USING MC2XML TO MAKE YOUR OWN EPG - tuturial with open discussion

[aCiDjEsUs]

I tried watching something earlier and the channel borked so I had to use the task manager to kill Kodi and that put every channel (dammit) back in the pvr, so I gave the Kodi TV Manager a try again. Guess what? It worked. Wanted to pass that info along to you. Just make sure you change the channels in both places (top and bottom) and it should work for you, too. It was all done in 4 minutes as opposed to 30 in Kodi.

Not that the channels are actually working though...

Ex, Thank you buddy for passing the info about Kodi Channel Manager, works without a hitch and like you said instead of spending 30 minutes on clicking each channel it took me few minutes to disable the channels I don't want and I don't watch.
Plus I don't know if you noticed but by using fewer channels it uses less RAM so the system works a bit faster and snappier. You can disable the channel alone or channel and the epg. Nicee. Again Thank you EX for pointing out this great little software.

Have a great one buddy.

[cwh060]

Excellent guide.

I have managed to use my Schedules Direct account through MC2XML (with JSON) and some WebGrab+ files. Combined into one guide suitable for my needs.

cwh

[zedenka]

Good Morning Everyone,

Thanks for the excellent instructions for the DIY guide and taking the time to do so. I have a quick question. Now i have my text files renamed to cl and ren (eg. us.cl, us. ren, uk.cl, uk.ren) But when i run the command "mc2xml (-J user/pass) -D us.dat -C us.chl -R us.ren -d 200 -a -U -u -F -o us.xml" (my username and password is inserted by user/pass) i dont get any UK channels, maybe i am doing something wrong?For the US channels you login to SD and choose a lineup but how do i get the UK channels from SD as well. I tried searching but no results. Also i have three 4 files that are empty, mc2xml.dat, mc2xml.ren, us.dat, uk.dat. There are no information in those files. Should those files be empty? Thanks for any assistance. Truly appreciate it.

[cwh060]

@zedenka,

The channels should follow this naming convention. uk.chl, uk.dat, uk.ren . The command line you posted would only give you US channels. To include UK channels the command would be:

mc2aml (-J user/pass) -D us.dat -C us.chl -R us.ren -d 200 -U -u -a -F -I uk.xml -o us.xml

Which then requires you to create the UK channels first. The -I give you the ability to add/combine two xmls.

I only run -d 48, otherwise it takes too long for the guide to load 200hrs. I also do not use -a , I don't need to know which channels have new programming.

To create the UK files, make sure to first rename your existing .dat file and .xml file or they will get overwritten. Same process, just load up the SD GUI only this time select GB enter postal code (I think I used CF31) and let mc2xml create the xml file and dat files. same as you did for US. Rename these files to uk.xml, uk.dat . The resulting xml will contain all channels. So you need to create the uk.chl lists in a text file format.

[zedenka]

@cwh060

Thanks a lot for all your assistance. I truly appreciate it. I think i got it working so now i want to test it. I am using Perfect IPTV Player and for the EPG they are asking for a URL for the guide. Can i host my xml file online so my family, friends and even the forum can have access to it and use? Any recommendations on which website to use? So when person enter the URL information it goes straight to the EPG? THanks for any assistance.

[expatter]

@cwh060

Thanks a lot for all your assistance. I truly appreciate it. I think i got it working so now i want to test it. I am using Perfect IPTV Player and for the EPG they are asking for a URL for the guide. Can i host my xml file online so my family, friends and even the forum can have access to it and use? Any recommendations on which website to use? So when person enter the URL information it goes straight to the EPG? THanks for any assistance.

Since you are using Perfect Player, it can use an epg in a zip format (or several other compressed formats). So, you can use any free file sharing site. Google for them and pick one. Alternatively, you can use google drive or dropbox.
If you look in the thread, there's a few times where I shared my epg for a few weeks. That will show you which service I used. It was free.

Since I am now using a playlist and only have 182 channels active, doing an epg for one week (I use 150 hours) is no problem as far as loading time. It loads up...FAST!

[expatter]

Excellent guide.

I have managed to use my Schedules Direct account through MC2XML (with JSON) and some WebGrab+ files. Combined into one guide suitable for my needs.

cwh

Glad you got a working guide.

[zedenka]

@expatter

Thanks a lot my friend, i now finish loading the application and it work but it only loaded 39 channels. So i looked at the epg through Perfect Player i realize that it is pulling the last channel name instead of the first. For example:

<display-name>ITV</display-name>
<display-name>178 ITV</display-name>
<display-name>178</display-name>
<display-name>ITV1 HD (London)</display-name>

Instead of seeing ITV, Perfect IPTV player is seeing ITV1 HD (London) which is the last display name.


Same thing with Fox:

<display-name>FOX</display-name>
<display-name>188 FOX</display-name>
<display-name>188</display-name>
<display-name>FXHDE</display-name>

FOX is not showing but FXHDE so Perfect Player wont recognized it.

Am i doing something wrong? This issue is happening with most ( about 90%) of the channels. Why is it not using the first display name but the last? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Sooo close yet it feel so far. lol.

[expatter]

@expatter

Thanks a lot my friend, i now finish loading the application and it work but it only loaded 39 channels. So i looked at the epg through Perfect Player i realize that it is pulling the last channel name instead of the first. For example:

<display-name>ITV</display-name>
<display-name>178 ITV</display-name>
<display-name>178</display-name>
<display-name>ITV1 HD (London)</display-name>

Instead of seeing ITV, Perfect IPTV player is seeing ITV1 HD (London) which is the last display name.


Same thing with Fox:

<display-name>FOX</display-name>
<display-name>188 FOX</display-name>
<display-name>188</display-name>
<display-name>FXHDE</display-name>

FOX is not showing but FXHDE so Perfect Player wont recognized it.

Am i doing something wrong? This issue is happening with most ( about 90%) of the channels. Why is it not using the first display name but the last? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Sooo close yet it feel so far. lol.

I'm sorry, but I can't really help with this one. While PP is a great app, I don't use it due to problems with some channels buffering and epg parse errors. I know there are settings you can tweak (and I have) but I would prefer an app that let's you have a local xmltv file only and not something net-based. And since Simple Client is working a treat for me now that we have the playlist optioin...

But I did look at the forum on kodi.tv as well as the devs forum at niklabs.com and the guy is incredibly responsive, so I would suggest you just ask there. Sorry I fell down on this one.

[Rock99]

Hey guys,

I am working on my EPG Guide and I am able to get the US channels from schedules direct the way expatter explained. Did anyone knows where I get the information from the latinoamerica and mexico channels? I have not been able to find the channels on schedules direct, but on their website mexico is on the list.

I will appreciate the information

GREAT JOB expatter!!!! very easy steps to follow.

Thanks