The XMLTV plugin, installed with MediaPortal, allows the import of a tvguide.xml file created by WebEPG or another XMLTV program into the TV database to display information in the TV Guide.

There is no interface in MediaPortal for this plugin. You simply configure it and watch program information populate in the guide. The TV server will automatically import the data when the tvguide.xml file is updated, however you can also force an import and verify the results using the Import button on the General tab.

Requirements

1. First you must scan and add your TV channels so that the guide data can be linked to them. Refer to the following guides depending on your type of TV card:
   • Scan Analog
   • Scan DVB-C
   • Scan DVB-IP
   • Scan DVB-S
   • Scan DVB-T
2. A tvguide.xml file must be located in the same xmltv.dtdfolder as an file.

Note: MediaPortal provides a suitable xmltv.dtd file for you in the default XMLTV folder. If you want to use an alternative folder and/or cannot find the default folder, you can acquire the xmltv.dtd file in various ways:

• download the latest XMLTV release; the xmltv.dtd file will be included
• download the xmltv.dtd from XMLTV's code repository
• download the xmltv.dtd from MediaPortal's code repository
• (if all else fails) search the MediaPortal forum or Internet; this should turn up thousands of results

Configuration

The XMLTV Plugin is configured in TV-Server Configuration > Plugins.

Activation

To enable or disable this plugin navigate to the Plugins section. Make sure you tick the XmlTv checkbox in the right pane or else the plugin will not be activated.

To get automatic import working, you will also need to restart the TV Server service. You can do this in the TV Server Configuration window (Manual Control node > Stop ServiceStart Service /button), in the Windows services menu or by restarting the PC where TV Server is installed.

Expand the Plugins node and select the XmlTv node in the tree. You should see the following screen:

General Tab

Folder where the tvguide.xml file is stored

Browse to the folder where your tvguide.xml is located. This will be where the creating program (such as WebEPG) saves the file. There should also be a xmltv.dtd file in this folder. If MediaPortal is installed this will usually be in the XMLTV folder. The plugin will check this folder every minute to see if the file contained in it has changed since the last check. If it has, an import is automatically started.

Import new tvguide.xml

This option should be ticked if you only have one tvguide.xml file that you wish to import.

Delete old programs before import (Recommended)

Tick this option if you want the contents of your EPG to be deleted before a new tvguide.xml is imported. A reason for doing this is that some TV guide sources may have programmes listed 14 days in advance, however the TV companies may not have confirmed all their schedules this far forward so the guide might contain entries such as To be confirmed or Film to be confirmed. These will be loaded into the EPG database and MediaPortal sees them as a normal programme. This is not too much of a problem while they are 10-14 days off, but as current days age off a large proportion of your EPG may end up as To be confirmed. The normal XMLTV import will only add new EPG entries where none exist in the database. It will not update existing ones. Deleting all the old programs before import ensures that the EPG data in the database is up to date as the tvguide.xml being imported.

Import files in new tvguide.lst

A tvguide.lst file is a text file that contains a list of tvguide xml files to import (one filename per line). This would be used where you are using more than one XMLTV grabber or need to import several different xml files. Make sure this is not ticked if you do not have a tvguide.lst as it can cause imports of the tvguide.xml file to fail. When option is ticked, import of the xml:s happen whenever a newer version of the xml files is ready for import, or a new tvguide.lst file is detected.

Apply timezone compensation when loading tvguide.xml

Normally timezone information inside tvguide.xml is ignored; it is assumed that all programme times are local times.

If this option is ticked, the timezone information inside tvguide.xml will be used to convert programme times to local times. This allows you to use data that is intended for another timezone without any hassles. Daylight savings changes should be handled automatically.

Example:

You live in New Zealand (UTC+12).

You receive some channels from Australia via satellite.

The tvguide.xml for the Australian channels contains times like YYYYMMDDhhmmss + 1000 (Australia Eastern Standard Time).

Ticking this option will convert the programme data to New Zealand standard time.

The hours and minutes fields described below should be set to 0 and 0.

Hours and Minutes

The two text boxes (Hours and Minutes) provide a way to specify additional compensation, regardless and independent of the Apply timezone compensation setting. The offset specified here will be added to (or subtracted from) all times in tvguide.xml.

It should not be necessary to use these fields unless your tvguide.xml does not contain timezone information.

Example:

You live in New Zealand (UTC+12).

You receive some channels from Australia via satellite.

The tvguide.xml for the Australian channels contains times like YYYYMMDDhhmmss (ie. no timezone information, times are assumed to be Australia Eastern Standard Time).

AEST is UTC+10.

Ticking apply timezone compensation will have no effect.

The hours and minutes fields should be set to 2 and 0.

Force Import

Rather than waiting for a new tvguide.xml file to be detected you can force the plugin to import a guide. You may also want to use this if you are experiencing problems with an import and don't want to create a new tvguide.xml file in order to test.

Note: You will need to have completed the mapping before being able to run an import.

Import status report

Shows the time the last tvguide.xml was imported and the status of the import. The fields will be empty if a tvguide.xml has never been imported to the current TV Server installation.

Mappings

On the Mappings tab you will see the following screen:

If you have a populated tvguide.xml press the Load/Refresh button to match all TV Server channels to channels found in the tvguide.xml file. You may select a channel group before pressing Load/Refresh if you want to limit the matching to only channels in that group. You will see a screen similar to the following:

The Partial match checkbox can be checked to help get the maximum number of channels automatically mapped and then unchecked for subsequent scans where there are likely to be only a few new channels.

Load radio channels is useful if your tvguide.xml file also contains EPG information for your radio channels.

The Export button writes the names of the matched XMLTV channels to a text file. This is of limited use for more users.

Hit the Save button after you have made changes to the mappings.

Remote

When you select the Remote tab you will see the following screen:

This is used when you wish to retrieve an XMLTV file from a Web or FTP site.

Some example addresses:

• [http://www.mysite.com/xmltv.php]

  for a dynamically generated XMLTV file on a webserver.

• [ftp://ftp.mysite.com/tvguide.xml]

  for a XMLTV file on a FTP-server.

• [ftp://user:pass@ftp.mysite.com/tvguide.xml]

  on a password protected FTP-server

If you wish the XMLTV guide from a remote folder to be automatically downloaded each day, set the Time and make sure the Enabled checkbox is ticked.