Melbourne Combined Guide, Free XMLTV EPG for Melbourne Options

[DrP]

I've noticed the URL is returning an error again whilst poking around EPG data from certain web sites.

If anyone is interested in a roll your own guide it's fairly easy to pull the data from the freeview web site now that they've rejigged it (yet again). Basically you can can pull an XML file (not in xmltv format) for each channel in a given area building the file name by combining the DVB network ID, transport stream ID and program (channel) ID. This information cab be readily harvested from say a DVB channel scan with a PC or by viewing the freeview website epg pages with the web browsers debug console open. The xml file includes program times, titles, episode titles, brief summary, series and episode numbers and crid information too and is fairly easy to sift and generate a very useful xmltv file from. I've done up a hack script for my own use but if you ask nicely CALVI might write up something more user friendly for people to download and run on their own PCs directly.

Heck, if it comes to it I could probably do up a script to run daily on my raspberry pi and upload the xmltv file to somewhere for people to download.

CODE

101309200938
NID TSIDPID

http://www.freeview.com.au/XML/new_XML/101309200938 = RACING.COM guide data for Mackay QLD

A HTTP head get can be done against the files to see if they have changed since the last fetch to lessen the load on their server.

snippet of xml returned from the site

CODE

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
    <listings xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="Freeview-HWW.xsd" creation_time="2016-12-11T19:04:13">
        <service service_name="9Gem" network_name="SCA" default_authority="crid://mackay.2.sca.au" service_group="SCA" hww_id="406568" affiliate_id="GEM" service_type="TV">
            <schedule>
                <programme genre="Comedy" subgenre=""  classification="(PG)" program_type="series">
                    <title>Are You Being Served?</title>
                    <synopsis>Ordered to cooperate in the store&apos;s German themed week, the Grace Brothers&apos; staff try to find a way to get into the Teutonic spirit.</synopsis>
                    <program_id>159723</program_id>
                    <event_id>82200355</event_id>
                    <crid crid_type="programme" crid_value="/15888D3_5"></crid>
                    <date_time_duration date_time_value="2016-12-10T14:05:00Z" duration="00:45"></date_time_duration>
                    <series episode_number="6" season_number="3">
                        <title>Are You Being Served?</title>
                        <episode_title>German Week</episode_title>
                        <synopsis></synopsis>
                        <crid crid_type="series" crid_value="/15888"></crid>
                    </series>
                    <media>
                        <filename>420321_9gem_16x9.png</filename>
                    </media>
                    <highlight dont_miss="false" coming_up="false" catch_up="false" />
                    <blackout></blackout>
                    <catch_up>
                        <link type="HbbTV"></link>
                    </catch_up>
                    <cast>Mollie Sugden, John Inman, Frank Thornton</cast>
                </programme>

This post has been edited by DrP: Dec 11 2016, 07:25 PM

[DrP]

If anyone is still reading dvbowners...

With the removal of the freeview MHEG program guide from the broadcasts I've setup a homebrew XMLTV generator on my RPI to provide data for a friend. It's very much a test thing, it may eat your homework, it may elope with your daughter, it could even cause the breakup of the EU. I you'd like to give it a go, please post here. The XML will be updated once a day (the underlying data I'm using as a source is updated every two hours, but I don't want to hammer it). All I'll need is your town + state so I know what broadcasts are in your area. If the script turns out to be workable I'll publish it here so people can run it themselves to produce the XML locally.

[onceler]

Hi Calvi,

I'm getting an error trying to download the guide. ("No data found in source. Exiting" from WebScheduler). Appears to have been that way since sometime last week.

No urgency. Appreciate you providing such a wonderful and enduring free service.

Cheers

Once