[vdr] Re: epg2timers 0.99.

[Manfred Schmidt-Voigt <Manfred.schmidt-voigt@mannitec.de>]

Hello Carsten,

Sunday, September 7, 2003, 2:04:13 AM, you wrote:

> I am wondering if anyone is interested in the latest epg2timers version,
> epg2timers 0.99.

> I assume that the tvtv plugin is better in many ways than epg2timers.
> I simply never found the time to try it, as epg2timers does everything
> I need.

> So, if anyone is still interested in epg2timers 0.99, please let me know
> and I will make it available.

> Here is the README file:

> Overview.
> =========

> The 4 modules in this directory are designed to allow vdr timer
> programming via the http://tvtv.de web EPG (Electronic Program Guide).

> Once you have these modules properly configured and installed,
> you should be able to simply click on the things you want vdr
> to record in the http://tvtv.de web EPG and be done with it.
> Everything else can be handled automatically.
> Note that this allows you to program your vdr from anywhere in
> the world, as long as you have access to the internet from there!



> Module description.
> ===================

> The http://tvtv.de web EPG creates a so-called "merkliste"
> ("a list of items to remember") containing all the broadcasts
> you selected.

> 1.  The perl script "get_merkliste.pl" transfers this "merkliste"
>      from the http://tvtv.de web site to a local file "merkliste.html".

> 2.  The C++ program "epg2timers" converts this HTML file into vdr's
>      timers.conf format.

> 3.  The perl script "loadvdr.pl" pumps these new timer entries
>      into a running vdr using telnet and the SVDRP protocol.
>      (alternatively, the timers.conf file could be written directly
>       when vdr is not running)

> 4.  The shell script "update_timers" implements the overall
>      control of the entire process.
>      It retrieves the latest merkliste from http://tvtv.de,
>      converts it to timers.conf format and sends the timer entries
>      to vdr.



> Configuration.
> ==============

> get_merkliste.pl requires configuration of the "files_to_fetch"
> variable preset.
> Log in to your http://tvtv.de account and click on the "Bookmark setzen"
> item in the "System" submenu of the "Mein Programm" side bar menu.
> This will open a window with a URL in the location field that ends
> with an ID value. Replace the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> in the "files_to_fetch" variable preset with your ID value.
> If you are using an HTTP proxy, uncomment the line containing
the $ua->>proxy call and put your proxy details in.

> epg2timers.cxx allows various items to be configured, but it
> should work out of the box. See "tvtv.de channel names" below.

> update_timers must know where to find the get_merkliste.pl
> perl script and the compiled epg2timers binary. Both must be
> in a directory pointed to by the TOOLDIR variable.
> update_timers also must know where to find vdr's current
> channels.conf file. Put that into the CHANPATH.

> Depending on the price of your internet access, you may want to
> run update_timers more or less frequently. It may also be a good
> idea to run it at times where it is unlikely to interfere with
> your current use of vdr. Configure a crontab entry according to
> these personal preferences. Here is the entry I once used:
> 1       2       *       *       *       /home/cko/bin/update_timers
> It runs update_timers only once a night at 02:01 a.m.

> As of November 17th, 2000, http://tvtv.de provides a new format
> which gives you finer control about what is displayed in the
> merkliste. Not all combinations of settings will yield a merkliste.html
> file that epg2timers can parse. The following settings are recommended:

> Format:     Lang
> Ansicht:    Alle
> Bilder:     on
> Timeline:   on
> Kontrollen: on


> Installation.
> =============
> Create your TOOLDIR directory if it does not already exist.
> Copy get_merkliste.pl and loadvdr.pl into it, compile epg2timers.cxx
> with the command:
>      g++ epg2timers.cxx -o epg2timers
> and move the epg2timers binary into the TOOLDIR directory.
> If you use the english version of tvtv.de (http://www.tvtv.co.uk),
> compile epg2timers.cxx with the command:
>      g++ epg2timers.cxx -Denglish -o epg2timers

> The get_merkliste.pl script requires certain packages to run.
> Besides of course perl, install perl-libwww-perl (at least
> that's the name on SuSE 7.2, it may have a different name in
> your distribution).

> If you have problems with SVDRP and loadvdr.pl, you may want to
> try out the update_timers.old script, which replaces the timers.conf
> file directly and kills vdr (assuming that it will be restarted
> by the runvdr script) to make vdr reload the timers.conf file.

> As a third alternative (and that is the one I use), I (mis-)use
> vdr's automatic shutdown feature to run epg2timers BETWEEN vdr
> runs. So vdr shuts down automatically whenever it has been idle
> for a while and there are no recordings scheduled for the
> near future. My runvdr script basically runs epg2timers then
> and restarts vdr. This way, conflicts between updated timer
> entries and running recordings are safely prevented. Also, the
> DVB driver is reloaded often, which can sometimes be beneficial.
> My personal runvdr script is included as an example.
> It is most likely that you cannot use it as it is without
> modifications.
> Do not try to use it unless you understand everything it does!



> tvtv.de channel names.
> ======================
> tvtv.de has two naming schemes for the channel names:
> text channel names and channel icon file names.
> Unfortunately, as of November 17th, 2000, the text
> channel names in the merkliste HTML file are difficult to
> assign to the rest of the timer entry data, so epg2timers
> has been converted to use the channel icon file names.
> The variable "channel_map" in epg2timers.cxx maps
> such names into PNRs (aka Service IDs).
> Consider the map supplied an example. ;-)
> It is not complete.
> If you fix any of the entries, please send me a patch.
> If epg2timers gets a "merkliste" channel name from tvtv.de that
> it cannot find in it's channel map, it issues the error message
>    Error - channel '<name>' not recognized.
> This is the point where you should fix your channel map
> and send me a patch.

> For my own humble purposes, the table works well as it is.
> Of course, your channels.conf must contain the matching
> PNRs, so the last field in each channels.conf line must be
> identical with the pnr number in the corresponding channel
> map entry.
> While the first field in each channels.conf line and the
> tvtv_name string in the corresponding channel map entry
> have roughly the same meaning, you can freely choose the
> contents of the channels.conf field, while the channel
> map entry spelling must match the tvtv.de spelling exactly
> (including upper/lower case).
> Here is an example: The north-german regional station "N3"
> has a service ID or PNR of 28224. A vdr channels.conf entry
> for it could look like this:
>     N3:12110:H:0:27500:2401:2402:2404:0:28224
> tvtv.de currently calls this channel "NDR Fernsehen".
> So the channel map entry MUST be:
>     {"NDR Fernsehen", 28224}
> While you are free to use the same name in your channels.conf,
> the channel map entry must look exactly as shown above.
> In other words, this:
>     NDR Fernsehen:12110:H:0:27500:2401:2402:2404:0:28224
> and this:
>     NDR fernsehen:12110:H:0:27500:2401:2402:2404:0:28224
> and this:
>     NDR-TV:12110:H:0:27500:2401:2402:2404:0:28224
> and this:
>     N3-TV:12110:H:0:27500:2401:2402:2404:0:28224
> is OK in channels.conf, but this:
>     NDR Fernsehen:12110:H:0:27500:2401:2402:2404:0:0
> is not and anything other than the exact values shown
> above in the channel map entry is not. For example, this:
>     {"NDR fernsehen", 28224}
> will not work regardless of the contents of your channels.conf
> entry and will give you the error message
>    Error - channel 'NDR Fernsehen' not recognized.
> as soon as you put something for NDR Fernsehen into your merkliste.

> Please note that epg2timers only recognizes the NEW channels.conf
format (VDR >>= 0.71). Some tools on the web still produce the
> old channels.conf format. Note that you can use VDR to convert
> from the old to the new format. Simply make any change to any
> channel entry via the OSD. VDR will then rewrite your entire
> channels.conf file and will always use the new format when doing so.



> To Do.
> ======
> It would be nice to download the pictures provided along with the
> summaries by tvtv.de and display them in VDR.
> Alessio Sangalli is planning to create a VDR patch that allows
> pictures to be displayed in the background of a summary text.
> As soon as this patch is avaliable, epg2timers should be extended
> to create a shell script with wget commands that download the
> pictures and to insert the path to each picture in a predefined
> form into the summary text.


> If you have a bright idea about something that should be enhanced,
> please let me know. Time permitting, I might implement it.
> Of course, this is open source, so you are more than welcome to
> supply patches.
> Supplying a patch is of course also the method that makes it most
> likely that your enhancement idea gets implemented. ;-)



> Changes.
> ========
> 0.8   23-Mar-2002   Update channel map.
>                      Optionally use vdr EPISODE macro in file name.
> 0.9   28-Mar-2002   Remove mapping of most special characters
>                      when converting the title to a file name.
>                      Add handling of "quot" HTML keyword.
> 0.9.1 27-Apr-2002   Implement additional safeguards against
>                      accidental deletion of timer entries.
>                      Only transmit new timers to vdr if they are
>                      different from the ones successfully transmitted
>                      last time.
>                      Fix Krimi&Co channel map entry.
> 0.9.2  4-May-2002   Update channel map.
> 0.9.3  29-Jun-2002  Implement new configuration option "max_time_processed"
>                      that limits the time into the future for which timer
>                      entries are created.
>                      Issue an error message when a channels.conf line is not
>                      recognized.
>                      Update various maps.
> 0.9.4  11-Aug-2002  Update channel map.
>                      Update README file.
>                      Include runvdr example.
> 0.9.5  17-Nov-2002  Convert epg2timers to new tvtv.de merkliste format.
> 0.9.6  17-Nov-2002  Use channel icon file names to determine the channel as the
>                      text channel name itself is no longer part of the entry group.
> 0.9.7   2-Jan-2003  Update channel map.
>                      Prevent abort when a channel is not recognized.
>                      Insert optional english month names into epg2timers.cxx
>                      for http://www.tvtv.co.uk.
>                      Support gaps in channels.conf channel numbering
>                      as introduced in vdr 1.1.14.
> 0.9.8   23-Mar-2003 Update channel map.
>                      Evaluate the "pisubtitle-box" table cell and add the
>                      info found there to the summary text.
> 0.9.9   07-Sep-2003 Change epg2timers to create vdr 1.1 timers.conf format.
>                      Update channel map.

> Authors.
> ========
> Carsten Koch:    epg2timers.cxx, update_timers,  this README file.

> Axel Gruber and
> Rolf Hakenes:    get_merkliste.pl

> Peter Ahlert:    loadvdr.pl


> Credits.
> ========
> I am grateful (in chronological order) to

> * Klaus Schmidinger for his excellent vdr program and for
>    keeping an open mind in all directions.

> * Suse (my wife, not the Linux distributor ;-) for encouraging me to
>    write epg2timers in June 2000 and for her constant patience and support.

> * Andreas Steinhauser for periodically criticizing the epg2timers
>    "manual mode" until I came up with the idea to fully automatize it
>    and for contributing ideas.

> * Axel Gruber for reminding me half a year later, for pushing
>    the idea to fully automatize it until it got implemented, for
>    asking for new features all the time and for contributing ideas.

> * Axel Gruber and Rolf Hakenes for contributing the get_merkliste.pl
>    perl script.

> * Peter Ahlert for contributing the loadvdr.pl perl script.

> * Matthias Weingart for contributing additional channel_map entries.

> * Rainer Janson for updated channel map entries.

> * Christian Rienecker for suggesting that mapping of most special
>    characters is no longer necessary when converting the title to
>    a file name.

> * Emil Naepflein for suggesting control improvements,
>    for updated channel map entries and for loadvdr patches.

> * Andreas Kool for pointing out that characters passed into
>    read_summary should be unsigned.

> * Heiko Raff for an additional channel map entry.

> * Helmut Auer for additional channel map entries and a bug fix.

> * Andy "fruit" for making epg2timers work with the UK version of tvtv.

> * Christan Rienecker for contributing the code that deals with
>    gaps in channels.conf channel numbering.

> * Thomas Bueschgens for updated channel map entries.

> * Uwe Weissbach for updated channel map entries and
>    for suggesting to evaluate the "pisubtitle-box" table cell.

> (If I forgot somebody, it was not intentional. Please remind me)


> Carsten, September 2003.


I stick to your epg2timers because it brings really the whole
information into the summary file. This is because you get the HTML
information of the "merkliste". The tvtv-plugin only gets the
information which TVTV submits to the registered "remotly controlable
devices" and there is the infomation missing about actors,directors, year of
first transmission etc. I think this information is very fundamental
to describe a movie on a SVCD. I had a little conversation with the
TVTV support about this issue (in German):


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hallo Herr Schmidt-Voigt,

wir planen derzeit ein neues Produkt, das erweiterte Programminfos mit
überträgt. Wir dürfen Ihnen dazu allerdings noch keine offiziellen Infos
geben. Werfen Sie einfach ab und zu einen Blick auf tvtv.de. Dort werden
genauere Informationen verfügbar sein, sobald es den neuen Dienst / die neu
Software gibt.

Beste Grüsse und viel Spaß beim Fernsehen,
Ihr tvtv-Team

                      manfred.schmidt-voigt@                                          
                      mannitec.de                   To:       feedback@tvtv.de        
                                                    cc:                               
                      20.05.2003 14:36              Subject:  tvtvsync.exe            
-----------  - Email from www.tvtv.de -------------------------


Subject:......tvtvsync.exe

Text:.........Hallo TVTV,

ich möchte gerne die Daten aus der Merkliste nutzen, um aufgenommene Filme
zu archivieren. Dafür sind natürlich auch die Darstellerinformationen sehr
wichtig. Mit tvtvsync.exe wird diese Information leider nicht übertragen
(nach der description ist Schluss). Wird es hier mal eine
Änderung/Erweiterung der Übertragung geben oder gibt es ein besseres tool
zur Synchronisation mit einem PC?

Mit freundlichem Gruß
Manfred Schmidt-Voigt

From:.........manfred.schmidt-voigt@mannitec.de

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Direct message from the Server. Please do not answer per ReplyTo.

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But what I realy miss is a kind of formatting of this information in
the summary file. All this information is only on long string. At
least the paragraph delimiters should be coded in any way. So if you
will use this information to set up a menu page on a SVCD (see my
scripts at http://www.mannitec.de/svcd.html ) it is not very
well formatted

Kind regards
Manfred

-- 
-------                   Manfred Schmidt-Voigt                  -------
-----                  Günzweg 10, 22393 Hamburg                   -----
-----                                                              -----
-------          mailto:manfred.schmidt-voigt@mannitec.de         -------



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