[Drt1989]

Primaeval - I'm going to attempt this again, I want to have a setup where I can add new channels and what channels they are using remotely. So in effect users can have access to new content when it comes available, without having to do anything.

Do you have any recommendations to where to host the .xml file? Linking to Dropbox/Gdrive doesn't work and my current webhost is Garbage. Because of this I am rather halted with progression as loading times are too slow.

[primaeval]

Primaeval - I'm going to attempt this again, I want to have a setup where I can add new channels and what channels they are using remotely. So in effect users can have access to new content when it comes available, without having to do anything.

Do you have any recommendations to where to host the .xml file? Linking to Dropbox/Gdrive doesn't work and my current webhost is Garbage. Because of this I am rather halted with progression as loading times are too slow.

I don't know, is the honest answer.

If your server supports compression you should be able to host a .gz version of the xmltv file but I haven't tried it.
The requests python package that I use to download the files is supposed to support compression without anything extra.
I expect @enerdude knows more.

There is a Google Drive addon somewhere. Maybe that would help.

You might be able to abuse the goodwill of Github and link to a raw version of your xmltv file on there.
Some people do.

I thought web hosting was pretty cheap these days and there a lot of free hosts out there if you can handle the ads.
The host file doesn't have to end in xmltv. Maybe it could pretend to be html.

There is authentication in the addon now so you could host it at home if you have a server on all the time and you are careful with firewalls and security.

[EDIT] The background update service should mean that you don't have to wait for it to load when you open the epg as long as you wait long enough after startup or turn off loading at startup.

[Drt1989]

Hi Thanks, I will do some testing and come back to you!

[Scott00007]

I have been playing with the addon since the latest update and find that the new image selection works fine. However, there are some small things.


First the images still seem to default to TVdb or IMDB as there are more images that are posters/generic screen shots (like the title of the show ect) and not very many actual episode images. There were many more episode images when the option to just use OMDb existed.

Second, I notice that the images do not change when the same show is on back to back. So if there is an episode on at 5 pm an image will load and if there is another episode on at 5:30 of the same show the image will not change. If there is a different show on after the 5 pm show the image will change.

Lastly, and this is most likely nothing that you can control but the images do load slowly...once loaded the images show up quickly when you move channel to channel but if there is no image than I am waiting 5 - 30 secs for the image to load.

Thanks for update.

[primaeval]

when specifying my own xmltv url I get an error in the log about the content-length header not being found so I modified

Code:

total = int(requests.head(self.fileUrl,auth=(user, password)).headers['Content-Length'])

in filefectcher.py to send

Code:

Accept-Encoding: *

instead of the normal

Code:

Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

Is it possible you can incorporate this? Also maybe putting in support for redirection as I would like to use a static snipli.com link that points to a xmltv url

I don't know about the redirection but I think I've fixed the compression problem.
Compressed files don't like the requests.head function (in my testing anyway).

If your server supports compression the guide should pick up the compressed version automatically.
Here are some instructions for Apache. I tested in xampp.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21945...g-on-xampp

If your server doesn't support compression you can trick the guide by compressing the xmltv file on the server with a gz extension. Use that file as the xmltv source: eg guide.xmltv.gz
The guide should download the compressed file, decompress it and parse it as usual.
Maybe zip will work too. I didn't test that.

If you want to save more bandwidth and time, make an md5 of it on your server and enable md5 in Lab1.
If the md5 hasn't changed the guide won't bother downloading the xmltv file.

@Drt1989 This should be useful for you too.

[primaeval]

I have been playing with the addon since the latest update and find that the new image selection works fine. However, there are some small things.


First the images still seem to default to TVdb or IMDB as there are more images that are posters/generic screen shots (like the title of the show ect) and not very many actual episode images. There were many more episode images when the option to just use OMDb existed.

Second, I notice that the images do not change when the same show is on back to back. So if there is an episode on at 5 pm an image will load and if there is another episode on at 5:30 of the same show the image will not change. If there is a different show on after the 5 pm show the image will change.

Lastly, and this is most likely nothing that you can control but the images do load slowly...once loaded the images show up quickly when you move channel to channel but if there is no image than I am waiting 5 - 30 secs for the image to load.

Thanks for update.

The Image Search is only a backup if your xmltv source doesn't have very many images.

The best solution is to run the MDB processor in Webgrab on your xmltv source so that all the images have already been found, but that can take some tricky configuration work. I gave up on it myself.

I can re-enable the OMDb only search if you like.
It takes longer as the image server has to find Episode images which are probably not cached as well as generic images for the TV Show.

The combined method with OMDb/TVDb/IMDb uses a cache of images which only matches the TV Show or Movie so it is very quick the next time a TV Show is seen.

I could start to find the images before you select the programs but I really didn't want to hammer the OMDb/TVDb/IMDb servers with calls to information that will never be used.

[ed_davidson]

Hi there,

AMAZING addon by the way.

Just one question

I am setting up multiple streams and have set them up nicely.

When the dialogue box comes up with the list af streams and I click Cancel. Is it possible to just go back to the EPG and not play the stream anyway??

Regards

[primaeval]

Hi there,

AMAZING addon by the way.

Just one question

I am setting up multiple streams and have set them up nicely.

When the dialogue box comes up with the list af streams and I click Cancel. Is it possible to just go back to the EPG and not play the stream anyway??

Regards

version 0.0.217
- cancel channel selection
- omdb only option back in

Try that.

@Scott00007 The OMDb only option is back in now. It seems worse than the combined option to me but I doubt if our channels are the same.

[Jeffers24]

I am still having problems allocating an alternative stream, based on my thinking that by having an alternative screen I can have two streams allocated to a channel and choose between them when I select a channel to play.

Go to menu, choose add alternative stream, choose stream but it replaces the stream I already had allocated to the channel?

How is alternative stream supposed to work and how do I allocate a main and an alternative stream to A channel

[primaeval]

I am still having problems allocating an alternative stream, based on my thinking that by having an alternative screen I can have two streams allocated to a channel and choose between them when I select a channel to play.

Go to menu, choose add alternative stream, choose stream but it replaces the stream I already had allocated to the channel?

How is alternative stream supposed to work and how do I allocate a main and an alternative stream to A channel

There might be a bug somewhere in there. I occasionally think something is wrong but I can't see why.
I'll look deeper when I see it again.

This is how it should work:

Set up your main channel first like you normally do:
either: Add Folder to add addon streams to the addons.ini file
or: Stream Setup, select a channel and press Save

If there is an exact match with a Favourite it should choose that when you try to play the channel.
If not it should show you all the partial matches for your channel (depending on how you set up Channel Matching in Appearance).

Then Select an Alternative Stream in a similar way.

Use Add Alt Stream to get the Choose Stream dialog to come up.

Or go into Stream Setup, select a Favourite or Addon channel and press Alt Stream to add it directly.

When you play a channel if it finds a main channel and alternative channels it should show the select dialog.

To remove them use the Clear Alt Stream button in Stream Setup.

[Jeffers24]

I am still having problems allocating an alternative stream, based on my thinking that by having an alternative screen I can have two streams allocated to a channel and choose between them when I select a channel to play.

Go to menu, choose add alternative stream, choose stream but it replaces the stream I already had allocated to the channel?

How is alternative stream supposed to work and how do I allocate a main and an alternative stream to A channel

There might be a bug somewhere in there. I occasionally think something is wrong but I can't see why.
I'll look deeper when I see it again.

This is how it should work:

Set up your main channel first like you normally do:
either: Add Folder to add addon streams to the addons.ini file
or: Stream Setup, select a channel and press Save

If there is an exact match with a Favourite it should choose that when you try to play the channel.
If not it should show you all the partial matches for your channel (depending on how you set up Channel Matching in Appearance).

Then Select an Alternative Stream in a similar way.

Use Add Alt Stream to get the Choose Stream dialog to come up.

Or go into Stream Setup, select a Favourite or Addon channel and press Alt Stream to add it directly.

When you play a channel if it finds a main channel and alternative channels it should show the select dialog.

To remove them use the Clear Alt Stream button in Stream Setup.

Hope this helps to recreate what I am doing/experiencing.

I set up the main stream for BBC1 by going to menu, stream setup, browse, select addon, choose BBC1 and save.

All my mains streams for a channel work no probs.

To set up alt stream for a BBC1, EPG displayed with nothing playing, BBC1 channel highlighted, go to menu, choose add alt stream, choose browse, select addon, choose BBC2 and save which takes me back to EPG.

Select BBC1 channel and BBC2 stream plays, so alt stream has replaced main stream.

[primaeval]

To set up alt stream for a BBC1, EPG displayed with nothing playing, BBC1 channel highlighted, go to menu, choose add alt stream, choose browse, select addon, choose BBC2 and save which takes me back to EPG.

Almost there. Don't Save. Press Alt Stream.

Save saves as the primary stream.
Alt Stream adds it as an alternative stream.

[primaeval]

version 0.0.218
- OMDb option as part of program image search options
- Settings \ Source \ Treat 4 Digit Program Date as Movie
- Settings \ Lab1 \ Use Better Resolution IMDb Image (takes longer)

@Scott00007 Here are a few tweaks that should help speed up Program Image finding, and find a few more images if the main fanart is missing.

It is still much better to pre-process the xmltv file for all the images if you have that option.

I doubt if it will find many episode images, just the main TV Show image.

[Jeffers24]

To set up alt stream for a BBC1, EPG displayed with nothing playing, BBC1 channel highlighted, go to menu, choose add alt stream, choose browse, select addon, choose BBC2 and save which takes me back to EPG.

Almost there. Don't Save. Press Alt Stream.

Save saves as the primary stream.
Alt Stream adds it as an alternative stream.

After highlighting the stream I want to allocate as the Alt Stream, I don't have an option to press Alt Stream.

The options I have at the bottom of the stream are Preview, Save, Cancel and Add Folder.

[primaeval]

To set up alt stream for a BBC1, EPG displayed with nothing playing, BBC1 channel highlighted, go to menu, choose add alt stream, choose browse, select addon, choose BBC2 and save which takes me back to EPG.

Almost there. Don't Save. Press Alt Stream.

Save saves as the primary stream.
Alt Stream adds it as an alternative stream.

After highlighting the stream I want to allocate as the Alt Stream, I don't have an option to press Alt Stream.

The options I have at the bottom of the stream are Preview, Save, Cancel and Add Folder.

You have to do it in the Addons tab. I ran out of space in the Browse tab and couldn't be arsed to move everything around there. Maybe someday.
Add Folder first. Then come back to Stream Setup and find it in the Addons tab.