Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Mythtvnz

need help installing epgsnoop

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olivuts at yahoo

Dec 28, 2008, 11:24 PM

Post #1 of 7 (1364 views)
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need help installing epgsnoop

Hi,

Newbie to linux here, please be gentle.

I read about epgsnoop and downloaded the package from nice.net.nz.

I then took the following steps:
1. tarred the package into a directory /usr/epgsnoop
2. I did 'python setup.py install'

I think the above went OK - the output to the screen looked OK.

The instructions then say "Copy one of the channels.conf files and epgsnoop.sqlite to
~/.epgsnoop/ (or your preferred config location, that is the
default)."

3. So I copied channels.conf.freeview files and epgsnoop.sqlite to /etc/mythtv

Maybe I copied the files to the wrong place?

I then expected I would go into Mythtv backend setup and add a new video source where I could select epgsnoop. However epgsnoop is not one of the available XML grabbers.

I've probably missed some step, I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks

Steve

Get the world's best email - http://nz.mail.yahoo.com/

stevehodge at gmail

Dec 28, 2008, 11:37 PM

Post #2 of 7 (1315 views)
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Re: need help installing epgsnoop [In reply to]

On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 8:24 PM, Steve V <olivuts [at] yahoo> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Newbie to linux here, please be gentle.
>
> I read about epgsnoop and downloaded the package from nice.net.nz.
>
> I then took the following steps:
> 1. tarred the package into a directory /usr/epgsnoop
> 2. I did 'python setup.py install'
>
> I think the above went OK - the output to the screen looked OK.
>
> The instructions then say "Copy one of the channels.conf files and
> epgsnoop.sqlite to
> ~/.epgsnoop/ (or your preferred config location, that is the
> default)."
>
> 3. So I copied channels.conf.freeview files and epgsnoop.sqlite to
> /etc/mythtv
>

It needs to be copied to ~/.epgsnoop. I.e. /home/<whatever user your running
it as>/.epgsnoop/channels.conf.

> I then expected I would go into Mythtv backend setup and add a new video
> source where I could select epgsnoop. However epgsnoop is not one of the
> available XML grabbers.
>

Epgsnoop doesn't work that way. I think that it's possible to work that way
with xmltvnz (I think that's the name). But epgsnoop itself runs
independently of MythTV. You can either run it totally separately (e.g. via
cron) or use MythTV''s "run mythfilldatabase" setup screen to run it.

Cheers,
Steve

g8ecj at gilks

Dec 29, 2008, 1:30 AM

Post #3 of 7 (1301 views)
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Re: need help installing epgsnoop [In reply to]

>
> I then expected I would go into Mythtv backend setup and add a new video
> source where I could select epgsnoop. However epgsnoop is not one of the
> available XML grabbers.

epgsnoop gets the data from the satellite in a form that can then be
digested by MythTV - it doesn't actually do anything with it other than
stash it away somewhere!

On my system, I run epgsnoop to grab the scheduling data and put it into a
directory that my web server can access. The MythTV grabber for New
Zealand is called tv_grab_nz-py and that is the thing you select in
mythtv-setup.

This grabber would normally get its data from the net but if you have
epgsnoop running successfully then you can just change the URL in the
script and get it from your own web server (at least, thats what I do!!).

I run epgsnoop from within a script called by the cron.daily job stuff.
The script is mostly down to Hads (who wrote epgsnoop) but since I haven't
seen it on any website, here it is :) Its a bit complex because I get both
Sky and Freeview data and pick the best from each by having a seperate
config-dir for one of them so I can capture data for different channels

--------------------------------------------------------
$ cat epg.sh
#!/bin/bash

LISTINGS_SKY="/tmp/listings-sky-$$.xml"
LISTINGS_FREEVIEW="/tmp/listings-freeview-$$.xml"
LISTINGS_ALL="/tmp/listings-all-$$.xml"
HOME="/home/g8ecj"
PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
WEBDIR="/var/www/localhost/htdocs/stuff"

while [ "`/usr/local/bin/myth_recorder_status 7 8 9`" != 'FREE' ]; do
echo "DVB card is in use by MythTV, sleeping for a bit."
sleep 30m
done

(dvbtune -f 1371000 -s 22500 -p h -m -tone 0 2&> /dev/null &) # Tune to a
sky transponder
/usr/local/bin/epgsnoop --quiet > $LISTINGS_SKY
killall dvbtune 2&> /dev/null

sleep 5 # Sleep so as not to get epg data from last tune. Necessary?

(dvbtune -f 1183000 -s 22500 -p h -m -tone 0 2&> /dev/null &) # Tune to a
freeview transponder
/usr/local/bin/epgsnoop --quiet --config-dir=$HOME/.epgsnoop-freeview >
$LISTINGS_FREEVIEW
killall dvbtune 2&> /dev/null

tv_cat --output $LISTINGS_ALL $LISTINGS_SKY $LISTINGS_FREEVIEW

/bin/gzip $LISTINGS_SKY
/bin/gzip $LISTINGS_FREEVIEW
/bin/gzip $LISTINGS_ALL

# Some moving around of files etc.

mv -f $LISTINGS_ALL.gz $WEBDIR/listings-all.xml.gz
mv -f $LISTINGS_SKY.gz $WEBDIR/listings-sky.xml.gz
mv -f $LISTINGS_FREEVIEW.gz $WEBDIR/listings-freeview.xml.gz

--------------------------------------------------------
and this is the script that makes sure that the tuner card is free (the 7
8 9 above are the virtual tuner numbers on my system - yours are probably
different).

--------------------------------------------------------
$ cat myth_recorder_status
#!/usr/bin/python

import sys
from MythTV import MythTV

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
print "Usage: myth_recorder_status <RECORDER> [<RECORDER> ...]"
sys.exit(2)

m = MythTV()
recorders_that_exist = m.getRecorderList()

res = 'FREE'
for recorder in sys.argv[1:]:
if int(recorder) not in recorders_that_exist:
print 'NOT VALID RECORDER (%s)' % recorder
sys.exit(1)
if m.isRecording(recorder):
res = 'RECORDING'
print res
sys.exit(0)
--------------------------------------------------------

The grabber is run by mythbackend at a time you specify - just make sure
its well past the time that epgsnoop runs under cron so that it has fresh
files to work with!!

--
Robin Gilks

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olivuts at yahoo

Dec 29, 2008, 1:49 AM

Post #4 of 7 (1303 views)
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Re: need help installing epgsnoop [In reply to]

Thanks guys,

I am starting to understand.

Just to be clear, I take it that epgsnoop only works if you have a DVB-S card (and a satellite dish of course).

I don't currently have a satellite card so I need to get my programme guide from the net. I'll look into tv_grab_nz.py and xmltvnz.

Is there any advantage to getting the epg from satellite, instead of from the net?

Does either version include Prime programming (as Prime is not part of Freeview)?

Get the world's best email - http://nz.mail.yahoo.com/

stevehodge at gmail

Dec 29, 2008, 2:32 AM

Post #5 of 7 (1304 views)
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Re: need help installing epgsnoop [In reply to]

On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 10:49 PM, Steve V <olivuts [at] yahoo> wrote:

>
> Thanks guys,
>
> I am starting to understand.
>
> Just to be clear, I take it that epgsnoop only works if you have a DVB-S
> card (and a satellite dish of course).
>

Yep.

> I don't currently have a satellite card so I need to get my programme guide
> from the net. I'll look into tv_grab_nz.py and xmltvnz.
>
> Is there any advantage to getting the epg from satellite, instead of from
> the net?
>

You're not dependent on your net connection or the site staying up.

> Does either version include Prime programming (as Prime is not part of
> Freeview)?
>

Sky's listings are not encoded so if you can get those via DVB-S even if
you don't have a Sky decoder. They include Prime.

Cheers,
Steve

nick.rout at gmail

Dec 29, 2008, 2:28 PM

Post #6 of 7 (1289 views)
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Re: need help installing epgsnoop [In reply to]

On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 10:30 PM, Robin Gilks <g8ecj [at] gilks> wrote:
>>
>> I then expected I would go into Mythtv backend setup and add a new video
>> source where I could select epgsnoop. However epgsnoop is not one of the
>> available XML grabbers.
>
> epgsnoop gets the data from the satellite in a form that can then be
> digested by MythTV - it doesn't actually do anything with it other than
> stash it away somewhere!
>
> On my system, I run epgsnoop to grab the scheduling data and put it into a
> directory that my web server can access. The MythTV grabber for New
> Zealand is called tv_grab_nz-py and that is the thing you select in
> mythtv-setup.
>
> This grabber would normally get its data from the net but if you have
> epgsnoop running successfully then you can just change the URL in the
> script and get it from your own web server (at least, thats what I do!!).
>
> I run epgsnoop from within a script called by the cron.daily job stuff.
> The script is mostly down to Hads (who wrote epgsnoop) but since I haven't
> seen it on any website, here it is :) Its a bit complex because I get both
> Sky and Freeview data and pick the best from each by having a seperate
> config-dir for one of them so I can capture data for different channels

why not simply run mythfilldatabase at the end of your script?

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nick.rout at gmail

Dec 29, 2008, 2:29 PM

Post #7 of 7 (1284 views)
Permalink

Re: need help installing epgsnoop [In reply to]

On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 10:49 PM, Steve V <olivuts [at] yahoo> wrote:
>
> Thanks guys,
>
> I am starting to understand.
>
> Just to be clear, I take it that epgsnoop only works if you have a DVB-S
> card (and a satellite dish of course).
>
> I don't currently have a satellite card so I need to get my programme guide
> from the net. I'll look into tv_grab_nz.py and xmltvnz.
>
> Is there any advantage to getting the epg from satellite, instead of from
> the net?
>

the data from tv_grab_nz.py is generated by epgsnoop anyway, so you'll
end up with the same data (albeit generated on someone elses computer
and then downloaded.

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