Tvheadend

Are the two xmls working if you import them separately? Because the first part of your xml doesn't use wrap line, the second part does.
Can you post examples of the two xmls BEFORE merging them together (but just for one or two days to reduce the file size ).

Furthermore there are entries like
<programme start="20170905160000 -0400" stop="20170905163000 -0400" channel="I7.2.14807.tvguide.com">
<programme start="20170905050000 +0100" stop="20170905053000 +0100" channel="I55597.labs.zap2it.com">

Is this correct? I mean, you haven't named your channels "I7.2.14807" or "I55597" ??? Maybe he can't allocate these entries to the channels?

Those channel names are auto-generated by zap2xml. I did see when trying to import the guide into Plex that it was having difficulty matching up the names when they're using the tvguide/zap2it URL names...but it didn't fail entirely.

Um, the "first part" xml, with no line-wraps, that is parsed and imported just fine. It's only the data with line breaks that are problematic.

So, the individual file with no line breaks, from my IPTV provider, that works fine. It's just the data generated by Zap2XML.

What's odd is that I've seen numerous other guides that discuss using Zap2XML with no issues, so I wouldn't think that the programme referencing the channel by it's URL id would be that big of an issue.

The next step I guess would be to make my script go through all the programmes and replace the channel ID's with their display names, and see if that helps it see the stuff...

I'd post sample files, but they're literally identical to what's in the merge.

There is no need to merge the xmltv files, as Tvheadend can handle multiple xmltv files fine, as long as they come from separate grabbers. Since it looks like you're using something like tv_grab_file or similar, you can just make a copy of it, rename it, and edit to script to point to the location of your second xmltv file. Then, after your internal grabber has one once to populate the EPG Grabber Channels, assign the EPG channels from the second xmltv file to your OTA channels.

Another option is to use Schedules Direct for your OTA Channels. When creating a lineup for your OTA channels there is an option in their JSON API to upload the lineup.json file pulled from your HDHR tuner to automatically add the proper OTA lineup to your account.

In reference to the "id" attributes of the xmltv file: the "id" attribute of the programme element is not the channel name, but rather a reference to the "id" of a complementary channel element in the xmltv file. The channel's names and/or number are defined in the channel element, and the "id" attribute is used to match channels to programmes.

Hey, thanks, that totally did the trick!

Reason I was slightly hesitant to copy the script was because I'm running TVHE in a docker container, so wanted to avoid modifying the og container if possible. But, it works, so I'll take it.

Curious...does tv_grab_wg not import all xml files in the /data/ directory? I could have sworn that I tried setting that one up to scrape all the xml files I was throwing at it, but had no luck. Interesting, regardless.

So, that should get me going...thanks again. I've got local channels 100% mapped to epg sources, and about 90% of my 500+ IPTV channels mapped. Any tips on mapping the other 10%? Would Schedules Direct work for that? A lot of them are UK/Sky TV stuff, and it doesn't look like Schedules Direct supports that? I may tinker around with the JSOn lineup you suggest, see if I can pull 100% of the epg from one source. That's be super.

This information in this article, which I have mentioned before, helped me get zap2xml working with Tvheadend

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/

However I had thought that the Zap2it service only covers the USA and Canada, so I am not at all sure where you'd find guide data for the UK stuff.

Quite some time back I found or wrote (don't recall which, though probably found since I am not really a programmer) a very quick and dirty Perl script to combine multiple xmltv format files into one. You would need to change the feeds-n filenames, and use more or fewer sections as required, this is just to give an idea of how it can be done. I am certain there are better ways to do this (and probably better languages to use for the purpose than Perl) but at the time I was just trying to fine a way to combine xmltv files and I didn't really care if the code was inefficient, as long as it worked. I post it here not as a shining example of how to do this, but hopefully more as an inspiration to find or create a better script to do this, if you happen to have the programming talents that I sadly lack.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

open my $OUT,'>','tv_grab_file.xmltv' or die "$!";
open my $IN ,'<','feeds-1.xml'   or die "$!";

while (<$IN>) {
  chomp;
  if ($_ ne "</tv>") {
      print $OUT "$_\n";
  }
}

close $IN;

open my $IN ,'<','feed-2.xml'   or die "$!";

my $i=0;
while (<$IN>) {
  chomp;
  if ( $i++ > 3 ) {
    if ($_ ne "</tv>") {
        print $OUT "$_\n";
    }
  }
}

close $IN;

open my $IN ,'<','feeds-3.xml'   or die "$!";

my $i=0;
while (<$IN>) {
  chomp;
  if ( $i++ > 3 ) {
    if ($_ ne "</tv>") {
        print $OUT "$_\n";
    }
  }
}

close $IN;

open my $IN ,'<','feeds-n.xml'   or die "$!";

my $i=0;
while (<$IN>) {
  chomp;
  if ( $i++ > 3 ) {
    if ($_ ne "</tv>") {
        print $OUT "$_\n";
    }
  }
}

close $IN;

open my $IN ,'<','feeds-last.xml'   or die "$!";

my $i=0;
while (<$IN>) {
  chomp;
  if ( $i++ > 3 ) {
    if ($_ ne "</tv>") {
        print $OUT "$_\n";
    }
  }
}

close $IN;
print $OUT '</tv>';
close $OUT;

What you did was awesome and congratulations on getting both to work. In case you are interested, I have an automated script (on Ubuntu) that will check and install the zap2xml portion for you correctly instead of using the manual procedure. It also updates the categories to be compatible with tvheadend in case you need that. Anyway, the link is below.

https://github.com/rocky4546/script.xmltv.tvheadend/wiki/Guide:-How-to-Setup-XMLTV-for-TVHeadEnd

Ha! That's funny right there.

I just stumbled across your git while doing some homework, I've actually got it pulled to my test box. What I think I'm going to wind up doing is using WebGrab+Plus in conjunction with Zap2XML to grab both my OTA listings, as well as an exact list of data for my provider, as their own EPG is quite lacking.

Of course, first I need to settle on an IPTV provider that works well in the US. The first couple I've tried have been lacking in either the data they provide for tools like TVHE, or stream reliability.