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Last update: 17/01/2005
The information contained in this document applies to ShowShifter 3.10 and newer. Users of older versions of ShowShifter should preferably upgrade to the latest version for all these reasons or alternatively look here for instructions.
How to get data in ShowGuide
ShowGuide supports two ways of getting data. If you have a DVB card, then the first one, fully automatic and switched on by default, is to collect the now and next (and possibly more) information from the DVB stream. The second one involves using an external xml source in a compatible format which ShowGuide can parse and display. At the moment we are aware of three such sources:
If you are in the UK then DGUK, which can work with the Radio Times grabber to extend the range of channels available, is the preferred data source for ShowGuide.
If you happen to have an xml file in the right format then go here to import that file.
The ShowGuide Information section of our bulletin board has plenty of information about these and additional grabbers, for instance for Australia and Singapore.
XMLTV
ShowGuide supports external data in XMLTV format. XMLTV, available from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=39046, is a collection of utilities to collect electronic programme guide data from websites and store it locally in a well defined xml format. At the time of writing it supports the following countries: Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany, Austria, Finland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Denmark, Japan, Sweden, France, Norway, and Romania. The list of supported countries is always expanding, so check out their website for any additional countries which might be supported.
Please note that HMNXMLTV.exe is no longer needed. You can bin it.
Download XMLTV and read the documentation
Grab the latest windows binary (xmltv-x.x.xx-win32.zip) from their website, and unzip it into a convenient location on your computer, let's assume that you unzip the file to c:\xmltv, to keep things simple. It really doesn't matter where you put it. Now is the time to read all the documentation that came with XMLTV.
Configure XMLTV
Open a DOS (Command) box in windows. You'll find the shortcut on the accessories menu on the Start menu. Navigate to c:\xmltv (or wherever you unzipped it) and configure your channel package according to the XMLTV documentation. For the UK you would type:
xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --configure
And follow the onscreen instructions. For other countries you would use the appropriate tv_grab_xx parameter.
Run ShowGuide
Once the configure stage is completed, it's time to get some real data. To do this start ShowShifter 3.10 or newer and select ShowGuide from the main screen. Click the settings button at the top (the one with a spanner on it), followed by 'Set collection times'. In the screen that comes up select 'External' if it isn't ticked already, and fill in the two fields as follows:
- Command
c:\xmltv\xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --output c:\xmltv\listings.xml
- New data location
c:\xmltv\listings.xml
Now click the tick button to save the changes on this page, and select 'Collect show information now'. XMLTV should now run in a dos box (which could take a while), and once it is finished ShowGuide takes over and imports the data which shouldn't take long. Then after all this is finished you should be able to go back to the ShowGuide view selection page and select your favourite view to access the fresh data. Now proceed to setting up the download to happen automatically at some convenient time and interval.
DGUK (using Bleb and/or Radio Times data)
DGUK, which is available from http://www.de-bugger.com/Misc/DGUK.htm, is a cool little utility to download UK data from http://www.bleb.org/tv developed by DeBugger, a very productive ShowShifter developer and user. Additionally DGUK integrates with Alan Birtles Radio Times grabber (see below). Getting it up and running is very easy; download the setup file, install it, read the documentation, and run it to see if it works. If all is well then we can enter the correct settings in ShowGuide. This example assumes that DGUK was installed in 'C:\Program Files\DGUK\'. Go into ShowGuide, select the spanner at the top, and then select 'Set collection times'. Make sure 'External' is ticked and fill in the two fields as follows:
- Command
C:\Program Files\dguk\dguk.exe
- New data location
C:\Program Files\dguk
Now click the tick button to save the changes on this page, and select 'Collect show information now'. DGUK should pop up and download new data. Once it is finished ShowGuide takes over and imports the data which shouldn't take long. Then after all this is finished you should be able to go back to the ShowGuide view selection page and select your favourite view to access the fresh data. Now proceed to setting up the download to happen automatically at some convenient time and interval.
The Radio Times
The Radio Times have kindly permitted non-commercial private use of their extensive epg data. Alan Birtles has created a convenient little application that grabs the data for the channels you want and saves it locally on your computer, where ShowGuide can find it. Find out more on the bulletin board. The setup for this grabber is much the same as for the DGUK grabber above.
Automatic updates of your data
All this is very nice, but a bit cumbersome to do manually every time you run out of data. Luckily you can instruct ShowGuide to get the data at regular intervals. This is done from the 'Set collection times' page by selecting 'Automatic' (assuming your command line and new data location are still shown below and 'External' is on as well) and specifying your preferred interval in number of days and the most convenient time of the day. Remember that your internet connection must be up and running at those times.
Importing xml data you already have
Please note that this only works in 3.10 Alpha 3 or newer
If you happen to have one or more xml files in the right format (XMLTV format) then you can import these by selecting them one by one, or the directory that contains them, in the 'New data location' on the 'Set collection times' page. Now click the tick button to save the changes and import the data by selecting 'Collect show information now'. If you have multiple files and you're specifying them one by one you will have to repeat this procedure for each one. If you specified a directory for the 'New data location' all *.xml files found in this directory will be imported.
Recommendation
Websites tend to change their data format often, so it is important to keep up to date with the XMLTV releases. The XMLTV developer community is normally quick to fix any changes or problems, so to keep up to date subscribe to the xmltv-announce mailing list and you'll never miss an important update.
What's so good about the new ShowGuide?
Showshifter version 3.10 includes a completely new ShowGuide module, which has a new xml file based backend that can handle tons of data. We've had it running with 1500 channels with 6 weeks of data and it was very enjoyable (apart from most of the data being fake test data ;-)). If you're lucky enough to be able to receive DVB television, then chances are that does include EPG data, which ShowGuide seamlessly imports and displays for you, ensuring you're always up to date. Apart from the ShowGuide improvements, there are plenty of other ones all over Showshifter as well, get all the details here. Version 3.10 will be a free upgrade for all registered version 3 users, so you might as well give it a try!
Troubleshooting
- All displayed times are wrong
- This is most probably due to the fact that the generated xml hasn't got its timezones set properly. At the time of writing the data from bleb.org comes in local time without a timezone, which is incorrect according to the xmltv dtd: no timezone means UTC. Enough technobabble, here is how you fix it in ShowGuide:
- From ShowGuide click the spanner at the top, then the same button again (now showing a volume symbol), select the 'Switch experience level' and make sure it is set to 'Expert'. Click the tick and wait for ShowShifter to restart. Go back into ShowGuide once it has done so.
- From ShowGuide click the spanner at the top and select 'Go to the settings page', scroll down and select 'ShowGuide data settings'.
- Select 'Source XML data uses local time' and set it to 'true'.
- Keep clicking the tick button until you've reached the ShowGuide page again.
- Download some fresh data as the new setting only works on new data, not on existing data.
- Data directory lost
- For some obscure and not well understood reason sometimes the data directory ends up under 'C:\Windows\system32\'. To fix it do the following:
- From ShowGuide click the spanner at the top, then the same button again (now showing a volume symbol), select the 'Switch experience level' and make sure it is set to 'Problem Solving'. Click the tick and wait for ShowShifter to restart.
- From ShowShifter click the spanner and then 'Program folders'. Make sure that the data directory is set to be a subdirectory of the ShowShifter directory. Click the tick twice to save the changes. No need to restart yet.
- Now select 'ShowGuide settings' -> 'ShowGuide data settings'.
- Confirm or correct the locations for 'Data directory' (...\ShowShifter\Data\ShowGuide\) and 'Incoming data directory' (...\ShowShifter\Data\ShowGuide\incoming\). Click the tick twice to save the changes and exit ShowShifter.
- Now move the Data directory from the system32 directory to the ShowShifter directory.
- Start ShowShifter and see if things have improved.
References
The DGUK website (http://www.de-bugger.com/Misc/DGUK.htm).
The XMLTV Radio Times Grabber website (http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/xmltv.htm).
The XMLTV website (http://membled.com/work/apps/xmltv/).
The XMLTV download site (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=39046).
Subscribe to the xmltv-announce mailing list.
The Expat XML parser library (http://www.libexpat.org).
The Radio Times website (http://www.radiotimes.com).
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