XMLTV XML format questions

2016/3/24
I'm setting up OSMC and TVHEADEND 4.07 running on a Raspberry Pi 3, using an HDHomeRun Extend as an NTSC (North America) datasource.

I have worked through the tvheadend and xmltv configuration. The grabber is working and xml data from schedulesdirect.org is in the right place. The last part is getting the program information to show up in tvheadend.

I found one cryptic post that said that the xmltv format was incorrect, and that the stop= should be end=. I found that if I edit the generated xmltv xml file, and replace all of the stop= with end=, the program information does show up. Unfortunately, this xml file will get overwritten by xmltv on a regular basis.

Is there a fix for this on either the xmltv or tvhedend side? I read that the format of the xmltv files is controlled in xmltv.dtd. Is changing stop= to end= in that file the correct solution?

Once this is completed I will post my complete setup configuration. It has been quite an adventure.

Thanks!

Replies (7)

RE: XMLTV XML format incompatibility with TVWEBEND: stop= vs end= - Added by K Shea over 8 years ago

WTF is TVWEBEND? Never heard of it before.

In any case I don't know what you are using for an EPG source but MAYBE this blog post (https://freetoairamerica.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/some-hints-for-getting-free-to-air-satellite-channels-into-the-electronic-program-guide-in-kodi-or-xbmc-or-another-frontend/) will help you.

Alternately if you have an xmltv file that meets your needs, maybe you could use the sed command to do a string replacement right after the file is created. As an example (not sure if this is the correct syntax):

/bin/sed -i 's/stop=/end=/' xmltv.xml

BUT you should not need to do that - every xmltv.xml file I have seen uses stop=, NOT end=, and I have never had to change that in order for TVHeadEnd to use it. But as I mentioned I have no idea what this TVWEBEND thing is, but I would say if it requires something different then IT is wrong.

RE: XMLTV XML format incompatibility with TVHEADEND: stop= vs end= - Added by W Beauchamp over 8 years ago

Mea Culpa, TVHEADEND! Fixed above.
EPG source is schedulesdirect.org
I think I looked at that before. I'll take a look again tonight.
Thanks

RE: XMLTV XML format incompatibility with TVHEADEND: stop= vs end= - Added by W Beauchamp over 8 years ago

I re-ran the grabber a few times from within tvheadend and the EPG is still working.

Maybe it was a coincidence that it started working after I changed the xml file in the .xmltv directory?

Does tvheadend actually use that xml file in the .xmltv directory or does the xml data get written to somewhere else like /home/osmc/.hts/tvheadend/epgdb.v2? Looks like probably not.

Thanks again.

RE: XMLTV XML format incompatibility with TVHEADEND: stop= vs end= - Added by K Shea over 8 years ago

As far as I know it uses the .xml file directly, but then I am not running OSMC so there might be a difference there. Well, actually it grabs the data in the .xml file and imports it into an internal database.

One thing I will mention, in case you did not realize it, is that often after it has imported the data from the xml file EPG changes will not appear (at least not immediately) in the TVHeadEnd GUI until you refresh the browser's page, or in some cases completely close down and re-open your browser. That was real confusing to me at first, because I'd have the debug window open and see that it had imported data (such as added channels) but yet I could not select them in the dropdowns in the GUI until I refreshed the web page. Makes sense when you think about it but it's an easy thing to overlook.

RE: XMLTV XML format questions - Added by W Beauchamp over 8 years ago

UPDATED 3/25 -

After further testing, format incompatibility with TVWEBEND: stop= vs end= is not an issue. I think it just took a reboot and a browser refresh before the EPG data started populating. It seems to be working well now.

I added a "how to" in the tutorials section.

-W

RE: XMLTV XML format questions - Added by K Shea over 8 years ago

W Beauchamp wrote:

UPDATED 3/25 -

After further testing, format incompatibility with TVWEBEND: stop= vs end= is not an issue. .....

Do you have an auto-correction program on your computer? If so, then apparently you need to configure it so every time you write TVWEBEND it auto-corrects it to TVHeadEnd!!!

(I have actually done this for a few words I am prone to misspelling).

Glad to hear you got everything working.

RE: XMLTV XML format questions - Added by W Beauchamp over 8 years ago

Doh! I work with webheads and my brain must get the signals crossed when I try to write tvheadend.

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