Difference between revisions of "EU epgdata"

Latest revision as of 18:35, 6 June 2008

The tv_grab_eu_epgdata grabber is a XMLTV grabber for the commercial www.epgdata.com service.

Currently, you get a full year of EPG listings for EUR 17.95.

Signup URL

Each supported country has its own signup link:

• DE / Germany: http://www.epgdata.com/?action=newSubscription&iLang=de&iCountry=de&iOEM=VDR
• FR / France: http://www.epgdata.com/?action=newSubscription&iLang=fr&iCountry=fr&iOEM=VDR
• IT / Italia: http://www.epgdata.com/?action=newSubscription&iLang=it&iCountry=it&iOEM=VDR
• NL / The Netherlands: http://www.epgdata.com/?action=newSubscription&iLang=nl&iCountry=nl&iOEM=VDR
• AT / Austria: http://www.epgdata.com/?action=newSubscription&iLang=at&iCountry=at&iOEM=VDR
• CH / Switzerland: http://www.epgdata.com/?action=newSubscription&iLang=ch&iCountry=ch&iOEM=VDR

By clicking on Product Description in the menu to the left, you'll find a link to a list of channels.

Please note that you cannot select a different country by clicking on the little flags in the left corner of the epgdata web site. Doing so will just change the language of the text displayed on the website.

Grabber Usage

It's recommended that you use at least XMLTV 0.5.51. The notes below will assume that you're doing so, but most things should apply to any earlier XMLTV release containing the grabber.

Use tv_grab_eu_epgdata --help to get an overview about the available options. The Grabber uses the XMLTV libraries and it is baseline compatible.

Before you can grab EPG listings, you need to run tv_grab_eu_epgdata --configure to set up the grabber. You will be asked to enter your PIN (which you'll receive after signing up using one of links posted above). Afterwards, you are asked to enter your time zone and then you can choose your TV channels. By default, the configuration will be saved to .xmltv/tv_grab_eu_epgdata.conf inside your home directory.

To retrieve EPG listings, simply run tv_grab_eu_epgdata --output my-listings.xml.

NB: It's possible that you're using EPG/HTPC software which will choose to guide you through the setup process for the grabber. MythTV for example will automatically run tv_grab_eu_epgdata --configure when you create a so-called video source in mythtv-setup. It's a good idea to check the documentation for the software you're using.

Limitations / Bugs

Copied from the documentation inside the grabber:

• There’s no proper support for channels with locally different schedules. For example, if your EPG package is a German one, you’ll get the EPG schedule for Germany even if you preferred the Swiss schedule which is also available in the data (for some channels at least).

• Timezones are not handled correctly. Currently, you have to enter your time zone manually during the configure step. You have to do this every time your time zone changes, eg for daylight saving time ("Sommerzeit" and "Normalzeit" for my fellow Germans). FYI: you can modify the time zone directly in the config file which is usually located at ~/.xmltv/tv_grab_eu_epgdata.conf or ~/.mythtv/FOO.xmltv where FOO is the name of your video source in MythTV.

• Not all channels might be listed in the channel_ids file. The channel_ids file provides a mapping from the numeric channel identifiers provided by epgdata.com to more human-readable identifiers commonly used in XMLTV. Some channels might be missing or mapped incorrectly. If you encounter a problem, please let me: laga + xmltv AT laga DOT ath DOT cx