[vdr] ANNOUNCEMENT: epg2timers 0.7.

[Carsten Koch <Carsten.Koch@icem.de>]

epg2timers version 0.7 is now available in Klaus' Tools directory at

ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/pub/people/kls/vdr/Tools/epg2timers0.7.tar.bz2

The major new feature is the automatic support of vdr subdirectories.
epg2timers scans both the title and the genre string (as supplied by
http://tvtv.de) for a list of known strings. The first matching string
is mapped into a recording file name prefix (such as "Action~", "Comedy~",
etc.). vdr will process theses prefixes as directory names if they end
with a '~' character.

The array title_map at line 48 of the source file contains title
strings and their corresponding recording file name prefixes.
The array genre_map at line 53 of the source file contains genre
strings and their corresponding recording file name prefixes.
Both are preset with my personal preferences, which may or may not
suit you. Feel free to configure them in any way you like.
If you do not want to use subdirectories at all, edit the tables
accordingly or continue to use version 0.6.

Other changes since 0.6 include:

*  recording priority and recording life time can now be configured
   via the command line.
   This allows you to create a "guest account" for a friend (using
   a second epg2timers call) and assign the guest account's recordings
   different life times and priorities.

*  Channel names for B1 and NDR have been updated.

*  If a channel is not recognized, epg2timers still issues an error
   message, but no longer aborts. Of course, timer entries for this
   channel are not created.


For those who have not heard of epg2timers before, here is the REAME 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.



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.

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"
item in the "Setup" 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 use:
1       2       *       *       *       /home/cko/bin/update_timers
It runs update_timers only once a night at 02:01 a.m.


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.

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.


tvtv.de channel names.
======================
The file epg_channel_names contains the names of all channels
currently (as of September 9, 2001) supported by the tvtv.de 
web EPG. The variable "channel_map" in epg2timers.cxx maps
these names into PNRs (aka Service IDs). I have initialized
this table with provider names converted from a d-box channel 
scan of Astra 19.2E, so the PNRs should be correct for that 
satellite, but most of the names propably aren't yet- I simply 
had not enough time yet to go through epg_channel_names
and insert all its channel names at the proper places in the
channel map. Consider the map supplied an example. ;-)
If you fix any of the entries, please 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 (last field in each line).


To Do.
======
These are just ideas. They MAY get implemented.
If you want them to happen, contribute a patch. ;-)

(list currently empty)



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 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.


Carsten, February 2002.