[mythtv-users] Duplicating EPG between different sources or channels ?

[Nick Rout]

On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 4:44 PM, Nick Morrott <knowledgejunkie at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2011/6/19 Warpme <warpme at o2.pl>:
>> Hi *
>>
>> I'm looking for best way to resolve following problem:
>>
>> I have SAT source with nice 7-day EPG.
>> I have also DVB-T with 3 mplexes where 7 TV channels are the same like
>> broadcasted by SAT.
>> For scheduling consistency I want to have the same EPG on the same channels
>> regardless of source (SAT or DVB-T) so I want to use SAT as master EPG
>> source and propagate EPG to DVB-T channels.
>>
>> Q is: what is best method of duplicating EPG from one source or channel to
>> another ?
>>
>> Currently I see following options:
>> 1.copy appropriate program table entries from SAT channels to relevant DVB-T
>> 2.use solution from http://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/2416
>>
>> 1\
>> (+)is simple and effective
>> (-)requires direct access to DB - so I'm afraid interferences with myth
>> scheduler / EIT grabber
>>
>> 2\
>> (-)requires code patching
>> (-)can only be used between different sources and only for one destination
>> channel
>> (+)access to DB is coordinated by myth so no any risk of interferences with
>> myth scheduler
>>
>> Maybe there is third option to solve this ?
>
> At least one other option is to use a program like tv_grab_dvb to grab
> the EIT stream to an intermediate XMLTV file, and then use this file
> to populate both sources with the same data using mythfilldatabase.
>
> The downsides to this method over that provided by the patch on the
> above ticket include:
>
> i) the timeliness of EIT data is lost unless you also regularly grab
> the now/next data from the EIT;
> II) you tie up a DVB card whilst grabbing the data
>
> Having a working cross-source solution in the code itself would
> benefit not only the many users with DVB-S/DVB-T combo backends where
> there may be differences across EPGs, but also provide another route
> to provide EIT data to non-digital sources where no native EPG is
> available.

Take a look at epgsnoop, which grabs eit data and turns it into xmltv,
plus has hooks to massage the data. A lot of eit data is poor, and
massage hooks allow you to do stuff like:

* regularise dr. who/dr who/doctor who type spelling inconsistencies

* add genre info

* use tmdb/moviedb to get subtitle/description

* some silly providers list title:subtitle in the title field. Easily
fixed if you know which programmes it applies to. (And there will be
programmes when there ARE supposed to be colons in title, eg
CSI:whatever)

Many of us here in NZ are using xmltv data which has been prepared in this way.

Also in NZ DVB-S has about 7-8 days EIT, but DVB-T offering the same
channels and programming, only has now/next, so using the DVB-S EIT,
via epgsnoop/xmltv is the way to go.