was put in as CNNHD and selected any lineup that includes that channel then Emby maps it. Supporting that field automatically as Channels DVR does will widen its adoption as It doesn't appear to be going anywhere. 

[bruor 43]

Thanks jessmanstl, was support for that tag added to dispatcharr so that it can send data to channelsdvr in a better way? Is data flowing like this?

provider -> dispatcharr -> channelsdvr -> emby 

[SergeantPanda 3]

One of the Dispatcharr devs here.

Basically we added support for the `tvc-guide-stationid` to support ChannelsDVR as they use that to build their guide data. Gracenote ID is different than TVG-ID. I'd love if there was a standard that could be agreed upon. 

If Emby could support `tvc-guide-stationid` that would solve the problem for sure. I'm open to any other suggestions too but since Channels was the first (that I'm aware of) to create this attribute it makes sense to just use what is already out there.

I don't see any reason we would ever drop support for that tag unless everyone stops using it all together which seems unlikely.

[Luke 42077]

I will push an update to the m3u tuner plugin that adds support for this as an alias to tvg-id. It will be used if tvg-id is not present.

However, this does not mean that what you are trying to do will magically start working. It may, but it also may not.

[bruor 43]

This won't work, tvg-id is populated with a channel number that differs from the gracenote ID and AFAIK there's no way to not have channel numbers assigned in dispatcharr.

Ideally it should be preferred for matching guide data if present and not null. 

Edited June 11, 2025 by bruor