CrossEPG XMLTVImport

[leonskaja]

can someone set me right on the use of CrossEPG and/or XMLTVImporter? I need to download channel info for both Astra 28.2 and 19.2. What would be the best way to set this up? Could I just use the XMLTV-Importer on the EPG menu or would I need to use both CrossEPG and XMLTV? What confuses me greatly is that XMLTV-Import is listed separately in the EPG menu but also appears as XMLTV Providers in the CrossEPG menu. Which one do I need?

[imish]

I just use XMLimport (standalone) and not crossEPG.

[abu baniaz]

Reason why xmltv was included in cross eps is so that you can have openTV epg and other epg, such as xmltv in one plugin. It was occasoionally abbreviated to RyVix. Rytec maintains the xmltv data, and was on Vix image.

Use either, Do not use more than one source for the same provider. i.e if you are using openTv epg for 28.2, do not also use xmltv (either one).

[Rob van der Does]

OpenTV has the huge advantage to read actual data from the transponder. And this data is known to be kept up-to-date very well, also in case of 'breaking news' events.
XMLTV on the other hand is laboriously collected from websites and only updated once a day (around 09.00 GMT), so it may easy contain errors or be outdated.

Therefore my setup is: OpenTV for the UK-services, XMLTV (I use the dedicated XMLTV-importer, as it does a better job then Cross in this respect) for other packages and 'EPG-Refresh' for packages that can be read directly from the transponder (such as Dutch/Belgian/German services). Only thing is that those 'imports' should not run concurrent.

[DaMacFunkin]

I run opentv for 28.2 followed by epg refresh for cable then for terrestrial, should I have eit enabled as well or not?

[Rob van der Does]

I'm not sure what EPG-system your cable & terrestrial providers use.
Easy to find out: disable all readers and delete epg.dat. Now tune to a service and see that the EPG is and remains empty. Now enable one, e.g. EIT, and tune again (not stay on the same service, but tune again) to see if the EPG fills. If not, try another one.

[leonskaja]

Thanks a lot. I guess I was overdoing it, which may explain why the download took so long (30-45 minutes!)

[irishbiker]

Hi

Is there an idiots guide? I've been trying both XML import and CrossEPG - for some reason my box keeps loosing the EPG data, and if I set XML import to update on boot it makes my ET10K slow down to a crawl for a couple of mins.

Looking to download 28.2 EPG data for my xtrend 10K

[Rob van der Does]

That will be correct then; import at boottime is not a good idea. And as you're only talking about 28.2 it's not a good idea to use 2 different imports.
For 28.2E I suggest you to use Cross Open-TV to planned download at a time you normally don't use the box for TV and/or recordings (early in the morning?).
If you have plenth of tuners and feeds you can do the import more often.

Second best for 28.2E is the XMLTV import plugin. It should only run once a day, at any time after 09.00 GMT. Use a time like 10.07 to prevent as much as possible too many concurrent downloads.
Anyway: never use both XMLTV & OpenTV for the same provider.

[irishbiker]

Thanks for the update. OK I've removed both and then just re-installed CrossEPG. Quick question I'm one on the rare people who turns my kit off at night. Can CrossEPG use Astra Radio channel and "nibble" EPG updates while the box is on?

[Rob van der Does]

Not sure which service is being used, but yes, Cross also works when the box is active (as long as a tuner is free).

[imish]

OpenTV has the huge advantage to read actual data from the transponder. And this data is known to be kept up-to-date very well, also in case of 'breaking news' events.



is there an OpenTV equivalent for Virgin Cable EPG?

[DaMacFunkin]

No, Virgin where rumoured to be switching to an opentv compatible epg service last year, but everything seems to take them 5x longer than everyone else to implement which is probably because their network is a patchwork quilt of differently designed systems.

[Rob van der Does]

But doesn't Virgin have a native reader in ViX (see EPG-settings)? So if that works, the answer is 'yes', and even better then OpenTV (as no plugin is required).

[DaMacFunkin]

It doesn't have a native reader, you need to set epgrefresh to tune to the pvr_epg channel everyday, trust me 'dynamic epg' via opentv would be a lot quicker and easier.

[abu baniaz]

Virgin EPG is absorbed from the stream following LraiZer's patch almost two years ago. Other images have option set to off as a default.
EPG refresh is just a zapper to facilitate zapping to the transponder that has the supercharged speed. You can use any channel on that TP. not just PVR_EPG. It is not required

[Rob van der Does]

Indeed: 'Virgin' is a native EPG-reader (just as EIT and others). Sa as Abu says: tuning to one of the Virgin stations will update the EPG for all Virgin-services.
That's what I meant by 'better than Cross', as no plugin is required, and the EPG is always up-to-date (provided Virgin services are being used), while Cross needs to be set to update at specific times.

For the record: I use 'EPG-refresh' myself for a number of services that provide EIT-epg, but that I don't tune to on a regular basis. So this ensures me that I always have up-to-date EPG-data for those services. The same can be useful for Virgin, if you don't tune to any of those stations for some time.

[imish]

Thanks Guys - super helpful. I have now disabled XMLimport in favour of OpenTV and the native Virgin option.

With XMLImport I did notice that the EPG was not accurate on many occasions.